Here is the full, unedited text of my first article for Inform magazine printed in January 2009.
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Widely Accessible : Mobile Computing via Broadband Networks
By Will Rourk
20081116
Access to information is everywhere. Floating in the ether all around are pipelines to online resources that you might use everyday in your profession. How you tap into this information pipeline can impact how architects and design professionals keep up-to-date in the field. Online resources such as project databases, parts and materials catalogs, best practices manuals, email and online calendaring systems are easy to integrate into the normal office life with the help of hardwired ethernet and wireless network connections. But your office often extends into the field where your designs are being realized. Access to your online resources in the field could greatly influence the progress of construction and the implementation of your designs. This article will take a look at broadband network technologies as an alternative to the limitations one might face with standard network connections in the office.
There are various possibilities for mobile computing within the architectural and design professions. Mobility begins when your ethernet cable is disconnected but your access to the internet remains in tact. The most common method of mobile connectivity is through a Wi-Fi connection (or Wireless Fidelity). That’s when your laptop or handheld computing device connects to the internet via an internal or external Wi-Fi antenna without the need for cables or wires. The technology behind Wi-Fi allows your computing device, i.e. laptop, to connect to a Wireless Local Area Network, or WLAN, by way of a wireless router that is connected to your internet service. The location and sphere of connectivity of these network points are more commonly known as hotspots. Hotspot connection ranges can only extend anywhere from 100-300 ft from a wireless router. For the most part that’s ok if your connecting to the internet from your home, office or your favorite café. But unless you’re field work includes renovation or adding onto an existing building near a Wi-Fi router, Wi-Fi signals will probably be weak to non-existent. So how can you stay connected wirelessly when no Wi-Fi connections are not showing up on your laptop? One might consider broadband networks.
Broadband networking is the technology behind the way your cellphone or smartphone is able to send and receive data, like for example, checking email or browsing the internet. Also known as WWAN, or Wireless Wide Area Networks, the range of connectivity is pretty much the range at which your cellphone is able to send and receive calls. This is a much wider sphere of connectivity than standard Wi-Fi. This is great for your smartphone but how does that help you connect your laptop or mobile computing device?
There are different ways in which these devices can take advantage of broadband networks. For one thing most computers these days have the ability to connect to your cellphone via a process called Bluetooth pairing. This is a method by which you can use your cellphone as a kind of broadband modem. Bluetooth is simply a technology that allows your computer to talk wirelessly to other devices, like a cellphone for example. In your laptop’s Bluetooth settings (Windows – Control Panel, Macintosh – System Preferences) you can enable your computer to dial your cellphone to pair with it and connect to its network data services. In other words your laptop can talk to your cellphone and connect to it so that it can take advantage of your phone’s ability to send and receive information. Your phone essentially becomes a modem like the one you use at home or your office to connect to your DSL or internet cable service. The problem with this, though, is that some service providers may allow this and others may block it. Some phone companies don’t really like the idea of piggy backing onto your cellphone’s data services to get free internet for your laptop. Check with your cell phone service provider to see if they do allow this. Otherwise service providers offer other strategies by which you can directly receive broadband network access.
In addition to offering cellphone service, most cellphone companies today also offer broadband networking service that is handled by a special connection card. These cards usually go into your laptop or computing device’s USB port or PCMCIA card slot. A network card acts as an external antenna by which your computing device can access broadband networks. Just about all of the major carriers provide data service plans for subscribers with trademark titles such as Sprint/Nextel’s Mobile Broadband Connection Plan, AT&T’s LaptopConnect Card plans, Alltel’s Extended Wireless Internet and Internet Anywhere plans and nTelos’ Mobile Broadband plans.
