IEEE Wireless Communications • February 2008

Year1985 1990 1995 200

EATURED

RTICLE

NTRODUCTION

ODAY

’

NTERNET

The applications of communication technologiesthat serve the needs of our industry and of soci-ety have undergone significant shifts since thebeginnings of telecommunication a century ago.The wireless and wireline digital infrastructure we currently enjoy, which serves a vast worldwide community of users, has seen the mergingof analog and digital technologies and of voice,data, video, text, image, fax, graphics, andstreaming media. The Internet is the currentmanifestation of these many developments andthe vortex around which an accelerating wave of change and improvement is taking place, notonly in the infrastructure, but also in the applica-tions, users, services, and innovations of thetechnology.The Internet is leading the way into a twenty-first century information society. It has penetrat-ed our institutions and has changed our behaviorand attitudes in fundamental ways. More thanone billion people on this planet use the Inter-net today. The younger generation cannot con-ceive of a time when they could not share theirphotos, chat with friends, stream video, or shoponline. We can never turn the clock back to thepre-Internet world.The secret of the power of the Internet lies inthe fact that it embraces and encourages every-one to contribute their creative ideas, knowl-edge, and works and make them available toothers interactively on the Internet. The Internetfounding philosophy of openness and communityprovided the environment that spawned itstremendous growth in its early years.The Internet has a flexible future, and theform it takes depends upon how we and circum-stances shape it. Certainly it is safe to say that it will be a network with

extreme mobility

personal-ization

video addiction

, and

surprising applica-tions as yet unimagined

.Yet, as we race forward into this world of always connected people, devices, applications,and services, it is helpful to glimpse the past andsee the forces and the pioneers that helped bringabout these wonders. Too often we forget thatmany of the advanced technologies we enjoy inthe present were conceived of, developed, anddeployed many years ago by heroes of yesteryear.Let us review the past and explore the heritageof the technology with which we are endowedbefore we launch into a vision of where we areheading.

HAT

HEY

ERE

AYING

ACK

HEN

. . .

Who said the following and when?

“It will be possible for a business man in NewYork to dictate instructions, and have them instant- ly appear in type at his office in London or else- where. He will be able to call up, from his desk, and talk to any telephone subscriber on the globe. . . . An inexpensive instrument, not bigger than a watch, will enable its bearer to hear anywhere, on sea or land, music or song, the speech of a politi- cal leader, the address of an eminent man of science, or the sermon of an eloquent clergyman, delivered in some other place, however distant. Inthe same manner any picture, character, drawing, or print can be transferred from one to another place.[1]”

In reading this quote, one can’t help imagin-ing that this person is talking about a vision of the Internet. He is discussing worldwide connec-tion among a vast number of users, instanta-neous communication, and the transmission of voice, image, and data — with the use of a trulysmall access device. Amazingly, this is a quotefrom 100 years ago (1908) and was written bythe famous Nicola Tesla, one of technology’sunsung heroes, whose contributions to communi-cations, power generation, and much more, wereenormous. His insight and vision were prescient.

EONARD

LEINROCK

, UCLA

BSTRACT

This article relates the history of wirelesscommunications to the history of the Internet.The early work on packet switching is traced,and then a brief description of the critical eventsin the growth of the Internet is provided. Then,a vision of where the Internet is heading is pre-sented, with a focus on where user participation,flexible applications and services, and innovationare appearing. A network with extreme mobility,ubiquity, personalization, adaptivity, video addic-tion, and surprising applications, as yet unimag-ined is foreseen.

ISTORY OF THE

NTERNET AND

LEXIBLE

UTURE

The author relates thehistory of wirelesscommunications tothe history of theInternet. A vision ofwhere the Internet isheading is presentedA network withextreme mobility,ubiquity,personalization,adaptivity, videoaddiction, andsurprising applications,as yet unimaginedis foreseen.

IEEE Wireless Communications • February 2008

Not everyone in those days got it right. Wit-ness, for example, a quote by the great HeinrichHertz, who created radio waves in a controlledlaboratory environment: “I do not think that the wireless waves I have discovered will have anypractical application.” This quote goes down inhistory along with many other famous “misses”by technology leaders, such as: “This ‘telephone’has too many shortcomings to be seriously con-sidered as a means of communication. Thedevice is inherently of no value to us.” (WesternUnion internal memo, 1876); “That’s an amazinginvention, but who would ever want to use oneof them?” (President Rutherford B. Hayes to Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 on viewing thetelephone for the first time); “Heavier-than-airflying machines are impossible.” (Lord Kelvin,president, Royal Society, 1895); “Everything thatcan be invented has been invented.” (Charles H.Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents,1899); “I think there is a world market for maybefive computers.” (Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943); “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” (Ken Olson,president, chairman, and founder of DigitalEquipment Corp., 1977). I remember being sub- jected to the same kind of narrow-minded andfailed thinking in the early 1960s when my devel-opment of packet switching was dismissed by thetop management of what was then the world’slargest networking company, AT&T; they com-mented that packet switching would not work,and even if it did, they wanted nothing to do with it.Much to his credit, Guglielmo Marconi, oneof radio’s pioneers, said later in his life, “Have Idone the world good, or have I added a men-ace?” One could argue that Marconi was amongthe first to anticipate the dark side of globalcommunications; for as we know, today we aremenaced by spam, viruses, denial of service,identity theft, fraud, botnets, pornography, andso on.Some of these early pioneers set the stage forthe wireless revolution in the midst of which wefind ourselves today, and that revolution is anintegral, if not major force in the Internet andits flexible future. If we are to do a proper job of tracing the origins and history of the Internet,then we must present at least a brief history of wireless.

