PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK
The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the concentration of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks, in much the same way that the Internet is the concentration of the world's public IP-based packet-switched networks. Originally a network of fixed-line analog telephone systems, the PSTN is now almost entirely digital, and now includes mobile as well as fixed telephones.
Architecture and context
The PSTN was the earliest example of traffic engineering to deliver Quality of Service guarantees. A.K. Erlang (1878-1929) is credited with establishing the mathematical foundations of methods required to determine the amount and configuration of equipment and personnel required to deliver a specific level of service.
Only the very oldest and most backward parts of the telephone network still use analogue technology for anything other than the last mile loop to the end user, and in recent years digital services have been increasingly rolled out to end users using services such as DSL, ISDN and Cable Systems.
MODEM
A modem (a portmanteau constructed from modulate and demodulate) is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data. Modems can be used over any means of transmitting analog signals, from driven diodes to radio. Experiments have even been performed in the use of modems over the medium of two cans connected by a string.
The most familiar example of a modem turns the digital '1s and 0s' of a personal computer into sounds that can be transmitted over the telephone lines of Plain Old Telephone Systems (POTS), and once received on the other side, converts those sounds back into 1s and 0s. Modems are generally classified by the amount of data they can send in a given time, normally measured in bits per second, or "bps".
Far more exotic modems are used by Internet users every day, notably cable modems and ADSL modems. In telecommunications, "radio modems" transmit repeating frames of data at very high data rates over microwave radio links. Some microwave modems transmit more than a hundred million bits per second. Optical modems transmit data over optic fibers. Most intercontinental data links now use optic modems transmitting over undersea optical fibers. Optical modems routinely have data rates in excess of a billion (1x109) bits per second.
Dedicated line
In computer networks and telecommunications, a dedicated line is a communications cable dedicated to a specific application, in contrast with a shared resource such as the telephone network or the Internet.
In practice, such services may not be provided by a single, discrete, end-to-end cable, but they do provide guarantees of constant bandwidth availability and near-constant latency, properties that cannot be guaranteed for more public systems. Such properties add a considerable premium to the price charged.
As more general-purpose systems have improved, dedicated lines have been steadily replaced by intranets and the public Internet, but they are still useful for time-critical, high-bandwidth applications such as video transmission.
Leased line
A leased line is a symmetric telecommunications line connecting two locations together. Unlike traditional PSTN lines they do not have a telephone number, each side of the line being permanently connected to the other. They can be used for telephone, data or Internet services.
The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the concentration of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks, in much the same way that the Internet is the concentration of the world's public IP-based packet-switched networks. Originally a network of fixed-line analog telephone systems, the PSTN is now almost entirely digital, and now includes mobile as well as fixed telephones.
Architecture and context
The PSTN was the earliest example of traffic engineering to deliver Quality of Service guarantees. A.K. Erlang (1878-1929) is credited with establishing the mathematical foundations of methods required to determine the amount and configuration of equipment and personnel required to deliver a specific level of service.
Only the very oldest and most backward parts of the telephone network still use analogue technology for anything other than the last mile loop to the end user, and in recent years digital services have been increasingly rolled out to end users using services such as DSL, ISDN and Cable Systems.
MODEM
A modem (a portmanteau constructed from modulate and demodulate) is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data. Modems can be used over any means of transmitting analog signals, from driven diodes to radio. Experiments have even been performed in the use of modems over the medium of two cans connected by a string.
The most familiar example of a modem turns the digital '1s and 0s' of a personal computer into sounds that can be transmitted over the telephone lines of Plain Old Telephone Systems (POTS), and once received on the other side, converts those sounds back into 1s and 0s. Modems are generally classified by the amount of data they can send in a given time, normally measured in bits per second, or "bps".
Far more exotic modems are used by Internet users every day, notably cable modems and ADSL modems. In telecommunications, "radio modems" transmit repeating frames of data at very high data rates over microwave radio links. Some microwave modems transmit more than a hundred million bits per second. Optical modems transmit data over optic fibers. Most intercontinental data links now use optic modems transmitting over undersea optical fibers. Optical modems routinely have data rates in excess of a billion (1x109) bits per second.
Dedicated line
In computer networks and telecommunications, a dedicated line is a communications cable dedicated to a specific application, in contrast with a shared resource such as the telephone network or the Internet.
In practice, such services may not be provided by a single, discrete, end-to-end cable, but they do provide guarantees of constant bandwidth availability and near-constant latency, properties that cannot be guaranteed for more public systems. Such properties add a considerable premium to the price charged.
As more general-purpose systems have improved, dedicated lines have been steadily replaced by intranets and the public Internet, but they are still useful for time-critical, high-bandwidth applications such as video transmission.
Leased line
A leased line is a symmetric telecommunications line connecting two locations together. Unlike traditional PSTN lines they do not have a telephone number, each side of the line being permanently connected to the other. They can be used for telephone, data or Internet services.
