Telecom 101 Telecommunications Book – Fourth Edition, 2016
Up­to­Date High­Quality Reference Book and Study Guide Covering All Major Topics, in Plain English.
Packed with information, authoritative, up to date, covering all major
topics ­ and written in plain English ­ Telecom 101 is an invaluable
textbook and day­to­day reference on telecommunications.
The course materials for Teracom's famous Course 101 Telecom,
Datacom and Networking for Non­Engineers augmented with additional
topics and bound in this one volume bring you consistency, completeness
and unbeatable value.
Our approach can be summed up with a simple philosophy: Start at the
beginning. Progress in a logical order. Build one concept on top of
another. Finish at the end. Avoid jargon. Speak in plain English.
Bust the buzzwords, demystify jargon, and cut through doubletalk!
Fill gaps and build a solid base of structured knowledge.
Understand how everything fits together.
... knowledge and understanding that lasts a lifetime.
Ideal for anyone needing a book covering all major topics in telecom,
data communications, IP and networking… in plain English.
A wealth of clear, concise, organized knowledge, impossible to find in one
place anywhere else!
7" x 9" softcover textbook • 488 pages
ISBN 9781894887038 • 4th edition • Published March 2016
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also available as an eBook
ISBN 9781894887786
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Printable PDF Brochure
Your Go­To Telecom Resource
Covering all major topics, we begin with the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), then
• progress in a logical order, building one concept on top of another,
• from voice and data fundamentals to digital, packets, IP and Ethernet, VoIP,
• fiber and wireless, DSL and cable, routers and networks, MPLS, ISPs and CDNs,
• and finish with the Brave New World of IP Telecom, where voice, data and video are the same thing.
• An invaluable day­to­day reference handbook
• Learn and retain more reading a hard copy, professionally printed and bound
• Up­to­date: published 2016
• Allows you to study and review topics before attending a course
• An economical and convenient way to self­study
... these are the materials to an instructor­led course that costs $1395 to attend.
• The Certification Study Guide for the prestigious Telecommunications Certification Organization (TCO)
Certified Telecommunications Analyst (CTA) telecommunications certification.
Value Pricing
Written by our top instructor, Eric Coll, M.Eng., Telecom 101 contain 35 years of knowledge and learning distilled
and organized into an invaluable study guide and practical day­to­day reference for non­engineers.
Looking through the chapter list and detailed outline below, you'll see that many chapters of Telecom 101 are like self­
contained reference books on specific topics, like the PSTN, IP, LANs, MPLS and cellular.
You can get all of these topics bound in one volume for one low price.
"A lifesaver"
— US Army
Communication
Specialist, Iraq
Thousands of
copies sold!
Compare this to hunting down and paying for multiple books by different authors
that may or may not cover what you need to know­ and you'll agree this is a very attractive deal.
Career­ and productivity­enhancing training... an investment that will be repaid many times over.
Chapter List
Telecom 101 is composed of three parts: Fundamentals of Telecommunications,
Telecommunications Technologies, and the IP Telecommunications Network.
PART I FUNDAMENTALS OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS
1
2
3
4
INTRODUCTION
FUNDAMENTALS OF TELEPHONY
SWITCHING
THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY
We begin with the fundamentals of telephony and the telephone
network – the basis for understanding everything else.
First is the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN): loops and
trunks, circuit­switching, analog, the voiceband and Plain Ordinary
Telephone Service (POTS). Plus, new for the fourth edition: Voice over
IP (VoIP) is now part of the fundamentals.
Next is switching, starting with traditional telephone switches: Centrex,
PBX and PBX trunks, and how that relates to the newer ideas of
softswitches, Hosted PBX and SIP trunking.
This part is completed with a chapter on the telecommunications
business: Local Exchange Carriers and Inter­Exchange Carriers, ILECs
and CLECs, the main players and how carriers interconnect.
PART II TELECOMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES
5 DIGITAL
6 TRANSMISSION SYSTEMS
7 THE NETWORK CLOUD
AND SERVICE PROVISIONING
8 FIBER OPTICS
9 DSL AND CABLE MODEMS:
LAST MILE ON COPPER
10 WIRELESSS
The second part is devoted to telecommunications technologies: the
actual methods used to implement circuits and services.
We begin with digital: what digital is, how voice and video are
digitized, and how digitized information is actually transmitted.
The next chapter is transmission systems: the high­capacity systems
developed to carry many users’ traffic. This starts with the installed
base of channelized systems, the hierarchy of DS0, DS1 and DS3 rates
and an overview of T1, T3, SONET and ISDN.
Then our attention turns to the new generation packetized systems,
introducing the concepts of overbooking and bandwidth on demand
instead of channels, how this is implemented with frames and packets,
coexistence and transition from channels to packets.
Then we understand the “Network Cloud”, how services are actually
implemented, the three basic types of services and the equipment used
for each.
Completing this part are chapters on the technologies used to
implement the network:
Fiber Optics, including fundamentals of fiber, wave­division
multiplexing, the network core, Metropolitan Area Networks, Passive
Optical Networks and fiber to the premise.
Last Mile on Copper: DSL and Cable Modems, including fundamentals
of modems, DSLAMs, VDSL, broadband and cable modems.
Wireless, concentrating on mobile communications: cellular and
mobility concepts, the technologies TDMA, CDMA and OFDM, the
generations from 1G to 4G, and the systems GSM, UMTS, 1X and LTE.
This chapter is completed with WiFi and satellite.
