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March 25, 2007

Destination Dubai: Greenfield Mobility Market? (Part 2 of 2)

When you land in Dubai International Airport and drive into the city, the Emirate’s most telling landmark (and seemingly national bird!) is the building crane. An enormous metropolis of office towers, shopping malls and man-made islands is rapidly rising from the desert floor. While building cranes feedstock the rapid construction of skyscrapers, the definition of a crane is “a device for lifting and moving heavy weights in suspension.”

To this observer, the most remarkable heavy weight in motion in Dubai is the rapid transition of a tribal, desert culture -- albeit one that is found on thousands of years of trading and more recently, hydrocarbon wealth -- into a modern, service-oriented economy. The country’s leadership well understands this challenge and is in overdrive to make this transition.

Mobility, thus, is one of the critical underpinnings of any service-based, including the one that is occurring in Dubai:

- Mobility of capital
- Mobility of people (information capital, http earlier blog)
- Mobility of communications

Capital is flowing into the Emirates, followed by large numbers of services workers and new residents. The country seemingly, too, has a voracious appetite for communications technologies as well.

From our little keyhole, we are watching to see if Dubai embraces new empowering technologies like the Mobile Internet and Wi-Mesh, providing a blanket of secure broadband into the emerging canyons of the new downtown district. This will should not be a big stretch, as these kinds of first mile technologies could be used off-shore where new islands must be connected to the Internet (first mile wireless is already being piloted on oil rigs in other parts of the Middle East).

With it’s influx of mobile, entrepreneurial new residents, mobile devices are likely to be the norm rather than reliance of a fixed infrastructure. New applications like Mobile Instant Messaging seem like a natural to a competitive culture like Dubai, which also must compete with its hydrocarbon-rich neighbors that have similar visions of technology-laden modern cities rising from the ground. In addition, wishing to stay in touch with family and friends back home, these new residents are likely to turn to social networking and video technologies to build a stronger community and family bond across geographies and time zones. The challenge for Dubai is to support the mobile identity of its new residents as well as distinct country-centric view of itself.

We developed the Mobility Quotient (http://cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/wireless/products_promotion0900aecd805e9101.html) to understand how well businesses are taking advantage of mobility technologies. Perhaps the MQ for an entire nation lies in its ability to take the best of the old (culture, values, working systems, etc.) and blend it with the technologies, best practices and human empowerment of what is new. In Dubai, I think the country’s Mobility Quotient will ultimately be measured in how well the commercial and public sector can marshal and utilize the best of what the world has to offer while it continues to build both a national and a global identity. So far the nation seems off to a fast start with lots of repeatable successes.

Proverbs tend to be re-used in many cultures. Over 20 years ago, a Qatari classmate of mine shared an Arab proverb: “Anything that happens once does not necessarily happen again, everything that happens twice is likely to happen for the third time as well.”

Posted by Alan Cohen at 07:05 AM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

March 21, 2007

Making Sense of My Insensitivity and Sensor (Topologies)

Yesterday I got into the elevator on the ground floor of building 14 on the Cisco San Jose campus. I parked my car and made my way to the elevator bank. The elevator arrived, I hit the #4 (for the floor that I work on), and the doors began to close. Right before they were completely shut, someone stuck their hand in, the doors opened (I was bummed out cause I had waited a while), and a person came in the elevator car with me.

Then he hit the number 2.

Now - obviously I could have taken the stairs up to the fourth floor, but it is a long way up... but one freaking flight of stairs??? I couldn't help myself...

"Dude," I asked the guy looking really concerned, "Are your legs okay?"

"Yeah, they're fine," he answered.

"So why didn't you take the stairs?"

He was incredulous...

"That is the most insensitive thing I have ever had someone ask me," he said as the doors opened and he left the elevator.

This exchange got me to thinking about sensors, and what will be the best way to deploy them...

There has been a lot of discussion regarding Wireless Sensor Networks (commonly called WSNs). The promise of sensors everywhere will spawn applications that will make the world an even more efficient place - I'm not going to write about some of these applications.

