MINI-CASES
The DSL service is the digital subscriber line. It provides a high speed data transferring through traditional point to point telephone line. There are different kinds of DSL available; two of them are very common to see today. The first one is called the ADSL, it is also the same one that our mini case told us- “a cost of $60 per month for 1.5 Mbps down and 384 Kbps up”. For the local loop, the ADSL also has a maximum distance up to 18000 feet long. Another type of DSL is called the VDSL. It has a short distance but with a high speed rate up to 51.8 Mbps.

The Cable modem service is the service that runs through the TV cable with the shared multipoint circuit. The users actually will share the available capacity that the actual service giving, at the same time all data within the circuit will go to all users` computer. The DOCSIS is a dominant standard; there is no standard data rate yet. However, according to the book: “Typical downstream speeds range between 1 Mbps and 10 Mbps, and typical upstream speeds range between 256 Kbps and 1 Mbps.” (Dennis & Fitzgerald; chapter 4, 2009). And as we knew already, the capacity is shared amount those users who are using it at the same time.

The last option is the Wireless DSL service. Two most common types of fixed wireless system are “Wireless DSL” & “WiMAX”. Both of them are going to need a single line-of-sight circuit between transmitters. And the wireless DSL could be point to point or multipoint. The multipoint style is considered to be a choice for both cable modem and DSL service. It also requires users to share the available capacity from the circuit. And the data transferring rate is 1.5 up to 54 Mbps according to different vendors that you choose.

To me, seems the first option “DSL service” is a good choice for dear Cathy right now. Since she needs a good Internet environment for her downloading and uploading, the high speed and capacity is defiantly needed. And she will not need to worry about the sharing the capacity like the cable modem service. And she also does not need to worry about the security issue like the wireless service will have, because the DSL service will run with wires.

Works cited
"Wiley: Business Data Communications and Networking, 10th Edition." Wiley: Business Data Communications and Networking, 10th Edition. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2012.