Advances in radio communications

Early beginnings - It is impossible to say exactly where the story of radio starts. The early
scientists who saw and investigated the effects of electricity and magnetism were crucial to the
story. But a number of people also noticed effects that were probably caused by radio waves.
Galvani is thought to have witnessed the effects of electromagnetic waves as he was investigating
the conduction of electricity. Others too including Henry, Edison and others may also have
witnessed effects as well.
Maxwell proves the existence of e/m waves - It was James Clerk Maxwell who first proved the
existence of an electromagnetic (e/m) wave. He proved it mathematically, and published his
findings in a number of papers. Much of this early work was performed whilst he was at Kings
College London. His work was summarised in a book entitled "Treatise on Electricity and
Magnetism." In 1871 Maxwell moved to Cambridge where he became the first director of the
Cavendish Research Laboratory.
1887 Hertz discovers radio waves - In a series of experiments started in 1887 Heinrich Hertz
proved the physical existence of radio waves that Maxwell had shown to exist mathematically. His
transmitter consisted of a simple spark gap across an induction coil with a loop of wire to act as an
antenna. The receiver consisted of a smaller gap in a loop the same size as that in the transmitter.
In his experiments Hertz also discovered many of their properties. The results of his experiments
performed in 1887-8 were published between 1888-90. Whilst other people had seen the effects
before, nobody had realised what they were, and Hertz is rightly credited with having discovered
radio or Hertzian waves as they were first called.
1894 The coherer is popularised - The coherer, an item used to detect radio waves took many
years to develop with the earliest observations dating back to 1850. The first person to use the
idea of the coherer was a Frenchman named Edouard Branly. He discovered that the resistance
of a glass tube filled with metal filings fell to a few hundred ohms when an electrical discharge
occurred nearby. The filings could then be "de-cohered" by a sharp tap on the tube. These devices
were effective in detecting the transmissions of a spark transmitter. The idea was popularised by
Oliver Lodge, especially as a result of a lecture he gave in 1894.
1894 Marconi's first experiments - In the autumn of 1894 Marconi performed his first
experiments with radio waves in the attic of his parents house in Bologna. Initially he was only able
to achieve distances of a few metres, but he made significant progress, steadily increasing the
distance over which he send the signals. He managed to send signals over a distance of about 2
kilometres, and realising the possibilities of the system for maritime communications he gave a
demonstration to the Italian authorities. Unfortunately they were not impressed, and as a result
Marconi moved to England.
1897 Marconi demonstrates radio waves travel over water - Marconi gave his first public
demonstrations in December 1896. One major use for radio could be in crossing stretches of water.
Cables were expensive and very vulnerable. Accordingly in the summer of 1897 Marconi set up a
link spanning the 14 kilometres of the Bristol Channel. After this Marconi put on many other
demonstrations and gave lectures: many were to the press and in this way he was able to gain the
maximum amount of publicity. It also stimulated the interest of other experimenters.
1899 First cross channel link - Marconi steadily increased the range of his wireless system. In
the spring of 1899 a first link was set up to cross the English Channel between an existing station
at South Foreland in England and a station set up at Wimereux near Bologne in France. This was
the first international wireless transmission. Another demonstration was organised later in the year
and it was found that the signals from Wimereux could be heard back at Marconi's factory in
Chelmsford over 130 kilometres away.
1901 First transatlantic transmission - With the successes in using radio waves to cross the
English channel Marconi turned his eyes towards greater distances and being able to send
messages across the Atlantic. If he could succeed in this he would be able to use his system to
send messages across the Atlantic more cheaply than using a cable, and also keep in contact with
ships over vast distances. Marconi started this venture by setting up stations at Polhu in Cornwall
England and Cape Cod in Massachussetts, USA. Storms destroyed the huge antennas at both
sites, and Marconi rebuilt the antenna at Poldhu, but relocated the station from Cape Cod to a site
in Newfoundland. However the letter "S" being transmitted by the station in England was just
received although with great difficulty in Newfoundland on 12th December 1901.

