History

HISTORY TIMELINE

The History of wireless technology

_In 1894 Gugliemo Marconi (known as “the father of radio”) began his research with Hertzian (radio) waves with the planned objective of both producing and detecting these Hertzian waves across great distances.(http://www.smallbizinfocenter.com) (A short history of wireless communications technology by Scott Rinehart)

_In 1901 in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Marconi received the very first trans-Atlantic wireless signal from Poldhu, England. The message consisted of an “S” sent in Morse Code.http://www.smallbizinfocenter.com

_On Oct. 17, 1919, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was incorporated, and consumer radio broadcasts for news and entertainment became popular in the early 1920s.(http://www.wirelessrerc.gatechn.edu)

_Serious development of wireless technology was limited (besides military use during the world wars). In 1947, AT&T proposed that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allot a large band of radio frequencies for mobile telephones, which the FCC did- although slowly and over a long period of time.(http://www.zdnet.com)

_Dr. Martin Cooper from Motorola Labs invented the first personal mobile cellular telephone in 1973 (patent granted in 1975). It weighed 2.5 pounds, boasted 30 individual circuit boards, had no display screen, measured 9x 5x 1.75 inches, and its 10-hour recharge rate provided 35 minutes of talking time.http://www.smallbizinfocenter.com

_1983 marked the American entry into the commercial cellular service market, and the launch of cellular telephone service in Canada.http://www.smallbizinfocenter.com

_In 1987, the FCC allowed and encouraged cellular service providers to use alternate technologies in the 800MHz spectrum of radio frequencies to encourage the use of digital transmissions; by 1996 three digital standards were being used by a variety of carriers in North America: TDMA, CDMA and GSM. The three systems differ in the way that they process voice signals and encode information, but they sound virtually identical to the end user. http://www.zdnet.com

The history of wireless networking

_Wireless networking was introduced at the University of Hawaii in 1971. ALOHnet, the wireless local area network (WLAN), was composed of seven computers deployed over four Hawaiian islands.http://www.smallbizinfocenter.com

_G1- The first generation of WLAN technology. This technology used an unlicensed band (902-928 MHz ISM) which later became crowded with interference from small appliances and industrial machinery.. A spread spectrum was used to minimize this interference ("Spread spectrum refers to a technique that trades bandwidth efficiency to produce reliability" ) Operated at 500 kilobits per second and was primarily used by the military.http://www.smallbizinfocenter.com

_G2- The second generation of WLAN technology. This technology was four times faster than its predecessor, operating at 2Mbps per second, due to its continued use of spread spectrum techniques. Second generation WLANs made use of the 2.40-2.483 GHz band.http://www.smallbizinfocenter.com

_G3- Third generation WLAN technology operates on the same band as the G2 WLANs, 2.40-2.483 GHz. It is this technology that is currently in use today. The data rate for this technology is at 11Mbps. http://www.geocities.com/ugabkent/milestone_1.html

_In 1990, the IEEE 802 Executive Committee established the 802.11 Working Group to create a wireless local area network (WLAN) standard. The standard specified an operating frequency in the 2.4GHz ISM (Industrial, Scientific, and Medical) band. In 1997 the group approved IEEE 802.11 as the world's first WLAN standard with data rates of 1 and 2 Mbps. http://www.athenasemi.com/technology

*The different generational developments in Wireless Local Area Networking are specifically related to the change in data rate over the years. New standards are continuously being developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronical Engineers to keep abreast of new technologies, which create changes in data rate and seek out newer bandwidths to address the issues of interference.

REFERENCES

http://www.smallbizinfocenter.com“A short history of wireless communications technology” by Scott Rinehart

http://www.athenasemi.com/technology

http://www.zdnet.com“A brief history of Wireless Connectivity” by Jennifer Jones. ZDNet Reviews and Solutions May 2, 2001
“Analog to Digital” by Jennifer Jones. ZDNet Reviews and Solutions May 2, 2001

http://www.geocities.com/ugabkent/milestone_1.html

http://www.wirelessrerc.gatechn.edu