BROADBAND DIGITAL NETWORKS

Lecture # 1

Review of Narrowband &

Broadband Technologies
1
Recommended Books
Computer Networks
By
Andrew.S.Tenenbaum.

Computer Networking A Top Down Approach

By
James F. Kurose, Keith W Ross

Data & Computer Communication By

William Stallings
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 Access
and
Interconnection Technologies

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 Introduction
• Today’s Lecture
– discusses access technologies, such as dialup, DSL, and cable
modems
– considers high-capacity digital circuits used in the core of the Internet
– expands the discussion of the telephone system multiplexing
hierarchy
– gives examples of circuits that common carriers offer to businesses
and ISPs
– focuses on the data communications aspects of the technologies by
considering multiplexing and data rates

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 Internet Access Technology: Upstream
and Downstream
• Internet access technology refers to a data communications
system that connects an Internet subscriber to an ISP
– such as a telephone company(DSL) or cable company
• How is access technology designed?
• Most Internet users follow an asymmetric pattern
– a subscriber receives more data from the Internet than sending
• a browser sends a URL that comprises a few bytes
• in response, a web server sends content
• Upstream to refer to data traveling from a subscriber to an
ISP
• Downstream to refer to data traveling from an ISP in the
Internet to a subscriber
• Figure 1 illustrates the definitions

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Internet Access Technology: Upstream
and Downstream

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 Narrowband and Broadband Access
Technologies
• A variety of technologies are used for Internet access
• They can be divided into two broad categories based on the
data rate they provide
– Narrowband
– Broadband
• In networking terms, network bandwidth refers to data rate
• Thus, the terms narrowband and broadband reflect industry
practice
– Narrowband Technologies
– Broadband Technologies

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 Narrowband and Broadband Access
Technologies [1]
• Narrowband Technologies
– refers to technologies that deliver data at up to 128 Kbps
– For example, the maximum data rate for dialup noisy phone lines is
56 Kbps and classified as a narrowband technology
– Figure 12.2 (below) summarizes the main narrowband access
technologies

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 Narrowband and Broadband Access
Technologies [2]
• Broadband Technologies
– generally refers to technologies that offer high data rates, but the
exact boundary between broadband and narrowband is blurry
• many suggest that broadband technologies deliver more than 1 Mbps
• but this is not always the case, and may mean any speed higher than dialup
– Figure (below) summarizes the main broadband access technologies

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Narrowband vs Broadband

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Internet connection—Narrow or Broadband

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 ISP Hierarchy

customer

Local loop or Last mile

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 Local Loop Technologies

• Electric local loop(POTS lines): Voice, ISDN, DSL

• Optical local loop: Fiber Optics services such as FiOS
• Satellite local loop: communications satellite and cosmos
Internet connections of satellite television (DVB-S)
• Cable local loop: Cablemodem
• Wireless local loop (WLL): LMDS, WiMAX, GPRS, HSDPA,
DECT

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 The Local Loop and ISDN
• Local loop describes the physical connection between a
telephone company Central Office (CO) and a subscriber
– consists of twisted pair and dialup call with 4 KHz of bandwidth
• It often has much higher bandwidth; a subscriber close to a CO may be able
to handle frequencies above 1 MHz
• Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)
– ISDN offers three separate digital channels
– designated B, B, and D (usually written 2B + D)
• The 2 B channels (each 64 Kbps) are intended to carry
digitized voice, data, or compressed video
– Both of the B channels can be combined or bonded to produce a
single channel with an effective data rate of 128 Kbps
• The D channel (16 Kbps) is used as a control channel
• Newer local loop technologies provide higher data rates at
lower cost, relegating ISDN to a few special cases
• ISDN has little niche market in US, pretty popular in Japan &
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Europe
 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
Technologies
• DSL is one of the main technologies used to provide high-speed data
communication services over a local loop
• Figure (below) lists DSL variants
– Because the names differ only in the first word, the set is collectively referred
to by the acronym xDSL
– Currently, ADSL is most popular

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 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
Technologies
• ADSL is the most widely deployed variant
– and the one that most residential customers use
• ADSL uses FDM to divide the bandwidth of the local loop
into three regions
– one of the regions corresponds to traditional analog phone service,
which is known as Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS)
– and two regions provide data communication
• Figure (below) illustrates how ADSL divides bandwidth

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 Local Loop Characteristics and
Adaptation
• ADSL technology is complex
– because no two local loops have identical electrical characteristics
• ADSL is adaptive
– That is, when a pair of ADSL modems are powered on, they probe
the line between them to find its characteristics
– agree to communicate using techniques that are optimal for the line
• ADSL uses Discrete Multi Tone modulation (DMT)
– that combines frequency division multiplexing and inverse
multiplexing techniques
• FDM in DMT is implemented by dividing the bandwidth into
286 separate frequencies called sub-channels
– 255 sub-channels allocated for downstream data transmission
– 31 allocated for upstream data transmission

