Let's Connect Our World

U.S. regulators will announce a major Internet policy this week to revolutionize how Americans communicate and play, proposing a dramatic increase in broadband speeds that could let people download a high-definition film in minutes instead of hours.

Dramatically increasing Internet speeds to 25 times the current average is one of the myriad goals to be unveiled in the National Broadband Plan by the the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday.

The highly anticipated plan will make a series of recommendations to Congress and is aimed at spurring the ever-changing communications industry to bring more and faster online services to Americans as they increasingly turn to the Internet to communicate, pay monthly bills, make travel plans and be entertained by movies and music.

"This is a fairly unique event," said Paul Gallant, an analyst with Concept Capital. "The FCC really has never been asked to design a broad regulatory shift like this. Broadband is important and difficult because it threatens every established communications sector."

Some details of the plan have trickled out in the last few weeks including how to find spectrum to meet an anticipated explosion of handset devices capable of playing movies and music in addition to handling emails and voice calls.

But some carriers like AT&T Inc and Qwest Communications International Inc were irked last month when the agency's chief, Julius Genachowski, announced that the FCC would propose in the plan a goal of 100 Mbps speeds to be in place at 100 million American homes in 10 years. The current average is less than 4 Mbps.

In a sign of tension between the FCC and carriers, Qwest called it "a dream" and AT&T reacted by saying the FCC should resist calls for "extreme forms of regulation."

Since the FCC announcement, Cisco Systems Inc announced it would introduce a router that can handle Internet traffic up to 12 times faster than rival products. Google Inc has also gotten in on the hype, saying it plans to build a super-fast Internet network to show that it can be done. The FCC has praised both announcements.

The plans could also touch off tensions with television broadcasters, who will be asked to give up spectrum to wireless carriers who desperately need it for their mobile devices, such as the iPhone and Blackberry.

The FCC plans to let them share in the profits of auctions structured to redistribute the spectrum.

"We've developed a plan that is a real win-win for everyone involved and we have every expectation that it will work," Genachowski said in an interview with Reuters.

"We've certainly heard from a number of broadcasters who told us they think this is a promising direction and are getting ready to roll up their sleeves with us," he said.

The FCC also wants to make sure that anchor institutions -- government buildings, schools, libraries and healthcare facilities -- get speeds of about 1 gigabit per second by 2020.

The full broadband plan is expected to be released at a Tuesday meeting among the FCC's five members who are expected to discuss the results and recommendations of the roadmap, which was mandated by Congress. Congress may have to pass legislation to enact some portions of the plan.

FCC officials have said some of the goals are aspirational and should be viewed as a "living, breathing" document for the next decade in hopes of helping 93 million Americans without broadband get connected.

Achievable

"It is both aspiration and achievable," Genachowski said.

The Obama administration has touted the plan as a way to create jobs and make energy use more efficient.

"It will be a call to action," said Blair Levin, who heads the FCC's broadband task force which has collected data and comments from the industry, academics and the public as well as from three dozen public workshops.

The FCC has placed most of its attention on broadband policy which Darrell West, director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, called "the signature issue" since Genachowski took over the helm in late June.

"It means that broadband is going to drive other types of policy decisions and it really sets the parameters for telecommunications and new applications," West said.

FCC officials have said that the plan will not take sides on technology or applications, but they want to lay the groundwork to spur innovation and job creation.

Officials have said the plan will ask Congress to fund up to $16 billion to build an emergency public safety system.

It would also tell lawmakers that a one-time injection of $9 billion could accelerate broadband reach to the 4 percent of Americans who do have access. Otherwise they could let the FCC carry out a 10-year plan to realign an $8 billion U.S. subsidy program for universal broadband access instead of universal phone access.

Experts call the plan ambitious but question if the FCC, which plans to spin off a series of rule-making proposals linked to the plan, can realistically make good on its recommendations.

"There's so little progress on this stuff in Washington," said Rob Atkinson, who heads the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

"I think Chairman Genachowski has a real opportunity to bring different warring interests under 50-75 percent of the plan."

Copyright 2010 Reuters
source:internetnews.com

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The Internet Protocol (IP) is a protocol used for communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite, also referred to as TCP/IP.