A B

RIEF

ISTORY OF

IRELESS

Wireless has a long history. Its origins are to befound in the early literature involving the rela-tionship between electricity and magnetism(notably, the widely known experiment conduct-ed in 1820 by Hans Christian Orsted in which hedemonstrated that a wire carrying a currentcould deflect a magnetized compass needle). Inthis article, we will not pursue that discussion;rather, we will briefly discuss the radio timelineand how it pointed the way to packet radio andtoday’s mobile networking, which is such a strongand growing component of the Internet. A landmark event occurred in 1864 whenJames Clerk Maxwell mathematically predictedthe existence of radio waves. This was a stunningpiece of work in which he was able to anticipatethe radiation of radio waves (i.e., that electro-magnetic fields spread in the form of polarized waves and with the speed of light) from themathematics itself. Einstein offered the follow-ing laudatory comment in reference to Maxwell’s work: “The special theory of relativity owes itsorigins to Maxwell’s equations of the electro-magnetic field.” Unfortunately, Maxwell died in1879 before his prediction was experimentally verified.The experimental evidence would come justaround and after the time of Maxwell’s death. In1878, David E. Hughes was able to send andreceive Morse code, discovering radio waves intheir first application. Later in 1888, HeinrichHertz proved the existence of radio waves usinga primitive transmitter and receiver.It was in 1893 that the innovative NicolaTesla demonstrated “wireless telegraphy” for thefirst time. In 1894, Alexander Popov built hisfirst radio receiver in Russia, demonstrating itpublicly in 1895, and subsequently developingthe first non-laboratory radio service. By 1894,Oliver Lodge transmitted radio signals at OxfordUniversity (based on a device known as a “coher-er,” which itself was based on a discovery madein 1890 by French physicist, Édouard Branly);but note that this was one year after Tesla andone year before Marconi himself had done so. Also in 1894, Jagadish Chandra Bose demon-strated a short-range radio transmission in Cal-cutta, India, using millimeter range wavelengthmicrowaves. His research of remote wireless sig-naling was the first to use a semiconductor junc-tion to detect radio waves and anticipated theexistence of P-type and N-type semiconductors.In 1895, Guglielmo Marconi transmitted wireless signals a distance of about one milefrom the laboratory in his home outside of Bologna, Italy. That began a sequence of demon-strations of transmitting radio over longer andlonger distances: in 1896, Tesla transmitted wire-less signals over distances of up to 30 miles; in1898, Popov effected ship-to-shore communica-tion over a distance of six miles and then, over30 miles in 1899; Marconi conducted a numberof distance experiments for radio transmission with an 1897 link between the Isle of Wight andBournemouth, England, some 13 miles away; alink across the English Channel (using a Teslaoscillator) in 1899; and then finally, in 1901,Marconi transmitted the first trans-Atlanticradio signal over a distance of 2200 miles.In 1897 Marconi was granted a British patent(filed in 1896) for wireless telegraphy and estab-lished the world’s first radio station and whatlater became the Marconi Wireless TelegraphCompany. It was in 1900 that Nicola Tesla wasgranted his U.S. patents revealing the basic tech-niques for greatly improving radio transmitterperformance; these had been filed in 1897. Mar-coni’s U.S. patent application was turned downin 1900 and repeatedly for the next three years.However, in 1904, the U.S. patent office reversedits decision and awarded the patent to Marconi.Later yet, in 1943, the U.S. Supreme Courtreversed the ruling once again and upheldTesla’s patent.In 1900, Reginald Fessenden succeeded intransmitting voice over radio. In 1906, Lee de

In 1895, Marconitransmitted wirelesssignals a distance ofabout one mile fromthe laboratory in hishome outside ofBologna, Italy.That began asequence ofdemonstrations oftransmitting radioover longer andlonger distances.

