Overview:
OK Folks, above is my initial outline. As you can see, there are a lot of topics
to cover in the science and engineering of telecommunications. Once again, I
urge you to explore all of the subjects and topics throughout this website,
because they are so comprehensive and they can all be related toward science
and technology. You may be able to guess at the content here once you have familiarized
yourself with the rest of the content throughout this website. But, as I have
promised throughout, I will try to streamline some of this stuff. I will try
to do the same on this very page. Keep in mind, I am fumbling thousands of topics
in broad theories and generalities, but have narrowed down some interesting
ideas in the summaries. Since this an aerospace website. I will try to relate
much of the information toward space endeavors, and will likely wrap up the
summary section toward space endeavors.
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Signal Processing:
Communications can take on many forms. Morris Code is a series of taps and pulses
that represents letters of the alphabet and some other characters and symbols.
When speaking of signal processing, Morris Code, binary code, and other codes
can be relatively fast and compact when transmitting and deciphering. Voice
and sound processing however, can be more complex. When processing voice and
sound, we have been able to digitally clean and master sound data. I do not
know exactly how this is done, and I will not put too much thought into this.
I will throw out some broad theoretical ideas and fundamental concepts.
First, I will assume you have some understanding of speaker and recording technology. In a nutshell, a speaker reverberates an electro-magnetic signal. So, the human voice can be measured in pitch and frequency, just like any other wave. This is transmitted electrically in pulses. A magnet/electrical relationship is established, and a hardware assembly (your speaker), vibrates producing sound for the human ear. Decibels, hertz, and other measure may be used to describe all the audio ranges that the human ear can hear. As with any electrical and magnetic signals, there may be interference, or static. And, there may be static beyond the audible range. So it makes no sense to package data outside of the audible range. What methods are used are a mystery to me, but I suppose I could figure it out. I will leave this to your discovery. I further suspect that you can eliminate great portions of the audible range, though this could be a quality issue. However, like a movie or computer screen, you can achieve reasonable qualities if you understand how the human mind processes information. When trying to offer global communications and broadband computing technologies to consumers, digital enhancements, compression, and decompression are great technologies. |
Signal Types: Theoretically,
you can use any portion of the electromagnetic spectrum as a signal type.
You want to consider image resolution/data. Another type is photonic or
particle. The next type is percussion transmission. Any of these transmission
can be sent through gain media or dissipated. |
Boosting:
I will tell you another little trick in Computing Technology that I did
not cover under the computing technology section. This concept is stream
parity. I will not cover stream parity computing theory, because the examples
would stretch and I just do not want to put the effort in. I will say
this. Stream parity is a way of testing the integrity of your signal.
So stream testing may be an important factor for a system to make a "decision"
to boost, or make other adjustments to the transmissions. Electrically
boosting a signal, theoretically, is as simple as the technology of hooking
up an amplifier to your electric guitar. So without covering this, I will
impart the need of how this helps in overall communications. If a network
is busy, it may need to make some of the adjustments that I have discussed
here, and in the previous section. Why? Because the satellite and ground
real estate is finite and can be expensive. This is a good lead into the
next section which covers some satellite technologies. There are a few
omni channels as well which I describe under the projects section. |
Satellites:
As I have pointed out in other sections on this website, launching a payload
to orbit may cost roughly around $1-$3 million. Then there is the payload,
or orbiting satellite. The satellite may have some expensive equipment,
and is certainly finite in its abilities. Having said this, if you take
into account computing technology (which is a section on this website),
and the previous sections on this page, a handful of satellites could
theoretically supply global communications as hub transmissions. In addition
to satellite processing power, I suspect that you can simply use satellites
as reflectors, and do all your processing at ground stations and other
relays. Or, you could do a combination. If telecommunications companies
are not doing this, they should be and I bet they will. I also cover lasers
as another possible transmission technique, somewhere on this website
as inline directional communications. I also cover directional antennas
on this site. So, you can use "lasers" and other techniques
for bouncing signals globally. There is also bandwidth techniques. As
I have discussed digitizing technologies, these technologies play a great
role in deciphering allocations on the FCC radio spectrum chart. You may
only have a small sliver to work with, but it is yours! No other signal
is allowed to interfere and there are strict guidelines. Messing with
these signals will have the men in black at your doorstep very quickly
- and they will be in a bad mood. They will drag you away for "questioning",
and they will dismantle your operation - which you have put so much diligent
work into. Luckily, there are other methods of protecting these allocations
which I will not go into. The good news is that computing technologies
have allowed the coding and deciphering of slimmer ranges (within +-4
nanometers). Slimmer ranges mean more companies, more communications,
and more "efficient" data transception. In addition to this,
the telecommunications deregulation of the mid 90s has helped spawn increased
activity in all these areas. A section of the televised chart is slowly
being moved and has been in the works for around 15 years. I cover econ
101 in several sections throughout this website. The point here, as related
to economics, is that deregulation and market competition produces consumer
choice at competitive prices. Communications and satellites are no exception.