PART III THE IP PACKET­SWITCHED TELECOM NETWORK (IP­PSTN)
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
"DATA" COMMUNICATIONS CONCEPTS
CODING, FRAMES AND PACKETS
THE OSI LAYERS AND PROTOCOL STACKS
ETHERNET, LANS AND VLANS
IP NETWORKS, ROUTERS AND ADDRESSES
MPLS AND CARRIER NETWORKS
THE INTERNET
WRAPPING UP
The third part of Telecom 101 is dedicated to the new­generation IP
telecommunications network.
We begin by understanding how convergence was achieved by treating
voice and video like data – then accordingly, cover the fundamentals of
what used to be called “data communications”: DTEs, DCEs, LANs and
WANs and the crucial concepts of packets and frames.
There are so many functions that need to be performed to implement
phone calls, television, web browsing, email and everything else over
the IP network, a structure is necessary to be able to identify and
discuss separate issues separately. For this purpose, there is a chapter
on the OSI Reference Model and its layers, identifying what the layers
are, examples of protocols for each layer and how they work together in
a protocol stack.
Then we begin moving up the layers. The next chapter is on Ethernet,
LANs and VLANs (Layer 2), including MAC addresses and MAC frames,
LAN cables, Optical Ethernet, LAN switches and how VLANs are used to
separate traffic.
The next chapter is all about IP (Layer 3): how routers implement the
network, routing tables, IP addresses, subnets, IPv4 address classes,
static addresses, dynamic addresses and DHCP; public addresses,
private addresses and NAT; and an overview of IP version 6.
On a real­world telecom network, a traffic management system is
required. This is implemented with a technique called in general virtual
circuits, and in particular with MPLS. The next chapter in the book
covers the fundamentals, briefly reviews legacy technologies X.25,
Frame Relay and ATM, then focuses on MPLS and how it is used to
implement VPNs, Class of Service, service integration and traffic
aggregation.
The last main chapter is on the Internet: its origins, what an ISP is and
how an ISP connects to the rest of the Internet via transit and peering,
the web, the Domain Name System, HTML and HTTP, SSL, MIME and
base­ 64 encoding for email, Internet telephony and Internet VPNs vs.
business customer “MPLS service”.
The final chapter is a summary and wrap­up, covering technology
deployment from the top down, useful reference charts listing all of the
technologies, standard network designs and ending with a look at The
Future.
APPENDICIES
A ALL ABOUT T1
B LEGACY VOICE SERVICES AND JARGON
C ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
Telecommunications technology is in constant change – and some
technologies that used to be of prime importance are not so important
today, and so have been moved from the main part of the book into
appendices.
The very last part of the book provides a comprehensive list decoding
mainstream acronyms and abbreviations used in telecom.
7" x 9" softcover textbook • 488 pages • $179
ISBN 9781894887038 • 4th edition • Published March 2016
Print quantities are limited. Order today to avoid disappointment.
also available as an eBook
ISBN 9781894887786
Detailed Outline
Download Printable PDF Brochure
Part 1: Fundamentals of Telecommunications
We begin with the fundamentals of telephony and the telephone network – the basis for understanding everything else.
1 Introduction
Chapter 1 is the introduction to the book. We discuss the approach take in organizing the topics, and suggestions for
how to use the material... and the Three Answers, answering any question in telecommunications.
1.1 Our Approach
1.2 How the Text is Organized
1.3 How to Use This Text
1.4 The Three Answers
1.4.1 Answer Number 1: Money
1.4.2 Answer Number 2: History
1.4.3 Answer Number 3: It's All Pretty Much the Same Thing
2 Fundamentals of Telephony
Whether you're interested in telecom, datacom, wireless or networking, everything begins with the Public Switched
Telephone Network and Plain Ordinary Telephone Service. We'll begin with a model for the PSTN, explaining analog
circuits, the voiceband and circuit switching, common telephony buzzwords and jargon, and an overview of SS7. This
chapter is completed with Voice over IP... part of today's fundamentals.
