entiation opportunities. Simple examples prevalent today would be the use of shared folders on a lap top and PC across a wireless router. Several issues, however, need to be considered. Device Discovery and Device Coupling in Consumer M2M Applications and the Role of Near-Field Communication Our January 1999 Technology topic talked about the difficulties of device discovery and device coupling. Essentially, the question revolved around how to manage device discovery and device coupling policy. Eleven years later this problem still remains to be solved. As you walk around a house, devices come into radio view and become available for service. Just because a device is available to use does not mean that you want to use it and the process of discovery and coupling takes time (bandwidth) and power. This is not a decision process that can be safely left to a machine, unless that machine has an understanding of the user and the context in which the device may or may not be enabled. The answer may be to use near-field communication. NFC devices are in everyday use as travel cards. The 13-MHz transponder is touched on the turnstile at the tube station or pay button on the bus. Nokia have developed a parallel enthusiasm for NFC in hand-held cellular devices. This would seem to make complete sense as a means for managing the device-coupling process. If you want two devices to talk or multiple devices to talk, you physically introduce them to one another. NFC has been briefly touched on (excuse the pun) in an earlier chapter, but obligingly the following press release just appeared in my in box and addresses payment applications - the logical extension from travel cards. Danish Operators Join Forces on Mobile Wallet By Mikael Ricknäs, IDG News Jun 23, 2011 2:40 pm TDC, Telenor, TeliaSonera and Three are cooperating on the launch of a digital wallet service based on NFC (Near Field Communications) in Denmark, the operators said on Thursday. The roll-out will start this fall, but it will take a few years before the technology