The Fixed Broadband Wireless Access (FBWA) is an emerging technology that can be used to provide a high speed access alternative to cable modem or DSL. The IEEE 802.16 working group of the IEEE LAN/MAN standardization committee is developing specifications for a FBWA standard.

Making these wireless technologies a market reality requires overcoming the limitations that have kept broadband wireless access from effectively competing in the mass market with broadband DSL and cable. To mass deploy wireless broadband access, service providers must be able to reach a very high percentage of prospective customers in a given market. Thus, the wireless technology must be reliable and robust with adequate range to minimize the number of cell sites required for Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) service.

Iospan Wireless' MIMO-OFDM (Multiple Input, Multiple Output Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) technology uses multiple antennas to both transmit and receive radio signals. MIMO-OFDM will allow service providers to deploy a Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) system that has Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) functionality.

In environments with relatively low base station antennas that are not in a subscribers' CPE line-of-sight, radio signals bounce off buildings, trees and other objects as they travel between the two antennas. This bouncing effect produces multiple "echoes" or "images" of the signal, a phenomenon known as "multipath." As a result, the original signal and the individual echoes each arrive at the receiver antenna at slightly different times causing the echoes to interfere with one another thus degrading signal quality.

Iospan uses MIMO technology to turn "multipath" into an advantage. The system simultaneously transmits customer data using multiple transmit antennas located at slightly different points in space. The data is broken up into pieces and each piece is sent at the same time over the wireless channel. The receiver processes the separate data flows and puts them back together. This spatial multiplexing technique proportionally boosts the carrying capacity or the data-transmission speed by a factor equal to the number of transmitting antennas. As an example, if two antennas are used, the data-transmission speed is doubled. Since all data is transmitted both in the same frequency band and with separate spatial signatures, this technique utilizes spectrum with extremely efficiency.

OEB ComSoc Presentation: Fixed Broadband Wireless Access: Non-Line-of-Sight Systems
The speaker will present the fundamentals of non-line-of-sight technology for fixed broadband wireless access. If you want to understand the future of fixed wireless technology, be sure not to miss this meeting.

Dr. Rajeev Krishnamoorthy received his Ph.D. from Cornell University. He earned his BS at CalTech. He has been active in research, design, development, and delivery of several wired and wireless communication systems, including wireless LANs, DSL, Cable, and mobile & fixed wireless systems. He is currently Vice President, Technology Development at Iospan Wireless based in San Jose. Prior to that he was at Bell Laboratories, AT&T and NCR Netherlands, where he worked in a variety of technical and leadership positions.

" Fixed Broadband Wireless Access: Non-Line-of-Sight Systems" was presented by Dr. Krishnamoorthy, VP/CTO IOspan Wireless.

According to the Yankee group, 29% of U.S. households have multiple PCs. Many of these households also have High-speed (Broadband) Internet access (either cable modem or DSL). A ccording to a recent report by ARS of La Jolla, there are now 5.1 million cable modem subscribers and 3.3 million DSL subscribers today. The total number is expected is grow to 28 million by 2004.

Home networks link the many different electronic devices in a household through a connected local area network (LAN). Home networking allows all users in the household to access the Internet and applications at the same time. In addition data/audio/video files can be swapped, and peripherals such as printers and scanners can be shared. There is no longer the need to have more than one Internet access point, printer, scanner, or in many cases, software packages.

There are currently four networking technologies for networking multiple PCs and sharing resources in small offices: conventional Ethernet, phone line, wireless, and power line. This presentation will compare and contrast current and future availability and benefits of these technologies for home and SOHO and networking.

Effective use of home networking and broadband internet connection requires a Residential Gateway. This device seamlessly connects a home network to a broadband network, allowing the benefit of high-speed connection to be simultaneously enjoyed by all networked devices.

The applications of Residential Gateways are not limited to high-speed Internet access. In the future, the broadband "pipe" coming into your home will carry more that just the Internet, but also new telephone and entertainment services in the form of streaming video and audio and interactive, networked games will be available. A Residential Gateway could intelligently route that data to specific telephones, digital televisions and stereo equipment in your home. The Gateway also incorporates privacy and security features such as firewall, monitoring visited web sites and filtering inappropriate content.

Mr. Pasquale Romano earned his undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Harvard University, and received his master's degree from the M.I.T. Media Laboratory.

