COMMS
Wi - Fi : a WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) technology. It provides short-range wireless high-speed data connections between mobile data devices (such as laptops, PDAs or phones) and nearby Wi-Fi access points (special hardware connected to a wired network).
The older variant of Wi-Fi, 802.11g, is capable of providing speeds of up to 54Mbps and is backwards compatible with 802.11b (providing up to 11Mbps).
The more recent standard is called 802.11n (offering speeds of up to 150Mbps per channel or up to 600Mbps in total). It can be used in the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz frequency bands, though a receiver needs to have dual-band antenna to operate on both.
2013 saw the birth of the latest (so far) Wi-Fi ac standard. It allows for speeds of up to 500 Mbps per channel and over 1Gbps in total. Wi-Fi 802.11ac operates only on the 5GHz band.
Wi-Fi is much faster than any data technologies operating through the cellular network like GPRS, EDGE and even UMTS and HSDPA.
The range covered by a Wi-Fi access point is from 30 to 100 meters indoors while outdoors a single access point can cover about 650 meters.
Bluetooth : is a wireless protocol for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks.
There are two important parameters of Bluetooth devices - class and supported profiles.
"Class" signifies the distance at which a Bluetooth connection is possible. Most mobile devices are Class 2, which means they have a range of up to 10 m. Class 1 devices are rare and have a range of up to 100 feet.
A "profile" is a type of Bluetooth connection. The most common are the Headset (HSP) and Handsfree (HFP) profiles that enable the device to connect to a wireless headset or handsfree.
Some other profiles are OBEX (OBject EXchange) which allows transfer of files, contacts and events; A2DP, which adds support for streaming of stereo sound and AVRC, which allows remote control of playback.
NFC is a short-range high frequency wireless communication technology that enables the exchange of data between devices over about a 10 cm distance.
NFC : is an upgrade of the existing proximity card standard (RFID) that combines the interface of a smartcard and a reader into a single device. It allows users to seamlessly share content between digital devices, pay bills wirelessly or even use their cellphone as an electronic traveling ticket on existing contactless infrastructure already in use for public transportation.
The significant advantage of NFC over Bluetooth is the shorter set-up time. Instead of performing manual configurations to identify Bluetooth devices, the connection between two NFC devices is established at once (under a 1/10 second).
Due to its shorter range, NFC provides a higher degree of security than Bluetooth and makes NFC suitable for crowded areas where correlating a signal with its transmitting physical device (and by extension, its user) might otherwise prove impossible.
NFC can also work when one of the devices is not powered by a battery (e.g. on a phone that may be turned off, a contactless smart credit card, etc.).
FM radio : tuner is now considered a basic feature. It allows the user to listen to most of the live-broadcasted FM radio stations. Almost all phones with FM radio tuner require a wired headset to be connected to the unit as it’s used as an antenna.
Most FM radio tuners can receive basic radio station info over RDS. The use of FM radio does not interfere with the network carrier and it’s free.
Nokia enhance their FM radio interfaces with the Visual Radio enhancement that adds visuals and text as an additional info layer to normal radio broadcasts.
A presentation of graphics and text, synchronized to the audio programming, gets downloaded to the phone over a data connection; the FM transmission chain is unaffected by the addition of Visual Radio.
Here's the type of content that Visual Radio can offer:
- Information on the song and artist currently playing on air
- View images related to presenters or news stories
- A weather map during the weather broadcast
- News, weather and traffic alerts while songs are playing
- Listen in to a talk show and see what has been discussed so far
- Join in audience votes, Big Brother style
- Participate in on-air competitions
You can only use the Visual Radio enhancement via a cellular data connection, as using it over Wi-Fi is not an option.
USB : is a standard for a wired connection between two electronic devices, including a mobile phone and a desktop computer. The connection is made by a cable that has a connector at either end. One end, the one that plugs into the computer, is the same across all USB cables while the one that plugs into the mobile device can be of various types such as miniUSB, microUSB or a proprietary connector.
USB version 1.1 provides maximum speeds of up to 1.5 MB/s while the current version 2.0 is about 40 times faster. The versions are backwards compatible and the speed is limited by the slower device. Transferring data may require drivers to be installed on the desktop computer but some phones offer "mass storage" mode which means they appear as thumb drives to the computer and no special drivers are needed.
In addition to their data transferring application, USB cables also carry an electric charge that can be used to power peripherals (such as USB mice or keyboards), and many mobile phones can be charged through their USB port.
