Category: Radio

Network convergence or media convergence simply refers to a process whereby numerous modes of communication are integrated into a single network or medium, to offer convenience and flexibility of communication between various infrastructures.

In other words, this refers to the integration of various media components into common interfaces within single components or devices, for efficient exchange of content. The main role of network convergence is to combine multiple communication services into a single unit to enable flexible communication between various units of an organization (Das et al., 2010). The benefits of network convergence are evident in my department, where technology and computer systems applications are highly applied.

There is enough evidence that, the Internet, LAN, and extranets fully converge in my department, and this can be confirmed through various characteristics of a basic network convergence that can be observed in all the operational structures within THE department. For instance, there is a fast constant exchange of rich IP data and information among workers from different units through multiple end-user platforms in the organization.

The other possible evidence of a network convergence can be observed in other various ways, such as the manner by which data from a single website can be interchanged between different key management units in the department, using the concept of internet working. All these operations of data networking can only take place through the integration of network convergence.

Network convergence has been a common trend in the modern era of technology, and its application in business has greatly contributed in the evolution of improved industry structures and technology services (Melody, 2009). As it would be observed, the trend comes with immense benefits to organizations.

For instance, it serves as the basis of all forms of business communication in units in my department, thus opening avenues for enhanced productivity and profitability. There is also increased mobility in the department, since there is only a single network to manage. Another advantage of this practice is that, it guarantees that numerous applications operate together, thus increasing credibility and efficiency in work (Laudon and Laudon, 2009).

Apart from improving communication processes in my department through integration of various applications and databases, the idea of network convergence has also brought many benefits to the entire business environment. Some of these benefits would include things such as; increase in network reliability, fast deployment of applications, easy integration of technologies, and reduced costs for resources and other basic requirements that would be required in the department.

The trend of network convergence also helps in encouraging and facilitating grounds that would encourage better and flexible working conditions for employees and other participants within the organization. The practice also promotes much simplicity of process administration in various areas of the department, and this helps in eliminating unnecessary complexities in the organization.

Through the concept of network convergence in my department, work had been made easier to remote workers, who can be able to interact with other units of the department directly, in a business manner. This ensures that work does not stop even when key players are away from the department, due to certain unavoidable circumstances.

Other outstanding benefits of network convergence in my department would include the reduction of the space required for equipment and maximization of organizational investment in more operational units. As the idea of network convergence keeps evolving, it brings forth much freedom to the internet users allover the world (Daniel, 2011).

References

Daniel, S. (2011). Trends in the convergence of wireless networks. Journal of Defense Resources Management, 2(2), 87-98.

Das, S., Parulkar, G., McKeown, N.,Singh, P.,Getachew, D. & Ong, L. (2010). Packet and circuit network convergence with openflow: Optical Fiber Communication (OFC), New York: IEEE.

Hajjat, M.,Sun, X., Sung, Y., Maltz, D., Rao, S.,Sripanidkulchai, K. & Tawarmalani, M. (2010). Cloudward bound: planning for beneficial migration of enterprise applications to the cloud. ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, 40(4), 243-254.

Laudon, K., & Laudon, J. (2009). Management information systems: Managing the digital firm (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

McKeen, J. D., & Smith, H. (2009). IT strategy in action. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

McNurlin, B. C., Sprague, R. H., Jr., & Bui, T. (2008). Information systems management in practice (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Melody, W. (2009). The Next Generation Internet and Its Governance: Foundations for a New Communication Economy. The Southern African Journal of Information and Communication, 4(10), 26-34.

Mikko, V. (2009). Information technology and mindfulness in organizations. Industrial and Corporate Change, 18(5), 963-997.

Schiesser, R. (2010). IT systems management (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Seidel, S.,Muller-Wienbergen, F., & Michael, R. (2010). Pocket of Creativity in Business Processes. Communications of NIS, 201(27), 415-436.

Smith, C. (2011). Today’s Process Automation World’s. Chemical Engineering, 118(8), 30-39.

Introduction

The technology of wireless energy transfer is the electrical energy transmission from a power source to an electrical pack. This process normally occurs without a conductive substantial connection. This is necessary whereby there is a lot of inconvenience caused by interconnection of cords and cables.

As it would be observed, there is a big difference between the traditional charging and wireless charging. Traditional charging mostly relies on energy or power, which is connected directly from a device to the source, through connectors such as power cords or cables. On the other hand, wireless charging utilizes magnetic or electromagnetic form of energy to transfer power to gadgets and devices.

When using the wireless technology, power efficiency becomes the most significant parameter while dealing with electrical appliances and equipments. The wireless transfer system entails the source of energy sending out more energy to the receivers. This makes the system more economical in terms of power usage compared to the conductive charging system.

Direct induction is the most common form of wireless control diffusion applicable presently, and is followed closely by resonate captivating induction. There is another form of wireless power transmission known as the electromagnetic radiation. This form of wireless transmission is normally in the form of microwaves also referred to as lasers (Firestone 123). This paper examines the possible future development of wireless charging and its current market.

Discussion

The application and constant development of mobile phone technology in the modern era is experiencing a boom, as innovators in the technology sector look forward to a future of introducing wireless charging technology for the gadgets in all parts of the world. This is likely to make the application of cell phones and other mobile devices much easier and more convenient, thus helping to shape the future of these technologies in the modern world.

With the progressive utilization and development of mobile gadgets or devices, the development and commercialization of wireless charging devices has also been on the rise in various parts of the world, to help maximize consumers’ convenience. The possibility of a wireless charging future for all mobile devices and gadgets is limitless, considering the great concern which has been directed on the issue recently (Zhi-yu 93).

As it would be observed, the wide range of wireless charging has grown from smartphones to other electric equipments such as vehicles and televisions. As a result, this has continued to influence active research and commitment from relevant companies, thus changing the way consumers power their mobile devices.

Wireless charging is rapidly replacing the traditional way of powering our mobile devices, thanks to the increasing developments in technology, which has completely changed our lives as humans. There is no doubt that, the world is almost about to break free from wires and cords, when it comes to recharging mobile devices to keep them active.

The practice of plugging charging cables in electric sockets every so often to recharge our gadgets could be a tiresome habit. Instead of having to rely on the old-fashioned conductive charging system to supply energy to various gadgets and devices, consumers can now recharge their mobile devices through various forms of inductive charging technologies, such as the Powermat, the Duracell MyGrid, and Energizer Qi.

There are many benefits which can be associated with wireless charging technology over the conventional way of supplying power or energy to our electrical devices. One outstanding benefit of this trend is that, consumers can charge their equipment without the bothersome habit of untangling cords and plugging them into electric sockets or power adapters.

More importantly, the system is much convenient compared to the conventional way in that, a single charging system can operate with different devices and gadgets whereby multiple devices can be charged simultaneously, since energy transmission is in the form of waves, rather than cords or cables (Sample and Meyer 549). This has the meaning that, people could travel with a single charging system for all their mobile devices.

This is multitasking of machines and equipment, which saves on time and enhances machine efficiency, which is normally the main purpose of machines. Today, various devices which utilize the wireless technology are the most preferred option for the consumers. They are attractive because of their user-friendly nature and the fewer risks associated while using them. They also give people an opportunity to save on costs and time, among other resources.

Wireless charging is increasingly becoming common in most parts of the world, and this has significantly increased the current markets of the trend. It is apparent that modern giant technology companies in the world have already adopted the trend, by supplying their products along with the revolutionary induction charging technologies (Deng-Peng 29). However, according to the findings of a recent market study conducted by iSuppli, major growth for wireless charging is expected in the near future.

An overall increase in the market of the trend has been projected to increase by 65 folds in the next couple of years. Moreover, it has been estimated that over 230 million devices and gadgets that can function in wireless charging system are likely to ship in by the next two years. In this regard, future markets for wireless charging technology would undergo a sharp increase, as gadgets and devices compatible to the approach continue to greet the markets.

The global markets for the wireless charging technology have shown impressive momentum of late. This is likely to take another positive turn, considering the unwavering efforts of the Wireless Power Consortium, which is actively working towards the development of a universal inductive charging standard.

Conclusion

The technology of wireless energy transfer for mobile devices has proved to be a convenient way of supplying power to the useful gadgets. Unlike the traditional form of contact charging, which utilizes cables and cords, the new system is completely wireless and hands free. This has automatically freed users from the burden of having to carry with them numerous charging devices for their mobile equipments, wherever they go.

Wireless technology is at the moment, part of our lives. The development has not only replaced several wires that are used in machines, but also it has the ability of replacing internal wires in various electronic devices. It implies few problems encountered while cleaning the surrounding and no fear of electric shock, which might be caused by naked wires.

The application of wireless charging system is in practice compatible with the modern technology which to a large extent focuses on the following; multitasking ability, portability and most importantly energy-saving ability (Klemens 45). This exceptional technology is rapidly taking shape in the modern world, and there is no doubt that it will soon be replacing the conductive system completely, thus bringing much convenience and simplicity to the users of mobile devices in the world.

As observed from this report, the market for wireless energy transfer system is expected to take another turn in the near future, as many people in the contemporary world become more familiarized with the technology. More importantly, experts in various sectors of wireless technology are working tirelessly to ensure that the system is made easy and reliable to all people in the world.

Works Cited

Deng-Peng, Chen. Method and apparatus for optical wireless charging. New York: Google Patents, 2009. Print.

Firestone, Mary. Wireless technology. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications, 2009. Print.

Klemens, Guy. The cellphone: the history and technology of the gadget that changed the world. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2010. Print.

Sample, Alanson and Meyer, David. “Analysis, experimental results, and range adaptation of magnetically coupled resonators for wireless power transfer.” Industrial Electronics 58. 2 (2011): 544-554. Print.

