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Nokia phones and IrDA support
One excitement about Nokia mobile phones is its customisability. With Nokia's Smart Messaging technology, various kinds of data can be send to their mobile phones via SMS. The data are defined in Nokia's Smart Messaging Specifications. In fact, these phones can accept many of the defined data thru the serial port and infrared port.
For phones that include the infrared port, they can accept data via a number of protocols. The first one is introduced with the 6100 series for exchanging data between phones and PCs in connection and connectionless mode. It is the protocol used by Nokia Data Suite, PC Calendar and PC Composer. The next one is introduced with the 8810 for PC programming; this is the one used by the well-known LogoManager. The third one is thru the build-in modem with AT commands, another first with the 8810. The last one is IrMC, an IrDA standard designed for mobile terminals that does not base on Smart Messaging. IrMC is also supported by Bluetooth. By the way, the first two protocols are Nokia proprietary.
In contrast to many reports that the 6100 series is not IrDA-savvy, all infrared-enable phones are indeed IrDA compliance. The difference is, the 6100 series (GSM models) is an absolute minimum implementation. The 6110 and 6150, for instance, supports the bottom three layers defined in the IrDA 1.1 standard, namely, IrPHY (SIR only), IrLAP and IrLMP. It also implemented IrPnP, the plug-n-play extension to the IAS service discovery protocol in the IrLMP spec.
GSM models since the 8810, including the 6210, 6250, 7110, 8210, 8250 and 8850, have all the support in the 6100 series plus IrCOMM (9-wire serial), IrOBEX and IrMC. Since the build-in fax modem is essential for connecting the phone and other equipments, the 6100 series becomes relatively less capable.
The Smart Messaging technology is built on Narrowband Sockets (NBS), a joint development with Intel in 1997. The technology allow data to be sent via various bearers such as SMS and WDP. NBS allows the type of data to be recognised and routed to their own handlers on the receiver side.
Please refer to the IrDA Support page for supported standards and the Infrared data compatibility page for the 6100-style IrDA data and IrOBEX support on various Nokia mobile phones.
BTW, the popular snake game does not use IrDA protocols to exchange data in the 2-player mode.