Router technology has been changing rapidly. With all the growth it can be difficult to keep up especially when you consider all the jargon you need to know. To start with let's focus on understanding the difference between the terms "broadband" and "narrowband" router.
Some of you may remember when modems first started making their appearance on the market? When the internet was just getting started and the technology was still a bit archaic. The first modems were rated in kilobits per second or kbps. We had 14kbs, then 28kbps, and then 56kbps modems. Boy, those were exiting times! These modems all connected directly to a standard phone line and operated in the "narrowband" regime.
We're not talking about modems though, we're talking about routers, and today most routers are broadband. These broadband routers usually connect to the high speed internet through cable or DSL.
We've made some hints about the difference between broadband and narrowband but what's the real difference? Boiling it down, it's the frequency band over which something can operate. So, broadband routers use a larger range of frequencies than narrowband routers.
Let's take a look at an analogy to try to make this a bit clearer. There are many broadband and narrow band devices you come by everyday. A tuning fork, for example, is a narrow band device, commonly resonating at exactly 440Hz (middle A). This narrowband device is great for guitarists who want to tune their "A" string to a "narrow band" as close to "A" as possible. A human on the other hand can sing many notes. You might therefore say a human has a "wider band" of frequencies than a tuning fork and therefore could be termed a broadband device.
Understanding the difference between broadband and narrowband is interesting but how is it important? Well, broadband devices are typically faster! Why?
Let's revisit the analogy.
What if we wanted to send twice the data with our tuning fork. If we have two vibrating tuning forks it's hard to tell we have two as opposed to just one. On the other hand if two singers sing two different notes (frequencies) it is easy to tell their are two singers as opposed to just one.
Now let's digitize our singers and tuning forks. "Ones" and "zeros" will refer to "on" and "off". If both tuning forks are "on" it's really hard to tell compared to just one "on" since they are both "on" at the same frequency. On the other hand we can have many singers "on" or "off" at the same time and we can tell them all apart since they sing different frequencies. Since forks can only send one stream of data versus many we would consider tuning forks to be "narrowband" and singers or a choir to be "wideband".
Narrowband devices just can't stream as much data as wideband devices. Broadband devices are technologically a bit more complicated but they have become fairly common place.
Some of you may remember when modems first started making their appearance on the market? When the internet was just getting started and the technology was still a bit archaic. The first modems were rated in kilobits per second or kbps. We had 14kbs, then 28kbps, and then 56kbps modems. Boy, those were exiting times! These modems all connected directly to a standard phone line and operated in the "narrowband" regime.
We're not talking about modems though, we're talking about routers, and today most routers are broadband. These broadband routers usually connect to the high speed internet through cable or DSL.
We've made some hints about the difference between broadband and narrowband but what's the real difference? Boiling it down, it's the frequency band over which something can operate. So, broadband routers use a larger range of frequencies than narrowband routers.
Let's take a look at an analogy to try to make this a bit clearer. There are many broadband and narrow band devices you come by everyday. A tuning fork, for example, is a narrow band device, commonly resonating at exactly 440Hz (middle A). This narrowband device is great for guitarists who want to tune their "A" string to a "narrow band" as close to "A" as possible. A human on the other hand can sing many notes. You might therefore say a human has a "wider band" of frequencies than a tuning fork and therefore could be termed a broadband device.
Understanding the difference between broadband and narrowband is interesting but how is it important? Well, broadband devices are typically faster! Why?
Let's revisit the analogy.
What if we wanted to send twice the data with our tuning fork. If we have two vibrating tuning forks it's hard to tell we have two as opposed to just one. On the other hand if two singers sing two different notes (frequencies) it is easy to tell their are two singers as opposed to just one.
Now let's digitize our singers and tuning forks. "Ones" and "zeros" will refer to "on" and "off". If both tuning forks are "on" it's really hard to tell compared to just one "on" since they are both "on" at the same frequency. On the other hand we can have many singers "on" or "off" at the same time and we can tell them all apart since they sing different frequencies. Since forks can only send one stream of data versus many we would consider tuning forks to be "narrowband" and singers or a choir to be "wideband".
Narrowband devices just can't stream as much data as wideband devices. Broadband devices are technologically a bit more complicated but they have become fairly common place.
About the Author:
If you are looking to buy a router, make sure you check AJ Jensen's excellent free guide to buying a travel router, or check out his small wireless router web site.
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