The New Nation - Internet Edition

WiMAX aims revolutionary change in telecom sector

Md. Habib-ur-Rahman Mollah

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission is likely to invite application for WiMAX license in mid-July, said the commission's chairman, Manzurul Alam. 'Population density and environmental perspectives will help introduce a new generation high-speed internet broadband service in the country,'

BTRC and six other telecom vendors Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Huawei, Intel, Motorola and Nokia Siemens Networks jointly organized the workshop on 'WiMAX in Bangladesh: now and future'. BTRC chairman said the aim of the workshop was to discuss issues relating to prospect of WiMAX technology in the country and to get a comprehensive licensing guideline for this technology.

WiMAX is a short name for Worldwide Interoperability of Microwave Access. WiMAX is described in IEEE 802.16 Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) standard. It is expected that WiMAX compliant systems will provide fixed wireless alternative to conventional DSL and Cable Internet.

WiMAX technology works little different than WiFi technology. In wifi computers can be connected through wireless LAN card to near by access point, wireless router or any Hotspot, it does not works this way when we talk about connectivity in WiMAX. WiMAX network connectivity constitutes of two parts, one can define as WiMAX tower or WiMAX booster, it is known as WiMAX Base station, whereas the other portion is WiMax receiver. Let's talk about them in little details for better understanding the working.

WiMAX base station: As name explains base station is place where WiMax signals are broadcasted. It consists of electronic devices and WiMax Tower. This tower works exactly like GSM network phones towers standing high up in the air to broadcast radio signals. WiMAX tower base station can cover up 10Km radius. In theory it suggests to cover a lot more distance than just 10Km, it can reach some where about 50 km (30 miles), but in fact due to certain geographical limitations it goes as far as 10 km approx. 6 mils. Any wireless connecting device for WiMAX will connect to WiMAX network if fallen in to the range.

WiMAX Receiver: It is device or devices which receives the signals from WiMAX base station and connects to the WiMAX networks. These devices are usually stand alone Antenna or PCMCIA slot card for laptops or computers. Connecting to WiMAX base stations works as similar as connection of Wifi to access point works, the only difference is that WiMAX covers much wider area.

One WiMAX base stations can be connected to several other base stations using high speed microwave link, this link is usually known as backhaul. This way WiMAX roaming can be achieved and connections can be maintained on move. Wimax support many protocols like ATM, IPv4 Ethernat, VLAN etc, this makes WiMax a rich choice for full of services from data to voice.

WiMAX is suitable for the potential applications like connecting Wi-Fi hotspots with each other and to other parts of internet, wireless alternative to cable and DSL for last mile broadband access, providing high-speed data and telecommunications services and adverse source of internet connectivity as part of a business continuity plan.

It is projected that if Wimax service starts, it will draw near about 10,000 users by the end of 2008 and by the end of 2010 it will be over 200,000. Compared to other countries, Bangladesh is a late entrant to the world of WiMAX. Worldwide traditional phone technologies are being replaced with WiMAX. A good number of national and international experts presented their papers on prospects of WiMAX technology in Bangladesh. So Wimax launching will bring a revolutionary change in Bangladesh telecom sector.

(Md. Habib-ur-Rahman Mollah, Dept. Of Computer Science and Engineering, Mawlana Bhasani Science and Technology University, Santosh, Tangail.)

Seminar on Higher Education held at British Council

On Thursday, 29th May-08, seminar on Cross Border Higher Education was held at the British Council Auditorium. Peter Ashton, the Director of British Council Bangladesh was the Guest Speaker of the Seminar, Mohammad Nuruzzaman, Executive Director of Daffodil Institute of IT (DIIT), preside over the seminar and Dr. Md. Fokhray Hossain, the Academic Director of DIIT was also present at the seminar as the speaker.

The key note speaker of the seminar was, KM Hasan Ripon, Deputy Director of the institute.

Ripon in his presentation highlighted on different opportunities of achieving UK Qualification from home country through the examination at the British Council.

He also described briefly on the prospects and opportunities of the higher education under CBHE & its acceptance in the global context. Ripon also highlighted on DIIT's achievement in providing UK Qualification. Peter Ashton and Dr. Md Fokhray Hossain also highlighted on different supports, opportunities for Bangladesh students and achievements of DIIT students.

IBM demos new way to cool chips

IT DESK REPORT

Now that's a cool idea. IBM demonstrated a prototype that shows how rivers of water can cool computer chips that have circuits and components stacked on top of each other instead of the traditional method of having them sit side-by-side on silicon wafer.

"As we package chips on top of each other to significantly speed a processor's capability to process data, we have found that conventional coolers attached to the back of a chip don't scale," said Thomas Brunschwiler, project leader at IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory, in a statement. "Until now, nobody has demonstrated viable solutions to this problem."

Brunschwiler and other IBM researchers piped water into cooling structures as thin as a human hair (50 microns) between the individual chip layers to remove heat efficiently at the source.

The 3-D chip stacks would have an aggregated heat dissipation of close to 1 kilowatt -- 10 times greater than the heat generated by a hot plate -- with an area of 4 square centimeters and a thickness of about 1 millimeter.

