1. HCS 212: Introduction to MIS
Felex Madzikanda
Department of Computer Science and Information Systems
Midlands State University

2. Telecommunications & Networks
Chapter 5
Telecommunications & Networks

3. Telecommunications & Networks
Trends in Telecommunication
telecommunications is the exchange of information in any form(voice, text, data images audio and video) over computer based networks.
We should be aware of major trends in telecommunications industries, technologies, and applications that significantly increase the decision alternatives confronting business managers and professionals.

4. Telecommunications & Networks
Industry trends
The telecoms industry has changed from government-regulated monopolies to a deregulated market with fiercely competitive suppliers of telecommunications services.
Companies now offer a choice of everything from local and global telephone services to communications satellite channels, mobile radio, cellular phone services and internet access.
Explosive growth of internet and WWW has spawned a host of new telecomms products, services and providers.

5. Telecommunications & Networks
Technology trends
Open systems with unrestricted connectivity, using internet networking technologies as their
technology platform, are today's primary telecommunications technology drivers.
Web browsers, HTML web page editors, internet, TCP/IP internet networking products, network security firewalls are a few examples.
Open Systems are information systems that use common standards for hardware, software, applications and networking. e.g internet, intranets create a computing environment that is open to easy access by end-users and their networked computer systems. Open systems provide greater connectivity. They also provide a high degree of network interoperability.
Frequently software known as middleware may be used to help diverse systems work together.
Telecoms is also being revolutionalized by the rapid change from analogue to digital network technologies.

6. Telecommunications & Networks
Change from reliance on copper wire-based media and land-based microwave relay systems to fibre-optic lines and cellular, communications satellites and other wireless technologies.
Application Trends
Rapid growth of internet, WWW, intranets and extranets dramatically increase the number of feasible telecommunications applications.
Telecoms networks are playing a vital role in e-commerce, enterprise collaboration and other e-business applications that support the operations, management and strategic objectives of businesses.

7. Telecommunications & Networks

8. Telecommunications & Networks
Business use of the Internet
Collaborating among business partners.
Providing customer and vendor support.
Marketing
Sales
CRM applications
Applications in engineering, manufacturing, human resources, and accounting.

9. Telecommunications & Networks
Business value of the internet.
Substantial cost savings because applications that use the internet are less expensive than traditional systems e.g American airlines saves dollars if customers use their website than using the customer support telephone.
Attracting new customers with innovative marketing and products.
Retaining present customers with improved customer service and support.
Generate new revenues from online sales.

10. Telecommunications & Networks
Reduce costs through online sales and customer support.
Attract new customers via web marketing and advertising and online sales.
Increase the loyalty of existing customers via improved web customer service and support.
Develop new web-based markets and distribution channels for existing products.
Develop new information-based products accessible on the web.

11. Telecommunications & Networks
Business Use of the Intranet
Intranet: it is a network inside an organization that uses internet technologies(such as web browsers and servers, TCP/IP protocols, databases and so on) to provide an internet like environment within the enterprise for information sharing, communications, collaborations, and the support of business processes.
It is protected by security measures such as passwords, encryption and firewalls and thus can be accessed by authorized users through the internet.
A companies intranet can also be accessed through the intranets of customers, suppliers, and other business partners via extranet links.

12. Telecommunications & Networks
Business value of the intranets
Communication and collaboration.
Significantly improve communications and collaborations within the enterprise. e.g you can use your intranet browser and pc to send and receive s within the organization.
Use intranet groupware features to improve team and project collaboration with services such as discussion groups, chat rooms, audio and video conferencing.
Web publishing
The comparative ease, attractiveness, and lower cost of publishing and accessing multimedia business information internally via intranet websites. e.g newsletters
Intranet software browsers, servers and search engines can help you easily navigate and locate the business information you need.
Business Operations and Management.
A useful platform for developing and deploying critical business applications to support business operations and managerial decision making across the internetworked enterprise. e.g developing custom applications for order processing, inventory control etc that can be implemented on intranets, extranets, and the internet.

13. Telecommunications & Networks
Business use of Extranets
They are network links that use internet technologies to interconnect the intranet of the business with the intranets of its customers, suppliers, or other business partners.
Companies can establish direct private network links btw themselves, or create private secure internet links btw them private virtual networks.
Business value of the Extranets
The web browser technology of extranets makes customers and suppliers access the intranet resources a lot easier and faster.
Enable a company to offer new kinds of interactive Web-enabled services to their business partners. Thus building and strengthening strategic relationships with its customers and suppliers.
Enable and improve collaboration by a business with its customers and other business partners.
They facilitate an online, interactive product development, marketing, and customer focused process that can bring better designed products to markets faster.

14. Telecommunications & Networks
Types of Telecommunication Networks
LAN
WAN
MAN
C/S
VPN
P2P

15. Telecommunications & Networks
Virtual Private Network
Used to establish secure intranets and extranets.
It is a secure network that uses the internet as its main back bone network, but relies on its firewalls and other security features of its internet and intranet connections and those of participating organizations.

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17. Telecommunications & Networks
Centralised Peer to Peer Networks(P2P)

18. Telecommunications & Networks
Centralised Peer to Peer Networks(P2P)
In a central server architecture, P2P file sharing software connects your PC to a central server that contains a directory of all the other users(peers) in the network.
When you request a file, the software searches the directory for any other users who have that file and are on line at that time.
It then sends you a list of usernames that are active. Clicking on one of those usernames prompts the software to connect your pc to their pc (making a peer to peer connection.) and automatically transfers the file you want from their hard drive to yours.
The directory server can be slowed or overwhelmed by too many users.
It provides the network with a platform that can better protect the integrity and security of the content and users of the network.

19. Telecommunications & Networks
Pure peer to peer network

20. Telecommunications & Networks
Pure peer to peer network
The pure peer to peer network architecture has no central directory or server, first the file sharing software in the P2P network connects your PC with one of the online users on the network.
Then an active link to your username is transmitted from peer to peer to all the online users in the network that the first user(and the other online users) encountered in previous sessions.
In this way, active links to more and more peers spread throughout the network the more it is used.
When you request a file, the software searches every online user and sends you a list of active file names related to your request. Clicking on one of these automatically transfers the file from their hard drive to yours.
Some applications of pure P2P networks have been plagued by slow response time and bogus and corrupted files containing viruses, junk, static and empty code.

21. Telecommunications & Networks
Telecommunications media
Twisted-pair cable
Coaxial Cable
Fibre Optics
Terrestrial Microwave
Communications Satellites

22. Telecommunications & Networks
Telecommunication Processors
They perform a variety of support functions between the computers and other devices in a telecom network.
Modems
Multiplexers
Switch
Router
Hub
Gateway

23. Telecommunications & Networks
Telecommunications Software
Network management packages such as networking operating systems and telecommunications monitors détermine transmission priorités, route messages they also detect and correct transmission errors, log statistics of network activity and protect network resources from unauthorized access.

24. Telecommunications & Networks
Major network management functions
traffic management
Manage network resources and traffic to avoid congestion and optimize telecoms service levels to users.
Security
➢ provide authentication, encryption, and auditing functions and enforce security policies
Network monitoring
Troubleshoot and watch over the network, informing network administrators of potential problems before they occur
Capacity planning
➢ Survey network resources and traffic patterns and users needs to determine how best to accommodate the needs of the network as it grows and changes