2.1 History of Telecommunications
2.1.1 Invention of the Telephone
2.1.2 Local Phone Companies
2.1.3 The Bell System
2.1.4 US Regulation and Competition
2.1.5 Consolidation
2.1.6
2.1.7
2.1.8
2.1.9
Other Carriers
Canadian Telegraph Companies
Canadian Telephone Companies
The Rest of the World
2.2 The Public Switched Telephone Network
2.2.1 Basic Model of the PSTN
2.2.2 Loops
2.2.3 Trunks and Circuit Switching
2.2.4 Remotes
2.2.5 DSL and DSLAMs in the Outside Plant
2.2.6 Brownfields: DSL on Copper to the Premise
2.2.7 Greenfields: GPONs on Fiber to the Premise
2.2.8 Active Ethernet to the Premise
2.2.9 Why the Loop Still Matters
2.3 Analog
2.3.1 Analog Signals
2.3.2 Analog Circuits
2.4 Capacity Restrictions
2.4.1 What is Speech?
2.4.2 Do Trees Falling in the Forest Make a Sound?
2.4.3 The Voiceband
2.4.4 Bandwidth
2.4.5 Why Does the Voiceband Stop at 3300 Hz?
2.4.6 Problems With Voiceband Restrictions
2.5 Problems with Analog Transmission
2.5.1 Attenuation and Amplifiers
2.5.2 Electro­Magnetic Interference
2.5.3 Crosstalk
2.5.4 Impulse Noise
2.6 Plain Ordinary Telephone Service (POTS)
2.6.1 Tip and Ring
2.6.4 Microphone and Speaker
2.6.5 Balanced Signaling
2.6.6 Two­Way Simultaneous
2.6.7 Hybrid Transformer
2.6.8 Battery
2.6.9 Lightning Protection
2.6.10 Supervision
2.6.11 Call Progress Tones
2.7 Network Addresses: Telephone Numbers
2.7.1 Dialing Plan
2.7.2 Address Signaling
2.7.3 Pulse Dialing
2.7.4 DTMF: "Touch Tone"
2.7.5 In­Band Signaling
2.7.6 "Hidden" Buttons
2.7.7 Caller ID
2.8 SS7
2.8.1
2.8.2
2.8.3
2.8.4
2.8.5
2.8.6
Out­Of­Band Signaling
Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN)
Switch­Based Call Routing
SS7 In Practice
Residential Service Application Example
Business Service Application Example
2.9 Voice over IP (VoIP)
2.9.1 Packetized Voice
2.9.2 VoIP System Components
2.9.3 VoIP Phones and Other VoIP Terminals
2.9.4 Physical Connections: Wired and Wireless LANs
2.9.5 Softswitch
2.9.6 Router
2.9.7 Gateway
2.9.8 Firewall
3 Switching
This chapter covers switching, starting with a model of the telecom network showing where switches fit into the
network, traditional telephone switches: Centrex, PBX and PBX trunks, and how that relates to the newer ideas of
softswitches, Hosted PBX and SIP trunking.
3.1 Telephone Network Architecture
3.1.1 Access Network
3.1.2 Switching Network
3.1.3 Transmission Network
3.2 Telephone Switches
3.2.1 Circuit Switching
3.2.2 CO Switches
3.2.3 Line Cards
3.2.4 Digital Switching
3.3 Traditional PBX and Centrex
3.3.1 PBX
3.3.2 PBX Trunks
3.3.3 Digital Telephones: Electronic Business Sets
3.3.4 PBX and PABX
3.3.5 Attendant
3.3.6 Automated Attendant
3.3.7 IVR
3.3.8 Direct Inward Dialing (DID)
3.3.9 Automated Call Distribution (ACD)
3.3.10 Call Centers
3.3.11 Advantages of PBX
3.3.12 Disadvantages of PBX
3.3.13 Centrex
3.3.14 Advantages of Centrex
3.3.15 Disadvantages of Centrex
3.3.16 PBX vs. Centrex
3.3.17 Key Systems
3.4 SIP, Soft Switches, Hosted PBX and IP Centrex
3.4.1 Hard Switches
3.4.2 Soft Switches
3.4.3 SIP
3.4.4 Additional Functions
3.4.5 Location Independence
3.4.6 Customer Premise Softswitch
3.4.7 Centrex
3.4.8 Hosted PBX
3.5 SIP Trunking
3.5.1 PBX Trunks and Tie Lines
3.5.2 VoIP Trunking
3.5.3 Gateway Service
4 The Telecommunications Industry
Chapter 4 provides a practical overview of the telecommunications industry: service providers and alliances, competitive
forces, structure and regulation; resellers, IXCs, LECs, CLECs and collocations... the telecom business.
4.1 US Telephone Companies
4.1.1 LECs, LATAs and Baby Bells
4.1.2 Independents
4.1.3 Inter­Exchange Carriers: IXCs
4.1.4 Switched Access Charge
4.1.5 CLECs and ILECs
4.1.6 Resellers
4.1.7 Consolidation
4.1.8 Cable TV: Broadband Carriers
4.2 AT&T and Verizon
4.3 Canadian Telephone Companies
4.3.1 Bell Canada
4.3.2 TELUS
4.3.3 Ownership
4.3.4 Competitive Inter­Exchange Carriers
4.3.5 Resellers
4.3.6 Wireless
4.4 PSTN Switching Center Hierarchy
4.4.1 Class 5: Central Office
4.4.2
4.4.3
4.4.4
4.4.5
4.4.6
Wire Center
Local Calls
Class 4: Toll Center
Class 1, 2 and 3 Switching Centers
High Usage Trunks
4.5 Switched Access to LD Competitors: LECs, POPs and IXCs
4.5.1 Access Network, LECs and ILECs
4.5.2 Long Distance: IXCs
4.5.3 Switched Access
4.5.4 POP: Point of Presence
4.5.5 Equal Access and PIC Codes
4.6 High­Capacity Access to Long­Distance
4.6.1 Dedicated Line from the ILEC In­City
4.6.2 Tariffs
4.6.3 Advantages and Disadvantages
4.7 CLEC: Collocations and Dark Fiber
4.7.1 Unbundling
4.7.2 Dark Fiber and Dry Copper
4.7.3 Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC)
4.7.4 Collocations
4.7.5 Advantages
4.7.6 Disadvantages
4.7.7 Application
4.8 Bypass
4.8.1 Easements
4.9 Competitive Carrier Network Model: Rings, POPs and MANs
4.9.1 Fiber Rings
Part 2: Telecommunications Technologies
The second part of Telecom 101 is devoted to telecommunications technologies:
the actual methods used to implement circuits and services.
5 Digital
This chapter will give you a real understanding of what "digital" means, and how it is implemented.
We'll understand how voice is digitized, the standard 64 kb/s bit rate, plus digital video standards like HD and 4K.
We finish understanding how bits are actually transmitted "digitally" on copper and fiber.
5.1 Analog and Digital: What do we really mean?
5.1.1 Analog Signal
5.1.2 Analog Circuit
5.1.3 Digital Signal
5.1.4 Digital Circuit
5.1.5 Bandwidth
5.2 Continuous vs. Discrete Signals
5.2.1 Continuous Signals
5.2.2 Discrete Signals
5.3 Voice Digitization (Analog­Digital Conversion)
5.3.1 Quantization
5.3.2 Sampling
5.3.3 Coding
5.4 Voice Reconstruction (Digital ­ Analog Conversion)
5.4.1 Reconstruction
5.4.2 Quantization Error
5.4.3 Aliasing Error
5.5 Voice Digitization: 64 kb/s G.711 Standard
5.5.1 256 Quantization Levels.
