Networking

wavecore-runs-right-through-a-concrete-wall-with-gigabit-speed-network-signal

WaveCore runs right through a concrete wall with gigabit-speed network signal

airvine, airvine scientific, Biz & IT, concrete, Networking, networking hardware, Tech, wavecore, wifi 6 / /

Thick as a brick —

Core drilling is tricky. Getting a 6 GHz signal through concrete is now easier.

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Business-like man standing in a concrete loft space

Enlarge / “Hmm, no signal here. I’m trying to figure it out, but nothing comes to mind …”

Getty Images

One issue in getting office buildings networked that you don’t typically face at home is concrete—and lots of it. Concrete walls are an average of 8 inches thick inside most commercial real estate.

Keeping a network running through them is not merely a matter of running cord. Not everybody has the knowledge or tools to punch through that kind of wall. Even if they do, you can’t just put a hole in something that might be load-bearing or part of a fire control system without imaging, permits, and contractors. The bandwidths that can work through these walls, like 3G, are being phased out, and the bandwidths that provide enough throughput for modern systems, like 5G, can’t make it through.

That’s what WaveCore, from Airvine Scientific, aims to fix, and I can’t help but find it fascinating after originally seeing it on The Register. The company had previously taken on lesser solid obstructions, like plaster and thick glass, with its WaveTunnel. Two WaveCore units on either side of a wall (or on different floors) can push through a stated 12 inches of concrete. In their in-house testing, Airvine reports pushing just under 4Gbps through 12 inches of garage concrete, and it can bend around corners, even 90 degrees. Your particular cement and aggregate combinations may vary, of course.

  • The WaveCore device, installed in a garage space during Airvine Scientific’s testing.

  • Concept drawing of how WaveCore punches through concrete walls (kind of).

    Airvine Scientific

The spec sheet shows that a 6 GHz radio is the part that, through “beam steering,” blasts through concrete, with a 2.4 GHz radio for control functions. There’s PoE or barrel connector power, and RJ45 ethernet in the 1, 2.5, 5, and 10Gbps sizes.

6 GHz concrete fidelity (Con-Fi? Crete-Fi?) is just one of the slightly uncommon connections that may or may not be making their way into office spaces soon. LiFi, standardized as 802.11bb, is seeking to provide an intentionally limited scope to connectivity, whether for security restrictions or radio frequency safety. And Wi-Fi 7, certified earlier this year, aims to multiply data rates by bonding connections over the various bands already in place.

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Court rules against Activision Blizzard in $23.4M patent dispute

Activision Blizzard, Boeing, gaming, Networking, patent, troll / /

pay up —

Activision plans appeal, says it uses different network tech in its games.

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Acceleration Bay says <em>World of Warcraft</em>‘s networking code infringes on a patent originally filed by Boeing.” src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/wowcrowd-800×450.png”></img><figcaption> <p><a data-height=Enlarge / Acceleration Bay says World of Warcraft‘s networking code infringes on a patent originally filed by Boeing.

Activision Blizzard

A jury has found Activision Blizzard liable for $23.4 million in damages in a patent infringement lawsuit first brought to court in 2015.

The case centers on patents first filed by Boeing in 2000, one that describes a “distributed game environment” across a host and multiple computers and another that describes a simple method for disconnecting from such a network. Those patents were acquired in 2015 by Acceleration Bay, which accused Activision Blizzard of using infringing technology to develop World of Warcraft and at least two Call of Duty titles.

Those accusations succeeded in court earlier this week, as a jury found a “preponderance of evidence” that the patents were infringed. The decision came following a one-week trial in which Activision Blizzard argued that its networking technology works differently from what is described in the patents, as reported by Reuters.

“While we are disappointed, we believe there is a strong basis for appeal,” an Activision Blizzard spokesperson said in a statement to the press. “We have never used the patented technologies at issue in our games.”

