Abstract
IT World witnesses a lot of developments and inventions in every day. Each development and discovery provides a new version of comfort to the human beings. Here I am trying to describe about the various methods of detecting the presence of the peripherals or devices attached with the PC at boot time or otherwise. The terms which are expressed in detail are Plug and Play, Universal Plug and Play and automatic device discovery. The data communicating media like USB, Bluetooth, etc. also came to picture that is illustrated in detail.
Introduction
Today the world witnesses and avails many comforts such as USB, Bluetooth, WiFi, that includes certain technologies like Plug and Play, Universal Plug and Play and other utilities for automatic device discovery. Bluetooth ensures the information exchange without any physical connectivity. The information can be anything from simple text files to complex audio/video files. All the data can move from one device to another. Bluetooth technology is the latest among this type of utilities. This technology has already replaced clumsy wires. The information transfer by this process is completely automatic without any synchronization support. Owing to its wide acceptability, speed and convenience, almost all the people across the world are enjoying this utility that is very fast and quick.
Bluetooth technology
In the same way USB, and other network devices functions with the help of the features like plug and play, or universal UpnP. The next section of this report desribes about the existing technology behind the functioning of USB, Bluetooth, Infrared, etc.
Available Utilities and Its working Technology
Plug-and-Play:- It is a common feature of today’s computer which entertains any new device or peripheral recently connected or installed. It does not require any sort of reconfiguration existing system or installation of necessary device driver. The plug-and-play may work as the traditional boot-time task of I/O addresses and interrupts to minimize the clashes and identify device drivers. It also functions as hotplug systems like USB.
Universal Plug and Play(UPnP):- “UPnP architecture for transparent peer-to-peer network connectivity of personal computers and network-enabled intelligent devices or appliances. UPnP builds enables these devices to automatically connect with one another and work together to make networking possible for more people.” (UPNP)
A control device within the network normally controls UPnP, which initiates data exchange between two devices. It is totally independent of any medium. Initial configuration is not required as it has unique characteristic of automatic discovery and a device itself can join a network dynamically. Using DHCP and DNS servers may be non-compulsory but their services will be utilized if they present in the network. In a UPnP environment, the client gets complete two-way P2P network due to its powerful NAT traversal solution. The two kinds of interfaces for UPnP are internal and external. The Internal UPnP environment is associated to the network in which only local clients are connected. As regards to external, the Internet is connected on the principles of UPnP.
In a network system a router probably may have an external interface with a unique IP address as its identity. But it may possess several internal interfaces with necessary IP addresses as per the requirement. Various modern applications such as DirectX games, several Windows Messenger features take support of UPnP in remote assistance, sharing of application resources, file transfer, voice, video etc.
Other automatic device discovery utilities:- Java platform also provides a utility called Jini is similar to UPnP. Jini was developed by Sun Microsystems. As it is intensely associated with the Java platform its services are restricted only to the use of devices that supports Java Virtual Machine. It is perfect in service discovery, description, It supports service discovery, description, invocation and presentation, provided with all these are implemented exclusively in java environment with standard Java mechanisms. Jini needs a central registry for the maintenance and upkeep of service discovery. Jini peripherals rectify the registry through UDP multicasts by the help of a protocol proprietary to it. Hence manual configuration for devices is not required. But the necessity of central registry creates a difficulty to Jini to accept other technologies. Jini uses Java RMI (Remote Method Invocation) to provide service description and service invocation. Whenever a device tries to access a Jini, the services download a specialized Java code and provide it to the device so as to access services. This code subsequently allows exchanging data between the two devices. The most significant disadvantage of Jini is that it always rely upon the Java environment.
JXTA : JXTA was also discovered by Sun Microsystems. JXTA can be termed as the improved version of Jini, as it is not totally dependent on Java Platform. Sun Microsystems made some implementation of Jini incorporating the open sources flavor of Java and C. A reputed firm called Applied Informatics have recently designed a C++ version. JXTA is versatile for simple LANs to global internet. JXTA is deeply attached on XML and has a flavor of a heavyweight technology. JXTA is generally independent to protocols like UDP and TCP, as well as HTTP and others are supported.
