Broadband for the Bandwidth Starved

Author: John Shepler

To say that we live in a connected society seems to underestimate the obvious. It seems clear that everyone, and especially everyone in the business world, has claimed their piece of the bandwidth pie. But… not so fast. We are not all wired as we should be. There are still pockets of broadband desert that lack bandwidth. If you find yourself in this situation, what hope is there?

Yes, Virginia, there is broadband.
At the turn of the century, there were islands of broadband and large areas of dial-up access. The situation has changed considerably. Today, there is no place where you cannot get at least high-speed Internet access. The only question is what type of broadband service is available and how much to pay.

Fiber is the Cadillac of bandwidth.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. We are moving towards a world where fiber is available. Nothing else has the strength of fiberglass. Try sending 10 Gbps over a copper pair. This only happens in the building. This sign will certainly not pass through the city. The same 10 Gbps is for fiber wind. A single beam from a laser can provide this bandwidth. By using WDM or a wavelength division multiplexer, you can easily multiply 10 to 100 times.

Fiber everywhere?
You might think it's fiber, fiber is everywhere and there's no rush to drink it. In fact, it may not be a drop. Fiber is literally everywhere. That long country road? The fiber is probably buried in the media. Highways, railroads and pipelines are popular routes for fiber pipe. Most of this fiber is invisible as there are few drops or points to connect with all of this fiber.

It changes. What's happening is that consumer and business applications have become more bandwidth-intensive. The cloud? You are not connecting to the cloud. You better have good bandwidth or you'll want to keep those servers at home.

Fiber - mobile connection
Another important thing is mobile broadband. Feature phones have almost disappeared. Everyone has an iPhone or an Android. They must now have a 4G LTE smartphone. The latest applications and streaming content require 10, 20 or 30 megabytes of bandwidth. This ability will also change in the future.

What does fiber have to do with mobile communications? The transmission from the pylons must first reach the pylons. This is where fiber comes in. T1 lines that typically support 2G and 3G cellular networks are not compatible with 4G and 5G. Carriers realized this a long time ago and began a frantic race to build fiber to the towers. No problem in town. Among the crazy? It's a big construction site. Either way, lots of fibers penetrate the ground and connect to cell towers here, there, and everywhere.

The end result is two. First, wireless broadband speeds are increasing like crazy (wireless is becoming fiber for mobile and portable applications). Another benefit is that real fiber is available in so many places.

What type of fiber is there?
The oldest fiber optic communication standard is called SONET. It is obsolete because many, if not all, long distance networks operate on Sonet rings. SONET provides a good framework, but is often not the best connection for businesses.

The new standard is called Carrier Ethernet. It is an Ethernet extension that works on your local network. Since they share the same technical requirements, all you need to do is connect a local network to a Carrier Ethernet WAN, and the network is connected in a city, another state or around the world. Connect to the Internet with fiber optics and get high speed for employees, suppliers and customers.

Carrier Ethernet is available in two variants. Ethernet is a lower speed standard than copper. It operates over copper twisted pair and has a speed of around 10 Mbps. Ethernet over fiber starts at 10 Mbps and goes up to 10 Gbps and beyond. This is the advantage of fiber Ethernet. Regardless of the size of your business, getting rid of bandwidth is difficult.

Another advantage is flexibility. You can start with 10 Mbps and upgrade to 100 Mbps or 1000 Gbps at any time. Fiber would be nice. If you install a door quickly enough, you may not even need to replace the hardware. Call your service provider and ask for a bandwidth increase.

What if there is still no fiber?
Don't delete threads until you have a new set of quotes. The fiber zone of each operator changes daily. Just because you got rejected last year doesn't mean you're still in the middle of nowhere. But... sometimes you still are.

For smaller or less bandwidth-intensive businesses like retailers and some farms and ranches, a reliable T1 line can still get the job done. You get a solid 1.5 Mbps top to bottom. That's certainly more than enough for email, occasional web browsing, and online ordering. Video? not really. But maybe that's not your critical need.

The advantage of T1 lines is that they are available wherever there is a fixed line. They can be linked together to double or triple the bandwidth. In some cases, 10 megabytes per second is quite possible. This is the limit. Lines cost a fraction of what they used to cost, so you may find the T1 a very affordable option.

Can we let go of the rope?
Wireless connectivity is also more optional than ever. The same cell towers that power 4G smartphones give you solid reception on your local network. Today, most companies are in at least one range of repeatable good signals.

Bandwidth won't be your issue for most applications. It will be useful. Wireless is a very limited resource, so even so-called "unlimited" plans have "fair use" limits. If you switch accounts, you will be charged an additional fee or service fees will be suspended or reduced. Despite this, many companies still do not use the Internet on a large scale and can run their online business with less than 10 GB per month.

Bird is a word.
When you're away, there's always a companion when nothing else works. Yes, you have to look through the trees to see the sky to the south. Yes, it is important to power the satellite equipment. If neither is a big deal, you can probably get broadband service.

Satellite broadband was a joke. Bandwidth was very poor and usage limits were small. New generations of large and powerful satellites have alleviated many of these problems. Although not close to the capacity of fiber optics, it is possible to obtain a good level of broadband. However, 5-15 Mbps is reasonable for most businesses. As with mobile, there are usage limits on satellite and 10GB per month is not uncommon even with higher usage plans. Again, this is for internet access and email, not video streaming.

Another thing to consider is latency. Large birds fly about 23,000 miles, and even radio waves take half a second or more to rise, fall, and return. Latencies ranging from 500 ms to 1 second or more mean that satellite phone calls are two-way radio conversations. You must wait your turn. The same goes for video conferencing. Expect other cloud services to operate similarly over geosynchronous satellite broadband.

What kind of broadband will meet your bandwidth needs?
Options available in many locations include fiber optic, T1, cellular wireless, and satellite. One of them must be used for your applications. In many cases, you have more than one choice. Sometimes wired broadband or fixed broadband wireless is also an option. How do I know what's available? After a minute, it starts with a free quote from a number of service providers that you can request.



Note: The jokes on this page are "I really need more bandwidth" themed products available from Zzzle's Gigapacket store.