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2006 round-up

Published by in annual round-ups on December 28th, 2006

Another year goes by before you know it ! Hope you folks had a great holiday season. In 2007, we will be adding another radical free thinker to this blog – hope to see his posts soon. Time for a quick look at the articles posted. So here is the Round-up: Technology Related (oldest to newest) Lampost Wi-Fi (They call it Mesh, Mun-Fi and other snazzy names) – An analysis of the attractive mesh-wifi solutions from Cisco and Tropos and my thoughts on its evolution Security and Convergence in your Palm – A Short commentary on the travails of being fully connected with smart phones. (How connected do we really need to be ?) SPAM over Internet Telephony (SPIT, SPIM) – A technical analysis of Spam over Internet Telephony and mechanisms to avoid it ‘Fast Convergence’ – Oxymoron ? The case of Gmail-Talk – A look at the new Gmail integrated chat system and an under the hood look at the overhead this convergence brings us Be a ‘Fon’-ero. Why technology is not just about technology ( Peer2Peer Wifi Sharing) – An analysis of the ‘Fon’ wifi sharing rage The next step to convergence is … Divergence: The case of

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IMS WiMAX interworking – Policy – Part II

Published by in 3gpp, voip, wimax on December 20th, 2006

(click here for Part I) In a previous article, I talked about how IMS, 3G and WiMAX fit together at a conceptual level. As promised, in this article, let’s delve a bit into what it means to interwork IMS and WiMAX. I wanted to get this article out by end this year, so that we have some ‘meat’ to this thread before I forget all about this in 2007. Note: as usual, click on images to make them larger What needs to be interworked ? At a macro level, we know that IMS is a session control layer, while the Wimax forum’s NWG efforts stop at IP-Connectivity. So when we think of interworking, we need to focus on Policy – how will one enforce that network policies such as QoS, admission control, etc. are enforced uniformly ? Security – how does one ensure that a subscriber is authenticated at the WiMAX and at the IMS layer, since they both provide different levels of services ? (for example, a UE may connect to a WiMAX network , but may not be allowed to place a call via IMS due to call barring) Charging – how will one ensure that voice/video/data related

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IMS vs. 3G vs. Wimax – Part I (Basics)

Published by in 3gpp, voip, wimax on December 7th, 2006

Disclaimer: I don’t know if and when there will be a part II, but I have a lot to say in this area, and I get the feeling that a single post will not be enough. So let me at least start the article naming in the right way. As I decide to author followups, I will link each post to the other. Updated Dec 20 2006: Link to part II There is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding in the market today on technologies that could potentially co-exist or replace one another. This article presents my view of how IMS, 3G and WiMax fit into the larger equation. I First, let us talk about these conceptual layers: (You would find most network architectures are based on derivations of these layered principles) Starting from bottom up: Access Layer: Simply put, the Access Stratum involves all the physical characteristics and the mechanisms needed to connect devices with each other. This may be WiMAX radio engineering (802.16, 802.16e etc.), WiFI engineering, UMTS RAN or other technologies. The job of the access stratum is to define and implement the required protocols to be able to physically connect multiple nodes of a network together.

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Preparing for your first customer meeting

Published by in corporate on November 27th, 2006

The first meeting with a customer often carries a long way in your being able to build a strong relationship. Here are some things I would do, in preparation for the first meeting with a customer: Research the customer – If the customer has a website, read their product/service offerings. When you visit the customer, instead of saying “Tell us what you do” – rephrase it as, “Based on what I researched, your company is involved in X,Y and Z. I would be keen to hear your perspective on where the company is headed”. You would be surprised how many sales people I know who walk into a customer meeting with absolutely no idea what they do. Treat Research as ‘input’ not ‘output’ – As an extension to the above, do not conclude on what a customer does, simply by research. It is important to ask the customer about their perspective, since it is often more detailed (and sometimes, rather different) than a web report. Doing research is showing respect to the customer – that you want to know their business. But don’t use it to put words in your customer’s mouth. Research their competition- I remember walking into a

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Identity Based Encryption (IBE)

Published by in security on October 16th, 2006

Lazy days are just perfect for me to catch up with reading. This Saturday, as I was browsing through the Internet reading up on new (at least for me) trends and technologies, I came across a recent I-D on a scheme called Identity Based Encryption (IBE) here. The premise and applicability of this technology seemed pretty interesting, so I read more here, here and other places. This technology is currently being pioneered by a relatively new company, called Voltage Security.I don’t claim to understand complex mathematics, so I am going to restrict my comments on its applicability. Simply put, IBE is not a complete replacement of existing asymmetrical cryptographic algorithms. It allows a mechanism where an arbitrary string could be used by the ‘sender’ as a means to encrypt a message. Based on that identity string, the receiver can obtain a private key to decrypt it, as long as the receiver can satisfactorily prove to some ‘Key Server’ that it is the rightful owner of that ‘arbitary identity’ string. This eliminates the need for certificate exchanges before a communication takes place in traditional PKI schemes. This makes more sense when we apply a deployment model to it. Consider for example,

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© Arjun Roychowdhury. My personal opinions only.