Mr. Romano is currently Vice President of Engineering at 2Wire - a leading manufacturer of products that deliver broadband content throughout the home. Earlier, Mr. Romano worked at Polycom in various development management positions. Mr. Romano co-founded Fluent, Inc., a digital video networking company, and served as Chief Architect until the company was sold to Novell Corporation in 1993. Mr. Romano was an active participant and initial member of the International Multimedia Teleconferencing Consortium (IMTC), served as a technical committee member for the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and holds two U.S. patents.

" Home Networking - Here and Now" was presented by Mr. Pasquale Romano, VP Engineering, 2Wire.

The Strategis Group predicts that by the year 2004, revenue from wireless data will reach $33.5 billion globally. There is no doubt that the mobile computing market is quite large. With the explosive growth of sales of mobile computers, hand-held PDAs, and smart telephones, mobile computing has been hailed as a hot new technology that will significantly change the way in which we conduct our lives.

This growth of wireless data in portable devices has previously been tempered by the FCC's requirement to individually test and qualify each product that contains a radio. This causes delays and added expense for the designer / manufacturer in creating new and innovative products.

The FCC has recently adopted new rules that allow for the approval of "modules" which can be pre-certified. This frees the designer to incorporate wireless data functions within his products without the time and expense of FCC certification procedures.

Our speaker, Jeffrey Schiffer will review the significance of these new wireless data modules and the benefits to the designers of new mobile data devices.

Mr. Schiffer is currently Manager of Wireless Research at Intel Labs. He has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Since graduation, he has focused his energies on the design and development of RF systems, cable modems, synthesizers, microwave systems, and secure networking devices for both the Government and private industry. His experience covers the entire gambit of RF solutions, from building the receiving system for the S.E.T.I. (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project, an Earth Station for the Chinese, the voice communications system for the L.E.M. project, to components used in various microwave communications systems. Mr. Schiffer was one of the original members of the Intel Bluetooth team. He currently chairs the Bluetooth Aviation working group, and is very active in wireless regulatory activities around the world.

" Embedded Wireless Connections - FCC Module Approach" was presented by Mr. Jeffrey Schiffer, Manager of Wireless Research at Intel Labs.

Today's Access Network is characterized by multiple service offerings predominantly on copper infrastructure. Next generation Metro equipment will have to support the aggregation of existing services and copper infrastructure into optical pipes. The dream of all-optical network is very exciting but the actual implementation is years away. The current Optical to Electrical to Optical (OEO) conversion in the metro is the most suitable way to scale the network. The all-optical network will make its way in the long haul market first before it penetrates into the metro core. Since the majority of services in the metro use the existing copper infrastructure, it is of utmost importance to fill the OC48 and OC192 pipes efficiently before deploying the expensive DWDM equipment in the access networks.

We will continue our new feature at the meeting of providing some networking time for those that want to stand and make a brief announcement. If you're looking for a new position, have a position to fill, want to let us know that your new start-up is ready for business or have a similar announcement, bring your resumes, job descriptions or company brochures and be prepared to make a match. Just please keep your statements brief, so we'll have time for everyone. There will be time after the meeting for one-on-one discussions.

OEB ComSoc Presentation: Today's Access Network: Reality and an Ambitious Future
Sunil Tomar is an Angel Investor and mentor for high tech start-ups. He co-founded Cyras Systems as Vice President of Engineering. Cyras - a developer and manufacturer of optical switching products for the metro market was acquired by Cienna. Sunil has previously worked for companies widely acknowledged as technology leaders in these areas. At Fiberlane (Cerent), Sunil led the engineering team that developed the world's largest SONET cross-connect ASIC. While at Cisco/Stratacom, he led the team that developed ATM/Frame Relay access products. Sunil was instrumental in LSI Logic's development of the ATMizer chipset in addition to developing ASICs for the Apple Newton PDA. Sunil holds an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from San Jose State University.

" Today's Access Network: Reality and an Ambitious Future" was presented by Mr. Sunil Tomar, an Angel Investor and mentor for high tech start-ups.

Almost every engineering design task today requires the use of computers in some form or another - from maintaining a web site to performing data analysis on a PC, Mac, or Sun workstation to designing embedded systems. While there are many off-the-shelf software packages that you can use, there almost always comes a time when you think about some custom change you would like. In many cases you don't even have a choice. Product functionality or competitive pressures require you to add some unique feature(s) to your design. And, if your design is revolutionary, you may have to build a complete software system almost from scratch.