Zhi-yu, Liu. “Development and Application of Inductive Charging Technology.” Power Electronics 3. 12 (2004): 92-94.

Introduction

The advent of wireless communication and mobile technologies played a significant role in enhancing mobility during communication, which is gradually becoming a primary necessity for organizations due to the nature of the present business environment that is based on the global environment (Basole, 2008).

It implies that wireless communication and mobile technologies are essential for any organization to remain competitive in the current business context. There are various wireless technologies that organizations can adopt depending on the volume of data of the organization, the purpose for the wireless network such as voice and data, and the geographical scope of business performance (Connolly, 2011).

Businesses are significantly benefitting from the integration of wireless communication technologies into their strategic plans. Some of the core benefits of adopting wireless communication technologies in the organization include the establishment of a position through which the business can develop sustainable competitive advantage in the industry and offer solutions to the common business problems (Gupta et al., 2005).

In addition, the increase in mobile professionals simply means that adopting wireless technologies is in line with this business need, which can in turn translate to enhanced productivity through better collaboration among the workforce. This business approach can play an integral role in creating value for the business that the organization can exploit to increase its profitability.

The effectiveness of wireless communication technologies cannot be realized unless they are implemented in a manner that is cost-effective and enhances information management and security for the organization.

The basic inference from this observation is that mobile and wireless communication technologies should be incorporated into the business-level strategies of an organization. This paper explores the significance of incorporating mobile and wireless technologies in an organizational strategic planning (Bott et al., 2010).

Discussion of literature

The first strategic advantage associated with the incorporation of mobile and wireless technologies in the strategic planning of an organization is that it helps in improving communications among the members of the organization and mobile personnel.

Remote working is increasingly becoming an important element of effective execution of organizational processes of individuals who are increasingly preferring to work from home (Puertas, 2010). In addition, some business processes require high levels of mobility of the organizational members.

Gupta et al. (2005) asserts that wireless and mobile technologies come in handy in addressing this business need by ensuring efficient and timely information delivery on a real-time manner.

This implies that wireless and mobile technologies plays a significant role in the expansion of the communication lines within the organization, which in turn increases the capability and the capacity of the organization to respond to various business situation and demands (Connolly, 2011).

Wireless and mobile communication can be adopted at all the functional units of the business to facilitate interdepartmental coordination and communication, which in turn makes significant contributions towards organizational efficiency.

For instance, the logistics can use wireless communication technologies to coordinate the supply chain operations, while sales department can receive constant updates from their site personnel (Puertas, 2010).

A practical application of wireless communication and mobile technologies is through the use of Sales Force Automation, which primarily involves the use of software modules for streamlining all the activities pertaining to sales and to aid in the reduction of time that sales representatives need to spend on each of the steps of the sales process.

The basic implication of this is that it allows business enterprises to make use of a few sales representatives for the purposes of management of their customers (Bott et al., 2010).

Organizations are increasingly becoming knowledge-based, implying that business-level strategies are significantly relying on information shared within the organization. Adopting wireless and mobile communication devices is in line with this strategic goal of knowledge sharing at the organizational level (Gupta et al., 2005).

Wireless communication plays an integral role in fostering knowledge sharing culture within the organization. The knowledge-sharing culture principally involves sharing knowledge with the internal employees and stakeholders and external entities such as the government, its suppliers, customers and financial institutions. This is important in increasing the competitive advantage of the organization (Bott et al., 2010).

Knowledge management systems are vital in the present economy that is knowledge-based. Knowledge sharing strategies can be deployed by organizations to facilitate the creation, distribution, representation and the implementation of organizational insights (Ruhi & Turel, 2005).

These kinds of insights usually consist of knowledge that the individuals in an organization can use during the execution of organizational processes. The use of knowledge sharing in the marketing strategy of the organization is an effective approach to ensuring expansion of the organization (MacColl &Richardson, 2008).

This is so because the tactic involves an incorporation of the organizational culture and business management without impairing the organizational goals and objectives. It is arguably evident that adopting wireless and mobile communication technologies play an integral role in transforming organizations to be knowledge-based through the establishment of knowledge sharing culture.

Connolly (2011) claims that an organization can use such a position to increase its organizational efficiency in the present market place. Connolly offers an example of groupware applications, which are mainly used for the management of organizational knowledge by offering a means through which the organizational members can communicate and collaborate using an application suite.

Most of the groupware applications that are deployed by businesses include e-mailing platforms, file sharing repository, bulletin boards, blogs, forums and other platforms through which the employees of an organization can engage in organizational learning (Bott et al., 2010).

Wireless communication and mobile technologies also make significant contributions towards organizational efficiency, which is achieved by ensuring that there is smooth organizational information and workflow. Mobile and wireless communication devices make use of automation, which ensures that organizational tasks are executed effectively in a timely manner (Puertas, 2010).

In addition, wireless communication and mobile technologies facilitate the organizational management process through offering frameworks through which employees can be tracked and their work monitored. The wireless and mobile technologies integrate all the business functions within the organization, such as sales and human resource management.

This generally ensures that there is organizational efficiency (Gupta et al., 2005). Enhanced business efficiency implies that there is improved employee productivity, which in turn transforms to customer satisfaction. The outcome of this is that company develops a competitive advantage and increases its market share.

By exemplifying some of the use of wireless and mobile communication in organizational departments, the performances are appraised to ascertain its usefulness in an organizational context. The applications and systems are functionally flexible in some circumstances no matter how and where they are used within various business organizations.

The use of these applications and systems gets better in speed, reliability, and radical change in general at the operational, tactical, or strategic level in the company or anywhere else in the organizational departments (MacColl &Richardson, 2008).

Another strategic importance of wireless communication and mobile devices is that they enhance the convenience and efficiency of customer interactions, which provide the business with an opportunity to increase its responsiveness to its respective customers.

In almost all the industries, organizations are increasingly implementing wireless communication and mobile devices to enhance customer communications. This approach can be used to enhance customer satisfaction, which in turn plays an integral role in increasing the market share of the organization.

The basic inference is that incorporating wireless and mobile technologies in the strategic plan can be used by an organization to establish sustainable competitive advantage. The real-time communication with its customers also helps in enhancing customer satisfaction, which is in accordance with the business strategy that aims at the realization of the goals and objectives.

Wireless communication and mobile technologies have also enhanced the efficiency of transaction processing systems, which offer a framework through which the customers and key stakeholders can communicate with the organization. Wireless and mobile communication devices can facilitate effective execution of relationship marketing (MacColl &Richardson, 2008).

The CRM system helps in marketing, sales, and maintains a cordial customer service aspect of doing business. The CRM software provides a service scheduler mechanism for various activities and schedules them by resource, time, or service (Sorensen& Al-Taitoon, 2008).

The software also contains a marketing automation module that helps in assembling customers or guide lists, creates and tracks marketing campaign progress. Its campaign wizard assists in the distribution of ‘’e-mail blasts’’ to targeted lists, and automatically tracks responses.

Some CRM applications allows users to effortlessly customize views and business logics with the intention of automating repetitive tasks, and transfer data to other functional applications for analysis. In addition, wireless communications and mobile technologies provide an integrated platform through which the salespeople can establish more time to connect with their existing and prospective customers and make good deals out of such relationships (MacColl &Richardson, 2008).

Currently, businesses significantly face challenges that involve the control of inventory management, enhancement of productivity and controlling quality. The incorporation of wireless and mobile technologies can play an integral role in addressing the business challenges associated with management of inventory.

Keeping track of the inventory is considered a core business process for any business, and that potential errors that may arise in such phases of production and business processes can result in significant costs for the business which may include shipping of wrong goods, restocking of already paid goods and in the worst-case scenario, it can result in customer dissatisfaction (Shakun, 2001).

Incorporating wireless communication and mobile technologies can play a significant role in ensuring that core business processes such as inventory management are done in an effective manner, which in turn translates to an improved efficiency and productivity for the business (Lawinski, 2011).

Effective decision making among the members of an organization plays an important role in ensuring the success of the organization (Lawinski, 2011). In most cases, decision making is constrained by lack of adequate information at hand in order to ensure that people within the organization are involved in complex decision-making procedures that require speedy responses.

In most case, mobile workers in an organization face the challenge making complex decisions without having access to full information (MacColl &Richardson, 2008). This is due to the fact they lack access to most of the background information required to make complex decisions.

Wireless communication and mobile technologies come in handy in such situations due to the fact that they offer a communication framework through which employees can share real-time data to facilitate effective decision-making to enhance the reliability and quality of the decisions made by site personnel (Shakun, 2001).

Organizations can rely on wireless communication to have access to central organizational data. This helps in enhancing decision-making at all levels of the organizations, which in turn makes significant contributions towards enhancing the efficiency of the organization (Hurme, 2005).

Employee productivity is one of the strategic goals and objectives of organizations. This means that organizations should adopt business-level strategies that are aimed at increasing employee productivity. Wireless communication and mobile technologies play an integral role in enhancing the productivity of employees in an organization (Doran, 2010).

Most of the business operations are process-oriented, whereby service delivery usually takes place in a sequence of steps ranging from the customer to various internal business processes that involve various members of the organization.

Wireless communication and mobile technologies have the capacity of enhancing the efficiency through elimination and integration of various processes, which in turn play an integral role in enhancing the efficiency of the business processes (Doran, 2010). Wireless communication and mobile technologies have played an integral role in elimination of manual processes in the organization.

Business automation using mobile devices enhances workflow efficiency at the organizational level through reducing the number of people required to accomplish a particular task. This implies that the efforts of such people will be redirected towards business functions that require more manpower (Lawinski, 2011).

