Networking the ambient web
Computer networking is very confusing - especially the rapidly developing varieties of wireless communication that
are key to ambient devices. However, we can think about the main developments broadly in terms of two things that they enable.
First, they enable anything to connect to the internet from wherever it is. ' Anything, anytime, anywhere' has been the mantra of the computing industry for years and describes this goal. This is the main thing you get in your 25G or 3G phone, with your Wi-Fi hotspot, and over the next few years with WiMAX . Here the wireless connection is the first or last step in getting you connected to the wired internet and web. Part of the puzzle is letting devices hop between different wireless technologies as they move around - from a hotspot to a cellular connection, for example - and deciding how much you get charged. Another level of complexity involves bringing broadcast media into the mix. By 2010-15 many of these standards may have converged into IP-based 4G networks.
Second, new technologies allow devices to come together and communicate just among themselves. This may be a permanently configured connection, or just a fleeting encounter. Familiar examples are the use of a remote control for the television, and a smart card to pay for a trip on the Tube. The technology of tags (RFID) is set to spread into every sort of device, making it possible for anything to identify what it is and what it can do to the things around it. Bluetooth is another widespread technology intended to create local collections of devices acting together. ZigBee is yet another standard that we will be hearing a lot about in the next few years in our home control systems.
Again, the technical community is extending these ideas to much more sophisticated ideas of self-organising and self- maintaining networks of sensors and tiny devices. เท the short term, things will often need a tot more configuring than we would like, but gradually a few key standards should emerge, allowing devices to connect seamlessly and invisibly.