Designing software requires a bunch of tools. And, one of the most important tools is the programming language. To paraphrase a familiar rule of thumb, "You can't guarantee success by choosing the correct programming language, but you can guarantee failure by choosing the wrong one." And, you have plenty to choose from. Select any letter of the alphabet and you'll find a dozen or more languages - Ada, Basic, C, C++, Eiffel, Forth, Fortran, Java, Perl, Python, SQL! One web site (www.heuse.com/coding.htm) lists information on over 2300 languages.

What are the differences between these languages? Are there any similarities? How do they work? How do I separate hype from fact about object-oriented languages? How do I know what language is right for a project? Are there any rules of thumb? What's a real-time operating system and how does that constrain my language choices? What's a language toolchain? Do all these language toolchains cost an arm and a leg - can I get any of this stuff free? What operating systems support these languages?

All these questions and more will be answered at this one-day seminar. We'll describe scripting, procedural, functional, and object-oriented languages. And, we'll discuss how language features like inheritance, encapsulation, data hiding, and concurrency help make your life easier. You'll learn the difference between compilers and interpreters and how JIT compilers work. We'll review development toolchains and IDEs as well as configuration management, documentation, testing, and maintenance issues. We'll even discuss some obscure issues like garbage collection, polymorphism, recursion, and meta-languages.

This seminar is oriented toward engineering and networking professionals, not programmers. If you are a manager or an EE who is responsible for specifying, approving, or simply understanding the programming languages selected for use in a project, don't miss this event.

The seminar will be presented by John Zarrella, President of Impressima, Inc. Mr. Zarrella earned a BS in Mathematics and Physics from Carnegie-Mellon University. He has designed hardware and software systems for the electronics, transportation, instrumentation, and process control industries. Before founding Impressima, Inc., John was in charge of the OEM Systems and Peripherals Group at Intel Corporation. The author of nine books about computer software and hardware design, Mr. Zarrella specializes in database and embedded system design.

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is developing a substantial capability to carry voice in the LAN, WAN, and Internet spaces, but there are differences in its capabilities, based on QoS (Quality of Service) and other characteristics. There are also some significant issues and technology barriers that must be overcome to deliver quality solutions.

Mr. Phil Edholm of Nortel Networks will address these issues at the June meeting of the Oakland-East Bay Communications Society. In addition, he will discuss the market directions of VoIP, including market drivers, delivered values and implementation and adoption issues. He will also look at some of the innovative things that are occurring in the market.

Mr. Edholm will look to the future and the emergence of SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and the new communications paradigms that are enabled by VoIP and the potential for new businesses and products to emerge from this technology. He will present the view that VoIP is at the same place today that the Internet was in 1993, when it was awaiting the emergence of the equivalents of browsers, WWW, HTML, and URLs to transform it from a simple alternative transport to a revolution in human interaction (much as the Internet was transformed by 1998).

Phil Edholm is the Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Network Architecture for Nortel Networks Optical Ethernet and Enterprise Product Portfolio business units. He is responsible for developing the strategic vision and technology roadmaps associated with Nortel Networks' solutions for service providers and enterprises. In this role, he has technology leadership for Nortel's Optical Ethernet portfolio and across Nortel's enterprise line of data and voice networking products. Within Nortel, Phil has been responsible for multimedia initiatives in campus and enterprise networking, as well as advanced multimedia services. He has developed VoIP technologies and Java based collaboration applications, as well as played a key role in the merger of Northern Telecom and Bay Networks. Phil's background includes extensive LAN and data communications experience, including 9 years with Sytek/Hughes LAN Systems and 4 years with Silicon Valley start-ups. Phil started his career with General Motors and built and managed the world's largest in-plant manufacturing network in 1979-1982. Phil was a member of the IEEE 802.3 standards committee during the definition of broadband Ethernet, developed the first multi-protocol network interfaces, and was a founder of and the first VP of Marketing for the Frame Relay Forum. Phil has 2 patents with over 10 patent applications pending. He holds a BSME/EE from GMI/Kettering University.

" The Market and Directions of VoIP" was presented by Mr. Phil Edholm, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Network Architecture for Nortel Networks Optical Ethernet and Enterprise Product Portfolio business units.

Unauthorized access to servers and desktop computers has become the biggest security threat to corporate as well as home users, especially with the wide availability of "Always On" broadband connections. The resulting damage can be much more significant than the damage to individual computers from a virus distributed via e-mails. Artificial neural networks (ANN) can be used to detect intruders logging onto a computer network when computer users are profiled accurately.

