> I am playing with the idea of streaming video to a Palm device. I'm
reading
> Palm bitmap images from my web server. These images are 160x120 and 2 bits
> per pixel (bpp). The file size for one frame (image) is 4,816 bytes. Using
> a Palm VII and the Palm.net service, it takes about forty seconds to
> download one image. Live video at one frame every forty seconds is not
> acceptable. Does the Palm.net service support faster speeds? Are the
> Palm.net speeds published sometwhere? I saw a Palm VII at COMDEX streaming
> one frame about every two seconds, In light of the performance I'm
> experiencing, I don't understand how this was possible.
The Palm VII's use the BellSouth Mobitex network, which is a slow speed data
network designed for two-way paging and data terminal devices. The native
network bitrate is 9600 bps, so at maximum speed, with your device using all
of the bandwidth in a channel, this is what you could expect. The Mobitex
network can operate on multiple channels in congested areas, but you would
only receive from one of the channels at a time.
> Do you think they had a special connection to Palm.net?
I think I saw this application too -- it was from Surveyor, and one of their
employees, Adam Wozniak, posts here from time to time. As best I can tell,
they don't have any special connections. They just do a lot of
preoptimization at their server. Due to the nature of Mobitex, any delay at
the server side in sending a response can dramatically increase the delay
for the user because the device could lose its slot for return data, and may
have to wait 30 seconds for it to start receiving data.
> If there are higher speed connections, will they be available to the
public?
It is possible to go to Cingular Wireless directly to get an X.25 connection
to the Mobitex network, but even with that, its not possible to directly
address a Palm VII without going through the Palm.net proxy, unless you can
reverse engineer Palm's Radio Manager code.
> Does Palm plan to offer faster wireless speeds, at some point in time?
I'm sure they will, but the only data networks in the US as well deployed as
Mobitex would be ReFLEX (slower), CDPD (as seen on Omnisky), and CDMA data
(thanks to Sprint and Verizon). None go faster than 19.2Kbps.
> At this point I am only interested in the Palm VII, since OmniSky is not
> currrently in a position to determine why I'm having problems downloading
a
> binary file.
Its very likely your problem is due to their proxy server for INetLib. It
adds odd things to the start and/or end of your packets, and the only way to
get around it is to strip it yourself.
--
Ben Combee
Veriprise Wireless <http://www.veriprise.com>
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