Smart-Wire: Enhanced Communication Hardware

The progress in the design and development of small-scale computing devices to this date has established the possibility to integrate these computing devices into virtually all everyday objects. For the near future we expect the availability of even smaller and more densely integrated devices providing us with even more resources and computing power. Existing applications will benefit from this development as well as completely new applications will emerge. Nevertheless we have to be aware of the limited capabilities of devices in ubiquitous computing environments [Weiser, 1991]. The power of our approach presented in this paper resides in the interconnection of those devices. We present the idea of a “Smart-Wire”. Smart-Wire is a communication wire enhanced by integrating small computing devices into its connectors. Possible applications range from statistical use in network traffic accounting to active uses like altering the signal according to the physical characteristics and conditions of the medium. In contrast to emerging RF based technologies like Bluetooth or WaveLAN, wires are still more reliable, offering a higher bandwidth and a higher degree of privacy. While RF based devices distribute their transmissions to an insecure medium, wired communication between the ends of one single wire can only be intercepted by manipulating the wire itself. This is an important privacy issue. We think of Smart-Wire as a replacement for standard networking cable like, for example, TP Ethernet cable. On this account Smart-Wire has to provide, apart from its additional benefits, transparent communication for standard components. In the following section we describe the characteristics of the hardware and software needed to implement Smart-Wires and differentiate between the idea of Smart-Wire and related approaches to enhancing network communication. The section, “Benefits gained by the use of Smart-Wire”, deals with the benefits that can be achieved by using Smart-Wire in existing network installations. In the section, “SmartWire Communication Infrastructure”, we propose a communication environment for small devices, based on the special capabilities of Smart-Wire.