Chapter 10: Mini-Case 1 - Cathy's Collectibles

* Chapter 10: Mini-Case 1 - Cathy's Collectibles 

Cathy’s Collectibles

Your cousin Cathy runs a part-time business out of her apartment. She buys and sells collectibles such as antique prints, baseball cards, and cartoon cells and has recently discovered the Web with its many auction sites. She has begun buying and selling on the Web by bidding on collectibles at lesser-known sites and selling them at a profit at more well-known sites. She downloads and uploads lots of graphics (pictures of the items she’s buying and selling).

She is getting frustrated with the slow Internet access she has with her 56-Kbps dial-up modem and asks you for advice. DSL is available at a cost of $60 per month for 1.5 Mbps down and 384 Kbps up. Cable modem service is available for a cost of $50 per month for 1.5 Mbps down and 640 Kbps up. Wireless DSL is available in her apartment building for $45 per month for 1.5 Mbps down and 256 Kbps up. Explain the differences in these services and make a recommendation.

DSL

Digital subscriber line (DSL) is a family of point-to-point technologies designed to provide high-speed data transmission over traditional telephone lines.2 The reason for the limited capacity on traditional telephone circuits lies with the telephone and the switching equipment at the end offices. The actual cable in the local loop from a home or office to the telephone company end office is capable of providing much higher data transmission rates. So conversion from traditional telephone service (POTS) to DSL usually requires just changing the telephone equipment, not rewiring the local loop, which is what has made it so attractive.

DSL uses the existing local loop cable but places different equipment on the customer premises (i.e., the home or office) and in the telephone company end office. The equipment that is installed at the customer location is called the customer premises equipment (CPE). Figure 10.5 shows one common type of DSL installation. (There are other...