Table of Contents

Communication Systems and Infrastructure

PageProvides Importance
Communication Systems and Infrastructurecommunicationssociety:organising2 - Desirable
Long-distance Communicationscommunications, society:organising3 - Important
One-way Communicationscommunicationssociety:organising2 - Desirable
Two-way Communicationscommunicationsprotection:defence, society:organising3 - Important

A (very) brief history of Telecommunication Technologies

As an important aside — and given that one of the goals of this project is to not just capture things as they were back when one could build complete systems (and even most of the necessary components) from scratch but how such designs can be simplified or improved upon using more recent techniques and tools — it might be insightful to see, at a glance, how communication technologies developed over the course of human history, and how quickly things advanced, starting around the turn of the 20th century.

Please note that the following table is not intended to be either exhaustive nor precise (although the included references can serve as a starting point for the more historically curious), and quite a few later developments have been omitted (e.g. for telephony alone, subsequent development of import could include multiplexing, automated routing, compression, encryption, etc.) as its focus is on the appearance of new and 'revolutionary' technologies, not their entire history.


Date (ca.) System Category Typical Range Typical Latency Enabling Development(s)
Antiquity1) Smoke signalling Visual line-of-sight real-time Shared codes
200 BCE2) Signal fire-based semaphores Visual line-of-sight — 'national' real-time — hours Shared codes, repeater networks
1520 Flag-based semaphores Visual line-of-sight real-time
17903) Semaphore signalling Visual line-of-sight — national minutes Telescopes, transmission and acknowledgement protocols
18204) Heliograph Visual line-of-sight — national minutes Mirrors / shutters, telescopes, transmission and acknowledgement protocols
18305) Electric telegraph Electro-mechanical ~40km — continental minutes Electricity, cabling, input/output devices
18706) Telephone Electro-mechanical ~20km — global real-time Basic analogue electrical devices and theory, hierarchical switching
18807) Photophone Opto-electrical 200m — line-of-sight real-time Light-dependent element or PV cell, parabolic reflectors
19008) Radio Telegraph Electrical ~1,000km — global “ Basic resonant electrical and EM theory, spark gaps, CW transmitters
19109) Radio Electrical ~300km — global ” Analogue and power electronics, modulation schemes
1920– 10) Amateur Radio Electrical “ ” Affordable electronic components
193011) Radiofax Electronic “ ” Image-scanning and reproduction, more advanced modulation schemes
197012) Computer networking Electronic, IT “ ” Digital computers, Modems, information theory, networking protocols
197513) Mobile telephone Electronic “ ” MOSFETs, cellular networking protocols, higher energy-density rechargeable batteries
198014) Usenet IT “ hours More pervasive networking (dedicated or dial-up), UUCP / NNTP
198515) FidoNet IT ” hours Affordable / home computers and Modems
198516) The Internet IT “ real-time Inter-networking and application-layer protocols
1995– 17) Software Defined Radio IT ” “ Commodity DSPs / RF-frequency 'Modems'
199518) Wikis IT ” “ The Web, local web-servers
200519) Git IT ” — Models of version control and conflict resolution
1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_signal
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phryctoria
3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_telegraph#France
4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliograph#History
5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_communication#History_of_telecommunication
6) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_telephone
7) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photophone
8), 9) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_telegraphy
10) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_amateur_radio
11) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiofax
12) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET
13) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone#History
14) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet
15) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FidoNet#History
16) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet
17) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software-defined_radio#History
18) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki#History; strictly speaking, more of an editing / publishing technology, but included here due to its relevance to collaborative knowledge-sharing
19) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git; strictly speaking, a version-tracking and conflict-resolution technology, but included here due to its relevance to decentralised, collaborative knowledge-sharing


See Also

Specific Resources

Nothing found
PageDesignationProvidesImportance
Communication Systems and Infrastructurecapability:communicationcommunications2 - Desirable
Long-distance Communicationscapability:communication:long-distancecommunications, society:organising3 - Important
One-way Communicationscapability:communication:one-waycommunications2 - Desirable
Two-way Communicationscapability:communication:two-waycommunications3 - Important
Deployable Computing Platformscapability:computing:deployablecommunications, equipment:sci-eng2 - Desirable
User-devicescapability:computing:user-devicecommunications, equipment:sci-eng, satisfaction:learning2 - Desirable



Categories (net.forthefall/kb:ontology:categories)
Designationcapability:communication
Provides or enablescommunications
Provides or enables (secondarily)society:organising
Zone(s)4 - Semi-managed, 5 - Unmanaged wilderness, 6 - Regional (local), 7 - Regional
Importance2 - Desirable