Part 1 Fundamentals 3
1 Basic Concepts 3
Analog and Digital 5
Analog Signals 6
Digital Signals 7
Bauds, Bits, Bytes and Codes—Getting Down to Basics 13
Overview 13
Baud Rate vs. Bits per Second—Electrical Signal Rates vs. Amount of Information Sent 13
Codes—Adding Meaning to Bits 14
A Byte=A Character 15
Bandwidth—Measuring Capacity 15
Narrowband vs. Wideband—Slow and Fast 16
Compression and Multiplexing 17
Compression—Manipulating Data for More Capacity 18
Streaming Media 20
Multiplexing—Let s Share 23
Protocols and Architectures 25
Architectures—A Framework for Multiple Networks to Communicate 26
LANs, MANs and WANs 28
LANs—Local Area Networks 30
LAN and WAN Devices 31
Home LANs—Sharing Printers and High-Speed Internet Access—A Lack of Technical Support 36
MANs—Metropolitan Area Networks 38
WANs—Wide Area Networks 38
Higher Speed Services for LAN Traffic 38
New Devices for Carrier and Internet Service Provider Networks 39
2 Telephone Systems, Peripherals and Cabling 45
Telephone Systems—PBXs, Centrex and Key Systems 47
What Is a PBX? 47
PBX Trunks 48
Demarcation—The Location Where Telcos Wire Trunks 48
PBX Telephones 49
Centrex—Telephone Company Supplied Service 50
Key Systems 53
Wireless PBX and Key System Telephones—On-Site Mobility 53
Direct-Inward Dialing—Bypassing the Operator for Incoming Calls 57
Convergence and Telephone Systems 58
Add-on Peripherals for Key Systems, PBXs and Centrex Systems 63
Call Accounting—Tracking Calls and Usage 64
ACDs—Specialized Equipment to Handle Large Volumes of Calls 72
Network-Based ACD Functions 73
LAN/PBX/ACD Connectivity to Enhance Productivity 74
Customer Relationship Management(CRM) for Call Centers 74
Integrated Voice Response Units—Using the Telephone as a Computer Terminal 76
Computer Telephony Integration(CTI)—Routing Callers More Intelligently 79
Media: Wireless, Fiber and Unshielded Twisted Pair Copper 80
Wireless LANs 81
Electrical Properties of Copper Cabling 83
Fiber Optic Cabling—High Capacity and High Costs 84
Part 2 Industry Overview 93
3 The Bell System and Regulatory Affairs 93
The Bell System Prior to and after 1984 95
Divestiture of the Bell System from AT&T in 1984 95
Regional Bell Operating Companies(RBOCs) after 1996 98
Transporting Calls Between Carriers 101
Local Competition Prior to the Telecommunications Act of 1996 103
Uneven Competition for Local Telephone Service Throughout the U.S. 103
Competitive Access Providers(CAPs) to Competitive Local Exchange Carriers(CLECs) 103
The Evolving View of the Feasibility of Local Competition 107
Factors Leading to Passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 108
Regional Bell Companies Desire to Expand Their Offerings 108
Interexchange Carriers ,Utility and Cable TV Companies Desires to Enter New Markets 108
Demand for High-Speed Telecommunications Services 109
Technological Capabilities to Provide High-Speed Services at Low Costs 109
The Viability of Wireless Services for Local Exchange Service 109
The Desire for a Uniform National Policy on Local Competition 110
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 110
Major Features of the Act 111
Post Telecommunications Act of 1996 Developments 117
FCC Rulings, Legal Challenges and Progress Toward Deregulation 117
Permission for RBOCs to Sell In-Region Long Distance 118
Unbundled Network Elements(UNEs)—Competitors Leasing Parts of RBOCs Networks 120
Fines Levied on Incumbents for Failure to Provide Timely Access to Competitors 121
Reciprocal Payments 121
Local Access Fees—A Shift in Balance Between Local and Long Distance Costs 122
Local Number Portability 123
Creating an Equal Playing Field and Conserving Numbers 123