Given my 'insensitivity', I thought I would write about what architecture WSNs might improve their overall sensitivity I.e. how well they communicate the information the sensors are recording.

Like all networking technologies, we ultimately design around constraints. In the case of WSNs here are a few constraints:

A) Most likely they will operate in unlicensed spectrum (unless a service provider decides to get into the managed WSN business).

B) Many of the devices being sensed will be remote, and will not have access to power, therefore power is a concern.

C) The sensors have to be cheap - especially if they are to proliferate. I once conducted a study and learned that people were willing to spend 1/15th the price of a device on an active RFID tag to track it. So if you want to track a 500 dollar item, then you better have a tag that costs <35 bucks.

Now here are a couple of variables:
1) Required throughput - sometimes this might be high, sometimes it will be a few bytes of information once a day.

2) Technology - Could be WIFI... could be Zigbee... could be the player to be named later...

3) Business criticality - A reporting sensor on a heart rate monitor vs. a sensor on a remote laser printer definitely has different levels of criticality.

So given the above... here is what I think...

I know of two basic architectures for WSNs: Star and Mesh.

A Star topology has each remote sensor connecting to a single hub - much like most Ethernet devices are connected to a switch.

A mesh topology allows each WSN node to 'self organize' into a mesh. These nodes find a central hub (which may be multiple hops away. Therefore information a pressure sensor may take multiple hops through intermediate nodes before finding a central hub.

Ultimately a WSN is deployed get information out of sensors. While the reliability requirements may vary from application to application, no one wants to invest in a wireless technology that performs spuriously. Therefore people should design for success and reliability rather than the cool factor.

In my mind, knowing how complex mesh is, deploying a star topology is probably the right choice - especially because you will likely have time sensitive applications dispersed with less critical applications. I know that all of the sensor companies will talk about how well their mesh works, but is this technology for technology’s sake? Are you willing to bet your WSN something that is neat and possible or something that is reliable?
I'd love to hear what you think.

Did this make me more sensitive?

Posted by Matt Glenn at 11:53 AM Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

March 15, 2007

Wi-Fi Cars, Tools, and Shopping Carts - Changing The Way We Do Business

In keeping with Matt Glenn's 'car themed' blogs (1, 2) last week - here's an example of an implementation of Wi-Fi with cars......Newsweek’s March 5th article titled “Marketing: Ads Made for You”.

This article describes how individuals, zipping by in their cars, can activate a billboard to display messaging that is personalized just for them. This is made possible by a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag on the car that is detected by a wireless infrastructure that includes location services. The article goes on to talk about using RFID in supermarkets to push out advertising to shopping carts based on their location within the store.

RFID is changing the way we run businesses, communicate, and track items, events, and people....

RFID is gaining momentum among businesses and consumers -- and not just for shopping carts, billboards, and cars. An RFID tag can be put on anything - parts, tools, pallets, wheelchairs, machinery, file folders, artwork, heavy equipment, store inventory, office projectors, and even babies in a healthcare environment.

As wireless access is deployed pervasively – indoors and outdoors – adding location services and RFID tags will enable businesses to:

• Track the movement of any RFID or Wi-Fi enabled item
• Reduce the costs associated with lost, stolen, or misplaced items
• Send information where and when it’s needed based on a Wi-Fi device’s location
• Quickly find the closest person during an event
• Gain revenue through advertising or specialized services based on a user’s location

Would I sign up to have a billboard display personalized advertising to me on my morning commute to Cisco?

Sure – if there are discount coupons involved.

You can track me – just make sure that it’s a good deal for both of us.

Posted by Peggy Casey at 12:01 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 14, 2007

Tax Evasion and Matt (TEAM)

It is tax time again. Time to go visit your accountant, buy some tax software, or just do it online.

It is during this time of year that I usually take up new hobbies - anything to keep me away from the ritual of tax preparation. My family has a $10 opt-in pool on when I will announce to them what I'll be doing that year to avoid getting my taxes ready. The person who is closest to the date without going over (Price is Right rules) wins the pool.

