CIS 505 Discussions

profileCollegeman
cis505_w1_p1.ppt
Home>Information Systems homework help>CIS 505 Discussions

Communication
Technologies

CIS 505

Introduction

*

Welcome to Communication Technologies. In this lesson, we will discuss Introducing Communications Technologies.

 

Next slide.

Topics

  • Information and communication
  • Data communications and networking
  • Convergence and unified communications
  • The nature of business information requirements
  • Distributed applications
  • Networks
  • The transmission of information;
  • Management issues
  • Standards

*

Information and communication;

Data communications and networking;

Convergence and unified communications;

The nature of business information requirements;

Distributed applications;

Networks;

The transmission of information;

Management issues; and

Standards.

Next slide.

Overview

  • Information and Communication
  • Computers
  • Communication technologies
  • Demographics
  • Transforming business
  • Using management structures to gain advantage
  • Networking
  • Overcoming organizational difficulties

*

A confluence of computers, communication technologies, and demographics is transforming the way any enterprise conducts itself and carries out its organizational mandate. At the heart of the transformation is information. So fundamental is information communication technology to business success that it is emerging as the foundation of a new strategy now taking shape in American businesses—using management structures to gain a competitive advantage.

 

Companies are breaking down divisional walls and flattening top-heavy management pyramids to create new corporate structures that help them compete more effectively. The technology that is making much of this possible is networking.

 

Communication technology helps companies overcome the following kinds of organizational difficulties:

 

Geographically dispersed networks,

Top-heavy companies, and

Barriers between divisions.

 

Next slide.

Data Communications and Networking

  • Trends
  • Traffic
  • Expanded services
  • New technology
  • Faster and cheaper
  • Intelligent networks
  • The Internet’s influence
  • Ever-increasing mobility

*

Effective and efficient data communication and networking facilities are vital to any enterprise. Three different forces have consistently driven the architecture and evolution of data communication and networking facilities:

 

Traffic growth,

Development of new services, and

Advances in technology.

 

Communication traffic has been growing at a high and steady rate for decades. Managers are constantly struggling to maximize capacity and minimize transmission costs.

 

As businesses rely more and more on information technology, the range of services expands. This increases the demand for high-capacity networking and transmission facilities. Growth in services and growth in traffic capacity go hand in hand.

 

Finally, trends in technology enable the provision of increasing traffic capacity and the support of a wide range of services. The following trends are particularly notable:

 

The trend toward faster and cheaper, both in computers and communications, continues;

 

Both voice oriented telecommunication networks and data networks are more intelligent than ever;

 

The Internet, the Web, and associated applications have emerged as dominant features of both the business and personal world; and

 

There has been a trend toward ever increasing mobility for decades, liberating workers from the confines of the physical enterprise.

 

Next slide.

Data Communications and Networking, continued

  • Business Drivers
  • IP Telephony
  • Multimedia messages
  • E-business
  • Customer relationship management
  • Convergence
  • Applications
  • Services
  • Management
  • Infrastructure

*

The nature of the enterprise networking and communications facility depends on the business applications it must support. The following are the four main application areas that will serve as the drivers in determining the design and makeup of the enterprise network:

 

IP Telephony,

Multimedia messages,

E-business, and

Customer relationship management.

 

Convergence refers to the merger of previously distinct telephony and information technologies and markets. We can think of this convergence in terms of a four-layer model of enterprise communications.

 

Applications are seen by the end users of a business. Convergence integrates communications applications with business applications.

 

At the services level, the manager deals with the information network in terms of services it supplies to support applications. The network manager needs design, maintenance, and support services related to the deployment of convergence-based facilities.

 

At the management level, network managers deal with the enterprise network as a function providing system.

 

The key aspect of convergence at the infrastructure level is the ability to carry voice over data networks, such as the Internet.

 

Next slide.

The Nature of Information Requirements

  • Voice Communications
  • Phone
  • Data Communications
  • Text
  • Numerical data
  • Image Communications
  • Fax
  • CD
  • Presentations
  • Video Communications
  • Teleconferencing

*

A business survives and thrives on information: information within the organization and information exchanged with suppliers, customers, and regulators.

 

In this course, the term voice communications primarily refers to telephone-related communications, which is by far the most common form of communication in any organization.

 

The term data communications is sometimes used to refer to virtually any form of information transfer other than voice. It is sometimes important to limit this term to information in the form of text or numerical data.

 

Image communications is now an important component of the office environment. All sorts of images, including engineering and design specifications, mixed documents, presentation materials, and so on, can be moved quickly around the office or displayed on user workstations.

 

Video communications is also becoming important in the office environment. With the availability of high-capacity transmission links and networks, it has an increasing business application, most notably videoconferencing.