Universal Serial Bus (USB) : It is developed by Intel corporation along with other similar organizations for enabling easy connectivity of peripherals and devices with systems by incorporating certain connectivity specifications. It provides great speed and a sort of convenience to user to connect supporting devices to a PC. As and when a device is attached through USB the system recognizes it and configures automatically. Today the USB is the most reliable and successful utility the ever seen in the history of PCs. USB technology has spread its branches to consumer electronics (CE) and mobile phone industries. USB was initially introduced with a speed of 12 Mbps in the year 1995. Now latest USB 2.0 comes with a increased speed upto 480Mbps and with every PC, it is inbuilt as multiple USBs. Almost every PC consumer realize the importance of USB due to its high performance, reliability and ease of use. A newly developed wireless USB with the flavor of Wireless technology blended with USB utility is a perfect example of latest discoveries. Wireless USB provides same speed and security that of wired one. In addition to that it also offer great convenience to the user. It is an ideal choice for mobile computing users.
Bluetooth: -The term Bluetooth was coined in 1998 and has grown remarkably. It works with high speed and very low and the technology used is wireless link technology. It has mainly designed for connecting among laptop, PDAs, phones etc. No need of light-of-sight positioning is needed in Bluetooth. Bit it is required in infra-red medium. Though the technology work with same principles of wireless LAN techniques with some modifications, it is best known for its minimal size and cheap cost. Currently one can seen a circuit board of 0.9 cm in size and in future the size may reduce more. When first it was introduced the cost was $20 but by second year the price came down to $5. Today Bluetooth technology is not considered as optional one but in every system it is included keeping view of its advantage. Bluetooth connectivity can provide a speed from 1mbps to 2 Mbps and it ensures most safe and bug free environment. There are certain protocols or rules which support both data as well as voice under suitable network topography.
Bluetooth technology works with the help of minute integrated system by embedding very cheap and short range transceivers. The waves are of 2.45 GHZ in frequency which is globally available and it would not generate any problems for frequently moving international travelers taking services of Bluetooth-enabled systems. Bluetooth utility also provide the data transfer speed upto 721 kbps with three voice channels. This can be seen in built with electronic systems or as an independent adaptor in the market. For example, taking the PC hardware, Bluetooth can either be built in or can be connected externally through USB port. It works under IEEE 802 standard and possesses a unique 48-bit address. A P2P or multipoint connectivity can be used. The effective range of it communication is 10 meters but by increasing its power one can expect a range of 100 meters. Bluetooth devices frequently and randomly changes the frequencies approximately 1600 times a second, due to which possibility of radio interference becomes nil. This technique, called frequency hopping, ensures distortion-free data communication. Bluetooth technology has built-in encryption and verification process and exercises three types of error correction schemes.
Apart from the above, Bluetooth devices need very less power comparing with other devices. The power may be 30 microamps when it is in ‘hold’ mode. It takes only 0.3mA in standby mode. i.e. 3% less than the power consumed by a mobile phone. The chips of bluetooth device will automatically change to low power mode when there is no data traffic occurred. Bluetooth ensures bit level security for data. The user controls authentication with 128 bit key. Radio signals are normally coded between the ranges of 8 bits to 128 bits. It is generally designed to work in noisy radio frequency surroundings. It provides certain significant schemes that ensures a fast acknowledgement and frequency hopping to maintain the communication link reliable and robust. Always it keeps itself away from the possible interference due to other signals by hopping to a fresh frequency on every exchange of a data packet. It hopes faster and transmits very minute packets. The forward Error Correction (FEC) technique reduces effect of random noise on long distance links. It also uses encoding process for uncoordinated surroundings. Bluetooth technology strictly follows the international safety standards regarding affects of radio waves on the body of human being. Radio waves emitted from such waves are very less than that of a much-using cordless phone. It never cause to any disturbance to the telecommunications network around it. As regards to the transmission protocol, it works on baseband protocol with a blending of circuit and packet switching.
Summary
The paper discussed about the various methods and techniques to identify the peripherals and devices that connected to the systems. The methods include Plug and Play (PnP), Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) have been described in detail. In addition to that this report tried to dig out the information regarding the functioning of USB, Wireless USB and Bluetooth. In this world of comforts, one cannot live without the use of above said utilities. Such devices and technology are getting world acclaim due to certain factors like scalability, small size, compatibility with hardware and software resources from other manufacturers, and so on.
Word cited
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