Four Types of Telephone Number Portability 123
Impact of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 127
Appendix 129
4 Network Service Providers and Local Competition 135
Local Competition 137
Strategies for Entering the Local Calling Market—Resale, Wireless,Cable TV and Construction of Facilities 148
Carriers 155
Interexchange Carriers—IEXs 156
Bandwidth Trading:The Commoditization of Bandwidth 158
Merchants—Managing Risk for Carriers 159
Exchanges—A Place to Make Trades 160
Master Trading Agreements—Shortening the Transaction Cycle 161
Local Service Providers 161
AT&T 161
Competitive Local Exchange Carriers(Integrated Communications Providers) 163
Resellers and Switchless Resellers 167
Building Local Exchange Carriers(BLECs) 169
Agents 170
Summary 173
5 The Public Network 175
Switched Services—Local and Long Distance Calling 177
Attributes of Real-Time Switching Services 178
DTMF: Access to Voice Mail and Computers 183
Store-and-Forward Switching—Nonsimultaneous Sending and Receiving 184
Dedicated Services 184
Overview of Dedicated Services 185
Network Topologies—The View from the Top 188
Declining Sales of Private Lines 192
Virtual Private Networks—Connectivity for Remote Access,Intranets and Extranets 193
VPNs(Virtual Private Networks) for Electronic Commerce 194
VPNs for Intranet Service 194
Virtual Private Networks(VPNs) for Remote Access 195
Security on Virtual Private Networks 196
The Last Mile or Access Networks 197
End and Tandem Central Offices 199
Digital Loop Carrier Systems—Fiber Optics and Copper Cabling in the Last Mile 201
Carrier Hotels—Interconnecting Carriers and Providing Secure Space for Equipment 202
Optical Networking 203
Passive Optical Networks 204
Optical Add and Drop Multiplexers(OADM) 207
Optical Cross Connects(OXC)—Optical Switches 208
Network Intelligence and Signaling 212
Overview of Signaling 213
Background 215
Common Channel Signaling, Efficiency and Redundancy 218
Signaling System 7—The Glue for Links Between Carriers 218
SS7 Components 220
Convergence—Technical Advances Leading to Improvements in IP Networks 221
Improvements in Routers 222
Digital Signal Processors(DSPs) 223
Voice Compression 224
Higher Capacity Networks—Optical Technologies 224
Softswitches—Programmable Switches 225
The Quality of Service Issue for Voice over IP 227
SS7 in Packet Networks 228
Examples of Converged Networks 229
Free Calls or Low Priced Calls over the Internet 231
H.323—A Way to Make Telephone Calls over IP 232
Prepaid Calls over the Internet 232
Document Sharing and Click to Talk 233
Document Sharing 233
Summary 235
Part 3 Advanced Technologies,The Internet and Wireless 239
6 Specialized Network Services 239
T-1—24 Voice or Data Paths over One Telephone Circuit 243
Channel Banks—Connecting T-1 to Analog PBXs and Central Offices 244
DS-O and DS-1—64,000 or 56,000 vs. 1,544,000 bps 244
Media Used for T-1 Signals 245
European vs. American and Japanese T-1—24 vs. 30 Channels 246
A Sampling of T-1 Configurations Using T-1 for Combining Voice, Fax,Video and Data 247
Fractional T-1—When 24 Paths Are Not Required 248
T-3—The Capacity of 28 T-1 Lines, 672 Channels 249
An Explanation of Time Division Multiplexing and Its Limitations 249
ISDN—Integrated Services Digital Network 250
Basic Rate Interface ISDN—Two Channels at 64,000 Bit per Second 253
Primary Rate Interface ISDN—24 Channels 254
Digital Subscriber Line Technology 257
Competitive Iocal exchange carriers(CLECs) and DSL 261
Incumbent Telephone Company DSL Offerings 262
DSLAMs—Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexers 262
