ITE 221 - Fall 2012 - Chapter 9

PURPOSE:

The chapter compares and contrasts the bus, ring and star network topologies. It describes packet routing across local and wide area networks. The methods of data passing are described. Nework hardware devices are described and the OSI Network model is covered.

Megaco/H.248: Media Gateway Control Protocol

 

http://www.javvin.com/protocolMegaco.html

 

 

Megaco/H.248, the Media Gateway Control Protocol is used for the control of elements in a physically decomposed multimedia gateway. 

 

This protocol describes the relationship between the Media Gateway (MG) and the Media Gateway Controller (MGC and also known as the call agent). The Media Gateway converts circuit-switched voice to packet-based traffic.

 

Terminations and contexts are the two vital components of the protocol.  Streams of data entering or leaving the Media Gateway are terminations while contexts are when two or more termination streams are mixed and combined together.  Under command from the MGC, the MG creates and releases the contexts.  More than one stream can appear in a termination and contexts can be considered to be multistreamed contexts.  Audio, video and data streams may exist in a context made up of multiple terminations. 

 

Messages are sent in the ASN.1 format.  These are text messages.  These are the commands used in the protocol:  Add, Modify, Subtract, Move, AuditValue, AuditCapabilities, Notify and ServiceChange.

ITE 221 - Fall 2012 - Chapter 8

PURPOSE:

The chapter describes the signals and media used to transmit digital signals and the methods of encoding and transmitting data using analog and digital signals. It describes the methods for detecting and correcting data transmission errors and the methods for efficiency using communication channels.

How ML-IP Can Increase Bandwith

 

http://www.ml-ip.com/html/solutions/providers-bandwidth.html

 

 

One of the major issues facing Internet Service Providers today is how to increase bandwith with the technology we have today.  With more people connecting to the Internet and with many different types of devices (tablets, smartphones, laptops, etc.) that have the capability to connect to the internet, ISPs are finding their systems bandwith availability reaching its capacity.

 

ML-IP is one way in which ISPs can increase their bandwith.  ML-IP (MultiLink-IP) is multilinking of IP data streams. What ML-IP does is allow traffic traveling across different network paths between two ML-IP gateways to be aggregated so that it increases the bandwidth. Since the aggregation is achieved end-to-end between the gateways the ISPs do not need to support the ML-IP technology because ML-IP can aggregate at the network layer and not at the physical layer. This allows the ISP to increase bandwith and increase the networks reliability.  It also is a very cost effective way to increase bandwith because not much if any new infrastructure is needed.

ITE 221 - Fall 2012 - Chapter 7

PURPOSE:

The chapter describes the basics of text and image representation and display including digital representation of grayscale and color, bitmaps, and image description language; describes the characteristics and implementation technology of video display devices; understands printer characteristics and technology; describes main manual input technologies; describes various types of optical input devices, identifies the characteristics of audio I/O devices, and explains how they operate.

Tapping out: The future of keyboards

http://www.kidela.com/technology/tapping-out-the-future-of-keyboards/

 

What is the future of keyboards?  It seems like they have been around forever! I’ve used so many over the years, even the ergonomic ones!  But are they on there way out?  This article looks into that question.

 

Most people still use keyboards in their every day lives.  Mobile touch screens are becoming more popular with the use of smartphones and tablets.  One of the defining features of the iPhone when it was first released was the lack of a physical keyboard. It seems as if Blackberry is the only cellphone manufacture who makes QWERTY physical keyboards and they seem to be cutting back on them too.

 

Tablets like the iPad have also had a role in the decline of the physical keyboard.  Tablets are designed without physical keyboards.  A common complaint about tablet keyboards is the lack of a touch-based feedback, commonly known as a “haptic” response.   Manufactures have tried to deal with this by adding sounds when keys are pressed.

 

One company, Tactus Technology has developed a technology that allows for the creation of on-demand buttons on the surface of a touch-screen that raise when they are needed and fade away when they are not. 

 

Other companies have developed projection keyboards for cellphones and computers that allow the user to enter alphanumeric data much as they would if they were on a full-sized keyboard.

