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New for April 2021 Fourier transforms allow you to go back and forth between time and frequency domains. Using frequency data, you can generate the time response of network, and to some extent you can peer inside and learn what is going on in a black box.
Let's start with some history...
The first paper discussing the technique is from 1974, main author is Marion Hines, second author Harold Stinehelfer. Marion Hines born in 1918 and died in 2000. Both authors were at Microwave Associates in Burlington MA. A short while later, Stinehelfer joined Raytheon Missile Systems in Bedford Massachusetts, and continued to refine the technique. His side gig, Made It Associates, eventually became his full time job. Stinehelfer was a WWII veteran and died in 2010, at the age of 85.
Marion Hines and Harold Stinehelfer now appear in our Microwave Hall of Fame!
References
M. E. Hines and H. E. Stinehelfer, "Time-Domain Oscillographic Microwave Network Analysis Using Frequency-Domain Data," in IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 276-282, Mar. 1974, doi: 10.1109/TMTT.1974.1128211.