Stephen Lawson, Author at NetworkingNexus.net

Stephen Lawson

Author Archives: Stephen Lawson

LTE is hitting the field in the IoT game

To get small, low-power IoT devices online, it’s no longer necessary to saddle them with full-scale cellular radios. Independent players like Sigfox and Ingenu are expanding their specialized networks, and now a low-power version of LTE is coming to major operators.So-called LTE Category M1 is making a big splash at the CTIA Super Mobility show in Las Vegas this week. The biggest U.S. carriers just announced their plans for the new technology, with Verizon Wireless promising a commercial Cat M1 deployment by year's end and AT&T announcing a pilot in the San Francisco Bay Area starting in November.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

LTE is hitting the field in the IoT game

Opening up Z-Wave code may help to make IoT hum

Home IoT is still reaching for mainstream use. The main backer of Z-Wave, a widely used in-home networking standard, just did something that might help take it there.On Wednesday, chip vendor Sigma Designs made the interoperability layer of Z-Wave available free to the public. This is the code that allows all Z-Wave products to work together. Now anyone can download the code, develop software with it, and give that code to others.Like others in the fledgling IoT business, Z-Wave's backers want to get more devices working together. This latest move might help to make that happen, plus drive more manufacturers to pick Z-Wave over other IoT network options.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Say hello to old friend Dell Technologies on Sept. 7

Dell will complete its acquisition of EMC on Sept. 7, ending nearly a year of approvals and decades of history for the two companies that will combine to become Dell Technologies.The mammoth deal was announced last October with an estimated value of US$67 billion. The companies recently crossed their last regulatory hurdle when China’s Ministry of Commerce signed off on the deal.Buying EMC and its federation of related companies will make Dell a stronger player in key areas that include software-defined data center, converged infrastructure, hybrid cloud, and security, Dell Technologies Chairman and CEO Michael Dell said in a press release.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

As 5G heads for IoT, 4G is far from done

The iPhone 7 expected to debut on Sept. 7 may offer a glimpse into the future of smartphones, but it won’t have 5G. And even though the next generation of cellular is due to launch in 2020, high-end handsets may be LTE-only for years to come.A new IHS Markit survey of mobile operators says they see 5G as a tool for industry more than for smartphone users. But consumers probably won’t have to worry about getting stuck in the slow lane, because LTE is still getting faster.Increasingly, it looks like 5G will handle things 4G can’t handle while LTE continues to do the job it was designed for, based on the research company’s latest findings.Most of the service providers surveyed – 79 percent – said the internet of things will be the top use case for 5G. More are coming around to this way of thinking, too. Last year, 55 percent called IoT the main application.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

MIT is dragging hard-wired network chips into the agile era

Cloud computing is changing the demands on networks more quickly than ever. Now researchers say it’s possible to program routers all the way down to their packet-forwarding chips in the quest to keep up.Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and five other organizations have found a way to make data-center routers more programmable without making them slower. This could allow enterprises to take advantage of new traffic and congestion management algorithms without replacing their routers.The project takes SDN (software-defined networking) beyond the control plane, where things like configuration are handled, and into the data plane that actually forwards packets. Now programmers can change how the network decides which packets to send and which to keep in a buffer, for example. Eventually, that might mean deploying networks with fewer routers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

MIT is dragging hard-wired network chips into the agile era

Arista plans its own take on all-seeing network software

It’s been a good year for IT administrators who want more information, more often, about what’s happening on their networks.In April, startups Veriflow and Nyansa introduced new ways to determine whether a network is doing what it should. In June, Cisco Systems unveiled its Tetration Analytics appliance to collect and analyze information about all parts of a data center in real time.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Arista plans its own take on all-seeing network software

Chinese approval clears the way for Dell’s huge EMC buy

Dell’s massive acquisition of EMC reportedly has passed legal muster in China, clearing what is expected to be its last hurdle.The acquisition, announced last October with an estimated value of US$67 billion, has been approved by Chinese regulators, according to the New York Post. That’s expected to be the last step toward closing the deal, though the companies may not announce its completion formally until next week. The combined company will be called Dell Technologies, while its PC business will keep the pure Dell name.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Are your fragile packages safe? Ask Intel’s tiny IoT chip

Tags on a fragile packages may someday be able to say whether the goods are riding safely in the back of a truck or bouncing around in a hazardous way.If Intel follows through on an IoT research project it demonstrated at Intel Developer Forum this week, those tags could report on shipping conditions in real time without needing a battery to stay powered. After the package is delivered, the label might even be disposable. Stephen Lawson Intel demonstrated a prototype "smart tag" for packages at Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco on Aug. 16, 2016. The tag could detect motion and show it on a chart in real time.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

