Exploring Mobile Device Connectivity: The Evolution of Wired and Wireless Options

the amount of technology in a single phone or tablet is remarkable and in this video we'll talk about connectivity

for those particular devices there's both wired and wireless options for connectivity on our phones on our

tablets and we have seen many changes to the standards and the way that we connect to those devices through the

years we use this connectivity to perform a number of different functions not only connectivity to the internet

being able to obtain our email and browse the net but we also use it for backup and identification and in some

cases to synchronize our systems with all of the other devices that we use for the majority of our phones and our

tablets we use USB or Universal serial bus as the primary wired connection type USB is designed for high-speed

communication and it's often used to connect our mobile device with our computer or with a power source you're

probably already familiar with the larger type a plug that we often see on computers the device itself may have a

different type of USB connection if you have an older device it may be connecting over USB with this mini B

plug many of today's mobile devices using this type of connectivity will use the smaller micro b plug and indeed

that's a very common standard across many mobile devices this is not the only way to connect and charge our mobile

devices but this tends to be some of the more common connections that you'll find newer phones and tablets use a USB

connection but it's a different type of connector specifically a USB C connector USBC is used on both devices and the

computer so you may find that your device has fewer type A plugs these days and more of the smaller USBC plugs the

USBC standard defines what this plug looks like but you could put lots of different types of signals over that

single interface for example the USBC plug may be sending DisplayPort signals it may provide HDMI video and audio or

you may be sending Thunderbolt data over a USBC physical connection if you have an Apple device you might

not be using any of those USB connections you may instead be using a lightning connection this is an eight

pin proprietary connection from Apple and it's commonly seen on iPhones and iPads there are a number of advantages

that lightning has over the micro USB one is that this lightning connection supports a higher power output which

allows us to charge our phones and our tablets that much faster this is also a type of connector that can be inserted

either way which was a problem prior to the Advent of USBC what this means for you as a technician

is that you'll probably have a lot of different cables in your tool bag you might be walking around with cables that

are designed for a USB mini USB micro USB or lightning connectors just so you're able to plug in and connect to

whatever you might find before the Advent of universal serial bus we still use serial communication

but it was using different interfaces commonly it would use a DB9 interface this is a nine pin connection sometimes

you'll see this referred to as a de9 connection these serial cables commonly transported rs-232 signals and this is a

standard of communication that's been around for a very long time you can probably still find devices in your

infrastructure that use DB9 connections with rs-232 to be able to connect and view consoles on switches routers and

other devices before USB was invented this was the serial connection that we used for almost everything on our

computers so if you needed to plug in a modem or a mouse then you were probably using DB9 over the serial connection

these days we see a lot more USB and a lot less DB9 in our environments but if you still have an older switch or router

around and and you'll probably need a Serial cable with a DB9 connector at the end so that you're able to configure

that device if you look at your laptop today you probably won't even find a DB9 connector instead you'll have to get a

conversion cable that will use one of your USB interfaces convert it to a DB9 physical connection so you can send

those serial signals over to a switch router or anything else that might need this type of serial connection

a very popular mobile connection type is NFC NFC is near field communication and it's a way to send small amounts of data

between devices that are located very close to each other if you've ever gone into a store and used a payment system

or you needed to transfer information between two mobile devices then you're probably using NFC to facilitate that

conversation you can also use NFC as an access device or something like an identification card that you could hold

up to a sensor and use it to unlock an electronic door you can't have a conversation about

mobile device connectivity without including Bluetooth it is probably one of the most popular Wireless

communication methods we use with our mobile devices if you're using wireless earbuds or a wireless headset or you're

connecting to the audio system of your automobile then you're probably using Bluetooth

you may be used to using a Wi-Fi hotspot at your local coffee shop but you can also use mini mobile phones as a

wireless hotspot you can enable that wireless hotspot functionality on your mobile phone and now anyone around you

can connect your mobile phone over 802.11 and your mobile phone will use your wireless providers Network to be

able to gain access to the internet not all phones support this Wi-Fi hotspot connectivity and your phone provider may

require you to pay extra each month just to enable that capability on your phone either way it's another option that you

can use to be able to gain access to the internet from devices that may only have 802.11 access either way it's a method

you can use to enable your 802.11 devices to be able to gain internet access where there may not be a public

access point available