The presentation will cover user profiling and using these profiles in conjunction with ANN techniques for intrusion detection. User profiling consists of both short-term and long-term profiling to collect attributes that are unique for each user. The speaker will show how intrusion detection is performed using ANN. Finally, different ANN techniques will be compared in terms of their performance in detecting intrusion.

Vu Dao is a computer scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He is currently developing software models for computer security and atmospheric phenomena. Earlier, he was a senior member of Technical Staff at SBC Technology Resources, responsible for designing and creating new services for the Cingular wireless GSM network. The presentation uses material from his unfinished Ph.D. work at the University of California, Davis. Mr. Dao received his MSEE from CSU, Sacramento and BSEE from UC Davis.

We will continue our feature at the meeting of providing some networking time for those that want to stand and make a brief announcement. If you're looking for a new position, have a position to fill, want to let us know that your new start-up is ready for business or have a similar announcement, bring your resumes, job descriptions or company brochures and be prepared to make a match. Just please keep your statements brief, so we'll have time for everyone. There will be time after the meeting for one-on-one discussions.

Also, to serve those coming from some distance away, we offer a car-pooling match. If you are interested in car-pooling to our meeting, send us your name, city, phone number and email address. We will compile the list and include it in a reminder email that will be sent out about a week before the meeting. Those in the same area can then call each other to make their own arrangements.

" Intrusion Detection using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN)" was presented by Mr. Vu Dao, a computer scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Wireless carriers and handset device manufacturers are struggling to keep pace with new product launches and several have had to either recall thousands of units for software upgrades or de-feature the units at the last minute due to software bugs. These issues are causing large costs for handset manufacturers and lost revenue for the service providers.

While it is possible for a wireless service provider to send a new 8MB+ embedded software file to an existing (in service) handset for re-flash, it is not technically feasible considering the actual time & file size involved and guaranteed fallback modes if the process is interrupted.

As the sophistication of new mobile handset products grows, so does the embedded software and memory size. New handset products being launched today support 8-12 MB with next generation devices planning from 18-24MB embedded memory size.

Chuck Hudson has over 25 years in the telecommunications industry and a total of 12 years in the wireless wide and local area technologies and markets. His worldwide experience includes IEEE 802.11x, GPRS, iMode, CDPD, ADSL, ISDN and other broadband communications technologies/markets. Chuck is Vice President Business Development at DoOnGo Technologies.

Robert Chiang has over 18 years in the computer and wireless product hardware, software and tools development industry. His wireless experience includes CDMA, TDMA, dual-mode and triple-mode handset designs. Robert is Director of Engineering at DoOnGo Technologies.

" Over-The-Air (OTA) Embedded Software Management for Mobile Phones" was presented by Michael Liu, Vice President of Engineering at DoOnGo Technologies.

The FCC issued a Report and Order on February 14, 2002, allocating 7,500MHz for unlicensed use for Ultra-wideband (UWB) transmitters. The FCC has imposed a limitation on the output power and the frequency range of UWB devices, and will re-examine UWB technology with the possibility of easing the restrictions. This talk will provide an introduction to UWB, a summary of technology's advantages and limitations, and a status of the industry.

UWB technology is commonly defined as a wireless transmission scheme that occupies a bandwidth of more than 20% of a center frequency, or more than 500 MHz. Most UWB companies are developing systems based on transmission and detection of very short pulses, typically in the sub-nanosecond range. Various modulation schemes are currently been developed, such as pulse position modulation, pulse amplitude modulation, bi-phase modulation and others. UWB receivers can be very simple, directly converting a received RF signal into a baseband signal, resulting in a very simple architecture. The main advantage is that a UWB transceiver doesn't require high Q components and, therefore, leads well to high level of integration. However, design challenges for UWB transceivers do remain and some of these will be discussed. UWB systems have several potential advantages as compared to continuous wave systems. These include large processing gains, superior multipath immunity and immunity from interference from other systems.

Commercial systems are under development today for very high bit rate Wireless Personal Area Networks (+200Mbps) and very low power consumption (multi-year battery lifetime).

This presentation will be given by Dr. Roberto Aiello. He is the founder and CEO of Discrete Time Communications. He is a recognized leader in the UWB community. Dr. Aiello was previously founder, President and CEO at Fantasma Networks, a UWB product company. In less than a year Fantasma Networks grew to be one of the recognized leaders in Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology. Prior to Fantasma, Dr. Aiello joined Interval Research, Paul Allen's research laboratory, in 1996 to work on advanced wireless technologies where he built the first documented UWB network. He previously held senior positions at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and the National Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory in Texas. Dr. Aiello holds a Ph.D. degree in Physics from the University of Trieste. He has authored 20 patents on UWB technology.

