History of Wireless Communication

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• pre-1600s — The first telegraph? Perhaps drum communication [wikipedia] or signal torches, such as thosed used for communication in ancient Greece [mlahanas.de] as early as 1100s BC?
• 1664-1685 — Robert Hooke [wikipedia demonstrates acoustic communication using wires stretched over wood frames [columbia.edu]
• 1747 — William Watson [answers.com] demonstrates transmission of electrical signals over two mile wire
• 1753 — "C.M." proposes extension to Watson's system that uses 26 wires to send messages [The Well]. Author is elsewhere identified as "Charles Morrison"
• 1774 — George Louis Lesage builds 26-line telegraph [answers.com] based on C.M.'s design
• 1792 — One of the first telecommunications systems of the industrial age was pioneered by Claude Chappe [wikipedia]. It was a semaphore system using mechanical arms. This was the first system called "telegraph" meaning "far writer". Other semaphore telegraphs [wikipedia] were developed in a similar time frame.
• 1796 — Don Francisco Salvá i Campillo installs 22 wire telegraph system linking Madrid and Aranjuez [answers.com] (50 km distance). Signals are detected by people holding the wires who feel shocks or tingling!
• 1809 — Samuel Thomas von Soemmering [incredible-people.com] develops electro-chemical telegraph based on sending electrical signals over wires through containers of acid.
• 1832 — Baron Pavel L'vovitch Schilling (aka Paul Schilling) [wikipedia] demonstrates electromechanical telegraph using binary communication.
• 1833 — Carl Friedrich Gauss [wikipedia] and Wilhelm Eduard Weber [wikipedia] deploy first regularly used electromechanical telegraph.

From Telegraph to ``The Birth of Radio'', 1867-1896

• *1867 — Maxwell predicts existence of electromagnetic (EM) waves
• *1887 — Hertz proves existence of EM waves; first spark transmitter generates a spark in a receiver several meters away
• 1890 — Branly develops coherer for detecting radio waves
• 1896 — Guglielmo Marconi demonstrates wireless telegraph to English telegraph office

``The Birth of Radio''

• *1897 — ``The Birth of Radio'' - Marconi awarded patent for wireless telegraph
• 1897 — First ``Marconi station'' established on Needles island to communicate with English coast
• 1898 — Marconi awarded English patent no. 7777 for tuned communication
• 1898 — Wireless telegraphic connection between England and France established

Transoceanic Communication

• *1901 — Marconi successfully transmits radio signal across Atlantic Ocean from (first wireless communication across the ocean)
  Cornwall to Newfoundland
• 1902 — First bidirectional communication across Atlantic
• 1909 — Marconi awarded Nobel prize for physics

Voice over Radio

• *1914 — First voice over radio transmission
• 1920s — Mobile receivers installed in police cars in Detroit
• 1930s — Mobile transmitters developed; radio equipment occupied most of police car trunk
• *1935 — Frequency modulation (FM) demonstrated by Armstrong
• 1940s — Majority of police systems converted to FM

Birth of Mobile Telephony

• 1946 — First interconnection of mobile users to public switched telephone
  network (PSTN)
• 1949 — FCC recognizes mobile radio as new class of service
• 1940s — Number of mobile users > 50K
• 1950s — Number of mobile users > 500K
• 1960s — Number of mobile users > 1.4M
• 1960s — Improved Mobile Telephone Service (IMTS) introduced; supports full-duplex, auto dial, auto trunking
• 1976 — Bell Mobile Phone has 543 pay customers using 12 channels in the New York City area; waiting list is 3700 people; service is poor due to blocking

Cellular Mobile Telephony

• 1979 — NTT/Japan deploys first cellular communication system
• *1983 — Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) deployed in US in 900 MHz band: supports 666 duplex channels
• 1989 — Groupe Spècial Mobile defines European digital cellular standard, GSM
• *1991 — US Digital Cellular phone system introduced
• 1992 — First GSM phones approved for sale.
• 1992 — Text messaging, or short messaging service (SMS), was designed as part of the GSM cellular system.
• *1993 — IS-95 code-division multiple-access (CDMA) spread- spectrum digital cellular system deployed in US
• *1994 — GSM system deployed in US, relabeled ``Global System for
  Mobile Communications''

Wireless Local Area Networks

• 1990 — Formation of IEEE 802.11 Working Group to define standards for Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs)
• 1997 — Release of IEEE 802.11 WLAN protocol, supporting 1-2 Mbit/s data rates in the 2.4 GHz ISM band
• 1999 — Release of IEEE 802.11b WLAN protocol, supporting 1-11 Mbit/s data rates in the 2.4 GHz ISM band
• 1999 — Release of IEEE 802.11a WLAN protocol, supporting 1-54 Mbit/s data rates in the 5 GHz ISM band
• 2003 — Release of IEEE 802.11g WLAN protocol, supporting 1-54 Mbit/s data rates in the 2.4 GHz ISM band
• 2009 — Release of IEEE 802.11n WLAN protocol, supporting up to 150 Mbit/s data rates in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz ISM bands.

