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

Telecom.ppt

Basic Telecom Terms and Concepts, 1

Transmission facilities
Twisted pair Coaxial cable Microwave Satellite Fiber optics Wireless

Signaling
Analog--continuous Digital--discrete

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 Telecom.ppt 3

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

Telecom.ppt

Basic Telecom Terms and Concepts, 4

Voice networks
RBOCs Other local telcos Long distance carriers Cable companies? LAN WAN etc. Often (usually) use voice network transmission facilities

Data networks

Cable TV networks
Microsoft and $1 billion/yr R&D on the set top box

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

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

Telecom.ppt 7

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?
Telecom.ppt 8

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?

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?
Telecom.ppt 10

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?

Telecom.ppt

11

This slide unintentionally left blank

Telecom.ppt

12

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?

Telecom.ppt

13

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?

Telecom.ppt

14

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...

Telecom.ppt

15