A View From the Tip of the Wireless Iceberg

Dr. Ronald R. HutchinsAssociate Vice Provost for Research and Technology and Chief Technology Officer, Georgia Institute of Technology

Networking/Wireless at Ga TechA Context…

• Internet

• Internet 2/SoX

• NLR/SLR

• LAWN• Local Area Wireless and Walkup Network

• Applications Task Force - integration of Applications over Cellular, Wi-Fi, wired

LAWN stats

• Started in 1999

• Captive portal authentication w/static WEP

• >850 Access Points (1000 by year end)

• >80 buildings covered

• >50% of students use regularly

• Commercial network (FASTPASS)

The Stuff…

• LAWN• GPS Bus tracking via google maps• Bus hotspot via Wi-Fi and GPRS• UMTS rollout on campus• IMS apps platform• Research contract with Cingular• Connecting @ L2 with cell towers• Telecom project on campus - not VoIP today• Cellular PBX model ???

Wireless Futures

• Flattening of voice revenues, growth in cellular data and sales/services.

• Cellular and VoIP combining to impact traditional land lines.

• Reclaimed and Unlicensed frequencies.• WiMax on the horizon - a converged

wireless?

Beyond Wireless

• Presence

• location based services

• seamless mobility• sessions

• multi-homing

• Convergence (services & hw)

• Identity management

• Security

Why these things are challenging

• human interaction

• commercial constraints• Open -vs- closed

• privacy/trust

Presence

• Chat + context• Who is asking the question

• For what purpose

• virtual presence in the absence of physical presence

LBS

• Augmenting my services with information about where I am, where I am headed, and where my friends and colleagues are.

Mobility

• Not just between cell-phone towers but between different technologies: cell, wi-fi, wired

• Able to take advantage of the best service currently available.

• The "affordances" ideas (Jeff Pierce GT-GVU) -- a screen, printer or keyboard that is close by and usable

Converged Services

• Services converging and crossing networks

• voice as another data service

• data - messaging, imaging becoming as important as voice

Device Convergence

• Voice/video/text communications, media player, camera, web

• single purpose device (iPod) -vs- a multipurpose one (Treo)

• Devices will pool resources - not all will require all forms of wireless…

• Small form factor wireless devices are quickly becoming the dominant computing platform…and as a result, the device for students to program

Identity Management

• Who am I?• a phone number?• a IP address?• a email address? • a secret password?• a hidden code on a chip or magnetic stripe?• a fingerprint or DNA sequence?

• All of these have problems - We need this for two reasons• How will others find me?• How will they trust that it's really me?

The Black Ice

• Security continues to be a major problem with wireless, what does security mean?

• Impersonation, interception of voice/data streams, tracking of inappropriate behavior, denial of services, propagation of viruses, etc.

• How do we continue to grow services in the face of these growing challenges?

• Security is not just a “network” problem, it must become everyone’s problem, but more specifically the customer must be cognizant and take action to protect content, identity, and property.