Broadband and Bandwidth

1.    What is broadband?         

Broadband is the term used for any kind of fast Internet access. Broadband is designed to give a business or residential user instant Internet access 24 hours a day. Broadband's high speed gives you access to applications that are very slow.

2. What units are used to measure bandwidth?

Bits or Bytes
 

3. How much faster is broadband than dial up?

 

Broadband's is generally 10-20 times faster.

4. What are the speeds that broadband operates at compared to dial up?

A typical dial-up modem operates in the range of 30 kbit/s to 50 kbit/s . A broadband connection operates at between 256 kbit/s and 10 Mbit/s, depending on the service you have selected. 

5. What are some of the advantages of using a broadband connection to download something like a video compared to dial up? 

The advantages are that it can:

• allow you to transfer large files of text or graphics at high speeds,

• give you instant access to web pages,

• allow employees to telecommute,

• link several computers to the Internet through the same connection,

• make videoconferencing faster, smoother and more practical,

• save money by allowing a business to rationalise and centralise its servers.

• It's always on. As long as your computer is switched on you can be connected to the Internet. This means that you do not waste time dialing up and waiting for your modem to connect you to the Internet every time you go online.

• Your phone line is not tied up while using the Internet. Therefore there is no need to pay for a second phone line.

• There are no additional dial-up charges to connect each time you use the service.

Think of your connection to the internet as a tunnel that links your computer to the internet. A regular phone line can allow only a small amount of data to pass through at a time. In comparison, a broadband is a wider (or broader) tunnel, allowing a greater amount of information to pass through your connection at one time. The width of this tunnel is called "bandwidth." The more bandwidth you have, the faster you can move data.

6. Create an image in paint that illustrates how a high bandwidth connection can move more data compared to a dial up connection at a given time. 

 Have a look at the Australian Bureau of statistics website link below. It shows all of the internet usage in the last 3 years. Answer the following:

A] How has the type of access connection to the internet changed in recent years?

 

Of the 11.6 million internet subscribers in Australia, 77% are classified as Household subscribers while 23% are Business and government subscribers.

 

B] Can you identify a trend in advertised download speeds?

 

Internet speed

 

1. What is the speed of the connection from your computer to the Sydney location on the map?

 

 

2.  What is the speed of the connection from your computer to the U.S location on the map?

3. Why did the data transfer rates vary? [Hint: think of what happens when an eight lane highway moves into a two lane highway?]