5.5.2 8,000 Samples per Second
5.5.3 8­bit Coding
5.5.4 64 kb/s G.711 Codec Standard
5.5.5 64 kb/s DS0 Channels
5.5.6 64 kb/s Packetized Voice
5.5.7 μ­law and a­law
5.6 Digital Video, H.264 and MPEG4
5.6.1 Digital Video Cameras
5.6.2 Factors Affecting Video Quality
5.6.3 Definition vs. Resolution
5.6.4 Standard Definition, Interlaced and 480i
5.6.5 High Definition, Progressive and 720p
5.6.6 Full HD 1080 and 2K
5.6.7 Ultra HD and 4K
5.6.8 Compression
5.6.9 MPEG
5.6.10 MPEG­4 and H.264
5.7 Digital Transmission: Binary Pulses
5.7.1 Analog: Attenuation, Added Noise and Amplifiers
5.7.2 Digital: Pulses and Repeaters
5.7.3 Repeaters on Copper Wires
5.7.4 Repeaters on Fiber
5.7.5 Comfort Noise Generation
6 Transmission Systems
In this chapter, we cover the high­capacity systems developed to carry many users’ traffic. This starts with the installed
base of channelized systems, the hierarchy of DS0, DS1 and DS3 rates and an overview of T1, T3, SONET, SDH and
ISDN. Then our attention turns to the new­generation packetized systems, introducing the concepts of overbooking and
bandwidth on demand instead of channels, routers instead of multiplexers, how this is implemented with frames and
packets, the need for MPLS traffic management, and the coexistence and transition from channels to packets.
6.1 Channelized Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)
6.1.1 Channels
6.1.2 Example: Time­Share Condos
6.1.3 Trunk Carrier Systems
6.1.4 Inefficient for Data
6.2 Multiplexers
6.2.1 Example: T1
6.2.2 T1 Mux or Channel Bank
6.2.3 Time Slots
6.2.4 Framing Bits
6.2.5 DS1 Rate
6.2.6 CSU
6.2.7 Repeaters
6.2.8 Synchronization
6.2.9 Applications for T1
6.2.10 SONET TDM on Fiber
6.3 The Digital Hierarchy: Legacy Channelized Transmission Speeds
6.3.1 Kilo, Mega, Giga, Tera
6.3.2 DS0
6.3.3 DS1 and E1
6.3.4 DS2
6.3.5 DS3
6.3.6 STM and SDH
6.4 Digital Carrier Systems:
Legacy Transmission Technologies
6.4.1 Technologies
6.4.2 Carrier Systems
6.4.3 T1
6.4.4 T3 and Bit­Interleaved Multiplexing
6.4.5 SONET and Byte­Interleaved Multiplexing
6.4.6 SDH
6.4.7 Line Speed vs. Technology
6.5 Framing
6.5.1 Synchronous Time­Division Multiplexing
6.5.2 Framing and Transmission Frames
6.5.3 DS1 Frame
6.5.4 STS­1 (DS3) Frames
6.5.5 SONET Optical Carrier Frames
6.5.6 Advantages and Disadvantages of Channels
6.6 ISDN
6.6.1 Basic Rate Interface (BRI)
6.6.2 Obsolescence of BRI
6.6.3 Primary Rate Interface (PRI)
6.6.4 PRI Physical Connection
6.6.5 T1 vs. PRI
6.7 Statistical Time Division Multiplexing
6.7.1 Toll Plaza Example
6.7.2 Overbooking / Oversubscription
6.7.3 The Need For Addressing
6.7.4 Statistical Multiplexing Equipment
6.7.5 Packet Networks
6.8 Framing on IP Packet Networks
6.8.1 Old vs. New
6.8.2 MAC Frames Instead of Framing Bits
6.8.3 Routers
6.8.4 Prioritization
6.8.5 MPLS
6.8.6 Implementation with Optical Ethernet
6.9 Coexistence and Transition from Channels to Packets
6.9.1 Old: Everything in Channels
6.9.2 New: Everything in Packets
6.9.3 Gateways for Legacy Voice
6.9.4 Packetized Voice from the Customer Premise
6.9.5 Packets over Non­Channelized SONET
7 The Cloud and Service Provisioning
In this short chapter, we explain the "network cloud" and how services are actually provided by carriers:
the three types of services: dedicated lines, circuit­switched and packet­switched, the three types of edge equipment:
multiplexers, telephone switches and routers, and which is used for what.
7.1 Anatomy of a Service
7.2 The Network "Cloud"
7.3 Inside the Network Cloud
7.4 Network Equipment
7.5 Service Provisioning Summary
8 Fiber Optics
This chapter covers the essentials of fiber optics, including fundamentals of wavelengths and glass fibers,
Dense Wave­Division Multiplexing (DWDM), Optical Ethernet, fiber in network core, edge and access,
Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs), Fiber To The Premise (FTTP) and Passive Optical Networks (PONs).