Efficiency and productivity in the organization are also enhanced by the fact that wireless and mobile technologies result in faster and more timely information transfer within the organization and external stakeholders.

Employee productivity is also enhanced due to the fact that wireless communication and mobile technologies increase flexibility and mobility of the employees; this can be achieved by networking the mobile devices to enhance communication at the organizational level (Hurme, 2005).

The concept of business value is complex, and mostly entails cost-effectiveness while not imposing significant constraints on variables such as efficiency, employee productivity, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction (Schlosser, 2002).

Apart from facilitating the achievement of the above, investing in wireless communication and mobile technologies is an efficient strategy that the organization can use to cut costs (Doran, 2010). Wireless communication and mobile technologies serve as a replacement of the traditional approaches to communication within the organization.

For instance, wireless devices eliminate the costs associated with purchase of connecting wires and associated maintenance costs. This comes as an added advantage for organizational members who are always on the move, who attain flexibility while the organization cuts on investment costs (Nah et al., 2005). Costs can also be cut through elimination of the need of personnel required to undertake some organizational tasks.

Mobile devices that use applications such as the Sales Force Automation have eliminated the need to have many sales and marketing representatives in the field (Hurme, 2005). The success of a sale representative is principally determined by time efficiency, saleable product and sales leads. These three elements form the most significant challenges that most salespeople face during their sales activities (Schlosser, 2002).

Despite the fact that Sales Force Automation systems cannot alter or enhance the recognition of the merchandise, it can enhance the overall effectiveness of the sales processes and increase the selling time of a sales representative (Schlosser, 2002).

Many SFA applications normally have frameworks through which the salesperson can assess whether his/her efforts are geared towards the right direction. In addition, they also facilitate the realization of sale opportunities in particular territories that were subjected to predictable closures (Doran, 2010).

Conclusion

It is arguably evident that the use of wireless and mobile technologies has significant business advantages to the organization, which can be used in the establishment of competitive advantage and enhance profitability. This business approach can play an integral role in creating value for the business and business advantage that the organization can exploit to increase its profitability.

The effectiveness of wireless communication technologies cannot be realized unless they are implemented in a cost-effective manner, which enhances information management and security for the organization. The basic inference from this observation is that mobile and wireless communication should be incorporated into the business-level strategies of an organization.

In addition, organizations are increasingly becoming knowledge-based, implying that business-level strategies are significantly relying on information sharing within the organization. Adopting wireless and mobile communication devices is in line with this strategic goal of knowledge sharing at the organizational level.

References

Basole, R. C. (2008) Modeling and analysis of complex technology adoption decisions: An investigation in the domain of mobile ICT. (Doctoral Dissertation, Georgia Institute of Technology). Retrieved from ABI/INFORM Global. (Publication No. AAT 3271474).

Bott, J. P., Montagno, R. V., & Lane, J. (2010). Mobile communications and emerging media: Prevalence and impact in the workplace. International journal of mobile marketing, 5, 5.

Connolly, P. J. (2011). IPad, iPhone challenge management orthodoxy. eWeek, 28, 18.

Doran, D. M. (2010). Supporting evidence-based practice for nurses through information technologies. Worldviews on evidence-based nursing, 7, 4-15.

Gupta, M. P., Sahu, G. P., & Gauri, S. (2005). Assessing impact of mobile communications on organizations: A flexibility analysis. Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, 6, 11.

Hurme, P. (2005). Mobile communication and work practices in knowledge-based organizations. Human technology, 1, 101-108.

Julsrud, T. E., & Bakke, J.W. (2005)Trust, friendship, and expertise: The use of email, mobile dialogues, and SMS to develop and sustain social relations in a distributed work group. Piscataway, NJ : Transaction Publishers.

Lawinski, J. (2011). Social networking, mobile devices here to stay, says Ingram micro cio. Web.

MacColl, I., & Richardson, I. (2008). A cultural somatics of mobile media and urban screens: Wiffiti and the iwall prototype. Journal of urban technology, 15, 99.

Nah, F. F., Siau, K., & Sheng, H. (2005). The value of mobile applications: A utility company study. Communications of the ACM, 48, 85.

Puertas, C. M. (2010). The effects of mobile technology on work-life outcomes. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: Sciences and Engineering, 70(11 B), 7252.

Ruhi, U., & Turel, O. (2005). Driving visibility, velocity and versatility: The role of mobile technologies in supply chain management. Journal of Internet commerce, Journal of internet commerce. 4, 95.

Schlosser, F. K. (2002). So, how do people really use their handheld devices? an interactive study of wireless technology use. Journal of organizational behavior, 23, 401-423.

Shakun, M. (2001). Mobile technology, connectedness and evolutionary systems design. Group Decision and Negotiation, 10, 471.

Sorensen, C., & Al-Taitoon, A. (2008). Organizational usability of mobile computing volatility and control in mobile foreign exchange trading. International journal of human-computer studies, 66, 916-929.

Radio is form of mass-communication, which uses one-way wireless signal transmission technology to send audio recordings to a particular audience. The first radio station came into being in 1916 in Pennsylvania. In the period that radio has been in existence, it has become an avenue for sharing educational and entertainment content. This includes news, sports, political discussions and music.

A podcast is an audio-recording presented to the public on the internet. Pod-casts are generally structured around the principles governing radio broadcasts, with the primary difference being that listeners have the liberty to download to the recording at a time of their choosing.

Pod-casts, like radio, are unidirectional in the sense that the author comes up with content and sends it out to users, without the users actively responding to the message during production.

So, what are the advantages that radio has over podcasts? First radio, by virtue of its lengthy existence, is more widespread than the internet. Anyone sending a message over radio can rest assured that it will reach a much-bigger audience than if he/she sends it over the internet as pod-cast. This is because the number of radio sets in any particular area is generally more than the number of computers, or gadgets that can tap into the internet.

The other strength that radio has over podcasts is credibility. Most people tend to regard radio stations as more reliable sources of information compared to podcasts. This is fundamentally because the internet is very liberal and gives anyone the authority to publish anything.

Radio on the other hand is more regulated, with media councils in different countries providing rules governing the broadcast of audio recordings. Because of this fact, listeners tend to believe information distributed over radio, more than they would believe messages carried in podcasts.

Podcasts also have strengths of their own that may make them come to replace radio broadcasts with time. First, podcasts are more flexible in terms of access than radio broadcasts. Listeners can download podcasts at their own convenience and because they can rewind and replay them as many times as they wish, they end up getting more informed than if they had listened to the same recording on radio.

Podcasts also have the advantage of a reduced restriction in terms of the kind of content that people can broadcast. The internet is less subjected to the limitations on the scope of coverage that are radio experiences. A person can create a recording on a varied number of topics, without taking into account the principles of journalism, and broadcast it via the internet.

The role of content creation is also easy for podcasts in comparison to radio broadcasts. Creating a podcast on the basic level requires a microphone and recording software only, items that most people can easily access. In contrast, Radio broadcast requires one to have specialized recording and editing equipment, for content generation, and expensive transmission sets for the broadcast itself.

These equipment are very costly to buy or rent. Purchasing broadcasting time on radio is also very costly compared to online platforms such as Youtube, which allow users to host their podcasts for free. However, because the internet is yet to spread as deep as radio has, in terms of infrastructure, it will be some time before podcasts lead to decline of radio.

Overview of Wireless Sensor Networks

What is Wireless Sensor Network?

Wireless sensor Network consists of independent sensors, which are dispersed to examine physical and environmental conditions such as temperature, pulsation, pressure and movement; in fact, they collect data and transmit to the main location through network (Yenumula, 1).

What are the Characteristics of WSN?

One of these characteristics relates to constrains associated with consumptions of power for nodes using batteries; in fact, they can also cope with communication failures, and they have mobility nodes and dynamic network topology. In addition, they also have heterogenic nodes, scalable deployment, and ability to endure adverse environmental setting.

Standards and specifications

Some of the standards relates to process automation through Wireless HART, ISA100 and IEEE 1451, which is a set of smart transducers standards. Another specification is ZigBee / 802.15.4, which is a specification for low-powered networks for monitoring and controlling illumination and alarms. IEEE 802.11offers standards for telecommunication and information exchange between systems.

Factors influencing sensor network design

Some factors influencing sensor network design include fault tolerance, which is ability to sustain functionalities of network sensors without interruptions. Cost is also a factor that affects the design of sensor network in terms of hardware and limitation sensor. Network typology is also a factor that influences design of sensor network together with other factors such as environment, deployment, transmission media and consumption of power.

Measurements for Wireless Sensor Networks

Measurements of WSN are based on physical properties such as pressure, temperature, humidity and flow, while other measurements are based on motion properties such as position, velocity and acceleration. WSN is also measured in terms contact properties such as strain, force, slip, vibration and torque. There are measurements based on presence such as proximity, motion and distance, while others are measured in terms of biochemical and identification such as biochemical agents and personal features respectively.

Topology

WSN typologies include ring topology, which has nodes performing analogous functions, while other forms such as fully connected networks have problems with NP complexity. Mesh networks have distributions that facilitate transmission to adjacent nodes, while star typology is linked to one hub node. Bus topology transmits data from the bus to all nodes, while tree network has nodes that disconnect only decedents.

Applications

WSN is applied in military operations such as monitoring equipments, nuclear weapons and detection of chemical attacks. WSN is also used in environmental application to detect forest fire and floods, and health care applications.

Protocols and Routing

Protocols refer to communications standards, which entail set rules for source and destination computers to follow in order to communicate. Moreover, these rules are use to determine transmission of data between two computers. In fact, the protocols are categorized into lower and upper application protocols.

