Access Networks and Physical

Media
Gaurav S. Kasbekar
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
IIT Bombay

Introduction 1-1
Reference
❑ These are a modified version of slides by
Kurose and Ross available at:
http://ctas.poly.asu.edu/millard/CET459/lectno/K%
20-%20R%20stuff/index.html

Introduction 1-2
Access Networks

Introduction 1-3
 Recall: Hierarchical Interconnection of ISPs

Ref: Kurose and Ross, Chapter 1

1) At edge: university and corporate campus networks, ISPs that

connect end users to the Internet (e.g., BSNL, Tata Indicom, Airtel)
o using various technologies (e.g., DSL, cable, Ethernet,
Wi-Fi)
o called “access networks”
2) At center: larger ISPs that connect access networks and smaller
ISPs among themselves 1-4
 Access Networks
Connect end systems to edge
router
❑ Types:
1) residential access nets: e.g.,
dial-up, DSL, cable
2) institutional access networks
(universities, companies): e.g.,
Ethernet, Wi-Fi
3) wide-area wireless access
networks: e.g., 3G, 4G, 5G
Key Characteristics:
❑ bandwidth (bits per second) of
access network
❑ shared or dedicated
Introduction 1-5
Dial-Up
❑ In early days of Internet (1990s):
 traditional analog telephone system was already
widely deployed
 telephone lines (copper) were connected to
large number of homes
❑ Costly to construct new cables for
Internet access to homes
❑ Easier to reuse existing telephone lines for
Internet access as well
❑ Led to “Dial-Up”

Introduction 1-6
Dial-Up
❑ Modems at user and ISP side convert
between digital and analog
❑ User’s modem dials ISP’s phone number
❑ Makes ordinary telephone connection with
ISP’s modem
 which is connected to rest of Internet

Ref: Kurose and Ross, Chapter 1 Introduction 1-7

Dial-Up: Limitations

❑ Telephone lines originally meant for voice calls

❑ Usable bandwidth of telephone lines low
 only 3.1 kHz (human speech range: 300 Hz to 3400
Hz)
❑ Shannon capacity and other physical limits only
allow:
 56 kbps downstream (ISP to user)
 48 kbps upstream

❑ Too slow, esp. for multimedia

 e.g., about 7 minutes to download 3 MB audio file

❑ Can’t use phone and Internet at same time

1-8
Introduction
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)

❑ Work-around to overcome limitations of

dial-up
❑ Key Observation:
 Actual bandwidth of telephone lines about 1 MHz
 A filter at telephone office discards frequencies
outside human voice range (300 Hz- 3.4 kHz)
 Full 1 MHz bandwidth is available if this filter is
removed

Introduction 1-9
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)

Ref: Kurose and Ross, Chapter 1

 FDM: 50 kHz - 1 MHz for downstream data

4 kHz - 50 kHz for upstream data
0 kHz - 4 kHz for ordinary telephone
 Typical Speeds:
❑ Up to 1 Mbps upstream
❑ Up to 8 Mbps downstream
Introduction 1-10
 Cable Internet
❑ Cable TV widely deployed before advent of Internet
❑ A shared cable broadcasts TV channels to hundreds of
homes
❑ Cable Internet reuses this infrastructure
 just as dial-up and DSL reuse telephone network infrastructure
❑ FDM on cable:
 54 to 550 MHz for TV
 550 MHz to 750 MHz for downstream data
 5 to 42 MHz for upstream data

1-11
Cable Network Architecture

Typically 500 to 5,000 homes

cable headend

home
cable distribution
network (simplified)

Introduction 1-12
Cable Network Architecture

cable headend

home
cable distribution
network (simplified)

Introduction 1-13
Cable Network Architecture

server(s)

cable headend

home
cable distribution
network

Introduction 1-14
Cable Network Architecture

FDM:
C
O
V V V V V V N
I I I I I I D D T
D D D D D D A A R
E E E E E E T T O
O O O O O O A A L

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Channels

cable headend

home
cable distribution
network

Introduction 1-15
 Cable: Shared Medium
❑ Shared broadcast medium
• since originally intended for cable TV
❑ In downstream, signal sent by headend is received by
every home
• each customer only uses packets destined for itself
❑ Need Medium Access Control protocol in upstream

Typically 500 to 5,000 homes

cable headend

home
cable distribution
network (simplified)

Introduction 1-16
Cable Internet
❑ Typical speeds: up to 30 Mbps
downstream, 2 Mbps upstream
❑ But no guarantees on speed unlike DSL
 actual speed depends on number of active users
(since medium shared)
❑ Thus, must be careful while comparing
speed of a shared medium tech. and
dedicated link technology

Introduction 1-17