Lecture 2

THE INTERNET & the WORLD WIDE WEB

CONNECTING TO THE INTERNET:
Narrowband, Broadband, & Access Providers
In general terms, bandwidth, or channel capacity, is an expression of how much
datatext, voice, video, and so oncan be sent through a communications
channel in a given amount of time. The type of data transmission that allows only
one signal at a time is called baseband transmission.
When several signals can be transmitted at once, its called broadband transmission.
Broadband very high speedconnections include various kinds of high-speed
wired connections (such as coaxial and fiber-optic) as well as DSL, cable, and satellite
and other wireless connections. Today more than half (55%) of all adult Americans
have broadband internet connections at home.
THE PHYSICAL CONNECTION: WIRED OR WIRELESS?
What are your choices of a physical connection the wired or wireless means of
connecting to the internet? A lot depends on where you live. As you might expect, urban
and many suburban areas offer more broadband connections than rural areas do.
Among the principal means of connection are (1) telephone (dial-up) modem; (2)
several high-speed phone linesISDN, DSL, and T1; (3) cable modem; and (4)
wirelesssatellite and other through-the-air links.
DATA TRANSMISSION SPEEDS
Data is transmitted in characters or collections of bits. A bit is the smallest unit of
information used by computers. Todays data transmission speeds are measured in bits,
kilobits, megabits, and gigabits per second:
bps: A computer with an older modem might have a speed of 28,800 bps, which is
considered the minimum speed for visiting websites with graphics. The bps stands for
bits per second. (Eight bits equals one character, such as A, 3, or #.)
Kbps: This is the most frequently used measure; kilobits per second, or Kbps, are 1
thousand bits per second. The speed of a modem that is 28,800 bps might be
expressed as 28.8 Kbps.
Mbps: Faster means of connection are measured in megabits per second, or Mbps
1 million bits per second.
Gbps: At the extreme are gigabits per second, Gbps 1 billion bits per second.

UPLOADING & DOWNLOADING

Why it is important to know these terms? Because the number of bits affects how fast
you can upload and download information from a remote computer. Download is the
transmission of data from a remote computer to a local computer, as from a
website to your own PC. Upload is the transmission of data from a local computer
to a remote computer, as from your PC to a website you are constructing.

Narrowband (Dial-Up Modem): Low Speed but Inexpensive & Widely Available
The telephone line that you use for voice calls is still the cheapest means of online
connection and is available everywhere. Many home users still use what are called
narrowband, or low-bandwidth, connections. This mainly consists of dial-up
connections use of telephone modems to connect computers to the internet.

CONNECTING THE MODEM

A modem is a device that sends and receives data over telephone lines to and
from computers. These days, the modem is generally installed inside your computer,
but there are also external modems. The modem is attached to the telephone wall
outlet.
Most standard modems today have a maximum speed of 56 Kbps. That doesnt mean
that youll be sending and receiving data at that rate. The modem in your computer
must negotiate with the modems used by your internet access provider, the regional,
national, or wireless organization or business that connects you to the internet.
Your provider may have modems operating at slower speeds, such as 28.8 Kbps. In
addition, lower-quality phone lines or heavy traffic during peak hourssuch as 5 p.m.
to 11 p.m. in residential areascan slow down your rate of transmission.
MODEMS & CALL WAITING
One disadvantage of a telephone modem is that while youre online you cant use that
phone line to make voice calls unless youve installed special equipment. In addition,
people who try to call you while youre using the modem will get a busy signal. You
generally wont need to pay long-distance phone rates, since most access providers
offer local access numbers.
High-Speed Phone Lines: More Expensive but Available in Most Cities
Waiting while your computers modem takes 25 minutes to transmit a 1- minute lowquality video from a website may have you pummeling the desk in frustration. To get
some relief, you could enhance your POTS Plain Old Telephone System
connection with a high-speed adaptation. Among the choices are ISDN, DSL, and T1,
available in most major cities, though not in rural and many suburban areas.
ISDN LINE
ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) consists of hardware and software that
allow voice, video, and data to be communicated over traditional copper-wire
telephone lines. Capable of transmitting 64 to 128 Kbps, ISDN is able to send digital
signals over POTS lines. If you were trying to download an approximately 6-minutelong music video from the World Wide Web, it would take you about 4 hours and 45
minutes with a 28.8-Kbps modem. A 128-Kbps ISDN connection would reduce this to an
hour.
ISDN is a viable solution for single users of small business networks when other highspeed options are not available. ISDN is not as fast as DSL, cable, or T1 and is
expensive.

DSL LINE
DSL (digital subscriber line) uses regular phone lines, a DSL modem, and special
technology to transmit data in megabits per second.
The data bit rate of consumer DSL services typically ranges from 256 kbit/s to 40
Mbit/s in the direction to the customer (downstream), depending on DSL technology,
line conditions, and service-level implementation.
In symmetric digital subscriber line (SDSL) services, the downstream and upstream
data rates are equal.
In ADSL (Asymmetric DSL), the data throughput in the upstream direction, (the
direction to the service provider) is lower, hence the designation of asymmetric service.
Most homes and small business users are connected to an ADSL line. ADSL divides up
the available frequencies in a line on the assumption that most Internet users look at, or
download, much more information than they send, or upload.
Under this assumption, if the connection speed from the Internet to the user is three to
four times faster than the connection from the user back to the Internet, then the user
will see the most benefit most of the time.
A big advantage of DSL is that it is always on (so you dont have to make a dial-up
connection) and, unlike cable, its transmission rate is relatively consistent. Also, you
can talk on the phone and send data at the same time.
There is one big drawback to DSL: You have to live within 3.3 miles of a phone company
central switching office, because the access speed and reliability degrade with distance.
However, DSL is becoming more popular, and phone companies are building thousands
of remote switching facilities to enhance service throughout their regions.
Another drawback is that you have to choose from a list of internet service providers
that are under contract to the phone company you use, although other DSL providers
exist.
A new competitor to DSL, is a service (fiber optic) called FiOS, which is faster than DSL.
However, FiOS is not available in all areas. Still, the real problem for DSLor any other
kind of broadbandis that it is not available to most rural residents, who thus lack

