Communications Infrastructure for ECommerce

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Communications Infrastructure for E-Commerce

• Introductory computer concepts
• The importance of a communications infrastructure
  for EC systems
• The technological principles behind a
  communications infrastructure
• The technologies of communications the issues
  to consider
• The available technologies

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Introductory computer concepts

• What is a computer system?
• The evolution in the last four decades
• in hardware
• in software
• in inter-computer communication

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Some technologies behind networking

• Communication channels
• Networking devices
• Protocols
• Protocols establish rules of communication to
  enable the data transmission to occur securely
  and speedily. The rules are divided into layers,
  each serving a stage of communication.

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Relationship between computers in a network

• Topologies
• Client server network
• Servers in Internet-based communication

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Communications infrastructure for EC systems

• What is a communications infrastructure?
• a technical infrastructure capable of supporting
  a complicated array of technical and business
  systems
• Building an infrastructure involves making
  decisions on how EC affects existing information
  systems, networked applications, and internal and
  external communications.

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The principles behind a communications
infrastructure

• The integration with legacy systems
• The incorporation of distributed information
  systems
• The Integration with current hardware systems
• The accessibility between systems the networks

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• The provision of user-friendly and innovative
  on-line services
• The provision of flexibility and scalability
• The maintenance of security and speed of service

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The technologies of communications

• Issues to consider
• network connections
• methods of access to the Internet
• visibility in cyberspace
• user interface
• security measures
• information systems
• operational procedures

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The available technologies

• Networking options
• Wired connection
• Wireless communication

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Wireless communication

• Involves microwave towers transmitting and
  receiving em waves. Satellites receive them from
  the transmitters, amplify them, relay them to
  other satellites, and transmit them to the
  receiving towers.
• A geographical area is divide into cells, each
  cell being allocated a number of frequencies for
  transmission. The same frequencies are allocated
  to other non-adjacent cells, thus increasing
  usage.

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Technologies used to improve mobile communication

• Global system for mobile (GSM) communications
• Cellular digital packet data (CDPD)
• Time division multiple access (TDMA)
• Code division multiple access (CDMA)
• Wireless Applications Protocol(WAP) - the 3G
  technology

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WAP

• A protocol that enables mobile phone users to
  access Internet services. A small screen displays
  webpages and facilitates the use of
  Internet-based applications.
• M-commerce is viewed as the future in EC-related
  communication
• However, some problems still exist in making this
  a reality

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Alternative technologies for mobile communication

• General packet radio service (GPRS)
• iMode (sometimes referred to as generation 2.5)
  in Japan
• Personal communication services (PCS)
• Pagers

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Access to the Internet

• Internet Service Providers (ISP)
• Network Access Points (NAP)
• Domain Name Service (DNS) - the organisations
  involved
• IANA
• ICANN
• UCAID - Internet 2

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Security in E-commerce

• Criteria for security
• confidentiality
• authentication
• authorisation
• integrity
• availability
• non-repudiation

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Technologies of security

• Encryption - Private and Public key
• Private keys are symmetric, both sender and
  receiver hold a secret key.
• Public keys comprise an asymmetric pair, with one
  public key given to intended receivers by the
  sender who holds the pairing private key.

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Public key for digital signature

• Using encryption to authenticate a message
• A sends a message to B using As private key if
  B is successful in decrypting it using As public
  key, then it confirms A as the sender of the
  message.

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Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

• SSL is a protocol that uses the concept of
  digital signature by public key encryption to
  send data between applications securely.

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Public key for implementing SSL
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Other methods used for security

• Password control
• Firewall
• Virtual private networks

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Questions

• Some people have suggested that the future of
  e-commerce is in the WAP technology others are
  more sceptical about its potential.
• What do you think and why?

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Case studies

• Lucenet
• Sabre
• Anderson-Charnley
• Friends Provident