1. Telecommunications and Networks

2. Learning Objectives
Identify several major developments and trends in the industries, technologies and business applications of telecommunications and Internet technologies.
Provide examples of the business value of Internet, intranet, and extranet applications.

3. Learning Objectives
Identify the basic components, functions, and types of telecommunications networks used in business.
Explain the functions of major types of telecommunications network hardware, software, media, and services.

4. Why Study Networking?
When computers are networked, two industries – computing and communications – converge, and the result is vastly more than the sum of the parts.
Suddenly, computing applications become available for business-to-business coordination and commerce, and for small as well as large organizations.

5. Case #1: Wireless Business Applications
Business Value of Wireless:
Time is money. Pocket PCs help reduce travel time at Celanese Chemicals related to plant equipment diagnosis.
Fidelity Investments attracts customers by offering services via wireless devices.
GM uses wireless devices to improve forklift operator productivity and cut costs.

6. Case #1: Wireless Business Applications
What is the business value of wireless technologies in the chemicals and automotive manufacturing industries? What other manufacturing applications might benefit from wireless technologies? Why?
What are some of the business benefits of wireless technologies in finance and investments? What other applications would you recommend? Why? Check the website of Fidelity.com to help you answer.

7. Case #1: Wireless Business Applications
What are some of the business benefits and challenges of using wireless technologies in retailing? What are some other applications that might be beneficial to consumers, as well as retailers? Why?
What are some of the major challenges limiting the widespread use of wireless technologies in many business applications? What can be done to meet such challenges?

8. Telecommunications
Definition:
The exchange of information in any form (voice, data, text, images, audio, video) over networks

9. Open Systems
Definition:
Information systems that use common standards for hardware, software, applications, and networking

10. Connectivity
Definition:
The ability of networked computers and other devices to easily access and communicate with each other and share information

11. Interoperability
Definition:
The ability of an open system to enable the many different applications of end users to be accomplished using the different varieties of computer systems, software packages, and databases provided by a variety of interconnected networks

12. Digital Network Technologies
Definition:
Digital transmission technologies that transmit information in the form of discrete pulses
Benefits:
Higher transmission speeds
Movement of larger amounts of information
Greater economy
Lower error rates

13. Business Value of Telecommunications

14. Internet
Definition:
A network made up of millions of smaller private networks each with the ability to operate independent of, or in harmony with, all the other millions of networks connected to the Internet

15. Internet Applications

16. Business Use of the Internet

17. Intranet
Definition: A network inside an organization that uses Internet technologies to provide an Internet-like environment within the enterprise for information sharing, communications, collaboration, and the support of business processes

18. Business Value of Intranets
Communications and Collaboration – includes , voic , paging, faxes, and groupware
Web Publishing – easy, attractive and low-cost way of publishing and accessing multimedia business information
Business Operations and Management – platform for developing and deploying critical business applications to support business operations and managerial decision making across the inter-networked enterprise

19. Business Value of Intranets

20. Extranet
Definition:
Network links that use Internet technologies to interconnect the intranet of a business with the intranets of its customers, suppliers, or other business partners

21. Case #2: Serving Citizens without Wires
MEMA Technologies:
Global-positioning satellite communications
Cellular phones
Geospatial technologies
Microelectronics technologies

22. Case #2: Serving Citizens without Wires
Features:
A device to communicate warnings to properly position individuals before an event happens
A tool to collect timely information after a disaster hits

23. Case #2: Serving Citizens without Wires
What is the business value of advanced mobile technologies to Maryland’s emergency management services?
In what other government services could GPS serve to provide business value? Give some examples.
Are there disadvantages or risks associated with the deployment of GPS systems to monitor the location of people? Explain.

24. Case #2: Serving Citizens without Wires
What is the business value of the various applications of GPS satellite networks beyond those discussed in the case? Check out the websites of satellite services providers like Hughes Network Systems ( or G-Com International ( to help you answer.

