Managing Network 1:

Telecommunications

CE00303-3 Critical issues in Managing MIS in Organization

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Learning Outcome
Describe the telecommunication
components
Explain the physical media used in data
communications
Explain wireless communications

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Telecommunications
Telecommunications is the flow of information among
individuals, work groups, departments, customer
sites, regional offices, between enterprises, and with
the outside world
The Internet has also opened up a cyberspace
where people can be in a virtual world, where
organizations can conduct business, and in fact, a
place where organizational processes exist. This is
providing the foundation for the e-business economy,
as just about everything about telecom is shifting
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Introduction
Telecommunications = electronically
sending data in any form from one place
to another between
People
Machines, or
Objects

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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)
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The Evolving Telecommunications Scene

A New Telecommunications Infrastructure is Being
Built cont.:
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
No circuit is created; each packet may take a different path
through the network
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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
Making these next generation networks able to
handle much more traffic and a great variety of traffic

This architecture allows new kinds of services

to be deployed much more rapidly

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The Evolving Telecommunications Scene

The Internet can handle all kinds of intelligent

user devices, including:
Voice-over-IP (VoIP) phones
Personal digital assistants (PDAs)
Gaming consoles, and
All manner of wireless devices

The global telecom infrastructure is changing

from a focus on voice to a focus on data
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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

Bandwidth on fiber is now doubling capacity every

four months

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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 worlds 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 Internets
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
By 1993, it was still mainly a worldwide network for
scientists and academics, text only - no graphics
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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
At first populated by computer geeks homepages, business (and
normal peoples) use of the Web skyrocketed by the late 1990s
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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
Like the PC, this openness yields the most powerful
solutions and the most competitive prices

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The Internet is the Network of Choice

The Internet has three attributes that make it important to
corporations:
Ubiquity
Reliability, and
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
A special part of the intranet for use by trading
partners, customers, and suppliers for electronic
commerce

The notion caught on and extranets have

become an important component of B2B ecommerce
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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

IP telephony and video telephony have been

the last frontiers of convergence and now
they are a reality
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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 wasnt
there
Can be managed electronically from e.g. ones 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:
1. To another IP phone on the LAN
2. Through the companys WAN to a distant IP phone on another
of the companys LANs, or
3. Through an IP voice gateway to the PSTN to a standard
telephone

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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 instantmessaging 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!

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TORONTO PEARSON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Case study: Digital convergence via IP

Canadas 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:

Reduced network operations costs

Consolidated network support
Increased terminal operational efficiency
Increased capacity

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Digital Convergence Has Become a Reality

The Battle Begins

Setting up a collision among three massive

industries
1. $1.1 trillion computer industry

Led by the U.S.

2. $225 billion consumer electronics industry

Asian roots and new aggressive Chinese companies

3. $2.2 trillion telecommunications industry

Leading wireless players in Europe and Asia

Data networking leaders in Silicon Valley

The Internet and its protocols are taking

over!!!!

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The Optical Era Will Provide Bandwidth

Abundance

Decline in cost of key factors:

We are now approaching another historic cliff of cost in a

new factor of production: bandwidth

During the industrial era = horsepower

Since the 1960s = semiconductors
Now = 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

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The Optical Era Will Provide Bandwidth

Abundance

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 Mothers
Day on one fiber thread

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The Optical Era Will Provide Bandwidth

Abundance

Downloading a digital movie, such as The

Matrix:

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

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The Wireless Century Begins

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

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The Wireless Century Begins

Licensed Versus Unlicensed Frequencies

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

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The Wireless Century Begins

cont.

Wireless technologies for networks that cover different distances

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

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CE00303-3 Critical issues in Managing MIS in Organization

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BMW
Case Example: Wireless LANs

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

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BMW
Case Example: Wireless LANs cont.

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-millionsquare-foot plant

The system uses RF technology

A number of suppliers have followed suit

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The Wireless Century Begins

cont.

Wireless Long Distance - WWANs

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
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CE00303-3 Critical issues in Managing MIS in Organization

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The Wireless Century Begins.

Wireless Long Distance WWANs cont.
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)
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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 districts headquarters enter the orders into a
database that work crews can immediately access from
the field
They can view neighborhood maps, locate broken water mains
and pipes, and check out the most likely areas of damage,
potentially saving entire neighborhoods from flooding

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The Wireless Century Begins.

Wireless Long Distance WWANs cont.
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
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The Wireless Century Begins.

Wireless Long Distance WWANs cont.
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
Links are radio signals not wires
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
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AMERICAN GREETINGS
Case Example: Extending Internet to Cell phones

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 Mothers 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

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Is Wireless Secure?
Security is a major issue today
Eavesdroppers need special equipment
Radio scrambling and spread-spectrum technologies
add security, encryption protects data, and
eventually , 802.11i will provide a framework for
security
Requires eternal vigilance
Note: the network is often not the main problem

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Is Wireless Safe?
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

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Messaging Is a Killer App

What has proven true with data communication
technologies over and over again is that the
killer application is messaging

Original purpose of Internet

Email
E.g. BlackBerry messaging service
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)
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Messaging Is a Killer App cont.

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

Three lessons learnt:

1. Users really like to converse with bots
2. Scripting is just like writing a novel needs to be done by
just a couple of people working closely together
3. Others, besides the original scripters, should be able to add
their own content e.g. answers to FAQs

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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

Communication systems = a mix of wired and

wireless = one of the many challenges for
CIOs
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The Role of the IS Department

This long discussion of telecommunications gives just a

glimpse into its complexity as well as its increasing
importance
What is the IS departments role?

IS has three roles:

create the telecom architecture

run it, and
stay close to the forefront of the field

Sound familiar?

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The Role of the IS Department

cont.

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.

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The Role of the IS Department

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

cont.

Many companies are outsourcing (part of) this work

The third job of IS is to stay current with the technology

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Conclusion

The Telecom world is big and getting bigger by the

day. It is complex, and getting more complex every
day

Dont worry theres 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

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Q&A
Source: Staffordshire University

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