The first week session covered about networks and emerging technologies like RFID.
If two or more computers are connected in order to share data or resources then we call it as a network. When many computers are connected together in a building its called a Local Area Network (LAN) and when the computers are in a different geographical locations and share the data then it is called Wide Area Network (WAN).
The internet is a huge network of computers connected globally. The Internet Protocal address which is a unique address is assigned to every computer which will help to identify every computer in the network.The DNS stands for the Domain Naming System which converts the IP addresses to names.
About RFID technology:
RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification and it uses the radio waves for identification. Every item is individually identified using this technology (went through couple of videos which showed how RFID technology is used in the fashion industry from their inventory till point of sale). RFID technology can also be in hospitals, library, pharmacy etc. There are two kinds of RFID tags Active and Passive. Active tags are costlier as it requires a battery, but it can be read from long range. Passive tags does not have an internal battery and it is less expensive compared to the Active RFID tags, but it is not as advantageous as Active tags. RFID technology uses the same Electronic Product Code technology but different from how EPC was used in Bar code technology.
RFID technology is more superior to that of the Bar code technology. In Bar code technology every item should be read individually whereas we can read multiple RFID tags together. Bar codes cannot be read if the bar code label is damaged or dirty which is not the case in RFID tags. Bar codes can identify only what type of item is boxed, but RFID tags can identify every item uniquely. If a item is misplaced then bar codes cannot be of any help, but RFID tags can be tracked easily.