developments in radio communication

1904 Fleming invents the diode valve - Professor Ambrose Fleming of University College
London acted as a consultant to Marconi and he was very aware that detectors used in the
receivers were the weak link in the receiving equipment of the day. Having seen the Edison effect
- an effect Edison discovered when he was trying to extend the life of electric light bulbs, Fleming
wondered whether this could be sued to detect radio signals. He gave details to his assistant who
set up an experiment that worked. The diode valve had been discovered. It consisted of a heated
element in an evacuated glass bulb. A second element was also placed in the bulb but not heated.
It was found that an electric current only flowed in one direction with electrons leaving the heated
cathode and flowing towards the second element called the anode, and not in the other direction.
1906 De Forest invents the triode - In the USA de Forest, replicated Fleming's diode and went a
stage further by adding an additional element to give a device he called and Audion. Although de
Forest applied for several patents in the years between 1905 and 1907, the invention of the triode
is normally taken to be 1906. Initially the triode was only used as a detector. Its operation was not
understood, and this prevented its full potential from being utilised.
1912 The triode used as an amplifier - It took some time before the full potential of the triode
was realised. Eventually it was de Forest who succeeded in using it as an amplifier and in 1912
he built an amplifier using two devices. This was demonstrated to AT&T who understood its
potential for use as a repeater in long distance telephone circuits.
1918 Armstrong invents the superhet - Although thermionic valves (tubes) enabled far greater
performance to be gained in radio receivers, the performance of the devices was still very poor
and receivers of the day suffered from insensitivity and poor selectivity. During the First World War
a considerable amount of effort was devoted into resolving these problems. An intermediate
solution was developed by a Frenchman named Lucien Levy, but in 1918, Edwin Armstrong
developed a receiver where the incoming signal was converted down to a fixed intermediate
frequency. Here it could be satisfactorily amplified and filtered. Unfortunately the idea did not gain
much acceptance at first because the war ended, and superhet receivers were very expensive
because of the numbers of valves they used. It took until the late 1920s before the number of
transmitting stations rose to a level that the performance of the superhet was required and further
developments meant they could be made more cheaply.
1920 Early broadcasts by the Marconi Company - The possibilities of broadcasting
entertainment and news using radio soon arose. In Britain initial transmissions were made by the
Marconi Company from their Chelmsford works for experimental purposes. These broadcasts
started in February 1920. Although only two daily programmes were broadcast they had an
enormous impact. The famous international singer Dame Nellie Melba took part in one on 20th
June 1920.
1921-23 Short wave transatlantic success - Long distance communications had until now been
concentrated on the long wavelengths. Accordingly radio amateurs had been only allowed to use
the short wave bands which were thought to be of little commercial value. However in the USA a
number of amateur stations had made contacts over considerable distances. This made people
wonder whether it would be possible to make contact across the Atlantic. After several sets of tests
commencing in 1921 contact was finally made between the American stations 1MO and 1XAM
and the French station 8AB in November 1923. Then in October of 1924 a station at Mill Hill School
in the North of London made contact with one in Dunedin New Zealand on the opposite side of the
globe. Meanwhile commercial interests were also exploring the capabilities of the short wave
bands, and a number of links were set up.
1922 2LO and the BBC - In May 1922 the Marconi Company was allowed to set up a broadcast
station in London. Later in the year the British Broadcasting Company was formed and this took
over the station that had the famous call 2LO. Initially it only had a power of 100 watts, which gave
it a maximum coverage of about 40 miles. Later with a power of 1.5 kW its coverage was greatly
increased.
1925 International Broadcasting - The Westinghouse Company set up a short wave
broadcasting station (KDKA) in East Pittsburgh which transmitted on a wavelength of 62.7 metres.
This was successfully received and rebroadcast in Britain. In Britain the amateur station 2NM run
by Gerald Marcuse started broadcasts in 1927. These gained great popularity and shortly after
their start the BBC commenced broadcasts from an experimental station. However it took until
1932 before the Empire service (the forerunner of the BBC World Service) was officially opened,
broadcasting from Daventry in the Midlands.
1934 Frequency Modulation - Although wideband FM is widely used today it took many years for
its advantages to be discovered, previously everyone had tried to improve its performance by
reducing the bandwidth. It was Edwin Armstrong who made the breakthrough. However it took
many years for him to convince people about its superiority. In 1934 he brought his idea to the
attention of RCA, and a year later he set up a demonstration. Then in 1939 he used his own money
to finance a station to prove that the system worked. Shortly after this the idea began to take off
and by January 1940 150 applications for FM broadcast stations had been submitted in the USA.
In 1954 the BBC launched its wideband FM service.

Over the years, many different types of radio receiver have been designed.The different types of
receiver have arisen out of the needs of the day and the technology available.

Early radio receivers had poor performance compared to those used today. Nowadays with
advanced techniques like digital signal processing, and high performance semiconductors and
other components, very high performance radios are commonplace.

