INFOLINE

EDITORIAL BOARD

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Chief Patron : Thiru P.Sachithanandan,

Correspondent

Patron : Dr. N.Raman, M.Com., M.B.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.,

Principal

Editor in Chief : Mr. S.Muruganantham, M.Sc., M.Phil.,

Head of the Department

STAFF ADVISOR

Ms. P.Kalarani M.Sc., M.C.A., M.Phil.,

Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Technology and Information Technology

STAFF EDITOR

Ms. M.G.Annapoorani M.Sc., M.Phil.,

Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Technology and Information Technology

STUDENT EDITORS

B.Akilesh III B.Sc. (Computer Technology)

V.Mohan dass III B.Sc. (Computer Technology)

R.K.Kiruthika Shivani III B.Sc. (Information Technology)

S.Arunkumar III B.Sc. (Information Technology)

B.Mano Pretha II B.Sc. (Computer Technology)

A.Uthaya Sriram II B.Sc. (Computer Technology)

P.Deepika Rani II B.Sc. (Information Technology)

R.Pradeep Rajan II B.Sc. (Information Technology)

D.Harini I B.Sc. (Computer Technology)

V.A.Jayendiran I B.Sc. (Computer Technology)

S.Karunya I B.Sc. (Information Technology)

S.Ranjith Kumar I B.Sc. (Information Technology)

CONTENT

Android 7.0 -"Nougat" 1

Facebook Brings High-Speed Laser Communications into Focus 4

Intel Scales Back Android Development 6

Microsoft Building a Business App Marketplace 8

Ericsson Establishes 7Gbps Connection to Moving Vehicle Using 5G Prototypes 9

Seagate's 10TB Barracuda -The World's Largest Consumer Hard Drive 10

Hi-Tech Farming: Drones to Monitor Agriculture Growth in India 11

Microsoft‟s new service is like Youtube for the enterprise 12

5G Wireless Frontiers 13

Secure the Router and Home Network 15

The Future of Web Design 19

Selling New Technology to the School Boards 21

UK has the world‟s fastest mobile internet 22

Puzzle 23

1

ANDROID 7.0 -"NOUGAT"

Android 7.0 "Nougat" is an upcoming

release of the Android operating system. First

released as an alpha build on March 9, 2016, it

is expected to be officially released in the third

quarter of 2016. Android 7.0 introduces

notable changes to the operating system and its

development platform, including the ability to

display multiple apps on-screen at once in a

split-screen view, support for inline replies to

notifications, as well as an Open JDK-based

Java environment and support for the Vulkan

graphics rendering API, and "seamless" system

updates on supported devices.

Android N in Landscape mode

History

On March 9, 2016, Google I/O (where

previous new versions of Android were

formally unveiled), Google released the first

"Android N Developer Preview" at alpha

quality. On April 13, 2016, Android N

Developer Preview 2 was announced. Google

further discussed Android "N" during the I/O

keynote on May 18, 2016, and unveiled its new

virtual reality platform Daydream. During the

conference, Developer Preview 3 the first beta

quality preview build of Android "N", was

released. Developer Preview 4 was

released on June 15, 2016. On June 30, 2016,

Google announced that N's release name would

be "Nougat"; it was also confirmed that Nougat

would be version 7.0 of Android. The final

Developer Preview, 5, was released on July 18,

2016.

Features

Android Nougat introduces a split-

screen display mode, in which two apps can be

snapped to occupy halves of the screen. An

experimental multi-window mode is also

available as a hidden feature, where multiple

apps can appear simultaneously on the screen

in overlapping windows. The notification shade

was also redesigned, featuring a smaller row of

icons for settings, replacing notification cards

with a "sheet" design, and allowing inline

replies to notifications (this feature is

implemented via existing APIs that are used for

similar functionality on Android Wear).

2

Multiple notifications from a single app can

also be "bundled".

The "Doze" power saving mechanism

introduced in Marshmallow was expanded to

include a state activated when the device is

running on battery and the screen has been off

for a period of time, but is not stationary. In

this state, network activity is restricted, and

apps are granted "maintenance windows" in

which they can access the network and perform

background tasks. As in Marshmallow, the full

Doze state is activated if the device is

stationary with its screen off for a period of

time. A new "Data Saver" mode restricts

background mobile data usage, and can trigger

internal functions in apps that are designed to

reduce bandwidth usage, such as capping the

quality of streaming media.

If system files are corrupted, the

operating system will only allow operation in a

limited-use mode or refuse to boot at all.

Multi-Window Playground

The above figure demonstrates how to

take advantage of multiple window user

interfaces with your app.

Active Notifications

This is a pre-existing sample which

shows a simple service that sends notifications

using Notification Compact. Each unread

conversation from a user is sent as a distinct

notification. This sample has been updated to

take advantage of new notification features

available in Android N.

Messaging Service

This is a pre-existing sample which

demonstrates how to use Notification Manager

to tell how many notifications an application is

currently showing. This sample has been

updated to take advantage of new notification

features available in Android N.

3

Direct Boot

This above figure demonstrates how to

store and access data in a device encrypted

storage which is always available while the

device is booted.

Scoped Directory Access

This above figure demonstrates how to

read and write data from specific directories,

while requiring less permission.