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 Local Loop Characteristics and
Adaptation
• Two of the upstream channels are reserved for control
information
• There is a separate modem running on each sub-channel,
which has its own modulated carrier
– Carriers are spaced at 4.1325 KHz intervals to keep the signals from
interfering with one another
• To guarantee that its transmissions do not interfere with
analog phone signals
– ADSL avoids using the bandwidth below 26 KHz
• Two ends assess the signal quality at each frequency
– Use the quality to select a modulation scheme
– If a particular frequency has a high signal-to-noise ratio
• ADSL selects a modulation scheme that encodes many bits per baud
– If the quality on a given frequency is low
• ADSL selects a modulation scheme that encodes fewer bits per baud

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 The Data Rate of ADSL
• How fast can ADSL operate? ADSL can achieve
– a downstream rate of 8.448 Mbps on short local loops
– and an upstream rate of 640 Kbps
• Network control channel requires 64 Kbps
• The effective upstream rate for user data is 576 Kbps
• ADSL2 can download at close to 20 Mbps
• Adaptation has an interesting property
– ADSL does not guarantee a data rate
– ADSL can only guarantee to do as well as line conditions allow
• Those farther(physical distance) from a CO (or local loop passes near
sources of interference) lower data rates than subscribers who live near
the CO (or a local loop does not pass near sources of interference) thus
– the downstream rate varies from 32 Kbps to 8.448 Mbps
– the upstream rate varies from 32 to 640 Kbps

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 ADSL Installation and Splitters
• Analog phones operate at frequencies below 4 KHz
– lifting a receiver can generate noise that interferes with DSL signals
• ADSL uses an FDM device known as a splitter
– It divides the bandwidth by passing low frequencies to one output
and high frequencies to another
– A splitter is passive; it does not require power
– A splitter is usually installed at the location where the local loop
enters a residence or business
• Figure 12.6 illustrates the connection
• A variation of ADSL wiring (DSL-lite) has become popular
– it does not require a splitter to be installed on the incoming line
– a subscriber can install DSL by plugging a splitter into a wall jack
and plugging a telephone into the splitter

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ADSL Installation and Splitters

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 Cable Modem Technologies
• A variety of wireless and wired technologies have been
developed for use in the local loop
• An alternative access technology that uses the wiring
already in place for cable television
• It is also known as Community Antenna TeleVision (CATV)
• It uses FDM to deliver TV signals over coaxial cable
– CATV is not available in all countries
• Coaxial cable has high bandwidth and is less susceptible to
electromagnetic interference than twisted pair
• CATV systems use FDM to deliver many channels
– In CATV the bandwidth is insufficient to handle a FDM scheme that
extends a channel to each user
– Using a separate channel per subscriber does not scale
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Cablemodem connection

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Home Network connection

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 12.10 The Data Rate of Cable Modems
• How fast can a cable modem operate?
– In theory, a cable system can support data rates of 52 Mbps
downstream and 512 Kbps upstream.
• In practice, the rate can be much less
• The data rate of a cable modem only pertains to
communication between the local cable office and the
subscriber's site
• The bandwidth is shared among a set of N subscribers (the
size of the set is controlled by the cable provider)
– sharing the bandwidth with other subscribers can be a disadvantage
• because the effective data rate available to each individual subscriber
varies over time
– if N subscribers share a single frequency
• the amount of capacity available to an individual subscriber will be 1/N
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Cable Infrastructure

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 12.11 Cable Modem Installation
• Cable modem installation is straightforward
• Cable modems attach to the cable wiring directly
• The FDM hardware in existing cable boxes and cable
modems guarantees that data and entertainment channels
will not interfere with one another

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 12.12 Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC)
• HFC can provide high-speed data communications
– a HFC system uses a combination of optical fibers and coaxial cables
– fiber used for the central facilities and coax used for connections to
individual subscribers
• An HFC system is hierarchical
– It uses fiber optics for the portions that require the highest bandwidth
– and it uses coax for parts that can tolerate lower data rates
• Trunk to refer to the high-capacity connections between the
cable office and each neighborhood area
• Feeder circuit to refer to the connection to an individual
subscriber
– Trunk connections can be up to 15 miles long
– Feeder circuits are usually less than a mile

