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Intelligent Networks • Smart Objects • Design for Humans |
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| Monday, February 07, 2005 |
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Sizing Up Complex Webs: Close or Far, Many Networks Look the Same
Researchers have uncovered another similarity in the makeup of complex networks. The Jan. 27 edition of Nature reports that Hernan Makse of the City College of New York and his co-workers have discovered that all blurred networks have connection patterns that are similar to those found on the original network, representing a fractal pattern similar to snowflakes and trees. The networks studied were the World Wide Web, a network of actors who have worked together, networks of proteins with links between those that can connect with one another, and networks of other cellular molecules that have links between molecules that participate in the same biochemical reactions. The researcher used computer analysis to "zoom out" to observe networks from far away, blurring their vision to determine how clusters of nodes were connected. Mathematicians have considered the Web to be infinite dimensional, and have believed such a network could not fit into finite-dimensional space. "They've found something new here, but we don't know yet whether it is a Rosetta stone that will let us translate the mysteries of networks into something we understand," according to Steven Strogatz, a mathematician at Cornell University. University of Notre Dame physicist Albert-Laszlo Barabasi calls the research a "fundamental advance" and answers a question that "has been bugging us for a while."
[Science News]
9:11:21 PM
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Bluetooth Seeks Entry Into the Sensor Network Market
According to the Bluetooth SIG, their release of the Bluetooth 2.0+EDR standard will give the technology the boost necessary to enter the sensor network market, which puts them in direction competition with ZigBee.
As it enters the sensor network market, Bluetooth will face a formidable, and very active, opponent - the 802.15.4 ZigBee. In-Stat/MDR estimates that the market for 802.15.4 could be as large as 150 million nodes by 2008. Honeywell is developing a system utilizing ZigBee for remote wireless control of large-size building air conditioning systems and lighting. Ember is volume-producing ZigBee ICs for these applications, forecasting shipments of 700,000 units in 2004 and 20 million in 2005. The ZigBee Alliance is not exactly shaking in its boots in the face of Bluetooth's entry into the sensor market. ZigBee supporters point out that their technology can simultaneously connect about 65,000 nodes, and that it can run for 10 years or more from a battery. Bluetooth's advocates say that the difference in the number of simultaneous connections is irrelevant as studies show that most industrial users considering implementing large-scale sensor networks are planning on using 30 to 60 nodes. [The Unofficial Bluetooth Weblog]
7:23:43 PM
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