Sharing Business Broadband
Costs
Even smaller businesses can have high performance dedicated Internet
access by splitting the cost of a T1 line with other businesses
in their building or business park.
Bonding T1 Lines for Higher
Bandwidth
While a standard T1 line provides 1.5 Mbps upload and download
bandwidth, lines can be bonded to create total bandwidths of 3
Mbps, 4.5 Mbps, 6 Mbps, 7.5 Mbps, 9 Mbps, 10.5 Mbps and 12 Mbps.
An advantage T1 lines have over fiber optic connections is that
they are available nearly everywhere without special construction.
What Are Pseudowires?
A pseudowire is a virtual "circuit" that emulates a
traditional digital telecom service but on a packet switched network.
MPLS networks are especially suitable for pseudowires. By using
a pseudowire circuit, you can get the point to point connectivity
you desire without having to re-engineer your facilities to accommodate
a different protocol network.
T1 Lines are Full Duplex
T1 lines are bidirectional or full duplex. That means that you
can independently upload and download data at up to the full line
rate of 1.5 Mbps simultaneously. LANs that use switched Ethernet
are also full duplex, but LANs that use hubs operate at half-duplex.
A half-duplex network cannot transmit and receive at the same
time, cutting effective bandwidth by up to half.
Bandwidth to Support Convergence
Convergence means combining or converging voice, data and video
onto a single network. Enterprises usually need to expand their
LAN bandwidth and set up a QoS or Quality of Service priority
system to give priority to real-time streams such as telephone
calls or video conference feeds, which are more sensitive to network
delays than data transfers. Most often, the common protocol for
convergence is IP.