Professional superheterodyne ardio receiver type

Radio receiver applications

Todays there are many different applications for radio receivers. Everything from the more
traditional broadcast radio receiver to professional communications receivers. In addition to this
the explosion in cellular and wireless communications has meant that there are very many different
radio receivers needed for different applications.

Each application has its own requirements and as a result, many different types of radio receiver
are needed.

Some radio receiver types are much simpler than others, whereas some have higher levels of
performance and are not confined by space as much.

In view of the huge difference in requirements and performance levels needed, many different
types of radio can be seen these days.
Radio receiver types
Many of the different radio receiver types have been around for many years. The component
technology, and in particular semiconductor technology has surged forwards enabling much higher
levels of performance to be achieved in a much smaller space.

There is a number of different types of radio:

• Tuned radio frequency, TRF : This type of radio receiver was one of the first that was
used. The very first radio receivers of this type simply consisted of a tuned circuit and a
detector. Crystal sets were early forms of TRF radios. . . . . . . Read more about the How does
a crystal radio work

Later amplifiers were added to boost the signal level, both at the radio frequencies and
audio frequencies. There were several problems with this form of receiver. The main one
was the lack of selectivity. Gain / sensitivity was also an use. . . . . . Read more about
the TRF Radio Receiver
• Regenerative receiver: The regenerative radio receiver significantly improved the levels of
gain and selectivity obtainable. It used positive feedback and ran at the point just before
oscillation occurred. In this way a significant multiplication in the level of "Q" of the tuned circuit
was gained. Also major improvements in gain were obtained this way. . . . . . Read more about
the Regen Radio Receiver
• Super regenerative receiver: The super regenerative radio receiver takes the concept of
regeneration a stage further. Using a second lower frequency oscillation within the same stage,
this second oscillation quenches or interrupts the oscillation of the main regeneration – typically
at frequencies of around 25 kHz or so above the audio range. In this way the main regeneration
can be run so that the stage is effectively in oscillation where it provides very much higher levels
of gain. Using the second quench oscillation, the effects of running the stage in oscillation are
not apparent to the listener, although it does emit spurious signals which can cause interference
locally. Gain levels of over a million are not uncommon using this type of radio receiver. . . . .
. Read more about the Super-Regenerative Radio Receiver
• Superheterodyne receiver: The superheterodyne form of radio receiver was developed to
provide additional levels of selectivity. It uses the heterodyne or mixing process to convert
signals done to a fixed intermediate frequency. Changing the frequency of the local oscillator
effectively tunes the radio. . . . . . Read more about the Superheterodyne Radio Receiver
• Direct conversion receiver: This type of radio format converts the signal directly down to the
baseband frequency. Initially it was used for AM, Morse (CW) and SSB transmissions, but now
it is widely used for digital communications where IQ demodulators are used to take advantage
of the variety of phase shift keying, PSK, and quadrature amplitude modulation, QAM signals.
Many of these different types of radio receiver are in widespread use today. Each type of radio has
its own characteristics that lend its use to particular applications.

COGNITIVE RADIO
cognitive radio (CR) is a radio that can be programmed and configured dynamically to use the
best wireless channels in its vicinity. Such a radio automatically detects available channels in wireless
spectrum, then accordingly changes its transmission or reception parameters to allow more
concurrent wireless communications in a given spectrum band at one location. This process is a form
of dynamic spectrum management.

Description
In response to the operator's commands, the cognitive engine is capable of configuring radio-
system parameters. These parameters include "waveform, protocol, operating frequency, and
networking". This functions as an autonomous unit in the communications environment,
exchanging information about the environment with the networks it accesses and other cognitive
radios (CRs). A CR "monitors its own performance continuously", in addition to "reading the
radio's outputs"; it then uses this information to "determine the RF environment, channel
conditions, link performance, etc.", and adjusts the "radio's settings to deliver the required quality
of service subject to an appropriate combination of user requirements, operational limitations,
and regulatory constraints"[1].
Some "smart radio" proposals combine wireless mesh network—dynamically changing the path
messages take between two given nodes using cooperative diversity; cognitive radio—
dynamically changing the frequency band used by messages between two consecutive nodes on
the path; and software-defined radio—dynamically changing the protocol used by message
between two consecutive nodes.
J. H. Snider, Lawrence Lessig, David Weinberger, and others say that low power "smart" radio is
inherently superior to standard broadcast radio.