8.1 Fiber Basics
8.1.1 Lamdas
8.1.2 Pulses of Light
8.1.3 Attenuation and Dispersion
8.2 Glass Fiber and Fiber Cables
8.2.1 Core
8.2.2 Cladding and Coating
8.2.3 Cables
8.2.4 Redundancy
8.3 Optical Wavelengths, Bands and Modes
8.3.1 Bands
8.3.2 Multimode and Modal Dispersion
8.3.3 Single­Mode Fiber
8.3.4 Chromatic Dispersion
8.3.5 Polarization­Mode Dispersion
8.4 Wave­Division Multiplexing: CWDM and DWDM
8.4.1 WDM
8.4.2 WDM Multiplexers
8.4.3 Optical Ethernet Paths
8.4.4 Current and Future Capacities
8.5 Optical Ethernet
8.5.1 Point­to­Point Connections
8.5.2 SFP Modules and Connectors
8.5.3 IEEE Standards
8.6 Network Core
8.6.1 SONET and SDH
8.6.2 Optical Ethernet, RPR and MPLS
8.6.3 Fiber Rings
8.7 Metropolitan Area Network
8.7.1 MANs to Office Buildings and Apartment Buildings
8.7.2 MANs to Neighborhoods
8.8 Fiber to the Premise (FTTP) & PONs
8.8.1 Passive Optical Network (PON)
8.8.2 Active Ethernet
9 DSL and Cable Modems: Last Mile on Copper
While the lucky few have fiber to the home, many others will use existing copper­wire entry cables for high­speed
Internet while waiting for it. Accordingly, this chapter covers Last Mile on Copper: DSL and Cable Modems, explaining
the fundamentals of modems and modulation, DSL, DSLAMs, VDSL, broadband cable modems and DOCSIS.
9.1 Modems
9.1.1 Why Bother With Modems?
9.2 Modulation Techniques
9.2.1 Modulation of Carrier Frequencies
9.2.2 Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK)
9.2.3 Frequency Shift Keying (FSK)
9.2.4 Phase Shift Keying (PSK)
9.2.5 Define More Signals to Communicate More Bits
9.2.6 Quadrature PSK (QPSK)
9.2.7 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)
9.2.8 Constraints on Achievable Bit Rate
9.3 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
9.3.1 DSL: Modems Above The Voiceband
9.3.2 ADSL, SDSL and XDSL
9.4 DSLAMs
9.4.1 DSL Modem Hard­Wired to Loop
9.4.2 Coexistence with POTS
9.5 Fiber to the Neighborhood (FTTN),
DSL to the Premise
9.5.1 Loop Length
9.5.2 Remote DSLAMs, OPI and SAC Boxes
9.6 DSL Standards
9.6.1 ADSL2+
9.6.2 VDSL2
9.6.3 VDSL2 Frequency Bands and Profiles
9.6.4 Bonding
9.6.5 Vectoring
9.7 Broadband Carriers: FTTN & Broadband Coax to the Premise
9.7.1 Hybrid Fiber­Coax Network
9.7.2 Frequency Channels
9.7.3 Fiber Serving Area
9.7.4 Television Converters
9.7.5 Modems on CATV Channels
9.7.6 Two­Way Communications Over Shared Access
9.8 DOCSIS and Cable Modem Standards
9.8.1 DOCSIS 1: Contention­Based Channel Sharing
9.8.2 DOCSIS 2: Reserved Time Slots on Channels
9.8.3 DOCSIS 3: CDMA on Channels
9.8.4 DOCSIS 3.1: OFDM
9.8.5 Wider Channels
10 Wireless
Chapter 10 is on Wireless, concentrating on mobile communications: cellular and mobility concepts, the technologies
TDMA, CDMA and OFDM, the generations from 1G to 4G, and the systems GSM, UMTS, 1X and LTE. We'll understand
Internet access over cellular, Wi­Fi, Wi­Fi security and satellite­based communications.
10.1 Radio
10.2 Mobile Networks
10.2.1 0G: The Mobile Phone System
10.2.2 Mobility
10.2.3 Base Station, Cell, Airlink and Handset
10.2.4 Mobile Switch
10.2.5 Backhaul
10.2.6 Registration and Paging
10.2.7 Handoff
10.3 Cellular Radio and 1G
10.3.1 1G: The Advanced Mobile Phone System
10.3.2 Cells
10.3.3 Frequency Re­Use
10.3.4 Analog on Radio Channels
10.3.5 AMPS Handoffs
10.3.6 AMPS Capacity
10.4 Second Generation: Digital Cellular
10.4.1 PCS and GSM
10.4.2 Digital Cellular Radio
10.5 Mobile Internet and "Data" Plans
10.5.1 Cellphone as a Tethered Modem
10.5.2 Packet Relay to the Internet
10.5.3 Dongles
10.5.4 Cellphone as the Terminal
10.5.5 "Data" Billing Plans
10.5.6 Fluid Layout, Responsive Design & "Mobile" Pages
10.6 FDMA, TDMA, CDMA and OFDM
10.6.1 FDMA
10.6.2 TDMA
10.6.3 CDMA
10.6.4 OFDM
10.7 3G Cellular: CDMA
10.7.1 IMT­2000
10.7.2 1X or CDMA2000: IMT­MC
10.7.3 UMTS or W­CDMA: IMT­DS
10.7.4 Data­Optimized Carriers: HSPA and EV­DO
10.7.5 The End of the Standards War
10.8 4G Mobile Cellular: LTE
10.8.1 Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network Long­Term Evolution
10.8.2 OFDM
10.8.3 3GPP Standards Committees
10.8.4 Qualcomm Patents
10.9 Wireless LANs
10.9.1 System Components
10.9.2 Unlicensed Radio Bands
10.9.3 802.11 Standards
10.9.4 VoIP over Wireless LANs
10.9.5 Wireless Security
10.10 Communication Satellites
10.10.1 Transponders
10.10.2 Geosynchronous Orbit
10.10.3 Low Earth Orbit
Part 3: The IP Packet­Switched Telecom Network (IP­PSTN)
The third part of Telecom 101 is dedicated to the new­generation IP telecommunications network.
