Characteristics of broadband technologies

• Speed or capacity
• Latency and jitter
• Always on
• Bandwidth symmetry
• Addressability

Speed or capacity - That means the capacity of the network link between the user and the broadband service provider. It is the one of the crucial factor of broadband every one considered. There are many kinds of broadband technologies either wired or wireless. This characteristic is in every broadband technology. When user wants to download high capacity files, streaming, or video calls, and the user should have a better capacity of down link.

Latency and jitter – This characteristic is very much crucial in applications that depends on real time information or interaction, such as telephone calls (VOIP) and interactive game playing. In simple words, Latency is an expression of how much time it takes for a packet of data to get from one designated point to another. And jitter is the variation in the time between packets arriving. This characteristic is very much important when we are in VOIP calls and playing online games.

Always on – this characteristic is specially occurs when people wants to connect with the world in 24 hours. Some internet applications need this characteristic vastly. For an example when we are using SKYPE (VOIP applications) we fully open to the world. We need the attention of all-time. To get the maximum benefit always on is must. And also it provides the chance for new applications like health monitoring, security, live updates and the like instant messaging.

Bandwidth symmetry – today telecommunication services, especially broadband do not necessary provide the same capacity up and down stream. This characteristic depends on the requirement of a broadband connection. When a user interest on web browsing; low bandwidth can be sufficient for upstream. That means up link can use for only send the request to serves. To do a request user need very few bandwidths and the higher down stream connection returns the contents. When we transfer peer to peer bulky files we have to request higher downstream and upstream.

Addressability – Addressability also enables such functionality as a user being able to run a server that other internet user can access. Residential customers are provided dynamically assigned addresses, and even if they have static address, they are very few. Addressability with out inbound control increases the chance of attacks to a computer. Then the security of home computers depends in large part on the security of the gateways installed within the home or devices such as firewalls.