Week 1 Exercise
1. The twisted pair is the main apparatus used to connect the customer to the central office, and vice versa. This is referred to as a “local loop”, and relies on one pair of copper cables, or ‘twisted pairs’ per household. The central office connects directly to the local exchange, but is not considered part of the local loop. The local exchange represents a specific company, which connects to the CO, which connects to the customer. To summarize, the interexchange carrier provides service to the local exchange, which then services the local loop.
From there, the point where the interexchange carrier meets the local exchange carrier is termed the point-of-presence or POP. This connection allows for nationwide, long-distance service. At the base of all these connections is the simple fixed line service, or the ‘local loop’ described above, that connects each customer to every other customer on the network through the hierarchy of connections described here. The simplest way to think of the telephone networks is a network of interconnected networks, or a loop of loops.
2. Cellular technology is a relatively recent progression, but has seen many varied advancements since its inception. The first networks began with 1G technology, then 2G, 3G, 4G, and most recently 5G. Like other types of media, the format began with analog 1G. The creation of 2G added voice transmission over the network, switching from analog data flow to digital. 3G allowed for considerably higher data flow, although not enough to handle the multimedia streaming capabilities that characterizes the 4G network.
Although still in the experimental phase, 5G promises another leap in capabilities between users and their devices. According to one source, users will have upwards of 10 devices connected to the network at any given time. And according to another, this could