11 "Data" Communications
We begin by understanding how the IP telecom network achieves the long­sought goal of convergence, what
"convergence" is, and how it was achieved by treating voice and video like data. Then we'll do a "flyover" of datacom
and networking basics: DTE and DCE, serial and parallel, LANs and WANs, MAC and IP addressing.
11.1 Convergence: Treat Everything Like Data
11.1.1 Convergence via ISDN
11.1.2 Convergence via ATM
11.1.3 Convergence via IP
11.2 Information Theory
11.3 Data Circuit Model
11.4 DTE: Data Terminal Equipment
11.5 Data Circuits
11.5.1 Analog Data Circuits
11.5.2 2­Wire and 4­Wire Circuits
11.5.3 Broadband Analog
11.5.4 Analog on Fiber
11.5.5 Digital
11.6 DCE: Data Circuit­Terminating Equipment
11.7 Point­to­Point Circuits
11.8 Multidrop Circuits
11.9 LANs: Local Area Networks
11.10 WANs: Wide Area Networks
12 Coding, Frames and Packets
In this chapter, we'll go over the fundamentals of what used to be called “data communications”:
the solid base necessary to understand the new­generation IP telecom network... especially the
critical ideas of MAC frames and IP packets, and how the MAC address relates to the IP address,
and what changes as a packet is forwarded by routers hop­by­hop across the network.
12.1 Essential Functions for Communication
12.1.1 Coding
12.1.2 Bits
12.1.3 Bytes
12.1.4 Error Control
12.1.5 Framing
12.1.6 Addressing
12.2 Coding Quantities: Number Systems
12.2.1 Decimal
12.2.2 Binary
12.2.3 Hexadecimal
12.2.4 Common Use for Hexadecimal
12.3 Coding Text
12.3.1 ASCII
12.3.2 Unicode
12.4 "Asynchronous": Start/Stop/Parity
12.4.1 Asynchronous Communications
12.4.2 Framing: Start and Stop Bits
12.4.3 Parity Checking
12.5 Frames and MAC Addresses
12.5.1 Data Link Protocol
12.5.2 Framing
12.5.3 Address
12.5.4 Control Field
12.5.5 Payload
12.5.6 CRC: Cyclic Redundancy Checking
12.6 Networks, Packets & IP Addresses
12.7 Packets vs. Frames
12.7.1 Link Address vs. Network Address
12.8 IP Packets
12.8.1 IP Packet Header
12.8.2 Connectionless Network Service
12.8.3 Relationship to TCP
13 The OSI Layers and Protocol Stacks
There are so many functions that need to be performed to implement phone calls, television, web browsing, email and
everything else over the IP network, a structure is necessary to be able to discuss separate issues separately. The most
widely­used structure is the OSI Reference Model and its layers. In this chapter, we define what a layer is, what the
layers in the model are, and give examples of protocols used to implement each layer including SMTP email; ASCII,
encryption and codecs; SIP, POP and HTTP; TCP and UDP, IP and Ethernet. The chapter concludes with protocol stacks,
practical insight into how a protocol stack works and standards bodies.
13.1 Protocols and Standards
13.1.1 Functions To Be Performed
13.1.2 Monolithic vs. Structured Protocols
13.1.3 Open Systems and Standards
13.2 ISO OSI Reference Model
13.2.1 Layers
13.2.2 Separability of the Layers
13.2.3 Protocol Stacks
13.3 The OSI 7­Layer Model
13.4 Physical Layer: 802.3, DSL, DOCSIS
13.5 Data Link Layer: 802 MAC
13.5.1 LANs, Frames and Layer 2 Switches
13.5.2 MAC Frames and MAC Addresses
13.5.3 Other Data Link Protocols
13.6 Network Layer: IP and MPLS
13.6.1 Packet­Switched Networks
13.6.2 Routing Table Updates
13.6.3 MPLS
13.7 Transport Layer: TCP and UDP
13.7.1 Reliability
13.7.2 Port Numbers
13.8 Session Layer: POP, SIP, HTTP
13.8.1 Password Authentication
13.8.2 Authentication Servers
13.8.3 Cookies
13.8.4 Client­Server Sessions
13.8.5 Peer­Peer Sessions
13.9 Presentation Layer: ASCII, Encryption, Codecs
13.9.1 Character Coding
13.9.2 E­Mail Coding
13.9.3 Codecs
13.9.4 Data Compression
13.9.5 Symmetric Encryption: Private Key
13.9.6 Asymmetric Encryption: Public Key Encryption and Digital Signatures
13.9.7 Example of Separability of Layers
13.9.8 Example of Peer Protocol
13.10 Application Layer: SMTP, HTML, English …
13.10.1 Email
13.10.2 More Application Layer Examples
13.11 Protocol Stacks
13.11.1 Example: Web Surfing
13.11.2 Voice over IP
13.12 Protocol Stack in Operation: Russian Dolls
13.12.1 Communications Flow
13.12.2 Segmentation at Each Layer
13.12.3 Nested Headers: Matryoshka dolls
13.13 Standards Organizations
13.13.1 ISO
13.13.2 DOD and IETF
13.13.3 ITU and Bellcore
13.13.4 TIA and IEEE
13.13.5 ANSI
14 Ethernet, LANs and VLANs
Chapter 14 is all about Layer 2, which is implemented with 802.3 Ethernet and LAN switches. We'll cover fundamental
LAN concepts, MAC addresses and MAC frames, LAN cables, the evolution of Ethernet from copper wires to Optical
Ethernet on fiber, LAN / Layer 2 switches and the critical concept of VLANs used to separate traffic.