The researchers said they were able to overcome technical challenges by designing a system that maximizes the water flow through the layers, and also hermetically sealed the interconnects to prevent water from causing electrical shorts.

Brunschwiler and researchers are now working to optimize cooling systems for even smaller chip dimensions and more interconnects. In addition, they are also investigating additional sophisticated structures for hotspot cooling.

The research was conducted in IBM labs in Zurich, Switzerland in collaboration with The Fraunhofer Institute based in Berlin.

"This truly constitutes a breakthrough," said Bruno Michel, manager of the chip cooling research at the IBM Zurich Lab, in a statement.

"With classic backside cooling, the stacking of two or more high-power density logic layers would be impossible."

This recent development follows last year's demonstration by the company in furthering chip-stacking technology in a manufacturing environment. The research showed that the technology was able to shorten the distance information on a chip needs to travel by 1,000 times, and allow the addition of up to 100 times more channels, or pathways, for that information to flow compared to 2-D chips.

Transformation to demand-driven supply chain

IT DESK REPORT

Most supply chain projects in the past have focused internally on reducing operating costs through inventory reductions, better transportation planning, lower transaction costs and improved supplier management.

However, industry-leading companies are transforming their supply chains externally to be demand-driven with the key objectives to grow revenue and profits.

Shouldn't all supply chains be demand driven? Absolutely, it is not by accident that many of the best suppliers to top retailers are leading the transformation into a demand-driven industry.

These companies have five best practices in common. Those are,

1. Collaborate internally and externally.

Collaboration is the most critical step in any effort to improve demand visibility and the ability to use this increased visibility constructively. It allows suppliers and customers to communicate insights on planned promotions, extraordinary events, capacity constraints, new product introductions, operational problems, and other issues that are not covered by electronic data interchange transmitted orders and shipping notices.

2. Use every source of data.

The internet and today's powerful network computers have made it possible to acquire and analyse the huge volumes of demand data including POS data, sales history, consumer demographics, syndicated data, RFID, and other sources. In addition to supporting forecasts that are more responsive to demand changes, using the POS demand streams provides the best foundation for another best practice: the one-number plan.

3. Use intelligence, not algorithms (in supply chain applications).

Algorithms costs a lot to build yet ultimately don't work fully automated. Using increased demand visibility, precise forecasting technology, and collaboration, industry-leading companies are empowering their planners, not attempting to replace them with automated software.

4. Create a real sales and operations planning process.

A "real" S&OP process is one that allows all departments to contribute to developing and executing the annual and monthly plans, including enabling sales, marketing, and finance to actively participate in the process; monitoring progress toward the goals set forth in the annual operating plan; initiating demand-creation activities when the current forecast is falling short of the operating plan; incorporating inputs from customers through collaboration; and increasing demand data sources to ensure that right quantities of the right products are in the right place.

5. Focus on process excellence, then technology.

Common weaknesses include the inability to: develop accurate forecasts at a more granular customer or location level, integrate promotion lift factors into program forecasts, and make systems more responsive to increased demand visibility and handle more granular data. Fortunately, these capabilities can be added to existing enterprise resource planning systems with less difficulty than in years past. Better software platforms, common messaging protocols, and user interfaces mean that the weaknesses listed above can be addressed in months, not years.

Essentially, these five best practices make it possible to increase demand visibility, make better decisions with this information, and ensure that the new collaborative processes are scalable and repeatable to sustain revenue and profitability gains.

The real good news is that much of the technology required to transform any company to be demand-driven is already in place at many organisations. By adding a relatively light layer of additional planning software, your company can be on its way to becoming demand-driven. The combination of increased demand visibility and precise demand management yields a return on investment faster than many other information technology projects.

-Article By Hafeez Ullah Irfan

Good for Apple, good for everyone else

IT DESK REPORT

As Apple prepares to launch the iPhone-2, competitors like Palm and RIM are not worried. On the contrary, they are licking their chops, preparing for a surge in sales, even though Apple expects to sell millions of new iPhones worldwide.

"The way I look at it is there are 1.2 billion cell phones out there, and we're just scratching the surface," said Mike Laziridis, CEO of Research In Motion, which makes the BlackBerry, the iPhone's closest rival.

Steve Jobs is expected to announce the second version of the iPhone during a keynote speech kicking off Apple's annual Worldwide Developer's Conference.

The iPhone 2 has already been dubbed the "BlackBerry killer." It promises to be faster, slicker and cheaper, boasting features like fast 3-G networking, Exchange support and even carrier subsidies. If the rumors prove true, it will be the iPhone many buyers have been holding out for.

It's a standard line for companies to say they "welcome competition," but it's usually a throwaway meant to deflect attention from strategic vulnerabilities.

In the case of the iPhone, however, competitors earnestly have reason to welcome Apple to the market. Sales show that what's been good for Apple has been very good for smartphone makers.

Retail sales of the BlackBerry, for example, are up 38 percent in the year since the iPhone's introduction.