Acceleration Bay’s website describes it as an “incubator and investor” that wants to “nurture, protect, and support the dissemination of technological advancement.” But the company’s only currently listed venture is Edge Video, a “Web 3 Video Network” that provides crypto rewards and “AI-driven shopping” opportunities through interactive video overlays.

In a 2019 counterclaim stemming from a similar patent case (which was dismissed in 2020), Epic Games argued that “Acceleration engages in no business activity other than seeking to enforce the Asserted Patents.” Epic also said at the time that “Acceleration has asserted the same six patents against other major videogame publishers, even though Epic can see no applicability of the claimed technology to the videogame industry.”

Acceleration Bay has outstanding patent cases against Electronic Arts, Take-Two, and Amazon Web Services, among others.

In 2021, Activision Blizzard won a longstanding infringement suit brought by Worlds, Inc. over a patent for a “system and method for enabling users to interact in a virtual space.” In dismissing that case, US District Judge Denise J. Casper wrote that “client-server networks, virtual worlds, avatars, or position and orientation information are not inventions of Worlds” and that its patented technology was not “inherently inventive or sufficient to ‘transform’ the claimed abstract idea into a patent-eligible application.”

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Counterfeit Cisco gear ended up in US military bases, used in combat operations

Biz & IT, china, Cisco, Hong Kong, Networking / /

Cisno —

“One of the largest counterfeit-trafficking operations ever.”

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Cisco Systems headquarters in San Jose, California, US, on Monday, Aug. 14, 2023.

Enlarge / Cisco Systems headquarters in San Jose, California.

A Florida resident was sentenced to 78 months for running a counterfeit scam that generated $100 million in revenue from fake networking gear and put the US military’s security at risk, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday.

Onur Aksoy, aka Ron Aksoy and Dave Durden, pleaded guilty on June 5, 2023, to two counts of an indictment charging him with conspiring with others to traffic in counterfeit goods, to commit mail fraud, and to commit wire fraud. His sentence, handed down on May 1, also includes an order to pay $100 million in restitution to Cisco, a $40,000 fine, and three years of supervised release. Aksoy will also have to pay his victims a sum that a court will determine at an unspecified future date, the DOJ said.

According to the indictment [PDF], Aksoy began plotting the scam around August 2013, and the operation ran until at least April 2022. Aksoy used at least 19 companies and about 15 Amazon storefronts, 10 eBay ones, and direct sales—known collectively as Pro Network Entities—to sell tens of thousands of computer networking devices. He imported the products from China and Hong Kong and used fake Cisco packaging, labels, and documents to sell them as new and real. Legitimate versions of the products would’ve sold for over $1 billion, per the indictment.

The DOJ’s announcement this week said the devices had an estimated retail value of “hundreds of millions of dollars” and that Aksoy personally received millions of dollars.

Fake Cisco tech used in Air Force, Army, and Navy applications

The US military used gear purchased from Aksoy’s scheme, which jeopardized sensitive applications, including support platforms for US fighter jets and other types of military aircraft, per government officials.

In a statement this week, Bryan Denny, special agent in charge of the US Department of Defense (DoD) Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service in the Western Field Office, said that Aksoy “knowingly defrauded the Department of Defense by introducing counterfeit products into its supply chain that routinely failed or did not work at all.” He added:

In doing so, he sold counterfeit Cisco products to the DoD that were found on numerous military bases and in various systems, including but not limited to US Air Force F-15 and US Navy P-8 aircraft flight simulators.

The DOJ’s announcement said that Aksoy’s counterfeit devices ended up “used in highly sensitive military and governmental applications—including classified information systems—some involving combat and non-combat operations of the US Navy, US Air Force, and US Army, including platforms supporting the F-15, F-18, and F-22 fighter jets, AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, P-8 maritime patrol aircraft, and B-52 Stratofortress bomber aircraft.”

Devices purchased through the scam also wound up in hospitals and schools, the announcement said.

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