 

All of these forms of information communication play a key role in today’s businesses. The manager responsible for them must understand the technology sufficiently to be able to deal effectively with vendors of communications products and services to make cost-effective choices among the growing array of options.

 

Next slide.

Distributed Applications

  • Distributed Data Processing
  • Computers and terminals
  • Linked by networks
  • The Internet and Distributed Applications
  • Application software
  • Underlying interconnection software
  • Client/server
  • The Internet
  • TCP/IP
  • Distributed applications

*

The steady drop over many years in the cost of data processing equipment, coupled with an increase in the capability of such equipment, has led to the introduction of many small and medium-sized computers into the business environment. Today, it is common to find a distributed data processing configuration, one that consists of a number of computers and terminals linked together by networks.

 

A business needs to be concerned with two dimensions of computer communications software:

 

The application software that is provided for a community of terminals and computers, and

 

The underlying interconnection software that allows these terminals and computers to work together cooperatively.

 

The mere existence of a large population of computers and terminals creates the demand that these devices work together. The key to the success of these applications is that all the terminals and computers in the community speak the same language. This is the role of the underlying interconnection software.

 

Modern applications have evolved away from large, general purpose mainframe computers to distributed computing. This approach, called client/server architecture, requires sophisticated, reliable, and secure data communications, but its inherent flexibility and responsiveness make it an essential tool in the businessperson’s information systems repertoire.

 

Virtually no business can compete without exploiting the Internet and the Web. Internet technology enables secure communication both within an enterprise and with customers, suppliers, and partners.

 

One of the most difficult problems that has traditionally faced computer users is that different vendors have used different and incompatible architectures. Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, or TCP/IP, is now universally used for the communications software functions across multiple vendor equipment and is the basis for the operation of the Internet.

 

Distributed information processing is also essential in virtually all businesses.

 

Next slide.

Networks

  • Networks
  • Overview
  • Demand for connectivity
  • Need for communications software
  • Need for networks
  • LAN
  • Local area network
  • Found in virtually all office buildings
  • Integration
  • WAN
  • Large geographical area
  • Common carriers
  • Differences between LANs and WANs

*

The pressure from users for ways to communicate among computers worldwide is irresistible. This demand for connectivity is manifested in two specific requirements: the need for communications software and the need for networks.

 

One type of network that has become increasingly common is the local area network, or LAN. The LAN is to be found in virtually all medium- and large-size office buildings.

 

Beyond the confines of a single office building, networks for voice, data, image, and video are equally important to business. Advances in technology have led to greatly increased capacity and the concept of integration. Integration means that the customer equipment and networks can deal simultaneously with voice, data, image, and even video.

 

Wide area networks, or WANs, generally cover a large geographical area, require the crossing of public right-of-ways, and rely at least in part on circuits provided by a common carrier.

 

There are several key distinctions between LANs and WANs:

 

The scope of the LAN is small, typically a single building or a cluster of buildings. This difference in scope leads to different technical solutions.

 

It is usually the case that the LAN is owned by the same organization that owns the attached devices. For WANs, this is less often the case.

 

And finally, the internal data rates of LANs are typically much greater than those of WANs.

 

Next slide.

Networks, continued

  • Circuit Switching
  • Dedicated path
  • Telephone system
  • Packet Switching
  • Sequences called packets
  • Computer to computer communications
  • Frame Relay
  • Reduced overhead
  • ATM
  • Evolution of packet and circuit switching
  • Wireless Networking
  • Metropolitan Area Networks

*

Traditionally, WANs have been implemented using one of two technologies:

 

Circuit switching, and

Packet switching.

 

In a circuit-switching network, a dedicated communication path is established between two stations through the nodes of the network. That path is a connected sequence of physical links between nodes. The most common example of circuit switching is the telephone network.

 

In a packet-switching network, data are sent out in a sequence of small chunks, called packets. Each packet is passed through the network from node to node along some path leading from source to destination. Packet-switching networks are commonly used for terminal-to-computer and computer-to-computer communications.

 

Packet-switching was developed at a time when digital long-distance transmission facilities exhibited a relatively high error rate compare to today’s facilities. As a result, there is a considerable amount of overhead built into packet-switching schemes. With modern high-speed telecommunications systems, this overhead is unnecessary. Frame relay was developed to take advantage of high data rates and low error rates. Frame relay networks are designed to operate efficiently at user data rates of about two-megabytes per-second.

 

Asynchronous transfer mode, or ATM, is a culmination of developments in circuit switching and packet switching. ATM can be viewed as an evolution of frame relay. ATM uses a fixed packet length, which reduces overhead even further. ATM can also be viewed as an evolution from circuit switching. ATM allows the definition of multiple virtual channels with data rates that are dynamically defined at the time the virtual channel is created.