Development

In December 2015, Google announced

that Android Nougat would switch its Java

Runtime Environment from the defunct Apache

Harmony to OpenJDK the official open source

implementation of the Java platform

maintained by Oracle Corporation and the Java

community. Google promoted that the shift was

part of an effort to create a "common code

base" between Java on Android and other

platforms and allow use of popular Java 8

features in code, but it was actually to address

then-ongoing litigation with Oracle

surrounding its use of copyrighted Java APIs as

part of the Android platform (OpenJDK is

expressly licensed under the GNU General

Public License). U.S. federal court has since

ruled that Google's use of the APIs was fair

use. The Android Runtime (ART) now

incorporates a profile-guided compilation

system, utilizing a JIT compiler and profiling

alongside its current ahead-of-time compiler to

further optimize apps for a device's hardware

and other conditions in the background.

Developer Preview 2 added platform

support for Vulkan, the new low-level 3D

rendering API to augment OpenGL ES but with

higher graphics performance. A new set of

human emoji was also included in this version

of the preview, with support for skin tones.

Nougat introduces a system for

enabling "seamless", automatic system updates,

based upon and sharing some code with the

implementation of similar functionality on

Chrome OS. The system uses a pair of Squash

FS partitions; the Android system executes

from an "online" partition, while updates are

applied in the background to a redundant

"offline" partition. On the next boot following

the installation of an update, the redundant

partition is designated as active, and the device

4

henceforth boots into the updated system. The

previous system partition is kept as a backup in

case of update failure, and to serve as the

"offline" partition for the next update. This

system removes the requirement for the device

to reboot into the system recovery environment

to apply the update (which prevents the device

from being used until the update is complete),

and also provides the ability for an update to be

automatically rolled back in case of a failure.

Due to the partitioning requirements of this

system, existing devices will not support

seamless updates. Additionally, due to the ART

changes on Nougat, apps no longer need to be

re-compiled upon the first boot after a system

update.

Release

Google stated that five developer

previews of Android "Nougat" would be

released monthly from March through July

2016, and that the final version would be

released in the third quarter of 2016. The

developer preview builds are compatible with

current Nexus series devices including the

Nexus 5X, 6P, 6, 9, Pixel C, and Nexus Player

and Sony Xperia Z3.A new "Android Beta

Program" was also introduced, which allows

testers to opt-in for over-the-air updates to beta

versions as they are released.

K.JAYASUDHA

III B.Sc. (Information Technology)

FACEBOOK BRINGS HIGH-SPEED

LASER COMMUNICATIONS INTO

FOCUS

Facebook says it has developed a laser

detector that could open the airwaves to new

high-speed data communications systems that

don't require dedicated spectrum or licenses.

The component, disclosed in a scientific

journal, comes from the company's

Connectivity Lab, which is involved in

5

developing technology that can help spread

high-speed Internet to places it currently

doesn't reach.

Getting Internet signals to new areas is

typically done using wireless, because it's much

more cost-efficient than running cables to

communities outside of urban areas. But

traditional wireless comes with speed

limitations and requires radio spectrum that

often needs to be purchased from the

government. Faced with these limitations,

engineers have increasingly eyed sending data

from point-to-point over laser beams. They

don't need any special spectrum or permission,

and multiple systems can work in the same area

without interfering with each other.

But sending high speed signals using

lasers isn't simple. First, to achieve multi-

gigabit per second speeds, the photodiodes

used to receive the signal need to work very

fast. And that means they need to be small just

a millimeter square, or several times smaller

than a grain of rice. And laser beams spread out

as they travel, so by the time they reach their

destination they can cover an area much bigger

than the detector itself and need to be focused

using lenses. This reduces the aperture of the

system, so a complex pointing and aiming

system is required to keep the laser locked onto

the receiver.

In short, it's an engineering feat to get it

working even at low speeds. Getting it to work

at higher speeds it a real challenge. Now

Facebook thinks it's found a way, by

developing a new detector that's much larger

but can still operate at high speeds. At 126

square centimetres, Facebook's new laser

detector is thousands of times larger. It consists

of plastic optical fiber that have been "doped"

so they absorb blue light. The fibers create a

large flat area that serves as the detector.

They luminesce, so the blue light is reemitted

as green light as it travels down the fibers,

which are then bundled together tightly before

they meet with a photodiode.

A luminescent detector with an active

area of 126 square centimeters developed by

Facebook's Connectivity Lab. The detector

consists of a bundle of fibers doped with

organic dye molecules. The fibers absorb

incident blue light and emit green light, part of

which is guided through the fibers to a circular

bundle with a 0.2 square centimeter diameter.

Facebook says there are applications for the

technology both indoors and outdoors.

Around the home, it could be used to

transmit high-definition video to mobile

6

devices. Outdoors, the same technology could

be used to establish low-cost communications

links of a kilometer or more in length. In tests,

the company managed to achieve a speed of

2.1Gbps using the detector and the company

thinks it can go faster.

By using materials that work closer to

infrared, the speed could be increased. And

using yet-to-be developed components that

work at wavelengths invisible to the human

eye, the speed could be increased even more. If

invisible to humans, the power could also be

increased without danger of harming someone.

An omni-directional luminescent

detector the sensitivity of the detector remains

constant regardless of the direction of the

incoming light. The company also showed a

picture of an omni-directional receiver, that is

sensitive to light from all directions.

V.MOHAN DASS

III B.Sc. (Computer Technology)

INTEL SCALES BACK ANDROID

DEVELOPMENT

Android was once a big part of Intel's

plans in mobile devices, but the company is

now paying much less attention to the OS. Intel

is moving away from developing Android for

x86 processors used in smartphones, since it is

exiting the handset market. The company's

commitment to Android development for

tablets, however, is also under question. The

company still has a strong partnership with

Google, with an Intel spokeswoman saying in

email, "We continue to work with Google on

supporting their OS for different product lines

including Chrome books, tablets and IOT

products."

