Over the ages, research in wireless communications has been evolving through a quest for answers to the fundamental questions: why, what and how? Why do people, separated by physical distances, cannot hear each other talking? Alexander Graham Bell?s invention of the telephone was driven by this curiosity; so was Guglielmo Marconi?s telegraphic signalling across the Atlantic Ocean in 1901.

Societal evolution has also been driven by curiosity, especially in the pursuit for quality of life (QoL). The quest for QoL invariably creates conflicts, since greediness is a human trait (or perhaps fraud). Conflicts lead to warring among humans, and the need to observe the battle front in Europe during World War II was the pedal-stone on which research in wireless technology escalated. Through the cold war and subsequent relatively peaceful periods, wireless communications research continues to flourish. QoL becomes synonymous with wealth and health creation. With the ability to provide information in large volume and high-speed to enrich wealth creation, telecommunications research becomes the front banner in societal evolution. Quality of service (QoS) provided by an effective and efficient information transport platform becomes synonymous with QoL.

To achieve global communications, it is necessary to interwork different domains of telecommunications. Interworking of different domains, however, has profound ramifications on the formulation of the building blocks and the glues needed to construct an information transport platform, and interdependency issues amongst the different layers of the information transport platform. This talk will provide an exposition and a critical look at future evolution of wireless communications and networking, beginning with a brief historical perspective of wireless technology, a critical look at the obstacles posed by nature, and then an examination of the building blocks and the glues necessary for the construction of the information transfer vehicle capable of delivering large volume of information at high-speed, and with end-to-end QoS satisfaction.