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BlueSky is an on going project in the networking
department at Thomas J. Watson Research Center. We are building
a low cost, low power, wireless communication solution for handheld
devices. You can plug-in our current prototype into the serial port
of your Workpad and access the web over the wireless link. The access
to wired networking resources is provided using a BlueSky access
point which acts as a layer2/3 bridge between Ethernet & wireless
medium. Once you are connected, you can browse the web, run host-sync,
print documents, send faxes, or whatever else you may want to do.
We are also implementing a mobility/roaming
solution that will enable users to roam between access points without
dropping active connections. The nice thing about the solution is
that no new software or communication stack upgrades are needed.
Handheld devices view the BlueSky wireless attachment as a null
modem and use the existing dialup and PPP software to connect to
the network. Our roaming enhancements to PPP are implemented in
the PPP server, the access point, and the BlueSky attachment. The
added functionality is completely transparent to the end device.
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