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Technology Guide 4 : Telecommunications and the Internet

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW

1. What are data communications? What are the

issues involved in data communications?

2. Describe the two main types of data transmissionmedia. What are three common electromagneticmedia, and what are the advantages of each?

3. What purpose do modems serve? What is thedifference between simplex, half-duplex, andfull-duplex transmissions? What is amultiplexor, and why is it used?

4. Explain a network topology. What are the threecommon network topologies, and what are therelative advantages/disadvantages of each?

What purpose does a PBX serve?

5. What is bandwidth, and why is it important?What are the two types of data transmissionsynchronization, and how are they different?What is a data communications protocol?

6. What is a common carrier? What is packetswitching, and how does it work?

7. What are some of the differences between papermail and electronic mail? What is electronicdata interchange, and why is it used? What is

electronic funds transfer, and what industry ismost likely to use it?

8. Distinguish between a value-added network anda virtual private network.

9. What is a global positioning system, and how isit used?

10. What is an open system?

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Which transmission media would be the best forships at sea? For a banking or automatic tellernetwork? For remote news service providers?

2. Some scientists recommend flip-flopping how

people normally communicatethey recommendthat voicecommunication move from phone line(e.g., cable) to radio and that radio/televisionmove from radio to cable. What might beadvantages to this? Disadvantages?

3. What type of network topology might be best for

an all-campus network? For a departmentalnetwork? For a hospital network?

4. Under what conditions should a firm install aPBX instead of a local area network?

5. Which is more important, bandwidth orprotocol? Why or when?

6. Why has the data communications industryexpanded so rapidly in the last 10 years? Whyare there so many new providers?

7. Under what conditions might (textual) electronicmail be better than a facsimile? When would afacsimile be better than electronic mail?

8. Relate the concept of open system toconnectivity and Microsofts Windows.

EXERCISES

1. Contact a local business that uses a local areanetwork of at least 15 nodes (e.g., terminals,computers, and printers). Identify and quantifythe resources expended to manage the networkon a per-node basis. What is the per-nodevariable cost of the network vs. The per-nodefixed cost?

2. Imagine you are designing a corporateinformation network for a fast food chain with1,200 sites in 16 Eastern states. You hope to beable to predict customer demand and react tocustomer preferences better by actingcollectively on all site sales data. What kind ofnetwork topology would be best for thissituation? Should the network use the servicesof a common carrier for circuits, or should itmanage its own communications circuits? Whatkind of communications applications should thenetwork be capable of handling?

3. Find five recent applications of global positioning systems in air, sea, and landsituations. Prepare a report that outlines thebenefits and the interfaces with other informationsystems.

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GROUP ASSIGNMENTS

Each member of the group is to be assigned to acompany, government agency, or other organization.Each member will conduct an interview and identifythe current and future applications of wirelesscommunication. The group will compile theapplications and make a class presentation.

Divide the class into two groups: one groupadvocating commercial development andmanagement of a U.S. information superhighway,and the other group advocating governmentdevelopment and management (either federally orlocally). Have group representatives give therespective business benefits of each option.

Minicase 1

Full-Featured Network Connects a City

Community leaders in Cupertino, California, havelaunched plans to build what may be the nations firstcitywide computer network linking residents,government, schools, and local corporations. For a$20 annual fee, any of Cupertinos residents with a

computer and phone line will be able to shop, jobhunt, or obtain information about city programs andservices. Local residents will no longer have to visita city office in person to pick up a form orcommunicate with local officials. The network willalso provide a channel for the city to disseminateinformation to citizens.

While a handful of U.S. communities haveestablished electronic networks, these have beenlimited to single applications such as electronic bulletin boards. Cupertinos network, however, willbe full featured. Cupertino schools are expected tobe the first on-line with access to database servicesand the Internet. The plan will eventually include allkey institutions that people generally consult for

informationschools, libraries, city government, thechamber of commerce, and major employers in the

area. Costs?about $20,000 including hardware,

software development, and initial deployment.