Technology
Although cognitive radio was initially thought of as a software-defined radio extension (full
cognitive radio), most research work focuses on spectrum-sensing cognitive radio
(particularly in the TV bands). The chief problem in spectrum-sensing cognitive radio is
designing high-quality spectrum-sensing devices and algorithms for exchanging spectrum-
sensing data between nodes. It has been shown that a simple energy detector cannot
guarantee the accurate detection of signal presence,[15] calling for more sophisticated
spectrum sensing techniques and requiring information about spectrum sensing to be
regularly exchanged between nodes. Increasing the number of cooperating sensing nodes
decreases the probability of false detection.
Filling free RF bands adaptively, using OFDMA, is a possible approach. Timo A. Weiss and
Friedrich K. Jondral of the University of Karlsruhe proposed a spectrum pooling system, in
which free bands (sensed by nodes) were immediately filled by OFDMA subbands.
Applications of spectrum-sensing cognitive radio include emergency-
network and WLAN higher throughput and transmission-distance extensions. The evolution
of cognitive radio toward cognitive networks is underway; the concept of cognitive networks is
to intelligently organize a network of cognitive radios.

Functions
The main functions of cognitive radios are:

• Power Control: Power control[19] is usually used for spectrum sharing CR systems to
maximize the capacity of secondary users with interference power constraints to protect the
primary users.
• Spectrum sensing: Detecting unused spectrum and sharing it, without harmful interference to
other users; an important requirement of the cognitive-radio network is to sense empty
spectrum. Detecting primary users is the most efficient way to detect empty spectrum.
Spectrum-sensing techniques may be grouped into three categories:
• Transmitter detection: Cognitive radios must have the capability to determine if a signal
from a primary transmitter is locally present in a certain spectrum. There are several
proposed approaches to transmitter detection:
• Matched filter detection
• Energy detection: Energy detection is a spectrum sensing method that detects the
presence/absence of a signal just by measuring the received signal power.[20] This
signal detection approach is quite easy and convenient for practical implementation.
 To implement energy detector, however, noise variance information is required. It
has been shown that an imperfect knowledge of the noise power (noise uncertainty)
may lead to the phenomenon of the SNR wall, which is a SNR level below which the
energy detector can not reliably detect any transmitted signal even increasing the
observation time.[21] It[22] has also been shown that the SNR wall is not caused by the
presence of a noise uncertainty itself, but by an insufficient refinement of the noise
power estimation while the observation time increases.
• Cyclostationary-feature detection: These type of spectrum sensing algorithms are
motivated because most man-made communication signals, such
as BPSK, QPSK, AM, OFDM, etc. exhibit cyclostationary behavior.[23] However, noise
signals (typically white noise) do not exhibit cyclostationary behavior. These detectors
are robust against noise variance uncertainty. The aim of such detectors is to exploit
the cyclostationary nature of man-made communication signals buried in noise.
Cyclostationary detectors can be either single cycle or multicycle cyclostatonary.
• Wideband spectrum sensing: refers to spectrum sensing over large spectral bandwidth,
typically hundreds of MHz or even several GHz. Since current ADC technology cannot afford
the high sampling rate with high resolution, it requires revolutional techniques, e.g.,
compressive sensing and sub-Nyquist sampling.[24]
• Cooperative detection: Refers to spectrum-sensing methods where information from
multiple cognitive-radio users is incorporated for primary-user detection[25]
• Interference-based detection
• Null-space based CR: With the aid of multiple antennas, CR detects the null-space of the
primary-user and then transmits within the null-space, such that its subsequent transmission
causes less interference to the primary-user
• Spectrum management: Capturing the best available spectrum to meet user communication
requirements, while not creating undue interference to other (primary) users. Cognitive
radios should decide on the best spectrum band (of all bands available) to meet quality of
service requirements; therefore, spectrum-management functions are required for cognitive
radios. Spectrum-management functions are classified as:
• Spectrum analysis
• Spectrum decision[26] [27]
The practical implementation of spectrum-management functions is a complex and multifaceted
issue, since it must address a variety of technical and legal requirements. An example of the
former is choosing an appropriate sensing threshold to detect other users, while the latter is
exemplified by the need to meet the rules and regulations set out for radio spectrum access in
international (ITU radio regulations) and national (telecommunications law) legislation.

