Chapter 4. Breaking Up the Big Picture!
- Table of Contents
- The Local Loop
- Local Area Networks (LANS)
- MANs
- WANs
The Big Picture still doesn't give us a good idea of the placement of the many protocols involved in networking and telecommunications. The Big Picture can be broken up according to its protocols into the following four areas:
Local Loops
LANs
MANs
WANs
The Local Loop
The Local Loop is often called "the last mile", and it refers to the last mile of analog phone line that goes from the telephone company's central office (CO) to your house. Typical local loop protocols are:
Voice lines
Modem connections - 56 kbps
ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) - 2 x 64 kbps digital lines
ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line) - up to 8 Mbps
Cable Modems - up to 30 Mbps
Note: Cable modems are not part of the local loop but do fall into the category of the last mile, or how high speed digital communication gets to the premises (home). It would incredibly expensive to replace the existing cabling structure. and because this cabling was designed for voice communications rather than digital, all of these protocols are needed to overcome the existing cabling limitations in the local loop and provide high speed digital data transmission.
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