Ok so I was checking out the new posts today and saw a topic that was called hiding a smartlink.

No I did not read it but it brought up a thought for me (OUCH dam thinking hurts).

So here it is we now live in a world where wireless is becomeing the best thing to have so question?

Will there be a wireless smartlink some time soon?

Now by wireless I mean you get the brain implant then you mod out the gun and that is it no cords or wires in your arms.

I think this is the next direction cyber would go in some cases and it of course means less essance cost to the user.

I know I know .5 essance is not much but hey we as players (or at least most of us) are always happy to find a way to make our characters better so a .5 smartlink is good but a .2 wireless smartlink is better.

Also from a game stand point in has it's own built in flaw.... What you say simple signal jammers that can keep a runner from useing his/her smartlink.

Anyway just a thought or two look it over toss it around let me know what you think.

You don't just have to worry about jamming, but also about an opponent hacking your SL signal and taking control of your gun (oh, those MIJI-riggers are going to love this....).

If the wireless matrix initiative really takes off, though, wireless might become the new optical for SR.

well, good encryption makes stuff like that really hard. i'd just say that all wireless-based cyber has base encryption of 6, maybe +2 per grade over basic. that makes it so that it's possible, if someone really sits down and does their best to haxx0r a specific target, but it's still basically impossible to randomly hack Joe Samurai.

honestly, i'm hoping that's what the WMI will be--a near-complete paradigm shift in SR's tech. i mean, the wired stuff will still be there, but all the cool people and megas will be using wireless at their cutting-edge facilities.

Ok just what is the decker hacking into and controling???

The gun? Ok I drop it no more threat. Or better yet encryption as MFB stated.

The brain ware? Again encryption would be the thought.

Where as a team that carries around a small directional signal jammer say about the size of a midsized cell phone of today that would work nicely. Power and range are not a big deal with this jammer you just need to keep the sec forces or other runners from being able to hit you.

indeed.

honestly, though? i'm picturing GitS-style brainhacking, and drooling all over the goddamn place. someone get me a towel.

The other thing that concerns me is that, at the moment, any form of wireless communication that you install in your brain has a very hefty Essence cost in it; .75 for a cell phone, .6 for a radio tranceiver. Assuming that these values make any sense at all, there must be some sort of fundamental problem with putting transmitters into cyberware. Is that just going to be suddenly ignored now?

No, but the issue is that the current wireless systems in SR seem to have serious miniturization problems, and further, those wireless comm systems have much higher flux than you would need to control your SL'd gun.

By the way, there's no reason to think that a brain can be hacked, even in SR. Think about just how much code psychotropic ice takes, and then imagine trying to whip up something even remotely similar on the fly.

Perhaps its that the amount of shielding needed to stop you getting brain cancer pushes the cost up?

Or, any corp whose security doesnt use smartlinks *which is a lot of them" could buy a fairly cheap transmitter and flood jam the smartlink frequencies. You open yourself to a LOT more problems being wireless.

you wouldn't even have to do something so overt as issuing commands to the firearm. you just submit incorrect targetting data to the smartlink. ta-da, +4 TN.

Maybe you could hack the visual interface, multiply the crosshairs until they cover your whole field of vision?

In a world where wireless smart links are common as a corp sec chef I would procure an SK that would scan and decode all wireless communications of the type that controls smart guns. It will succeed within minutes against rating 8 encryption When it comes to a fight I would issue to all guns not belonging to my security an order that would make them useless. Eject clip, clear chamber. Safety on, power off. When the opponent is alone in a well-built corridor I would give a fire order. Many holster positions would cause problems with this.

Edward

people would notice that, Axe. what they might not notice is you moving the crosshairs 5 degrees to the left, so that when the crosshairs are centered on the target, the aim is 5 degrees off.

in a world where computer security is play catchup (like it seems to be doing in sr) wireless is a bad idea for stuff that require high-security. allso wires are allways going to be more reliable (just watch your connection speed when useing wifi or the quality of connection useing a cellphone).