It didn't initially look that way. When the iPhone 2 rumors first surfaced, nervous investors sold off shares of RIM under the assumption that the company would get creamed by Apple.

Instead, RIM's market share of smartphones in the United States has actually swelled from 35 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007 to 45 percent in the first quarter of 2008.

Palm says the sell-through rate on smartphones over the last two quarters has climbed 21 percent to 833,000 units in the third (and most recent) quarter, from 686,000 in the previous quarter (although the sell-through rate was 689,000 in the first quarter).

"The Centro has played a critical role in moving our transformational efforts along at a fast pace," said Ed Colligan, CEO and president of Palm, in a March conference call. He added that more than 70 percent of Centro buyers are traditional cellphone users who are purchasing a smartphone for the first time.

Booking

It's an odd phenomenon because it's not as though Apple invented the smartphone or any of its features - touch screen devices have been around for years and lots of mobile phones already had music capabilities on phones. What Apple did was package it -- and market it -- in a way that made it attractive to mainstream consumers.

"The fact that it looks cool and sexy has helped Apple, and has called attention to a portion of the market that had been under the radar for a lot of people," Llamas said.

In many ways, the iPhone's effect on the market can be compared to what the iPod did for MP3 players.

Before Apple rolled out the iPod, the portable audio market wasn't doing much. In 1999, there were really only a handful of MP3-player makers and unit sales were marginal. Just a couple years after Apple rolled out the iPod in 2001, an industry was born.

Now we'll have to see whether the iPhone will have the same effect on the smartphone market.

H-P positions new PCs to compete

Justin Scheck

Hewlett-Packard Co. is taking aim at some of the most competitive segments of the consumer PC business with new products that include an ultrathin laptop designed to compete with Apple Inc.'s distinctive MacBook Air.

H-P, which is No. 1 in world-wide unit sales of personal computers, plans to unveil Tuesday its new Voodoo Envy 133 laptop, which is a little more than a half-inch thick and weighs less than 3½ pounds.

H-P, which is announcing the products at an event in Berlin, also plans to introduce a new touch-screen model aimed at the growing "all in one" desktop market, which refers to computers that have all the parts contained in the monitor.

H-P's offerings are the latest sign of the increasing importance that computer makers are placing on design, says Richard Shim, a PC industry analyst at IDC -- something Apple has done for years. Mr. Shim adds that though the new H-P products may not be big sellers initially, they could serve as an example for the "future of the marketplace."

The new products also ratchet up the competition with No. 2 computer maker Dell Inc., which has been trying to improve the design of its consumer PCs. In recent months, several Dell executives have said they are working to build thinner consumer machines.The market for ultrathin models heated up early this year when Apple introduced the MacBook Air, which is only slightly thicker than the new H-P notebook. In February, Lenovo Group Ltd. followed with an ultrathin PC aimed more at business users. Both computers got mixed reviews for their high prices -- approaching $3,000 for top configurations -- and the MacBook was criticized for not having a removable battery or a built-in socket for plugging into Ethernet networks. H-P's new Voodoo Envy model has a removable battery and can be booted up in less than five seconds using software developed by H-P. It offers an Ethernet port that is part of its power adapter.

The ultrathin PC is one of the first new products H-P is developing under the Voodoo brand, which it acquired in 2006 when it bought gaming PC maker VoodooPC. Rahul Sood, who ran that company and now heads H-P's Voodoo brand, said H-P engineers started working on the new machine about 18 months ago, as part of an effort to reposition Voodoo from a gaming brand to a luxury name.

Creating a thin PC with a battery that could be removed was one of the major challenges, Mr. Sood said. Another was perfecting its carbon-fiber case, which initially felt too flimsy. "It caused us to go back to the drawing board," Mr. Sood said. Ultimately, they were able to make the case stiffer by using a different carbon-fiber mix. J.P. Gownder, an analyst at Forrester Research, said the $2,000 price remains steep for most consumers. "Anything over $1,500 is ultra-expensive in this market," he said. But, he added, with PC prices falling in every category, high-end products represent an opportunity for computer companies to increase their narrowing profit margins.

Mr. Gownder said that in the short term, he is more focused on H-P's new TouchSmart PC as a potential revenue booster. He said the computer, which is fully contained behind the monitor, enters an all-in-one market that is expanding despite an overall decline in desktop PC sales.

Google to build R&D campus at NASA

IT DESK REPORT

Larry and Sergey's SPACE dreams have finally gotten them to that final frontier -- Not quite!

For now, the dynamic duo are content with a 40-years lease term with NASA to build a high-tech R&D campus at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View. Their company Google retains the option to extend the lease term to 90 years with construction expected to start 2013 onwards. Initially, lease payable by Google would be $3.66-million a year.

The initiative has been lauded by both NASA and Google officials. Given the campus space i.e. 42.2 acres, Google plans to have its offices up to 12 million square feet, expand its workforce by a couple of thousands, and include housing for its highly-talented employees.

Google's association with NASA isn't new; earlier they've worked together on Google Earth and other such projects. The latest endeavor is billed to help NASA too -- in the expansion of its Research Park for space exploration, scientific discovery, and other such.