" Ultra-wideband (UWB) Technology for Communication Applications" was presented by Dr. Roberto Aiello, founder and CEO of Discrete Time Communications.

The first mile is defined as the infrastructure that connects the residential or business subscriber to the network operators' (carriers and service providers) central office. The subscriber can be an end user sitting at home, in a campus or at a business office. Currently the basic media linking the subscriber to the central office can be the unshielded twisted pair (UTP), coaxial cable (CATV), optical fiber or wireless.

The forthcoming Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM) standard will specify the protocols to use Ethernet for broadband Internet access in the critical first-mile to residential and business subscribers. Network operators will have freedom to choose among several topologies and physical layers. Ethernet on point to point copper is ideally suited to exploit the existing voice-grade copper infrastructure, as well as fiber to the curb/neighborhood deployments.

Why will Ethernet succeed more than other broadband access technologies? Today, there are nearly 500 million Ethernet ports deployed worldwide. Ethernet offers much higher speeds than cable or DSL can offer. Ethernet also offers unmatched flexibility for bandwidth allocation.

The IEEE P802.3ah EFM Task Force will define three subscriber access network topologies and physical layers:

1. EFM Copper (EFMC) over the existing copper wire (Cat3) at speeds of at least 10 Mbps up to at least 750 meters. Current DSL solutions are based on ATM cells transported over DSL. With EFMC, the ATM layer will be eliminated and the Ethernet frames transported directly over DSL.
   
   
2. EFM Fiber (EFMF) over Single Mode Fiber at speeds of 100 and 1000 Mbps up to at least 10 kilometers.
   
   
3. EFM PON (EFMP) - optical fiber at a speed of 1000 Mbps up to 20 kilometers.
   
   

EFM Hybrid (EFMH) topologies will be created through network operators inter-mixing the three topologies listed above.

This presentation will be given by Mr. Howard Frazier. Howard Frazier chairs the IEEE 802.3ah Ethernet in the First Mile Task Force, a member of the IEEE Standards Association Standards Board. Earlier he founded Dominet Systems, Inc., a Silicon Valley startup building Ethernet in the First Mile systems for business subscriber access networks. Howard was a Distinguished Engineer at Cisco Systems. He is a co-inventor of Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet and he was the chairman of the IEEE committee that wrote the standards for Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet. Among other accomplishments in high-speed networking, he developed the world's first 10/100BASE-T adapter in 1993. Howard graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University.

" Ethernet in the First Mile" (EFM)was presented by Craig Easley and Howard Frazier. Craig is the President of the EFM Alliance.  Howard chairs the IEEE 802.3ah Ethernet in the First Mile Task Force and is a co-inventors of Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

Several modulation methods have been developed over the last few years to support high-speed wireless networks (LAN - Local Area Network, PAN - Personal Area Network, MAN - Metropolitan Area Network). Many of these modulation methods are now part of the corresponding IEEE standards (802.11 - WiFi, 802.15 - BlueTooth and 802.16 - Broadband Wireless Access).

The first half of the presentation will provide a brief overview tutorial and comparison of the following modulation methods specified by 802.11 a, b or g:

• FHSS: Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum
• DSSS: Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum
• CCK: Complimentary Code Keying
• PBCC: Packet Binary Convolutional Coding
• OFDM: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
• CCK/PBCC: Hybrid CCK and PBCC
• CCK/OFDM: Hybrid CCK and OFDM

The second half of the presentation will examine OFDM in detail. This includes - selection of parameters based on the application and use of FFT (Fast Fourier Transforms) for tone recovery and the physical effects that allow carrier estimation, symbol time estimation and equalization.

Finally the application of OFDM to a point-to-point, 155 MHz, full duplex, time division duplexed, 5.8 GHz transceiver is described. The transceiver hardware is implemented in low cost WLAN components. Signal processing is performed in FPGA's using high-speed algorithms.

Gerald Sage has over 35 years of experience in the fields of communications and navigation. He has been an independent consultant for the last 15 years. His current interest is in high speed digital signal processing. Mr. Sage has led and contributed to the design of many communications, navigation and other electronics products. Earlier he was president of NTI, a navigation equipment design company. He has authored fifteen technical articles and been awarded seven patents. He is a past council member of the Institute of Navigation.

