HERDING DATA OVER BRIDGES

摘要

Small autonomous networks are wonderful things. Data flies about from node to node. Relays, LEDs, and switches submit to the modulated RF energy. Things are good. Well, things are good until you want to intrude on the data exchanges and harvest the bits and bytes for human consumption. Small self-contained networks are like cattle. You can fence them in and they get along just fine. When you need access to them, you open the gate and enter their domain. Our silicon cattle normally stroll around in the Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) grass and feed on the 802.15.4 protocol. To keep tabs on the data within the herd, we as humans must have similar beasts that can speak to the silicon cattle and to us. That interpreter is known as a bridge. Once we "cross the bridge" with our data, we can distribute it using a gateway.