Advances in packet radio technology

Packet radio (PR) is a technology that extends the application of packet switching which evolved for networks of point-to-point communication lines to the domain of broadcast radio. It offers a highly efficient way of using a multiple access radio channel with a potentially large number of mobile subscribers to support computer communication and to provide local distribution of information over a wide geographic area. We discuss the basic concepts of packet radio in this paper and present the recent technology and system advances in this field. Various aspects of spread spectrum transmission in the network environment are identified and our experience with a testbed network in the San Francisco Bay area is discussed.