Internet Connection Technologies
The Internet is connecting a wide variety of devices: desktop and laptop computers,
servers, routers, switches, tablets, cell phones, ATMs, industrial equipment,
medical devices, and even some cars. The technologies used to connect them to the
Internet are diverse.
Dial-Up
As computer usage expanded over the 20th century, the need for data sharing became
evident. Before modern technologies like Ethernet, TCP, or IP existed, early
computer networks focused on connecting devices in close proximity. In the late
1970s, two Duke University graduate students realized they could use the public
telephone network (PSTN) for data transfer, leading to the creation of USENET, a
precursor to dial-up networks.
Dial-up connections, which use POTS, involve modems that convert computer data into
audible sounds transmitted over phone lines. Initially slow, with baud rates of
around 110 bits per second in the 1950s, this speed increased to 14.4 kilobits per
second by the 1990s. While dial-up is rare today, it once represented the primary
way computers communicated over long distances.
Broadband Internet Technologies
The term "broadband" refers to faster, always-on Internet connections, which
revolutionized how businesses and home users accessed the Internet. Before
broadband, businesses used T-carrier technologies to meet their bandwidth needs, as
dial-up couldn't keep up with the demands of multiple users. These technologies
were initially designed for transmitting phone calls but also became essential for
high-speed data transfer.
In the evolution of the Internet, various technologies played a crucial role in
making it what it is today. Initially, when businesses entered the broadband arena,
it paved the way for widespread home internet usage. As the Internet's elements,
such as the World Wide Web, became more intricate, they demanded ever-increasing
data transfer rates.
In the era of dial-up, even a single image on a web page could take many seconds to
download and display. High-resolution photos that can now be taken on smartphones
would have required a considerable amount of time and patience to download. A
single smartphone picture can easily be several megabytes. At a baud rate of 14.4
kilobits per second, downloading that many bits would have taken nearly 20 minutes.
Without broadband internet technologies, we wouldn't have the Internet as we know
it today. We wouldn't be able to stream music, movies, or easily share photos.
Taking online courses like this one would be quite challenging.
Let's delve into four of the most common broadband solutions today: T-carrier
technologies, digital subscriber lines (DSL), cable broadband, and fiber
connections.
T-carrier technologies
T-carrier technologies, initially created by AT&T to handle multiple phone calls
over a single cable, have come a long way. The first T-carrier specification, T1,
allowed 24 simultaneous phone calls over a single twisted pair of copper wires.
This technology later transitioned to data transfers, with each of the 24 phone
channels capable of transmitting data at 64 kilobits per second, resulting in a T1
line transmitting data at 1.544 megabits per second. While T-carrier technologies
are still in use, cable broadband and fiber connections are more common and cost-
effective for small businesses today. Fiber technologies have replaced older
copper-based ones for inter-ISP communications.
DSL
In the early days, the public telephone network served as the primary means for
connecting people to the Internet. Dial-up connections, using audio waves to
transmit data, were the norm. However, as demand for faster Internet grew,
telephone companies explored new ways to use the existing infrastructure.
Research revealed that modern telephone lines, using twisted pair copper, could
transmit far more data than needed for voice calls. Digital subscriber line (DSL)
technology made this possible by operating in a frequency range that didn't
interfere with traditional phone calls. DSL allowed simultaneous voice calls and
data transfers on the same line, much like dial-up, but with long-running
connections. Various types of DSL exist, with ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber
Line) providing faster download speeds compared to upload speeds, and SDSL
(Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line) offering equal upload and download speeds. SDSL
was primarily used by businesses hosting servers that needed to send data to
clients.
As the general bandwidth available on the Internet has expanded and as the cost of
operation has come down over the years, SDSL is now more common for both businesses
and home users. Most SDSL technologies have an upper cap of 1.544 megabits a
second, the same as a T1 line. Further developments in SDSL technology have yielded
things like HDSL or High Bit-rate Digital Subscriber Lines, which offer speeds
above 1.544 megabits per second. There are many other minor variations in DSL
technology offering different bandwidth options and operating distances.
Cable Internet
The history of both the telephone and computer networking tells a story that
started with all communications being wired. But the recent trend is moving towards
more and more of this traffic becoming wireless.
