How Will Networking Impact You in Your Professional Life?

How will networking impact you in your professional life?

DeVry University

Author Note

This paper was prepared for CEIS-100

Taught by Professor David Blodgett

Course Project Week #: 2

How will networking impact you in your professional life?

A network is a grouping of computers connected to each other by some type of medium for the purpose of sharing information. For example, your home computer that is connected to the Internet via the public telephone system or the cable company is part of a network.

In computer networks, bandwidth is used as a synonym for data transfer rate, the amount of data that can be carried from one point to another in a given time period (usually a second). Network bandwidth is usually expressed in bits per second (bps); modern networks typically have speeds measured in the millions of bits per second (megabits per second, or Mbps) or billions of bits per second (gigabits per second, or Gbps).

Note that bandwidth is not the only factor that affects network performance: There is also packet loss, latency and jitters, all of which degrade network throughput and make a link perform like one with lower bandwidth. A network path usually consists of a succession of links, each with its own bandwidth, so the end-to-end bandwidth is limited to the bandwidth of the lowest speed link (the bottleneck).

Different applications require different bandwidths. An instant messaging conversation might take less than 1,000 bits per second (bps); a voice over IP (VoIP) conversation requires 56 kilobits per second (Kbps) to sound smooth and clear. Standard definition video (480p) works at 1 megabit per second (Mbps), but HD video (720p) wants around 4 Mbps, and HDX (1080p), more than 7 Mbps.

Effective bandwidth -- the highest reliable transmission rate a path can provide -- is measured with a bandwidth test. This rate can be determined by repeatedly measuring the time required for a specific file to leave its point of origin and successfully...