The history of wireless networks and wireless networks go hand in hand. Without the discovery of technology like radio, wireless technology would not exist today. The history of wireless networks dates back to the 19th century with the advent of radio waves. The advent of more technology grew over the years and expanded into what we communicate with today.

In 1888, a physicist born in Hamburg, Germany, named Heinrich Rudolf Herz, produced his first radio wave. In 1894, this production of radio waves became a form of communication. Telegraph wires were used to receive the radio waves as a signal. Herz paved the way for radio, television, and radar with his discovery of electromagnetic waves. An Italian inventor named Marchese Guglielmo Marconi later expanded the sending radius of radio waves to two miles, becoming the “father of radio.” By 1899, this form of telecommunications could travel quite far for its time. Marconi could send a signal 9 miles across the Bristol Channel. He eventually expanded the radius 31 miles across the English Channel to France. By 1901, the communication area became immense. Marconi could send signals across the entire Atlantic Ocean.

World War II became a great springboard for the radio wave. The United States was the first party to use radio waves for data transmission during the war. This use of radio waves could very possibly have won the war for the Americans. The use of data communication by radio waves led to much speculation as to whether radio signals could expand to something larger than it is today. In 1971, a group of researchers led by Norman Abramson at the University of Hawaii created the first “packet-switched” radio communications network called “Alohanet.” Alohanet was the first wireless local area network, also known as WLAN. The first WLAN wasn’t much, but it was a great discovery. The Alohanet WLAN was made up of seven computers that communicated with each other. In 1972, Alohanet connected with the Arpanet WLAN system on the mainland. This length of connection was innovative in telecommunications between computers.

Early types of WLAN technology used an interface that was saturated for communication. Small electrical appliances and industrial machinery caused interference so the technology had to be updated. The second type of WLAN technology to be released ended up being four times faster than its predecessor at 2 Mbps per second. We currently use the third WLAN format, although our current WLAN system works at the same speed as the second system released.

In 1990, the 802.11 Working Group was established to work on a WLAN standard for all computers to communicate. In 1997, IEEE 802.11 was accepted as the standard data communication format for wireless local area networks. Technology continues to grow today. Governments and large corporations are constantly looking for the latest and fastest standard to work with.

The expansion of wireless networks is likely to continue for decades to come.