You are an IT Network Specialist and are required to develop the design of the company’s telephone system for its new building which will begin construction in a few months. In order to get a background which will help when developing the new system, your supervisor asked you to research the current Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) currently used by the company. You must research the system components and report back to your supervisor, the Telecommunications Manager, within a week.

1. Describe a local land line phone system based on the following Landline Telephone
Components:
a. Local Loop
A local loop is the wired connection from a telephone company’s central office in a locality to its customer’s telephones at homes and businesses. This connection is usually on a pair of copper wires called twisted pair.
b. Central Office
A central office is an office in a locality to which subscriber home and business lines are connected on what is called a local loop. It has switching equipment that can switch calls locally or to long-distance carrier phone offices.
c. Local Exchanges
Local Exchange (LEC) is the term for a public telephone company in the U.S. that provides local service. LEC are also known as “telcos,” which connect to other LEC’s within a local access and transport area (LATA) or to interexchange carriers (IXCs) such as long-distance carriers.
d. POP
Point-Of-Presence (POP) is an access point form one place to the rest of the Internet. It has a unique internet Protocol IP address. The internet service provider (ISP) or online service provider has a point-of-presence on the internet more than one. POP includes routers, digital/analog call aggregators servers, and frequently frame relays or ATM switches.
e. Long Distance System
Long Distance is a telephone company that provides connections between local exchanges in different geographic areas. It provides interlocal access and transport area (inter LATA) service.
f. Fixed Line
Fixed Line is a line that is not a mobile phone line, can be hard-wired or cordless. It usually derive electrical power form the utility mains electricity, unlike mobile wireless or portable wireless, which tend to be battery-powered.
2. Define and describe the following Telecommunications Network Components:
a. Cellular Telephones:
i. Voice
Wireless service providers offer voice plans, also known as talk plans, in conjunction with text services. Voice plans, with or without text, offer varying allotments of time for which can be used during any given month. ii. Data:
Data plan is a stand-alone service, and it’s available in varying allotments, measured by megabytes and gigabytes. In other words, as an estimate, it can access approximately 400 websites per month on the data plan. The minimum amount of data provided by wireless service providers varies, but all four offer data plans that include an unlimited amount of data.
b. Telephone Network Topology:
i. Demarcation Point
It’s the physical point at which the public network of a telecommunication company ends and the private network of a customer begins, this is usually where the cable physically enters a building. ii. Equipment
It’s used to combine, split, switch, boost, or direct packets of information along a computer or telecommunications network. It interconnects devices so that data can be shared. The layout of topology of these connected devices describes the network’s design or structure. iii. Access Networks
An access network is the part of a telecommunications network which connects subscribers to their service provider. It is contrasted with the core network, which connects local providers to each other. iv. Regional/Metro Networks
The need for metropolitan and region-wide wireless Internet access is expected to rise sharply. In order to meet the needs of the emerging market the IEEE has begun forming new working groups to define the wireless standards of the future. The technical aspects of the 802.16, 802.20 and 802.22 was created in order to define new wireless standards which can provide the necessary technology to support fully wireless ISP’s as well as compete with current and next generation cellular technologies.
c. Cable TV
i. Broadcast TV
It’s a program that is transmitted over airwaves for public reception by anyone with a receiver tuned to the right signal channel. ii. Community Antenna
A single source of television signals transmitted to multiple receivers. Used in buildings that have television cables. Can be integrated in the building’s communications system. iii. Network Access Point
It’s one of several major internet interconnection points that serve to tie all the Internet access providers together so that it can reach the Web site. NAP provide major switching facilities that serve the public in general. iv. Interface Device
It’s a hardware component or system of components that allows a human being to interact with a computer, a telephone system, or other electronic information system. An interface device generally must include some form or forms of output interface, such as a display screen or audio signals, and some form or forms of input interface, such as buttons to push, a keyboard, a voice receiver, or a handwriting tablet.

d. Telecommunication Services: i. RBOCs Regional Bell Operating Company, is a term describing one of the U.S. regional telephone companies that were created as a result of the breakup of American Telephone and Telegraph Company by U.S. Federal Court consent decree on December 31, 1983. ii. Unbundling Process of allowing telecommunications operators to use connections from the telephone exchange to the customer’s premises. To increase competition, other providers are granted unbundled access, which often practiced form of regulation during liberalization, where new entrants of the market are offered access to facilities of the incumbent, that are hard to duplicate. iii. MSOs
It stands for Multiple System Operator which is the industry term for “Cable Company”. It owns more than one cable system but it may refer to an operator of only one system and provides Internet access. iv. ISPs
It stands for “Internet Service Provider.” In order to connect to the Internet, you need ISP. It’s the company that’s pay a monthly fee to in order to use the internet. If you use a dial-up modem to connect to the ISP, a point-to-point protocol (PPP) connection is established with another modem on the ISP’s end. The modem connects to the ISP’s routers, which routes to the Internet “backbone.” From here, information can be access from anywhere around the world.
v. Triple Play
In which voice, video and data are all provided in a single access subscription. The most common applications are Telephony, community antenna television (CATV) and high-speed internet service. The transmission medium may be fiber optic, conventional cable (“copper”) or satellite. vi. Cloud Computing
It means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of the computer’s hard drive. The cloud is a metaphor for the Internet, where data of programs can be access over the Internet and have data synchronize with other information over the Net.