Home   Learning Computing History

Data Communication
 

Up

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Brief History of Data Communication

Data Communications is the means by which our evolving culture has implemented & innovated an exchange of intelligence in our society.  It has always been and continues to be the dominant force that dictates the way we live and do business.

 Data communications history reflects a blend of histories, including the history of the telecommunications industry, the history of data communications and the history of the Internet.

The Evolution of Data Communication

 Telecommunications:

  • 1837 - Samuel Morse exhibited a working telegraph system
  • 1843 - The first telegraph lines were opened in between Paddington and Slough by the Great Western Railway
  • 1846 - Alexander Bain patented printing telegraph
  • 1876 - Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone
  • 1895 - Guglielmo Marconi invented radio
  • 1901 - First Trans-Atlantic signal
  • 1926 - John Logi Baird gave the first demonstration of the television
  • 1951 - First direct long distance dialing without an operator
  • 1958 - The US launched its first communications satellite
    • It formed part of an early warning radar system
    • First international satellite telephone call by 1962
  • 1962 - Faxing service was introduced
  • 1968 - AT&T and Bell Telephone Company had controlled the US-Telephone System
  • 1983 - Introduction of cell phones
  • 1984 - AT&T was split into 2-parts
  • 1996 - Deregulation Act: 
    • U.S. Congress enacted the Telecommunications Act
    • Replaced all the current laws and FCC regulations

From the invention of the telegraph in 1837, the telephone in 1877 & wireless/radio technologies in 1895, communication proliferations have set the stage for modern communications as we know it. 

Data Communications:

  • 1940 - Bell Laboratories began experimenting with a communications system using the COMPLEX computer.  This was the forerunner of the teletypewriter
  • 1947 - Transistor invented in Bell Labs
  • 1950s - Computer systems used batch processing with discrete files
  • 1954 - IBM Remote Job Entry (RJE); it allowed a terminal to forward records to a host computer and receive reports back
  • 1960 - AT&T Bell Labs 300 Baud Modem (MOdulator/DEModulator)
  • 1960s - Data Communication across telephone lines became more commonplace
  • 1969 - Internet started by the US DoD as a network of 4 computers known as ARPANET (American Research Project Agency network)
  • 1976 - Introduction of Packet-Switched service (X.25, Frame Relay, ATM, SMDS)
  • 1980 - Public service of digital networks (ISDN)
  • 1984 - ARPANET became more commonly known as the Internet

 

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, networks were not designed to allow users on different networks to share information and resources.  Several groups began developing the concept of internetworking, which allowed computers on different networks to connect and exchange information.  

The Internet:

  • 1974 - Microcomputer revolution
  • 1983 - Internet split into 2-parts:
    • Milnet - devoted to military network
    • Internet - devoted to the university research
  • 1989 - Internet and CA*Net massed in great numbers - 200,000 servers combined
  • 1990 - All networks around the world joined together as a worldwide network of networks
  • 1990s – Usage density grows rapidly
    • Commercial networks began connecting to both NSFNET and CA*Net
    • More than 60 percent of all U.S. PCs are networked (i.e. LANs)
  • 1992 - More than 1 million servers on the Internet
  • 1994 - Status of the Internet:
    • Almost 4 million servers on the Internet
    • Commercialization of the Internet begins rapid growth
  • 1995 - Commercialization continues at a rapid pace
    • 6.5 million  Hosts, 100,000 WWW Sites
    • NSFNET reverts back to a research network. Main US backbone traffic now routed through interconnected network providers (TLA’s)
    • WWW surpasses FTP data in March as the service with greatest traffic on NSFNET based on packet count, and in April based on byte count
    • Traditional online dial-up systems (CompuServe, AOL & Prodigy) begin to provide Internet access
    • A number of Net related companies go public, with Netscape leading the pack
    • Registration of domain names is no longer free
    • Technologies of the Year: WWW & Search engines (WAIS development)
    • Microsoft enters the arena, Windows 95 essentially puts the Internet at millions of desktops
    • The WWW browser war begin
      • Microsoft Internet Explorer vs. Netscape Navigator)
      • Software development cycles shorten due to the greater pool of beta users
      • Software development cycles shorten due to the greater pool of beta users
    • 12.8 million Hosts, 500,000 WWW Sites.
    • Internet phones catch the attention of US telecommunication companies
      • They ask the US Congress to ban the technology (which has been around for years)
      • Clearly a case of anti-competitiveness from the Telecom industry
  • 1997 - What Next?
    • 19,5 million Hosts, 1 million WWW sites, 71,618 Newsgroups.
    • International agreement signed by 68 countries to reduce regulation in TC markets
    • Beginning with the telegraph in the 1840’s,  Electronic Data Communications have greatly sped up the transmission rate of information
    • Information that took days or weeks to transmit during the 1700’s could be transmitted in minutes or hours by the 1900’s
    • Today, telecommunications networks transmit huge quantities of information in a fraction of a second.

In fact, the growth of telecommunications and especially computer networks have been the strongest contributor to the globalization phenomenon we are experiencing today.

 
Last modified: 2004 December 5