Introduction to Wireless Systems

This chapter presents a brief overview of wireless communications and cellular phone systems to lay the foundation for discussing the book's remaining chapters. It covers the basic functional blocks of a wireless communication system, radio systems classifications, radio transceivers of wireless systems, cellular phone systems including first‐generation (1G), second‐generation (2G), third‐generation (3G), fourth‐generation (4G), and fifth‐generation (5G) New Radio wireless technologies. Wireless technology was first introduced in 1901 when Guglielmo Marconi successfully achieved the first transatlantic communication. Cellular phones are the most widely used wireless systems because they enable users to connect to the standard telephone systems, support sending text messages, checking email, accessing the Internet, finding a location, and taking high‐resolution photos. The 2G technology supported basic data services such as short message services.