Wireless Local Area Networks

• *1995 - FCC auctions off frequencies in Personal Communications System (PCS) band at 1.8 GHz for mobile telephony
• 1997 — Number of cellular telephone users in U.S. > 50M
• 1999 — First of the "third generation" cellular systems are standardized: Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) is the follow-on to the GSM system, and cdma2000 is the evolution of the IS-95 CDMA system
• 1999 — Bluetooth specification introduced (See History of Bluetooth. Bluetooth is a wireless personal area network (WPAN) that is often used for cellular headsets and car kits. Later, v. 1.1 was ratified as IEEE Standard 802.15.1-2002. Official Bluetooth web site
• 2008 — FCC no longer requires cellular providers to support analog service. See the 2002 FCC Report and Order
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Wireless Communications.

various telecommunications systems that use radio waves to carry signals and messages across distances. Wirelesscommunications systems include cellular telephones, pagers, radio telegraphs, satellite telephones, laptop computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), shortwave radios, and two-way radios. They are used primarily to transmit private communications. Commercial radio and television are also wireless telecommunications systems, but radio and television are mainly public broadcast services rather than private communications systems (seeRadio and Television Broadcasting). This article focuses on wireless communications systems that are used primarily for private communications.

Flexibility in wireless communications

Wireless communications allow people greater flexibility while communicating, because they do not need to remain at a fixed location, such as a home or office, but instead can communicate with other people while traveling in a car or walking along a street. Wireless technologies make communications services more readily available than traditional wire-based services (such as ordinary telephones), which require the installation of wires in fixed locations. Wireless communications devices are useful in places where communications services are only temporarily needed, such as at outdoor festivals or large sporting events. These technologies are also useful for communicating in remote locations, such as mountains, jungles, or deserts, where wire-based telephone service might not exist. Police, fire, and other emergency departments use wireless devices, such as two-way radio, to communicate information between vehicles that are already responding to emergency calls. Construction and utility workers frequently use handheld radios for short-range communication and coordination. Many businesspeople use wireless devices, such as cellular radio telephones, also known as cell phones, to stay in contact with colleagues and clients while traveling. Increasingly, people are using wireless devices for a variety of everyday purposes, such as scheduling appointments, arranging meeting places, shopping for food, or agreeing on home video selections while in a video store.

All wireless communications devices use radio waves to transmit and receive signals. These devices operate on different radio frequencies so that signals from one device will not overlap and interfere with nearby transmissions from other devices. The number of companies offering wireless communications services has grown steadily in recent years. For example, in 1988 about 500 companies offered cell phone services. By 2001 that number had grown to more than 2,500 companies serving about 120 million subscribers. Currently, telecommunications companies throughout the world are activating more wireless service subscriptions than they are conventional wire-based service subscriptions. Wireless communication is becoming increasingly popular because of the convenience and mobility it affords; the expanded availability of radio frequencies for transmitting, which makes it possible to handle a larger volume of calls; and improvements in technology, which have added other services such as Internet access and improved the clarity of voice transmissions.

Wireless communications history

The idea of wireless radio communications arose in the mid-1800s from the theories of two English physicists, Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell. In 1888 German physicist Heinrich Hertz applied these theories to construct a spark-gap transmitter, a device that generated radio waves from an electric spark. In 1895 Italian electrical engineer Guglielmo Marconi extended the range of such transmissions and adapted the technology to send and receive wireless telegraph signals. In 1901 Marconi built the first transoceanic telegraph transmitter, which had a 3,400 km (2,100 mi) link from Poldhu, Cornwall, England, to St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Developments in vacuum tube technology in the early 1900s by English physicist and engineer Sir John Ambrose Fleming and American inventor Lee De Forest made it possible to modulate and amplify wireless signals to send voice transmissions. The range and clarity of voice transmissions increased as advancements in technology were made, and in 1915 the American Telephone & Telegraph Company transmitted a voice message by radio between the United States and France. By the 1930s small two-way radio transmitters were in common use among law enforcement and civil emergency authorities. Improvements in technology have made two-way communications systems smaller and lighter, with extended range and capabilities. See also Radio: History; Telecommunications: History; Telegraph.