provide unique opportunities for the application of microwave systems. The following considerations can be useful in practice:Antenna gain is proportional to the electrical size of the antenna. At higher frequencies, more antenna gain can be obtained for a given physical antenna size, and thishas important consequences when implementing microwave systems.More bandwidth (directly related to data rate) can be realized at higher frequencies.A 1% bandwidth at 600 MHz is 6 MHz, which (with binary phase shift keyingmodulation) can provide a data rate of about 6 Mbps (megabits per second), whileat 60 GHz a 1% bandwidth is 600 MHz, allowing a 600 Mbps data rate.Microwave signals travel by line of sight and are not bent by the ionosphere as arelower frequency signals. Satellite and terrestrial communication links with very highcapacities are therefore possible, with frequency reuse at minimally distant locations.The effective reflection area (radar cross section) of a radar target is usually proportional to the target’s electrical size. This fact, coupled with the frequency characteristics of antenna gain, generally makes microwave frequencies preferred for radarsystems.Various molecular, atomic, and nuclear resonances occur at microwave frequencies,creating a variety of unique applications in the areas of basic science, remote sensing, medical diagnostics and treatment, and heating methods.The majority of today’s applications of RF and microwave technology are to wireless networking and communications systems, wireless security systems, radar systems,environmental remote sensing, and medical systems. As the frequency allocations listedin Figure 1.1 show, RF and microwave communications systems are pervasive, especiallytoday when wireless connectivity promises to provide voice and data access to “anyone,anywhere, at any time.”Modern wireless telephony is based on the concept ofcellular frequency reuse, a technique first proposed by Bell Labs in 1947 but not practically implemented until the 1970s.By this time advances in miniaturization, as well as increasing demand for wireless communications, drove the introduction of several early cellular telephone systems in Europe,the United States, and Japan. The Nordic Mobile Telephone(NMT) system was deployedin 1981 in the Nordic countries, the Advanced Mobile Phone System(AMPS) was introduced in the United States in 1983 by AT&T, and NTT in Japan introduced its first mobilephone service in 1988. All of these early systems used analog FM modulation, with theirallocated frequency bands divided into several hundred narrow band voice channels. Theseearly systems are usually referred to now asfirst-generationcellular systems, or 1G.Second-generation(2G) cellular systems achieved improved performance by usingvarious digital modulation schemes, with systems such as GSM, CDMA, DAMPS, PCS,and PHS being some of the major standards introduced in the 1990s in the United States,Europe, and Japan. These systems can handle digitized voice, as well as some limited data,with data rates typically in the 8 to 14 kbps range. In recent years there has been a widevariety of new and modified standards to transition to handheld services that include voice,texting, data networking, positioning, and Internet access. These standards are variouslyknown as 2.5G, 3G, 3.5G, 3.75G, and 4G, with current plans to provide data rates up to atleast 100 Mbps. The number of subscribers to wireless services seems to be keeping pacewith the growing power and access provided by modern handheld wireless devices; as of2010 there were more than five billion cell phone users worldwide.Satellite systems also depend on RF and microwave technology, and satellites have beendeveloped to provide cellular (voice), video, and data connections worldwide. Two largesatellite constellations, Iridium and Globalstar, were deployed in the late 1990s to provideworldwi
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