Ubuntu is very popular flavor of the linux operating system. It has been around since 2004 with steady updates of two new editions per year. Ubuntu is based on the Debian operating system with the promise of a new operating system release every six months, something that no other Linux distribution does.

Ubuntu at a Glance

• Ubuntu is derived from the South African philosophy which means “Humanity Towards Others“.
• Ubuntu is Completely open source and entirely free of charge.
• Ubuntu is designed primarily for use on personal computers, although a server edition also exists.
• Focus on Ease of Use and Ease of Installation.
• Estimated global users of more than 12 million desktop users

Popularity?

Although Ubuntu still tops the list in Distrowatch, the popularity has been sliding since the introduction of the Unity interface. This might change with the Ubuntu 11.10 release which has an improved Unity interface and also supports Gnome3.

Getting Started

You can get started by downloading a copy of the latest Ubuntu release at http://www.ubuntu.com/download. You can find help and support resources from both the developers and the community. Listed below are a few of the most popular resources.

• Official Ubuntu Documentation
• Answers at Launchpad
• Ubuntu Guide
• Ubuntu Forums

Radio spectrum (Wireless Spectrum) refers to the part of the electromagnetic spectrum corresponding to a typical frequency range of around 3kHz – 300 GHz (or, equivalently, wavelengths longer than 1 mm) which may be used for Wireless Communication. Wireless Spectrum is highly regulated by state/federal authorities in most countries. With the phenomenal increase in the demand for technologies such as Mobile Telephony, Wireless Broadband, 3G and 4G services, the Wireless Spectrum is generally oversubscribed or licensed to operators with semiprivate wireless radio equipment.

Wireless Connections are used by a variety of applications including Voice, Video, Music, Data etc. in most consumer electronic devices, computers and business critical systems. These devices exchange huge amounts of data wirelessly and typically do not require infinite bandwidth for their operations.

Fig 1: National Frequency Spectrum Allocation Chart, India, 2002

With the advent of new technologies, the Wireless Spectrum is being utilized more efficiently, which helps significantly in overcoming the spectrum shortage. One of the top priorities of all major Wireless Standards Organizations like IEEE, 3GPP etc is to provide capacity improvements to enable the accommodation of more users/subscribers. The spectrum allocation was traditionally dependent on the technology or service provided. This allocation scheme did not take into account the capacity improvement mechanisms available today.

Smart antennas have the ability to transmit signals directionally to an user instead of transmitting power equally in all directions. Better and efficient coding schemes like OFDM and SC-FDMA also help improve data rates. Software Defined Radios (SDRs) also aid in capacity improvements and also in reducing the amount of wireless interference as the radio signal are processed in software and hence are more adaptable than traditional systems. Advances in Wireless Mesh Networks also add to capacity improvements and interference reduction.

The efficient utilization of existing spectrum portfolios of service providers is dependent on their adoption of the new and upcoming technologies to aid capacity improvements. It just remains to be seen how much flexibility the regulatory authorities will incorporate in spectrum reallocation and spectrum leases by existing licensees so that services are driven by content and not by access to the Wireless Spectrum.

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