From GuGlielmo marconi to AI

by Mario Musmeci

A pioneering probe called Voyager 1, which was launched 45 years ago, is now 18 billion kilometers away from Earth, traveling at 61,000 kilometers per hour. It is in interstellar space and still sending radio signals back to Earth that, after a journey of "only" 18 and a half hours, reach Earth to give us more data and measurements of enormous importance.

In a way, Voyager owes Guglielmo Marconi for its ability to communicate without having to carry 18 billion kilometers of telephone wire! As we know, Marconi developed the first effective transmission system whose evolution led to the development of radio and television and generally to all modern communication systems and methods.

But what's the magic in the radio signals used to communicate? Why is it that more than 100 years after Marconi's telegraph we still cannot do without wireless communications and are striving to perfect them and make them available everywhere on Earth and even on the Moon and on Mars?

The radio frequency spectrum today is one of the most important, valuable resources that are at the center of technological, economic, political, and regulatory debates. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN body, meets periodically and is responsible for the management of the radio-frequency spectrum. It brings together scientists, industries, states, and the space, aviation, and amateur radio communities to make the different services compatible and possibly coexisting and interoperable. Indeed, the spectrum available for radio communications is just as crowded as the seats at Teatro alla Scala in Milan on the occasion of a premiere: as soon as a seat becomes vacant, there are many who want it. More seats may be added by extending frequency bands over new areas. Optical and quantum telecommunications (see the related article in this issue) exemplify this trend. Unfortunately, on top of being subject to fierce competition, the electromagnetic spectrum is highly vulnerable to natural phenomena (sun, ionosphere) and to intentional or unintentional interference and dead areas. Although we can accept signal degradation during a TV broadcast of a football game, we must ensure the continuity and integrity of communication channels during critical activities such as an aircraft landing, the mobility of a self-driving car, or an astronaut performing EVAs in orbit, on the Moon or on Mars!

The "hunger" for connectivity combines two ongoing revolutions, i.e. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). They contribute to the exponential increase in the number of devices requiring radio communication channels. Analytical capacity and processing are increasingly transferred to the "cloud," which, however, requires continuous and highly performing connectivity. AI algorithms make it possible to collect basic data locally and use the communication channel only for analysis results and on the basis of predefined events such as alerts.

The Marconi Company Magnetic Detector was used in the experimental campaign aboard the Royal Ship Carlo Alberto in the summer of 1902. The detector is on show at the National Museum of Science and Technology Leonardo Da Vinci in Milan.

Therefore radio communications increasingly rely on local intelligence systems and the cloud to optimize and secure different applications and limit "expensive," "busy," and often unavailable communications or transmissions that might be received with major delays (see lunar or Mars missions).

Future scenarios of widespread AI will incorporate systems/devices communicating with human users in increasingly natural ways so as to facilitate access to data and services by making knowledge usable at a distance and for all. Such scenarios also have the ability to evolve due to deep learning algorithms that improve communication services as they are used and adapt to the resources available as appropriate.

The trend points to the shaping of a heterogeneous scenario where the combined use of terrestrial, space-based services and different technologies will occur in a totally transparent way for the end user, who will enjoy a communication and/or a navigation service, without knowing what infrastructure and frequencies he or she is using at any given time.

A context in which the user assigns the utmost priority to standards of security, privacy, connectivity, and performance.