But Intel declined to comment

specifically on its level of commitment to

Android for tablets, a market in which device

shipments are declining. Meanwhile, Intel's

Android upgrades for tablet hardware are far

and few between, suggesting the company is

not focusing on it as much as it once did.

Smartphone and tablet OS updates are usually

delivered by device makers or carriers.

Meanwhile, it isn't clear if Intel will

continue to offer Android as an option

along with its Celeron, Pentium and Core

processors. Intel's x86 version of Android was

mainly for devices with Atom processors,

which the chip maker is phasing out from

tablets and PCs in favour of new chips, code-

7

named Apollo Lake. Most Apollo Lake

systems will run Windows, according to Intel

executives. It's not sure if they'll support

Android.

An edition of Android 5.1.1, code-

named Lollipop, for the MinnowMax

developer board was the last version of the OS

made publicly available last year by Intel.

Intel-based mobile devices mostly run Android

5.0 or older versions. There are some signs that

Android will continue to live on Intel chips,

however. Asus, for example, has said it would

bring Android 6.0, code-named Marshmallow,

to its Intel-based Zenfone 2 handsets in the

second quarter. And for now, it looks

like Android 7.0, code-named Nougat, will be

compatible with x86 chips.

In addition, the independent Android-

x86 Project last month delivered the Android-

x86 6.0 Release Candidate 1. Intel could

offload development to that project, and

provide the backend support. But Intel has

struggled to break into the market of Android

devices, much like ARM which dominates

mobile

Intel put its full weight behind Android

in 2011 after striking out on multiple OSes. In

2007, Intel started working on Linux-based

Moblin, which was merged with Nokia's

Maemo into a new OS called Meego in 2010.

Meego was merged with LiMo into Tizen,

which is now in Samsung TVs and

smartphones. Even as Intel's Android efforts

wane, though, its partnership with Google will

remain strong, and will focus on the chip-

maker's new target markets. Intel in April said

it was laying off 12,000 people as it chased the

growth areas of IoT, servers, connectivity, 2-in-

1s, silicon photonics and FPGAs (field

programmable gate arrays). Intel is a lead

partner in Google's Brillo, an embedded IoT

OS with the underpinnings of Android. Brillo

works on Intel's Edison development board,

which can be used to make wearables, robots,

smart home devices and other IoT gadgets.

Shipments of Chromebooks - most of which

have Intel chips, and are based on the Chrome

OS are growing in an otherwise slumping PC

market.But the company is missing out on

some of Google's most exciting projects like

DayDream, a VR platform for Android

devices.

B.AKILESH

III B.Sc. (Computer Technology)

8

MICROSOFT BUILDING A BUSINESSAPP

MARKETPLACE

Microsoft appears to be building a

business app store. The company puts online a

test version of a service called AppSource

that‟s designed to help businesses find software

that augments the Microsoft products they

already use, such as Power BI and Dynamics

AX. A description on its homepage said that

users would be able to use the site to find

software-as-a-service offerings from Microsoft

and selected partners that they could try for

free before purchasing them.

All of this appears to have come to light

after someone developing the site at Microsoft

accidentally made a test version of it available

on the public Internet, where it

was discovered by a prolific Microsoft leaker

who goes by Walking Cat on Twitter.

According to the documentation that Microsoft

published, developers who want to list their

app in AppSource will have to offer a free trial

and allow their application to integrate with

Azure Active Directory, Microsoft‟s cloud-

based identity and authentication service.

Microsoft will then review the app

prior to publishing it in AppSource.

Unsurprisingly, it seems like Microsoft will be

launching AppSource with a handful of

partners, including Dynaway, XAPT, AvePoint

and SBS Group. Each integrated app is

supposed to work with a Microsoft product,

such as Dynamics CRM, Dynamics AX, Azure

or Power BI.

The placeholder integrations indicated

that the site wasn‟t supposed to be live, but a

dead giveaway was what happened when users

clicked on the “How it Works” button. The site

brought up a video of Rick Astley singing

“Never Gonna Give You Up,” which isn‟t what

Microsoft is likely to say in that place when the

service actually launches.

It‟s unclear when that‟s going to

actually happen, since Microsoft won‟t say

anything about the launch. It seems likely that

AppSource will be released or at least unveiled

at the company‟s Worldwide Partner

Conference in Toronto in two weeks.

This isn't the first Microsoft initiative

aimed at helping businesses buy applications

online. The company is also pushing a

Windows Store for Business in Windows 10,

which should help business users to buy native

apps for Windows 10.

R.K.KIRUTHIKA SHIVANI

III B.Sc. (Information Technology)

9

ERICSSON ESTABLISHES 7GBPS

CONNECTION TO MOVING VEHICLE

USING 5G PROTOTYPES

Ericsson has announced the successful

usage of 5G prototypes to establish a sustained

7Gbps mobile connection with a moving

vehicle, which the network technology giant

said will be "critical" for 5G in terms of

connecting smart and autonomous vehicles."

Our latest 5G technology breakthrough will

enable operators to field trial key 5G

applications requiring high-performance

connectivity to cars, buses, and trains for smart

vehicle and intelligent transport use cases,"

Joakim Sorelius, head of 5G Architecture at

Ericsson, said.

The trial was undertaken at Ericsson's

Stockholm, Sweden, headquarters on June 10,

utilising 5G radio access prototype equipment

using a 5G radio interface named New Radio

(NR) alongside massive multiple-input

multiple-output (MIMO). Massive MIMO

combines a high number of antenna elements

with beamforming for higher throughput,

increased coverage, improved capacity, and

more efficient usage of the mobile network.