Obstacles to Digital Subscriber Line Availability—Cost, Ease of Implementation and Availability 263
DSL Lite—Lower Cost Service 266
DSL—A Technical Explanation 266
Frame Relay—A Shared Wide Area Network Service 267
Connections to Frame Relay—Frame Relay Access Devices and Access Line Speeds 269
Frame Relay for Transmitting Voice 270
Frame Relay Pricing—Ports, Circuits and Committed Information Rate 270
Potential Congestion on Frame Relay 271
Interfacing Between Carriers Frame Relay Networks 271
Gigabit Ethernet—Ethernet over Fiber in Metropolitan Areas 271
Gigabit Ethernet Providers—OLECs 272
Gigabit Ethernet Through Partners 273
Gigabit Ethernet Availability 273
The Advantages of Using Ethernet 273
Speed Options—Bandwidth on Demand 274
Gigabit Ethernet Features at Lower Prices 275
A Sample Metropolitan Area Gigabit Ethernet Configuration 275
ATM—Asynchronous Transfer Mode 276
Fixed-Sized Cells—Less Processing 278
Switching in Hardware—Less Address Lookup 278
Asynchronous Switching—Improving Network Utilization 278
Bursting—Selling More Than the Total Capacity 279
Scalability—The Ability to Use ATM for High-and Low-Speed Applications and IP Traffic 279
Elements of an ATM Network 280
SONET—Synchronous Optical Network 283
Synchronous Digital Hierarchy(SDH) and SONET 284
SONET Functions—The Four Layers 285
SONET Rings—For Greater Reliability 286
Telephone Company SONET Offerings 287
SONET Connections to Wave Division Multiplexers 288
Meshed Optical Technology—Lower Costs, More Suitable for Data than SONET 289
7 Analog, Cable TV and Digital Modems and Set-Top Boxes 291
Transferring Data from Computers to Telephone Lines 292
DCE—Connections to Telephone Lines 294
Modems—Analog Telephone Lines for Transmitting Data from Digital Devices 295
Fax Modems 296
56-Kbps Modems to Achieve Higher Speeds 296
PCMCIA Modems—Smaller Is Better 299
NTIS—CONNECTING DEVICES TO AN ISDN LINE 299
CSU/DSUs—Connecting Devices to a Digital Line 300
Cable Modems—Using Cable TV Facilities for Data Communications 301
Reverse Channels for Two-Way Data Communications 302
Cable Modems 302
Cable Modems for Business and for Remote Access 305
Set-Top Boxes 307
Interoperable Set-Top Boxes 308
Digital Cable TV 310
Appendix: Modem Standards 311
8 The Internet 315
The History of the Internet 317
Bulletin Board Systems(BBSs) 319
Who Runs the Internet? 319
Who Owns the Internet? 320
Peering—A Way to Exchange Data Between Networks 320
Content Delivery Networks(CDNs) and Caching—Solving the Problem of Bogged-Down Web Sites 321
Internet Services 322
The World Wide Web—Linking and Graphics 323
Hypertext Markup Language(HTML)—Formatting Web Pages 324
Home Pages 325
Hosting—Computers Connected to the Internet With Home Pages 327
Browsers—Moving from Web Site to Web Site 328
Email—Computers that Send, Store and Receive Messages 330
Email Attachments—To Aid Collaborative Projects 331
HTML Email as a Marketing Tool 332
Instant Messaging—Real-Time Text Chats 333
Internet Service Providers, Application Service Providers and Portals 335
Dialup and Dedicated Internet Access 336
Application Service Providers(ASPs) 338
Portals—Content as Well as Internet Access 338
Search Engines 342
Internet Addresses 346
Registries—Management of Entire Top-Level Domains 346
Registrars 347
Numeric IP Addresses 347
The Structure of Internet Addresses and Adding Capacity for More Addresses 347
New Generic Top-Level Domains(gTLDs) 348
Country Code Top-Level Domain Names(ccTLDs) 349
Electronic Commerce and Advertising on the Web 349
Advertising on the Web—A Source of Revenue 350
Online Commerce—What Is Profitable and Sells? 351
Privacy on the World Wide Web 354
