Technologies for global communications

Some of the technological breakthroughs underlying today´s global communication are reviewed, and the relationship between business needs and the evolution and revolution of telecommunications technology is discussed. The introduction of trans-Atlantic transmission cables and the advent of satellite transmission are described. The role of photonics in reducing transport cost and improving quality and the development of information storage and processing techniques that use various voice and video applications to take advantage of this processing power are outlined. The development of global intelligent networks consisting of a distributed switching fabric with both the local switches and the long distance/international gateway switches interconnected and communicating among themselves with standardized common channel signaling protocols and the applications of such networks are also reviewed.<>