The Science Behind Wi-Fi and Internet - Youth Are Awesome
From browsing the internet to running complex simulations, Wi-Fi is the key component that connects our devices to the digital world in the modern day. Its ability to seamlessly connect to our devices and the ease of use often causes us to take the technology for granted. However, the history behind the development of […]
From browsing the internet to running complex simulations, Wi-Fi is the key component that connects our devices to the digital world in the modern day. Its ability to seamlessly connect to our devices and the ease of use often causes us to take the technology for granted. However, the history behind the development of Wi-Fi is very fascinating, and the technology as a whole is highly sophisticated. In this blog post, we will be taking a deep dive into the key aspects of Wi-Fi, what Wi-Fi is, the history of Wi-Fi and the future of the technology with the advent of artificial intelligence and the discovery of new processes. What is Wi-Fi and the InternetSimply put, Wi-Fi is a wireless technology that uses electromagnetic waves to establish connections between devices wirelessly and send data back and forth between them. Contrary to popular belief, Wi-Fi and the internet are not the same thing. They are two different components that your internet provider, through the router, uses to connect your devices to the internet. Here is the premise of how this process works. The internet is a giant web of cables, in which data is transferred, that links computers, servers and websites all around the world. A device called the modem brings internet signals from your internet provider into your router, which is connected to the modem. Then the router, using its antennas, transmits those signals in the form of electromagnetic waves at a certain frequency (wirelessly using Wi-Fi) or using wires to your devices (ethernet cables). The History of the Internet and Wi-FiThe internet first began in the 1960s in the project ARPANET, where the U. S. military linked computers through cables. Later, scientists and engineers made new technological advancements, which led to the World Wide Web (WWW) in the 1990s, making the internet easy to use for the public with websites, links and browsers. Before the World Wide Web, computers were solely used for offline tools like typing, calculating and running small games. Before the development of Wi-Fi, devices connected to the internet using physical Ethernet cables that were plugged directly into the router or modem, which hindered the mobility of computer users. In 1985, the U. S. The Federal Communications Commission opened up certain radio wave bands to unlicensed public use, leading to the development of Wi-Fi. After years of research and development with radio waves, the first wireless networking standard, 802. 11, was released in 1997 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, with a speed of just 2 Mbps. To put that into comparison, the average internet download speed today in Canada is 255 Mbps. The term “Wi-Fi” and an upgraded standard that was available for consumer and household use were established in 1999. As more and more technological companies and consumers showed interest in the Wi-Fi technology, it led to numerous research studies in the field, causing the development of newer versions with faster speeds. Future of Wi-Fi and the InternetWith the development of Wi-Fi 8 ongoing, scientists and researchers aim to move toward ultra-fast speeds, reducing lags and latencies and use artificial intelligence to optimize resources used by the technology. Sources:1,2