Threats

Some of the threats include spoofed, altered, or replayed routing Information, selective forwarding, sinkhole attacks, Sybil attacks, Wormholes, HELLO flood attacks. In fact, intrudes using powerful machines and effectively designed antennas are able to collect streams of data easily.

Future and Challenges

In the future, there are definitive limitations associated with developing a multi-hop routing topology around rigid set of base stations. In fact, nodes situated in within one or two hops of base stations are appealing for compromise. However, there are challenges relating to building trust-based security model that is flexible, and ability to transmit information.

Works Cited

Yenumula, Reddy. “Security in Wireless Sensor Network.” SENSORCOMM. Grambling State University Grambling. 2011. Web.

Services and applications

The 3G and 4G network have led to rise of mobile applications, which were not in use in the 1G, 2G and other previous technologies. Some of the services developed are location based services used to provide advert to people within a certain geographical location.

Applications to watch live television on your mobile devices have been developed. The increase in network speed has allowed users to stream live music or listen to radio over their mobile phone.

Applications to provide driving direction, location of facilities and cost of products have sprung up. The rise of such applications came in place because of increase in speed of the internet (Turban, & Volonino, 2011).

Network architecture

3G employ use of circuit switching and packet switching in its network architecture. Cell switching divides a network area into different cells with a dedicated base station. Users have to shift from each cell while they are on the move.

Over the normal base station a serving GPRS support node and Gateway GPRS support node are added to allow use of packet based transmission. The 4G network uses pure packet switching over its networks.

The packet switched architecture divides data in forms of packets which are reconstructed upon reaching their destination. The packet switched also employs the use of IP based form of communication (Glisic & Lorenzo, 2009).

Data throughput

The 3G wireless networks have a data through put that goes up to 3.1 Mbps while the 4G has a speed that range between 100 Mbps to 300Mbps.

User perceptions

Users had a perception that upon introduction and purchase of 4G wireless enabled devices; their internet speed would increase by ten times from that of 3G. In reality this did not happen and users are complaining of non improvement in network speed.

The reason for such complain is because of the network latency and non compliance of service provider to 4G network specifications.

Difference of 4G LTE, 4G WiMax, and 4G WiBro networks

Upload and download speeds

The 4G LTE has a pick upload speed of 500Mbps and a download speed of 1Gbps. These speeds have not been reached practically because of the constraints over the network.

The 4G Wimax has an upload speed of 54 Mbip/s and download speed of 128 Mbps making it slower than the 4G LTE. The 4G WiBro is seen to be a match of Wimax wireless network. It has a download speed of 128mbs and upload speed of 56 Mbps.

Backward compatibility

4G LTE has been developed to be backward compatible with existing 3G, GSM and HSPA network. Its ability of backward compatibility will allow service providers to provide 4G LTE technology while still supporting the existing technologies.

4G Wimax wireless technology has been built to be compatible with older Wimax network. The Wimax network cannot work with 2G or 3G wireless network technology.

The backward compatibility allow service providers using the Wimax 802.16e to carry a software upgrade on their base station to switch to 802.16m which is the latest Wimax network. The 4G Wibro wireless networks developed in South Korea is backward compatible with 3G wireless networks (Savo, 2006).

Service availability

4G LTE technology has a wide use all over the world by mobile service providers. The two biggest companies in the United State of America are carrying a huge deployment of 4g LTE network. The 4G Wibro technology has a wide usage in South Korea.

The South Korean company that developed the technology came up with the 802.16e standard to be used in developing the technology. Companies like T-mobile are trying to introduce the 4G Wibro in the United State of America.

The 4G Wimax services are available worldwide in providing internet access to customers on their mobile devices both at home and at work. The service has been employed to provide network backhaul by mobile service provider.

The backhaul is a connection of two different base stations using Wimax network eliminating the need of running copper cables. Wimax is mostly used in North America but not in the rest of the world.

Competition among 4G LTE carriers

The competition among industry players is increasing because of the reduction in customers’ loyalty. Earlier customers’ loyalty was maintained because of non compatibility of mobile devices to technologies of the other carriers. Such non compatibility made customer to stick to the same service provider.

The 4G LTE technology has eliminated of devices across different networks. Customers are changing their network providers within a period of less than 48 months in average. Reason for the shift includes reduced prices, better services and coverage of the service providers.

Companies like AT&T can provide black berries on subsidized prices to their customers. Once the mandatory contract period expires most customers eventually shifts to the competing companies networks. To avoid such situations companies have to come up with ways to maintain their customers, while still making profits.

Benefits of competition

Consumers are charged high prices in purchasing data bundles where monopolies do exist. Where competition exists customers will enjoy unlimited internet connection for a small fee. An example sprint provides internet connection without any fair usage to its consumers.

Provision of such package makes the company enjoy a huge customer base compared to its competitors like AT&T mobile.

Competition allows consumers to enjoy better service. The better services will come up as a result of service providers investing more in infrastructure.

Companies will invest to avoid losing their customers to competitors whose services are of higher quality. If AT&T networks gets a down time of 30 days per week while Sprint has network downtime of 10 days per year customers will prefer Sprint. The better service will lead to better voice quality and internet speed.

Companies get innovative in providing value added services to consumers. Some of the value added services are like provision of payment services through mobile devices and banking services applications (Pagani, 2005).

Value added services are brought through the development of applications which are sponsored by the service providers. These applications will be provided to the general public for download for a small fee or free.

If the applications were developed by private companies their prices would be out of reach of the common network subscribers.

Reason for wide coverage of Verizon compared to AT&T

The AT&T 4G LTE does not cover most of America because of the frequency constraint compared to Verizon. AT&T is struggling to purchase frequencies from small service providers for expansion purposes.

These purchases are a challenge because some companies like T-mobile are not willing to release their frequencies for auction. Lack of the frequencies to purchase leaves the company with no choice but to abandon their expansion plans. Verizon on the other hand started deploying 4G LTE network long times ago.

Verizon was able to acquire enough spectrums to provide services to its customers all over the country. Some of the spectrums acquired by AT&T are used to enhance its 3G network to avoid loss of clients. On the other hand Verizon uses new spectrums acquired to provide 4G LTE network to its clients.

References

Glisic S., & Lorenzo, B. (2009). Advanced Wireless Networks: Cognitive, Cooperative and Opportunistic 4G Technology. West Sussex: John Wiley.

Pagani, M. (2005). Mobile And Wireless Systems Beyond 3g: Managing New Business Opportunities. New Delhi: Radhi Publishers.

Savo, G.(2006). Advanced wireless networks: 4G technologies. New York: Wiley.

Turban, E., & Volonino, L. (2011) Information technology for management. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks are limited in resources to accommodate traditional complex security solutions. The limitations and lack of a secure framework for the WSN makes the networks nodes vulnerable to attacks from a hostile network.

Attacks such as to DoS attacks, eavesdropping, message tempering, sinkhole, wormhole, and Sybil attacks exploit the security holes in the network compromising the integrity of the network.

The proposed project is to design a completely secure wireless sensor network by integrating appropriate security solutions to each node in the network using triple key management techniques security solutions.

Among the techniques include integrating a random key pre-distribution technique which functions on a probabilistic model to create a secure connection between nodes.

The limitation with this technique can be overcome by is to integrating multiple security solutions to overcome the disadvantage of limited key storage space.

Additional techniques integrated into the security solution include the master key based scheme which functions on a symmetric key, and a hierarchical key based scheme, which enables each of the nodes in the network to generate cryptographic keys for key authentication purposes.

A complete security solution is based on a triple key management technique for a complete and secure network communication.

Introduction

Nodes in a wireless sensor network (WSN) have high threat and risk exposures from external sources because the nodes are resource staffed, and cannot accommodate the use of secure traditional network security solutions (Undercoffer, Ayancha, Joshi, Pinkston 2004, p. 260).

Limited resources include memory constrains, limited computational capabilities, low energy storage capabilities, low data bandwidth, and limited transmission ranges (Hancke & Leuschner 2007, p.45).

That makes WSNs vulnerable to DoS attacks, eavesdropping, message tempering, sinkhole, wormhole, and Sybil attacks leading to loss of privacy and security.

The traditional data encryption techniques and complex algorithms cannot be applied, compelling the use of a multi-level protocol security framework desirable (Poornima & Amberker 2009, p. 5-17; Sharma, Ghosh & Ghose 2010, p.50; Perrig, Szewczyk, Wen, Culler & Tygar 2011, p.96).

To achieve complete security solutions to enforce network privacy, this paper proposes an integrated security solution at each node in the wireless sensor network by focusing on the network and link layers (Ibriq & Mahgoub 2007, p.211; Biradar & Patil, 2011, p.15).

Problem Statement

A complete security solution can be designed into Wireless sensor networks (WSN) which are vulnerable to attacks because traditional network solutions cannot be accommodated by the resource limited nodes.

Aim

The aim of this project is to design and implement a completely secure wireless sensor network into each node of the wireless sensor network.

Objectives

1. To implement security into each node of the wireless sensor network based on a secure routing protocol.
2. Integrate the concept of secure key management.
3. To integrate the security solution based on a Secure and Hierarchical, a Routing protocol (SHARP).

Expectations

The outcome of the project is to attain a completely secure wireless sensor network (WSN) with hierarchically linked nodes in a cluster topology using a “Secure and Hierarchical, a Routing Protocol-SHARP” protocol.

Significance of the Study

The significance of this project is to provide complete security solutions to multiple nodes that are interconnected in a wireless sensor network to enforce privacy and ensure data integrity, availability, and confidentiality in the transmission, at minimum power consumption.

Wireless networks are vulnerable to sinkholes attacks, eavesdropping, denial of service attacks, and message tampering, in addition to undiscovered dynamically evolving attacks. This project provides a security solution to the WSN to enforce system integrity.