The 5G radio prototype, which is being

used in 5G trials by mobile operators, was

placed in a moving van, which was able to

sustain a mobile connection of more than

7Gbps with the network. Ericsson also

launched Massive MIMO as 5G software plug-

in earlier this month, along with Multi-User

MIMO, RAN Virtualization, Intelligent

Connectivity, and Latency Reduction.

Ericsson has been making extensive

preparations in 5G; in February, it announced

a trial run of Telstra's 5G network during the

2018 Commonwealth Games in the Gold

Coast, with the two companies to collaborate

on collecting data and building the

mathematical models of radio signals to be

used for 5G radio spectrum.

At the same time, Ericsson said it

would be partnering with Amazon Web

Services (AWS) on researching and launching

telecommunications service provider hybrid

cloud centres worldwide to extend its cloud

programs, datacentres, and application

migration solutions to accelerate cloud

adoption for telcos in preparation of 5G and the

Internet of Things (IoT). As part of the deal,

Ericsson will put together a team of cloud

experts chosen from its 25,000-strong research

and development team, consisting of program

directors, solutions architects, and systems

engineers, who will be trained in both AWS

and Ericsson cloud technologies.

MOHANA PRIYA.T

III B.Sc. (Computer Technology)

10

SEAGATE'S 10TB BARRACUDA -THE

WORLD'S LARGEST CONSUMER HARD

DRIVE

The 10TB Barracuda Pro doesn‟t play

just the capacity card though. Seagate also

aimed to make it a high-performance hard

drive, fitting it with a massive 256MB of

cache. The drive also spins along at 7,200rpm

rather than the typical, lower-cost 5,400rpm

large drives. Of course, "performance hard

drive" may sound like an oxymoron in this age

of SSDs that can easily hit 1.5GBps read

speeds, but all things considered, the 3.5-inch

Barracuda Pro is still fairly peppy, with rated a

220MBps sustained transfer rate.

The Barracuda Pro uses Conventional

Magnetic Recording and doesn‟t resort to

sealing the drive and filling it with helium or

exotic magnetic technology to achieve its high

capacity. Officials say it‟s built on a seven-

platter design, which usually means more

power consumption due to the number of

spinning platters. But in this case, Seagate says

it‟s one of the more efficient drives around.

According to Seagate, the drive consumes just

6.8 watts during seek and 4.5 watts during idle,

which indeed makes it fairly low-power by

hard drive standards.

The operative word in all of this is

“consumer,” as 10TB hard drives for enterprise

have been around for some time. Western

Digital‟s HGST began shipping a 10TB

helium-filled model in late 2015. The 3.5-inch

hard drives are aimed corporate use in servers

and typically cost more. The 10TB Seagate

Enterprise, for example, sells for about $600.

Western Digital‟s HGST version is in the $730

range on the street.

The new 10TB Barracuda Pro has a list

price of $534.99, which means street pricing

should be considerably lower than an enterprise

10TB drive. How does that compare in the SSD

wars? Samsung‟s recently announced “world‟s

largest SSD” costs $1,500 for 4TB, which

makes it about 37 cents a gigabyte. The new

Seagate Barracuda Pro comes in at about 5

cents a gigabyte. Still, it‟s not exactly cheap.

Seagate also announced a couple other 10TB

models that cost less but aren't geared toward

desktop performance: The 10TB IronWolf is

for NAS applications, with a list price of

$469.99, and the 10TB SkyHawk drive for

video-surveillance use is priced at $459.99.

The SkyHawk and IronWolf feature

shorter three-year warranties while the

Barracuda Pro will maintain the same five-year

warranty as the enterprise drives. All three

11

drives will be available with only SATA

interfaces.

Seagate‟s new 10TB Barracuda Pro

runs on the SATA interface and will pack

256MB of cache, run at 7,200rpm, and come

with a five-year warranty.

G.GURUBALAJI

III B.Sc. (Computer Technology)

HI-TECH FARMING: DRONES TO

MONITOR AGRICULTURE GROWTH IN

INDIA

The day is not far when drones would

be seen over agricultural fields, not for

security, but to monitor crop and soil health.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research

(ICAR) through the Indian Agricultural

Research Institute (IARI) under a collaborative

research project is developing indigenous

prototype for drone based crop and soil health

monitoring system using Hyperspectral Remote

Sensing (HRS) sensors. This technology could

also be integrated with satellitebased

technologies for large scale applications.

The project entitled "SENSAGRI:

Sensor based Smart Agriculture" is involving

six partner institutes (Agriculture & IT) to be

funded by Information Technology Research

Academy (ITRA), Department of Electronics

and Information Technology (DEITY),

Ministry of Communication and Information

Technology (MCIT) and ICAR.

Drone technology based Unmanned

Aerial Vehicle (UAV) has ability for smooth

scouting over farm fields, gathering precise

information and transmitting the data on real

time basis. This capability could be used for the

benefit of farming sector at regional or local

scale for assessing land and crop health, extent,

type and severity of damage besides issuing

forewarning, post-event management and

settlement of compensation under crop

insurance schemes.

SENSAGRI proposes advanced proof-

of-concept services i.e. yield and biomass,

tillage change, irrigation and advanced crop

maps. The scientists will develop algorithms

and these will be developed and validated and

currently working on the design of customized

multi-rotors for remote sensing of soil and

crops. Also analyzing the requirement for

agricultural based payload for defining the

specifications of a fixed wing mini UAV.

