Electronic & Network Principles 64ET1405

Modems Task

Modems Task

Electrical & Network Principles

Unit Code: 64EE1405

Author : Moses O’Hara /

Deadline: 5th March 2008

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Electronic & Network Principles 64ET1405
Modems Task

Table of Contents

Table of Contents...........................................................................................................2
Technologies Overview .................................................................................................3
Broadband Benefits........................................................................................................7
Price Comparison ..........................................................................................................7
Security ........................................................................................................................10
GNUCitizen at http://www.gnucitizen.org/................................................................11
Summary......................................................................................................................11
Bibliography.................................................................................................................12
Figure 1 - Typical 56k Modem End to End Topology...................................................4
Figure 2 - ADSL Topological View...............................................................................6
Figure 3 - ADSL Example Spectrum Allocation..........................................................6
Figure 4 - Rough Cable Modem Topology....................................................................7
Table 1 - Typical Modem Speed per decade..................................................................3
Table 2 - ISP Price Comparison - Figures provided by uswitch.com (USwitch.com) 8

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Technologies Overview
Modems are essentially a means of connecting two computers together so they
can ‘talk’. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes and work in different ways.

Modems work over the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) (Freeman).

They convert information being sent from the computer so it may safely and
consistently transverse the PSTN. Like wise, when information is received from a
remote machine, the modem converts the signals back into information the
computer can understand.

Computers communicating over phone lines have been around since the 1960’s.
Over that forty year period, a number of advancements have been made to
improve this particular means of communication.

Year Speed (Max) Typical User base

1960 300 bps Commercial / Government
1970 300 bps Commercial / Government
Commercial / Government / Some
1980 9.6 kbps Residential
Commercial / Government / More
1990 56 kbps Residential
2000 128 kbps Commercial / Government / Residential
2008 24 Mbps + Commercial / Government / Residential
Table 1 - Typical Modem Speed per decade

The 56k modem represented the last in the line of traditional ‘in-band’ modems.
Information was sent over the phone line as an audible noise, speeds were
limited to realistic maximum of 48kbps. As such the technology has but gone
now, with a few people still using the technology in remote ‘unserviceable’ areas
typically where faster solutions aren’t yet available.

Figure 1 shows the typical makeup of a 56k modem subscriber to plant setup.

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 Computer Trunks : High capacity lines
Central Office (CO) which carry signals from the
Exchange: The switching CO Exchange to the
and billing equipment at the concentrators
telephone company
Modem: Connected one end Copper Pairs /
to phone line and the other

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D[istribution]-Side: i.e The
the computer telephone line
Modems Task
Electronic & Network Principles

PSTN
/
Internet

Figure 1 - Typical 56k Modem End to End Topology

Concentrator / GPP. Splits
trunks from the CO
Exchange into ‘D-Side’
distribution copper pairs.

Public Switched Telephone

Network: All the other
TelCo’s.

Sinusoidal Modulation on the

Moses O’Hara /
64ET1405

Copper Pairs
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Modems Task

ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Lines) replaced the 56k modem in

domestic markets. Utilising the unused bandwidth on the phone line, much
greater speeds are achievable with a minimal outlay for customer side
equipment. This technology still uses a phone line in conjunction with a special
ADSL modem, but doesn’t inhibit the quality or functionality the phone line as a
voice medium. The speeds achieved on ADSL line varies depending on the
distance between the subscriber and the exchange their connected to. ADSL
services up to 24 Mbps are now being advertised in the UK. A typical ADSL
topological view can be seen in figure 2.

Cable based broadband operates without the use of the phone line. The fibre
optic infrastructure of the Cableco is gradually broken down into a Hybrid Fibre
Co-ac (HFC) which is then connected to a DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service
Interface Specifications) modem. The modem typically has a USB connection in
order to provide internet connectivity to the customers. This technology is not
affected by distance as signals a ‘cleaned’ and retransmitted at Digital Subscriber
Areas and CATV Subscriber Areas (DSA / CSA); these are the names of the green
cabinets you see on the pavement.