Theoretical Framework

The basis of the theoretical framework is the graph theory where the vertices of the WSN are represented by the sensors and nodes and the edges represent wireless channels to solve the common graph routing problems (Kaplantzis 2006, p. 19).

Literature Review

A secure WSN enforces data integrity through cryptographic schemes using secure key management techniques integrated into the security architecture of the wireless network.

Some of the key management techniques security based solutions include random key pre-distribution technique that relies on probabilistic model to establish connection between nodes in a network (Du, Xiao, Guizani & Chen, 2007, p.25). The disadvantage is a lot of space for storing a large number of keys.

The master key based scheme functions on symmetric key, but with a key distribution problem, leading to pre-deployment overheads and non-scalability. The hierarchical key based scheme, enables any node to generate cryptographic key for node authentication (Gautam, Lee, Pyun, Jae-Young 2009, p. 120).

The scheme enables sensor nodes to detect compromised nodes in the network, which is then disallowed to participate in the network.

Here, the security solution for single node relies on key deployment, authentication, and encryption, secure pre-key distribution mechanism consolidated into a triple key management security solution, using a base station to divide the network into sectors and tracks (Zhou, Fang & Zhang, 2008, p12; Zia & Zomaya 2006, p.11).

Methodology

The project will be started by analyzing the literature on random key distribution and management schemes, WSN secure routing protocols, secure key management schemes, and the use of SHARP to design and implement a secure wireless sensor network (Anurag, Rathor, Biradar & Ghose 2010, p.580).

A network diagram will be drawn detailing network clusters, the base station, and the nodes. Vulnerabilities, threats, and responsibility of each cluster and nodes and the security solutions in the design phases will be assessed.

The project output will demonstrate the attainment of node to node, node to cluster, node to cluster head, node to base station, node to routing cluster head, and data cluster heads secure communication (Boyle & Newe 2008, p.67).

Project Plan

Project timeline

References

Anurag, K S, Rathor, S. Biradar, S R & Ghose M K 2010, ‘Power-efficient Routing & Increased Yield Approach for WSNs ‘,Varshney, P K 2006International Journal on Computer Science and Engineering (IJCSE),vol. 02, no. 03, pp. 586-592.

Biradar, R V & Patil, V C 2011, Special Issue on Ubiquitous Computing Security Systems‖, UbiCC Journal, vol. 4, no.1, pp.15.

Boyle, D & Newe,” T 2008, ‘Securing Wireless Sensor Networks: security Architectures’, Journal of Networks, vol 3,no. 1, pp 65-77.

Du, W, Deng, J, Han, Y S & , A key predistribution scheme for sensor networks using deployment knowledge, IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, Vol. 3, issue 1, pp.62-77.

Du, X, Xiao, Y Guizani,M & Chen, HH 2007 “Effective key management for sensor networks, an effective key management scheme for heterogeneous sensor networks”, Ad Hoc Networks, vol. 5, Issue 1, pp. 24-34.

Gautam, N, Lee, W, Pyun, Jae-Young 2009, “Track-Sector Clustering for Energy Efficient Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks,” International Conference on Computer and Information Technology cit, vol. 2, no. 1, pp.116-121.

Hancke, G P & Leuschner, CJ 2007, SEER : a simple energy efficient routing protocol for wireless sensor networks‖, South African Computer Journal, vol. 39, pp. 45.

Ibriq, J & Mahgoub, I 2007, ‘A Hierarchical Key Establishment Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks’. 21st International Conference on Advanced Networking and Applications, vol. 1, no.1, pp. 210-219.

Kaplantzis, S 2006, Security Models for Wireless Sensor Networks. Web.

Perrig, A, Szewczyk, R, Wen,V, Culler, D & Tygar, J D 2011, Spins: Security protocols for sensor networks. Wireless Networks, 8:521 – 534, 2002. International Journal of Computer Science and Security (IJCSS), vol. 5, Issue 1, pp. 96.

Poornima, A S & Amberker, B B 2009, ‘Key Management Schemes for Secure Communication in Heterogeneous Sensor Networks”, International Journal of Recent Trends in Engineering, vol 1, no. 1, pp. 5-17.

Sharma,K, Ghosh, S K & Ghose, M K. 2010, ‘Establishing an Integrated Secure Wireless Sensor Network System: A New Approach’, International Journal of Next Generation Networks ( IJNGN), vol. 1, no. 1, pp.12-60.

Undercoffer, J, Ayancha, S, Joshi, A., Pinkston, J 2004, ‘Security for Wireless Sensor Networks’, Wireless Sensor Networks, Kluwer Academic Publishers Norwell, USA, vol. 1, no.1, pp. 253- 275.

Zia, T.A & Zomaya, AY 2006, ‘A Secure Triple-Key Management Scheme for wireless sensor networks’, in the proceedings of INFOCOM 2006 ,25th IEEE, International Conference on Communications, Barcelona,vol. 1, no.1, pp1-2 ,23-29.

Zhou, Y, Fang, Y & Zhang, Y 2008, ‘A survey of Securing Wireless Sensor network’. IEEE communication surveys, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 6-28.

Abstract

This research shows elements of wireless intrusion detection and intrusion prevention. It shows the main areas of wireless intrusion and detection together with advantages and challenges of using a wireless intrusion and detection systems. Overall, the research concludes that a wireless IDS offers many advantages than challenges it may present to users.

Wireless local area networks (WLANs) have many threats, which could have significant impacts on the network. Threats to WLAN technologies include “wrongly configured wireless access points (WAPs), Denial of Services (DoS) and possible system hijacking” (Max, 2009, p. 3).

Wireless networks are also prone to common attacks like TCP/IP and 802.11 threats. TCP/IP threats also are common in networked technologies. WLANs must incorporate security techniques that can detect and defend against potential threats. These are intrusion detection system (IDS) solutions.

Introduction

WLANs have the same IDS as a Network Intrusion Detection System (NIDS) because they can also evaluate network traffic for potential security threats. However, IDS can evaluate specific areas, which only relate to WLAN. These include WAPs, rogue WAPs, and offsite users. The growth in wireless technologies has allowed networks to support wireless devices at different sections of the network typology.

This suggests that WLAN IDS have critical roles to play in network securities. WLANs may have unconnected wireless sensors to analyze traffic. The physical location of a sensor is critical for effective analysis of network traffic. The location normally influences what a network sensor can detect and monitor. Network sensors should have the ability to monitor all gadgets that can gain access to the network.

Some wireless networks may have more than a single sensor. These sensors go beyond the normal scope of network operations. In most cases, the WLAN may have a single channel, but it also has options of running on several channels. Thus, WLAN sensor may effectively serve a single channel. However, regular changes can ensure that WLAN sensors can analyze several channels.

IDS has many parts, such as consoles, databases, and system sensors. Users can run the system on either a centralized or decentralized platform.

Figure 1: WLAN IDS

Wireless Threats

Wireless local area networks are susceptible to a number of threats. The normal 802.11 encryption has become susceptible to attacks (Max, 2009, p. 7). In addition, the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) may not withstand constant brute force attacks. In other words, encryption alone cannot protect the network because the intruder can still attack and decrypt sensitive information in wireless networks.

Attackers also rely on rogue WAP to attack WLANs and gain access to sensitive information in the system (Vladimirov, Gavrilenko & Mikhailovsky, 2004, p. 435). Attackers normally construct rogue WAPs in a similar manner as real WAPs. Most users have the tendency of connecting to any WAP with appropriate signals. At this point, users can accidentally connect to a rogue WAP.

This provides an opportunity for the attacker to monitor all forms data transmission across the connected devices. At the same time, some users may also “introduce rogue WAPs in the wireless network” (Low, 2005, p. 89). This happens because of low costs and ease of connectivity in the WLAN systems. Users can install other access points in the network and render other security features ineffective.

This makes the network an easy target for attackers (Low, 2005, p. 89). Users must consider the deployment of a wireless IDS security solution to protect the network from such vulnerabilities. IDS solutions can protect the network from installed rogue WAPs.

DoS may also affect networks that rely on 802.11. Hackers can derail such networks. Physical objects may also affect communication systems across wireless networks. These may include tall buildings, trees, and even rain. Other physical objects that have signal systems may also affect 802.11 networks. There are attackers who use fake requests to congest the system in order to force the system reboot.

At the same time, such attackers can also make repeated requests as a way of denying services to authentic users. Other security threats include poorly secured network devices, man in the middle, and unauthorized systems on the network. WLAN IDS sensors should have the ability to detect these threats (Kent & Mell, 2006, p. 87).

There are other forms of WLAN threats, including new ones. These threats have critical repercussions on networks they attack. WLAN that lacks any form of threat intrusion detection and prevention may find it difficult to notice threats on the network. A lack of awareness about threats creates vulnerable networks for attackers. Thus, organizations should have effective ways of detecting and preventing intrusion in the network.

Intrusion detection

Intrusion detection systems (IDSs) have the ability to recognize any unusual usages and access on the network (Base & Mell, 2001, p. 78). They can analyze data in the system and detect any anomalies (Caswell, Beale and Baker, 2007, p. 411). IDSs have the capacity to recognize intrusions and abnormal usages in the network system.

The new IDSs for wireless devices can sense, monitor, collect, and analyze data in order to locate known attacks, reveal abnormal network usages, and show misuse within the network (Yang, Xie & Sun, 2004, pp. 553-556). IDSs collect information and generate corresponding alerts based on the type of intrusion detected. A wireless IDS may be the same as networked IDS. However, WLAN IDS has specific security features for wireless networks only.