Questions for Minicase 1

1. Could security or privacy problems arise through

use of the Cupertino network?

2. How could town managers effectively managethe information available over the

networkmaking sure that it is accurate,complete, and timely?

3. How could town businesses use the network?

4. People go to city offices for more than justinformation (e.g., drivers license renewal,marriage certificates, and building permits).Could these public transactions also take placeover the network? What about civic equivalentsof bank automatic teller machines for thosewithout home computers?

SOURCE: Adapted from Town Crier Goes On Line,Information Week, May 10, 1993.

Minicase 2

Should the Hotel Chain Go Open System?

Eurotel is a large chain of hotels in Europe. Its hotels

are scattered all over the continent. The company isusing an aged IBM mainframe at its headquarters.Most of its 68 hotels use regular telephones totransmit information. Fax and express mail are usedfrequently. Headquarters feels that it needs to tracknumerous individual hotel functions closely. Theexisting system was found to be ineffective since dataarrived too late, information is incomplete, and e-mail communication is incompatible with somehotels.

Stephen Class, the IS director, was looking foran improvement. Here are some of the possibilities

he considered.

1. Scrap the old system, and move to an enterpriseopen system environment. This option willrequire finding a Unix-based hotel managementsystem (several exist), a Unix-based DBMS, and4GL modeling language, and Unix-basedhareware (minicomputers, mainframe) for boththe individual cities and the hotels. The problemwith this option is that it will be necessary torewrite all the applications, including thereservation system. The connectivity problemsin the existing components are just too big, so

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scraping is the only solution. A large investmentwill be required, and the projected time for thecompletion of the project is three to four years.

2. Upgrade the existing mainframe system. Thissolution will not solve the problem completely,but there will be some improvements. In a fewyears, there will be a need for moreimprovements. The cost is minimal, andupgrading can be done within a month.

3. Develop a corporate telecommunicationsnetwork using LAN, WAN, and so on; use asmuch of the old equipment as possible; andinvest money in solutions for the connectivity

problem.

Questions for Minicase 2

What kind of telecommunications system would yousuggest to build for alternative #1? (Provide afigure.)

What are the major differences between alternatives#2 and #3?

Prepare a list of the major advantages anddisadvantages with each alternative.

REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Black, U.,Data Networks , Englewood Cliffs,NJ: Prentice Hall, 1989.

2. Culture of Urgency,Forbes ASAP, September13, 1993.

3. Derfler, F. J., Jr., Linking LANs,PCMagazine, March 16, 1993.

4. Fitzgerald, J.,Business Data Communications:Basic Concepts, Security, and Design, 4 th Ed.,New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993.

5. Gilder, G., Into the Telecosm,HarvardBusiness Review, March/April 1991.

6. Harvey, G., Making the Information HighwayWork,Business Quarterly , Spring 1994.

7. The Heavy Burden of LAN Costs,Datamation, June 1, 1993.

8. Keen, P. G. W., Shaping the Future: BusinessDesign Through Information Technology,Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business SchoolPress, 1991.

9. Quick Response to Nervous Tummies,Information Week, June 15, 1992.

10. Roche, E. M., Telecommunications and BusinessStrategy, Chicago: The Dryden Press, 1991.

11. Rockart, J. F., The Line Takes the

LeadershipIS Management in a WiredSociety, Sloan Management Review, Summer1988.

12. Rowe, S. H. II.,Business Telecommunications ,New York: Macmillan, 1991.

13. Schroth, R., et al., Wireless and the UntetheredOrganization,Insights Quarterly , Summer1993.

14. Singleton, J. P., and M. M. Schwartz, DataAccess Within the Information WarehouseFramework,IBM Systems Journal, Vol. 33, No.

2, 1994.

15. Springs, J. D., et al., TelecommunicationsProtocols and Design, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1992.

16. Stewart, T. A., Managing in a Wired company,Fortune, July 11, 1994.

17. Strauss, P., Write Your Own WirelessApplications,Datamation, September 15, 1994.

18. Town Crier Goes On Line,Information Week,

May 10, 1993.