IP is the primary protocol in the Internet Layer of the Internet Protocol Suite and has the task of delivering distinguished protocol datagrams (packets) from the source host to the destination host solely based on their addresses. For this purpose the Internet Protocol defines addressing methods and structures for datagram encapsulation. The first major version of addressing structure, now referred to as Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) is still the dominant protocol of the Internet, although the successor, Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) is being deployed actively worldwide.

IP encapsulation

Data from an upper layer protocol is encapsulated as packets/datagrams (the terms are basically synonymous in IP). Circuit setup is not needed before a host may send packets to another host that it has previously not communicated with (a characteristic of packet-switched networks), thus IP is a connectionless protocol. This is in contrast to public switched telephone networks that require the setup of a circuit for each phone call (connection-oriented protocol).

Services provided by IP

Because of the abstraction provided by encapsulation, IP can be used over a heterogeneous network, i.e., a network connecting computers may consist of a combination of Ethernet, ATM, FDDI, Wi-Fi, token ring, or others. Each link layer implementation may have its own method of addressing (or possibly the complete lack of it), with a corresponding need to resolve IP addresses to data link addresses. This address resolution is handled by the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) for IPv4 and Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP) for IPv6.

Reliability

The design principles of the Internet protocols assume that the network infrastructure is inherently unreliable at any single network element or transmission medium and that it is dynamic in terms of availability of links and nodes. No central monitoring or performance measurement facility exists that tracks or maintains the state of the network. For the benefit of reducing network complexity, the intelligence in the network is purposely mostly located in the end nodes of each data transmission, cf. end-to-end principle. Routers in the transmission path simply forward packets to next known local gateway matching the routing prefix for the destination address.

As a consequence of this design, the Internet Protocol only provides best effort delivery and its service can also be characterized as unreliable. In network architectural language it is a connection-less protocol, in contrast to so-called connection-oriented modes of transmission. The lack of reliability allows any of the following fault events to occur:

• data corruption
• lost data packets
• duplicate arrival
• out-of-order packet delivery; meaning, if packet 'A' is sent before packet 'B', packet 'B' may arrive before packet 'A'. Since routing is dynamic and there is no memory in the network about the path of prior packets, it is possible that the first packet sent takes a longer path to its destination.

The only assistance that the Internet Protocol provides in Version 4 (IPv4) is to ensure that the IP packet header is error-free through computation of a checksum at the routing nodes. This has the side-effect of discarding packets with bad headers on the spot. In this case no notification is required to be sent to either end node, although a facility exists in the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) to do so.

IPv6, on the other hand, has abandoned the use of IP header checksums for the benefit of rapid forwarding through routing elements in the network.

The resolution or correction of any of these reliability issues is the responsibility of an upper layer protocol. For example, to ensure in-order delivery the upper layer may have to cache data until it can be passed to the application.

In addition to issues of reliability, this dynamic nature and the diversity of the Internet and its components provide no guarantee that any particular path is actually capable of, or suitable for performing the data transmission requested, even if the path is available and reliable. One of the technical constraints is the size of data packets allowed on a given link. An application must assure that it uses proper transmission characteristics. Some of this responsibility lies also in the upper layer protocols between application and IP. Facilities exist to examine the maximum transmission unit (MTU) size of the local link, as well as for the entire projected path to the destination when using IPv6. The IPv4 internetworking layer has the capability to automatically fragment the original datagram into smaller units for transmission. In this case, IP does provide re-ordering of fragments delivered out-of-order.

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is an example of a protocol that will adjust its segment size to be smaller than the MTU. User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) disregard MTU size thereby forcing IP to fragment oversized datagrams.

IP addressing and routing

Perhaps the most complex aspects of IP are IP addressing and routing. Addressing refers to how end hosts become assigned IP addresses and how subnetworks of IP host addresses are divided and grouped together. IP routing is performed by all hosts, but most importantly by internetwork routers, which typically use either interior gateway protocols (IGPs) or external gateway protocols (EGPs) to help make IP datagram forwarding decisions across IP connected networks

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Satellites have brought Internet access to places where IP communications seemed impossible. In this section, we explain how satellite Internet works. You will understand how bytes of information or simply a mouse click travels all the way from your computer to the satellite, to our NOC and back.

