Moving Toward Effortless Networking [Industry Trends]

etworking has never been considered a particularly effortless process. It has never been simple to set up a network of devices or to connect new devices to a network. For example, users frequently must install network cards and often must spend considerable time configuring devices they want to add to a network. In addition, all devices on a network generally must operate on the same platform. Devices operating on different platforms generally cannot connect to the same network. This has limited the ability of organizations and users to make the most of networking's potential. This situation may be about to change. Several leading industry players are releasing or working on effortless-networking technology. In addition to making the networking process simpler, effortless networking technologies also promise to provide users with more power and functionality by letting them access printers, faxes, or even super-computers via the network. The technologies would permit device-independent, location-independent networking ; enable peer-to-peer communication between devices; and let users instantly and automatically link to a network. Jini, announced recently by Sun Microsystems; MCoM (Mobile Com-municator/Communication), a project now under way at Microsoft Research; and the Salutation project, undertaken by a consortium of about 30 leading computer and peripheral manufacturers, hold the promise of radically changing the ways networks are used, the types of services available to users, and the ease of accessing these services. Jini would let enabled devices form a federation of Java Virtual Machines (JVMs). These devices could simply connect to a LAN, communicate with each other, and access each other's services. The MCoM project, which is still in the early stages of development, is exploring a set of networking capabilities that would employ radio-frequency technology to offer wireless, continuous connectivity. The Salutation Consortium has designed a protocol that it hopes will serve as an architecture for effortless networking. Salutation technology would, in essence, serve as middleware that would let otherwise incompatible devices interoperate. These technologies, if widely adopted, could change the nature of networking and the face of the networking industry. Users could easily form networks, and new devices could easily join in, all without the traditional intervention of operating systems and drivers. Because devices could link directly to each other without mediation by operating systems or drivers, the OS would no longer play such a vital role in networking. This could, of course, dramatically affect such OS makers as Microsoft. In addition, effortless networking …