1 Telecom.

ppt
Basic Telecommunications
Vocabulary, concepts, more bullet
proofing
Touch on just a few basic points
essentials of technology and where its
going
essentials of regulation and where its
going
Raise for discussion certain
management issues

2 Telecom.ppt
Basic Telecom Terms and Concepts, 1
Transmission facilities
Twisted pair
Coaxial cable
Microwave
Satellite
Fiber optics
Wireless
Signaling
Analog--continuous
Digital--discrete
3 Telecom.ppt
Basic Telecom Terms and Concepts, 2
Analog signaling
AM, FM, etc.
Limitations
Error correction
Encryption
Digital signaling
Computer friendly
Facilitates
Error correction
Encryption
Fits with fiber optic transmission facilities
The way the world is going
Modems
Modulator--demodulator
A to D and D to A
Because the voice network is analog
At the handset
4 Telecom.ppt
Basic Telecom Terms and Concepts, 3
Switching
The cloud
The cloud is expensive
Switching makes better use of the cloud
Kinds of switching
Circuit switching
Message switching
Packet switching
And the Internet
And ATM
Broadcasting
Cellular
5 Telecom.ppt
Basic Telecom Terms and Concepts, 4
Voice networks
RBOCs
Other local telcos
Long distance carriers
Cable companies?
Data networks
LAN
WAN
etc.
Often (usually) use voice network
transmission facilities
Cable TV networks
Microsoft and $1 billion/yr R&D on the set
top box
6 Telecom.ppt
Where Do Networks
Come From?
Long distance carriers
AT&T, MCI, Sprint, etc.
Common carriers
VANs
And the Internet
The Internet and ISPs
Private networks
7 Telecom.ppt
Telecom Standards and Regulation
Voice network regulation (U.S.A.)
1934-1981
1982-present
RBOCs etc.--local loop provider
regulated, but less so under the
Telcom Act of 1996
Long distance: largely unregulated
Data communications?
Basically, anything goes
But whose transmission facilities are
used?
Largely: from the voice networks
Voice networks
Interconnected world-wide
Standards
Legal requirements
Data networks? Cable?
Recent (de)regulatory actions
8 Telecom.ppt
The Internet
The worlds first network for
making data calls
NB telex
History and culture
ARPA net, nuclear attack
NSF net and the open community
Governance
Design policies
Simple protocols (e.g., TCP/IP)
Public and open
Continuing rapid growth
Electronic commerce
Consumer-oriented
Business-to-business
User base growing beyond young male
nerds
Cost of use?
9 Telecom.ppt
The Last Mile Problem
What it is
Possible solutions
Upgrades of existing plant
Cable
Fiber optics
Wireless
The competitive scene TODAY
Cable companies (and Microsoft)
DSL and the telcos (and Microsoft)
Other telcos
Why is the computer industry
mucking in the last mile problem?
Prognostications?
10 Telecom.ppt
The Protocols Problem(s)
Important concept: layered
architectures for
telecommunications
OSI reference model, 7 layers
Also important for software in general
Abstraction as a way of handling complexity
Importance of standardization
de jure
de facto
Internet?
Development of standards to date
Telephony
Data communications
And the Internet
For electronic commerce?
Incomplete
Managerial/decision issues?
11 Telecom.ppt
Further Issues for
Discussion
Outsourcing of network provision
and management
Options
Management issues
Imagine you are about to receive a
sales call
Commitment to standards
Which ones?
Who to believe, trust, or bet on?
Assuming AAA networks (the
Internet on steroids),
Productivity opportunities? (and what will it
take to realize them)
Industrial-organizational consequences?
12 Telecom.ppt
This slide
unintentionally
left blank

13 Telecom.ppt
Computer Mediated Communication
(CMC): 1
Telex
A world-wide telecommunications system
Up and running for > 100 years
Digital signaling
Telephone
A world-wide telecommunications system
Up and running for > 50 years
Isnt this enough?
Whats missing?
14 Telecom.ppt
CMC: 2
Telephones are everywhere.
From an arbitrary telephone you can call
nearly any other telephone.
Computers are .... all over.
From an arbitrary computer, why cant you
make a data call to nearly any other
computer?
Data communications is inherently
easier (in many ways) than voice
communication.
So why cant you make those data calls?
15 Telecom.ppt
CMC: 3
Increasingly, you can make those
data calls
And theres a lot of great stuff out there
now
Call on special networks
NSF Net
Compuserve
Prodigy
etc.
And THE INTERNET...
An internet: a network of networks
The Internet: The Mother of All Internets
The world we are coming to
Anything, anytime, anywhere...