VSAT Systems uses commercial satellite connections as a high-speed digital link between our customers and the U.S. Internet backbone. The main components of a satellite system comprises of the following:

1. Ground-based electronic equipment

• The VSAT dish: It refers to what most people call their dish. VSAT units are two-way satellite ground stations with dishes that typically range from 0.75m to 1.8m in diameter. VSAT Systems offers VSAT antennas between 1.2m and 2.4m in diameter, depending on the application and location.
• The indoor modem: A satellite modem facilitates data transfers using a communications satellite as a relay. VSAT Systems end users typically use the iDirect 3100 series Modem.
• The teleports: The teleport is the earth station that controls communications across the space link. The teleport is the heart of the VSAT Systems satellite Internet system. VSAT Systems has three 6.3m VertexRSI antennae, transmitters, control systems, redundant links to the Internet, plus auxiliary power and HVAC.
• The Network Operations Center (NOC): The facility which controls all communications over the satellite link. The NOC monitors for power failures, satellite signal issues and other performance issues that may affect the network. The VSAT Systems NOC is located in Akron, Ohio.

2. Satellite equipment

• The satellite: In a geostationary or geosynchronous orbit 22,236 miles above the earth’s surface, a satellite completes one revolution in exactly the same amount of time that it takes the Earth to rotate one full turn on its axis. Thus, the satellite always appears at the same position above the Earth. This eliminates the need for satellite dishes at the user location to track the satellite, which greatly simplifies their construction and cost. These satellites, used for a variety of purposes like broacast and telecommunications, can also be used to provide Internet access at any location on Earth.
• Transponder space segment: The communications channels on a satellite that both receive and retransmit data. Modern satellites carry between 36 and 72 separate transponders all running at different frequencies. These frequency segments are used for transmission of data.
• Internet Backbone: The backbone is a large collection of interconnected, high-capacity, commercial, government, and academic data routes and core routers that carry data. They connect with other countries and continents around the world.

3. Here’s how the process works - in 5 easy to understand steps:

• End user computer is connected to your network, which in turn is connected to the Internet by VSAT Systems. You open a web browser, and type in a web address. End user computer sends a request for a transfer of data - both transmit and receive.
• That request is sent from the end user PC, through their home network, to the indoor satellite modem which modulates the signal and passes it to the VSAT dish. The VSAT dish converts this signal to an RF signal and sends it to a satellite located in the geostationary orbit at the speed of light - 186,000 miles per second.
• The satellite in the geo-stationary orbit receives this signal and sends it to one of the VSAT Systems teleports in Akron, Ohio. This illustrates the fact that although the packets of information travel tremendous distances via the space segment, the packets hop fewer networks due to the large reduction in the number of inter domain and intra domain routers giving an opportunity to minimize latency.
• The request then goes to VSAT Systems’ NOC, which retrieves the requested website from the web server, across the U.S. Internet backbone.
• The whole cycle is then reversed and the requested data is available to the user. A 90,000 mile journey, through millions of dollars of infrastructure and sophisticated equipment, all in less than 700 milliseconds.

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Bali - Access broadband networks using CDMA technology, Rev. B, to download (downloading) data files for 1 Gb of internet transfer takes only eleven minutes.

So the demo that was held at Smart Telecom launched the first CDMA service network using the latest technologies supplied Rev. B vendor Qualcomm and ZTE.

"Consumers will feel the real speed of these incredible," claims Head of Core Product and Branding Smart, Ruby Hermanto, while demonstrating the CDMA EVDO Rev B at Hotel Discovery, Bali, on Sunday night (10/1/2010).

Although able to download 1 GB of files in just 11 minutes, but the original speed will no doubt will come down drastically so many users who use the service simultaneously in a single point of network base stations (BTS).

Smart claimed could bring a maximum speed of 9.3 Mbps for data download and upload to 5.4 Mbps (upload). Ruby said, this year will increase again Smart network capacity in the canal Rev. B. "We are upgrading our network again to Rev B download speeds up to 14.7 Mbps can," he said without going to mention how many base stations to be upgraded.

