Features of Telecommunications Networks, Including Key Networking

¶ … features of telecommunications networks, including key networking technologies. Cover the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, including each logical layer.

The OSI layer covers the different layers and types of communication that occurs within a network. The layers, in order of complexity from greatest to lowest are application, presentation, session, transport, network, data link and physical. The physical layer is the actual transport medium like network cable and such while routers and switches address much of the middle layers while the "window" to the user is the application layer at the very top. Telecommoniciation networks, and this is something that will be answered more in-depth later in this report, are very computer driven and are in many ways indistinguishable from regular computer networks as phone and conventional internet networks are very much one and the same and this is especially true when speaking Voice over IP (VOIP) technologies and the like. Even so, more dated technology is still commonly used in the forms of phone switches, networks and the commonly known area code and regional prefix systems that have been around for decades.

2) Discuss whether telephone networks and computer networks will remain distinct in the future.

To finish the question that had its answer started in the answer to the first question, the difference and line between internet networks and phone networks is getting harder and harder to see. For example, there are software packages and suites like Skype, IP Agent and so forth that allow people to use computer applications to initiate, forward and track calls. Client service organizations now have technology that allowed a call to be recorded with direct sync to what a computer user is doing, accessing and using on their desktop as the call progresses. Then there is the aforementioned voice over IP (VOIP) technology whereby phone calls are transported via the Internet rather than in old school phone lines and phone numbers can be ported and wielded from any area code and from any location, much like cell phone users have been able to do for a while. Internet/VOIP phones can be assigned a given phone number and can then be used from any location with Internet provided the right service providers and infrastructure is in place, thus eliminating the need for the involvement of a conventional phone service provider like AT&T o something similar.

3) Describe various network media and how they are changing.

Wired is still the way to go whenever possible but the speed of wireless technologies such as the recent ascent of "4G" phones and network bandwidth as well as "N" and "AC" routers which often push (if not exceed) the gigabit speeds that were the rage on wired connections just a few years ago. However, as noted elsewhere in this report, using wireless technology can be wide open and dangerous (no encryption) or even wrongly assuring (TJX using WEP encryption). However, going wired on everything is not always possible or practical so the media is changing mostly in terms of speed, and not so much brand new technology, but the speeds are getting the job done…at least for now.

4. Explain the differences among LANS, WANS, CANS, and MANS.

As for the similarity and differences with LAN's, WAN's, CAN's and MAN's, the "AN" part of all of those acronyms are "area networks" with the distinction being how wide a scope the network is. A local area network (LAN) is usually a localized and smaller area like an office or home. A Wide Area Network (WAN) is much larger and can encompass something as localized as a city or as wide as the entire world. However, the other two fall in between. A "CAN" can either be a corporate area network or a campus area network, with the former being the network of a corporation with the other typically being for something like a college or high school. Basically, the latter is a network for a school of some sort.

5. Describe three (3) ways in which businesses use Internet services and protocols. (For example, what is VoIP and how is it used?)

As for protocols that a business can wield, there are a number of protocols that are almost always or can be used. The prolific one is TCP/IP, which is the common language on much of the Internet, but far from being the only one. Voice over IP, the same protocol mentioned in the earlier questions, is the main way in which phone technology has melded and meshed with the internet. Older phone technology was based on analog signals and the information basically remain in an analog format for the entire trip. With Voice over IP, phone conversations can be spoken into a phone designed for analog lines and then transmitted into and through a user's modem (or business network, for business users) and then transmitted digitally throughout the network. For phones that are designed specifically for VOIP, the process is entirely digital. Such phones are made by companies like Cisco and other networking giants. Analog phones use conventional phone lines, also known as RJ-11 jacks, to connect to the phone while VOIP phones use the same RJ-45 Ethernet connectors as any computer, switch or router. Beyond that, business networks can be enabled to allow for computers to talk directly to each other and thus leave a physical phone entirely out of the equation. The huge upside to a voice over IP setup is that calls can be made with little to no cost and are much cheaper than per minute or even per month rates that are billed to corporate networks for analog-based calls.

Another protocol that is used extensively in the corporate world, and one that has given many a firm a black eye, is the use of encrypted protocols such as WEP and WPA. The former was the protocol used to transmit credit card information wirelessly by TJX Corporation, the parent company of TJ Maxx, and that was a problem because that encryption was cracked for years before TJX got compromised due to using the compromised technology. WPA and other encryptions such as Blowfish and such have supplanted WEP and other weaker and cracked encryptions with the quality of the encryption usually being indicated by the amount of bits behind it, with 256 bit encryption or higher being strongly preferred (Ou, 2007).