Posted by Mike Anderson ● Jan 2, 2020 1:21:20 PM

The Evolution of Communication Technology

jason-rosewell-ASKeuOZqhYU-unsplash

It seems that humans never have enough ways to talk to each other. There are those of us that only speak when we have something important to say, and there are others that seem to talk to hear their own voices. We don’t always vocalize our communication either. As Tim Allen reminds us, sometimes a good grunt is worth a thousand words. Regardless of the frequency, quality, or method of our communication, one thing is for sure: as a race, we make a lot of noise.

"Eat here" or "Get Eaten Here?"

The methods and tools that we have used to exchange thoughts and ideas have continuously evolved. eat here or eaten here Some of the changes were made because we needed to communicate different ideas. Cave paintings left a lot to be desired. Were the ancient people that drew picture this trying to tell us ‘eat here’ or were they telling us ‘get eaten here’? You certainly wouldn’t want to be confused about that. Other changes were made simply because new technology became more widely available. 

Building a communication network in the days of the telegraph and telephone primarily involved pulling wires from one location to the next. Then, with the advent of the computer, our words became digital ones and zeros. At first, copper wires worked well enough, but then someone invented this thing we call the Internet, and now we have fiber optic networks, WiFi, and cell towers. 

Building a communication network in the days of the telegraph and telephone primarily involved pulling wires from one location to the next. Then, with the advent of the computer, our words became digital ones and zeros. At first, copper wires worked well enough, but then someone invented this thing we call the Internet, and now we have fiber optic networks, WiFi, and cell towers. 

And even with all of these innovations, we are still changing how we communicate.

Transformative technology... but how does it work?

In today’s modern world, the changes are just as transformative as those that happened thousands of years ago. However, the distinctions between the changes aren’t quite as simple to understand. The technologies are sophisticated, and when you mix in our love of acronyms, it’s no surprise that it is hard to tell the difference between WOCW and WCIS (“words on cave walls” and “words carved in stone”).

Recently due to advances in software design, several new digital communications technologies have been created. Unfortunately, trying to understand these advances based on their names alone is practically impossible. For example, Network Function Virtualization (NFV) might seem to imply a cloud-based technology, but it is actually more like cloning than ‘clouding.’

These new technologies are also very closely related. Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software-Defined Interconnect (SD-IX) are all relatively new and widely misunderstood. To learn more about them, check out our guide linked below.

The way we communicate with each other will continue to evolve. We will continue to see improvements in both how we record our thoughts and how we share them. Perhaps the next developments will help us share concepts that can’t be expressed with language (smell-o-vision?), or maybe we’ll discover how to confer thoughts from mind-to-mind instantly. One thing is for sure - we are certainly going to keep talking.

DOWNLOAD THE GUIDE

Topics: NFV, Use Cases, SDIX

Comments