McNurlin 7th Edition Chapter 6Managing Network 1: Telecommunications
Learning Outcome
Explain wireless communications
Telecommunications
Telecommunications is the flow of information among individuals, work groups, departments, customer sites, regional offices, between enterprises, and with the outside world
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Introduction
Telecommunications = electronically sending data in any form from one place to another between
People
Introduction
Generally, IS departments have been responsible for designing, building, and maintaining the information highway in the same way that governments are responsible for building and maintaining streets, roads, and freeways
Once built, the network, with its nodes and links, provides infrastructure for the flow of information and messages
Telecom is the basis for the way people and companies work today
It provides the infrastructure for moving information and messages
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The Evolving Telecommunications Scene
Even with the recent ‘downturn’ in some countries – the changes in Telecom are coming fast and furiously. Here are some major changes taking place:
A New Telecommunications Infrastructure is Being Built:
The oldest part of the telecommunications infrastructure is the telephone network
This global network was built on twisted-pair copper wires and was intended for voice communications
It uses analog technology, which although appropriate for delivering high-quality voice, is inefficient for data transmission
Dedicated circuit (switching)
The Evolving Telecommunications Scene
The basic traffic-handling mechanism had to change for data
Today, the new telecommunications infrastructure is being built around the world aimed at transmitting data, and consists of:
Wired - fiber optic links
Wireless – radio signals
Both use packet switching, where messages are divided into packets, each with an address header, and each packet is sent separately
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The Evolving Telecommunications Scene.
Packets from any number of senders and of any type, whether e-mails, music downloads, voice conversations, or video clips, can be intermixed on a network segment –
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The Evolving Telecommunications Scene
The Internet can handle all kinds of intelligent user devices, including:
Voice-over-IP (VoIP) phones
All manner of wireless devices
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The Telecommunications Industry is Being Transformed
The telecom structure of old was originally provided by (often Government owned) monopolies
Only ones with the $ to support set up costs
Public infrastructure
Gradually, the telecom industry has been deregulated
The telecom industry is becoming like the computing industry in that each year brings ‘predictable’ (and ‘huge’) improvements
Performance
Capacity
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The Telecommunications Industry is Being Transformed
‘Last Mile’ problems:
Who ‘owns’ the ‘last mile’
In the 1990s, the ‘monopolies’ began encountering competition for “the last mile”
Bottleneck issues (hose to straw)
Visualize the world’s networks as huge fire hoses because they use fiber optic cables that can transmit at a whopping speed of a terabit (1012 bits per second)
1,000,000,000,000
Then visualize the twisted pair phone line coming into your home or business as a straw, only operating at speeds of 56 kbps (104)
10,000
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The Internet is the Network of Choice
What has surprised most people is the Internet’s surprisingly fast uptake for business use
As did the fast plummet of the dot-com and telecommunications industries
In the late 1990s, the Internet caught most IS departments by surprise, not to mention the hardware and software vendors who serve the corporate IS community
The Internet actually began in the 1960s when it was called ARPANET, mainly used for electronic mail
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The Internet is the Network of Choice.
That all changed in 1994 when the World Wide Web was invented (By Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in Geneva.)
This graphical “layer” of the Net made it much more user friendly:
Web sites had addresses specified by their universal resource locator (URL)
Its multimedia Web pages were formatted using hypertext markup language (HTML)
All the Web sites could be accessed via an easy-to-use browser on a PC
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The Internet is the Network of Choice
The Internet has done for telecom what the IBM PC did for computing: brought it “to the masses”
In 1981, when the IBM PC was introduced, its architecture was open
An entire industry developed around this open architecture. The same is happening with the Internet because it provides the same kind of openness
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The Internet is the Network of Choice
The Internet has three attributes that make it important to corporations:
Ubiquity
Scalability
Today, the protocols underlying the Internet have become the protocols of choice in corporate networks, for internal communications as well as communications with the outside world
The norm is now end-to-end Internet protocol (IP) networks
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Extranets
Not long after creating intranets, businesses realized they could extend the intranet concept into an extranet
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Digital Convergence Has Become a Reality
Digital convergence is the intertwining of various forms of media – voice, data and video
Convergence is now occurring because IP has become the network protocol of choice
When all forms of media can be digitized, put into packets and sent over an IP network, they can be managed and manipulated digitally and integrated in highly imaginative ways
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Digital Convergence Has Become a Reality
IP Telephony
The use of Internet to transmit voice to replace their telephone system
Few companies have given up their telephone networks for a VoIP network, but as the cost differential continues, more will switch
Became ‘hot’ in 2004. Previously the voice quality wasn’t there
Can be managed electronically from e.g. one’s PC = possibility of ad hoc conferencing
Rather than analog, the IP phone generates a digital signal
Routed over the LAN like any other data in packets either:
To another IP phone on the LAN
Through the company’s WAN to a distant IP phone on another of the company’s LANs, or
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Digital Convergence Has Become a Reality
Video Telephony
Similar story to IP Telephony
Not video conferencing via a PBX, but rather video over IP
With the appropriate IP infrastructure, video telephony can be, say, launched from an instant-messaging conversation
IP phones with cameras also facilitate it, phone to phone
Heaps of new converged products are now flooding the market now that high quality voice has become IP based
Watch this space!
