Telecommunication

Telecommunications, also called telecommunication, is the exchange of information over significant distances by electronic means. A complete, single telecommunications circuit consists of two stations, each equipped with a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter and receiver at any station may be combined into a single device called a transceiver. The medium of signal transmission can be electrical wire or cable (also known as "copper"), optical fiber or electromagnetic fields. The free-space transmission and reception of data by means of electromagntetic fields is called wireless. The simplest form of telecommunications takes place between two stations. However, it is common for multiple transmitting and receiving stations to exchange data among themselves. Such an arrangement is called a telecommunications network. The Internet is the largest example. On a smaller scale, examples include:

Corporate and academic wide-area networks (WANs) Telephone networks Police and fire communications systems Taxicab dispatch networks Groups of amateur radio operators

Data is conveyed in a telecommunications circuit by means of an electrical signal called the carrier or carrier wave. In order for a carrier to convey information, some form of modulation is required. The mode of modulation can be broadly categorized as either analog or digital. In analog modulation, some aspect of the carrier is varied in a continuous fashion. The oldest form of analog modulation is amplitude modulation (AM), still used in radio broadcasting at some frequencies. Digital modulation actually predates analog modulation; the earliest form was Morse code. During the 1900s, dozens of new forms of modulation were developed and deployed, particularly during the so-called "digital revolution" when the use of computers among ordinary citizens became widespread. In some contexts, a broadcast network, consisting of a single transmitting station and multiple receive-only stations, is considered a form of telecommunications. Radio and television broadcasting are the most common examples. Telecommunications and broadcasting worldwide are overseen by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), an agency of the United Nations (UN) with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Most countries have their own agencies that enforce telecommunications regulations formulated by their governments. In the United States, that agency is the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded drumbeats, lung-blown horns, or sent by loud whistles, for example. In the modern age of electricity and electronics, telecommunications now also includes the use of electrical devices such as the telegraph, telephone, and teleprinter, as well as the use of radio and microwave communications, as

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well as fiber optics and their associated electronics, plus the use of the orbiting satellites and the Internet.

Basic elements
A basic telecommunication system consists of three primary units that are always present in some form:

A transmitter that takes information and converts it to a signal. A transmission medium, also called the "physical channel" that carries the signal. An example of this is the "free space channel". A receiver that takes the signal from the channel and converts it back into usable information.

For example, in a radio broadcasting station the station's large power amplifier is the transmitter; and the broadcasting antenna is the interface between the power amplifier and the "free space channel". The free space channel is the transmission medium; and the receiver's antenna is the interface between the free space channel and the receiver. Next, the radio receiver is the destination of the radio signal, and this is where it is converted from electricity to sound for people to listen to. Sometimes, telecommunication systems are "duplex" (two-way systems) with a single box of electronics working as both a transmitter and a receiver, or a transceiver. For example, a cellular telephone is a transceiver.[25] The transmission electronics and the receiver electronics in a transceiver are actually quite independent of each other. This can be readily explained by the fact that radio transmitters contain power amplifiers that operate with electrical powers measured in the watts or kilowatts, but radio receivers deal with radio powers that are measured in the microwatts or nanowatts. Hence, transceivers have to be carefully designed and built to isolate their high-power circuitry and their low-power circuitry from each other. Telecommunication over telephone lines is called point-to-point communication because it is between one transmitter and one receiver. Telecommunication through radio broadcasts is called broadcast communication because it is between one powerful transmitter and numerous low-power but sensitive radio receivers.[25] Telecommunications in which multiple transmitters and multiple receivers have been designed to cooperate and to share the same physical channel are called multiplex systems.

Communication channels
The term "channel" has two different meanings. In one meaning, a channel is the physical medium that carries a signal between the transmitter and the receiver. Examples of this include the atmosphere for sound communications, glass optical fibers for some kinds of optical communications, coaxial cables for communications by way of the voltages and

