Wireless technology now goes beyond cordless telephones. For example, wireless earpieces can connect to cell phones, cordless mice can connect to computers, and computers can connect to the Internet using airwaves instead of cables. On this episode, we investigate wireless technology on both the small and large scales.
Guests
Ramesh Harjani
Ramesh Harjani
Ramesh is currently an associate professor for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University and has been a technical advisor to companies such as Rocketchips and Data Sciences International. He was also a co-founder of Bermai, Inc., a Minnesota startup company that developed chips for wireless applications.
Daniel Westacott
Daniel Westacott
Daniel grew up in Dinkytown and studied plant biology, theater, and computer science at the University of Minnesota. He has been an engineer at the University's Networking and Telecommunications Services unit since the mid-1980s and first worked with wireless technologies in the mid-1990s at trade shows.
Bradley Mayer
Bradley Mayer
Bradley Mayer, IS manager for the City of Chaska and Chaska.net, has played key roles in the development of wireless technologies used for broadband access. As the innovator behind Chaska.net, Bradley successfully designed, built, and currently operates the nation's first WiFi system providing WiFI broadband coverage across the entire city. Past inititives Bradley has undertaken include a county-wide point-to-multipoint wireless network serving seven different cities with high speed wireless Internet across approximately 1,000 square miles. Bradley holds a B.S. in computer science from the University of Wisconsin and has worked with networking, wireless, and broadband technologies for over ten years.
For Your Files
Ramesh Harjani, an electrical and computer engineering associate professor at the University of Minnesota, explained the different types of wireless networks illustrated above (see an enlargement and text-only version):
"We classify in terms of how far they reach. We have what is called a personal area network and you can think about it as reaching out to 10 or 15 feet around your person. Then you have what is called a local area network—local as in covering your house. And then you have what is called a metro area network or a MAN, so it covers a city. And then you have WAN, which covers the entire country or across the world."
Daniel Westacott, systems engineer at the U’s Networking and Telecommunications Services, discussed bluetooth, the technology used for short range wireless devices:
"People have wireless keyboards that use bluetooth. Much of the technology is done on phones and devices related to and accessories for phones."
Dan also talked about the range of these devices:
"Much depends in your local conditions. When everything is going well, you can get 30 feet. But if you have something in the way or some sort of other interference it can get significantly less."
Daniel also discussed wireless security issues:
"There are several encryption standards, one of which is called WEP, wired equivalence protocol. It’s an older standard; it was shown to be cryptographically weak, and people have figured out a way to guess your password. So now there's a new standard called WPA, which is much stronger numeric protection."
Professor Harjani added more to the security discussion:
"You can also restrict your computer to make sure that there's a MAC limitation that only a few computers can see it. The MAC is the physical address of each computer. Each wireless card has a separate MAC address so you can restrict the number of computers that can get access to your access point."
Bluetooth
Wireless technology with a small range of 30 feet used by devices like wireless printers and mice.
Discoverable
A setting that allows other bluetooth devices to find your computer. If this is disabled, other devices will still be able to connect to your computer, but it is more secure.
Virtual Private Network
In a wireless environment, anyone within range of your computer antenna can see what you're doing unless you take steps to protect yourself using VPN, or virtual private network technology, an additional piece of software typically used in corporate/institutional environments. At the University of Minnesota you can use it to get into the network if you have an account with the University.