As someone who's only vaguely familiar with the topic -- what about a tech like Bluetooth? It's entirely possible I'm way off with BT's capabilities, but it's my understanding that the frequencies are very short range, thus eliminating the likelihood of both detection/interception and jamming. I'm thinking the same concept for a smartlink as is used with all the wireless headsets for modern cell phones.

It is because of blue tooths short range that it is so easily jammed and when you have a receptor in each corridor interception becomes trivial. Those receptors would also serve to implement squealers and any other blue tooth style tech the facility used.

If you reed the sprawl survival guide the wireless home networking would be the 2060 equivalent..

Edward

Well now this is turning out to be a good topic I think.

Although I have to ask about the frequencies point. How many runners you know would buy this system and not mod it to a new frequency of there choice that is non-reg? I mean think about it if the signal was short range say 3-5 feet why would a runner give a frag about messing with another signal in his area? Lastly I don't know about you but as a runner I don't walk around with my gun out. It is powered down holstered and safetied so the scaning idea with a sk would not work untill the bs hits the fan. Then as was said it would take minutes combat is done with in 1 to 2 minutes so the sk idea is again shot down. Even then I'd have a back up non-smart weapon.

Also who says sec forces and/or lonestar don't use smartlinks? Some of those boys can have and/or do have mil-spec cyber.

problem is that when toy drop in hz you drop in bandwidth most of the time. this limits the range to use. and whats stopping the corp from blanket jamming the entire range and rely on wired systems? drones trailing fibreoptics, and normal comunications radios fall way out of the hz range of data traffic so you can jam the wireless smartlink of the runners without jamming coms.

while its a cool idea (and its used in blue planet) it breaks in a game that have rules for jamming...

Because going all out with wires can get expensive and clumsy. Do you really want people to be able to disable your drones by chopping some cords?


Second, that was a special case in technobabel involving a mindprobing mage going at it with a souped up otaku*, and one of my rules is that the novels in no way set precedent in relation to game rules or developments.

Finally, not all wireless communications technology runs on radio frequencies, or even EM emissions. There are plenty of ways to create a secure channel between the gun and the runner and to ensure that it isn't hijacked. Lastly, wireless smartlinking prolly won't ever be common, as only those with something to hide or a need to conserve some essence would ever use it.

Oh and pure frequency jamming prolly isn't going to work as I imagine that SL-wifi would prolly frequency hop towards open bands.

::grins:: though... if you could hack it, what I'd do is introduce agonizing neural feedback and aim for some stun damage.

*It was more like Brain-IC than anything else.

to disable said drones you first have to get close to them. and there are simpler ways to disable them then by cutting said cord (like say blowing them the hell up). allso, there is a question about how hard it is to cut said cord. it could be coverd with kevlar like materials or so on to protect against being cut, and most likely will be if the wire is being used on security grade drones.

as for frequenzy hopping wifi, like i stated if you go outside the band used by wifi today you get one of two effects. bad bandwidth or bad range.

as for useing something other then the em spectrum, only two things i can think about is sonic and light (or is light part of the em spectrum?). both have sever downsides. sonics are even easyer to jam then em. and light needs line of sight, so no more attaching a guncam and looking around corners with it. in fact this is why bluetooth got made, to have a wireless link to a cellphone that didnt need line of sight.

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).

yes but they still hop inside the range that have the ability to transport the datastreams and the bandwidth needed (wifi uses frequency hopping and it stays within 6 channels or so inside the band able to transfer data at the rate needed). and they in fact use three seperate frequencies. issue the guards with smartlinks or smartgoggles, blanket jam the band used for datatransfer, and you will make life hard for any rigger or sammie useing wireless systems.

Yep, it's called flood jamming. For every three points of power output put into flood jamming you automaitcally add one box of damage to all three channels of all rigger's signal monitors, and there's absolutely nothing they can do about it.

:: 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?

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...

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.

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.

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

...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".

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.