12

However several private firms are

manufacturing similar drones but our

technology will be far more advanced. The

drones will capture a big area in a very less

time. The mapping and analysis by drones will

be done at a very low cost.

The farmer will be able to analyze his

profit or loss because he will get to know the

yield even before it grows. Using remote

analysis to assess soil moisture and crop

development has the potential to cut input costs

and raise yields. The analysis done by a

satellite can easily assess the vegetation cover

to field level.

A.RANJITHAPRIYA

III B.Sc. (Information Technology)

MICROSOFT'S NEW SERVICE IS LIKE

YOUTUBE FOR THE ENTERPRISE

Stream is designed to users securely and

easily upload and share video within a

company. It's called Stream, and it's supposed

to let people easily work together with one

another on videos, and then share that content

both inside and outside their company. In the

realm of consumer web services, video is

ascending. Facebook has been emphasizing

video posts on its popular social network, while

YouTube is still going strong. Microsoft is

trying to take some of that major and bring it to

the business world with the launch of an open

beta for Stream.

Stream allows users to log in to a video

portal that lets them see all of the videos that

are shared with them, and do things like

subscribe to channels, search for subject matter

they want to explore, and follow co-workers

whose videos they want to see. People who

create videos can upload footage to the service

by dragging and dropping files from their

computers. Stream will handle the processing

and let people add titles, descriptions, and even

a caption file so that hearing-impaired viewers

can read along with what's being said.

The service also has the ability to set

sharing permissions that can let anyone in an

organization view a video, or lock it down to

just a small group of people. That way, it's

possible for users to get feedback on a video

from a small group before pushing it out to the

wider company. It's all powered by Azure

Media Services, a cloud-based video streaming

system that Microsoft has been building up to

host a variety of products including public

cloud video encoding services used for the

Olympics and Skype Meeting Broadcast, a

13

service that lets Skype for Business customers

send out a video feed to thousands of viewers.

Microsoft has a smorgasbord of planned

features on the roadmap for Stream. IT

managers, for example, will have access to

greater management controls for the service.

Microsoft also plans to add additional

intelligence to Stream's search, and let users of

its nPowerApps software build applications

that leverage its video viewing and capture

capabilities.

Stream is similar to other business apps

that Microsoft has recently launched, like

Power BI, the company's data visualization and

business intelligence tool, and PowerApps, a

service that lets employees build mobile

applications that use company data. Like those

applications, Stream is a subscription service

that lets businesses get a particular capability

without buying into one of Microsoft‟s big

suites.

It will be interesting to see how Stream fits into

Microsoft's overall product direction. The

company already has several different tools for

sharing video internally like SharePoint and

Office 365 Video. Sudheer Sirivara, the general

manager of Azure Media Services, said that

Stream will replace Office 365 Video

eventually. It's still not clear what Microsoft's

ultimate pricing model for Stream will be. Like

PowerApps and Power BI, it's expected to have

a free tier that offers users a smaller set of

services, and at least one additional paid tier

with additional functionality. Because Stream

will be replacing Office 365 Video, it seems

likely that companies subscribing to

Microsoft's productivity software suite will get

at least some of those premium features for

free.

D.HARINI

I B.Sc. (Computer Technology)

5G WIRELESS FRONTIERS

An explosion of devices and new forms

of digital content is producing a continued

surge in wireless internet traffic. The Federal

Communications Commission (FCC),

accordingly, is working on ways to free up

more airwaves for new wireless networks and

services. The FCC will release its Spectrum

Frontiers order that will recommend ways to

unleash new batches of higher frequency

spectrum for fifth-generation, or 5G wireless

networks.

14

Mobile video and the internet of things,

which will add tens of billions of new devices

to the network, are stretching the ability of our

wireless networks to handle them. Cisco

estimates that by 2020, smartphones will

generate more traffic than PCs and that non-PC

devices (including smartphones, tablets and

machine-to-machine links) will generate 71%

of all traffic. A new generation of wireless

networks will be needed both to handle these

existing trends and to propel completely new

services. A new network traffic report from

Sandvine shows how new applications, taking

advantage of better networks, drive traffic

growth. Real-time entertainment, such as

Netflix and YouTube, is still the largest traffic

generator by far. But cloud storage of files and

photos from Dropbox, iCloud and Google

Cloud, to name the largest providers, has

passed BitTorrent and is now the second-

largest component in upstream wired traffic, at

23%.

Meanwhile, video chatting has also

vaulted into the top tier of bandwidth usage. A

decade ago we predicted that video chatting

would be a huge generator of network traffic.

But for years, it didn‟t quite catch on. Wireless

networks just weren‟t fast enough to deliver a

satisfying real-time interactive video

experience. Remember the disappointment of

FaceTime when it was first released. Now,

however, apps such as FaceTime, Skype,

WhatsApp and Snapchat are exploiting faster

networks and creating the type of video

chatting wave we projected. Real-time

communications, according to Sandvine, now

accounts for 17% of upstream traffic on mobile

networks.

Facebook, including its Instagram and

WhatsApp properties, now accounts for 22% of

all North American mobile traffic. But where

would Facebook or FaceTime be if we hadn‟t

invested hundreds of billions of dollars in 3G

and 4G networks and spectrum. Likewise,

connected cars, virtual reality, mobile health

and the internet of things will depend on

wireless networks that are faster and more

reliable, capacious and ubiquitous than

today‟s.

