Dropbox: LAN sync protocol

If all the dropbox clients have LAN sync enabled, then each of them should be able to understand and respond to the Discovery packet (assuming it’s able to distinguish between different user accounts. I believe it uses namespaces to identify them uniquely). This response packet called DB LAN sync(DB-LSP) is a TCP packet where the dropbox clients exchange data.

via Dropbox: LAN sync protocol – GeekLogs.

Despite higher network speeds, no FaceTime calls over LTE

Apple’s open source (albeit with the source code yet to be released by Apple) video chat spec first launched in 2010 with a vague promise from then-CEO Steve Jobs that it might be available over cellular data connections once the cell networks “get ready for the future.” Since then, there have been plenty of rumors that the iPhone would soon gain the ability to make FaceTime calls over 3G—particularly as the launch of iOS 5 loomed last October—but it still hasn’t happened. Attempting to make a FaceTime call when not connected to a WiFi network results in a pop-up that explains a WiFi network is necessary to complete the action.

via Despite higher network speeds, no FaceTime calls over LTE.

I wonder why FaceTime cares what network carries its data.  The network layers should be independent of the application.  If it works with WiFi it should work with LTE.

Standard optical fiber transmits 1.7Tbps over core network

Standard optical fiber transmits 1.7Tbps over core network.

Chinese telecommunications provider ZTE held a field demonstration of an optical network capable of transmitting 1.7Tbps, the company announced today. The network used Wavelength Division Multiplexing to achieve the thousand-gigabit speeds, which separates data into different wavelengths and transmits those wavelengths over the same optical fiber. In ZTE’s demonstration, the company used 8 different channels, each transmitting 216.4Gbps. The transmission was conducted in China over 1,087 miles, on a standard fiber-optic cable.

From the linked article:

ZTE isn’t the only vendor that has conducted demonstrations to show its prowess when it comes to next-generation WDM systems. Last week, ZTE’s Chinese competitor Huawei showed a prototype system that can handle 400Gbps per channel and offer a total capacity of 20Tbps.

I wonder where Tellabs or Lucent equipment is in all of this.

Researchers send instant message with neutrinos

“Using neutrinos, it would be possible to communicate between any two points on Earth without using satellites or cables,” said Dan Stancil, professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State and lead author of a paper describing the research. “Neutrino communication systems would be much more complicated than today’s systems, but may have important strategic uses.

via Researchers send instant message with neutrinos | ScienceBlog.com.

From Wiki.

A neutrino detector is a physics apparatus designed to study neutrinos. Because neutrinos are only weakly interacting with other particles of matter, neutrino detectors must be very large in order to detect a significant number of neutrinos. Neutrino detectors are often built underground to isolate the detector from cosmic rays and other background radiation.[1] The field of neutrino astronomy is still very much in its infancy – the only confirmed extraterrestrial sources so far are the Sun and supernova SN1987A. Neutrino observatories will “give astronomers fresh eyes with which to study the universe.”[2]

ZoneFlex Outdoor | Ruckus Wireless

ZoneFlex outdoor access points uniquely combine dynamic beamforming and adaptive meshing to enable a new level of outdoor performance at the lowest cost. Built to withstand the harshest of outdoor conditions, they’re designed with the flexibility to function as standalone APs or as managed devices, using the same wireless controller as their indoor Smart Wi-Fi products. If no Ethernet cabling is available, the outdoor AP meshes seamlessly with the indoor access points.

via ZoneFlex Outdoor | Ruckus Wireless.

ISATAP

ISATAP (Intra-Site Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol) is an IPv6 transition mechanism meant to transmit IPv6 packets between dual-stack nodes on top of an IPv4 network.

Unlike 6over4 (an older similar protocol using IPv4 multicast), ISATAP uses IPv4 as a virtual nonbroadcast multiple-access network (NBMA) data link layer, so that it does not require the underlying IPv4 network infrastructure to support multicast.

via ISATAP – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

How ISATAP works

ISATAP defines a method for generating a link-local IPv6 address from an IPv4 address, and a mechanism to perform Neighbor Discovery on top of IPv4.

3GPP – About 3GPP

3GPP – About 3GPP.

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) unites [Six] telecommunications standards bodies, known as “Organizational Partners” and provides their members with a stable environment to produce the highly successful Reports and Specifications that define 3GPP technologies.

These technologies are constantly evolving through – what have become known as – Generations of commercial cellular / mobile systems. 3GPP was originally the standards partnership evolving GSM systems towards the 3rd Generation. However, since the completion of the first LTE and the Evolved Packet Core specifications, 3GPP has become the focal point for mobile systems beyond 3G.