The more demand and supply that we have for satellites that aid in communications,
navigation, and more, the more choices you will have in all these areas.
In the space colonization section, I argue that logistical rocketry is
relatively inexpensive. You could shoot additional virtual packages of
radiation that carry information. By casding these packets in resonant
series or through acceleration techniques, you may be able to transmit
signals faster than light. Satellites and rocketry are certainly becoming
more affordable, and launching payloads to space for travel, logistics,
and construction at reasonable costs are what is needed for space colonization.
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Distances:
There are a lot of ways and forms of communications. You can use a pigeon, mail,
or radio. For space travel and global telecommunications, I will concern this
site with radio and light communications. Radio and light communications can
take many forms and have many algorithms of processing computer executions.
For the sake of brevity, I will not delve into this here (this has been covered
previously). What I will discuss briefly, is how time delays are surprisingly
long if communicating with a rover on Mars. When I say long delays, a delay
of several seconds is at the least, "awkward" when communicating with
another person. Folks, light and radio waves travel at tremendous speeds, but
Mars and beyond are tremendous distances. Since I am mostly keeping this site
pragmatic, I have not concerned myself with inter-stellar travel. But, even
our solar system spans great distances, such that traveling the outer reaches
would require a high level of autonomy from ground or base operations. Logistics
would come with some communications, but would have to be planned quite differently
than say, a military supply line. As a quick sci-fi tease, it may be possible
to send communications packets via radio, or hardware into the same worm holes
that spacecraft might utilize to obtain extreme distances of travel in shorter
periods of time. There is a lot of scientific theory that supports warped spacetime,
but I will not cover this any further. In a nutshell, the distances I am speaking
of are fantastic to the point where you begin to speak of distances in terms
of light years. How many light years is the span of our solar system? 1/2 light
years? 5 light years?
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Globalization:
When speaking of space telecommunications, we are dealing with global reach.
I will essentially revisit satellite technology in this section. Modern communications
include land lines, relay towers (cell), and hubs. More and more, these systems
are morphing for broader consumer use, i.e., wireless and satellite communications
for the individual. Less and less, hubs are utilizing ground relays, and are
using satellite relays. On a completely wireless network, there is great technology
that makes the engine run. I have discussed general communications and computing
technology elsewhere throughout this site and will not cover it extensively
here. In a nutshell though, it all comes down to processing power in many forms,
including signal tranception and cryptology technologies. The hardware might
include dishes, radar, lasers, "mirrors", and satellites in various
positions. Satellite positioning needs to take into account "global viewing",
and signal degradation or other interference, including possible refractions.
This of course is simplistic, and many, many factors are considered. And, is
a satellite stationary in the sky, or stationary relative to the sun and earth?
Then there is the concept of renting satellite real estate. So, if you do not
want to build, launch, and maintain your systems, you may be able to rent systems
functions for your needs (if you are a provider). As I have pointed out throughout
this website, we are in the global space and information age. Our last age was
industrialization. So folks, we are undergoing monumental and global shifts,
and the Superhighway is the highway of bandwidth, science, math, engineering,
technology, information, computing, and space travel. I simply leave the definition
of our current age to the Space and Information Age.
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Deregulation:
topics on this website, I discuss econ 101. Folks, we have to have an understanding
of what fuels economies, consumerism, products, goods, services, choice, and
supply and demand. It is not government regulations, bailouts, expenditures,
programs, and entitlements. Government is the worst financier you ever met!
Unless you can not walk, you do not want to be on the government dole, and even
then, many respectable economists would argue that private charities, churches,
and organizations can better deal with severe human social issues and health.
I tend to agree. This society is over regulated and over taxed. We can not tax
and regulate our way to prosperity. Why then is the government so burdensome?
Many of them are elitists who think they can spend your money better than you.
Ultimately, the government grows and pays itself well, while administering regulations
that hurt business development, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Folks, businesses
know how to run businesses - not government. And when businesses don't know
how to run business, the market takes corrective action. Every once in a while,
we the people upset the system and get folks in office that are hardliners and
visionaries. JFK, Reagan, and the Republican Congress of the mid 90s are examples
of those that set out great and inspiring agendas, while divorcing government
from the people. These folks do not see a general welfare clause in the Constitution
as a ticket to take care of you from cradle to grave. They do not come up with
wild interpretations of the constitution to seize more power. They understand
that the constitution spells out what the government can and can not do, not
what the people can and can not do. They have an understanding of the pre-constitutional
writings that capture the essence of the constitution and of our founding. They
understood that we had revolution because of high taxes and big unrepresentative
government. Why is a basic understanding of this so important? For starters,
I have shown only basic support for NASA (as an example), and only as a historical
institution, and as a center for public information. Heck, NASA should probably
become a museum like the Smithsonian and step aside for private endeavors to
take the rings. As this website is developed, we may be astonished at the private
endeavors taking place. I will not say too much more about deregulation, but
many reputable economists will argue that history offers empirical evidence
of government failure, over and over again.