Today, around 544 MHz of spectrum is

deployed for mobile use. This is a drop in the

bucket. By contrast, a single fibre-optic thread

boasts nearly 60 THz of potential bandwidth -

100,000 times more than all available mobile

spectrum. Most of today‟s licensed spectrum

falls between 400 MHz and 2.5 GHz. It is

augmented by unlicensed spectrum, used for

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other short-range signals,

in the 2.5 GHz and 5 GHz bands.

The new spectrum being considered is

located at much higher frequencies at 28, 37,

39 GHz and beyond. Higher frequencies have

strengths and weaknesses. They can transmit

more data, but the signals don‟t travel as far.

The higher frequencies will thus be crucial to

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deliver rich new services to billions of new

devices, but they will also require the

construction of new networks. These new

networks will be composed of millions of new

small cells, often hundreds of meters apart, to

complement the existing network of cell

towers, which are kilometres apart.

The key to the higher frequencies is

their immense bandwidth. Bandwidth is the

defining constraint on information

transmission. All of today‟s mobile signals are

crammed into just more than 500 MHz of

bandwidth. But it‟s possible that just one of the

new higher-frequency bands could offer that

much. Taken as a whole, the new high-

frequency airwaves could possibly

quintuple the amount of spectrum available for

mobile and wireless broadband.

The FCC order is a big step in the right

direction. As usual, however, some firms are

asking for special favours, hoping to steer the

proceeding away from simple, neutral rules and

toward complicated bureaucracy. They are

attempting to block competitors from acquiring

new spectrum, which could delay the arrival of

5G networks and thwart a vast array of new

services. The FCC should thus resist the

temptation to apportion spectrum to particular

firms based on political favour. Connected

cars, virtual reality, mobile health and the

internet of things will depend on wireless

networks that are faster and more reliable,

capacious and ubiquitous than today‟s. 5G

networks are a crucial foundation for the next

25 years of U.S. innovation.

S.ARUNKUMAR

III B.Sc. (Information Technology)

SECURE THE ROUTER AND HOME

NETWORK

Not all router security issues can be

fixed by users, but there are many actions that

can be taken to protect them from attacks many

computer users don't realize it, but for most

people their internet router is the most

important electronic device in their home. It

links most of their other devices together and to

the world, so it has a highly privileged position

that hackers can exploit. Unfortunately many

consumer and small-business routers come

with insecure default configurations, have

undocumented backdoor accounts, expose

legacy services and have firmware that is

riddled with basic flaws. Some of these

problems can't be fixed by users, but there are

many actions that can be taken to at least

protect these devices from large-scale,

automated attacks.

Basic actions:

Avoid using routers supplied by ISPs

These routers are typically less secure than

those sold by manufacturers to consumers.

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They often have hard-coded remote support

credentials that users can't change and patches

for their customized firmware versions lag

behind patches for the same flaws released by

router manufacturers.

Change the default admin password

Many routers come with default

administrator passwords and attackers

constantly try to break into devices using these

publicly known credentials. After you connect

to the router‟s management interface for the

first time through your browser the address

should be the router‟s default IP address found

on its bottom sticker or found in the set-up

guide Make sure the first thing you do is

changing the password.

The router's web-based management

interface should not be reachable from the

internet

For most users, managing the router from

outside the LAN (local area network) is not

necessary. If remote management is needed,

consider using a VPN (virtual private network)

solution to establish a secure channel to the

local network first and then access the router's

interface.

Even inside the LAN, it's good to restrict

which IP (Internet Protocol) addresses can

manage the router

If this option is available, it's best to

allow access from a single IP address that is not

part of the pool of IP addresses assigned to

computers via DHCP (Dynamic Host

Configuration Protocol). For example,

configure the router's DHCP server to assign IP

addresses from 192.168.0.1 to 192.168.0.50

and then configure the web interface to only

allow access from 192.168.0.53. The computer

should be manually configured to use this

address only when you need to connect to the

router.

Turn on HTTPS access to the router

interface, if available, and always log out

when done

Use the browser in incognito or private

mode when working with the router so that no

session cookies are left behind and never allow

the browser to save the router's username and

password.

Change the router's LAN IP address if

possible

Most of the time, routers will be

assigned the first address in a predefined

netblock, for example 192.168.0.1. If offered

the option, change this to 192.168.0.99 or

something else that's easy to remember and is

not part of the DHCP pool. The entire netblock

used by the router can also be changed to one

of those reserved for private networks. Doing

this will protect against cross-site request

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forgery (CSRF) attacks that try to access

routers through users' browsers by using the

default IP addresses commonly assigned to

such devices.

Choose a complex Wi-Fi password and a

strong security protocol

WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access II) should

be the option of choice, as the older WPA and

WEP are susceptible to brute-force attacks. If

the router offers the option, create a guest

wireless network, also protected with WPA2

and a strong password. Let visitors or friends

use this isolated guest network instead of your

main one. They might not have malicious

intentions, but their devices might be

compromised or infected with malware.

Disable WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup)

This is a rarely used feature designed to

help users set up Wi-Fi networks easily by

using a PIN printed on a sticker. However, a

serious vulnerability was found in many vendor

implementations of WPS a few years ago that

allows hackers to break into networks. Because

it's hard to determine which specific router

models and firmware versions are vulnerable,

it's best to simply turn off this feature on

routers that allow it. Instead, you can connect

to the router via a wired connection and access

its web-based management interface and, for

example, configure Wi-Fi with WPA2 and a

custom password (no WPS needed).