the sort of high-speed services and opportunities, such as distance learning and webbased commerce (E-commerce), that urban dwellers take for granted.
DSL Equipment
ADSL uses two pieces of equipment, one on the customer end and one at the ISP
(Internet service provider), Telephone Company or other provider of DSL services.
At the customer's location there is a DSL transceiver, which may also provide other
services. The DSL service provider has a DSL Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) to receive
customer connections.
1. The Transceiver
Most residential customers call their DSL transceiver a "DSL modem." It's the point
where data from the user's computer or network is connected to the DSL line.
The transceiver can connect to a customer's equipment in several ways, though most
residential installation uses USB or 10 base-T Ethernet connections.
2. The DSLAM
The DSLAM (DSL Access Multiplexer) at the access provider is the equipment that
really allows DSL to happen. A DSLAM takes connections from many customers and
aggregates them onto a single, high-capacity connection to the Internet.
DSLAMs are generally flexible and able to support multiple types of DSL in a single
central office, and different varieties of protocol and modulation in the same type of
DSL. In addition, the DSLAM may provide additional functions including routing or
dynamic IP address assignment for the customers (DHCP: Dynamic Host Configuration
Protocol).
The DSLAM provides one of the main differences between user service through ADSL
and through cable modems. Because cable-modem users generally share a network
loop that runs through a neighborhood, adding users means lowering performance in
many instances. ADSL provides a dedicated connection from each user back to the
DSLAM, meaning that users won't see a performance decrease as new users are added - until the total number of users begins to saturate the single, high-speed connection to
the Internet. At that point, an upgrade by the service provider can provide additional
performance for all the users connected to the DSLAM.
The figure below is a schematic of a simple DSL connection (in blue). The right side
shows a DSLAM residing in the telephone company's central office. The left side shows
the customer premises equipment with an optional router. This router manages a
local area network (LAN) off of which are connected some number of PCs. With many
service providers, the customer may opt for a modem which contains a wireless router.
This option (within the dashed bubble) often simplifies the connection.

T1 LINE
A T1 line is essentially a traditional trunk line that carries 24 normal telephone
circuits and has a transmission rate of 1.5 to 6 Mbps. Generally, T1 lines are leased
by corporate, government, and academic sites.
Another high-speed line, the T3 line, transmits at 645 Mbps.
T1 and T3 lines are commonly used by businesses connecting to the internet, by
internet access providers, and in the internet high-speed transmission lines.
If your office has a T1 line, it means that the phone company has brought a fiber optic
line into your office (a T1 line might also come in on copper). If the T1 line is being used
for telephone conversations, it plugs into the office's phone system. If it is carrying data
it plugs into the network's router.
A T1 line can carry about 192,000 bytes per second -- roughly 60 times more data than
a normal residential modem. It is also extremely reliable -- much more reliable than an
analog modem. Depending on what they are doing, a T1 line can generally handle quite
a few people. For general browsing, hundreds of users are easily able to share a T1 line
comfortably. If they are all downloading MP3 files or video files simultaneously it
would be a problem, but that still isn't extremely common.
A T1 line might cost between $1,000 and $1,500 per month depending on who provides
it and where it goes. The other end of the T1 line needs to be connected to a web server,
and the total cost is a combination of the fee the phone company charges and the fee
the ISP charges.
Problem for Telephone Internet Connections: The Last Mile
The distance from your home to your telephones switching office, the local loop, is
often called the last mile .If you are using POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) for
your initial internet connectioneven if you use ISDN or DSLdata must pass back
and forth between you and your telephone switching station. The last mile of copper
wire is what really slows things down.
This problem can be solved by installing newer transmission media, but
communications companies are slow to incur this cost.
Cable Modem: Close Competitor to DSL
If DSLs 11 minutes to move a 6-minute video sounds good, 2 minutes sounds even
better. Thats the rate of transmission for cable modems, which can transmit out-Cable
modem going data at about 1.4 Mbps and incoming data at up to 30 Mbps. A cable
modem connects a personal computer to a cable-TV system that offers an internet
connection.
The advantage of a cable modem is that, like a DSL connection, it is always on. However,
unlike DSL, you dont need to live near a telephone switching station.
A disadvantage, however, is that you and your cable-TV-viewing neighbors are sharing
the system and consequently, during peak-load times, your service may be slowed to
the speed of a regular dial-up modem. Also, using an internet connection that is always
onand that, in the case of cable, you share with other peopleinvites outside
interference with your computer.

The figure below shows the cable modem connection, the CMTS (cable modem
termination system) is a piece of equipment typically located in a cable company's head
end, and used to provide high speed data services, such as cable Internet or voice over
Internet Protocol (VoIP), to cable subscribers.

Satellite Wireless Connections

With a pizza-size satellite dish on your roof or on the side of your house, you can send
data at the rate of about 512 Kbps and receive data at about 1.5 Mbps from a
communications satellite, a space station that transmits radio waves called
microwaves from earth-based stations. Satellite internet connections are always on.
To surf the internet using this kind of connection, you need an internet access provider
that supports two-way satellite transmission. You will also have to lease or purchase
satellite-access hardware, such as a dish.