With both ADSL and Cable based broadband, it is common for ISP’s (Internet
Service Providers) to supply or up sell a ‘router’ with the service agreements.
Essentially this piece of equipment allows you to connect more than one device to
your internet connection. In a lot of cases these routers also have wireless (Wi-
Fi / 802.11) capabilities, this allows the user to ‘roam’ within a given area and
remain connected to the network without the need of a physical wired connection.

ADSL routers typically come with the ADSL modem built in. With cable based
broadband, the modem is supplied separately from the router so the Cableco can
ensure only equipment which meets their standard is connected to the HFC (in
theory).

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ADSL
Modem.

Standard
Telephone

Band Pass Filter.

Prevents ADSL
Ingres Voice Egress

PSTN
/
Internet

Figure 2 - ADSL Topological View

Guard Band

Up-Stream Down-Stream
Voice Portion

0 4 kHz 20 kHz 50 kHz 1 MHz

4 kHz – 0 = 4 kHz Voice 50 kHz – 20 kHz = 30 kHz

Band Width Up Load Band Width

Figure 3 - ADSL Example Spectrum Allocation

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DSA / CSA
Central Office / Plant

Trunk Amp
Head End
HFC Fibre

Universal Broadband
Router

Figure 4 - Rough Cable Modem Topology

Broadband Benefits

The key benefits to adpoting broadband domesticaly can be summriesed as

• ‘Always On’
o No timely delays wiating to dal up
o Can access your computer from anywhere in the world (provided you
left it on)
• Speed increases
o Saves time trying to perform actions
o Enables multimedia rich content such as stream audio and video
o Makes downloading Music and Videos a reality
• Cost Saving
o Usage isn’t based on expensive telephone calls
o One single payment a month means you don’t have to worry about
‘extra’ telephone call costs
• VOIP
o Voice Over IP allows you to call anyone in the world free of charge
(provided they have the ability to receive the call)
o Inter connection sharing
o Enough ‘speed’ to share across all the computers in the home

Price Comparison

The following price comparison table is based on Internet Service Providers

which offer a service up to at least up to 2 Mbps. The costs are based a
property which has no current serviceability 9(i.e. no line has been connected)
in affect meaning the installation charges are included into the cost. No offers
or deals have been taking into account, the prices are based n the normal flat
monthly fee for the service.

