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REFERENCES 327the channels are now providing mixed voice and data
channels. The Web has provided a mountain of content,
which is a ready source for use in wireless communica-
tions. Many organizations now have Internet sites capable
of supporting mobile applications, and wireless intranets
are becoming more common. A typical use for these is in
the reuse of historic buildings where new wiring is prob-
lematic or may not be allowed. A wireless intranet pro-
vides a cost-effective solution. This particular approach is
currently being implemented in the University of Derby,
England, at its Royal Devonshire Hospital campus in
Buxton, which is governed by the specifications of the
English Heritage Society. Efficient and common proto-
col standards are important if continued development is
to be possible.
Currently the mobile phone services rely on the short
message service (SMS) or WAP; however, the availability
of wider bandwidth is encouraging the use of standards
such as I-Mode from Japan, which is finding increasing
favor in Europe. This is possible because national govern-
ments have made certain frequency allocations available
for commercial use. Radio-frequency band usage varies
from country to country due to historical reasons; how-
ever, they are sufficiently similar for standards to be set
across national boundaries, for example, in the United
States 2.4000–2.4835 GHz, in Europe 2.4000–2.4835 GHz
(some variation), and in Japan 2.471–2.497 GHz.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE) instituted a working group known as IEEE 802.11
to create the current wireless LAN standards. The original
standard had a signaling rate of 1–2 Mbps. Two variants
rapidly followed, 802.11a and b. Surprisingly 802.11a op-
erates at the higher frequency 5–6 GHz and has the great-
est potential for supporting higher bandwidths (54 Mbps).
802.11b operates at 2.4 GHz and 11 Mbps. Each has their
own supporters; however, 802.11b is rapidly becoming the
accepted commercial standard.
802.11a products are currently expensive, and have
high-power consumption. They are not compatible with
802.11b devices due to their different radio frequencies.
802.11b was named as Wi-Fi by the Wireless Ethernet
Compatibility Alliance (WECA), an organization founded
by commercial interests (3Com, Aironet (acquired by
Cisco), Intersil, Lucent, Nokia, and Symbol) to promote
Wi-Fi as a wireless standard. 802.11b products are gener-
ally backward compatible with 802.11 products. Several
improvements have been made to security (802.11i), for
use for multimedia (802.11e), and for higher bandwidths
at the lower frequency range (802.11g). This latter works
with the older wireless networking technology, 802.11b,
allowing users to keep existing equipment and aimed at
increasing the number of wireless connections in homes
and businesses.CONCLUSION
This chapter has tried to introduce the reader to the great
variety of protocols and standards that have impacted
the growth of the Internet. It is not possible to cover
them all in the space provided; therefore, I have focused
on those that have or will have the greatest impact on
the development of the Internet. This chapter discussedthe new and emerging standards associated with e- and
m-commerce. This is an area where standards will con-
tinue to develop as the concepts of electronic shopping
malls become more popular and e-banking becomes the
norm. Wireless applications are in their Internet infancy
and awaiting broader bandwidths. As this becomes avail-
able the scope for applications on a cost-per-view basis
will increase. Of particular interest for the future are the
attempts to commercialize WWW by offering software,
which relies on the WWW’s free infrastructure to be viable,
on a pay-per-use basis. These in turn will need new pro-
tocols and standards to deal with transaction processing.
These later applications are dependent upon a variety of
multimedia approaches to file interchange, which is still
an area of protocol research and development. Standards
by their nature develop, mature, and die, to be replaced
with versions more appropriate to their age.GLOSSARY
CCITT (Commitee Consultatif International ́
Tel ́ephonique et T ́ el ́egraphique) ́ A separate
organization that set international communications
standards, but is now part of the ITU.
IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission)
Produces standards in the information technology
fields through joint committees with the ISO.
IETF The protocol engineering and development arm of
the Internet Society.
ISO (International Organization for Standardization)
A collection of national standards bodies from around
the world that was established in1947, but is now of-
ten misnamed as the International Standards Organi-
zation.
ISOC (Internet Society) Established in 1992 and con-
sists of professional Internet experts that concern
themselves with policies and oversee a variety of boards
and task forces dealing with Internet issues.
ITU (International Telecommunications Union) The
world’s oldest international organization, being first
established on 17th May 1865 and is now a UN
agency specializing in telecommunication standard-
ization and development.
OSI An Open Systems Interconnections reference
model that was produced by the International Orga-
nization for Standardization working group and is oc-
casionally referred to as the ISO model.
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Collects ideas
from around the world to form a view of future di-
rections for the WWW, designs appropriate Web tech-
nologies, and contributes to standardization.CROSS REFERENCES
SeeInternet Security Standards; TCP/IP Suite.REFERENCES
Aaron, R., & Skillen, R. (Eds.). (1997). Electronic com-
merce [Special Issue].IEEE Communications, 40(2).
Berners-Lee, T., Cailliau, R., Luotonen, A., Nielsen, H. F.,