The POC Lab presents the following technologies:
Free Space Optics (FSO) systems transmit infrared laser beams through the air to provide full duplex wireless connectivity between two points on a network at data transfer rates of up to 2.7Gbps - almost 5 times higher than that of the best RF-based systems available today.
FSO systems are currently being used to provide temporary or permanent high speed links between buildings, especially in cases where it would not have been cost-effective to lay fibre. It is also deployed as a last-mile access solution, allowing service providers to connect many users to a high-speed fibre backbone without laying costly fibre to the premises of each subscriber. Other uses of FSO include carrying backhaul traffic for mobile networks and serving as a high-speed backup link for fibre rings.
Many forward-looking enterprises are looking into building a unified network for voice, video and data. In addition, enterprises now have a choice of adopting a centralised or distributed call-processing model that enables them to extend the capabilities of corporate IP voice, video and data solutions to remote office locations. This converged model demonstrates the integrated concept of telephony mobility, IP video telephony, virtual presentation, multimedia gateway and data collaboration on a single platform.
Virtual meeting demonstrates the concept of web-based multiparty video conferencing and data collaboration for teleworkers and remote offices. It enables common desktop applications to support interactive voice, video and data conferencing.
This web-based video conferencing system eliminates the time, travel, cost and complexity of conducting daily, face-to-face meetings that need to occur in today's multi-location organisations. With Virtual Private Meeting (VPN) and web-based video conferencing, teleworkers can now conduct worldwide meetings in the comfort of their home.
Personal Area Networks (PAN) are based on Bluetooth, a computing and telecommunications industry specification that describes how mobile phones, computers, and personal digital assistants can easily interconnect with each other using a short-range wireless connection. Using this technology, users can form an ad hoc personal area network where they can surf the web via an access point, print documents, etc. without having to pre-configure these devices.
Wireless LAN (WLAN, IEEE 802.11b) has been deployed in various hotspots such as Starbucks Cafe, Changi International Airport, UOB Plaza, etc. Currently notebooks are generally used to connect to a WLAN network. With the increase in performance of handheld devices, the next logical step is to extend this connectivity to PDAs such as the Compaq iPAQ, HP Jornada, Palm and Handspring Visor. This can be done via expansion devices such as device-specific add-on sleds, WLAN CompactFlash cards, or even PC Cards typically used in notebooks. In fact, PDAs are now able to perform functions such as Internet access, instant messaging, video streaming, VoIP and even remote access to corporate desktops through thin-client server-based computing solutions.
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) is a class of applications that takes advantage of resources - storage, cycles, content, human presence - available at the edges of the Internet. Because accessing these decentralised resources means operating in an environment of unstable connectivity and unpredictable IP addresses, P2P nodes must operate outside the DNS system and have significant or total autonomy from central servers. Current P2P applications cannot rely upon the existence of anything more than basic networking and must re-create a P2P infrastructure on their own. This poses a problem because not many P2P users have access to all the resources needed to carry out P2P operations.
JXTA, a Java-based technology from Sun, attempts to solve these problems. JXTA is positioned as a peer-to-peer stack, a wafer-thin layer sitting on top of the operating system or virtual machine, and below actual P2P services and applications. The idea is to provide P2P developers enough core functionality to build upon, no matter the application. With JXTA in place, developers can safely assume that everything one needs for peer-to-peer interaction is onboard.
As P2P networks become more common and easier to deploy, peer-to-peer activities will feature prominently in the Next Generation Internet.
Digital content is vulnerable to theft, unauthorised access and propagation, as it is easily copied, transferred, played, printed or used by anyone. Digital Rights Management (DRM) can help to address these vulnerabilities. It is defined as a chain of services that govern the authorised use of digital content and manage the use throughout the entire life cycle of the content.