Connection characteristics

Skills: none

IT concepts: wired and wireless connections, connection technologies, connection length and speed, units of measure for amount of data and connection speed

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Where does this topic fit?

• Internet concepts– Applications– Technology (communication)– Implications

• Internet skills– Application development– Content creation

Is the connection wired or wireless?

What technology does the connection use?

How long is the connection?

How fast is the connection?

Connection characteristics

Computer 1 Computer 2

Wireless connection technologies

Satellite radio

Terrestrial radio

Wired connection technologies

Copper, twisted pair (electronic)

Copper, coaxial cable (electronic)

Fiber (optical)

Only use wireless connections when a wired connection is not practical.

Connection length

Connection speed

Computer 1 Computer 2

How fast can it transmit data?

Some units of measure

Time minutes

Distance inches

Weight pounds

Amount of data bits

Can you think of others?

What is a bit?

A bit is a binary digit, it may take on one of two values, 0 or 1:

0

1

All data types – numbers, images, audio, video, images, etc. are encoded as bits!

Larger units of amount of data

Bit a single 0 or 1

Kilobit 1,000 bits

Megabit 1,000,000 bits

Gigabit 1,000,000,000 bits

Terabit 1,000,000,000,000 bits

Petabit 1,000,000,000,000,000 bits

(These are approximate. A kilobit is actually 1,024 bits, a megabit 1,024*1,024 bits, etc., but this is close enough for most discussions).

One more -- what is a byte?

8 bits, for example:

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0

Connection speed

Computer 1 Computer 2

How fast can it transmit data?

How many bits can be sent from one computer to the next in a given amount of time?

001110101010101010

Units of measure for a rate (velocity)

Time hours

Distance miles

Velocity miles/hour

miles/hour = “miles per hour”the distance traveled in one hourDistance/time

Can you think of others?

Units of measure for a rate (data transmission speed)

Time seconds

Amount of data bits

Transmission rate bits/second

bits/second = “bits per second”the number of bits transmitted in one secondamount of data/time

Can you think of others?

A few questions

We discussed four characteristics of a communication link. Without looking back, do you recall what they were?

What is a unit of measure for:

Weight

Length

Rate at which you run

Amount of data

Rate of data transmission

What are two other units of measure for each of the above?

The general form of a unit of measure for velocity is distance/time.

What is the general form of a unit of measure for data transmission speed?

How many bits in a megabyte?

How long would it take to transmit a 100 megabit file over a 100 megabit/second communication link?

How long would it take to transmit a 100 megabit file over a 10 megabit/second communication link?

How long would it take to transmit a 100 megabit file over a one gigabit/second communication link?

How long would it take to transmit a 100 megabyte file over a 100 megabit/second communication link?

How long would it take to transmit a 100 megabit file over a 100 megabyte/second communication link?

This is a 2.03 megabyte image

How many megabits is that?

How long would it take to download this image over a 1 megabit per second connection?

How long would it take over a 1 gigabit per second connection?

Connection characteristics

Skills: none

IT concepts: wired and wireless connections, connection technologies, connection length and speed, units of measure for amount of data and connection speed

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.