WLAN intrusion detection

Organizations can develop their own wireless IDSs or obtain them from vendors. While wireless IDS technologies are new, the available ones are effective security solutions. Moreover, they also have extensive security features. The most common IDS solutions include RogueWatch, Airdefense, and Airdefense Guard (Kent & Warnock, 2004, p. 8). There are also Internet Security Systems and other system scanners. Users can develop their own wireless IDS by using free software from Open Source.

Configuration

There two types of a wireless IDS configuration. These are centralized and decentralized configurations. A centralized wireless IDS uses several independent sensors on the network to gather information. The sensors collect information and transfer them to a central place for analysis and storage. On the other hand, a decentralized intrusion system has different gadgets for data collection, analysis, and reporting.

This type of intrusion detection is appropriate for small networks because it is expensive to run and maintain (Rhodes-Ousley, Bragg and Strassberg, 2003, p. 263). Moreover, decentralized systems may require much time from the organization.

WLANs may cover a large area. This could weaken the signal strengths. Therefore, it is appropriate to install several WAP to provide extra strength for the network. However, one should deploy a sensor in every access point with WAP. Several sensors in every access point can easily detect intrusion in the network. Moreover, the sensor can identify sources of threats within a given geography.

Physical Location

The wireless detection systems should be able to locate physical locations of attackers. Most hackers attack the network in locations close access points and WAPs in order to reduce the time for attack. Organizations should deploy people physically to respond to attacks in a timely manner. Attacks on networked systems could occur several miles away.

However, in a wireless system, the attacker could even be in the same location. Effective wireless IDS can assist in providing a physical location in which the hacker could be located. Information obtained from the 802.11 and the location of the WAP can “aid in quick detection of the attacker’s actual location” (Calabrese, 2003, p. 29).

In some cases, directional antennae aid in tracking the location of the attacker by tracing the source of the attacker’s signals. The IDS and other scanning systems are effective for this role. The physical response team can rely on these other teams to intercept the attacker.

Policy enforcement

Organizations can “use wireless IDSs to enforce their policies” (Calabrese, 2003, p. 32). WLANs may have many security challenges. However, there are solutions for these issues. Effective organizational policy can ensure that wireless networks remain secure. Enforcing organizational policies on wireless devices is an effective way of ensuring wireless network security.

Organizations should ensure that all its data are encrypted before transfers (Calabrese, 2003, p. 34). The wireless IDS can analyze the system and detect any attempts to transfers data without encryption. Effective configuration of WAPs can ensure that IDSs have the ability to easily identify rogue WAPs as soon as they attempt to gain access to the network.

Detection of a rogue WAP and enforcement of organizational policies on wireless communications can enhance the level of wireless network security. Policies on automated systems can eliminate the use of human to monitor possible rogue WAPs on the network. This can enhance effective use of resources in an organization.

Detecting threats

A wireless IDS is effective in identification of threats in the network. It can help in identifying rogue WAPs and any non-encrypted data during transfer in 802.11. Moreover, wireless IDSs can also detect attackers’ location and monitor the system for known attacks. Hackers rely on scanning devices and software as tools for detecting possible points of attack on the network.

Scanning tools like Kismet have been effective in identifying weak areas within the network. Attackers target such points on the WAP and apply GPS (Global Positioning System) to locate the most vulnerable geographical spot on the network. Scanning software and other detection tools are common, and organizations can use wireless IDS to identify such software on the network.

This can help in reducing vulnerability of the network from external analysis by hackers (Hsieh, Lo, Lee and Huang, 2004, pp. 581-586). Reliable wireless IDS can detect some DoS threats on the network (Trost, 2010, p. 53). DoS attacks are the most common attacks on wireless networks. Physical objects may cause conflicts in frequencies. Attackers may exploit such opportunities to deny users services from the network.

A wireless IDS has the ability to detect these forms of attacks, which aim to flood the network with requests or generate unauthorized requests. There are also other threats that a wireless IDS can detect on the network. For instance, many attackers may masquerade as authentic wireless device or a client. In such cases, a wireless IDS can detect threats from MAC address spoofing.

A wireless IDS uses a series analysis to “detect the presence of MAC address spoofing on the network” (Trost, 2010, p. 76). It can only detect ad-hoc networks. This is a configuration issue, which provide opportunities for attackers to use wireless devices and gain access to the network. A wireless IDS can also identify some uncommon or new forms threats by using users defined requirements.

In this context, it provides flexibility that other general IDSs may not have. Hence, users can use wireless IDSs to define their security features for locating unique threats. It is an effective method of building strong security features for WLAN. People who may know that the network relies on IDS features may not be interested in attacking the system. This is a way of deterring threats on the network.

Wireless IDS issues

Clearly, wireless IDS offers numerous advantages to users in detecting and preventing threats to the network. However, organizations should consider some aspects of wireless IDS, which may affect the effectiveness of their systems. Wireless intrusion detection is a field that is still evolving. Thus, it is important for users to be careful when deploying new systems with no proven track records on their networks.

New technologies may present new challenges or bugs to the network. Such challenges could be new forms of vulnerabilities, which would render the network unsafe and prone to attacks. One must also recognize that wireless technologies have evolved rapidly in the recent past. Hence, organizations may find it difficult and costly to keep pace with new discoveries in technologies.

Maintaining a wireless security system could be expensive, especially when they come from vendors. Organizations have opportunities of developing their own IDS solutions. However, this could present new challenges like qualified human capital and additional resources for such projects.

Costs of monitoring wireless IDS solutions normally increase as the size of the network also increases. A large network may require several sensors or other monitoring devices, which increase costs of developing and maintaining a wireless IDS solution.

Effectiveness of a wireless IDS may depend on the expertise of the user and the extent of responses to detect threats (Mandia, Prosise & Pepe, 2003, pp. 12-32). This process may require extensive experiences, resources, and expertise for effective response to threats. Responses must be both physical and logical in order to get hackers.

Costs of a wireless IDS is prohibitive for small firms. In addition, they may not have the required human resources to implement and maintain such systems. Overall, a wireless IDS provides effective security solutions against intrusions.

Conclusion

Wireless intrusion detection and intrusion prevention solutions provide protection against potential attacks on the network. Implementing and maintaining a wireless IDS may have some drawbacks. Nevertheless, it offers effective network security against intrusions.

It has abilities to detect different types of 802.11 threats, DoS, and analyze the system. Organizations with wireless policies and can enhance the effectiveness of wireless IDSs significantly. IDS does not offer total security solutions to networks. Instead, WLANs need other forms of security systems.

A wireless IDS reinforces security features that already exist in a network. Users must recognize that technologies have focused on improving the use of wireless system. These changes bring about new complexities and security challenges. Thus, systems for detecting and reporting new threats can improve the effectiveness of a wireless network.

References

Base, R., & Mell, P. (2001). Intrusion Detection Systems. Washington, DC: National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Calabrese, T. (2003). Information Security Intelligence: Cryptographic Principles & Applications. New York: Cengage Learning.

Caswell, B., Beale, J., and Baker, A. (2007). Snort IDS and IPS Toolkit. Burlington, MA: Syngress.

Hsieh, W., Lo, C., Lee, J., and Huang, L. (2004). The implementation of a proactive wireless intrusion detection system. Computer and Information Technology, 581- 586.

Kent, K., & Mell, P. (2006). SP 800-94, Guide to Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) Systems. Washington, DC: National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Kent, K., & Warnock, M. (2004). Intrusion Detection Tools Report (4th ed.). Herndon, VA: Information Assurance Technology Analysis Center.

Low, C. (2005). Understanding wireless attacks & detection. Bethesda, MD: The SANS Institute.

Mandia, K., Prosise, C., & Pepe, M. (2003). Introduction to the Incident Response Process. California: Osborne.

Max, T. (2009). Information Assurance Tools Report – Intrusion Detection Systems (6th ed.). Herndon, VA: Information Assurance Technology Analysis Center.

Rhodes-Ousley, M., Bragg, R., and Strassberg, K. (2003). Network Security: The Complete Reference. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Trost, R. (2010). Practical Intrusion Analysis: Prevention and Detection for the Twenty- First Century. Boston: Addison-Wesley.

Vladimirov, A., Gavrilenko, V., & Mikhailovsky, A. (2004). Counterintelligence: Wireless IDS Systems. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Yang, H., Xie, L., & Sun, J. (2004). Intrusion detection solution to wlans. Emerging Technologies. Frontiers of Mobile and Wireless Communication, 2, 553-556.

Abstract

Wireless networks have higher flexibility as compared to wired networks due to the lack of trunking and cabling in the networks. Both desktop computers and laptops can be fitted with wireless cards which enable the machines to be connected to the net. To connect the machines, various protocols are applied to enhance the proper connection of various standalone machines. Wireless networks have their problems at the same time when compared to wired networks.

When wires are used, some protocols like the Ethernet are allowed to use dedicated wires which go hand in hand with the dedicated medium that can avail the transmission and consequent reception of data. This allows the network to be able to transfer data at a higher rate than the wireless networks. In the case of the wireless networks, the radio frequency in which the network is tuned is the only medium. This limits the mechanisms which the network is using for access control (MAC) (Butala, Tong 2005).

In all networks, CSMA (“Collision Sense Multiple Access”) is used to access the network medium. Wired networks use collision sense multiple access with “collision detection (CSMA/CA)” whilst the wireless networks use “collision sense multiple access with collision avoidance” (CSMA/CA) (Ergen, Lee, Sengupta, 2003). The key difficulties of wireless data transmission are the encoding of the data, speed of transmission, access of the hidden nodes through stations (hubs), overcoming of the cyclic transmissions caused by transmission errors and failures. The offered technologies and protocols involve the key solutions of the stated problems, however, some of them originate from other problems. Hence, the paper aims to assess the data transmission protocols and define the weaknesses and strengths of each protocol.

