The Wireless Medium and the Three Wireless Technologies for Communication

Before delving into the three technologies deployed for communication in wireless networks, it is important for you to understand the basis of the wireless medium—air—as a dielectric and as a medium for transport of electromagnetic disturbances. Air is a lossy conductor of electromagnetic waves, and there is heavy attenuation of an electric signal as it propagates through free space. This loss can be attributed to the following reasons:

  • Air is a bad conductor of electromagnetic disturbances, and air is not a good waveguide. This means that there is no confinement of the signal from source to destination during propagation. Note that a waveguide is a physically confined ...

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