Applications
CR can sense its environment and, without the intervention of the user, can adapt to the user's
communications needs while conforming to FCC rules in the United States. In theory, the amount
of spectrum is infinite; practically, for propagation and other reasons it is finite because of the
desirability of certain spectrum portions. Assigned spectrum is far from being fully utilized, and
efficient spectrum use is a growing concern; CR offers a solution to this problem. A CR can
intelligently detect whether any portion of the spectrum is in use, and can temporarily use it
without interfering with the transmissions of other users.[29]According to Bruce Fette, "Some of the
radio's other cognitive abilities include determining its location, sensing spectrum use by
neighboring devices, changing frequency, adjusting output power or even altering transmission
parameters and characteristics. All of these capabilities, and others yet to be realized, will
provide wireless spectrum users with the ability to adapt to real-time spectrum conditions,
offering regulators, licenses and the general public flexible, efficient and comprehensive use of
the spectrum".
Examples of applications include:

• The application of CR networks to emergency and public safety communications by utilizing

white space [30][31]
• The potential of CR networks for executing dynamic spectrum access (DSA) [32][33]
• Application of CR networks to military action such as chemical biological radiological and
nuclear attack detection and investigation, command control, obtaining information of battle
damage evaluations, battlefield surveillance, intelligence assistance, and targeting.[34]
Simulation of CR networks
At present, modeling & simulation is the only paradigm which allows the simulation of complex
behavior in a given environment's cognitive radio networks. Network simulators
like OPNET, NetSim, MATLABand NS2 can be used to simulate a cognitive radio
network. CogNS [35] is an open-source NS2-based simulation framework for cognitive radio
networks. Areas of research using network simulators include:
Spectrum sensing & incumbent detection

1. Spectrum allocation
2. Measurement and/or modeling of spectrum usage [36] [37]
3. Efficiency of spectrum utilization

RADIO RESOURCE MANGEMENT

Radio resource management (RRM) is the system level management of co-channel

interference, radio resources, and other radio transmission characteristics in wireless
communication systems, for example cellular networks, wireless local area networks and wireless
sensor systems.[1][2] RRM involves strategies and algorithms for controlling parameters such as
transmit power, user allocation, beamforming, data rates, handover criteria, modulation scheme,
error coding scheme, etc. The objective is to utilize the limited radio-frequency spectrum
resources and radio network infrastructure as efficiently as possible.
RRM concerns multi-user and multi-cell network capacity issues, rather than the point-to-
point channel capacity. Traditional telecommunications research and education often dwell
upon channel coding and source coding with a single user in mind, although it may not be possible to
achieve the maximum channel capacity when several users and adjacent base stations share the
same frequency channel. Efficient dynamic RRM schemes may increase the system spectral
efficiency by an order of magnitude, which often is considerably more than what is possible by
introducing advanced channel coding and source coding schemes. RRM is especially important in
systems limited by co-channel interference rather than by noise, for example cellular
systems and broadcast networks homogeneously covering large areas, and wireless
networks consisting of many adjacent access points that may reuse the same channel frequencies.
The cost for deploying a wireless network is normally dominated by base station sites (real estate
costs, planning, maintenance, distribution network, energy, etc.) and sometimes also by
frequency license fees. The objective of radio resource management is therefore typically to
maximize the system spectral efficiency in bit/s/Hz/area unit or Erlang/MHz/site, under some
kind of user fairness constraint, for example, that the grade of service should be above a
certain level. The latter involves covering a certain area and avoiding outage due to co-
channel interference, noise, attenuation caused by path losses, fading caused by shadowing
and multipath, Doppler shift and other forms of distortion. The grade of service is also
affected by blocking due to admission control, scheduling starvation or inability to
guarantee quality of service that is requested by the users.
While classical radio resource managements primarily considered the allocation of time and
frequency resources (with fixed spatial reuse patterns), recent multi-user MIMO techniques
enables adaptive resource management also in the spatial domain.

Static radio resource management

Static RRM involves manual as well as computer-aided fixed cell planning or radio network planning.
Examples:

Frequency allocation band plans decided by standardization bodies, by national frequency

authorities and in frequency resource auctions.

Deployment of base station sites (or broadcasting transmitter site)

Antenna heights

Channel frequency plans

Sector antenna directions

Selection of modulation and channel coding parameters

Base station antenna space diversity, for example

Receiver micro diversity using antenna combining

Transmitter macro diversity such as OFDM single frequency networks (SFN)

Static RRM schemes are used in many traditional wireless systems, for example 1G and 2G cellular
systems, in today's wireless local area networks and in non-cellular systems, for example
broadcasting systems. Examples of static RRM schemes are:

Circuit mode communication using FDMA and TDMA.

