92 Part I • Information Technology
LAN LEO URL
WAN FTP ISDN
RFID IM SONET
DSL VPN VoIPReview Questions
1.What are the primary reasons for networking among computers
and computer-related devices?
2.Explain the difference between analog and digital signals. Is
the trend toward more use of (a) analog or (b) digital signals
in the future?
3.What is a modem? When and why are modems necessary?
What is a cable modem, and how does it differ from a
traditional modem?
4.List the primary types of physical media in use in telecom-
munications networks today. Which of these media has the
fastest transmission speed? The slowest transmission
speed?
5.Describe the similarity between the bus and the ring topology;
then describe the similarity between the star and the tree
topology.
6.Identify the following acronyms or initials:7.What is Bluetooth? Give examples of its use.
8.Explain the difference between Wi-Fi and WiMAX networks.
Which of these network types is more important today? Is this
likely to change?
9.What is the Internet? What is an intranet? How are they related?
10.What is the World Wide Web, and how does it relate to the
Internet?
11.Two important sets of protocols discussed in this chapter are
OSI and TCP/IP. In one or two sentences per protocol, tell
what these initials stand for and describe the basic purposes
of these two protocols.Discussion Questions
1.Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the four primary
types of local area networks—contention bus, token bus,
token ring, and wireless.
2.What are the key differences between a LAN and a WAN?
Are the differences between a LAN and a WAN becoming
greater or less? Explain.
3.As noted in the chapter, the most common transmission
medium is the twisted pair. Is this likely to continue to be
true? Why or why not?
4.Explain the differences between accessing the Internet via a
modem, DSL, a cable modem, and satellite. Which of these
access mechanisms are likely to become more important in
the future?
5.Why is the idea of a standard network protocol, such as the
OSI reference model, important? What are the advantages
and disadvantages of developing a single standard
protocol?6.Has the popularity of the Internet and the related adoption of
TCP/IP by many organizations and networks helped or
hindered the movement toward a single standard protocol
such as OSI? Why?
7.Find out what types of computer networks are used at your
organization (either the university at which you are taking
this course or the company for which you work). Does your
organization have an intranet? Does your organization have
one or more LANs? What types of LANs does your organi-
zation use? Does your organization operate a WAN? Is your
organization linked to the Internet? Speculate as to why
your organization has developed this particular network
structure.
8.Consider a large company with which you are somewhat
familiar (because of your own work experience, a parent’s
work experience, a friend’s work experience, or your
study of the company). Use your imagination to suggestnetworks, emanating from a mainframe or midrange
computer; LANs for high-speed communication within a
restricted area; backbone networks to connect LANs
together and to connect to WANs and the Internet; WANs
for communication over a long haul; and the Internet. The
Internet, and especially the World Wide Web, has been
front-page news over the past decade and a half as the
world has become wired. WANs and the Internet are
highly dependent upon facilities owned and operated
by the telephone companies and other carriers. To enable
the devices attached to any type of network to communi-
cate with one another, protocols (or rules of operation)
have to be agreed upon. The success of the Internet has
led to the acceptance of TCP/IP as today’s de facto
networking protocol.
We have now covered two of the three building
blocks of information technology: computer systems (both
hardware and software) and telecommunications and
networking. In the next chapter, we focus on the data to be
processed by the computer systems and moved around on
the networks. Whatever your personal managerial career
involves, you are likely to be working both directly and
indirectly with computer systems, networking, and data.
Knowledge of information technology is essential for
understanding its present and potential impact on your
organization and your job.