The fewer services your router has exposed

to the internet, the better

This is especially true if you haven't

enabled those services yourself and don't know

what they do. Services like Telnet, UPnP

(Universal Plug and Play), SSH (Secure Shell),

and HNAP (Home Network Administration

Protocol) should not be reachable from the

internet as they can pose serious security risks.

They should also be turned off on the local

network if they're not needed. Online services

like Shields UP by Gibson Research

Corporation (GRC) can scan your router's

public IP address for open ports. Shields Up

can also scan for UPnP separately.

Keep your router's firmware up to date

Some routers allow checking for

firmware updates directly from the interface

while others even have an automatic update

feature. Sometimes these checks might be

broken due to changes to the manufacturer's

servers over the years. It's a good idea to

regularly check the manufacturer's support

website manually for firmware updates for

your router model.

Network segmentation can be used to isolate

risky devices

Some consumer routers offer the option to

create VLANs (virtual local area networks)

inside a larger private network. These virtual

networks can be used to isolate internet-of-

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things devices, which researchers have

repeatedly shown are full of vulnerabilities.

Many IOT devices can be controlled through

smartphone apps via external cloud services, so

as long as they have Internet access, these

devices don't need to be able to communicate

with smartphones directly over the local

network after the initial set-up. IoT devices

often expose unprotected administrative

protocols to the local network so an attacker

could easily break into such a device from a

malware-infected computer, if both are on the

same network.

MAC address filtering can keep rogue

devices off your Wi-Fi network

Many routers allow for restricting devices

which are allowed on the Wi-Fi network based

on their MAC address -- a unique identifier of

their physical network card. Enabling this

feature can prevent attackers from connecting

to a Wi-Fi network even if they stole its

password. The downside is that manually white

listing legitimate devices can quickly become

an administrative burden on larger networks.

Port forwarding should be combined with IP

filtering

Services running on a computer behind

a router cannot be reached from the internet

unless port forwarding rules are defined on the

router. Many software programs will attempt to

open ports in the router automatically via

UPnP, which is not always safe. If UPnP is

disabled, rules can be added manually and

some routers

offer the option to specify the source IP address

or netblock that can connect on a specific port

to reach a certain service inside the network.

For example, if you want to access an FTP

server on your home computer from work, you

can create a port forwarding rule for port 21

(FTP) in your router, but only allow

connections from your company's IP netblock.

Custom firmware can be more secure than

factory firmware

There are several Linux-based,

community-maintained firmware projects for a

wide range of home routers. OpenWRT, DD-

WRT and Asuswrt-Merlin (for Asus routers

only) are just some of the most popular ones.

These typically offer more advanced features

and customizations than factory firmware and

their maintainers are quicker to fix flaws when

identified than router vendors. Because these

firmware packages are aimed at enthusiasts, the

number of devices that use them is much lower

compared to those that run vendor-supplied

firmware. This makes widespread attacks

against custom firmware less likely. However,

it's very important to keep in mind that loading

custom firmware on a router requires a fair

amount of technical knowledge will likely void

its warranty and, if done incorrectly, can render

the device unusable.

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B.MANO PRETHA

II B.Sc. (Computer Technology)

THE FUTURE OF WEB

DESIGN

In 1976 computers started to appear in

offices by 1986 they were becoming popular in

homes with models like the Commodore 64

and ZX Spectrum in 1996 the internet was

taking off with around 50,000 websites and in

2006 mobile web devices and responsive web

design were new phenomena.

In 2016 Google will handle over 2 trillion

searches. There are over a billion websites,

accessed by all manner of devices and progress

is continuing as computers double in speed and

memory roughly every two years. Webmasters

have to deal with a constant influx of new

software, CMS systems, apps and hardware

and it‟s a challenge keeping up.

1. Mobile Devices and Tablets

The first essential when designing for

the modern world is a responsive web design.

Your images and text should change layout to

display well on a small or large screen, so your

site always looks beautiful. It‟s also important

to position useful information near the top of

the page so that visitors can quickly see what

each page is about, even if they‟re using a

small mobile device. Menus should also be

responsive and only include items visitors are

likely to actually use. Check your Google

Analytics and consider the enquiries or sales

you receive. If no-one visits a particular page,

either edit it, or remove it from the main menu.

Google are also planning on introducing

a separate algorithm for page speed when

ranking websites for mobile users, so ensure

your images is compressed and you have a

decent host.

2. Voice recognition software

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We may not be at the Starship

Enterprise level of voice recognition yet, but

Cortana (the Windows 10 virtual assistant) and

similar voice technologies are the way of the

future and as voice to text software improves, it

will become increasingly popular. In May 2016

Google announced that 20% of searches in the

US are voice and the popular opinion among

developers is that “voice-based search is set to

displace text search as the feature of the

future.”

From an SEO perspective this means

that short 1 or 2 word searches will become

less common, e.g. “Hotel Paris” and longer

phrases e.g. “Find me a local hotel with a

family room” increasingly common.

Keywords are likely to always play some role

and including them in your Met tag Title in

particular is essential, however this suggests

that focusing on long-tail searches and writing

Met tags and content for human beings first

and search engines second is the way to go.

3. Artificial Intelligence

we‟re not yet at the level of

advancement seen in many science-fiction

movies, however Google‟s artificial

intelligence system (called Rank Brain) is

currently their third most important factor (with

content and links being joint first). As search

engines refine their algorithms to determine

which website is the best for a particular

keyword or phrase and are increasingly able to

take real-time data into account, it means that

having a high quality website will equate more

and more with a high search engine position. It

also means that completing a quality content

marketing campaign will be far more

successful than other types of marketing.

