Wireless and Mobile Device Security, 2nd Edition

From Wired to Wireless

The networking industry began to grow in the 1980s and exploded in the 1990s, with the culmination of affordable PCs and the growing popularity of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Already on an incredible trajectory in the late 1990s, the industry benefited from another boost in the form of wireless networking—and there was another even bigger boost to come.

This “second wave” of networking was initially made possible as a result of a groundbreaking decision by the U.S. regulatory body in charge of telecommunication rules, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)—the opening of several bands (contiguous ranges of radio frequencies) of the radio spectrum for unlicensed use in 1985. This was a big change, given that ...