Summary

This chapter has provided foundation material to understand the theory and limitations of wireless communication. More information and deeper study are encouraged to understand the second and third order constraints of data transport. The architect should understand different models and constraints of wireless signals, RF energy dispersion, range, and the fundamental limits of information theory provided by Shannon's law. The architect should also understand the frequency space governance and allocation strategy. This chapter also provides a dialog and vernacular that will be reused in the upcoming chapters on WPAN, WLAN, and WAN.

The next chapter will start the journey of IoT data from the sensor to the cloud on its first hop across a near range personal area network. We build up from there to WLAN and WAN systems.