CDMA-based service was held Smart at 1900 MHz frequency band. This mobile operators do not want to mention the number of channels used by a total of five canals had.

Currently, Rev. B new service was held in Bali. It was only in some places. "Just 60% of our base stations 48 in Bali," said President Director of Smart, Sutikno Widjaja.

According to him, the whole area of the new Bali will be served all at the end of this first quarter of 2010. After Bali, Smart plans to expand coverage to Rev. B 32 cities that previously had been spread Rev A until the end of year.

To enjoy the service EVDO Rev B via a modem ZTE offers, customers will be charged Smart mortgage USD 450 thousand per month for 12 months. These costs include the cost of unlimited access for a year.

source:http://www.detikinet.com/read/2010/01/11/074212/1275427/328/dengan-rev-b-unduh-1-giga-cuma-11-menit?topnews

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Available Jan. 10 exclusively from Sprint, Overdrive is the nation's first 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot, allowing multiple Wi-Fi-enabled devices to share a connection to Sprint's 4G network

OVERLAND PARK, Kan., Jan 06, 2010 -- Sprint announced today the upcoming availability of Overdrive 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot (aka the Sierra Wireless AirCard W801). Overdrive allows you to connect up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices simultaneously--including laptops, gaming devices, cameras and even smartphones from other carriers--through a single connection (via Wi-Fi), to a network that is up to 10 times faster than today's 3G speeds from any national wireless carrier.1 There's no need to wait for 4G devices to enjoy the benefits of 4G: Overdrive creates a connection between the Sprint 4G network and virtually all of the hundreds of millions of Wi-Fi-enabled electronics devices owned by or available to customers today.

"This device delivers the connected lifestyle to our customers in overdrive," said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO. "The fact that it connects up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices is especially meaningful because at 4G speeds, customers can download and upload more data--gigabytes, not megabytes--in a matter of seconds. The Overdrive on the 4G network is made for the multitude of bandwidth-hungry applications customers want to access wirelessly, like video streaming. 4G beats 3G for speed and for value."

Overdrive 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot will benefit customers today

In the home:

Through a single connection, you can bypass your cable provider and stream HD movies from content distribution providers (such as Netflix, Amazon and Blockbuster) right to your TV; connect your Xbox 360 and game real-time with someone located across the globe; move pictures wirelessly from your camera to a digital picture frame and surf the Web on your laptop while streaming Pandora.

In the dorm:

Connect virtually anywhere on a campus with 4G coverage at 4G speeds: Turn your iPod Touch with Skype into a voice phone and make a call, or stream a live movie from Hulu or Netflix to your laptop.

On-the-go:

Whether you're on a long trip or running a busy day of errands, use Overdrive to keep passengers entertained in the car.2 Stream your favorite TV show from Hulu to your Netbook; use a PSP gaming device to access multiple games and content; download music to your Zune HD; and turn your 3G iPhone into a 4G device. It's all very simple with Overdrive.

Mobile office:

Join a video conference, download large files, conduct a virtual home tour and stay in constant contact with your office via unified communications.

Move Overdrive 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot to the workplace and the benefits are even greater with enhanced Wi-Fi performance, increased productivity and improved cost savings. Set up and redeploy easily and quickly for a small workgroup; back-up or replace costly wireline connections to small branches, retail locations or home offices; cost-effectively share one connection on one plan when mobile with other employees and customers; use as excellent "power up and go" mobile solution to maintain connectivity for business/emergency continuity; and easily perform multiple functions with constant connectivity and real-time access to corporate data.

"At Best Buy, we see an amazing amount of new devices and products from mobile phones to televisions to gaming consoles that are designed to connect and interact with each other. This kind of connectivity is very exciting, but it can also be complicated to maximize unless you actually see it and understand it," said Brian Dunn, Best Buy CEO. "In combination with Best Buy's skilled and passionate associates, the Sprint Overdrive will allow us to showcase our in-store experience by demonstrating how various Wi-Fi- enabled products work and connect together, whether in the home, on-the-go or both."

