Maybe it’s a name that will sound new to many, but if today we can connect our devices to the Internet – and more generally, to a network – without the hassle of cables and cables, we owe it to Norman Abramson . Fully entitled one of the pioneers of wireless networks , he coordinated a team of teachers and students who straddle the years ’60 and’ 70 created ALOHAnet , one of the first wireless networks that in some respects still represents a starting point in the creation of wireless networks. Norman Abramson passed away at the age of 88 years , following the complications of a skin tumor.

Norman Abramson, pioneer of wireless networks

Abramson was an engineer and scholar of communication theory , a discipline that merges mathematics, information theory and semiotics, graduating from Harvard and then pursuing a master’s degree from UCLA and a PhD from Stanford.

A surfing enthusiast, Abramson moved to Hawaii in 1966 by taking up a teaching position at the College of Engineering of the University of Hawai’i (UH) Mānoa and later becoming president of the computer science and computer science department. His love for Hawaii helped to baptize Abramson’s pivotal project: ALOHAnet.

Norman Abramson – Source: UH

The colleague collaborated with Abramson on the project Franklin Kuo : the goal of the two was to create a system that connects the UH to other universities located in the various islands of the archipelago for sharing research activities, exactly like the reasons that led to the creation of ARPAnet, the ancestor of the Internet. The necessity, being the islands in the middle of the Oceoan, was to do everything by radio. Abramson and Kuo were then joined by Shu Lin, Wesley Peterson and Edward Weldon .

ALHOAnet: the dawn of wireless networks

The first version of ALOHAnet was based on the use of two distinct frequencies in a “hub” machine which had the task of transmitting packets on an outgoing channel and receiving packets transmitted by clients on a channel inbound. Where the packets are received correctly by the hub, a small confirmation packet is sent to the client: if the client does not receive it after a specific waiting time, it will retransmit the packet for which it has not received confirmation. The system was intended to detect and correct “collisions” of packets sent by two clients at the same time. This was an approach that allowed to concretely reduce the complexity of the transmission protocol , compared to those which provided for negotiation procedures on who had transmission priority.

The operating principles of ALOHAnet subsequently represented important building blocks in the development of Ethernet networks before, WiFi after and also in implementation of the GSM protocol .

“There are very few people who have had such a significant impact on the way Norm which the entire planet communicates and shares information today. Norm connected the Hawaiian islands to each other and to the world, leaving UH a legacy through his ideas and his students “: with these words David Lassner, president of UH, he wanted to remember Abramson.