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electric currents in them, and free space for communications using visible light, infrared waves, ultraviolet light, and radio waves. This last channel is called the "free space channel". The sending of radio waves from one place to another has nothing to do with the presence or absence of an atmosphere between the two. Radio waves travel through a perfect vacuum just as easily as they travel through air, fog, clouds, or any other kind of gas besides air. The other meaning of the term "channel" in telecommunications is seen in the phrase communications channel, which is a subdivision of a transmission medium so that it can be used to send multiple streams of information simultaneously. For example, one radio station can broadcast radio waves into free space at frequencies in the neighborhood of 94.5 MHz (megahertz) while another radio station can simultaneously broadcast radio waves at frequencies in the neighborhood of 96.1 MHz. Each radio station would transmit radio waves over a frequency bandwidth of about 180 kHz (kilohertz), centered at frequencies such as the above, which are called the "carrier frequencies". Each station in this example is separated from its adjacent stations by 200 kHz, and the difference between 200 kHz and 180 kHz (20 kHz) is an engineering allowance for the imperfections in the communication system. In the example above, the "free space channel" has been divided into communications channels according to frequencies, and each channel is assigned a separate frequency bandwidth in which to broadcast radio waves. This system of dividing the medium into channels according to frequency is called "frequency-division multiplexing" (FDM). Another way of dividing a communications medium into channels is to allocate each sender a recurring segment of time (a "time slot", for example, 20 milliseconds out of each second), and to allow each sender to send messages only within its own time slot. This method of dividing the medium into communication channels is called "time-division multiplexing" (TDM), and is used in optical fiber communication.[27][28] Some radio communication systems use TDM within an allocated FDM channel. Hence, these systems use a hybrid of TDM and FDM

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Top 30 Telecom companies in India by market cap

By Sriram Vadlamani Mar 25, 2009 12:00AM UTC

Bharti Airtel is one of the most valued company of India. It is also the leading telecom provider in India. Reliance Communications follows Airtel in market capitalization. Interestingly the same order holds good for the total number of subscribers these telecom companies has.

Bharti has a subscriber base of 91.1 million and added 2.7 million subscribers in Feb 2009. Reliance added 3.3 million new subscribers in FEB 2009 to take the total to 69.6 million. Reliance rolled out its GSM operations late last year following which there was a surge in the number of new subscribers. It also added more subscribers than Airtel in a month. Following MTNL is the list of other telecom providers in infrastructure, equipment and value added services. Vodafone-Essar which has 66 million subscribers is not listed on the Indian Bourses. BSNL is also not listed and that is the reason why it is not in the list. If listed it could be one of the top companies. There is a lot of things happening around BSNLs IPO even before the recession started. Now, that the recession has started the IPO plans were postponed. But, BSNL will dilute 10% stake sooner than later.*Market valuations as on 20 MAR 2009. Source (ETIG) List of top 30 Telecom companies in India :

Company Name Bharti Airtel Reliance Communications Idea Cellular Tata Communications Tata Teleservices

Market Cap in Crores 108066.23 32683.44 14368.92 13181.25 4393.06

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Spice Communications MTNL GTL GTL Infrastructure OnMobile Global HFCL Infotel ITI Him.Fut.Comm Astra Microwave Gemini Communications Avaya Global Shyam Telecom Nelco XL Telecom & Energy Limited Goldstone Infratech Ltd Nu Tek Kavveri Telecom Krone Communications Mobile Telecommunications Ltd Valiant Communications Pun.Communi. Nettlinx Aishwarya Telecom Ltd Interg.Digit Vital Communications 4136.13 4044.6 2475.12 2210.49 1403.52 457.73 413.28 386.99 241.88 125.71 118.54 64.58 63.55 55.96 52.6 48.16 26.51 24.52 17.37 16.58 16.19 12.68 9.86 3.15 2.81

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Wired AND Wireless Connection

The basic difference between a wired and a wireless network is self-explanatory. A wired network uses wires to communicate whereas a wireless network uses radio waves. Let us look at what are the other differences and how one technology gets an edge over the other. - Wired networks are easy to set up and troubleshoot where wireless networks are comparatively difficult to set up, maintain, and troubleshoot. - Wired networks make you immobile while wireless ones provide you with convenience of movement. - Wired networks prove expensive when covering a large area because of the wiring and cabling while wireless networks do not involve this cost. - Wired networks have better transmission speeds than wireless ones. - In a wired network, a user does not have to share space with other users and thus gets dedicated speeds while in wireless networks, the same connection may be shared by multiple users.

Wireless network pros

Very convenient in the home, especially for laptops Easy to set up (you can get your Internet Service Provider, or ISP, to set it up for you if youre having problems, for an additional fee). Less clutter

Wireless cons

Slower transfer rate Can drop out occasionally Not as secure

Wired network pros

Faster transfer rate More secure

Wired cons

Requires a little knowledge to set up (but it could be argued that configuring wireless networks also requires at least a basic computer knowledge) Not convenient if you wish to use your laptop anywhere in the house