Here are some examples of past hobbies:

* A trip to Costa Rica to relearn surfing
* Learning to ride a unicycle
* Going on the road with Phish for a month
* My vision quest to Tibet

This year I've taken up a new hobby, visiting Second Life. What's great about wireless is that I can constantly live in second life so that I don't have to live my real one.

In case you aren't familiar with Second Life, it is a virtual online commuity, complete with Avatars (who represents other people in Second Life), an economy, real estate, schools... literally everything that we have in our day to day life. It is a great way to kill time ( and certainly much safer than knife juggling, which was also under consideration for this year's diversion).

Now here is the kicker... with Wireless, I can constantly be in Second Life. I can be on 802.11 at home, flip over to my CDMA connection on the train, and then go back to WIFI at work.

I love it in Second Life... I don't have any work deadlines - and I certainly don't have to fill out any tax forms (I'm sure it is coming some day). I don't have any bosses in second life.

In fact I'm really only filling out this blog so that people at work will think that I'm actually working in the 'real world', when in fact I wrote this Internet Blog from within my Second Life Connection. Does that mean that the real world is now my Third Life, and I really don't have to pay taxes.

Wireless is cool, but there are some ways to improve my experience. Let me know if you want to know what those ways are.

Posted by Matt Glenn at 03:54 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 11, 2007

Destination Dubai: Human Software as a Mobility Service (Part 1 of 2)

In The World is Flat, Tom Friedman writes about how human as well as digital “software” is required to make a society work. This includes: medical care, education, effective legal systems, etc.

I am just back from my first trip to Dubai and can affirm that the Emirates, in addition to building the world’s largest buildings and shopping malls, are pioneering another first: transforming human software into a service through importing and maintaing human talent.

At roughly 15% -20% of the total population, native born Emiratis might seem scare in the hyper development scene of Dubai. Most of the people I met on this first trip came from someone else, lured by Dubai’s dramatic economic development, career opportunities and tolerant society.

For most people in the technology industry, the definition of mobility usually involved cell phones, Wi-Fi, RFID or application access. In Dubai (where the cellphone coverage was excellent and the bandwidth from the hotel, adequate), there are other interesting forms of Mobility.

- Capital is pouring into Dubai from all over the Arab and Western world, leading to an avalanche of building cranes working steadily to build apartments and office buildings that are sold out 1-3 years in advance of construction

-People are flocking to work and live in the Emirates. The UAE population is expected to grow by 3.3% per annum to reach 4.15 million by 2010. Dubai is expected to have a population of 1.4 million by 2010 (up from roughly 1 million today).

-Property ownership is liberalizing and being extended to non-Gulf citizens, allowing them to purchase freehold property in certain areas. By allowing freehold ownership the Dubai government hopes to attract more skilled professionals to stay in the Emirate

So far this model seems to be working. On a visit to a university, I found an American CIO, a Singaporean-raised Indian running the network and an Egyptian woman in charge of application development. They were all interested in driving pervasively wireless connectivity throughout the school

The UAE has shown great foresight in transforming their depleting hydrocarbon wealth into a nation built on thriving economic and leisure industries. The open question is will the human software also transplant, creating long-term advantages to the economic development of the gulf nation. No that is mobility.

Posted by Alan Cohen at 12:36 PM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

March 09, 2007

The Dreaded Car Computer

I’m on a car thing… Specifically how to merge cars and wireless… Wireless enables mobility, and the most mobile thing I have is my car. So bringing the two together, so that I can stay mobile, seems like a pretty good thing.

Willie Nelson once sang, “You are always on my mind…”

Right now I’m singing, “My car is on my mind…”

Here’s why… I have two cars. One looks like this and the other looks like this… The more expensive one is currently in the shop, which means I’m a racking up bills and thinking about my youth.