14.1 LAN Basics
14.1.1 Bus Topology
14.1.2 Broadcast Domain
14.1.3 Balanced Configuration
14.1.4 Collision Domain
14.1.5 CSMA­CD Access Control
14.1.6 MAC Address
14.1.7 Communication of MAC Frames
14.2 Ethernet and 802 Standards
14.2.1 IEEE 802 Standards
14.2.2 Ethernet vs. 802.3
14.2.3 Token Ring
14.2.4 Baseband LAN
14.2.5 10BASE­5
14.2.6 10BASE­2
14.2.7 10BASE­T
14.2.8 100BASE­T
14.2.9 1000BASE­T
14.2.10 Optical Ethernet
14.3 LAN Cables and Categories
14.3.1 Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
14.3.2 Shielding
14.3.3
14.3.4
14.3.5
14.3.6
14.3.7
TIA­568 LAN Cable Categories
TIA­568A vs. TIA­568B
Maximum Cable Length and Cabling Architecture
Difference Between Categories
Which Category To Use
14.4 LAN Switches: Layer 2 Switches
14.4.1 Hardware
14.4.2 Purpose and Operation
14.4.3 Buffers
14.4.4 Frame Forwarding
14.4.5 Broadcast Domain Defined by Switch
14.5 VLANs
14.5.1 Broadcast Domains Defined in Software
14.5.2 Routing Between VLANs
14.5.3 Header Tag
14.5.4 Traffic Management and Network Security
15 IP Networks, Routers and Addresses
In this chapter, we'll understand IP packet networks, beginning with the functions routers perform, and how IP subnets
are mapped onto broadcast domains to simplify routing. Then we'll cover the whole IP addressing story including IP
address classes, DHCP, dynamic and static addresses, public and private addresses, Network Address Translation and IP
version 6 (IPv6), and how TCP and UDP and port numbers fit into the story.
15.1 Definition of Network
15.2 Simplest Example: Private Network
15.2.1 Broadcast Domain at Each Location
15.2.2 Edge Router at Each Location
15.2.3 Subnet Assigned to Broadcast Domain
15.2.4 Default Gateway
15.2.5 Subnet Mask
15.2.6 Packet Creation
15.2.7 Packet Transmission from the Source
15.2.8 IP to MAC Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
15.2.9 Packet Routing
15.2.10 Overbooking & Bandwidth on Demand
15.3 Routers and Customer Edge
15.3.1 Customer Edge Device
15.3.2 Router Connects Broadcast Domains
15.3.3 Routing
15.3.4 Denying Communications
15.3.5 Packet Filtering
15.3.6 Port Filtering
15.3.7 Firewall
15.4 IPv4 Address Classes
15.4.1 Packets and Network Addresses
15.4.2 Historical Network Classes
15.4.3 Class A, B and C
15.4.4 Network ID and Host ID
15.4.5 Class D and E
15.4.6 Classless Inter­Domain Routing
15.4.7 Dotted­Decimal Notation
15.5 DHCP
15.5.1 Dynamic Addresses for Clients
15.5.2 Static Addresses and DNS for Servers
15.5.3 DHCP Client – Server Communications
15.5.4 DHCP Message Exchange
15.5.5 Lease Expiry
15.5.6 DHCP to Assign Static Addresses
15.6 Public and Private IPv4 Addresses
15.6.1 Public Addresses
15.6.2 Regional Internet Registries
15.6.3 Unassigned or Private Addresses
15.7 Network Address Translation
15.7.1 Network Address Translator
15.7.2 Outbound
15.7.3 Inbound
15.7.4 Advantages of NAT
15.7.5 Implementation
15.8 TCP and UDP
15.9 IPv6
15.9.1
15.9.2
15.9.3
15.9.4
15.9.5
Expanded Addressing Capabilities
Header Simplification
Improved Support for Extensions and Options
Support for Traffic Management
IPv6 Packet Format
15.10 IPv6 Address Allocation and Address Types
15.10.1 Internet Registry Identification
15.10.2 Sites and Global Routing Prefix
15.10.3 Interface ID
15.10.4 Subnet ID
15.10.5 Subnet Prefix
15.10.6 IPv6 Address Types
16 MPLS and Carrier Networks
There are no Quality of Service mechanisms in the IP protocol, and so no way to guarantee performance. For
guarantees, a traffic management system using a technique called virtual circuits is implemented with MPLS. This
chapter covers Service Level Agreements and Class of Service (CoS), briefly reviews legacy technologies, then focuses
on MPLS and how it is used to implement VPNs, prioritization and differentiated services, service integration and traffic
aggregation.