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Wireless networking has evolved rapidly over the past few years, when it first came out hardware was very expensive and for the most part unreliable, speeds were poor and security was a big issue, this has all changed now of course and wireless networks are expanding and playing a bigger part in home and corporate networks around the world. For those who are considering implementing a wireless network it is important for you to realise the differences between them (apart from the obvious of course!) so lets take a look: Convenience Wireless networks offer huge convenience benefits over standard wired networks. With a wirelessly connected device you can move around and still stay connected providing you are in range. This is great for office users who are frequently moving from office to office and for just about any scenario when you want to be outside or are not sat close to the nearest switch. Wireless connectivity offers a huge freedom that a wired network will never be able to do. Performance and speed Whilst wireless technology has had some huge advancements with the latest wireless N suite it is still nowhere near capable of gigabit speeds that can be found in wired networks. The biggest issue with wireless speed is fluctuation and the fact that the speed you get will depend a lot on your distance between the nearest access point and whatever happens to be in between the wireless device and the access point itself. This is a factor that will always be present with wireless networking. With a wired network you will always get the speed that the wire is capable of (providing there is no flaw in the cable) and the speed you get today will be the speed you get tomorrow and the day after and so on. Whilst wireless N is theoretically capable of 300mbps it is unlikely we will see these kinds of speeds for a long time! In fact it is safe to assume that 100mbps is the maximum throughput you are likely to see, and this is under perfect working conditions (i.e. perfect line of sight and very good range to the access point). The other problem is that an upgrade from wireless G to wireless N can be expensive, especially in a large distributed wireless network. Security Probably the biggest issue with wireless networking is the security aspect. By default if no encryption is used your wireless network would be exposed to absolutely anybody who is in range. These means that a hacker could intercept all the traffic travelling between you and the wireless router or access point. Stepping up from this you have WEP encryption which is extremely unsecure and can be comprised with relative ease and freely available software. Luckily WPA and WPA/2 address these issues an offer a more robust security algorithm. With a strong pass phrase you can ensure that hackers are going to have a very tough time breaking into your network. With wired networks this kind of concern isnt applicable and security issues will stem from how well your network equipment is physically secured and from the kind of protection you are using that will stop external intruders (firewall, access-lists etc) Reliability If setup correctly a wireless network can be very reliable, however for a large one there are many factors to consider and the whole process can get very expensive. Without proper consideration for the environment that it will operate it and the conditions, wireless

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networks can be very unreliable. Signals can fluctuate and speeds can drop, in worst case scenarios you can experience frequent disconnections that can be very annoying. Wired networks on the other hand will very rarely give you any problems, under normal conditions the cables will last a very long time and the switches (if from a reputable manufacture) will last many many years.

Types of Topologies
Network topologies are categorized into the following basic types:

bus ring star tree mesh

More complex networks can be built as hybrids of two or more of the above basic topologies.

Bus Topology
Bus networks (not to be confused with the system bus of a computer) use a common backbone to connect all devices. A single cable, the backbone functions as a shared communication medium that devices attach or tap into with an interface connector. A device wanting to communicate with another device on the network sends a broadcast message onto the wire that all other devices see, but only the intended recipient actually accepts and processes the message. Ethernet bus topologies are relatively easy to install and don't require much cabling compared to the alternatives. 10Base-2 ("ThinNet") and 10Base-5 ("ThickNet") both were popular Ethernet cabling options many years ago for bus topologies. However, bus networks work best with a limited number of devices. If more than a few dozen computers are added to a network bus, performance problems will likely result. In addition, if the backbone cable fails, the entire network effectively becomes unusable. Illustration - Bus Topology Diagram

Ring Topology
In a ring network, every device has exactly two neighbors for communication purposes. All messages travel through a ring in the same direction (either "clockwise" or "counterclockwise"). A failure in any cable or device breaks the loop and can take down the entire network. To implement a ring network, one typically uses FDDI, SONET, or Token Ring technology. Ring topologies are found in some office buildings or school campuses. Illustration - Ring Topology Diagram

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Star Topology
Many home networks use the star topology. A star network features a central connection point called a "hub node" that may be a network hub, switch or router. Devices typically connect to the hub with Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) Ethernet. Compared to the bus topology, a star network generally requires more cable, but a failure in any star network cable will only take down one computer's network access and not the entire LAN. (If the hub fails, however, the entire network also fails.) Illustration - Star Topology Diagram

Tree Topology
Tree topologies integrate multiple star topologies together onto a bus. In its simplest form, only hub devices connect directly to the tree bus, and each hub functions as the root of a tree of devices. This bus/star hybrid approach supports future expandability of the network much better than a bus (limited in the number of devices due to the broadcast traffic it generates) or a star (limited by the number of hub connection points) alone. Illustration - Tree Topology Diagram

Mesh Topology
Mesh topologies involve the concept of routes. Unlike each of the previous topologies, messages sent on a mesh network can take any of several possible paths from source to destination. (Recall that even in a ring, although two cable paths exist, messages can only travel in one direction.) Some WANs, most notably the Internet, employ mesh routing. A mesh network in which every device connects to every other is called a full mesh. As shown in the illustration below, partial mesh networks also exist in which some devices connect only indirectly to others.