If adding a Graduate component to an existing course, check here ___

Effective: Fall 2001
 

Course Number:  BSEDCNA 349

Course Title: Wireless Technology for Business

15 Character Abbreviation: Wireless Techno
25 Character Abbreviation: Wireless Technol Business
 
 

Sponsor: Jo Ann Oravec		E-mail Address: oravecj@mail.uww.edu
Department: BECNA		College: B&E

Other Programs Affected: CEUT major and minor
 

Check if course is to meet any of the following requirements:

__X None __ Writing __ Computer __ Diversity __ General Ed: Area
 

Credit/Contact Hours: (per semester)
 

Total lab hours:	30		Total lecture hours:	___15____
Number of credits:	__3______		Total contact hours:	___45_____

Check if course is repeatable: ____ No __Y_ Yes If "Yes", answer the following questions:
 

No of times in major	____1____		No of credits in major	______27__
No of times in degree	____1___		No of credits in degree	______120__

Enter the appropriate titles if the course is required in any of the following:
Major Title(s): Computer End-User Technologies
Minor Title(s): Professional Business Minor Computer End-User Technologies
Emphasis Title(s):

Course justification:
Wireless access allows businesses to create information services that were not possible before. These services can include position-related information—in an effort to interact with users information in times and places where they could not be reached before. CEUT majors and minors are hired as network administrators. They will be expected to address the technology.

Relationship to program assessment objectives:
Our students have 98 percent placement in jobs related to their major. For them to maintain their competitive edge, they need to take their technological abilities to the next level.

Budgetary impact:
Existing faculty are available and qualified to teach this course; existing courses are under review so that faculty resources can be shifted to this technologically driven major.

Course description:
This course will examine how organizations and individuals can utilize wireless technologies to solve specific business problems, with a special emphasis on wireless Internet applications for consumer and small business use. The course will focus on implementation, administration, and end-user service/training issues. It will also spotlight the "human factors" and usability concerns that enter into wireless application development and administration, as well as the markup languages that are involved in many wireless Internet design initiatives. The course will explore the current and projected sets of wireless Internet protocols, including WAP, iMode, and HDML. In terms of applications, the class will emphasize "m-commerce" initiatives (the kinds of electronic commerce applications that can be supported with wireless and mobile computing), although it will also review the emerging set of community-centered initiatives both in the US and abroad.

Course requisites: 220347 Network Administration for the End User

Course objectives and tentative course syllabus:

Objectives:

1. to become able to compare and contrast the implementation and administration issues of wireless and mobile computing with those of physically-connected networks.
2. to become equipped to understand and work with major wireless technology protocols, especially wireless Internet protocols.
3. to become able to relate human factors and ergonomics issues to practical wireless Internet design, implementation and administration.
4. to understand how international, national, and state public policy concerns can affect how wireless and mobile computing systems are implemented, and be aware of current controversies in these areas. Also—to understand the role of technical groups such as the WAP Forum.
5. to become able to analyze how certain contexts (car, home, workplace or community) relate to how wireless/mobile systems are developed and maintained, with special focus on small business contexts.
6. to develop technical capabilities from hands-on in labs and fieldwork in wireless Internet, GPS, and other systems.
7. to become knowledgeable about the security, repair, and upkeep issues relating to wireless/mobile networks, as well as the special concerns involving the training of end users and responsiveness to their needs.
8. to understand how businesses currently project trends in the wireless/mobile computing fields, and to be knowledgeable of current trends.

Read this from Ericksson:
The mobile Internet industry—Opportunity knocking (from www.ericksson.com/review/2000_01/article95.shtml)

A new wireless paradigm
Mobile communication and data communication are two of the fastest growing areas in the communications industry. In particular, mobile data communication, which includes wireless Internet, carries a great deal of momentum. The media is keeping a vigilant eye on the evolution of wireless data, and operators and various kinds of enterprise have put wireless datacom at the top of their strategic agendas.

Wireless data communication combines mobile communication and data communication by giving consumers easy access through mobile phones, pagers, or other wireless devices to relevant information on the Internet and intranets.
Operators see wireless data communication as an opportunity to create innovative services on top of existing networks and investments. Doing so will give them a means of differentiating themselves—for instance, to enhance their business image, reduce churn, attract new subscribers, and increase traffic volume per subscriber.

Enterprises are increasingly looking for ways of increasing employee productivity. Wireless data will enable professionals to access corporate data, such as e-mail, production status, price lists, and other critical information for doing business while they are away from the office. Specific vertical segments, such as financial institutions, have expressed interest in wireless data as a way of distributing services. In this context, wireless data would improve their overall image and increase the availability of services through a rapidly growing low-cost distribution channel. These needs and initiatives from Ericsson and others, have created "phone browser technologies," such as the wireless application protocol, or WAP.
 

Textbooks:
Wireless Web Development by Ray Rischpater. Apress, 2000.

The Comprehensive Guide to Wireless Technologies
by Lawrence Harte and Steven Kellogg. ISBN: 0965065847, APDG, 1999.

