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1 – How convergent will new devices and technologies be? Choosing either mobile phones or digital television, look at some recent experiments in providing digital data via these devices, and analyse how successful these experiments might be.
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The predominant trend in engineering and telecommunications for the past ten years has been one of convergence and the attempt to merge the varying protocols and standards found throughout the world. Specifically, in the field of mobile communications there have been many recent experiments in providing digital data and multimedia via a simple handset. One could argue that new devices and technologies will progressively become more convergent. In regard to this, I have decided to focus and to elaborate on mobile phones. Wireless communications first became available to the public in the early eighties. The first handsets were crude affairs with bulky batteries and analogue transmitters. However, as technology progressed through the years both the radio equipment and the handsets became more sophisticated and streamlined. Nevertheless, the big breakthrough for mobile phones came with the introduction of the GSM protocol for mobile communications. GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) was the first concept to be used globally and offered the means for mobile phones to spread through all walks of life, thus we can safely state that GSM is one of the most well designed and functional standards as it is still used to today although it was developed back in the late eighties. In other words, GSM provided a stepping stone to the third generation of mobile communications (3G). The new concept for mobile phones is called UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System). More explicitly, the aim of UMTS is to provide a convergence protocol for the various standards that exist at the moment. In fact, the lofty goal the engineer’s are attempting reach is the use of a single wireless technology that will encompass all mobile and wireless communications, such as mobile phones, cordless phones, wireless terrestrial phone services, broadband networks and many more. Another innovation of UMTS is that it uses a packet switching protocol (GPRS-General Packet Radio Service). This type of protocol breaks down the digital data into small parts (packets) to make its transmission easier. Packet switching is the protocol that is widely used for computer communications. An example of this technology is of course the internet. Therefore, we can see how the various communication technologies are moving towards a convergence. By the term convergence we mean the systematic integration of all the digital media, devices and technologies into one format and standard. More specifically, the proposed way to achieve this is to have a common backbone upon which all the digital data is transmitted. That is to say, that mobile phones, computer communications, fixed telephone services and even digital television will all be transmitted over the same medium. In other words, we will have separate ‘receivers’ (televisions, handsets etc) or even one integrated device (e.g. Nokia have proposed a large screen mobile handset that also hosts a digital camera) but one large communications network that will handle, process and transmit all the data to the separate devices. In the following paragraphs I will outline some of the experiments that have been conducted to reach convergence, what were their advantages and disadvantages and also the problems that have been encountered. The first attempt at convergence was based on the GSM protocol. Due to the widespread success of both the internet and SMS text messaging an attempt was made to merge the two services. This attempt is the well known WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) protocol. WAP offered internet browsing and e-mail over a compatible GSM handset. It also offered a range of information and commercial services particular to each mobile service provider. WAP was basically the first experiment in providing cross-platform services. The main advantage of WAP was that it allowed (and still allows) the mobile user to access important information and their e-mail from any point in the world.
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