The Telecommunications Handbook: Engineering Guidelines for Fixed, Mobile and Satellite Systems

5 Connectivity and Payment

Jyrki T. J. Penttinen

5.1 Connectivity

Connectivity in telecommunications refers basically to all the means and methods that can be used for transferring signals and/or contents between two points, including wired and wireless environments. The widest definition thus includes, for example, radio and fixed interfaces of cellular, transport and core networks for end-to-end connectivity, whilst more limited environments include near-distance connectivity of, for example, Bluetooth transmission.

This chapter concentrates on the latter environment as the relevant telecommunications systems are described elsewhere in this book. More specifically, near-distance connectivity of the following technologies is explained:

• Fixed connectivity, including USB (base solution and enhanced variants) and serial port (significance disappearing in current solutions).
• Wireless connectivity, including Bluetooth and NFC.

Furthermore, as one essential part of the NFC, mobile payment principles are also discussed.

5.2 Definitions

The usability and quality of the near-distance connectivity depends on the maximum data rates with a still acceptably low bit error rate. As transmission technologies are evolving, ever higher data rates can be offered over more developed solutions.

Data rates are typically informed in bits per second, which are marked in this book as b/s. The velocities that are relevant now and could be relevant in the near future are shown in Table 5.1.

Table ...