History of Digital Communication - Research Paper Example

Running Head: Digital Communication HISTORY OF DIGITAL COMMUNICATION (T1) of Institute] Digital communication is the backbone of today's information age and it is because of this field that new technologies have emerged and even further innovations are been carried out. This objective of this paper is to highlight the history of digital communication and then further specifying the T1 technologies history. This paper is divided into five sections, in the first section executive summary is given, then in the second section digital communication and T1 are briefly discussed. In the third section, elaborated history of digital communication and T1 is given then further in the forth section, Digital communication in today's world in discussed and finally in the last section conclusion is given. This paper is adopting a secondary research methodology, i.e. all the data collected have been from published articles, magazines, books, journals and newspaper articles. Key Words: History, Digital Communication, T1, Data Transmission and Technological Improvements. Executive Summary Digital communication is the transfer or transmission of data from point to another and it is generally encoded digitally and this form of communication was first emerged in 1920's but its presence was there since the establishment of general communication. Since its emergence new technologies have been seen in the world. Basically the history of digital communication revolves around the three basic networks, i.e. computer, telephone and Cable TV. T1 similarly, emerged in 1960's during the digital upheaval in the roots of the U.S telephone network. But now it is used irresistible for data broadcasting. It is due to the telephone companies that T1 exists in this world. Due to the continuous improvements in technology of Digital communication, new communication systems emerged as some of the major today's digital communication systems includes GSM, iDEN, CDMA and others. In general this research paper includes the history of digital communication and T1 and the main components included in this report is the description of digital communication and T1, its application. This report explains and emphasizes how different people contributed in this field and brought new revolutions and new technologies and how it is being used in the present situation. Digital Communication Digital Communication is also known as data transmission in which the data is physically transferred through a communication channel, i.e. point-to- point or point-to-multipoint. The data transmitted during this communication process are electro-magnetic signals such as microwave signals, electrical voltage signals or infra-red signals, while copper wires, optical fibers, wireless communication, storage media are the most common communication channels used. When data is being transmitted, it mostly uses digital messages which are originated from mostly a computer or a keyboard. Digital communication or data transmission is a sub field from data communications, and also has a strong background with telecommunications and electrical engineering. T1 T1 is also known as DS1, is a T-carrier signaling scheme which was developed by Bell Labs and is mainly used to transmit voice and data between different devices. It is mostly used in telecommunication departments in North America and Japan. T1 is defined as a mean that carries multiple voice and involves data conversion in a single line in a full duplex (transmission method that involves that transmits and receive the information at the same time) synchronous data transmission technique where the data is transmitted at an aggregate speed of 1.544 Mbps. The T1 circuit is made up of twenty four 8 bit channel, in whicj each cannel comprises of 64 kbits/s carrier circuits. History of Digital Communication Digital communication has been used since the advent of communication, when data was transmitted through non-electrical means such as optical and mechanical. The real communication started in the nineteenth century and this century holds great importance because it was this time period when radio, wire line telegraph, telephone electricity and electromagnetism were invented. But the real milestone in the digital communication started since 1820's when Oersted for the first time showed electrical currents and thus those currents created magnetic fields. Since this discovery, major others contributed in field of digital communication and the real process started. In 1830-40, Henry further studied Oersted's discovery and he discovered induction, in the same era Faraday and others detected the changing magnetic fields produce electric fields. Then various telegraphs were demonstrated in the year 1834-42. Then later after two years, i.e. in 1944 Morse Commercial telegraph was made from Baltimore to Washington. In this same century, Maxwell published his Theory of Electromagnetism. His theory gained a lot of publicity but on the same time he also faced a lot of criticism. Some other major milestones in the 19th century were the first permanent transatlantic telegraph in 1866, first telephone exchange installed by Graham Bell in 1878 in Canada. 