Broadband Network – A network of networks.
It is very amazing how computers can communicate with each other with just the use of wires or cables. This only proves how technology has become very advanced, that everyone has to be on the loop to be updated with the modern time, not to forget the release of the latest gadgets and gizmos that make everyone go gaga. This has truly revolutionized the standard of living of mankind. The age of the Internet paved the way to the development of hundreds of state-of-the-art technology, and one of them is the broadband network.
When being asked, usually lay people will refer to “network" as a TV channel, a radio station or a telecommunications provider. But in Information Technology, the term network refers to a group of two or more computers that are connected together to share information and resources. The World Wide Web or the Internet is also considered a network; the biggest there is since it connects all the computers in the world.
Most commonly used computer networks nowadays are local-area networks (or LAN, a group of computers connected on a relatively small geographic location, for example a building) and wide-area networks (or WAN, a type of network that covers a wider area connected by radio signals or telephone wires).
On the other hand, a type of LAN called broadband network, uses coaxial or fiber-optic cables to connect devices and can simultaneously transmit data, voice, video and other services with frequencies ranging from 50 Mbps to 600 Mbps. Another type of network that offers high bandwidths is called Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network or B-ISDN.
ISDN is an international fully digital communications standard for transmitting information with data transfer rates of up to 64 kbps. Data, voice and video transmissions can all be sent over a single line of digital telephone wires in an instant, tremendously faster than the typical modem or analog data transfers.
The difference between ISDN and B-ISDN is the transmission itself. ISDN employs baseband transmission while B-ISDN utilizes broadband transmission, which can support transfer rates of up to the gigabit range. In addition, ISDN works with telephone copper wires while B-ISDN requires fiber-optic cables, same as with broadband networks.