Personal Telco Monthly Meeting for March 31st 2004
When and Where
Urban Grind Coffee 2214 NE Oregon St. (take 22nd Ave. 2 blocks North of Sandy Blvd.)
Wednesday, March 31st, 6pm-9pm
Agenda
- 6:00PM - Introduction to Personal Telco for newcomers.
- 6:30PM - New Nodes and other announcements.
- 6:45PM - Speaker Nate August
- 7:30PM - Business followed directly by informal meet and greet.
Speaker
Bio
Nathaniel J. August is currently working towards the Ph.D. degree at Virginia Tech as a Bradley Fellow and a Cunningham Fellow. Previously, he worked as a validation engineer for Intel Corporation in Portland, OR and Sacramento, CA on pre-silicon validation of gigabit Ethernet adapters and post-silicon validation of PCI chipsets. His current research interests include low power VLSI design and ultra wideband (UWB) networks, systems, and hardware. The UWB systems will be used in applications such as wireless personal area networks (WPANs), radio frequency identification (RFID), and wireless ad hoc and sensor networks. Most of Nathaniels research has been documented in IEEE conference and journal papers, and he is currently contributing to the first academic book on UWB communications, An Introduction to Ultra Wideband Communications, due out in July from Prentice-Hall. He currently lives and works in Portland to be close to his girlfriend plus its a lot more fun here.
Abstract
Although ultra wideband (UWB) was one of the first forms of wireless communication, it has historically received little attention outside of the military. Recently, interest in UWB has exploded with the FCC's allocation of spectrum in February of 2002. Compared with traditional narrowband communication systems, UWB has several advantages such as high data rate, low radiated power, and simple RF circuits. Further, unlike narrowband systems, UWB has both communications and radar capabilities. Many of these potential advantages are a direct consequence of UWB's large instantaneous bandwidth, which is on the order of several GHz. The unique characteristics of UWB offer a variety of applications such as wireless home networking, sensor network communications, through-the-walls sensing, ground penetrating radar, medical imaging, precise asset location for inventory tracking, collision avoidance systems for automobiles, surveillance, and planetary exploration. It is expected that this technology will be the next driving force in the continuing wireless communications revolution. The presentation will cover the basics of UWB communications as well as applications, industry activity, and standardization.
Agenda Items
MichaelWeinberg will give a synopsis of the City Repair Project's Earth Day celebration. Volunteers and equipment are still needed for this event, April 17th, 2004.
AaronJohnson will give a summary on Multnomah County Library wifi research, PortAngelesWashington recon, and something else that he forgot.
AaronBaer talk about portland indy media contact
MusashiHybrid talk about the World Wide War Drive 2004
The CapitalFund Raising Drive is still going on. Click the "donate" link on the main PTP web page or go buy stuff at the PTP's CafePress online store . Every little bit helps to grow out the PTP's network of goodness.