What does „quality‟ mean? Simply put,

it‟s whatever your customers or site visitors

define it as Whatever keeps readers on your

site increases the likelihood that they will order

a product or use your service and keeps them

informed, entertained or educated, is more and

more how Google will be able to measure

quality. As artificial intelligence develops, it

actually means that you should design more

and more for your end-user, rather than for an

algorithm.

Google can also tell what‟s in a photo

and even where a photo was taken and this will

make having relevant, original photos or

illustrations more important over time. Having

at least one image on a page will already help

that page appear significantly higher in the

search results.

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4. Smart Glasses

While they might have got off to a

rough start, it seems inevitable that Google

Glass, HoloLens, or a competitor‟s Smart

Glasses will become the latest fashion and it

won‟t be long before a tube journey is filled

with people gazing into a virtual world, rather

than interacting with someone or something on

their mobile. The new „responsive‟ web design

become „transparent‟ web design? Microsoft

are focusing more on allowing people using the

HoloLens to also interact with the world

around them, playing virtual games on a table

top for example. If this is the trend of the

future, then perhaps visitors will surf the net

from their Smart Glasses while out and about.

If so, they may still want to see the world

around them to some extent, so having plenty

of white space in your design could be a start.

With self-drive cars people are more

likely to view websites on the move, or read

recipes online while using a Pan Telligent, a

pan that teaches you how to cook. Using a

clear layout and reasonably large font size on

your site is therefore also essential. We can‟t

predict what new technology will be invented,

however we can take into account what

technology is already in development and we

can design and optimize websites with this in

mind. A lot of this is about designing for user-

experience.

U.DHANALAKSHMI

III B.Sc. (Computer Technology)

SELLING NEW TECHNOLOGY TO

THE SCHOOL BOARDS

Technology and online communication

in education has come a long way in the past

decade. Where once it was the norm for

teachers to predominantly work from text

books and whiteboards, this way of teaching is

now considered out-dated and largely

redundant. As schools strive to give their

students the means to be ever more productive

and creative in their learning, the pitfalls of

operating without the latest technologies are

becoming glaringly obvious.

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.

Technologies such as Office 365 arm

schools with a platform that delivers enhanced

communications, collaboration and anytime

access that offer teachers and students the best

opportunity to thrive in their careers and

education. It also gives students access to the

technologies they are likely to use on a daily

basis in their future careers.

However, investments in new technology can

be a daunting prospect and must be sold to the

budget-conscious school boards.

J.JAYACHANDRAN

III B.Sc. (Computer Technology)

UK HAS THE WORLD’S FASTEST

MOBILE INTERNET

The government might have collapsed

and opposition in disarray following Brexit, but

the UK can pat itself on the back for having the

world‟s fastest mobile broadband. According to

data and graphics from the First Quarter, 2016

State of the Internet Report, which can be

found on the Akamai State of the Internet site

the average mobile connection speed in the UK

was 27.9 Mbps making it the world‟s best. The

world‟s worst was the 2.2 Mbps Algerians have

to suffer from.

The United States average speed was

5.1 Mbps, which was lower than Turkey,

Kenya, and Paraguay, and on par with

Thailand. Many European countries more than

doubled the average U.S. speed, including

Slovakia with 13.3 Mbps, France with 11.5

Mbps, and Germany with 15.7 Mbps. The

report said that Global average connection

speed increased 12 per cent from the fourth

quarter of 2015 to 6.3 Mbps, a 23 per cent

increase year over year.

Global average peak connection speed

increased 6.8 per cent to 34.7 Mbps in the first

quarter, rising 14 per cent year over year.

Global 10 Mbps grew by ten percent, 15 Mbps

grew by 14 per cent, and 25 Mbps broadband

adoption grew by 19 percent. This are expected

to hot up this quarter as the internet prepare to

watch the Olympic games in Brazil, with

expectations that this year‟s events will be

watched by more online viewers than ever.

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David Belson, editor of the State of the

Internet Report said Global connection speeds

have more than doubled since the summer of

2012, which can help support higher quality

video streaming for bigger audiences across

even more connected devices and platforms.

The number of unique IPv4 addresses

connecting to the Akamai Intelligent Platform

declined 0.2 per cent to 808 million. Belgium

remained the clear global leader in IPv6

adoption with 36 per cent of its connections to

Akamai occurring over IPv6, down 3.1 percent

from the previous quarter.

HEMALATHA.T

III B.Sc. (Computer Technology)

PUZZLE

A solid, four-inch cube of wood is

coated with blue paint on all six sides. Then the

cube is cut into smaller one-inch cubes. These

new one-inch cubes will have either three blue

sides, two blue sides, one blue side, or no blue

sides. How many of each will there be?

Puzzle Solution:

Subtract the outside squares, which will all

have some paint on them

16 top

16 bottom

8 more left

8 more right

4 more front

4 more back

= 56

So, only 8 will have no blue side.

The only cubes that will have blue on

only one side will be the four center squares of

each side of the 64-cube so, 4 x 6 sides = 24

cubes.

The only cubes that will have blue on

three sides are the corner pieces there are 8

corners, so 8 cubes.

The cubes with two sides blue are the

edge cubes between the corners two on each

side of the top and bottom, so 2 x 4 sides x 2

(top and bottom) = 16, + the side edge/non-

corner pieces, which will be another 2 x 4 =

8,So

No blue side = 8,1 side = 24 2 sides = 24

3 sides = 8,Total = 64 cubes.

T.BHARATHI

II B.Sc. (Information Technology)

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