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Military:
Folks, a strong national defense is one of those items enumerated in the constitution.
This means that we have allowed our government to fund military operations for
the cause of free people, free markets, and free enterprise. Our policy normally,
is defensive, and at home. We do however maintain global interests. In recent
times, our government has shifted some policy because of extraordinary circumstances.
I will not cover policy here, nor will I offer any opinions. This website is
chiefly concerned with private enterprise and spaceflight. Having said this,
national defense has produced some amazing technologies which we do cover extensively
throughout this site. I will discuss some achievements in aviation in our own
military, and some other global achievements. Though I perpetuate the ideas
of free enterprise, I will likely discuss successes of some agencies, but I
will discuss these achievements in historical context. This means that agencies
are not the best solution to spaceflight, but were spawned because of historical
circumstances. As far as military communications technology, you can bet they
use all of the technologies that I have discussed here and other technologies
discussed throughout this site. In fact, DARPA arguably invented internet communications.
Our military has its share of analysts, engineers, and technicians.
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Civilian:
Though the above section points out our military's achievements in technology,
I believe they are lacking in many areas of science, after all, a military is
designed to break things and fight wars. Aside from analysts, intel gathering,
engineering, communications, and combat training, our military may be deficient
in some other areas that we in the private sector take for granted. Keep in
mind that the role of our military is to fight and win wars and not study ecology,
economics, science, etc. This is broad and there are exceptions. We have seen
the military from time to time offer civilian support including the corps of
engineers. But ultimately, when it comes to these other areas, they rely on
policy and leadership. It is our government's responsibility to shape policy
based on national interests which may take into account economics, science,
ecology, etc. Having said this, the government, and hence the military, rely
on private enterprise and citizenry to do what we do every day. Ultimately the
people and free enterprise are the best innovators. We typically are not under
the same strains and stresses. Though I often feel battle bruised, I am not
on the front line in combat. So I am able to focus on some of the technologies
that make society a little better. When I am not working, I am learning new
technologies as frequently as possible.
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Internet:
As I have pointed out in the previous military section, DARPA arguably invented
the internet in an era that required thought in new communications technology.
The idea was roughly LAN, or local area networking. Of course, I am sure they
were aware of some broad implications of their research and implementations,
but for the sake of development, like anything, you start with a few concepts
and role with it. If you really want to know what makes information technology
tick, visit my section on computing technology which covers fundamentals and
theory in computing and information technology. The internet after all, is but
one implementation of computing and information technology. The internet in
a simple definition, utilizes a programming language that your ISP or server
and browser uses to transmit and display a webpage. HTML or XML is the language
of the internet. Other languages may be incorporated on the administrative and
developer side, but for the most part, any body can learn HTML, sign up with
a provider, publish your HTML, and view your webpage and layout in cyberspace.
As with any topic on this website, this is a simplification, but for the sake
of brevity, I have tried to offer a reasonable and easily understandable description
of what the internet is. This basic understanding is also a peak at communications
technology. As an example, for military purposes, I could write dedicated software
that would be for military purposes only. I could develop a new language and
new transmission protocol. It would be as secure as the holders. If you read
my cryptology section, you may conclude communications are just as easily transmitted
securely with existing technologies, and that you need not invent yet another
language - but you could!
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Summary:
In many summaries throughout this website, and throughout many of the sections,
I proclaim that we are in the Space and Information Age, and that our previous
age was Industrialization, and the one before that was Agricultural. Yes folks,
this is quite a stance. If I am correct, then this means society will undergo,
and is undergoing a paradigm shift. Historically speaking, when we undergo such
shifts, there are a lot of bumps and hurdles to overcome. I look at computer
code constantly and have read of some of the changes taking place or that will
take place. So if my code is not working on a system, please let me know of
any bugs. You hear of obsolescence in computers and computing, just as you do
with many technologies. I think enough developers however are finally making
significant headway with Microsoft, Apple, and some of the other giants. So
hopefully we are coming to agreements in this new age that will make it less
bumpy. I think the same can be said for space endeavors. One of my arguments
throughout this website is that a true space colonization effort would have
to consider some standards such as airlocks and logistics to move people and
goods among capsules, vessels, and super structures.
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Pic Group:FOLDER: communications
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