" Is OFDM the Answer to High-speed Wireless LANs?" was presented by Gerald Sage. Mr. Sage is an independent consultant in the fields of communications and navigation.

The technology to keep us connected no matter where you are and what time of day or night is here. We are all trying to answer:

• How does it work?
• Do we really want to use this technology - what are the benefits?
• Can we afford it?
• Are there any risks?

All these questions and more will be answered at this half-day seminar by a panel of industry experts. Each of the four speakers will focus on a different aspect of anytime, anywhere communications:

• 802.11 Wireless LAN (WLAN) Security challenges and solutions
• Wireless Internet Roaming
• Wireless PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants)
• 802.15 Personal LAN (Bluetooth)

Wireless LAN Security (Eric Blaufarb): IEEE 802.11b has come under scrutiny with the current implementation of WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy). The vulnerabilities found within WEP have caused IT managers to question the ability to safely deploy WLAN systems without compromising network security architectures. Eric will discuss the current state of WEP, interim fixes currently offered in the industry, and standards work currently underway by 802.11 Task Group I. Eric Blaufarb is the Market Development Manager for the Americas in the Wireless Network Business unit at Cisco. He is an evangelist for wireless LAN technologies across a variety of markets including Enterprise & Public Access. Eric is a member of Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA). Eric received his B.S. in MIS from California State University and MBA in Information Technologies from Golden Gate University, San Francisco.

Wireless Internet Roaming (Stuart Jeffery): With the popularity of WiFi (Wireless Fidelity), cellular carriers want to get in on the action. How will the carriers implement 802.11 WLANs given their existing customers, protocols, business systems, security/privacy, authentication and billing? This presentation will include discussion of the implementation of WiFi roaming to Wireless ISPs and cellular operators offering CDMA, GPRS, GSM or 3G services. The presentation will summarize the difficulties and obstacles in implementing a self-provisioning WiFi into a carrier class network.

Stuart Jeffery has been active in the mobile wireless communication business for the last 7 years. He is currently in stealth mode working on his next start-up. Most recently, he was VP North American Operations for Adjungo Networks. Adjungo Networks is developing technology to interconnect non-native "hot spots", such as 802.11, with cellular networks. Mr. Jeffery's professional experience in communication systems includes engineering, marketing and sales over 25 years. Stuart received his B.S. in Physics from Ohio State University and MBA from Northeastern University.

Essential Bluetooth™ (Noel Baisa): Since its inception, the main purpose of Bluetooth™ technology has always been to provide a wireless cable replacement. As with any new technology, it has suffered from unrealistic expectations but now has sufficient momentum to move forward and become an everyday reality. We will cover how this technology works from a system-level viewpoint, drill into radios and baseband processors and finally end with applications enabled by this technology.

Noel Baisa is a principal technical marketing manager for Bluetooth™ connectivity processors at National Semiconductor. Noel joined National Semiconductor in 1998 and was an Americas regional marketing manager and a senior applications engineer prior to his current position. Noel has also held technical positions at Delphi Automotive Systems and ITT Automotive. Noel earned M.S.E.E. from the University of Michigan and M.S.E. from Oakland University in Rochester, MI.

Wireless PDAs (Mike Rosenthal) Handheld Personal Digital Assistants have grown to a four billion dollar industry. Michael Rosenthal will discuss the challenges and choices faced by device makers in developing wireless PDAs. In particular he will address issues concerning radio, power requirements and form factor and how they impact converged wireless devices. He will continue with an overview of the technologies (wireless radio, PDA, software, and mobile service provider), which are driving the integration of wireless technology into PDAs. The presentation will end with a discussion of how consumers and businesses are using wireless devices today, and possible changes over time.

Mr. Rosenthal is a Product Manager at Handspring. He plays an integral part in product development and marketing for Blazer™ Internet browser and TreoMail™ (Handspring's wireless email solution). Previously, he managed Handspring's partner wireless efforts for the Springboard platform, helping to develop and deliver CDMA, 802.11b, CDPD, and other wireless modules. Mr. Rosenthal earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in Physics from Colby College.

"Wireless Communications Everywhere - Opportunities and Pitfalls", a half-day seminar presented by a panel of four industry experts focussed on the following topics:

• 802.11 Wireless LAN (WLAN) Security challenges and solutions
• Wireless Internet Roaming
• 802.15 Personal LAN (Bluetooth)
• Wireless PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants)