How Do Fiber Optic Couplers Work and How are They Made?
Fiber optic couplers are needed for tapping (monitoring the signal quality) or more complex telecommunication systems which require more than simple point-to-point connections, such as ring architectures, bus architectures and star architectures. More ...
What Are Fiber Optic Attenuators?
A fiber optic attenuator, also called an optical attenuator, simulates the loss the would be caused by a long length of fiber. For a fiber optic receiver, too much light can overload it and degrade the bit error ratio. More ...
How In-Row Cooling Increases Data Center Efficiency
Increased data center densities enable operators to meet the demands of cloud and hyper-scale environments. As more power is consumed per rack, however, heat becomes a big problem. Most modern data centers have adopted some sort of aisle-containment solution to minimize the mixing of hot and cold air. More ...
Wireless Networking Infrastructure Mode
In Ad Hoc mode devices make wireless connections directly between computers, Infrastructure mode wireless devices use access points (WAPs), switches, and routers to connect. More ...
Wireless Networks
A wireless LAN (WLAN or WiFi) provides network connectivity by using radio waves rather than cable. Wireless devices can communicate with each other or they can communicate through a wireless access point (WAP) to a wired network. More ...
VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) Basics
"A VLAN is a LOGICAL network where devices might be on separate PHYSICAL networks. The purpose of implementing a VLAN is to improve the performance of a network or apply security features. More ...
Wireless or Wired Network?
Do you want the freedom of a wireless network, or do you want the security and reliability of a wired network? Both networks can provide you with great service and expandability, but each one varies in size, reliability, cost and speed. More ...
ISP Multihoming Explained
Multihoming is essentially a method whereby a company can connect to more than one ISP at the same time. The concept was born out of the need to protect Internet access in the event of either an ISP link failure or an ISP internal failure. More ...
Troubleshooting Your Optical Fiber Networks - Introduction to OTDR
In fiber optic networks, OTDR (Optical Time Domain Reflectometer) is an opto-electronic instrument used to characterize an optical fiber. An OTDR may be used for estimating the fiber's length and overall attenuation, including splice and mated-connector losses. It may also be used to locate faults, such as breaks. More ...
Cisco Switching Fundamentals
Newer switches now use ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) for high speed hardware switching of packets. This results in much faster performance than packets processed in software. More ...
Computer Network Routers, Hubs, and Switches
The most common components on a computer network, not counting cables, are "routers", "hubs", and "switches". Many of these modules can be appear similar and there can be significant overlap in roles. This article explains the difference between these important network components. More ...
Network Topologies
The physical arrangement of the cables, computers and components is referred to as the networks topology. There are five basic topologies, bus, star, ring, mesh, and wireless. More ...
The Difference Between a Hub and a Router
For someone who needs a quick clarification on the matter, a hub combines all linked computers or workstations into a network, while router links two separate and distinct networks to each other. More ...