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ISP
Service Max BT BT Set- Set- Contract
Level Service Contention Download Cost / Line up up Length Total Costings /
ISP Name UP Level DOWN Ration Limit Technology Month Rental Cost Cost (Months) Contract Length
TelCo plusNet 8 Mbps 448 kbps 50:1 40 GB/Mnth ADSL/PSTN £29.99 £10.50 £124.00 £0.00 1 £164.49
24
CableCo Be Value Mbps 2500 kbps 50:1 Unlimited * ADSL/PSTN £22.00 £10.50 £124.00 £24.00 3 £245.50
Virgin Media 2 Mbps 384 kbps 33:1 Unlimited * ADSL/PSTN £18.00 NA NA £30.00 12 £246.00
DOCSIS /
Virgin Media 4 Mbps 384 kbps 33:1 Unlimited * HFC £25.00 NA NA £30.00 12 £330.00
20 DOCSIS /
Virgin Media Mbps 384 kbps 33:1 Unlimited * HFC £29.00 NA NA £30.00 12 £378.00
O2 8 Mbps 1300 kbps 50:1 Unlimited * ADSL/PSTN £12.50 £10.50 £124.99 £0.00 12 £400.99
Tiscali 8 Mbps 256 kbps 50:1 Unlimited * ADSL/PSTN £14.99 £10.50 £124.00 £0.00 12 £429.88
Be Value 8 Mbps 1300 kbps 50:1 Unlimited * ADSL/PSTN £14.00 £10.50 £124.00 £24.00 12 £442.00
ToucanSurf 8 Mbps 256 kbps 50:1 Unlimited * ADSL/PSTN £17.99 £10.50 £124.00 £0.00 12 £465.88
BT Total
Broadband
Opt 1 8 Mbps 256 kbps 50:1 5 GB/Mnth ADSL/PSTN £17.99 £10.50 £124.99 £0.00 12 £466.87
20
O2 Mbps 1600 kbps 50:1 Unlimited * ADSL/PSTN £20.00 £10.50 £124.00 £0.00 12 £490.00
Demon
Home 2 Mbps 50:1 Unlimited * ADSL/PSTN £19.99 £10.50 £124.99 £0.00 12 £490.87
BT Total
Broadband
Opt 2 8 Mbps 256 kbps 50:1 8 GB/Mnth ADSL/PSTN £22.99 £10.50 £124.99 £0.00 12 £526.87
Orange 6 Mbps 256 kbps 50:1 6 GB/Mnth ADSL/PSTN £12.00 £10.50 £124.99 £0.00 18 £529.99
BT Total
Broadband
Opt 3 8 Mbps
256 kbps 50:1 Unlimited * ADSL/PSTN £24.99 £10.50 £124.99 £0.00 12 £550.87
AOL 8 Mbps
256 kbps 50:1 10 GB/Mnth ADSL/PSTN 14.99 £10.50 £124.00 £0.00 18 £582.82
Madasafish 8 Mbps
256 kbps 50:1 50 GB/Mnth ADSL/PSTN £29.99 £10.50 £124.00 £6.99 12 £616.87
Pipex Pro 8 Mbps
448 kbps 50:1 100 GB/Mnth ADSL/PSTN £39.99 £10.50 £124.00 £20.00 12 £749.88
Table 2 - ISP Price Comparison - Figures provided by uswitch.com (USwitch.com)
* Although the connection is ‘unlimited’ a reasonable use clause applies within the AUP for this ISP.

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Service Level UP
Describes the maximum possible ‘upload’ speed of the connection. This is how
quickly you can send something to someone else.

Service Level Down

Describes the maximum possible ‘download’ speed of the connection. How
quickly you can download something from the internet.

Max Contention Ration

Contention Ratios try to describe how you will share the bandwidth (the
parameters leading to the two above mentioned factors) with other users on
the network. Simply out, if the contention ratio is higher then more people
you will have to chare with and the slower the connection. The Contention
Ration is relational to the number of other users connected to your segment of
the UBR (See diagram 4).

Clearly from the figures listed above the Service provider to take up business
with is Virgin Media, this is based on:
o Lowest Costs to Speed Ratio
o Unlimited Downloads
o Lowest Contention Ratio
o Average Upload Speeds
o Low ‘One Off’ install costs, end-to-end
o Supports Linux & Mac OS X

A little background will help reinforce why Virgin Media is the correct choice.

Within the UK there exists a corporate duopoly with regards to domestic

internet connections. Although there are a number of companies which will
offer you internet access as a service provided by them, essentially you will
have the service delivered by either BT or Virgin Media.

ADSL services are provided in the majority by BT. This is a result of their
monopoly position, a knock on from when BT was an integral part of the GPO,
a publicly owned enterprise and as such given monopoly powers. Now BT is a
private company, commercial interests are number one and as such they have
found new was of making money.

Essentially BT ‘wholesales’ internet access to third part companies who in turn

sell that service (rebranded) to the general consumer at a cost.

Virgin on the other hand is born form NTL: who in turn existed as a result of
many regional cable companies (who provided TV and telephone) being
brought up. Virgin to the greater extent own their entire infrastructure
(telecoms, CATV, DTV, Broadband, Maritime Services, Terrestrial Vestigial
Transmission Stations, Air Traffic Control et al.).

It was this same infrastructure which was responsible for the collapsing one of
the largest Telecoms companies in the world, NTL:. It was continued
investment into infrastructure which landed NTL in chapter 11 (as well as a
few unsound expenditure programmes).

