The Bridge - Issue 3, 2021 - 6

History Spotlight
Development of CDMA
by Irwin M. Jacobs and Andrew J. Viterbi
By Steve E. Watkins, Gamma Theta Chapter
Dr. Irwin M. Jacobs and Dr. Andrew J. Viterbi were
elected Eminent Members of Eta Kappa Nu in
2003 and 2006, respectively. Dr. Jacobs is former
chairman of Qualcomm and holds a Ph.D. from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Viterbi
is Presidential Chair Professor at the University of
Southern California and holds a Ph.D. from the
University of Southern California. Both are National
Academy of Engineering members, IEEE Fellows, and
IEEE Medal of Honor recipients. They co-founded
Qualcomm Inc. with others in 1985. A prominent
success of this company was the development of
Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technologies
for wireless communications. IEEE recognized the
importance of this contribution through its Milestone
program, see the Milestone description here.
CDMA is a spread-spectrum communication
approach in which users share a single channel. Each
transmitted digital signal is given a code that allows
it to be reconstructed with the competing signals
being received as background noise. Qualcomm
demonstrated that CDMA could be viable technology
for commercial wireless communication in 1989.
Through such demonstrations and later innovations,
Qualcomm pioneered the transition away from
Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) technology.
CDMA became the technical basis for the secondgeneration
IS-95 cellular standard and for thirdgeneration
cellular communication networks.
Figure 1. Dedication of IEEE Milestone Development of CDMA for Cellular
Communications (1989) with Dr. Irwin M. Jacobs and Dr. Andrew Viterbi,
co-founders of Qualcomm Inc. and Eminent Members of Eta Kappa Nu.
The milestone plaque is located outside the main
entrance of the Qualcomm headquarters in San
Diego, CA. It reads " Development of CDMA for
Cellular Communications, 1989. On 7 November
1989, Qualcomm publicly demonstrated a digital
cellular radio system based on Code Division
Multiple Access (CDMA) spread spectrum
technology, which increased capacity, improved
service quality, and extended battery life. This formed
the basis for IS-95 second-generation standards
and third-generation broadband standards that were
applied to cellular mobile devices worldwide. " Figure
1 shows Drs. Jacobs and Viterbi at the dedication on
7 November 2017.
What are IEEE Milestones?
" The IEEE Milestones program honors significant technical achievements in all areas associated with
IEEE. It is a program of the IEEE History Committee, administered through the IEEE History Center. Milestones
recognize the technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity found in unique products,
services, seminal papers and patents. Milestones are proposed by any IEEE member, and are sponsored by
an IEEE Organizational Unit (OU)-such as an IEEE section, society, chapter or student branch. "
Resourced from https://ethw.org/Milestones:IEEE_Milestones_Program
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http://ieeemilestones.ethw.org/Milestones:Development_of_CDMA_for_Cellular_Communications,_1989 https://www.ethw.org/Milestones:IEEE_Milestones_Program https://hkn.ieee.org/

The Bridge - Issue 3, 2021

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