Radio communications: components, systems, and networks [Series Editorial]

Computer networking in the 1970s and 1980s meant exactly that: interconnecting large timesharing systems to exchange information, principally email and files. As computing became more pervasive, however, it ultimately resulted in the personal data devices we carry around with us (also known as smartphones), and networking moved from a computer-centric focus to a people-centric focus. By some estimates, more than 3 billion people today, or about 40 percent of the world???s population, are connected to the global Internet in one way or another. Clearly, the majority of these users must be networked via their personal devices; for most people the Internet represents a direct personal communications facility rather than anything to do with a ???computer??? in the traditional sense of the word.