What is IrDA (Infrared Data Association)?

IrDA represents the Infrared Data Association. It is a universal consortium of hardware and software manufacturers that generates and supports interoperable solutions for infrared (IR) data networking for computer networks, connections, and different networking applications.

Infrared communication contains a transceiver (a set of transmitters and receivers) in both devices that connect. Particular microchips support this effectiveness. Further, several devices can need specific software so that the communication can be synchronized.

An example is the special provision for IR in Microsoft's Windows 95 operating frameworks. In the IrDA-1.1 standard, the maximum data size that can be sent is 2048 bytes and the maximum transmission cost is 4 Mbps.

IrDA Control

IrDA Control is a standard developed in 1998 by the Infrared Data Association (IrDA) for connection over IR light between an in-room cordless peripheral machine and a host machine. Peripherals including keyboards, joysticks, mouse devices, and different pointing devices can facilitate IrDA Control for communicating with their host device.

IrDA Control is performed using a suite of protocols that contains the following −

• IrDA Control PHY (physical layer) −It supports data transmission that is bidirectional and error-correcting, over IR light at speeds of up to 75 Kbps over distances of up to 5 meters.

• IrDA Control MAC (media access control) − It allows host devices to connect with several IrDA Control peripherals and up to eight peripherals concurrently. IrDA Control MAC provides a quick response time by utilizing a polling interval of 13.8 meters and provides the dynamic assignment and reuse of addresses authorized to peripheral devices.

• IrDA Control LLC (logical link control) − It provides appropriate series of data and deals with retransmissions when errors appear.

IrDA Data

IrDA Data is a standard established by the Infrared Data Association (IrDA) in 1994 for two-way point-to-point connection over IR light at speeds of up to 4 Mbps. IrDA Data is used for connection between palm computers, digital cameras, mobile phones, and several devices.

It is performed using a suite of protocols, containing the ones recorded. These protocols are explained below −

• IrDA Data PHY (physical layer) − It supports low-level continuous bidirectional error-correcting services from 9600 bps up to 4 Mbps over distances of a minimum of 1 meter. Asynchronous serial transmission is supported at 9600 bps and 115.2 Kbps, synchronous serial transmission at 1.152 Mbps, and synchronous link at 4 Mbps.

• IrDA Data Infrared Link Access Protocol (IrLAP) − A serial link protocol suitable by the IrDA for infrared serial connection from the High-level Data Link Control (HDLC) protocol

• IrDA Data Infrared Link Management Protocol (IrLMP) − It can be used for link control and multiplexing of IrDA devices. IrLMP enables several IrDA devices to connect over an individual infrared link and supports protocol and service discovery by the Information Access Service (IAS).