Token-based protocols

“Token-based access control protocols” have been there for some time now. Some protocols that put into practice a comparable access control system are the Frottle which is open source, as well as Wireless Cyclic Token Protocol” (WiCTP), Wireless Token Ring Protocol (WRTP). These protocols generate a master/main node that is used to control the access to the network medium by bringing into play a token that is switched over between the nodes on the particular network.

Client nodes queue the data packets that they are obliged to send. At the time that they receive the tokens, they send the queued packets by the data that is contained within that token. This technique is very straightforward and successfully eliminates the concealed node crisis at the same time as increasing the stability of the network since two nodes cannot move at any one point in time.

System models of the data transmission networks may vary, however, the key aim of the network is to perform the reliable and stable data-transmission process. Because MAC, Data Base Management, Admission Control and Information Access Management are the key aspects of the wireless network creation, most of the existing protocols involve these aspects as the basic features for reliable work. Nevertheless, some of them are not suitable for wide application and data coordination, due to various reasons. These reasons are closely linked with the multitude of parameters that need to be adjusted for any particular data-transmission instance, which is not suitable for everyday use.

Frottle

As in the case of Frottle, expansion of WiCCP seems to have come to an end. The latest release accessible as of 2004 is version 0.5, accessible as both a Linux kernel module and also as a Windows XP driver. Thus, it is further attractive to wide-ranging users seeing that Linux is not required to utilize the protocol. Unfortunately, the Windows driver only sustains the client mode, but this is still a bit more preferable to Frottle, which has many supplementary dependencies.

This is a Linux-only execution of a token-based access control mechanism. It at present relies on the Linux kernel’s IPtables abilities of packet filtering to control the access to the network, and it uses the “Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol” (TCP/IP) stack to be in touch between the master and also the clients. It runs as a “userspace application” and utilizes the IPtables QUEUE rule which is set to queue some packets for transfer (Luo, Lu 2005).

The Frottle wrap-up communicates amid the master and the client nodes using TCP/IP port 999. This is a key disadvantage, in view of the fact that its reliance on both TCP and IPtables confines its portability. Without IPtables, Frottle has no efficient way of controlling the packet queuing, and also without a TCP/IP stack, it cannot correspond between the nodes. For any embedded structure wishing to run the Frottle protocol, they must have the TCP/IP stack and also the IPtables modules which should be compiled into the kernel, which adds to the size of that kernel spectacularly (Aad & Castelluccia 2001).

While TCP/IP would approximately certainly be amassed into any networked structure, IPtables can boost the required sizes by many KBs, a serious distress for almost all embedded systems. The Frottle wrap-up also lets unrestricted right of entry on port 999, a noteworthy weakness. If one more server runs a tune-up on port 999, a client who is part of the Frottle ring can be able to circumvent the “token access control and hence directly access that service.

This can realize a spectacular drop in routine and in cases where that service is heavily in use, allows the “hidden node problem” to reappear. While port 999 is not in use by any typical network service, a client could have the capability to circumvent the “access control” on that network to be able to achieve a higher feat at the expense of the other users on that network. Frottle does not include auto-detection of the master nodes. Thus, each of the nodes must be set individually, and thus have at least one single network crossing point of the same subnet as in the master sequentially to swap over control packets.

This relentlessly limits the flexibility of that protocol, as any protocol with auto-detection of master nodes and no dependence on TCP/IP would efficiently allow numerous subnets on the identical access point. This would add to the number of probable network setups many times over. While Throttle has been on hand since 2003 in the month of August, development of the protocol seems to have come to an end, and at the moment, no new edition has been out (Yi-Sheng and Takawira 2004).

The results of a Frottle execution on a network are also for the most part subjective, with no firm results existing for assessment against the standard CSMA/CA “access control” mechanism. This, shared with its numerous execution disadvantages, leads users to try to find alternatives other than Frottle (Ergen et al 2001).

Because the key problem of Frottle technology is the solution of hidden node parts of the network, it should be emphasized that it is mainly used in widespread WLAN setups with numerous nodes, that are connected by the means of directional antennas and have high upload (the radius of such networks is 50M and wider). Hence, as it is emphasized by Yi-Sheng and Takawira (2008, p. 451): “IEEE 802.11 is suited for bridging the last mile for broadband access only to a very limited extent. Newer standards such as WiMAX assign time slots to individual stations, thus preventing multiple nodes from sending simultaneously and ensuring fairness even in over-subscription scenarios.”

In the light of this statement, it should be emphasized that IEEE 802.11 uses 802.11 RTS/CTS, and this principle is applied in the Frottle protocol as the technology of handshake packets. Actually, the commonly used RTS/CTS protocol is not the perfect solution to the hidden node problem, nevertheless, it is capable to decrease throughput even further. Hence, the only solution is the use of adaptive adjustments and regimes that are not available for the average users for their complexity and absence of a user-friendly interface.

Wireless Cyclic Token Protocol

The projected protocol implements a token-passing access control apparatus, analogous to the mechanisms implemented by Frottle and also WiCCP, called the

“Wireless Cyclic Token Protocol” (WiCTP). WiCTP works by use of passing a token to each node on the particular network. Only the node which is in possession of the token may be able to transfer the data, thus allowing only one of the nodes to transfer at any one point in time, thus getting rid of collisions completely. Each of the nodes on that network is grouped as either master or slave. The master nodes have knowledge about all other nodes on the particular network, but each of the slaves only knows about the masters. The master node reins all access to the entire network, in view of the fact that it handles all the allocation of the tokens to each of the nodes.

This allows the main master node to have a vast suppleness in the control of that network. It can then re-order the process of passing of the tokens to better utilize that network, or provide preferential handling to definite nodes, thus allowing the master node to make sure that all the nodes that in general would be downgraded to lower performance obtain a fair share of the network’s bandwidth (Metropolis et al 2000).

The key aspect of WiCTP network communication is the Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance technology. This helps to define whether the collision-free transmission is possible on the definite part of the root. Assuming that the network is taken as the distance between A and B points with some intermediary Access Point, the nodes of the network may be hidden or visible. If the nodes are hidden, it is impossible to define whether the node is transferring or not. Hence, if two hidden nodes are transferring to an open node, the data is colliding, causing loss of the information, and collision paradox, when A and B have to retransmit, while neither A nor B know whether the other point is transferring.

WiCTP is aimed at solving this problem by using the Request to Send/Clear to Send (RTS/CTS) protocol. Hence, information is sent in RTS packets with special marking, which points out the required transmission delay. Hence, any station that hears such a signal will prevent transmission for the duration pointed.

While not yet put into practice, WiCTP uses the integration of dissimilar “Quality of Service” (QoS) algorithms. When any node is connecting to a wireless network, it sends a packet broadcasting its presence to the particular network. When the master node receives this packet, it goes ahead and replies to that node with information about the master node with which it has come to be associated with, and also makes that node a slave. The master node adds the new slave’s data to its list of existing slaves and then places it in the lineup for receiving the tokens. When the slaves receive the token, it confirms to see if that token is from the master node to which it has been directly associated.

If so, it will verify for any data that necessitates being sent, and then examines the token to observe how many packets it may propel as allocated by the main the master. The slave then sends its queue of data packets to all the other lined-up recipients.

When the slave has no supplementary data packets to launch, or it has sent the highest figure of packets, it drives the tokens back to the master node. Since only the slaves with the tokens may broadcast the data, the concealed node problem is hence eliminated. No, any two nodes can be able to transfer at the same instant, thus the collisions are eliminated completely (Spyropoulos and Raghavendra 2010).

WTRP

Key features of this protocol are as follows:

• It is regarded as a medium access control protocol for wireless networks.
• It maintains guaranteed quality of the services by controlling the bandwidth and latency values.
• The token defines the transmission order, and each may be abandoned after the specified amount of time
• Each network ring has a unique MAC address
• If owner (the central station) leaves the ring, another station occupies its place.

The Wireless Token Ring Protocol is regarded as the innovative medium access control tool for wireless networks of local area scale. In most researches, it is opposed to IEEE 802.11 networks, as in comparison with this standard, the WTRP provides the reliable connection tools in the terms of latency and bandwidth. This protocol is based on the principle of reducing the retransmissions caused by collisions. By the statement by Ergen et al (2009), the key principles of this protocol are closely linked with the statement that stations prevent cycled transmission if these are filed:

WTRP is a distributed protocol that supports many topologies, as not all stations need to be connected or to a central station. WTRP is robust against single node failures, and recovers gracefully from multiple simultaneous faults. WTRP is suitable for inter-access point coordination in ITS DSRC, safety-critical vehicle-to-vehicle communications, and home networking, and provides extensions to other networks and Mobile IP. (Ergen et.al. 2010, p. 1870)

In the light of this statement, it should be emphasized that the actual benefit of using this protocol is the opportunity to create partial connectivity. Furthermore, the existing connectivity principle is able to create the unique overall architecture of the network system that is featured with the data link layer. Hence, the Mobility Manager and Channel Allocator may be used for Admission Control, as well as Information Base Management. (Metropolis 2000)

Conclusion

From the above methods, it is evident that there are various diverse ways in which Token-based MAC protocols for Supporting Timely Transmission of Real-Time Traffic in Wireless Networks can be enhanced. This includes the use of Wireless Central Coordinated Protocol” (WiCCP), Wireless Cyclic Token Protocol and throttle among others. The methods have been seen to have various advantages and disadvantages which determine the most applicable process.

