OVERVIEW

Evolution or progression of any given technology is very often a product of extending currently understood methods to new and more effective capabilities rather than break-through inventions. Once technology is available, methodology evolves and progresses as well. It s quite safe (mundane too) but logical to conclude that methodology doesn t improve until technology is available for mankind to figure out how to improve the way it s used. Sometimes technology can t be well understood until after it can be used or experienced.

Simply cupping the hands together around the mouth and shouting results in directing sound through the air in a more focused way, increasing the distance of travel. Alexander Bell connected a concoction of carbon in series with another and a battery and wire to extend the distance sound could be carried. This is another example of how technology and methods continually evolve from the imaginations of some to meet the needs and wants of many. Modern communications networks those dependent on electrical current and voltage behavior have evolved over longer than 100 years. Networks are made up of discrete elements. Each of them has one or more technologies embedded in them. There s an economic food chain that comes into play as gee whiz technology matures and becomes commercially viable hardware and software products. Networks wouldn t be networks without these products. The products would not exist without these technologies. Today s networks are made up of many technologies embedded in tens of thousands of products, perhaps hundreds of thousands of products, if software...