Guest Editorial for Wireless Networks (original) (raw)

2002, Wireless personal communications

Guest Editorial for Wireless Networks Today simple embedded microprocessors (and memory) cost less than 1andcanbefoundprevalentinhomeappliances,entertainmentsystems,cars,toys,etc.withoutusersbeingawareofitinmanyinstances.Ithastakenmicroprocessor20yearstoreachsuchawidespreadembeddeduse.Itisenvisagedthatwithinthenext10yearsmostappliances,entertainmentsystems,cars,toys,andplethoraofelectronicdeviceswillhavethecapabilitytointerconnectusingtheInternetProtocol.Furthermoreavailabilityof1 and can be found prevalent in home appliances, entertainment systems, cars, toys, etc. without users being aware of it in many instances. It has taken microprocessor 20 years to reach such a widespread embedded use. It is envisaged that within the next 10 years most appliances, entertainment systems, cars, toys, and plethora of electronic devices will have the capability to interconnect using the Internet Protocol. Furthermore availability of 1andcanbefoundprevalentinhomeappliances,entertainmentsystems,cars,toys,etc.withoutusersbeingawareofitinmanyinstances.Ithastakenmicroprocessor20yearstoreachsuchawidespreadembeddeduse.Itisenvisagedthatwithinthenext10yearsmostappliances,entertainmentsystems,cars,toys,andplethoraofelectronicdeviceswillhavethecapabilitytointerconnectusingtheInternetProtocol.Furthermoreavailabilityof1 radio chip is seen as one of the key enabling technologies over the coming decade to this process. As the 2nd generation of wireless cellular technology matures, we have witnessed an ever increasing prevalence of mobile phones. In many countries, more than 50% of the population own and use mobile phones and by 2003 it is anticipated that there will be over 1 billion phones in use worldwide. With the advent of Bluetooth and other similar short rage wireless systems, wireless interconnectivity will fuel and encourage development of a wide variety of distributed devices carried or used by individuals (e.g., phone, PDA, MP3 players, wireless head phones that connect to any of these devices etc.). The possible diversity of networks and the devices is depicted in Figure 1. Personal networks configured (by user or automatically self configuring) will play an important role. Foundation for these self-organising networks can be derived from the substantial research activity in the ad hoc networking technology arena called Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET). MANET is a network architecture that can be rapidly deployed without relying on pre-existing fixed network infrastructure. The nodes in a MANET can dynamically join and leave the network, frequently, often without warning, and possibly without disruption to other nodes' communication. Furthermore, the nodes in the network can be highly mobile, thus rapidly changing the node constellation and the presence or absence of links. Ability of these personal networks, like MANET, to not only self configure in a secure manner within local areas (e.g., body areas) but also to stretch across any available one or more communication networks, to interconnect with remote devices, will also be very important. To support this paradigm shift, we are rapidly heading into highly flexible and adaptive physical layer and an "intelligent" protocol era, where dynamic service creation and rapid customisation is the norm. Furthermore, end-to-end service needs to be delivered in a costeffective manner to the end-user in a heterogeneous networking environment. The network architectures and the underlying technologies are constantly improving to undertake this demanding task in the current multimedia networks. Specifically, on the air interface side in the 3G arena, link adaptation strategies are becoming popular, as exemplified by High Speed Data Packet Access (HSDPA) and CDMA2000 1xEV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimised). Various other standardisation bodies are also looking into enriching the higher layers. From the 3G perspective, the physical layer evolution is going to pave the way for cross layer interaction between PHY and MAC layers. Research is also is being performed on recon