Fixed channel allocation (FCA)

Static handover criteria

Dynamic radio resource management[edit]

Dynamic RRM schemes adaptively adjust the radio network parameters to the traffic load, user
positions, user mobility, quality of service requirements, base station density, etc. Dynamic RRM
schemes are considered in the design of wireless systems, in view to minimize expensive manual cell
planning and achieve "tighter" frequency reuse patterns, resulting in improved system spectral
efficiency.

Some schemes are centralized, where several base stations and access points are controlled by
a Radio Network Controller (RNC). Others are distributed, either autonomous algorithms in mobile
stations, base stations or wireless access points, or coordinated by exchanging information among
these stations.
Examples of dynamic RRM schemes are:

• Power control algorithms

• Precoding algorithms
• Link adaptation algorithms
• Dynamic Channel Allocation (DCA) or Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) algorithms, allowing
"cell breathing"
• Traffic adaptive handover criteria, allowing "cell breathing

Inter-cell radio resource management[edit]

Future networks like the LTE standard (defined by 3GPP) are designed for a frequency reuse of
one. In such networks, neighboring cells use the same frequency spectrum. Such standards
exploit Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA) and can thus be highly efficient in terms of
spectrum, but required close coordination between cells to avoid excessive inter-cell
interference. Like in most cellular system deployments, the overall system spectral efficiency is
not range limited or noise limited, but interference limited. [1] Inter-cell radio resource
management coordinates resource allocation between different cell sites by using multi-user
MIMO techniques. There are various means of Inter-Cell Interference Coordination
(ICIC) already defined in the standard.[4] Dynamic single-frequency networks, coordinated
scheduling, multi-site MIMO or joint multi-cell precoding are other examples for inter-cell radio
resource management.[3][5]

AREAS OF APPLICATION

Modern civilization depends on advanced communication technologies. The

application of electricity to communications with inventions such as the telephone
and telegraph meant people could send information instantly over long distances.
More recent advances such as satellites and the Internet have extended
communications worldwide and made global news and information commonplace.
Communications technology continues to improve with each passing year, bringing
more information choices to you at lower costs.

Telegraph

A variety of inventors developed versions of the telegraph in the early 1800s,

although Samuel Morse's design was one of the most practical. The system was a
simple electrical circuit consisting of a battery, a switch and an electromagnet.
Pressing the switch key closed the circuit; this energized the electromagnet which
produced a clicking sound from a piece of metal. Operators sent messages as a
series of coded key taps; the receiving station heard the corresponding clicks
produced with virtually no delay. Telegraph wires eventually connected cities across
the country, carrying news, commerce and personal messages.

Telephone
In the late 1800s, further experiments in electricity led inventors to develop the
telephone. As with the telegraph, the telephone sends electrical signals through
wires to a distant receiver; in place of staccato clicks which take training to
understand, telephone wires carry the sounds of actual speech. Although telephones
and telegraphs coexisted for several decades, telegraphs are now mostly museum
pieces; in 2012, telephones continue to be a dominant form of personal
communications.

Radio

Radio systems send voice, data and video by means of wireless signals. Not long
after Bell developed the telephone, other inventors such as Nikola Tesla and
Guglielmo Marconi experimented with sending signals over the air using high-
frequency electronic circuits and antennas. Radio systems introduced the concept of
broadcasting, in which thousands of listeners hear speech and music sent by a
single transmitter. Today, the concept of radio extends from traditional broadcast
stations to cell phones and wireless data networks.

Satellites

Although radio waves carry signals reliably, long-distance transmissions are

complicated by the ionosphere, a layer of thin, energetic gas that lies above the
breathable atmosphere. Satellites solve the distance problem by receiving radio
signals in space, amplifying and retransmitting them to ground-based receivers
thousands of miles from the original source. In the 1960s, networks of satellites
permitted the first instantaneous, world-wide communications.

Internet

The Internet had its beginnings in a military research project called the Advanced
Research Projects Agency Network in the 1960s. It was an early data network which
permitted computer users at different locations to share information. ARPANET was
a testing ground for ideas such as dividing large amounts of data into same-size
chunks called packets. In addition to the user's data, the packet has the network
addresses of the sender and receiver. Devices called routers pass packets along
from one system to another until they arrive at their destination. Users added more
computers to the network, and in the early 1980s, the ARPANET became the larger
Internet. Originally, researchers used the Internet for data and simple emails, but in
the late 1980s, Tim Berners-Lee developed a standard format for linked pages of
text, and the World Wide Web was born. Today, the Internet continues to grow and
develop, both in the services it offers and the speed of the network hardware which
carries data.