As an alternate many laptops currently come equipped with broadband networking devices already installed so that you don't need a separate card. Most computer manufacturers have made partnerships with network service providers to offer specialized data services. The Lenovo ThinkPad series laptops have the option of installed WWAN and a rebate offer for network service with Verizon’s Wireless BroadbandAccess. Both HP and Panasonic are taking advantage of the Gobi™ global mobile internet service which allows laptops to globally connect to network service providers using a variety of high speed broadband technologies available today. Since broadband connections react similarly to cell phone voice connections, broadband service can be limited to regional and national areas. Gobi™ service provides a way to ensure connections wherever services are available in the world outside of the usual cell phone service regions. This is the main purpose of mobile technology – to stay connected no matter where you go.
The trend in consumer demands these days have been influencing the streamlined design of laptops and other mobile computing devices. Most of these laptops are now being defined specifically as “ultraportables” because they are smaller, thinner and lighter weight than traditional laptops, such as Apple’s Macbook Air, Lenovo’s IdeaPad and Fujitsu’s LifeBook. For professional mobility one may consider an alternative to laptop computing and look towards a genre of computing devices that further reduces the bulk down to the size of a device that can fit in your pocket or at least in your pocketbook sized bag. The UMPC, or Ultra-Mobile PC, is not that new these days but is becoming sophisticated enough to provide the computing power of a laptop in a handheld device. These devices can run standard versions of Windows XP or Vista or variants of Linux yet fit in the palm of your hand. And just like ultraportable laptops, many of these devices are also coming equipped with WWAN capabilities. The Samsung Q1-CMXP for example is in a partnership with AT&T to provide broadband networking access via HSDPA, a form of broadband connection that is quickly becoming a faster mode of data transfer than the standard EV-DO connection used by most cellphones. The OQO 02 is another UMPC that has partnered with Sprint and Verizon to provide broadband access. The form factor of the 02 is a lot less bulky than the Q1 providing even greater mobility. But the factor to consider might be the networking capability of a mobile device. The Q1 has adopted faster HSDPA broadband connectivity while the 02 uses the more ubiquitous but slower EV-DO connection. So when buying a mobile device the connection technology is just as important as the form factor.
So why even use Wi-Fi if WWAN provides greater coverage? The main reason is cost. While Wi-Fi isn’t free to provide, access to Wi-Fi connections at any non-password protected hotspot, such as the one at your favorite café, can be made freely with your laptop or mobile device’s built in WiFi antenna. But anytime you connect to a broadband network you are being charged by your internet service provider or cellphone company, and depending on whether you have unlimited data connections in your service plan or not, you are paying for every connection. There’s also connection speed to consider. Wi-Fi speeds are usually faster than even the emerging 3g (3rd generation) broadband networks. And then there’s the fabled promise of WiMax to consider in the (near?) future. WiMax is like Wi-Fi on steroids, providing a much wider area of high speed wireless network coverage. For a few years now WiMax has been the promised solution to free wireless networking for all. Cities like Philadelphia have looked into the possibility of hardwiring their neighborhoods with WiMax transmitters for free network access. Only a couple of months ago Sprint tested its own proprietary WiMax technology called XOHM on the streets of Baltimore and DC. But even WiMax has it’s geographic limitations in providing wireless access much like WiFi does. With the phone companies banking on the success of broadband networking plans it's uncertain what will become of WiMax and the prospects of free internet for all. Like many technologies these days the current state of network accessibility is transitional. Through this transition, though, more choices are becoming available for professionals to stay connected outside of the hardwired office.
Staying mobile nowadays is synonymous with staying connected thanks to the ever-growing ubiquity of wide area networks. And for now, access to project information is insured for field work and site investigations, although at a cost. Not only are project assets available from the field but so to is access to dynamic, real-time information from Web 2.0 technologies like live chat, forums, blogs, media sharing and collaborative applications. The breadth of our understanding of information utilization grows with our ability to access it.
For more information and links to some of the technologies discussed here visit my blog at http://rezn8r.blogspot.com/. Thanks to Shaeffer Somers AIA and Patricia Jessee, AIA, of Heyward, Boyd Architects, both from Charlottesville, for their professional input on this particular article - WR.
