The market of the broadband technologies is expanding day by day and some of its most common applications include voice, video and data communication, multimedia streaming, interactive gaming, real time video conferencing and the broadcast TV. Over the recent years the internet and intranet applications have evolved, which resulted into the increasing demands for the higher bandwidth.
Optical fiber has surpassed all the other technologies and mediums in providing the higher bandwidth and fastest data communication speed. It is the communication medium, which provides almost infinite bandwidth.
Copper and the wireless technologies are being developed at a rapid pace to meet the challenges of the higher bandwidth. In the broader scenario, the broadband technologies can be classified into the fixed line technologies and the wireless technologies.
Fixed Line Technologies
Fixed line technologies depend on the direct physical connection of the subscriber’s like in the DSL and in the cable internet connection.
- XDSL
XDSL uses the existing telephone line infrastructure to provide the high speed data communications. There are different DSL technologies like ADSL, SDSL and VDSL. The bandwidth and the speed of the XDSL connection depends on the distance of the subscriber’s premises from the local exchange, the quality of the telephone line, the number of connected users simultaneously.
- Hybrid Fiber Coax: Cable Modem and Cable TV.
- Broadband Power Line.
- Public switched telephone network (PSTN)
- Fiber to Home.
- Narrowband
- Baseband
Wireless Technologies
Wireless broadband technologies refer to the technologies that use point-to-point and point-to-multipoint microwave by using different frequencies in the range of 2.5 to 43 GHz to transmit the signals.
- Microwave Links
Microwave Links uses the fixed broadband systems to provide the high speed data communication. It is a point-to-point wireless communication method which provides the data transmission at the rate of 155Mbps within the range of 5KM. Microwave links are the best solutions for the computer networking with the lower capacity.
- Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity).
- Wi-MAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access).
- Satellite
- 3G (3G mobile network).
- MMDS (Multi channel Multi point distributed service).
- FSO (Free Space Optics)
Due to the emerging broadband technologies a lot of internet applications and services such as audio and video streaming, Voice over IP, video conferencing, multimedia applications and the mobile applications are able to provide the high speed data transmission, which is not possible with the dial-up connections. The ultimate bandwidth capacity, higher data transmission speed, security and the reliability of the broadband network technologies has made them the defacto data communication standards for the home and businesses users.