TORONTO PEARSON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
Canada’s busiest airport
Network is common use because its infrastructure is shared by all the airport tenants
Each tenant has a private LAN for its own voice, data and video applications
VPN = private and secure
Yet = can be (authorised) accessed from anywhere – wired or wireless
Each gate can be used by any airline
Baggage tracking integrated with passenger reconciliation
Numerous benefits:
Digital Convergence Has Become a Reality
The Battle Begins
$1.1 trillion computer industry
Led by the U.S.
Asian roots and new aggressive Chinese companies
$2.2 trillion telecommunications industry
Data networking leaders in Silicon Valley
The Internet and its protocols are taking over!!!!
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Decline in cost of key factors:
During the industrial era = horsepower
Since the 1960s = semiconductors
Now = bandwidth
We are now approaching another “historic cliff of cost” in a new factor of production: bandwidth
“If you thought the price of computing dropped rapidly in the last decade, just wait until you see what happens with communications bandwidth”
Fiber optic technology is just as important as microchip technology. 40 million miles of fiber optic cable have been laid around the world, in the USA at a rate of 4,000 miles per day
The Optical Era Will Provide Bandwidth Abundance
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CE00303-3 Critical issues in Managing MIS in Organization
Half of the cable is dark, that is, it is not used. And the other half is used to just one-millionth of its potential, because every 25 miles it must be converted to electronic pulses to amplify and regenerate the signal
The capacity of each thread is 1,000 times the switching speed of transistors
As a result, using all-optical amplifiers (recently invented), we could send all the telephone calls in the United States on the peak moment of Mother’s Day on one fiber thread
The Optical Era Will Provide Bandwidth Abundance
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Takes 7 hours using a cable modem
1 hour over the Ethernet
Four seconds on an optical connection
Over the next decade, bandwidth will expand ten times as fast as computer power and completely transform the economy
The Optical Era Will Provide Bandwidth Abundance
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CE00303-3 Critical issues in Managing MIS in Organization
The goal of wireless is to do everything we can do on wired networks, but without the wire
Wireless communications have been with us for some time
Mobile (cell) phones, pagers, VSATs, infrared networks, wireless LANs etc.
The 20th century was the Wireline Century, the 21st will be the Wireless Century
The Wireless Century Begins
CE00303-3 Critical issues in Managing MIS in Organization
Some frequencies of the radio spectrum are licensed by governments for specific purposes; others are not
Devices that tap unlicensed frequencies are cheaper = no big $ licensing fees
BUT = possibility of collision between signals
The Wireless Century Begins
Licensed Versus Unlicensed Frequencies
Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs)
Provide high-speed connections between devices that are up to 30 feet apart
Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs)
Provide access to corporate computers in office buildings, retail stores, or hospitals or access to Internet “hot spots” where people congregate
Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANs)
Provide connections in cities and campuses at distances up to 30 miles
Wireless Wide Area Networks (WWANs)
Provide broadband wireless connections over thousands of miles
The Wireless Century Begins cont.
Wireless technologies for networks that cover different distances
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CE00303-3 Critical issues in Managing MIS in Organization
A plant in South Carolina has more than 30 suppliers nearby
Real-time delivery of data to the suppliers is key to efficiency
Suppliers especially needed accurate inventory data of the components they supply to BMW, so they know when to make just-in-time deliveries to the plant
BMW
CE00303-3 Critical issues in Managing MIS in Organization
To gather inventory data for SAP to track parts, scanner terminals in the factory transmit the data from the barcode readers (as parts move through the assembly process) to SAP via a wireless network that covers the entire 2-million-square-foot plant
The system uses RF technology
A number of suppliers have followed suit
BMW
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CE00303-3 Critical issues in Managing MIS in Organization
The only two wireless technologies are infrared light and radio airwaves
Figure 6-5 shows the bandwidth spectrum, which illustrates where the different technologies lie
Cell (mobile) phones use radio transmitters and receivers
Call is passed from one cell to another – fades out of one and into another
Much of the bandwidths and radio waves are regulated by governments
In the main, GSM has become the mobile telephony standard for all but the Americas
Unlike the computing industry, a number of leading global telecom manufacturers are outside the United States. NTT is in Japan, Ericsson and Nokia are in Scandinavia
The Wireless Century Begins cont.
Wireless Long Distance - WWANs
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CE00303-3 Critical issues in Managing MIS in Organization
The first cell phones used analog technology and circuit switching, now called first-generation (1G) wireless
2G cellular. 2G, which predominates today, uses digital technology, though it is still circuit switched
It aims at digital telephony, not data transmission, but 2G phones can carry data
2G can use a laptop with a wireless modem to communicate
Not always the most ‘reliable’
2G can carry messages using short messaging service (SMS)
The Wireless Century Begins.