The history of television follows the opposite path. Originally, all television
broadcasts were wireless transmissions sent out by giant television towers and
received by smaller antennas in people's homes. This meant you had to be within
range of one of these television towers to watch TV, just like you have to be
within range of a cell phone tower to use your cellphone today.
Starting in the late 1940s in the United States, the first cable television
technologies were developed to provide television access to remote areas. Cable
television continued to expand slowly over the decades, but in 1984, The Cable
Communications Policy Act was passed, deregulating the cable television business in
the United States and causing a massive boom in growth and adoption.
By the early 1990s, cable television infrastructure in the United States was about
the size of the public telephone system. Not too long after that, cable providers
started offering high-speed Internet access using the same cables. This is what we
refer to as cable broadband.
One of the main differences of cable Internet access compared to other broadband
solutions is that cable is a shared bandwidth technology. Technologies like DSL
connect directly to a Central Office and guarantee a certain amount of bandwidth
since it's a point-to-point connection.
Cable Internet uses a shared bandwidth model, where many users share a certain
amount of bandwidth until the transmissions reach the ISP's core network. Cable
Internet connections are usually done via a cable modem, which connects to the
cable modem termination system (CMTS), linking many cable connections to an ISP's
core network.
FTTx Technologies
The core of the Internet primarily uses fiber connections due to their high speed
and the ability to transmit data over long distances without signal degradation.
Fiber connections utilize light for data transmission instead of electrical
currents. This technology was initially expensive and used by ISPs in their core
networks or data centers. However, it's now being used closer to end-users.
Fiber to the “x” (FTTx) is a collective term used to describe a wide range of
broadband network architecture options utilizing optical fiber for some or all of
their connectivity.
One term you might encounter is FTTN, meaning fiber to the neighborhood, where
fiber connects to a cabinet serving an area, with copper or coax for the last few
hundred meters. FTTB, or fiber to the building, involves fiber to individual
buildings, with copper used inside. FTTH, or fiber to the home, brings fiber
directly to residences. FTTH and FTTB are also called FTTP (Fiber to the Premises).
The demarcation point for fiber technologies is the ONT (Optical Network Terminal),
converting data between fiber and copper networks.
From LAN to WAN and Clouds
In a scenario of a small company, one initially uses non-routable internal IPs to
conserve address space. A router with NAT, a local DNS server, and a DHCP server
are set up. An ISP contract provides internet access.
As the company expands, a VPN server and port forwarding allow remote access. For a
new office in another city, WAN technologies are needed to connect distant
locations via the Internet, with ISP involvement. WANs include local loops and use
data link layer protocols to transport data.
WAN technologies are suitable for large-scale data transport, but point-to-point
VPNs have become more popular as companies move services to the cloud, outsourcing
infrastructure management to other companies.
In the past, companies needed to run their own email servers to have an email
presence. Nowadays, cloud hosting providers can handle email servers for you. You
can even use email as a service provider, eliminating the need for your own server.
This shift has reduced the need for high-speed connections between business sites,
making WAN technology less necessary. Instead, companies use point-to-point VPNs to
ensure site-to-site communication. A point-to-point VPN establishes a tunnel
between two sites, managed by network devices.
Wireless Networking
In today's world, wireless networking has become prevalent, allowing devices to
connect without physical cables. Wireless networks follow IEEE 802.11 standards,
often referred to as WiFi. These standards define how wireless devices communicate
over radio waves, typically using 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. Common specifications
include 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac, and 802.11ax each offering
improvements in speed and device capacity. These standards operate at both the
physical and data link layers.
Wireless Networking Basics
The 802.11 frame consists of several fields, starting with the frame control field,
which instructs how the frame should be processed. The duration field specifies the
frame's length. Four address fields are present because wireless networks often
have multiple access points. These access points bridge the wireless and wired
parts of a network. Devices associate with the nearest access point, and these
address fields help determine which access point should process the frame.
In wireless networking, frames are used to transmit data. These frames contain Mac
addresses, and there are four 6-byte address fields in each frame. Between the
third and fourth address fields, you'll find the sequence control field, which is
16 bits long and helps keep track of the frame order. After this comes the data
payload, which carries the actual data. Finally, there's a frame check sequence
field, similar to Ethernet's checksum.
