Wireless

Wireless communication is a method of transmitting information between two or more points that are not connected by an electrical conductor. The most common wireless technologies use radio waves. With radio waves, intended distances can be short, such as a few meters for Bluetooth or as far as millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications. It encompasses various types of fixed, mobile, and portable applications, including two-way radios, cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and wireless networking.

History

The first wireless telephone conversation occurred in 1880, when Alexander Graham Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter invented and patented the photophone, a telephone that conducted audio conversations wirelessly over modulated light beams (which are narrow projections of electromagnetic waves).

Types of wireless communication

The term wireless has become a broad descriptive term for different types of network technologies, including:

• Wireless networking
• Wireless Internet service provider
• Wireless power
• Terrestrial microwave
• Free-space optical communication
• Radio and television broadcasting
• Cellular telephony
• Satellite communication
• Wireless sensor networks
• Wireless local area network

Applications

Wireless operations permit services, such as long-range communications, that are impossible or impractical to implement with the use of wires. The term is commonly used in the telecommunications industry to refer to telecommunications systems (e.g., radio transmitters and receivers, remote controls, etc.) which use some form of energy (e.g. radio waves and acoustic energy) to transfer information without the use of wires.

See also

• Wireless energy transfer
• Wireless telegraphy
• Wireless LAN
• Wireless sensor network
• Wireless security

References

Wireless Resources
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