The Progress in Wireless Data Transport and its Role in the Evolving Internet

Abstract

The progress of wireless technology through the past 105 years is quantitatively reviewed in this paper. Spectral efficiency and coverage density are both found to increase in a relatively continuous exponential fashion over the entire period with spectral efficiency increasing at about 15% per year and coverage density at about 33% per year. Throughput by wireless technology was not found to follow a single exponential but instead followed an exponential with annual increase of only 5% up to the late 70s and since then (and the introduction of the cellular concept) has followed an exponential with annual increases of greater than 50%. These high rates of progress in the functional performance of wireless technology are an essential enabler for wireless interfaces to become the dominant mode for connecting to the Internet.