 

Wireless LANs are common and are widely used in business environments. Wireless technology is also common for both wide area voice and data networks. Wireless networks provide advantages in the areas of mobility and ease of installation and configuration.

 

A metropolitan area network, or MAN, occupies the middle ground between LANs and WANs. The primary market for MANs is the customer that has high speed needs in a metropolitan area. A MAN is intended to provide the required capacity at lower cost and greater efficiency than obtaining an equivalent service from the local telephone company.

 

Next slide.

The Transmission of Information

  • Fiber Optic
  • Cost
  • Capacity
  • Wireless
  • Using any communication system
  • Connect to information services
  • Transmission and Transmission Media
  • Twisted pair lines
  • Coaxial cable
  • Optical fiber cable
  • Terrestrial and satellite microwave
  • Transmission Efficiency

*

The basic building block of any communications facility is the transmission line. There are certain aspects of transmission technology that a manager must understand to be able to ask the right questions and make informed decisions. Of particular note are fiber optic transmission and wireless transmission.

 

The ever-increasing capacity of fiber-optic channels is making channel capacity a virtually free resource. Because of its high capacity and because of its security characteristics, it is becoming increasingly used within office buildings to carry the growing load of business information.

 

The second medium—wireless transmission—is a result of the trend toward universal personal telecommunications and universal access to communication. The first concept refers to the ability of a person to identify him or herself easily and to use conveniently any communication system in a large area in terms of a single account. The second refers to the capability of using one’s terminals in a wide variety of environments to connect to information services.

 

Despite the growth in the capacity and the drop in the cost of transmission facilities, transmission services remain the most costly components of a communications budget for most businesses. Thus, the manager needs to be aware of techniques that increase the efficiency and use of these facilities. The two major approaches to greater efficiency are multiplexing and compression.

 

Multiplexing refers to the ability of a number of devices to share a transmission facility.

 

Compression involves squeezing the data down so that a lower-capacity, cheaper transmission facility can be used to meet a given demand.

 

Information can be communicated by converting it into an electromagnetic signal over some medium, such as a twisted-pair telephone line.

 

The most commonly used transmission media are:

 

Twisted pair lines,

Coaxial cable,

Optical fiber cable, and

Terrestrial and satellite microwave.

 

A major cost in any computer/communications facility is transmission cost. Because of this, it is important to maximize the amount of information that can be carried over a given resource or, alternatively, to minimize the transmission capacity needed to satisfy a given information communications requirement. The standard technique for achieving this objective is multiplexing.

 

Next slide.

Management Issues

  • Network Security
  • Unique Management Issues
  • Pee-to-peer interconnections
  • Complexity of managing systems
  • Criticality of systems
  • Costs
  • Finding skilled personnel

*

As companies rely increasingly on networks and as access by outsiders via the Internet and other links grows, the vexing question of security becomes ever more important. Companies are at risk for the disclosure of confidential information and for the unauthorized altering of corporate data.

 

Like any resource, information technology has to be managed. Many of the management functions required are common to other aspects of business management, but the following requirements are special to information technology:

 

Networks have evolved from an easily controlled centralized approach into peer-to-peer interconnection among highly distributed systems.

 

Peer-to-peer networks have grown larger and larger so that managing, monitoring, and maintaining them has become very complex.

 

In many business sectors, network computing devices constitute a critical strategic resource than cannot be allowed to fail.

 

Communications costs are climbing, and there is a shortage of skilled personnel to staff network command centers.

 

Next slide.

Summary

  • Information and communication
  • Data communications and networking
  • Convergence and unified communications
  • The nature of business information requirements
  • Distributed applications
  • Networks
  • The transmission of information;
  • Management issues
  • Standards

*

We have now reached the end of this lesson. Let’s take a look at what we’ve covered.

 

We started the lesson by discussing that effective and efficient data communication and networking facilities are vital to any enterprise. Three different forces have consistently driven the architecture and evolution of data communication and networking facilities:

 

Traffic growth,

Development of new services, and

Advances in technology.

Next we examined that a business survives and thrives on information: information within the organization and information exchanged with suppliers, customers, and regulators.

Then we saw that the pressure from users for ways to communicate among computers worldwide is irresistible. This demand for connectivity is manifested in two specific requirements: the need for communications software and the need for networks.

Next we discovered that the basic building block of any communications facility is the transmission line. There are certain aspects of transmission technology that a manager must understand to be able to ask the right questions and make informed decisions. Of particular note are fiber optic transmission and wireless transmission.

Lastly, we concluded the lecture by examining how as companies rely increasingly on networks and as access by outsiders via the Internet and other links grows, the vexing question of security becomes ever more important. Companies are at risk for the disclosure of confidential information and for the unauthorized altering of corporate data.

This completes this lesson.