16.1 Introduction
16.1.1 Overbooking
16.1.2 Congestion, Contention and Packet Loss
16.1.3 MPLS Traffic Management System
16.2 Carrier Packet Network Basics
16.2.1 Provider Edge (PE) and Customer Edge (CE)
16.2.2 Access
16.2.3 Advantages of Packet Networks
16.3 Service Level Agreements
16.3.1 Traffic Profile
16.3.2 Contract
16.3.3 Business Decisions
16.3.4 Enforcement: Out of Profile Traffic
16.3.5 Abusive Applications: Bit Torrent
16.4 Provider Equipment at the Customer Premise
16.5 Virtual Circuit Technologies
16.5.1 Traffic Classes
16.5.2 Traffic Class ID & Virtual Circuit ID
16.5.3 Ingress Device: Packet Classification
16.5.4 Forwarding Based on Class Number
16.5.5 Differentiated Services
16.5.6 SVCs and PVCs
16.6 Packet­Switching using Virtual Circuits
16.6.1 X.25 Network Structure and Operation
16.6.2 Reliable Network Service: Guaranteed Delivery
16.6.3 Connection­Oriented vs. Connectionless Network Service
16.7 Frame Relay using Virtual Circuits
16.7.1 Elimination of a Layer of Software
16.7.2 Unreliable Service
16.7.3 Network Structure and Operation
16.7.4 No Guarantees for Voice
16.8 ATM
16.8.1 Future­Proof Technology (Not)
16.8.2 ATM Cells
16.8.3 Service Classes
16.9 MPLS
16.9.1 MPLS vs. TCP
16.9.2 Forwarding Equivalence Class
16.9.3 Labels
16.9.4 Label­Switched Path
16.9.5 Label Edge Routers
16.9.6 IP User­Network Interface
16.9.7 Label­Switching Routers
16.10 MPLS VPN Service for Business Customers
16.10.1 Private Network Service
16.10.2 Virtual Private Network (VPN)
16.10.3 Internet VPNs
16.10.4 MPLS VPN
16.11 MPLS and Diff­Serv to Support Class of Service
16.11.1 DS Codepoints
16.11.2 Assured Forwarding and Expedited Forwarding
16.12 MPLS for Integrated Access
16.12.1 SIP Trunking, VPN and Internet on One Access
16.13 MPLS for Traffic Aggregation
16.13.1 Label Stacking
16.14 M is for Multiprotocol: Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS)
17 The Internet
Let's not forget the Internet! This chapter provides a concise explanation of the Internet, reviewing past and present,
Internet Service Providers (ISPs), who pays for it, TCP and IP, SMTP and MIME for e­mail, HTML, Web servers and
browsers, the Domain Name System and more. The chapter concludes with the Internet as a business: wholesale transit
and peering and Content Delivery Networks.
17.1 A Network To Survive Nuclear War
17.1.1 Unreliable, Connectionless Network Service
17.1.2 Al Gore Invents the Internet
17.1.3 Who Pays for the Internet?
17.1.4 Primitive Beginnings
17.2 The Inter­Net Protocol
17.2.1 Gateways
17.2.2 IP: Common Packet Format and Address Scheme
17.2.3 Connectionless
17.2.4 Unreliable
17.2.5 Need for TCP
17.2.6 Routing and ASes
17.3 Internet Service Providers
17.3.1 The Internet is a Business
17.3.2 ISPs
17.3.3 Interconnect, Peering and Transit
17.3.4 Resellers
17.4 World Wide Web
17.4.1 Clients and Web Servers
17.4.2 Hyperlinks and URLs
17.5 Domain Name System
17.5.1 Domain Zone Files
17.5.2 Name Resolution
17.6 Hypertext
17.6.1 HTML
17.6.2 HTTP
17.6.3 SSL: Secure Socket Layer and HTTPS:
17.7 MIME and Base­64 Encoding for Email Attachments
17.7.1 Binary, Text and uuencode
17.7.2 MIME
17.7.3 Quoted­Printable
17.7.4 Base64 Encoding
17.8 Internet Telephony & VSPs
17.8.1 VoIP Service Provider (VSP)
17.8.2 Internet ­ PSTN Connection
17.8.3 Adapters
17.8.4 Cost Savings
17.9 Internet VPNs
17.9.1 Virtual Point­to­Point Connections
17.9.2 IPsec and Tunnels
17.9.3 Hardware
Appendix A T1
This Appendix covers T1 technology in detail. T1 is a copper­wire technology from the 1950s, that was called "high
capacity" or "hi­cap" service. It is now old and slow in comparison to today's technologies. However, there are still many
T1 circuits in service, so rather than deleting the chapter on T1 that was in previous editions of the book, it has been
moved to the back of the book in the Fourth Edition. We cover T1's origins, concepts such as framing and AMI line
codes, and understand what repeaters are for and why this is superior to analog. We'll also cover B8ZS and clear
channels, HDSL, cross­connects, fractional T1 and CSU/DSUs.
A.1 T1 History and Applications
A.2 T1 Circuit Components
A.3 Operation
A.4 T1 Framing
A.4.1 Superframe Format
A.4.2 ESF
A.5 Pulses and Line Code: AMI
A.5.1 Repeaters
A.6 Synchronization: Bit­Robbing
A.6.1 56 kb/s for Data
A.7 B8ZS and 64 kb/s Clear Channels
A.8 How T1 Is Provided
A.8.1 HDSL
A.9 Fractional T1, DACS and Cross­Connects
A.10 Subrate Data Circuits 1.2 kb/s to 56 kb/s
A.10.1 CSUs, DSUs and CSU/DSUs
Appendix B Voice Services and Jargon
This appendix provides a summary and overview of legacy voice communication services from carriers,
explaining jargon like Tie Lines, Voice VPNs, WATS and AIN.
B.1 Local Voice Services
B.1.1 POTS and Party Lines
B.1.2 CLASS Services
B.1.3 Local Measured Service
B.1.4 Public Coin Telephone Service
B.1.5 Directory Services
B.1.6 Business Services
B.1.7 Access
B.2 Long
B.2.1
B.2.2
B.2.3
B.2.4
B.2.5
B.2.6
B.2.7
B.2.8
Distance Voice Services
Operator Services
Foreign Exchange
OPX: Off­Premise Extension
Tie Line
Private Networks
WATS
AIN Services
Virtual Private Voice Networks
Appendix C Acronyms and Abbreviations
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