Service providers store and offer endless amounts of video content, but is anybody thinking about how users find what they want? Huge investments are being made in broadband wireless and wired IP networks, which enable users to access, large archives of video content. In order to stimulate the market for video services, there is a need for user-friendly video indexing and retrieval. This objective has been addressed by the EC IST project BUSMAN (bringing user satisfaction to media access networks). The article looks at the methods BUSMAN uses to make it easier for digital media users searching for the needle in the video haystack.

A new wireless technology named ZigBee is being launched onto the market. However, with Bluetooth, 802.11a, b and g, ultra wideband (UWB) and many more, there may seem to be a surfeit of wireless systems. Already a number of standards, such as HomeRF, have gone by the wayside, and others are sure to follow. But can ZigBee live up to its expectations? Aimed at control and sensor applications, ZigBee is a superset of the IEEE 802.15.4 specification, which defines the physical and MAC layers. Above this, ZigBee defines the application and security layer specifications that enable interoperability between products from different manufacturers. ZigBee supports three network topologies - star, mesh and cluster tree or hybrid networks. The article outlines the specification's foundations. It concludes that, in view of the size of this market, and the way in which considerable wiring cost savings can be realised, ZigBee has a good chance to carve out its own niche in the marketplace. Having already made an impact in the US, it is likely to be around for some time to come.

New services, which bank on cellular networks being able to determine handset position accurately, are said to be the next holy grail for mobile operators. The article describes the main technical flavours and their prospects. There are various practical techniques used to determine the location of a mobile phone. The main ones are: cell identify (cell-ID); enhanced cell ID (e-cell ID); angle-of-arrival (AOA); time-of-arrival (TOA) and time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA); enhanced observed time difference (E-OTD); assisted Global Positioning System (A-GPS); signal strength; hybrid techniques. In order to compare expected theoretical results with real-world performance, we set up a series of field trials based on one of these location finding techniques. Experiments were conducted in both urban and rural environments. The experiment measured the level of accuracy provided by cell-ID with an exclusive GSM parameter (timing advance, or TA), using triangulation.

A study has been carried out to find out how the voice quality offered by four cellular networks in the USA compared both to each other and to the traditionally high standards attained by the local telephone companies (PSTNs). There was a measurable difference in quality among the different operators, particularly in the downlink section (traffic moving from the PSTN to the wireless user). The second clear finding is that the downlink consistently outperforms the uplink in all networks. This should not come as a major surprise considering that the party regularly paying the operator's bill at the end of each month is the wireless user and not those at the other end of the line. The question of how much worse voice quality really is in the cellular world compared to that of the incumbents also received a resounding answer: a full listening quality MOS (mean opinion score) point when the average overall performance for the four networks is considered (3.3 MOS versus the accepted 4.3 MOS level shown by typical PSTNs). Another interesting discovery was that a mobile phone indicating good signal reception will not necessarily translate into increased voice quality.

Inmarsat's ambitious project for a satellite-based broadband mobile solution is making slow but steady progress. London-based Inmarsat has promised a broadband global area network (BGAN) service, planned for mid-2005. In many respects, this Inmarsat service is already in place today, operating through leased capacity on the giant Thuraya satellite, which serves 99 countries including the whole of the Middle East, all of Europe and much of Northern Africa and the rest of the near-East. This so-called "regional BGAN" system is itself quite spectacular; but nothing like as sophisticated as Inmarsat's all-singing, all-dancing BGAN service, designed to supply satellite-based broadband access to users almost anywhere on the planet, at affordable rates and speeds comparable to GPRS.

Time is running out before the global radio community makes a decision that could have drastic consequences for the wireless establshment.

The next-generation version of Internet Protocol, IPv6, will dramatically increase the available number of IP addresses while enabling efficient and secure peer-to-peer communication. Peer-to-peer will be particularly useful in the embedded systems arena, with millions of new devices taking advantage of Internet connectivity. We have grown accustomed to connecting desktop computers to the Internet. In future, we will see embedded systems taking advantage of the Internet in new ways. By removing the limitation of IP addresses, IPv6 will enable a large number of new types of devices and applications to benefit from the Web. Many embedded systems will have their own IP addresses. This will enable direct peer-to-peer communication, and it will also enable unprecedented security with IPsec, the IP security protocol. At the same time, we can foresee a leap in QoS, as real-time traffic, such as voice and video, become prioritised and are able to take advantage of the available bandwidth.

The last few years have seen an explosion of interest in ad hoc networks, sometimes known as mesh networks. These are wireless networks where intelligent devices or nodes form the connectivity between themselves in an autonomous and distributed manner. Static or mobile nodes co-operate in relaying data between other nodes. Researchers are working hard to define the technical parameters in which tomorrow's ad hoc networks will operate. There are many exciting applications for mobile ad hoc networking. These range from embedded sensor systems to enhanced mobile communications. The practical deployment of the networks relies on technological developments in low-cost wireless communications, low-power signal processing and efficient routing algorithms. There are significant challenges, especially in areas where physical effects impact on network formation. In some ways, the situation is analogous to that at the start of mobile telephony. In 20 years time, perhaps ad hoc networks will also be as ubiquitous.