Courtney Patin Week 1 Telecommunications Exercise

1) Local Loop
a. The local loop is the physical wiring that connects you to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). This line can be a voice line, or it can be a data line. The physical wiring for the local loop consists of a pair of twisted copper wires that run from the telephone company's central office (CO) to the subscriber’s premise and another pair of twisted copper wires that run back to the telephone company’s CO.
2) Central Office
a. In telephone communication in the United States, a central office (CO) is an office in a locality to which subscriber home and business lines are connected on what is called local loop. The central office has switching equipment that can switch calls locally or to long-distance carrier phone offices. In other countries, the term public exchanges is used.
3) Local Exchanges
a. A local exchange carrier (LEC) is the term used in the U.S. for describing the telephone company which operates within a local area and provides telecommunication services within that area.
a.i. Local exchange carriers started across the U.S. following the breakup of the Bell system due to antitrust regulations. Local exchange carriers are allowed only to handle local calls, and not any long-distance traffic.
4) POP
a. Point of presence (POP) is the point at which two or more different networks or communication devices build a connection with each other. POP mainly refers to an access point, location or facility that connects to and helps other devices establish a connection with the Internet.
5) Long Distance System
a. A long-distance System is a telephone company that provides connections between local exchanges in different geographic areas. Referred to in the U.S. as interexchange carriers (IXCs), long-distance carriers provides interlocal access and transport area (interLATA)