SUMMARY

Basics of Wireless Networks

 

The first commercially available radio and telephone system, known as the Improved Mobile Telephone Service (IMTS), was put into service in 1946. This system was quite unsophisticated, as there were no solid-state electronics available at that time.Given these constrictions, the number of channels available did not come close to satisfying the demand.

The solution to this problem was cellular radio. After locating the vehicle in which the paged subscribers was riding, the equipment assigned sets of frequencies to it and conversation could begin.

The initial transmission technology used between the vehicle and the cell site was analog in nature and known as Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS); the analog scheme used was called Frequency-Division Multiple Access (FDMA).

A few years later, a third group of companies (led by Qualcomm, Inc.) developed spread-spectrum technology called code-division multiple access (CDMA).

The continuing growth of cellular communications led government and industry in the United States to search for additional ways to satisfy the obvious need . This search led to the development of the personal communications service (PCS) industry.

Unfortunately, after acquiring the spectrum, many of the new potential operators went bankrupt and never actually had a chance to use it. In Canada, the decision was based on a beauty contest, a comparison of business cases, technology, and future plans, rather than the bidding process.