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Cabling WANs / WAN physical layer

WAN physical layer
5.2.1 This page describes the WAN physical layer.


The physical layer implementations vary based on the distance of the equipment from each service, the speed, and the type of service. Serial connections are used to support WAN services such as dedicated leased lines that run PPP or Frame Relay. The speed of these connections ranges from 2400 bps to T1 service at 1.544 Mbps and E1 service at 2.048 Mbps.

ISDN offers dial-on-demand connections or dial backup services. An ISDN Basic Rate Interface (BRI) is composed of two 64 kbps bearer channels (B channels) for data, and one delta channel (D channel) at 16 kbps used for signaling and other link-management tasks. PPP is typically used to carry data over the B channels.

As the demand for residential broadband high-speed services has increased, DSL and cable modem connections have become more popular. Typical residential DSL service can achieve T1/E1 speeds over the telephone line. Cable services use the coaxial cable TV line. A coaxial cable line provides high-speed connectivity that matches or exceeds DSL. DSL and cable modem service will be covered in more detail in a later module.

The next page will describe WAN serial connections.

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