 

I prefer a physical keyboard.  The keyboards on smartphones and tablets are too small for people who have big hands and/or fingers like me.  I hope keyboards don’t go away anytime soon!

ITE 221 - Fall 2012 - Chapter 6

PURPOSE:

The chapter describes the implementation of the system bus and bus protocol; describes how the CPU and bus interact with peripheral devices; describes the purpose and function of device controllers; describes how interrupts coordinate actions of the CPU with secondary storage and I/O devices and describes how buffers and caches improve computer system performance; compare parallel processing architectures and describe compression technologies and its performance implications.

MPEG DASH: The File Format of the Future?

 

http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/Editorial/Featured-Articles/MPEG-DASH-The-File-Format-of-the-Future-78835.aspx

A common file format for HTTP video delivery will make it much easier to deliever web videos more securely.  Apple has led the way with their proprietary HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) but it is not perfect.

Microsoft is leading the charge with an alternative to HLS called MPEG-DASH. (MPEG-backed Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP). With more than 50 companies and 90 experts contributing to MPEG-DASH, it stands a chance.  What is needed is an adaptive-optimized common format that can be delivered via standard web servers, using common encryption.

The Common File Format (CFF) being refered to be based on the Ultraviolet CFF that the DECE (Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem) ublished along with a Common Encryption (CENC) scheme that uses five distinct digital rights management (DRM) schemes in an interoperable manner.

ITE 221 - Fall 2012 - Chapter 5

PURPOSE:

The chapter the distinguishing characteristics of primary and secondary storage; describes the devices used to implement primary storage; compares secondary storage alternatives; describe factors that affect storage devices and explains how to choose appropriate secondary storage technologies and devices.

The Future of Data Storage Technology

 

http://gizmodo.com/5953682/the-future-of-data-storage-is-cassette-tape

 

 

Is the future of data storage technology an oldie but goodie? This article suggests so.

This article suggests that the cassette tape is making a comeback as far as a data technology is concerned.

A new wave of ultra-dense tape drives developed by Fuji Film in Japan and IBM in Zurich, Switzerland is going to be used in massive data farms owned by the likes of Facebook and others.

The first prototypes are four inches square and under an inch thick.  Each can store up to 35 terabytes of data.  This density is achieved by using magnetic tape coated in barium ferrite. The imputus for this change is the Square Kilometre Array telescope. Once running, this telescope is predicted to generate about 1 million gigabytes of data per day.

Both IBM and Fuji are working on ways to shrink the internals of these tapes in order to store as much as 100 terabytes per tape cartridge.

ITE 221 - Fall 2012 - Chapter 4

PURPOSE:
The chapter describes CPU instruction and execution cycles; explains how primitive CPU instructions are combined to from complex processing operations; describes the key CPU design features, including instruction format, word size, and clock rate; describes the function of general-purpose and special-purpose registers; explains the methods of enhancing processor performance; and describes the principles and limitations of semiconductor based microprocessors. The chapter also summarizes future trends.   

Wright’s Law Edges Out Moore’s Law in Predicting Technology Development

http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/at-work/test-and-measurement/wrights-law-edges-out-moores-law-in-predicting-technology-development

In 1936, Theodore P. Wright wrote a paper entitled: “Factors Affecting the Cost of Airplanes”. The summation of Mr. Wright’s paper can be stated as “We learn by doing”.  This translates into the cost of a unit decreases as a function of the cumulative production. 

Wright’s Law, Moore’s Law and a few others were compared in a Santa Fe Institute (SFI) working paper (Statistical Basis for Predicting Technological Progress,) recently. What was compared was the performance of Wright’s Law, Moore’s Law and four other technology-forecasting models with constant-dollar historical cost data for 62 different technologies. This analysis focused on cost that is the inflation-adjusted price of one “unit”.

What this working paper found was that Moore’s Law and Wright’s Law were the most accurate of these technology models with regards to production increasing exponentially. Wright’s Law did edge out Moore’s Law ever so slightly because of the strength of its performance over longer time spans.