Net In the Automobile
Referring to a vehicle-based Internet router which is displayed on the show floor of the car, Sterling Pratz, CEO of Autonet Mobile, once said “The strangest part of it was that we had guys coming up to us and saying, ‘Wow, these minivans are really cool now,” The idea is indeed pretty neat, and it made those vehicles popular to an unexpected category of consumers.
The chief technology officer for Autonet Mobile, named Doug Moeller, mentioned that “This allows people in the car to stay connected, just like they are at home or in the office,” He also added: “The kids can be in the back seat, doing online gaming or going to Facebook. All the stuff they can do normally, they can now do in the car.”
The whole idea appeared in 2005, after Pratz and Moeller focused on the satellite technology. “After doing that for awhile, we saw an opportunity to build a more commercial product that could bring the Internet-to-the-vehicle concept to the masses,” says Moeller.
Nonetheless, to avoid excessive costs, they decided to adapt their concept to function on cellular networks rather than relying on satellite technology. However, this desired technology raised another technological issue. Since the Internet was meant to run over modems with Internet Protocol Suite (usually known as TCP/IP), they proved to be not very good partners for the technology of cellular networks. Moeller is of the opinion that “TCP is really a poor technology for wireless communications,” He still mentions “But we were stuck with it because that’s what the Internet was built on.”
One of the most significant technical challenges faced by Autonet is the fact that TCP makes use of a “send-acknowledgement” function. This means that when a packet of data fails to reach its destination, the system manages to resend it, based on the presumption that this failure was generally caused by the congested network. This is likely to generate an unpleasant situation for mobile phone users. They have to face interruptions caused by the drop-offs in the service.
Moeller says: “In the wireless world, when a packet doesn’t arrive, it’s not because the network is congested. It’s usually because there’s a temporary loss of signal. So when the other side re-transmits, the problem gets worse. Then it starts to multiply.”
Autonet managed to solve this problem by optimizing TCP for the wireless connection, yet still kept its most effective characteristics to function properly in all Internet applications. It took Moeller a whole year to work with that TCP software before he could develop a patented type of “session proxy” technique which could support multiple TCP sessions at the same time between the network and the user. This method helped Autonet work out the “send-acknowledgement” problem.
Engineers working at Autonet Mobile consider that the major aspect of this software is that there?s no need installing it on laptops or note-books.
A specialist in advanced connectivity for Chrysler named Keefe Leung says “What we really want is for customers to be able to bring what they already own into the car and have it work,” and “We don’t see ourselves forcing them to buy additional equipment when they already have similar functionality from their devices at home. This box will manage all their own multiple devices and let all of them connect to the Internet at the same time. That’s why Chrysler announced it will work with its Mopar arm to make the Autonet Mobile box into a dealer-installed accessory”.
Another important voice in this field is the vice president and chief automotive analyst for GartnerG2, named Thilo Koslowski “We’re not seeing a lot of consumer demand for Internet access to do browsing in the car,” adding “For most people, the vehicle is still primarily a tool that gets you from Point A to Point B. It’s not a great way to connect to the Internet.”
Moeller also makes other remarks on this issue “Everybody has lots of ideas about how the Internet can be used to drive new applications,” “Until now, though, there’s been no reliable way of connecting to the Internet in a car. We’ve just provided a way for that to happen, so they can begin bringing those applications into the vehicle.”
