The Shared Wireless Aaccess Protocol (SWAP) specification for wireless voice and data networking within the home will enable a new class of mobile consumer devices that draw from the power and content of the Internet and the Home PC. If cable modems and xDSL represent the "last mile" access to the home, then HomeRF^TM's mission with SWAP could be called the "very last 150 feet" within and around the home. HomeRF^TM has the broad backing of the major corporate stakeholders for networking within the home and is optimized specifically for the cost/performance point needed for consumers. The technology leverages the existing PC-industry infrastructure around the Internet, TCP/IP and Ethernet and adds a standard way to connect to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) for voice telephony. First products should appear in late 1999 and future versions with enhanced features and/or higher data rates should follow by 1-2 years.

A few years ago it was recognized that the vision of a truly low-cost, low-power radio-based cable replacement was feasible. Such a ubiquitous link would provide the basis for portable devices to communicate together in an ad hoc fashion by creating personal area networks which have similar advantages to their office environment counterpart - the local area network (LAN). Bluetooth is an effort by a consortium of companies to design a royalty free technology specification enabling this vision. This article describes the vision and goals of the Bluetooth program and introduces the radio-based technology.

The thin client paradigm aims to give users access to central resources through inexpensive and easily deployed computing systems. But, however "thin" the client hardware, mobile users in the field still have the burden of carrying it. To alleviate this problem, we decided to adopt as our client a piece of hardware that many mobile users already carry with them anyway: the cellphone.

This paper presents our experience in researching, implementing, deploying and using a system whereby users, wherever they are, can query and control their personalised computing resources and services by typing short messages on the keypad of their cellphone. Our system has been deployed and in use for over a year and has given us valuable insights on how to design and build a personal information service.

There are currently several commercial Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite systems under development that will provide worldwide voice, data, facsimile, and paging services. This article presents a performance analysis of the IRIDIUM LEO satellite system, as several satellites become non-operational. The analysis is conducted using a computer simulation of the system. First, it examines the system's capability to meet real-time communications constraints of end-to-end delay and packet rejection rate with non-operational satellites. Then, it examines the effects of these non-operational satellites on a user's ability to access the network. The analysis is conducted at low, medium and high traffic loading levels with both uniform and non-uniform traffic distributions. The results indicate that the IRIDIUM system is capable of providing real-time voice communications with several non-operational satellites. Both the loading level and the traffic distribution have a significant effect on the performance of the system.