OR/MS Today - December 2001 - Cyberspace

<BODY bgcolor="#ffffff" link="cc0000" vlink="cc0000" text="#000000"> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=4 border=0><br>   <table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=480><tr valign=top> <td width=10><img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 hspace=4 border=0></td> <td width=470> <FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2><B><I><A HREF="../../ORMS.shtml" TARGET="_top">OR/MS Today</A> - December 2001</I></B></font><BR> <hr size="1"> <img src="cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=4 border=0><br> <font face="times new roman, times"> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=4 border=0><br> <FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2><B>Cyberspace</B></FONT><br> <IMG SRC="../barbluehook.gif" WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="4"><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=8 border=0><br> <FONT SIZE="+2"><B>On the Move: The Mobile Internet</B></FONT><BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> <FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2><B>By ManMohan S. Sodhi</B></FONT><br> <hr size="1"> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=12 border=0><br>    My life is divided between Chicago, London and San Jose. As I wait in security-check lines at airports, I draw hope from magazine ads: women professionals on the beach accessing the Web wirelessly, appetizing laptops from Apple using Airport<SUP><SMALL>TM</SMALL></SUP> technology or sleek ones from Sony using Bluetooth, and mobile or cell phones with "3G" capability. With so many upcoming (and existing) technologies, there is potential for confusion, breathless "buzz," and stock seduction with "m" (for mobile) replacing the "e" in e-commerce hype. To gain clarity, the following can help to frame the different technologies and their uses: <UL> <LI>who or what is moving (these could be people or equipment like trucks or railcars); <LI>the physical range of the (wireless) communication entailed: less than 10 meters, less than 100 meters, nationwide or even global; <LI>what users in different continents expect and how they use the Internet; and <LI>personal or industrial use. </UL> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> <FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=3><B>Clearing up the Mobile Muddle</B></FONT><BR> <IMG SRC="../barbluehook.gif" WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="4"><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=2 border=0><br> The mobile Internet needs wireless technology, but wireless technologies can also power other networks or even non-mobile use. For instance, the transportation industry can use wireless technologies, but not the Internet, to track trucks or railcars. And the chemical industry can monitor (fixed) tanks remotely using wireless technology to transmit the level periodically.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> In the United States, the technical standard for cell phones is CDMA (code division multiple access) used by Sprint and Verizon or TDMA (time division multiple access) used by AT&T, whereas the rest of the world, along with some U.S. carriers, use GSM (Groupe Speciale Mobile). These different standards may converge in the future to a new technical standard called Wideband CDMA.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> Among wireless technologies for laptops (and other devices) are Bluetooth and 802.11b (or WiFi). Bluetooth is intended to move data at speeds up to 1 megabit/sec between multiple devices within 10 meters of each other. You could use your Bluetooth-equipped laptop to print wirelessly to a Bluetooth-equipped printer. The 802.11b standard is intended to connect as many as 250 devices to a single access point over a range of as much as a 100 meters with data transfer speeds up to 10 megabit/sec, so you can create a wireless "local" area network with Ethernet-like speeds for Web surfing.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> A cell phone is more mobile than a laptop and is "always on," thus making it more useful in receiving real-time information. However, it has a much smaller screen than a laptop, and, to surf the Web, it needs specialized Web sites that provide content to fit these screens. In Japan, many people use i-mode from NEC DoCoMo and similar services from competitors to access such Web sites. Wireless technology for cell phones is evolving from the current second-generation (2G) to the third-generation (3G) for broadband access to allow, for instance downloading and viewing a video clip.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> Finally, the mobile Internet means different things to different people depending on where they live. In the United States and Canada, most people have to drive and they access the Web using a computer or laptops. In Asia and Europe, there is public transportation, and people use travel time to send and receive messages on their cell phones or even to browse the Web.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=12 border=0><br> <FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=3><B>What's the Point?</B></FONT><BR> <IMG SRC="../barbluehook.gif" WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="4"><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=2 border=0><br> The new technologies are eventually aimed at increasing bandwidth and at providing easier access than present today to services like Web-surfing. Benefits will be evolutionary in extending existing wireless applications and revolutionary in enabling new ways of doing business. The wireless Web for laptops is, at least initially, an evolutionary change enabling Ethernet-like connection, as is the move from 2G and then to 3G (via the intermediate 2.5G).<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> For some of the proposed revolutionary changes, we better take a close, clear-eyed look. For instance, with m-commerce, we are told that we could get messages on our cell phones about where to buy products as we walk through a mall. Last time I went shopping for clothes in a mall in San Jose, a capable young woman helped me with everything. This was much more pleasant than spending an afternoon squinting into a cell-phone screen. She also told me that she was a fashion consultant to Yahoo, which makes me think that, when it comes to new clothes, even high-tech emperors prefer the personal touch. Also, I would not bet my shirt on convergence of wireless standards any time soon.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> When I read the ads, the mobile Internet appears as glamorous as global travel to cities like Chicago and London. But, at least in the near future, it may be as un-chic as my own reality: difficulties in accessing the Internet, two different cell phones (for the United States and the United Kingdom), a heavy laptop with a sore shoulder, and long security check lines at airports where I read the mobile Internet ads. Maybe next year will be better. Best wishes to y'all for 2002.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=4 border=0><br> <IMG SRC="../barbluehook.gif" WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="4"><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=2 border=0><br> <FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2><I>Dr. ManMohan S. Sodhi is vice president at Gandiva. He also teaches e-business and IT to executives at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business through their executive education program. He is the founder of the OR news group, <A HREF="news:sci.op-research">sci.op-research</A>, and helped design and create INFORMS Online. He welcomes your comments at <A HREF="mailto:MohanSodhi@AOL.com">MohanSodhi@AOL.com</A>.</I><BR>  <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=5 border=0><br>  <img src="../barblue.gif" width=468 height=1 border=0 alt=" "><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=8 border=0><br> <font face="verdana, arial, helvetica" size="1"> <CENTER><script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script></CENTER><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=8 border=0><br> <FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=1> <LI> <A HREF="tocfr.html" Target="_top"><I>Table of Contents</I></A><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=4 border=0><br> <LI> <A HREF="../../ORMS.shtml" TARGET="_top"><I>OR/MS Today</I> Home Page</A><br>  <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=8 border=0><br> <img src="../barblue.gif" width=468 height=1 border=0 alt=" "><br> <b><i>OR/MS Today</i></b> copyright © 2001 by <A HREF="http://www.informs.org/" target="_new">the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences</a>. 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