One of the critical conditions that the implementers of the protocol should focus on is the use of protocols is avoidance of collisions within the data packets in transit which makes the transmission of information a problem. Efficiency of information transfer is the most important aspect in communication between different nodes in any network and thus the protocol used should be of great essence (Yi-Sheng and Takawira 2004).

According to the discussion presented in this paper, networks which use WiCTP are more stable in networks as compared to CSMA/CA protocol. In WiCTP, the error rates in data transfer are predominantly decreased whilst the error rates in CSMA/CA are a bit less than the latter. WiCTP has better throughput and is more stable and it also shares the bandwidth between the nodes in a more stable manner.

References

Aad, I & Castelluccia, C 2001, “Differentiation mechanisms for IEEE 802.11”, in Proc. IEEE INFOCOM’01, 209–218.

Butala, A., Tong, L. 2005 ‘Cross-Layer Design for Medium Access Control in CDMA Ad Hoc Networks’, EURASIP J. Applied Signal Processing, vol. no. 2, pp. 129-143, 2005.

Ergen, D. et al 2001,“WTRP—wireless token ring protocol,” IEEE Trans. Veh.Technol., 53(6):1863–1881.

Ergen, M., Lee, D. Sengupta, R., 2009 ‘WTRP-Wireless Token Ring Protocol’ WTRP Journal. Vol 4; No 6.

Ergen, M., Lee, D. Sengupta, R. 2003 ‘Wireless Token Ring Protocolperformance comparison with IEEE 802.11 Eighth IEEE International Symposium on Computers and Communication’, Antalya, Turkey.

Luo, H., Lu, S. 2005 ‘A Topology-Independent Wireless Fair Queueing Model in Ad Hoc Networks’, IEEE J. Selected Areas in Comm., vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 585-597.

Metropolis, A. W. 2000 “Equations of state calculations by fast computing machines,” J. Gem. Phys., vol. 21(6):1087–1092.

Spyropoulos, A., Raghavendra, C. 2010 ‘A Token-based Greedy Chain Scheduling Algorithm (T-GCSA) for Situation Aware Wireless LANs’ University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Yi-Sheng, L., Takawira, F. 2004 ‘Token Based Medium Access Control in Wireless Networks’ School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Natal.

Yi-Sheng, L., Takawira, F., Hong-Jun X. 2008 ‘A Hybrid Token-CDMA MAC Protocol for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks’, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, Vol. 7, No. 5.

Introduction

RFID is an acronym for “Radio Frequency identification”. The technology is grossly involved with the collection of data using some special electronic tags. There is a special chip that makes up the tags which are used for data collection. It can be exemplified to normal bar code readers in the way that they identify objects and collect the necessary data for the objects. The main advantage of this technology is the reduction of the human and labor intensity in the process of collection of data (Hatem & Habib, 5).

Data mining is all about the analysis of data from various sources and making a summary of useful information which can be found in the data. There are various tools like special software which can be used in the field of data mining. In this process, diverse information, say from a large database can be used to find how the various items correlate.

The centrality in the management and consequent retrieval of large amounts of data is defined as data warehousing. A data warehouse has a lot of databases managed in a centralized repository of information. When data has been centralized, user access is set to the maximum and further analysis of the data can hence be made faster.

This paper seeks to address the implementation of RFID on data mining and n the United Arab Emirates. The paper will consist of a general insight into the implementation of the technology in the country as it is today, current state of the technology, and an analysis of the projections that are aimed at improving the technology and possible future impacts of the technology in the UAE (Al Jaroodi, 14).

RFID in the UAE

Most of the companies in the competitive market today have focused on the increase in productivity with minimum operational costs. To make this a reality, there has to be an adaptation of the necessary business models as well as a gross improvement in the required business architecture. With the use of RFID, the businesses get more streamlined and also most of the operations are optimized. There are some components which form the general architecture of this technology as shown below

According to the above diagram, there is communication between the computer, the object and the RFID reader in a certain protocol

• The RFID reader sends some electromagnetic waves which carry a signal which is used to identify the object. The objects return back some information to the reader which is used for identification purposes
• The objects have a special RFID tag which is the one that sends the information which has been requested by the object
• The computer has a database in which it stores all the information that it receives from the RFID reader

In the past, most of the readers could not use current mobility systems but used a special connection to the host computer through the Ethernet or through the serial port.

In the United Arab Emirates today, there has been quite some diverse usages of the RFID system for example in the process of electronic tolling or in one of its modes called SALIK. In this technology the tags which are used in the system are passive RFID tags. In the system motorists are supposed to buy a prepaid card which is then fixed to the windshields of their cars. Once the car passes through the toll stations, a certain fee is automatically deducted from the card on the screen. Depending on the gate that the motorist will use to pass some certain area a standard fee for that gate is deducted. This is a technology that helped in the reduction of congestion within the busy areas of the country and the cities.

In the employment of this technology, it takes advantage of the passive RFID tags as stated. The tags get some power from the transceivers which are located at the gates of the toll stations. This means that the tags do not require having additional power like the use of a battery. The mode of information retrieval in the RFID as discussed earlier is automated and so the data is relayed to the central warehouse (data repository) in a remote manner and through the use of the tags. This is due to the fact that the incorporation of the tags to be read by radio waves helps the readers to be able to read them even from longer distance depending on the mode which is applied.

This system has had a lot of advantages to the United Arab Emirates. The traffic at the gate is put under control as the vehicles do not necessarily have to stop to pay the toll fees as the process is monitored dynamically and in real time.

Another application is the one which is in use by the Damas stores in Dubai. In this stores which majors in jewellery, there are special tags which are fitted into the objects in store that make the object pass through the inventory records once a reader gets the information. This was mainly aimed at the reduction of theft. Due to the status of the information in the central database, any transaction or running of a reader on any of the stored items takes place almost immediately. This is aimed at the revolution of stock checks.

In the United Arab Emirates, there has been a proposal of an integration of this technology with the use of wireless sensor networks for management of buses. Due to the expense that comes in with normal wire cabling, a wireless solution is one of the best ideas in which either the user can use Bluetooth or Zigbee which will help in the extension of the reader of the RFID waves. Bluetooth has the advantage of allowing for the creation of personal area networks which have a short range. It is also simple to maintain the Bluetooth connection. The rate of data transfer using this mode is generally 1Mbps though it has a high level consumption of energy and also a range of about 10 meters which makes it not practicable (Cheng-Ming, 150).

On the other hand Zigbee saves more energy though the data rates are much lower as compared to Bluetooth. It is a low cost technology which also allows for meshing of the devices which means that multiple nodes can be communicating with a surety of information reception even with the failure of one of the nodes. Due to the style of the proposed implementation which is in a bus station, the low cost of the technology allows the possibility of having the ability to transmit the information from various spots which can be affordable to fix.

In this application, the communication of the object and the reader is triggered once the object approaches the reader. In such a case, without any object in scene, the reader is often not active. On the approach of the object the software being held by the reader is informed of the approaching object via the mode of transmission used, in this case Zigbee (Qing-Jie K. et al, 41).

The RFID middleware in use is the one which is responsible for handling such an event. It sends a command back to the RFID reader so that it can be set to a mode in which it is prepared to read. The reader at this point reads the tag which is attached to the object and consequently sends its identity information to a computer which holds the central database. On passage of this object, the reader becomes inactive again and waits for the next object.

Using this approach, it is possible to track the movement of buses in the area on a real time basis and thus the management can be able to handle time related issues. On reception of this information, the central database (data warehouse) can have a live display of the information which helps keep the passengers at bay or else duly informed of the movements. The operators can also take advantage of this information to fully utilize the available buses considering that all the movement is dynamically tracked and can hence be dynamically diverted.

To have effective monitoring, all buses can have RFID sensors which monitor the inflow of passengers in real time without the intervention of any person. Also there can be other external sensors which inform the administrators of the whereabouts of their fleet as the bus is recorded once it gets to a station and once it gets out. The displays used in real time can be LCD screens.

Moving back to the concept of data mining and data warehousing, there is a consistent utilization of this two principles in line with RFID. The information which is gathered from the buses comes in two major ways. The passenger traffic in and out of a bus and the arrival of a bus to a station and from a bus station are monitored. When this data is collected, it is relayed to a centrally located computer using RFID technology and other middleware. This information is noticeably collected from a number of buses and relayed to one single place which can hence be referred to as the data warehouse. Data mining occurs in the way that the management has access to this data and can be able to adjust the bus movements. With such information, the operators can foretell their earnings as they have all the needed information before them. Data mining, being the concept of analysis with the capability of making a distinct summary is thus established (Chien, 15).

Conclusion

Despite the age of this technology, it has picked a lot of pace in the realm of management and the chain of supply. The technology has enhanced the management of data and performances of different organizations to high standards. This paper has discussed the various ways in which the technology has been implemented in the UAE. It is recommended that more research should be done on how the network should be enhanced to make it more mobile. If this was to be enhanced, then a better management of many systems would occur.

References

Al Jaroodi, Jameela et al. “Middleware for RFID systems: An Overview” 2009 33rd Annual IEEE International Computer Software and Applications Conference (2009)

Cheng-Ming, Jimmy Li, “An Integrated Software Platform for RFID-Enabled Application Development,” in proc. IEEE International Conference on Sensor Networks, Ubiquitous, and Trustworthy Computing, (2006).

Chien, Yeun. “SASI: A New Ultra-Lightweight RFID Authentication Protocol Providing Strong Authentication and Strong Integrity,” IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing 4(4), (2007).

Hatem, Ben. & Habib, Haman. “Bus Management System Using RFID in WSN” European and Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems 2010 (2009).

Qing-Jie Kong. et al “A fusion-based system for road-network traffic state surveillance: a case study of shanghai,” IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 37-42 (2009)