PERNETS

The ubiquitous nature of wireless networks has spawned many interesting applications that were unimagined hitherto. It has also brought many challenges for the communication and networking community to ponder. On the one hand we see present day mobile devices capable of providing many integrated services that only yesterday required several different devices. For instance, most cell phones nowadays provide high speed data access, still and video cameras, PDA functionality, etc. These advances in device sophistication and service offerings, including wireless hotspots, have made a difference in the way we communicate. With increased user mobility and the desire to be always connected, we have seen a growing interest in Personal Area Networks (PANs) and Body Area Networks (BANs). These networks can be tuned and applied meaningfully for individual users and their requirements. On the other hand, the Internet has changed our way of interacting dramatically. These two major communication areas are having an in-depth influence on the way we communicate; it is worth considering them 'together' as the future communication vehicle.

Personalized Networks is one such futuristic concept where we try to bring BANs, PANs, WLAN, sensor networks, ad hoc networks, home networks, vehicular networks and the Internet together onto one platform under one broader vision of future (4G) communication networks. The idea is to enable the continuous and seamless connectivity of all the personal devices of a user, information sources, and network enabled controllers in an unobtrusive way, regardless of where these entities are located be they local or remote. It is a microcosm of the persons themselves with their associated accessories somewhere on the Internet. It is equivalent to the Internet presence that has become a prominent concept in the last decade. This advanced overlay network is strongly person oriented and it must be ad hoc, intelligent and behaves as a user-friendly virtual intelligent personal assistant to the person who owns it. It is a personal distributed environment, global in scope that can co-exist on the present day Internet with its active participation. Such a platform enables many new applications, especially for users with rapidly changing communication demands that often operate in various contexts simultaneously. It can also provide the much needed user-friendliness to many services of today.