PARC wants to
make networks smarter, easier
Stephen Lawson, Computerworld,
March 8, 2004
PARC researchers recently
announced that they have come up with a device
that lets new users securely sign onto a wireless
LAN in less than five minutes, as well as
a way for otherwise incompatible digital consumer
devices to exchange data.
The WLAN "enrollment station,"
which has been under development for about
a year and is already in use at Palo Alto,
Calif.-based PARC, uses a public-key infrastructure
(PKI) to automatically authenticate a client
device to a WLAN. As it's currently implemented,
a user walks up to the station with a notebook
computer or other device, lines up its infrared
port with that of the station and waits for
the device to be signed on to the network.
It cuts the process down from several steps
and more than an hour to two steps and about
two minutes, with no choices for the end user
to make during the process, said Dirk Balfanz,
a researcher in PARC's security group. The
process would have to happen only once for
every user on that LAN.
PARC is seeking licensing
deals with companies that could include makers
of access points and vendors of current WLAN
security systems, he said. The researchers
believe most of the technology is ready now.
Farther out is PARC's Obje
interoperability platform. This system is
designed to allow devices -- especially consumer
electronics -- to share files even if they
weren't built or programmed to work with each
other. One device can teach another device
how to get and use a file by sending Obje
software across a network.
Even devices built for
different kinds of connectivity -- Ethernet,
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and so on -- could share
files, said Hermann Calabria, principal of
business development for Obje. One device
that can use multiple kinds of networks can
act as a bridge between other devices that
don't share a network technology. For example,
a handheld computer with Bluetooth connectivity
could send a document file to a printer that
uses Wi-Fi if there were a PC in between that
had both wireless technologies in it.
PARC's vision is that when
consumers walk into a room, all the devices
in that room will be able to find one another,
and the user will be able to access any data
or service from any of the devices on any
other device, Calabria said.
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