| The information age, which began its major drive at the beginning of the 1980s with the birth of desktop computing, continues to manifest itself in many ways and presently dominates all aspects of modem technological advances. Personal wireless communication services can be considered a "subset technology" of the information age, but they have also gained importance and visibility over the past 10 years, especially since the beginning of the 1990s. It is predicted that
future technological advancements in the information age will be unprecedented, nd a similar optimistic view is held for wireless personal communications. Over the past few years (since 1994), billions of dollars have been invested all over the world by well-known, technology-driven companies to create the necessary infrastructure for the advancement of wireless technology.
As the thrust into wireless personal communications continues with more advanced and compact technologies, the risks increase of "corrupting" the information provided by such communication services because of various interference scenarios. Although transmission of information through computer networks (LAN, WAN) or through wires (cable, phone, telecommunications) can be affected by interference, many steps could be taken to minimize such problems, since the methods of transmitting the information can be technologically managed. However, in wireless communications, the medium for transmission (free space) is uncontrolled and unpredictable. Interference and other noise problems are not only more prevalent, but much more difficult to solve. Therefore, in parallel with the need to advance wireless communication technology, there is also a great need to decrease, as much as possible, all interference modes that could corrupt the information provided. |
