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From Smoke Signals to the Internet: From Smoke Signals to the Internet: The History of Communications The History of Communications

InfrastructuresInfrastructures

Randy H. KatzUMC Distinguished Professor

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Dept.University of California, Berkeley

© 2000

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History of CommunicationsHistory of Communications

• The Dream

• Early state-sponsored R&D

• Creative destruction

• Scientific discoveries to practical application

• Brilliant inventors and large corporations

• The legal system

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Muscle Powered CommunicationsMuscle Powered Communications

• Human messengers on foot or horseback

– “Command and Control” between capital and field

– 490 BC: Phidippides—Marathon to Athens with news of victory over Persians (26.2 miles)

– 14 AD: Roman relays—50 miles per day for regular mail, 100 miles per day for express mail

– 1280 AD: Kublai Khan—200-250 miles per day“Poste Haste”— “Fast Post” —riders signal by horns

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Visual CommunicationsVisual Communications

• Heliographs

• Flags

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Fire BeaconsFire Beacons150 BC: Polybius

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A B C D EF G H IJ KL M N O PQ R S T UV W X Y Z

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The Optical TelegraphThe Optical Telegraph• Claude Chappe, 1763-1805

Early DefenseContractor

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Emergence of a Network

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Scientific AdvancesScientific Advances

• Late 18th—Early 19th Century– Relationship between electricity and magnetism

– Oersted (Copenhagen): electricity’s ability to deflect a needle

– 1831, Faraday (Royal Institution, London): electromagnetic induction

Politician: “But what’s the use of it, Mr. Faraday?”Faraday: “Ah, but what use is a baby?”

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The Electrical TelegraphThe Electrical Telegraph• Wheatstone and Cooke

Railroad Telegraph1837

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Samuel MorseMorse Code

1837

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Dots and Dashes Span the GlobeDots and Dashes Span the Globe

– 1852: First international telegram

– Reuters establishes TNN– 1858: Cyrus Field lays first

transatlantic cable—Line fails!

– 1866: New cable & technology by Prof. W. Thompson (Lord Kelvin)

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Scientific BackgroundScientific BackgroundJames Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)

"... we have strong reason to conclude that light itself -- including radiant heat, and other radiations if any -- is an e/m disturbance in the form of waves propagated through the e/m field according to e/m laws." 1864.

Heinrich Hertz (1857 - 1894)– 1880s: Demonstrated wave character

of electrical transmission in space

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Wireless TelegraphyWireless TelegraphyGuglielmo Marconi

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Wireless and WarfareWireless and Warfare

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The Telegraph Learns to SpeakThe Telegraph Learns to Speak

Alexander Graham Bell

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Bell’s Early TelephonesBell’s Early Telephones

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Building the NetworkBuilding the NetworkAlmon Brown

Strowger(1839 - 1902)

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““Ma Bell”Ma Bell”

• Bell’s patents expire in 1890s; over 6000 independent operators emerge– 1910: Bell System controls 50% local

phone market– 1913: AT&T & U.S.—Kingsbury Agreement:

Regulated monopoly promising "universal”telephone service; Controls “toll” services in U.S.

– Long distance interconnection—a competitive weapon

– 1950: Bell System—84% of local phone access

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Bell Telephone Bell Telephone EquipmentEquipment

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Making the Airwaves SingMaking the Airwaves Sing

John Fleming (1849-1945)

Lee DeForest (1873-1961)

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Scientific Genius of RadioScientific Genius of Radio

Edwin Howard Armstrong

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Commercial Genius of RadioCommercial Genius of Radio

David Sarnoff and RCA

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Early CommsEarly CommsDevicesDevices

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Seeing at a Distance: TelevisionSeeing at a Distance: TelevisionJohn Logie Baird

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Electrical/Mechanical SystemsElectrical/Mechanical Systems

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Forgotten Genius of TelevisionForgotten Genius of Television

Philo T.Farnsworth

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Vladimir K.Vladimir K.ZworykinZworykin

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Packet SwitchingPacket Switching

Paul Baran

Donald Davies

ARPANet

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ARPANet Becomes InternetARPANet Becomes Internet

Robert Kahn & Vint Cerf

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What Comes Next?What Comes Next?

• Deregulation• Convergence• Divergence

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