IEEE Wireless Communications • February 2008

Forest invented the Audion, now known as the vacuum-tube triode, an essential component forradio systems. Then in1909, Marconi won theNobel Prize in physics for his contributions toradio.It is interesting to observe the interplayamong these pioneers as they generated theirown ideas and approaches to advancing wirelesstechnology. They had a collective synchronicityof independent creativity and invention thatspanned geographies across several continents.These early developments caused radio toreach across the globe in a ubiquitous deploy-ment. However, it was not until the digital age inthe latter part of the twentieth century that webegan to see wireless technology branch out in anumber of important directions, including digitalcellular telephony, mobile ad hoc networks,packet radio, wireless network access, hand-held wireless platforms, and so on, all of which con-tribute to today’s Internet. Let us now review thehistory of the Internet.

A B

RIEF

ISTORY OF THE

NTERNET

OLE OF

ARPA

One of the precursors of the Internet was anevent that captured the world’s attention andaroused a deep sense of concern in the UnitedStates. That event was the launching of the Sovi-et Union’s Sputnik, the first man-made object toorbit our planet. It occurred on October 4, 1957,as part of the International Geophysical Year. Itcaught the United States by surprise and gener-ated an awareness that we had fallen badlybehind in science and technology. In response tothis, in February 1958, President Eisenhowercreated the Advanced Research Projects Agency(ARPA), designed to promote research that would ensure that the Communists would neveragain beat America in any technological race.One of ARPA’s offices was the InformationProcessing Techniques Office (IPTO), whichfunded research in computer science and washighly successful in its early days, making greatstrides in the areas of time sharing, networking(spawning the Internet), packet satellite networking, packet radio networking, artificial intel-ligence, digital signal processing, highperformance computing, hypertext, and muchmore. J.C.R. Licklider of the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology (MIT) became the firsthead of IPTO in October 1962; this was shortlyafter he articulated his visionary ideas for aGalactic Network [2]. He had envisioned a seriesof connected computers linking everyone to auniverse of information. This vision expandedhis related concept (in 1960) of man-computersymbiosis [3] in which humans and computers would work together, exploiting the strengths of each in a symbiotic fashion. Although Lickliderconceived of a Galactic Network, he did notoffer a plan to implement such a system.In 1963, Licklider left IPTO and ultimatelyreturned to MIT. He was succeeded as directorof IPTO by Ivan Sutherland, formerly of MIT, who held that position from 1964 until 1966.During his tenure at ARPA, Ivan visited theUniversity of California Los Angles (UCLA)and suggested that a three-node network be cre-ated on campus to connect three IBM comput-ers, all in different departments; sadly, thepolitical issues involved with such a cooperativenetwork were too much to overcome, and thenetwork effort was disbanded. Nevertheless, theidea of implementing a computer network wasalready taking form within ARPA. Indeed, in1965, Sutherland gave Larry Roberts of MIT an ARPA contract to create a dial-up 1200 bps dataconnection across the country between the TX-2computer at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and a Q-32 computer at System Development Corpora-tion in Santa Monica, California [4]. Theconnection worked, but it established how diffi-cult computer-to-computer connection was andthat there was a need for a more sophisticatednetwork with the proper protocols to supportsuch connections. With Licklider’s encourage-ment, Ivan recruited Robert Taylor of theNational Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA), to become Associate Director of IPTOin1965, and Taylor succeeded Ivan as director in1966. While there, Taylor also recognized theneed for a network, this time to connect themany different computers that were being sup-ported by ARPA so that they could share theirhardware, software, and applications. To managethis effort — which was soon to become the ARPANET — in 1966, Taylor brought in theaforementioned Larry Roberts, to be Chief Sci-entist at IPTO. We shall return to this shortly.

ERGING

HREADS OF

NQUIRY

Like the early wireless pioneers, who had a syn-chronicity in their ideas, there was a similar phe-nomenon at work in the research communitythat generated the underpinnings of the Internettechnology. Across continents, similar early networking ideas were being generated on the eastcoast in Cambridge, on the west coast in SantaMonica, and across the Atlantic in the UnitedKingdom. We refer to these three as the follow-ing: the MIT thread; the RAND thread; and theNational Physical Laboratory (NPL) thread.

The MIT Thread

— I came to MIT in 1957 to pur-sue a master’s degree in electrical engineering. Ihad no intention of ever getting a Ph.D., no planto go into academia, and little confidence that I was cut out to do truly advanced research (I didnot realize that much of the innovative research work was actually done by graduate students). Although my plan was to take a job at MIT Lin-coln Laboratory upon completing my degree, myM.S. supervisor, Professor Frank Reintjes, con- vinced me to stay at MIT and pursue a Ph.D.degree. I decided I would only do so if I were tofind a research topic whose solution would havean impact. So I contacted the legendary MITprofessor, Claude Shannon, who had createdinformation theory and asked to work with him;to my delight, he agreed. However, when Ilooked around at my classmates, I found thatmost of them were working in the area of infor-mation theory, the area in which Shannon hadsolved most of the critical problems. This wasnot for me, because I judged that the remainingproblems were both hard and of relatively littleconsequence. At the same time, having worked