From Local Connectivity to Global Reach

The New Age of Communication

By Dereck Cassidy
August 2, 2021

In today’s economic environment and in the depths of a worldwide pandemic with home working now being the norm, the ability and need to stay connected is now more of a given need rather than a hope. However, in some places, even in Europe and America which are technological advanced parts of the world, connectivity can still be a bit of a problem.

However global connectivity is now a must and it relies on the regional connections to make sure that the local community stays connected to the wider world. Connecting to the network is just as easy as turning on your access devise, if it be a laptop, tablet of phone and immediately connecting to an internet devise or hub. In so many ways the act of internet connection has been made so simple that it is as easy as just turning the device on and your connectity to the internet is almost instantaneous? A lot of people would like to think that is all that is involved in internet connectivity. Some people cannot think beyond the Wi-Fi API or wired LAN connection and any connectivity issues relate to these points within the network. But it is not all that easy and with the tremendous pressure now being felt by the network operators, connectivity issues soon come to the fore. These connectivity have now become critical issues for some people and companies as they are sometimes the only link, for some people, to the outside world. As the home office became the norm, the domestic network, not designed to operate at an agreed up-time seen by the corporate/industrial connectivity networks, was now being used as the primary access  without the full restorative or operational requirements and systems supporting them, just as the corporate network can avail off.

The ability to connect to the internet and communicate with someone or some entity the other side of the world relies on numerous factors that people take for granted but the industry already know is quite difficult to deliver.

Since last March there has been an enormous strain put on the local and national networks to keep connectivity always on. The previous month the web of internet connectivity was divided into two separate networks, the corporate and the domestic network. Both networks sharing the same available capacity but at different times but allowing for some small merging of the two when the corporate network was soon displaced by the domestic network. This was seen at the end of the working day when the domestic internet network took over as main connectivity driver.

It’s the same for the provision of electricity where there are two peak periods in power consumption, early morning and evening periods when people and or Families gather together in a social setting consuming the electrical power for their own wants and needs, in a domestic environment. The transition between peak and normal electricity usage is well documented and the national electric grids design their networks in such a way as to meet these demands on consumption. However, the capacity provided and designed to meet the needs of internet connectivity does not have such design or network provisions in place. There was always a differential in the difference between corporate/industrial and domestic internet connectivity and the demands on the different networks were met in such a way that made the operation feasible.

To continue reading the rest of this article, please read it in Issue 119 of the SubTel Forum Magazine on page 63 or on our archive site here.