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12.12 Hybrid Fiber Coax

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12.13 Access Technologies That Employ
Optical Fiber
• There are available a variety of technologies that either
employ optical fiber in a hybrid system or deploy optical fiber
all the way to each subscriber
• Figure 12.8 summarizes names of key technologies

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12.13 Access Technologies That Employ
Optical Fiber
• Fiber To The Curb (FTTC)
– it uses optical fiber for high capacity trunks
– the idea is to run optical fiber close to the end subscriber
– and then use copper for the feeder circuits
– it uses two media in each feeder circuit to allow the cable system to
provide an additional service, such as voice
• Fiber To The Building (FTTB)
– it will use optical fiber to allow high upstream data rates for businesses
• Fiber To The Home (FTTH)
– uses optical fiber to deliver higher downstream data rates to
residential subscribers
– The emphasis is on many channels of entertainment and video
• Fiber To The Premises (FTTP)
– A generic term, FTTP, encompasses both FTTB and FTTH
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 12.15 Wireless Access Technologies
• How to provide access in rural areas?
– Imagine a farm or remote village many miles from the nearest city
– The twisted pair wiring used to deliver telephone service to such
locations exceeds the maximum distance for technologies like ADSL
– Rural areas are least likely to have cable television service
• Even in suburban areas, technologies like ADSL may have
technical restrictions on the type of line they can use
– it may be impossible to use high frequencies on telephone lines that
contain loading coils, bridge taps, or repeaters
• Local loop technology may not work on all lines
– To handle special cases, a variety of wireless access technologies
have been explored
– Figure 12.9 lists a few examples

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12.15 Wireless Access Technologies

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Wireless connections

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Satellite connection

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 12.16 High-Capacity Connections at the
Internet Core
• Access technologies handle the last mile(sometimes called
as First mile) problem
– where the last mile is defined as the connection to a typical
residential subscriber or a small business
• An access technology provides sufficient capacity for a
residential subscriber or a small business
– the term Small Office Home Office (SOHO) is used to refer them
• Connections to large businesses or connections among
providers require substantially more bandwidth
• Core refers to connections at the backbone of Internet
• Core technologies refers to high-speed technologies
• Figure 12.10 shows the aggregate traffic from the Internet to
the provider
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12.16 High-Capacity Connections at the
Internet Core

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 12.16 High-Capacity Connections at the
Internet Core
• What technology can a provider use to move data a long
distance at a rate of 10 Gbps?
– The answer lies in a point-to-point digital circuit leased from a
telephone company
– High-capacity digital circuits are available for a monthly fee, and can
be used to transfer data
• Telephone companies have the authority to install wiring
that crosses municipal streets
• A circuit can extend between two buildings, across a city, or
from a location in one city to a location in another
– The fee charged depends on the data rate of the circuit and the
distance spanned

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 12.17 Circuit Termination, DSU/CSU,
and NIU
• To use a leased digital circuit, one must agree to follow the
rules of the telephone system
– including adhering to the standards that were designed for
transmitting digitized voice
• Computer industry and the telephone industry developed
independently
– Standards for telephone system digital circuits differ from those used
in the computer industry
– A special piece of hardware is needed to interface a computer to a
digital circuit provided by a telephone company
– Known as a Data Service Unit/Channel Service Unit (DSU/CSU)
• Device contains two functional parts, usually combined into a single chassis
– The CSU portion of the DSU/CSU device handles line termination
and diagnostics

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 12.17 Circuit Termination, DSU/CSU,
and NIU
• A CSU also contains a loopback test facility
– that allows the CSU to transmit a copy of all data that arrives across
the circuit back to the sender without further processing
• We need to prevent excessive 1s
– having too many contiguous 1 bits would mean excessive current on
the cable
– To prevent problems, a CSU can either use
• an encoding that guarantees a balance (e.g., a differential encoding)
• or a technique known as bit stuffing
• The DSU portion of a DSU/CSU handles the data
– It translates data between the digital format used on the carrier's
circuit and the digital format required by the customer's computer

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 12.17 Circuit Termination, DSU/CSU,
and NIU
• The interface standard used on the computer side depends
on the rate that the circuit operates
– If the data rate is less than 56 Kbps, the computer can use RS-232
– For rates above 56 Kbps, the computer must use interface hardware
that supports higher speeds (e.g., use RS-449 or V.35 standards)
• One additional piece of equipment may be used
– known as Network Interface Unit (NIU), sometimes as Smartjack
• NIU forms a boundary between equipment owned by the
telco and equipment provided by the subscriber
– The telephone company refers to the boundary as the demarc
• A digital circuit needs a DSU/CSU at each end
– It translates between the digital representation used by phone
companies and the digital representation used by the computer
industry
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CSU/DSU for T1 connection
(T1)

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