25. Telecommunications Network Components
Terminals – any input/output device that uses telecommunications networks to transmit or receive data
Telecommunications Processors – devices that perform control and support functions
Telecommunications Channels – media over which data are transmitted and received
Computers – all sizes and types
Telecommunications Control Software – programs that control telecommunications activities

26. Telecommunications Network Components

27. Types of Telecommunications Networks
Wide Area Network (WAN) – network that covers a large geographic area
Local Area Network (LAN) – network connecting information processing devices within a limited physical area
Virtual Private Network (VPN) – secure network that uses the Internet as its main backbone network, but relies on network firewalls, encryption, and other security features of its Internet and intranet connections and those of participating organizations

28. LAN & VPN

29. Types of Telecommunications Networks
Client/Server – PCs and workstations, called clients are interconnected by local area networks and share application processing with network servers
Network Computing – Thin clients provide a browser-based user interface for processing small application programs
Peer-to-Peer – file-sharing software connects each PC to a central server or to another online user’s PC

30. Client/Server

31. Client/Server & Network Computing

32. Peer-to-Peer

33. Peer-to-Peer

34. Telecommunications Media
Twisted-Pair Wire – copper wire twisted into pairs
Coaxial Cable – sturdy copper or aluminum wire wrapped with spacers to insulate and protect it
Fiber Optics – one or more hair-thin filaments of glass fiber wrapped in a protective jacket

35. Telecommunications Media

36. Wireless Technologies
Terrestrial Microwave – earthbound microwave systems that transmit high-speed radio signals in a line-of-sight path between relay stations spaced approximately 30 miles apart
Communications Satellites - high-earth orbit communications satellites placed in stationary geosynchronous orbits

37. Wireless Technologies
Cellular and PCS Systems – a geographic area divided into cells with one low-power transmitter device per cell used to relay calls from one cell to another
Wireless LANs –high- or low-frequency radio technology installed in an office or building
Wireless Web – wireless, Web-enabled information appliances accessing the Internet, intranets and extranets

38. Telecommunications Processors
Modems – convert digital signals from a computer into analog frequencies that can be transmitted over ordinary telephone lines
Multiplexers – allows a single communications channel to carry simultaneous data transmissions from many terminals

39. Telecommunications Technologies

40. Internetwork Processors
Switch – makes connections between telecommunications circuits in a network
Router – intelligent communications processor that interconnects networks based on different protocols
Hub – a port switching communications processor
Gateway – connects networks using different communications architectures

41. Network Management
Traffic Management – manage network resources and traffic to avoid congestion and optimize telecommunications service levels to users
Security – provide authentication, encryption, firewall, auditing and enforcement

42. Network Management
Network Monitoring – troubleshoot and watch over the network, informing network administrators of potential problems before they occur
Capacity Planning – survey network resources and traffic patterns and users’ needs to determine how best to accommodate the needs of the network as it grows and changes

43. Network Topologies
Star – ties end user computers to a central computer
Ring – ties local computer processors together in a ring on a relatively equal basis
Bus – local processors share the same communications channel

44. Network Architectures & Protocols
Protocol – standard set of rules and procedures for the control of communications in a network
Network Architecture – the use of standard protocols, standard communications hardware and software interfaces and the design of a standard multilevel interface between end users and computer systems with the goal of promoting an open, simple, flexible, and efficient telecommunications environment

45. OSI & TCP/IP Models
Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) - model is a seven-layer model that serves as a standard model for network architectures
Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) – is a five layer telecommunications protocol used by the Internet

46. Bandwidth
Definition:
Classification of communications speed and capacity of telecommunications networks
Transmission Rates:
Narrow-band – low-speed
Broadband – high-speed

47. Switching Alternatives
Circuit Switching – a switch opens a circuit to establish a link between a sender and receiver; it remains open until the communication session is completed
Message Switching – a message is transmitted a block at a time from one switching device to another

48. Switching Alternatives
Packet Switching – messages are divided into fixed or variable length packets, and packets are sent across networks
Cell Switching – breaks voice, video and other data into fixed cells of 53 bytes and routes them to their next destination in the network

49. Summary
Businesses are installing and extending intranets throughout their organizations to:
Improve communications and collaboration among individuals and teams within the enterprise
Publish and share valuable business information easily, inexpensively, and effectively via enterprise information portals
Develop and deploy critical applications to support business operations and decision making

50. Summary
The primary role of extranets is to link the intranet resources of a company to the intranets of its customers, suppliers, and other business partners.
The major generic components of any telecommunications network are:
Terminals
Telecommunications processors
Communications channels
Computers
Telecommunications software