PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD
PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD A new project by Microsoft researchers is liable to spread Wi-Fi Internet access to anywhere in the world—from your backyard to developing nations.
The project, called Cool-Tether, creates an instantaneous Wi-Fi network “on the fly” using the power of multiple dual-band smartphones. The phones act as relays, moving the data between the Wi-Fi and cellular (GPRS/EDGE/3G) networks. The uplink speed is constrained by the speed of the phones, of course, but by increasing the number of phones, the uplink performance is increased. Up to four phones were tested, with about a 20 percent improvement obtained with each additional phone.
Similar attempts have been made in the past. In 2007, Microsoft ran another project to tether multiple phones together to form a faster Internet uplink. Project ‘Combine” took as many connections as possible from nearby local phones to speed up a given connection as well, but the project consumed far too much energy, making such hot spots economically unfeasible.
Cool-Tether works off the same principle as Combine, but the researchers have refined their methods and can now use fewer phones to deliver more data with less power. More specifically, Cool-Tether consists of components on both sides of the cellular link. Locally, a laptop and connected cell phones are needed to create the temporary Wi-Fi access point (AP), while in the cloud a proxy server connects to the Internet or private IP network.
Wi-Fi endpoints connect to the laptop-based Wi-Fi AP as they would normally to any AP. A client Web proxy within the laptop-based AP receives the client request and forwards it across the cellular network to the cloud -based proxy server. The proxy server retrieves the requested Web page and sends it back across the cellular network using the optimum workload size and number of phones. The page is assembled on the laptop and served up to the client.
The key in all of this,
though, is the researchers' ability to optimize power usage of the phones.
Instead of keeping phones in high-power mode for several seconds after a data
transmission, Cool-Tether adjusts usages to maximize the battery life of the
phone. The energy savings, according the researchers, were between 38 and 71
percent compared with other solutions.
Good morning from Los Angeles! #ibmcloudThat's it from me! Over to North America.The data processing of Roland Garros 2012 (#RG12) rests on IBM Private Cloud http://t.co/JUaY1ItM [French Press release]IBM Accelerates Business from Supply to Demand with New #Cloud Offerings For Smarter Commerce http://t.co/OFxknOb0 [Press Release]How IBM #SmartCloud Foundation technology powers cloud adoption?
IBM VP @SLHebner explains here http://t.co/sSzfa0O5 [VIDEO]IBM's Fiona Cullen will present ‘The Power of #Cloud: Driving Business Model’ On May 24 @ Utrecht, Netherlands #cloudforum2012 #ibmcloudBlog Post: Why service providers should not ignore cloud http://t.co/ZfQyue4r via @eMarcusNet #thoughtsoncloudHave any #cloudmoment? Share your story with us via Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and tag it. See other stories http://t.co/J4ntsaQ5Sign up now for IBM #SmartCloud Enterprise! No charge for select VMs (only till May 28). More Details >> http://t.co/2LEzOUZC #ibmcloudRT @HansMoen: See this video from @IBMCloud to learn how to cut costs in building innovation in your business http://t.co/XOyJoFn6 #clou ...
Like us on Facebook 
Follow us on Twitter 
Get the Smarter Tech Newsletter 
Register to view the archived "Data Center Optimization Techniques: Stop Wasting Time & Money" eSeminar
Register Now > 