As the first dual-mode device of its kind, Overdrive 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot can be used on both the Sprint 4G network and Sprint's Mobile Broadband Network, America's most dependable 3G network.3 This flexibility allows customers to enjoy 4G performance in any Sprint 4G market or to use Sprint's reliable 3G mobile broadband network when outside a 4G area. Sprint 4G is already available in 27 markets and continues to expand to new cities, bringing wireless speeds up to 10 times faster than today's 3G from any other national wireless carrier.

"Sierra Wireless places a high priority on making our products simple to use, and we have put considerable time and effort into ensuring that Overdrive3G/4G Mobile Hotspotdelivers the easiest user experience of any mobile hotspot on the market," said Jason Cohenour, CEO of Sierra Wireless. "Its simplicity, combined with its compact portability, and security, makes Overdrive3G/4G Mobile Hotspotideal for both personal and business use in a variety of situations."

Key features of Overdrive 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot include a LCD that provides important information such as battery life and internet connection status, as well as an easy-to-use web interface for customizing settings. Overdrive 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot also includes built-in GPS capability (on 3G), MicroSD slot for up to 16 GB memory cards creating shared storage with up to five connected devices, and an extended Wi-Fi range of up to 150 feet.

Beginning on Jan. 10, customers will be able to purchase Overdrive 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot exclusively from Sprint for $99.99 (excluding taxes) after a $50 mail-in-rebate with a two-year service agreement. Customers can purchase the device and sign up for 3G/4G plans at select Sprint retail stores and select Best Buy stores; available through business sales, Web (www.sprint.com) and Telesales (1-800-SPRINT1) in coming weeks. Also beginning Jan. 10, Sprint will offer simplified 3G/4G data plans for consumers and businesses at $59.99 monthly (price plans exclude surcharges and taxes).4

Sprint continues to blaze trails with 4G

Sprint is the first national wireless carrier to test, launch and market 4G technology. (View 4G coverage at www.sprint.com/4G)

Sprint made history by launching 4G in Baltimore in September 2008. Sprint currently offers 4G service in 27 markets, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Portland, Ore., San Antonio and Seattle. Sprint 4G is also offered in Abilene, Texas; Amarillo, Texas; Austin, Texas; Bellingham, Wash.; Boise, Idaho; Charlotte, N.C.; Corpus Christi, Texas; Greensboro, N.C. (along with High Point and Winston-Salem); Honolulu; Killeen/Temple, Texas; Lubbock, Texas; Maui, Hawaii; Midland/Odessa, Texas; Milledgeville, Ga.; Raleigh, N.C. (along with Cary, Chapel Hill and Durham); Salem, Ore.; Waco, Texas and Wichita Falls, Texas.

In 2010, Sprint expects to launch service in multiple markets, including Boston, Houston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Sprint is harnessing the power of 4G as the majority shareholder of Clearwire, the independent company that is building the WiMAX network.

1. "Up to 10x faster" based on download speed comparison of 3G's 600 kbps vs. 4G's 6 Mbps. Typical published 3G avg. speeds (600 kbps-1.7 Mbps); 4G avg. speeds (3-6 Mbps). Actual speeds may vary. 4G currently available in select areas /devices; check Sprint.com/4G for Sprint 4G coverage/device info.
2. Sprint encourages all wireless users to drive responsibly and avoid distractions.
3. "Dependable" based on independent, third-party drive tests for 3G data connection success, session reliability, and signal strength for the top 50 most populous US markets (including PR) from January 2008 to August 2009. Not all services available on 3G and coverage may default to separate network when 3G unavailable.
4. Sprint reserves the right, at our sole discretion to deny, terminate, modify, disconnect or suspend service if customer exceeds the off-network roaming threshold (300MB/mo.) or engages in the following prohibited uses: server devices or host computer applications, including, but not limited to, disproportionate Web camera posts or broadcasts, automatic data feeds, automated machine-to-machine connections, peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing applications broadcast to multiple servers or recipients such that they could enable "bots" or similar routines, or for any other reason that, in our sole discretion harms our network.

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