The wireless age, Just a thought or two Options

[Zenmaxer]

:: nods :: Flood jamming is about all that'd work against a wireless encrypted smartlink.... you're dealing with such a low data volume that combined with the difficulty of interception decryption is going to be a nightmare.

"the good old smartlink you cant jam in the normal sense as it works on magnetic fields and the ability to turn them on and off. that is unless you get damn close to a magnet or get a damn powerfull magnet (and then jamming smartlinks would be the least of your problems). " Just to remind you, the SR computer systems are almost immune to magnetic interference as they're based off some optical mumbo jumbo.

:: grins :: the advantages of wireless SLs are pretty cool. I could see them becoming an alternative to the traditional SLs, but you're right, I doubt they'd completely replace it. One place they might see serious use is in merc campaigns where jamming screws both sides so hard that it's much less prevalent... also a lot of environments just aren't jammer-friendly for so many reasons. What do you think the costs would be like?

[hobgoblin]

about the same as the normal smartlink, minus the essence cost...

and when i said jamming of the smartlink would be the least of your problem i was not thinking about dataloss, i was thinking about a magnet so powerfull that you would be seeing flying metaling objects. atleast thats the only magnet i can imagine that can interfer with the smartlink connection without being placed on the users hand...

[Moon-Hawk]

Yes, light is part of the EM spectrum. Along with radio waves, microwaves, gamma rays, cosmic rays, and others.
Your only other real option is ultrasound. It doesn't need line of sight, but in a complicated environment (such as indoors) the echoing means it won't go around more than one or two corners before it gets overloaded and confused. The propagation time is so slow that the different pathlenths as the signal bounces off walls and desks means that unless data bits are spaced VERY far apart you'll get new bits overlapping with old (echoing) bits. Basically, ultrasound is crappy for indoor wireless, and slightly less crappy in other environments. Plus, y'know, someone with ultrasound vision can see any transmitter as glowing brightly, and probably jam it by looking at it. They'd probably get the +1 glare modifier, though.
Woo.

I agree that the high cost of essence of wireless cyberware is because it irradiates your brain. Even low frequency older cell phones use the same frequencies that 1980's microwave ovens use. I'll say it again, cellular phones use the EXACT same radiation as microwave ovens. It's just that your phone is transmitting at several levels below defrost. A little bit of skin and skull drops the signal strength more, since flesh absorbs microwaves pretty well, and brain cancer takes many years to develop. Also, with how much EM radiation we produce once you're about a meter away from a cell phone, it's effects are insiginificant relative to ambient.
Put that same transmitter inside your brain, however, and you're at full strength, near-field effects. And there is NO way to shield your brain from it, because anything that shields your brain blocks the signal! I think it was a choice between high essence cost or MBW-esque cancer rules.
Lower frequency radation gets into visible light, so you have to go much lower into the radio spectrum, which is bad for high bandwidth wireless communication, and also requires larger antennas, which is obviously bad for headware. Higher frequency is just progressively more damaging to your soft tissues.

[mfb]

it should be very easy to shield your brain from the ill effects of your cyberphone, while maintaining signal strength. simply run the antenna out through your skull, and lay it just below the top layer of skin; coat everything but the part just below your skin with shielding.

[Eyeless Blond]

Yup, and all you'd need is a bolt-sized antena sticking out of your neck. Whee.

[mfb]

...yes, because "laying it just below the top layer of skin" is one of Webster's definitions for "bolt-sized antenna sticking out of your neck".

[Derek]

[Moon-Hawk]

No, no, it's true, you could run the antenna outside the skull and then plate the skull. I'm not sure how much essence that's worth. Of course, you'd drop your signal when you turned your head, so you'd need two or three antennas spaced around your head if you're really going to have it shielded. But that's cool, with multiple antennas you have an electronically steerable array. So the high essence cost is either due to irradiating your brain, or it's due to having multiple antennas around your head and lots of conductive plating on your skull. Either way, I agree 100% with the high essence cost of communications cyberware.
Which reminds me of another good use of a datajack: external transmitter.