1 From Smoke Signals to the Internet: The History of Communications Infrastructures Randy H. Katz UMC Distinguished Professor Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Dept. University of California, Berkeley © 2000

2 History of Communications The Dream Early state-sponsored R&D Creative destruction Scientific discoveries to practical application Brilliant inventors and large corporations The legal system

3 Presentation Outline Communications in Antiquity Napoleon’s Secret Weapon “What Hath God Wrought?” “Look, No Wires!” “Mr. Watson, Come Here. I need you!” Broadcast Entertainment: Radio and TV “When Wizards Stayed up Late”

4 Muscle 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— miles per day “Poste Haste”— “Fast Post” —riders signal by horns

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6 Visual Communications Heliographs Flags

7 Fire Beacons 150 BC: Polybius A B C D E F G H IJ K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

8 The Optical Telegraph Claude Chappe, Early Defense Contractor

9 Emergence of a Network

10 Scientific 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?”

11 The Electrical Telegraph Wheatstone and Cooke Railroad Telegraph 1837

12 Samuel Morse Morse Code 1837

13 Dots 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)

14 Dots and Dashes Span The Globe Communications “arms” race Strategic necessity: circumventing the tyranny of the telegraph lines owned by nation states

15 Scientific Background James Clerk Maxwell ( ) "... 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." Heinrich Hertz ( ) –1880s: Demonstrated wave character of electrical transmission in space

16 Wireless Telegraphy Guglielmo Marconi

17 Wireless and Warfare

18 The Zimmermann Telegram 16 Jan 1917, Foreign Minister Zimmermann to Ambassador in Washington: “We make Mexico a proposal of alliance on the following basis: make war together, make peace together, generous financial support, and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.”

19 The Telegraph Learns to Speak Alexander Graham Bell

20 Bell’s Early Telephones

21 Building the Network Almon Brown Strowger ( )

22 “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

23 Bell Telephone Equipment

24 Making the Airwaves Sing John Fleming ( ) Lee DeForest ( )

25 Scientific Genius of Radio Edwin Howard Armstrong

26 Commercial Genius of Radio David Sarnoff and RCA

27 Early Comms Devices

28 Seeing at a Distance: Television John Logie Baird

29 Electrical/Mechanical Systems

30 Forgotten Genius of Television Philo T. Farnsworth

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32 Vladimir K. Zworykin

33 Packet Switching Paul Baran Donald Davies ARPANet

34 ARPANet Becomes Internet Robert Kahn & Vint Cerf

35 What Comes Next? Deregulation Convergence Divergence

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