Opt-out vs. Opt-in—Different Approaches to Protecting Privacy 356
Legal Issues 357
Post-Napster Music Industry Online Efforts 358
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act(DMCA)—Royalties for Radio over the Internet 359
Anti-pornography Laws and Freedom of Speech 359
Filtering Software—Policing Corporate Browsing and Email 361
Open Cable—Cable Companies as Both ISPs and Network Service Providers 361
ISP Service for Cable TV 361
Open Cable Service—Trialing Connections to Other IPS 362
Intranets and Extranets 365
Intranets—lmpact of Web Technology on Internal Operations 365
Extranets—Using Internet Technology With Customers, Partners and Vendors 366
Security on the World Wide Web—Establishing Trust 367
Public and Private Keys and Digital Certificates 368
Firewalls and Tunneling 368
Making the Internet a Trusted Place to Do Business 369
Conclusion 370
9 Wireless Services 371
Historical Background of Mobile and Cellular Services 376
Spectrum Allocation 377
Spectrum for Higher Speed 3G Services 378
Cellular Telephone Service—Technologies 379
Advanced Mobile Phone Services(AMPS) 379
Digital-Advanced Mobile Phone Service—D-AMPS 380
PCS—Personal Communications Services 381
GSM Service 382
Specialized Mobile Frequencies for Voice—Nextel 383
Cellular Vendors 384
Verizon Wireless 384
Cingular Wireless 384
AT&T Wireless 385
GSM Providers 385
Sprint PCS 386
The Structure of Cellular Networks 386
The Cellular Market 387
Efforts to Improve Service—Antenna Improvements 389
Health Concerns 390
Safety on the Road 391
Privacy and Advertising Intrusions on Cellular E911 394
Called Party Pays—An Impediment to Cellular Usage 395
Limited Mobility Wireless for Local Telephone Service 397
Wireless Number Portability—Keeping the Same Number When Changing Carriers 398
Limitations of Circuit-Switched Cellular for Data Communications 398
CDPD—Cellular Digital Packet Data, IP Wireless 398
The Transition from Second to Third Generation Cellular Networks 399
The Transition to W-CDMA-GPRS—Data Carried as Packets in 2.5G Networks 401
EDGE-Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution 402
Upgrades to W-CDMA from GSM—Costly 402
The Transition to cdma2000—1xRTT(First Generation cdma2000) and HDR (High Data Rate) 403
A Comparison Between W-CDMA and cdma2000 404
Handsets for 3G and 2.5G Services 405
All-Packet Cellular Networks for Voice and Data 406
4G—Futures 406
Mobile Internet Access, Messaging Services and Bluetooth 406
Mobile Commerce 407
Short Messaging Service(SMS) 407
Bluetooth 408
The Wireless Application Protocol(WAP) 408
i-mode Service Worldwide 409
Specialized Mobile Radio—Originally Voice, Later Data 409
Private Networks over Mobile Radio Frequencies 410
Specialized Mobile Radio—Packetized Data Networks for Two-Way Email and Field Services 410
Paging Services 411
Paging vs. Wireless Telephone Service 412
Two-Way Paging Using Narrowband PCS 412
Satellites 413
VSAT Service—Small Satellite Dishes 414
Vendors of LEOs 416
Time Division Multiple Access, GSM and Code Division Multiple Access Air Interfaces 416
Code Division Multiple Access 418
Time Division Multiple Access and GSM 418
10 Globalization 419
The Impetus to Deregulate 421
Steps in Deregulation 421
Challenges 422
Trends in Global Markets 422
Latin America 424
Brazil 424
Mexico 429
Argentina 430
Impact of Poverty 433
Asia 437
China 437
Japan 442
The Internet 449
Cellular Service 450
Europe 453
The European Union 453
Cellular Service 455
Germany 457
The United Kingdom 460
France 462
Africa and the Middle East—Emerging Markets 471
Africa 472
The Middle East 472
Conclusion 473
Glossary 475
Bibliography 487
Index 489