The upshot of this is that Virgin can offer and will offer a service which far
exceeds the capabilities of BT’s (et al.) infrastructure. In addition to ‘future

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proofing’ capacities of the infrastructure, the quality and reliability of the
connection is greater across Virgins HFC/SONET.

From a customer services point of view, Virgin Media’s charges are ‘all in’,
there’s no additional line rental which will be coupled on top of the basic
internet charge.

Security
Essentially, when it comes down to security it mainly common sense with a
few exceptions, here’s the common sense part first of all.

o Keep you computer up to date

o Enable Microsoft Automatic Updates / patch or update kernels
and core inet related apps as soon as the vulnerability has been
detected (use yum automatic update daemon).
o Keep antivirus / antispyware / antimalware / root kit detection
software up to date and scan regularly.
o Ensure iptables / windows firewall is enabled.
o Avoid ‘questionable’ websites and Peer-2-Peer Clients.
o If the computer is used by other people, make sure you know
what their doing on it. Is it a threat?

The following is a brief check list of changes to help unsure the safety and
security of always on connections.

Routing Equipment

At present the majority of individuals do not realise that the box they have been
given by their ISP or went out and purchased from their local computer ship
currently presents the greatest security threat in relation to accessing services
over the internet.

The devices are easily exploitable and as such can be reconfigured easily by a 3rd
party to aid in the theft of personal details such as online bank account
information, [private communications and essentially anything that happens
between your computer and the internet.

Until manufactures and supplies address these inherent underlying security

issues, the following should be done to limit the potential for compromise of these
embedded devices.

Password
o Password protects your router / modem. Make the password at least 12
characters long and a mixture of numbers, upper and lower case letters
and special characters such as !”£$%^&*()~@:;’#/.,?><\|`¬.
UPNP
o Most routers / modems today come with a feature called UPNP. Check the
documentation or contact your ISP/Equipment Supplier for instruction as
to disable the UPNP service on the router.
SNMP

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o Some routers / modems come with a feature called SNMP. Check the
documentation or contact your ISP/Equipment Supplier for instruction as
to disable the SNMP service on the router.
WPA
o The likelihood if you have just purchased a new router / modem is that it
will be ‘wireless’ enabled. You need to secure this connection from prying
eyes by setting a key. A key is like a password for connecting to your
router / modem. Please check the supplied documentation or with your
ISP/Equipment Supplier for details as to how to secure your wireless
connection. Never use WEP and at the very least use WPA. Where
available use WPA2 + AES + TKIP with a key at least 63 characters
long. An example of a good key is

Uhw#jwdn8M$RbeW&\n!$cdiLypgopVe93Q-lCcOJyFlPt7KotAgLnEga%CEiisq

DNS
Contact your ISP tech support and ask them for the IP address of your DNS
Server, don’t worry they should know what you mean. If your in luck they’ll give
you a 12 digit number split into groups of 3 e.g. 194.168.4.100.
Once you have this number have a look at your documentation for your
router / modem again and lookup DNS Settings. In that section you should be
given instruction as to how to manually enter the numbers you where given
earlier. This will help protect you again something called an mDNS / DNS spoofing
attack.

BT Home Hub
Due to the on going discovery of numerous security vulnerabilities with the BT
Home HUB and the suppliers / manufactures reluctance to act on this
vulnerability, it is recommended that the device be detached from the wall until
an update is released which resolves the issues . This is the only means of
reasonably ensuring security with this device.

For more details on the above threats and many like them please visit

GNUCitizen at http://www.gnucitizen.org/

Summary
In Summary:

o The best service is provided by Virgin Media

o Bigger is better when in comes to Upload and Download Speeds

o Smaller is better when looking at contention ratios

o Always remember the line rental when looking at non – Virgin Media
products

o Avoid BT Home Hubs

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References

Bibliography

Azzam, A (1997). High-Speed Cable Modems. New York, McGraw-

Hill ISBN: 0-07-006417-2

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