The telephone, which is referred to as the plain old telephone system (POTS), was originally an analog system. During the last decade, the telephone network has undergone many technical changes. The network is now digital as well as analog.
The telephone network is made of three major components: local loops, trunks, and switching offices. It has several levels of switching offices such as end offices, tandem offices, and regional offices.
The United States is divided into many local access transport areas (LATAs). The services offered inside a LATA are called intra-LATA services. The carrier that handles these services is called a local exchange carrier (LEC). The services between LATAs are handled by interexchange carriers (lXCs).
In in-band signaling, the same circuit is used for both signaling and data. In out-ofband signaling, a portion of the bandwidth is used for signaling and another portion for data. The protocol that is used for signaling in the telephone network is called Signaling System Seven (SS7).
Telephone companies provide two types of services: analog and digital. We can categorize analog services as either analog switched services or analog leased services. The two most common digital services are switched/56 service and digital data service (DDS).
Data transfer using the telephone local loop was traditionally done using a dial-up modem. The term modem is a composite word that refers to the two functional entities that make up the device: a signal modulator and a signal demodulator.
Most popular modems available are based on the V-series standards. The V.32 modem has a data rate of 9600 bps. The V32bis modem supports 14,400-bps transmission. V90 modems, called 56K modems, with a downloading rate of 56 kbps and uploading rate of 33.6 kbps are very common. The standard above V90 is called V92. These modems can adjust their speed, and if the noise allows, they can upload data at the rate of 48 kbps.
Telephone companies developed another technology, digital subscriber line (DSL), to provide higher-speed access to the Internet. DSL technology is a set of technologies, each differing in the first letter (ADSL, VDSL, HDSL, and SDSL. ADSL provides higher speed in the downstream direction than in the upstream direction. The high-bitrate digital subscriber line (HDSL) was designed as an alternative to the T-l line (1.544 Mbps). The symmetric digital subscriber line (SDSL) is a one twisted-pair version of HDSL. The very high-bit-rate digital subscriber line (VDSL) is an alternative approach that is similar to ADSL.
Community antenna TV (CATV) was originally designed to provide video services for the community. The traditional cable TV system used coaxial cable end to end. The second generation of cable networks is called a hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) network. The network uses a combination of fiber-optic and coaxial cable.
Cable companies are now competing with telephone companies for the residential customer who wants high-speed access to the Internet. To use a cable network for data transmission, we need two key devices: a cable modem (CM) and a cable modem transmission system (CMTS).
