UNDERSTANDING WANs

configure terminal

Hi Techs,
Been trying to understand WAN technologies and can't blend it togethether. Ofcourse a WAN connects multiple sites. My Query is how do the CARRIER SYSTEMS(T1,T3,E1), OC SPECIFICATIONS, PACKET SWITCHING OR CIRCUIT SWITCHING, X.25, ATM, ISDN GET IT TOGETHER to form a WAN? I'm not sure whether i've worded this correctly and in other words when are this technologies used, in what combination and there relevance to older technologies? Plz help

royal

I'm pretty sure you would get more responses if this were in the Cisco forums. I will try to answer your question from my fundamental knowledge as I do not have extensive knowledge on the networking side of things (as I am a Microsoft guy).

From a conceptual standpoint, as you stated, there will be multiple networks consisting of different transport/network protocols. There can be several devices that can help connect these networks together. Gateways can contain modules that will translate different network protocols for communication over different network protocols. These devices can also connect different transport protocols through the use of modules that you can insert into these devices. These modules that are designed for these devices will support T1 connections, Ethernet Connections, Frame Relay, ATM, etc.. It depends on what the module supports and the sophistication of the actual device to translate these protocols so the data can then be transmitted over a different type of WAN technology.

Here's a good article from Cisco that will help you understand interconnecting different network/transport protocols together.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns577/networking_solutions_white_paper09186a0080126eb7.shtml

sprkymrk

icroyal wrote:

I'm pretty sure you would get more responses if this were in the Cisco forums.

He did. Twice.

http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=21759
http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=21760

royal

Gotta love double posting! Oops, triple posting!!!!!!!!!!

configure terminal

Thanks for the info-very easily understood and the article from cisco was brilliant. Thanks for your time and effort.

icroyal wrote:

I'm pretty sure you would get more responses if this were in the Cisco forums. I will try to answer your question from my fundamental knowledge as I do not have extensive knowledge on the networking side of things (as I am a Microsoft guy).

From a conceptual standpoint, as you stated, there will be multiple networks consisting of different transport/network protocols. There can be several devices that can help connect these networks together. Gateways can contain modules that will translate different network protocols for communication over different network protocols. These devices can also connect different transport protocols through the use of modules that you can insert into these devices. These modules that are designed for these devices will support T1 connections, Ethernet Connections, Frame Relay, ATM, etc.. It depends on what the module supports and the sophistication of the actual device to translate these protocols so the data can then be transmitted over a different type of WAN technology.

Here's a good article from Cisco that will help you understand interconnecting different network/transport protocols together.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns577/networking_solutions_white_paper09186a0080126eb7.shtml