Comment The question is channels, not bandwidth (Score 1) 315
I checked out the posts to see if anybody had mentioned channels. Granted, I did not read through all 200+ in detail, but I did not see anything.
The problem is not the "bandwidth" of the atmosphere, or the "bands". It is the channels. The more channels that are set up, the more data that can be transmitted. Channels are a key concept, for example, in cell phone technology. When all we had was analog cellular, with a few really big towers, we also only had a few users. Once cellular began to explode, into PCS for example, the question arose: how to accomodate all those users? The creation of digital technologies allowed for more than one call on a particular channel, but there was another solution: just put up more antennas!
Say one antenna can handle ten channels for cellular (actually more, because there are both incoming and outgoing for the full-duplex effect, as well as control channels). That means a max of 10 calls on the one antenna. What happens when call 11 gets initiated? "System busy", OR, the phone simply locks onto another antenna a bit further away. The phone is able to sense what antennas are close and which are further away, and they lock onto the best available choice with a free channel. This erection of extra antennas creates additional channels and divides the coverage area into cells (hence, cellular), which can be very small...picocells, for example, can be the size of a room. (Remind me to post something about hierarchical cell structure one day).
So as long as we have antennas, hooked up to land-line switching offices, we can always add new channels. As long as the world can be divided into cells, ever smaller and smaller, we will never run out of broadcast bandwidth. And any radio signal can be split into cells - even cellular TV, for example.
The problem is not the "bandwidth" of the atmosphere, or the "bands". It is the channels. The more channels that are set up, the more data that can be transmitted. Channels are a key concept, for example, in cell phone technology. When all we had was analog cellular, with a few really big towers, we also only had a few users. Once cellular began to explode, into PCS for example, the question arose: how to accomodate all those users? The creation of digital technologies allowed for more than one call on a particular channel, but there was another solution: just put up more antennas!
Say one antenna can handle ten channels for cellular (actually more, because there are both incoming and outgoing for the full-duplex effect, as well as control channels). That means a max of 10 calls on the one antenna. What happens when call 11 gets initiated? "System busy", OR, the phone simply locks onto another antenna a bit further away. The phone is able to sense what antennas are close and which are further away, and they lock onto the best available choice with a free channel. This erection of extra antennas creates additional channels and divides the coverage area into cells (hence, cellular), which can be very small...picocells, for example, can be the size of a room. (Remind me to post something about hierarchical cell structure one day).
So as long as we have antennas, hooked up to land-line switching offices, we can always add new channels. As long as the world can be divided into cells, ever smaller and smaller, we will never run out of broadcast bandwidth. And any radio signal can be split into cells - even cellular TV, for example.