Wireless networks can be configured in a few main ways:
1. Ad-Hoc Networks: These are the simplest. Devices communicate directly with each
other, and there's no supporting network infrastructure. They're used in scenarios
like smartphones sharing data, industrial settings, or disaster relief.
2. Wireless LANs (WLANs): This is the most common type in commercial use. It
involves one or more access points acting as bridges between the wireless and wired
networks. Access points forward traffic to the gateway router, which connects to
the wired network.
3. Mesh Networks: These are like ad-hoc networks, with devices communicating
wirelessly in a mesh. Most mesh networks consist of wireless access points
connected to a wired network. This allows for easy expansion and increased network
performance.
Wireless Network Channels
Channels are crucial in wireless networking because they address the issue of
collision domains. A collision domain is a segment where one computer's
transmission can interrupt another. In wireless networks, collisions can happen
more frequently. Channels divide the frequency band into smaller sections, reducing
the chance of overlapping transmissions, which can slow down the network.
Wi-Fi uses 2.4 Gigahertz and 5 Gigahertz bands for communication. Wireless networks
that operate in the 2.4 Gigahertz band cover a range from 2.4 Gigahertz to 2.5
Gigahertz. Within this range, there are several channels, each with a certain
megahertz width. The number of available channels varies depending on your location
due to different regulatory committees around the world.
For instance, in the case of an 802.11b network, channel one operates at 2412
megahertz, but its signal extends between 2401 megahertz and 2423 megahertz. Some
channels overlap, while others are sufficiently separated to prevent interference.
In the 2.4 Gigahertz band, channels 1, 6, and 11 do not overlap for 802.11b
networks.
Most modern wireless equipment can automatically detect and switch channels to
reduce congestion. However, dense urban areas may still face channel congestion.
Understanding channel overlap is crucial for troubleshooting connectivity issues
and optimizing wireless network deployments. The goal is to minimize channel
overlap with neighboring businesses.
Wireless Network and Security
In wired connections, data has inherent privacy as only the two communicating
devices know the content. Wireless networks broadcast data through the air, making
interception possible. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) was introduced to address
this issue, but it offers minimal security, akin to sending unencrypted data over a
wired connection. WEP has a weak encryption algorithm with only 40-bit keys, making
it easy for attackers to break the encryption.
Key length determines encryption security. WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) is more
secure than WEP, using a 128-bit key. WPA2, an update to WPA, is even more secure
with a 256-bit key. The most recent update, WPA3 offers the best protection against
various attacks, but is being slowly deployed since currently not all access points
and devices support it.
MAC filtering is another method to enhance security by allowing only trusted
devices to connect to the wireless network.
Cellular (Mobile) Networking
Cellular networking, also known as mobile networking, is a widely used form of
wireless communication worldwide. Cellular networks have distinct features,
including longer-range coverage, often spanning many kilometers.
Cellular networks are structured around cells, each assigned a specific frequency
band. These bands are designed to avoid overlapping frequency bands, similar to
setting up multiple access points in a Wi-Fi network. In essence, cell towers that
transmit and receive cellular signals can be seen as access points, but with a much
larger range. Many devices, not just phones but also tablets, some laptops, and
high-end automobiles, utilize cellular networks for communication.
As an IT Support Specialist, your role often involves troubleshooting networking
and connectivity issues for users. You must determine the appropriate network for a
device and ensure it's correctly configured. For example, mobile devices often have
settings to toggle Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular networks on or off. They may also
have an Airplane Mode that disables all wireless connections simultaneously. Mobile
devices can simultaneously have multiple network connections, like Wi-Fi and
cellular data, and will attempt to use the most reliable and cost-effective
connection, particularly for metered data plans.
In some cases, you might need to help users switch between networks, like when a
Wi-Fi network restricts access to certain websites, and the user prefers to use
cellular data. Understanding how to control these network connections is essential.
Keep in mind that the reliability of wireless connections can be affected by
distance and interference, so mobile devices can sometimes struggle in areas with
such issues.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a common short-range wireless network for connecting peripherals like
headphones, keyboards, and mice to mobile devices. Ensure that Bluetooth is enabled
when troubleshooting Bluetooth peripherals. The pairing process involves devices
exchanging information, including PINs or passwords, for automatic connections when
in range. If pairing fails, you may need to make the device forget the peripheral
and re-pair them.