20th century also started with a new beginning pace, and so in 1901 Marconi set the first radio message from United Kingdom to Canada. He had been working previously on this project too as first he had demonstrated radio over significant distances. But Marconi's this invention set new standards for the others and hence the first modern radio was broadcasted by KDKA, Pittsburgh. In the same year amplitude modulated (AM) signals were developed and then in 1930 Frequency Modulation (FM) invention were made by Armstrong. The FM invention was another step towards electromagnetic communication including the bandwidth and the energy trade-off. Armstrong discovered that FM was much better off than as compared to AM because FM had better transmitting power. During the 1920-30 TV system demonstrations were made by many in which two were the major contributors, i.e. Baird demonstrated the Mechanical TV system in London in 1925 and in 1929 Zworykin demonstrated the electronic TV system. All the efforts were made fruitful when in year 1936, British Broadcasting Company Broadcasted the Commercial TV in London. Digital communication was opened to new technologies and innovations day by day, as radar was used for the first time in 1940 but the early construction of computers were the real discovery in the history of digital communication. These early computers were basically the proofs of sampling theorem and they were not at all same as what personal computers we use today in our homes but these early computers were huge and difficult to use and the signal space theory was applied in the means of communication. Later till 1955 computer software's and microwave long- haul transmissions were invented at the beginner's stage. After the success in the invention of computers, digital communication switched to a new road of communication, i.e. the invention of telephone cable in 1953. Later low-loss optical fibers were demonstrated in 1970, microprocessors appeared, large scale integrated circuits emerged and there was rapid development in image digitization. Later digital telephone trunks were installed and bandwidth efficient modulations were also discovered. Later in 1980, digital optical fiber telephone trunks also started to be installed. Then later in 1990, mobile telephones became widespread in the Europe and later in 1992, which is not far from today the first digital mobile telephone system (GSM) began in Europe. With this inventory the telecommunication sector boomed. 1 To conclude the digital communication, it can be stated that digital communication history carries three main networks, i.e. telephone, computer and cable TV. Graham Bell started the innovation in 1876 in the telephone network, which further positioned from simple circuit switching to service integration in 1990's, where voice network started carrying data traffic. While, the computer networks emerged in 1969 which dealt only serial communication. The features in this network communication were to transmit and transfer data from computer to peripheral devices (such as printer and fax), from one computer to the other computer, forward the transmissions to other multiple computers and also use statistical multiplexing. In 1970's multi access communication started which not only reduced costs of the local interconnects but also elaborated the field of IT as Ethernet, Token Ring, ATM and other new technologies were introduced in the global market. 1990's brought new revolution as World Wide Web was developed which included multimedia application but also brought real-time traffic. Then, after 2000's wireless network developed which lead to fast wireless access at a better speed and with minimum wastage of time. Wi-Fi is one of the fast wireless accesses which are used today in the 21st century. Since then the communication is setting new standards. Cable TV networks history emerged from the CaTV, i.e. Community Antenna TV in 1940's where the signals where transmitted from the TV antenna to other receivers and the bandwidth of analog NTSC was 4.5 MHz but later in 1990's digital TV emerged which had a bandwidth of 1.5 M bits/sec. and then later in 2000's cable was used to provide internet cable and other telephone services. 2 Digital communication is a modern field of data communication and this field has gained so much popularity that now digital communication system is basic backbone of information age. So due to this in the 21st century new technologies are emerging and all these technologies involve digital communication as the most basic tool or ingredient. Because digital communication is not only used in computer technology but now digital communication is creating links between aircrafts and they will be used to create new software's for improvement in providing all air-traffic facilities. Also the top telecommunication companies are using optical fibers and 0's and 1's of digital communication technologies. And now recently this same communication process is used in the new technologies like robots' and others. History of T1 T1 has already been mentioned above; it involves digital transmission and can be labeled as a further subset of digital communication. This concept was discovered in the late 1920's by Harry Nyquist. He concluded that when an analog signal is sampled it can be represented in the digital format and then later it can be converted back to its original form. He also discovered that an analog signal must be sampled at the highest frequency (generally twice) as compared to the analog signal. According to Nyquist's theorem, that an analog signal must be digitized to a minimum sampling rate of 8000 samples/sec. but the basic development of T1 emerged in the early 1960's when AT& T introduced this technology, this technology was initiated to control the problem of space restriction in the central offices, i.e. with the new phone line the telephone company needed pair of wires not only for new site but also for the central office. So with the emergence of T1a more efficient system was set up without causing increase in number of wires. In 1970's -1980's provided private facility services to the telecommunication sector and other major respective sectors and industries. In the same time period different telecommunication companies started to offer private T1 facility services. This innovation not only leads to a decline in T1 tariffs but got access to reliable data communication. In 1885 AT&T invented a long distance network and started its operation in New York but its services extended in 1892 when it started in Chicago as well and then later to San Francisco in 1915. Then later in late 1980's telecommunication companies offered Digital Access Cross-Connect Systems (DACS) services. This technology benefitted the end users as now they had to pay only local co to local customer premises. Due to this he would pay a low monthly tariff and could also benefit by increasing his services to a later date if required. 