AT&T wants big mobile players to form a 5G dream team

There are many possible ways to build what 5G is supposed to deliver, but only one standard. To avoid putting money and effort into technologies that don’t make the cut, the big mobile players want to get others on their side.AT&T is hoping to collaborate with a set of carriers and equipment vendors that’s so broad and powerful it might be unstoppable. On Wednesday, the company said it’s having preliminary discussions with an A-list lineup of players to align their efforts on defining the future standard.The names include Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei Technologies, Qualcomm Technologies, Intel, Samsung, and LG. AT&T also wants to pull in some big carriers, including China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, KDDI, NTT DoCoMo, Telstra, and Vodafone. One name notably missing from the list on AT&T ‘s press release was archrival Verizon, which itself is running trials of potential 5G technologies.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Software-defined storage hits the bargain rack

Some small and medium-sized businesses need fast, and flexible storage gear as much as large enterprises. The need to quickly spin up new applications, even without a storage specialist on staff, can drive those demands. The gear for doing so is gradually getting more affordable.On Monday, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise extended two of its storage product lines into more affordable territory, in one case adopting an ARM processor to help cut the cost of a system.HPE says the new systems give smaller organizations a way in on two of the hottest trends in enterprise storage: software-defined storage and flash. The former helps to line up the right storage for each application, even as a company’s demands quickly change, while the latter can give a speed boost to any type of storage arrangement.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Software-defined storage hits the bargain rack

New compromises won’t end the fight between LTE-U and Wi-Fi

The Wi-Fi Alliance says it’s taken more steps toward compromise since backers of LTE-Unlicensed slammed a coexistence workshop that took place last week. But those moves haven’t brought about wireless peace just yet.LTE-U is a system for running LTE networks in some of the unlicensed frequencies used by Wi-Fi. The workshop, the latest of several intended to make sure LTE-U doesn’t unfairly interfere with Wi-Fi, brought together participants that want to use the new cellular system as well as those devoted to Wi-Fi.When it was done, the Alliance said a test for coexistence was on track for completion next month. However, LTE-U supporters, including Qualcomm, said the whole effort was technically unsound and biased against them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IoT is now growing faster than smartphones

If there were any doubt that IoT is for real, one fact ought to dispel it: For the first time, U.S. mobile operators are adding IoT connections to their networks faster than they’re adding phones.In fact, cars alone are getting connected to cellular networks faster than anything else, according to statistics compiled by Chetan Sharma Consulting for the second quarter of this year. Counting all U.S. carriers, about 1.4 million cars got connected to cellular networks in the quarter, compared with 1.2 million phones and less than 900,000 tablets.The second quarter, between April and June, isn’t a high point for new phone sales like the fourth quarter, when holiday shopping hits and new iPhone models roll out. But IoT growth has been a long-term trend.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

George Washington didn’t tweet here, but you may get 5G

Some people frown on Pokémon Go hunts in historic areas, but a new FCC ruling could make it even more tempting to risk a glare and a wagging finger.On Monday, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced a deal to made it easier for mobile operators and building owners to install cellular gear on many old buildings, including some in historic districts. Just because those structures may evoke the past doesn’t mean they can’t have the screaming 5G wireless speeds of the future.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

GE waves developers onto its huge IoT stage

It takes a village to raise an IoT infrastructure. That’s the way it looks as the major players in the internet of things pair up in one partnership after another, while also reaching out to developers from startups and enterprises. The potential uses of IoT are so diverse, especially in the industrial realm, that specialized knowledge is a key part of the formula. General Electric has more than a century of industrial experience, but its five-year-old GE Digital division hopes to leverage outside expertise in its IoT mission. This week the company is hosting the first developer conference for its GE Predix software platform, where it will announce developer kits to help get the ball rolling on new IoT projects.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

More than half the world is still offline

While it may seem like half the world is chasing Pokemon right now, the other half is not even on the Internet.About 3.9 billion people, or 53 percent of the population, will still be offline at the end of this year, the International Telecommunication Union estimates. Even in Europe, the most connected region, 20.9 percent of all people aren’t online. In Africa, the least connected continent, 74.9 percent are offline.Those figures are part of the annual statistical report from the agency, which is part of the United Nations. The report also showed there’s still a huge divide between rich and poor countries, and a growing gap between men and women, when it comes to internet access. It shows that efforts by companies like Google and Facebook to get all people connected could take a long time.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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