When I was younger I used to love to give my cars tune-ups, change the oil, and swap the brakes out… that sort of thing. Any of you real ‘gear heads’ out there will agree that there is no feeling (or smell) quite as sweet as dumping a few quarts of syrupy black goodness into the local sewer so it can make its way out to sea.

I used like to sing the song, “Get back to where you once belonged” while I dumped the stuff. I didn’t *want* to dump it. I might have even felt a bit bad, but I wanted to be part of the cool crowd - and they all did it.

Then these new cars came along and everything was computerized and suddenly the sheer joy of working on car was taken away. It was replaced with the ‘secretive’ car computer. You know the one. For example…

You bring the car in to the shop and Joe the mechanic says, “I’ll plug the computer into it and get back to you with an estimate.”

Next thing you know Joe calls up asking you to fill out a credit application because that little pinging is the beginning of a catastrophic nuclear melt down. He’s gonna have to replace complete fuel injection system, spark plugs, rework the pistons, yada yada yada.

You ask Joe, “How do you know? You haven’t even started working on it?”

To which Joe replies, “The computer told me.”

And you feel helpless.

Two weeks later you go to pick up the car and you notice that Joe, who used to drive a rusty blue Nova with a brown Pinto door, is now driving a candy-apple red Ferrari and dressing like Don Johnson on ‘Miami Vice’.

So anyway yesterday I went to my car shop. I got to talking to my mechanic about what is up with my car. He whipped out his car computer and plugged into my car (Note: I didn’t get a chance to read what the computer said).

However I *did* notice that the computer had a connector on it and that connector was plugged into my car.

I asked him what was up with the computer.

He told me that it is special for the type of car that I have. My car computer communicates what needs replacement and he in turn tells me. I asked him how accurate it is and he told me, “Pretty accurate Matt… Pretty accurate.”

I’m not a big fan of proprietary systems. So I’ve come up with a good idea…

Car companies are talking about putting 802.11 into their cars so that when they come back into the dealer the car can tell the mechanic what is going wrong without the car computer. In addition, for home use your car can be seen like an iPOD so that you can download the latest Interpol album, or perhaps pump a little Judas Priest or Led Zepplin into your car system.

Fine and dandy, but here is what I want:

1) I want my wirelessly-enabled car to upload d its information to an access point at home.

2) I want the car computer, which takes in sensor data from the car to upload its information to a web site

3) I want the web site to interpret the information and tell me what is needed to be done. Note: I’m willing to pay a subscription fee for this information.

4) I want to be able to take this info and then see if I can do it myself, or get an estimate from a few mechanics so I can see if I’m getting a good deal.

Next time you have to ‘plug’ something in to exchange data think about it… that interface can and should be wireless. If you have any ideas about that I’d love to hear about it.

Finally, for those of you that made it this far down my little blog and wetting your quill getting ready to write a complaint letter about me dumping crude oil into the gutter. I have a good defense; I only did it after eating three Hershey’s bars.

It was the sugar and peer pressure. I believe that will hold up in a court of law.

Okay… Okay… The truth is that I’ve never dumped motor oil, but it did make you read this blog!!!

Posted by Matt Glenn at 10:37 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 07, 2007

The best wireless protocol for my commute (or how to find a mate at a snail’s pace or 70 Miles Per Hour)

Multiple times per I drive from my home in San Francisco to building 14 at Cisco’s campus in San Jose…It is not a short drive. Like commuters everywhere I listen to the Radio (NPR, Adam Carolla, and Sports Radio - thank you).

But like every other MTV generation Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). person on the road my mind wanders. Usually I drift off when commercials are on regular radio and NPR is doing a story about endangered earth worms living on a fault in downtown Los Angeles.

It is at times like this that I turn to one of my favorite distractions. Looking at other drivers on the road and trying to figure out something about them. More specifically (and I don’t know how politically incorrect this is) I try to figure which women are single.

So, being a geek-a-zoid, I’ve decided to write about what the best wireless protocol would be for my new web 2.0 wirelessly-enabled social networking idea: Car-Matchster.