3 Digital Communication in Today's Era Digital Communication is a productive tool for businesses, and its implication and application in the business world today is benefitting not only businesses but also individuals, government and the overall world where the technology is boosting up because of this tool. In 2008 a study was carried out which concluded that digital communication technology helps in treating personalized therapies. According to the study two biological model systems were tested in which effective drug combination were identified if the algorithm (used in the digital technology) and the biological tests are combined together.4Apart from the basic benefits, digital communication has gained so much popularity that now it has been taught in variety of universities as a separate course because this tool is used in not only engineering side but is the base for telecommunication and information technology. Improvements in the digital communication benefit the telecommunication services as not only the demand increases but also subscribers' waiting list reduces and thereby leading to the improvement in the mean of communication. Zimbabwe is one of those countries who replaced the switching machines with the digital ones in its 2 provinces and also install new optical-fiber transmission routes in some telephone exchanges for catering to the telephone demand and also improving its quality service. This project report was presented in 2001 but other developed countries have already implemented this new improvement in their communication process long back while the developing countries are in process to completely implement it. The efficiency of digital communication has been increasing at a faster rate, but it is also leading to an increase in overuse. In the beginning when email was initially launched, its service was fast, efficient, and quick and relatively much better off than as compared to other communication median, i.e. mail, faxes and internal memo. But now thus service has encountered a major problem, spam, i.e. bombardment of mails. Due to this it is stated that in 2009, an average office employee checks their inbox more than 50 times and they waste approximately 2 hours daily in this activity. Therefore excessive use of digital communication should be discouraged aiming the individuals, organizations and employees as they should be encouraged to emphasize on the quality of digital communication not quantity, e.g. discourage mass mailing, motivation of the employees and switching of median. Simultaneously, T1 technology is also gaining advantage and seeking popularity day by day. As T1 circuits are today's key elements in the electrical operations, cell site communication facilities, 911 call centers and for other emergency communication. The basic innovation behind T1 technology was to provide was to provide a digital form of voice communication channel with respect to different analog channels. T1 digital system is used by both the electric power industry and the telephone system today. Some of the most common application of T1 digital networking technology is its cell site data backhaul, ISDN Primary Rate Interface (PRI) access, Frame Relay Technology, DSU/CSU Access and T1 access through T1 routers. Due to this, T1 is becoming an important in improved substation Energy Management Systems (EME) functions. Keeping the benefits aside some major challenges are also faced as some energy sources cause equipment damage, damage to circuit wiring because T1 circuits are mostly installed and exposed in extraneous energy sources. Due to this, wire line isolation equipment are installed, supported T1 configuration should be made which deal with Standalone units (751228 or 751228A four wire standalone unit), plug in circuits cards (751329, 751329A four-wire card, 7501-06A or 7501-06b two wire card) multiple slot shelves (751101, 751109, 751112 or 751127 model shelves and other two and four wire circuit cards). This would lead to less downtime in circuits and cost would be saved as there would be less damage to the equipment and also personnel injury by GPR events. Further these are more reliable, affordable circuits which lead to the further growth and improvements. Both with the help of Digital communication in general and T1 technological advancements have leaded to various success stories for entire industries. Conclusion The milestone of digital communication from the 1920's century to the present date has been tremendous successful. The setting of the base of the this communication system was difficult but since it has established this communication mean is gaining world-wide popularity and it is helping in setting a new world for a better tomorrow. T1 which is the subset of Digital communication emerged during the same time period as of digital communication has also been set on successful grounds. Since its emergence, new and improved versions of T1 are been formed, but it can be stated that different contributors, especially AT&T had set the base for future improvement in the digital Communication. References John B. Anderson, 2005. Digital Transmission Engineering, pg 2-4, Accessed on 27th, April, 2009 from http://books.google.com/booksid=VW7_F8qBsEUC&pg=PA2&dq=%22history+of+digital+communication%22#PPA3,M1 Sergion D. Servetto, n.d. Digital Communication over Packet-Switching Networks. Pg:11-15, Accessed on 27th, April, 2009 from http://72.14.235.132/searchq=cache:r-iPuvdR-FEJ:cn.ece.cornell.edu/teaching/fall2005ug/lectures/lecture01.pdf+history+of+digital+communication&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk Mathew Gast, 2001, T1:A Survival Guide, pg: 1-5. Accessed on April, 28th, 2009 from http://books.google.com/booksid=n4p4WLJXWc8C&pg=PA1&dq=history+of+t1&lr=#PPA2,M1 Giovanni Paternostro, 2008, Digital Communication Technology Helps Clear Path To Personalized Therapies, PLoS Computational Biology. Accessed on April, 30th, 2009 from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090109125634.htm Read More