Multiterabit networks
The explosive demand for bandwidth for data networking applications continues to drive photonics technology toward ever increasing capacity in the backbone fiber network and toward flexible optical networking. Already commercial Tb/s (per fiber) transmission systems have been announced, and it can be expected that in the next several years, we will begin to be limited by the 50 THz transmission bandwidth of silca optical fiber. Efficient bandwidth utilization will be one of the challenges of photonics research. Since the communication will be dominated by data, we can expect the network of the future to consist of multiterabit packet switches to aggregate traffic at the edge of the network and cross connects with wavelength granularity and tens of terabits throughout the core.
The infrastructure required to govern Internet traffic volume, which doubles every six months, consists of two complementary elements: fast point-to-point links and high-capacity switches and routers. Dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology, which permits transmission of several wave-lengths over the same optical media, will enable optical point-to-point links to achieve an estimated 10 terabits per second by 2008. However, the rapid growth of Internet traffic coupled with the avail-ability of fast optical links threatens to cause a bottleneck at the switches and routers.
Multiterabit packet-switched networks will require high-performance scheduling algorithms and architectures. With port densities and data rates growing at an unprecedented rate, future prioritized scheduling schemes will be necessary to pragmatically scale toward multiterabit capacities. Further, support of strict QoS requirements for the diverse traffic loads characterizing emerging multimedia Internet traffic will increase. Continuous improvements in VLSI and optical technologies will stimulate innovative solutions to the intricate packet-scheduling task.
Hyper-Threading Technology
Hyper-Threading technology is a groundbreaking innovation from Intel that enables multi-threaded server software applications to execute threads in parallel within each processor in a server platform. The Intel® Xeon™ processor family uses Hyper-Threading technology, along with the Intel® NetBurst™ microarchitecture, to increase compute power and throughput for today's Internet, e-Business, and enterprise server applications. This level of threading technology has never been seen before in a general-purpose microprocessor. Hyper-Threading technology helps increase transaction rates, reduces end-user response times, and enhances business productivity providing a competitive edge to e-Businesses and the enterprise. The Intel® Xeon™ processor family for servers represents the next leap forward in processor design and performance by being the first Intel® processor to support thread-level parallelism on a single processor.
With processor and application parallelism becoming more prevalent, today's server platforms are increasingly turning to threading as a way of increasing overall system performance. Server applications have been threaded (split into multiple streams of instructions) to take advantage of multiple processors. Multi-processing-aware operating systems can schedule these threads for processing in parallel, across multiple processors within the server system. These same applications can run unmodified on the Intel® Xeon™ processor family for servers and take advantage of thread-level-parallelism on each processor in the system. Hyper-Threading technology complements traditional multi-processing by offering greater parallelism and performance headroom for threaded software.
Overview of Hyper-Threading Technology
Hyper-Threading technology is a form of simultaneous multi-threading technology (SMT), where multiple threads of software applications can be run simultaneously on one processor. This is achieved by duplicating the architectural state on each processor, while sharing one set of processor execution resources. The architectural state tracks the flow of a program or thread, and the execution resources are the units on the processor that do the work: add, multiply, load, etc.
Dual-processing (DP) server applications in the areas of Web serving, search engines, security, streaming media, departmental or small business databases, and e- mail/file/print can realize benefits from Hyper-Threading technology using Intel® Xeon™ processor-based servers
E-commerce
E-commerce is the application of information technology to support business processes and the exchange of goods and services. E-cash came into being when people began to think that if we can store, forward and manipulate information, why can't we do the same with money. Both blanks and post offices centralise distribution, information and credibility. E-money makes it possible to decentralise these functions.
Electronic data interchange, which is the subset of e-com, is a set of data definitions that permits business forms to be exchanged electronically. The different payment schemes E-cash, Net-cash and PayMe system and also smart card technology is also. The foundation of all requirements for commerce over the world wide web is secured system of payment so various security measures are adopted over the Internet.
E-commerce represents a market worth potentiality hundreds of billions of dollars in just a few years to come. So it provides enormous opportunities for business. It is expected that in near future, electronic transaction will be as popular, if not more that the credit card purchases today.
Business is about information. It is about the right people having the right information at the right time. Exchanging the information efficiently and accurately will determine the success of the business.
There are three phases of implementation of E-Commerce.
" Replace manual and paper-based operations with electronic alternatives
" Rethink and simplify the information flows
" Use the information flows in new and dynamic ways
Simply replacing the existing paper-based system will reap new benefits. It may reduce administrative costs and improve the level of accuracy in exchanging data, but it does not address doing business efficiently. E-Commerce application can help to reshape the ways to do business
Biometrics
Biometrics literally means "life measurement." Biometrics is the science and technology of measuring and statistically analyzing biological data. In information technology, biometrics usually refers to technologies for measuring and analyzing human body characteristics such as fingerprints, eye retinas and irises, voice patterns, facial patterns, and hand measurements, especially for authenticating someone. Often seen in science-fiction action adventure movies, face pattern matchers and body scanners may emerge as replacements for computer passwords So, Biometric systems can be defined as "automated methods of verifying or recognizing the identity of a living person based on a physiological or behavior characteristic".
Automated methods By this we mean that the analysis of the data is done by a computer with little or no human intervention. Traditional fingerprint matching and showing your drivers license or other forms of photo ID when proving your identity are examples of such systems.
Verification and recognition This sets forth the two principal applications of biometric systems. Verification is where the user lays claim to an identity and the system decides whether they are who they say they are. It's analogous to a challenge/response protocol; the system challenges the user to prove their identity, and they respond by providing the biometric to do so. Recognition is where the user presents the biometric, and the system scans a database and determines the identity of the user automatically.
Living person This points out the need to prevent attacks where copy of the biometric of an authorized user is presented. Biometric systems should also prevent unauthorized users from gaining access when they are in possession of the body part of an authorized user necessary for the measurement.
Physiological and behavioral characteristics This defines the two main classes of biometrics. Physiological characteristics are physical traits, like fingerprint or retina that are direct parts of the body. Behavioral characteristics are those that are based upon what we do, such as voiceprint and typing patterns. While physiological traits are usually more stabile than behavioral traits, systems using them are typically more intrusive and more expensive to implement
