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Thanks for this detailed explanation.

A semi-off-topic side question:

> the students were supposed to each get a software radio and build a Wi-Fi-like system (the software radios proved difficult and, much later, I helped make this an acoustic modem project).

What was the reason why the software radios proved difficult?

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Not OP but in general sourcing software and hardware radios in that time was very difficult. There weren’t good open-source implementations and everything had to be sorta reverse engineered which meant that anyone with the skill to do that was selling it for a lot of dollars.

Source: did 10 years in telecom land.

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