Week 1: Getting wireless: Introduction to wireless network applications, with an emphasis on e-commerce applications. How can businesses and other organizations utilize wireless technologies to best advantage? We will discuss the pace of changes in these technologies and make specific projections (that we will review in three months). We will also have an overview of some of the public policy issues involving wireless, which we will follow throughout the course. Introduction to "invisible computing"/ubiquitous computing concepts (sources include Donald Norman and John Seely Brown, citations in bibliography), and related readings. OBJECTIVES 1, 4, and 8

Week 2: Overview of the basics: Review of network administration basics and comparison of wireless with physically-connected networks. Then, we’ll have a basic definition of each of the major wireless technologies and services. We’ll discuss IEEE 802.11 and related protocols in historical and technical perspective. We’ll follow with a discussion of the applications of mobile communications satellite services. We’ll describe what first, second, third, and fourth generation mobile technologies constitute. OBJECTIVES 1 and 6

Week 3: WAP technologies: introduction to WML programming (wireless markup language). Designing and maintaining WML. Relationship of WML to other markup languages. Use of emulators to access and program WML code. We’ll hand out and discuss the industry overview assignment (due in Week 5). More on kinds of wireless data; the basics of packet and circuit switched data, as well as a description of various public and private systems and their messaging and data services. OBJECTIVES 2 and 6

Week 4: WMLScript exercises; comparison to JavaScript. Optimizing graphics for wireless devices: WBMP exercise. Introduction to human factors issues concerning wireless and mobile applications. OBJECTIVES 2 and 3

Week 5: Industry overview: We will also discuss the wireless network industry; who are the players, how are they organizing into joint ventures, and what can we expect in the near-term future (including Eriksson, Nokia, Phone.com, Allaire, and Sprint)? What are the international business issues in relation to these technologies? We will conduct business surveys of how businesses are using wireless devices now (and expect to use them in the near-term future). (Students will have an assignment relating to the wireless industry, handed out in week 3.) OBJECTIVE 4

Week 6: More protocols: Introduction to I-mode, HDML, and other wireless web protocols; short exercises. More on human factors issues in wireless computing; using wireless to support the disabled. On public policy aspects: We will review highlights of US telecommunications policies and their impact on wireless, and discuss current Federal Communication Commission (FCC) spectrum allocation issues. OBJECTIVES 2 and 4

Week 7: Guest speaker on business applications of wireless technologies. Quality of service (QoS) issues. Convergence of the Internet, the telephone system and the global positioning system (GPS); GPS experiments and exercises.  OBJECTIVE 6

Week 8: Administration of wireless systems; case studies from universities and the corporate world. Outline of aspects of web application development (writing in ASP, ColdFusion, Java, JSP, Perl, or other server-side language) in which content is generated for wireless devices. OBJECTIVES 2 and 7

Week 9: Midterm exam (closed book). Discussion of specifications for class projects.

Week 10: Wireless networks for the home; what is currently available in the home and projected enhancements. New wireless/mobile consumer "information appliances." Management/installation of networks for the home; career prospects for home and community wireless network development and maintenance. OBJECTIVE 5

Week 11: Small business applications using wireless technologies; case studies and application building and/or administration exercise. We will contrast wireless and non-wireless application building and administration in the small business context. OBJECTIVES 1 and 5

Week 12: Management/administration issues: Security for portable devices, issues in repair and versioning. Case studies and exercises. OBJECTIVES 1 and 7

Week 13: Presentation and critiques of student projects.

Week 14: Guest speakers from Born.com. More student project presentations.

Week 15: Review of class and projections of future technologies. What has changed in the three months since the class began? Industry update. OBJECTIVES 4 and 8

Final Exam.
 

What do wireless networks include? We’ll have an overview of the different types of wireless services and how they operate, including voice, data, and remote control, as well as point-to-point and broadcast services. We’ll discuss how the radio frequency spectrum is divided, as well as some of the basics of radio frequency transmission and modulation, antennas and radio networks.

Here are some of the wireless technologies we’ll cover briefly in the first weeks (following textbook material here): Land mobile radio: we’ll have an overview of various specialized mobile radio (SMR) systems including integrated Digital Network (iDEN), EDACS, dispatch, and two-way radio.

Cellular and PCS: We’ll discuss the different types of analog and digital mobile telephone systems and their evolution. Also--paging systems. We’ll have descriptions of one-way and two-way paging systems. We’ll also overview many innovative applications for paging systems—copiers can alert repair people, etc

Satellite communications: These Involve the various public and private satellite systems including DBS, DSS, and very small aperture terminals (VSAT).

Fixed wireless systems: These include wireless cable and wireless local area networks (WLAN), along with advanced services such as video on demand. This category also includes high speed licensed and unlicensed radio technology.

Wireless office and cordless telephone systems: These include wireless private branch exchange (WPBX), public cordless, and other low power wireless telephone devices.
 

Class Grading Scheme:
midterm exam: 25 points
final exam: 35 points
projects 25 points
exercises and class participation: 15 points
 
 

* Brown, John Seely and Paul Duguid (2000). The social life of information Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Ferguson, P. Quality of Service: Delivering QoS on the Internet and in corporate networks. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998.

* Human factors: the journal of the Human Factors Society. New York: Pergamon Press, c1958- onward (in current periodicals),

* Network magazine : the competitive edge in business technology. San Francisco, CA: Miller Freeman, c1998- onward (in current periodicals).

* Network world. Framingham, MA: CW Communications, c1986- onward (in current periodicals).

* Norman, Donald A. (1998). The invisible computer: why good products can fail, the personal computer is so complex, and information appliances are the solution. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

* Pahlavan, K. & Levesque, A. (1995). Wireless information networks. New York: Wiley.

* Schneiderman, Ron (1994). Wireless Personal Communications: the Future of Talk. New York, NY: IEEE Press.

* Stanton, Neville (1998). Human factors in consumer products. London: Taylor & Francis.

Watson, K. & Wugofski, T, Wei Meng Lee, Foo Soo Mee (2000). Beginning WAP: Wireless Markup Language & Wireless Markup Language Script. Wrox Press.

* Starred books/journals are in the Andersen Library.
 

Consultation:  Mathematical and Computer Sciences Approved.