What is wireless communication?

“Wireless Communications are various telecommunications systems that use

radio waves to carry signals and messages across distances.”

⦁ Wireless communications 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.

Uses of wireless communication:

⦁ 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

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 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.

Mechanism of wireless communication:

⦁ Wireless communications begin with a message that is converted into an

electronic signal by a device called a transmitter.

⦁ There are two types of transmitters: analog and digital.

⦁ An analog transmitter sends electronic signals as modulated radio waves.

⦁ The analog transmitter modulates the radio wave to carry the electronic signal
and then sends the modified radio signal through space.

⦁ A digital transmitter encodes electronic signals by converting messages into a

binary code, the series of zeros and ones that are the basis of all computer
programming.

⦁ The encoded electronic signal is then sent as a radio wave.

⦁ Devices known as receivers decode or demodulate the radio waves and reproduce
the original message over a speaker.

Mobile:

⦁ Mobile/Cellular Radio Telephone also called cellular telephone or cell phone,

low-powered, lightweight radio transceiver (combination transmitter-receiver) that
provides voice telephone and other services to mobile users.

⦁ Cellular telephones primarily operate like portable or cordless telephones.

⦁ However, unlike conventional wire-based cordless phones, cellular telephones are

completely portable and do not require proximity to a jack to access the wire-
based networks operated by local telephone companies.

⦁ A new generation of services for cell phones includes videoconferencing and

Internet access with the ability to send e-mail.

⦁ Cellular telephones have become very popular with professionals and consumers

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 as a way to communicate while away from their regular, wire-based phones—for
example, while traveling or when in remote locations lacking regular phone
service.

⦁ As cellular radio service proliferates and achieves greater market penetration,

some users have begun to consider it an alternative to conventional wire-based
services.

⦁ Cellular radio telephones, or cell phones, combine their portable radio capability
with the wired, or wire-based, telephone network to provide mobile users with
access to the rest of the public telephone system used by nonmobile callers.

⦁ An early form of radio telephone communicated with a single powerful antenna

within a given geographic or metropolitan area.

⦁ This large antenna was wired to the telephone system.

⦁ With only one antenna for a large metro area, this limited the number of
frequencies that could be used, because radio telephone frequencies would often
overlap and cause interference.

⦁ As a result, only a limited number of simultaneous calls could be handled,

because only a small block of channels could be generated over the available radio
spectrum allocated for the service.

⦁ Modern cellular telephones use a network of several short-range antennas known

as towers that connect to the telephone system.

⦁ Because the antennas have a shorter range and cover a smaller area, often as short
as 1.5 to 2.4 km (1.0 to 1.5 mi), frequencies can be reused a short distance away
without overlapping and causing interference.

⦁ Cell phone towers pick up requests from cell phones for a dial tone and also
deliver inbound calls to the appropriate cell phone or deliver calls to people using
regular telephones on the wire-based system.

⦁ To do any of these things, the cell phone must have a singular identity that can be
recognized by computers housed in a central mobile telephone switching office
(MTSO).

⦁ When a cell phone is turned on, it connects by radio waves to the nearest cell

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 tower (tower receiving the strongest signal).

⦁ The cell towers are spaced so their receiving ranges slightly overlap.

⦁ This continuous contact makes it possible for the MTSO to transfer a call from
tower to tower as a mobile cell phone user (in a moving vehicle, for instance)
moves from one cell area to another.

Satellite:

⦁ Artificial Satellite, any object purposely placed into orbit around Earth, other
planets, or the Sun.

⦁ Since the launching of the first artificial satellite in 1957, thousands of these
“man-made moons” have been rocketed into Earth orbit.

⦁ Today, artificial satellites play key roles in the communications industry, in

military intelligence, and in the scientific study of both Earth and outer space.

⦁ Satellite communications services connect users directly to the telephone network

from almost anywhere in the world.

⦁ Special telephones are available to consumers that communicate directly with

communications satellites orbiting Earth.

⦁ The satellites transmit these signals to ground stations that are connected to the
telephone system.

⦁ These satellite services, while more expensive than cellular or other wireless
services, give users access to the telephone network in areas of the world where
no wired or cellular telephone service exists.

⦁ Satellite phones are also able to deliver video images through videophones that
use tiny cameras and transmit their images via the satellite phone.

GPS (global positioning system):

⦁ Global Positioning System (GPS), space-based radio-navigation system,

consisting of 24 satellites and ground support.

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 ⦁ Operated by the United States military but open to civilian uses, GPS provides
users with accurate information about their location and velocity anywhere in the
world.

⦁ GPS is one of three satellite-based radio-navigation systems.

⦁ Other than GPS, there also exist some other positioning systems:

⦁ The Russian Federation operates the Global Orbiting Navigation Satellite

System (GLONASS), which also uses 24 satellites and provides accuracy
similar to GPS.

⦁ The European Union (EU) launched the first satellite in its planned Galileo
program, also known as the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), in
December 2005.

⦁ GPS, formally known as the Navstar Global Positioning System, is operated and
maintained by the United States Department of Defense.

⦁ GPS was initiated in 1973 to reduce the proliferation of navigation aids.

⦁ By overcoming the limitations of many existing navigation systems, GPS became

attractive to a broad spectrum of users.

⦁ It was initially used as a navigational aid by military ground, sea, and air forces.

⦁ In more recent years, GPS has been used by civilians in many new ways, such as
in automobile and boat navigation, hiking, emergency rescue, and precision
agriculture and mining.

Fiber optic:

“Fiber Optics is a branch of optics dealing with the transmission of light through
hair-thin, transparent fibers.”

⦁ Light signals that enter at one end of a fiber travel through the fiber with very low
loss of light, even if the fiber are curved.

⦁ A basic fiber-optic system consists of a transmitting device (which generates the

light signal), an optical-fiber cable (which carries the light), and a receiver (which

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 accepts the transmitted light signal and converts it to an electrical signal).

⦁ Fiber-optic transmission of light depends on preventing light from escaping from

the fiber.

⦁ When a beam of light encounters a boundary between two transparent substances,

some of the light is normally reflected, while the rest passes into the new
substance.

⦁ How much of the beam is reflected, and how much enters the second substance,
depends on the angle at which the light strikes the boundary.

⦁ When the Sun shines down on the ocean from directly overhead, for example,
much of its light penetrates the water.

⦁ When the Sun is setting, however, its light strikes the surface of the water at a
shallow angle, and most of it is reflected.

⦁ Fiber optics makes use of certain special conditions, under which all of the light
encountering the surface between two materials is reflected, to reduce loss.

⦁ A principle called total internal reflection allows optical fibers to retain the light
they carry.

⦁ When light passes from a dense substance into a less dense substance, there is an
angle, called the critical angle, beyond which 100 percent of the light is reflected
from the surface between substances.

⦁ Total internal reflection occurs when light strikes the boundary between
substances at an angle greater than the critical angle.

⦁ An optical-fiber core is clad (coated) by a lower density glass layer. .

⦁ As long as the fiber is not curved too sharply, light traveling inside cannot strike
the outer surface at less than the critical angle.

⦁ Thus, light can be transmitted over long distances by being reflected inward
thousands of times with no loss.