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LOUISVILLE METRO SEWER DISTRICT
Case Example – 2G mobile telephony
When Louisville encountered big storms, sewer repair workers had to return to headquarters to get assignment details and look up customer records – a process that slowed their response to the flooding
Now they have laptops and wireless modems
As customers call in for emergency repairs, operators at the sewer district’s headquarters enter the orders into a database that work crews can immediately access from the field
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2.5G cellular is extending the life of 2G digital technologies
Essentially adds data capacity to a 2G network
The problem with adoption has been pricing
The goals of 3G are to provide WANs for PCs and multimedia, allowing bandwidth on demand.
CDMA (code division multiple access) is the universal standard for 3G
It faces the same pricing issues at 2.5G – perhaps worse
Court battles over the “leased” spectrum
Costs to deploy not seen as tenable in many circumstances
Hutchinson (UK) making a play in this area in Australia and elsewhere with ‘3’ (big brother of ‘Orange’)
Sponsors of Australian Cricket Team
The Wireless Century Begins.
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New entrants are looking for 3G alternatives
One is mobile broadband IP, which could actually provide 4G services (the user paying for different kinds of services)
Wireless mesh networks
More flexible but uses a lot of battery power
VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) technology is taking off in some countries because it is seen as the best technology for providing stationary wireless broadband
Provided by DSL, coaxial cable and T carriers
Heaps to be made and lost
Watch the battles
Ask your friends who are always up with the ‘latest and greatest’
The Wireless Century Begins.
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CE00303-3 Critical issues in Managing MIS in Organization
American Greetings, a leader in exploiting the Internet, is extending its Internet presence to cell phones using WAP to garner a wireless presence
The company was one of the first with a Website — it sends reminders to subscribers, and often finds itself overwhelmed on holidays such as Mother’s Day
It also forms “side door” alliances with retailers’ Websites
And now, subscribers can order cards from their cell phone. The company reasons that when people have idle time, besides checking e-mail or playing a game using their cell phone, they also might want to send an animated funny card to someone
AMERICAN GREETINGS
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Security is a major issue today
Eavesdroppers need special equipment
Requires eternal vigilance
Is Wireless Secure?
CE00303-3 Critical issues in Managing MIS in Organization
Although a lot of attention is focussed on all the new wireless services, a troubling question has not yet been answered: Are these transmissions safe for humans?
It is quite possible that there could soon be a backlash against wireless devices, similar to protests against genetically modified organisms
Already = heaps of debate (informed and otherwise) in this area
Is Wireless Safe?
CE00303-3 Critical issues in Managing MIS in Organization
What has proven true with data communication technologies over and over again is that the killer application is messaging
Original purpose of Internet
SMS in the ‘rest of the world’ (outside the U.S.)
Instant Messaging = Considered by many to be the ‘killer app.’ of wireless
Not just for teenagers e.g. U.S. Navy (9/11)
Messaging Is a Killer App
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CE00303-3 Critical issues in Managing MIS in Organization
The key attribute of Instant Messaging (IM) is that it provides presence, which means that a person on your buddy list can see when you are using a computer or phone and therefore knows you are “present” and available to receive an IM
Newer technologies will allow messaging to become even more personal
Photo messaging
Video messaging
Video phones
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KEEBLER
Case example: Instant Messaging (IM)
September 2002 – this cookie and cracker company launched Recipe-Buddie on its Web site
“She” is an instant-messenger bot that converses with people who IM her
She only talks about recipes using her database
Very successful
Users really like to converse with bots
Scripting is just like writing a novel – needs to be done by just a couple of people working closely together
Others, besides the original scripters, should be able to add their own content e.g. answers to FAQs
Managing Network
Coming: An Internet of Things
Wireless communications = not just for people
A machine-to-machine Internet is coming
Likely to use Wi-Fi as one wireless communication protocol
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification)
Like the barcode = involves small tags affixed to objects that provide information about the object
Discussed in detail in Chapter 11
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CE00303-3 Critical issues in Managing MIS in Organization
This long discussion of telecommunications gives just a glimpse into its complexity as well as its increasing importance
What is the IS department’s role?
IS has three roles:
create the telecom architecture
Sound familiar?
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CE00303-3 Critical issues in Managing MIS in Organization
The key challenge in network design is connectivity
Connectivity means allowing users to communicate up, down, across, and out of an organization
The goal is not a single, coherent network, but rather finding a means to interface many dissimilar networks, so that users think they have one network
Like we do with the telephone, Internet etc.
The Role of the IS Department cont.
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CE00303-3 Critical issues in Managing MIS in Organization
A truly interoperable network would allow PCs, laptops, and handheld devices to interoperate with servers running Linux and Windows and mainframes running MVS and communicating over IP networks
This interoperability is the goal of architecture and is the main job of the IS department
The second job of the IS department is to operate the network
Many companies are outsourcing (part of) this work
The third job of IS is to stay current with the technology
The Role of the IS Department cont.
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CE00303-3 Critical issues in Managing MIS in Organization
The Telecom world is big and getting bigger by the day. It is complex, and getting more complex every day
Don’t worry – there’s plenty of help available!
The business world of old has depended on communications, of course, but not to the extent of the ‘New Economy’(online commerce)
The first generation of the Internet economy has been wired. The second is unwired
Today telecom is all about connecting and the number of possible connections is about to explode worldwide
Conclusion
Q & A