Car-Matchster brings singles together during their commute - bringing back the days of our youth... the days when you would innocently cruise up and dow ‘Main’ street at 15 miles per hour looking for that person you had a crush on in your World History class?

Well Car-Matchster brings that magic back, but at speeds in excess of 75 Miles per hour (except during rush hour).

Here’s how it works. A user inputs information about themselves and the type of person that they are looking for into a Car-Matchster console. As someone drives down the road, Car-Matchster propagates that information and information from as many as eight cars away. The Car-Matchster console sifts through incoming personal data and when two people ‘match’ a notification is sent. The notification might read:

“Match Found - Red Toyota Pickup Truck - Brown Haired 37 year-old surfing male”

The two people then begin driving around frantically ‘looking’ for one another. If they find each other and are interested, then each presses an accept button and an email address is exchanged.

So the question is - what is the best protocol to use between the Car-Matchster consoles? For the sake of this discussion let’s discuss 802.11, WiMAX, Bluetooth, Zigbee, cellular, and Passive RFID.

WIFI - WIFI has a solution for automatically forming groups. It’s called Ad-hoc networks. Basically a group of WIFI clients come together, an ad-hoc SSID is advertised, and they begin exchanging information. I like the pervasiveness of WIFI. Many people have WIFI and just about everyone *knows* about it, which is good. My only issue with WIFI AD-HOC networking is that I don’t know of any inherent hop-count metric. While I *want* to know if there is a single person near me, I don’t want to know about someone that is eighteen miles down the road.

WiMAX - If there was a lot of congestion, or there was a need for class of service in my service, then I think that WiMAX would be a good technology. Perhaps I should ad it into the roadmap so that when we put in the ‘car chat’ feature the QoS is there. I’m not sure about the price of the components so I’m not going to move forward with this protocol.

Bluetooth - Listen - I have problems with my Bluetooth headset working every day. I don’t want to bet the future of my company (or my chances of finding a future wife) on a protocol that I can’t get to work reliably. I know that there are Bluetooth fans out there, and the cost of Bluetooth chipsets are cheap, but my little mind hasn’t been pulled through the collective keyhole.

Zigbee - The Zigbee protocol is a lot like Bluetooth, but it also is a bit more “Meshy” i.e. it is designed to work well in mesh applications. That’s why one of its first application is in sensor networks. Zigbee can operate in any one of of multiple bands. It’s data rate is relatively low, but version 1.0 of the product isn’t going to be transmitting too much information. If I can natively get the hop count out of the protocol, then life will be be pretty good….

Cellular - I recently received a letter from my cell provider it began as follows… “Dear Matt, you are our very favorite customer!!! Because of the number of minutes use every month, we would like you to wear this pin, which is the rough equivalent of the American Express Black Card.” Okay I’m kidding, but I pay a lot of money every month and I’m not too sure that this service would work for them considering how mobile and chatty it would be.

Passive RFID - I like passive RFID. I really like it every time I’m in line at the local grocery store and people are putting their groceries on the belt and then fumbling when it is time for them to pay. Time is money…. Time is money… passive RFID is gonna save me time and therefore money. But how will it work in my application? Here is one theory. The car would be equipped with an RFID identifier as well as a reader. When I pass someone our information would be exchanged. Unfortunately I would only get the information of the person I am driving by and not the information from the person two cars over. So I guess that passive RFID won’t work. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t like passive RFID. I love it.

Time to make a decision…

I think that version 1.0 is going to be Zigbee, with a roadmap to WiMAX when voice capabilities are incorporated into the solution.

As far as I can tell, everyone is going to be signing up for Car-Matchster as soon as I’m finished with product development, which in theory could be soon but for two issues:

1) The Department of Transportation sent me a cease and desist note when I first proposed it. It seems that a little issue called ‘negligence’ was mentioned because it would cause accidents.

2) My girlfriend probably wouldn’t appreciate it

Posted by Matt Glenn at 09:19 AM Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)