Kenneth C. Laudon,Jane P. Laudon Management Information System 12th Edition pdf

Fiber-optic cable

consists of bound strands of clear glass fiber, each the thick-

ness of a human hair. Data are transformed into pulses of light, which are sent

through the fiber-optic cable by a laser device at rates varying from 500 kilobits to

several trillion bits per second in experimental settings. Fiber-optic cable is

considerably faster, lighter, and more durable than wire media, and is well suited

to systems requiring transfers of large volumes of data. However, fiber-optic cable

is more expensive than other physical transmission media and harder to install.

FIGURE 7-6

NETWORK TOPOLOGIES

The three basic network topologies are the star, bus, and ring.

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Part Two

Information Technology Infrastructure

Until recently, fiber-optic cable had been used primarily for the high-speed

network backbone, which handles the major traffic. Now cellular phone

companies such as Verizon are starting to bring fiber lines into the home for

new types of services, such as Verizon’s Fiber Optic Services (FiOS) Internet

service that provides up 50 Mbps download speeds.

W i r e l e s s   Tr a n s m i s s i o n   M e d i a

Wireless transmission is based on radio signals of various frequencies. There

are three kinds of wireless networks used by computers: microwave, cellular,

and Wi-Fi.