Routers are no exception to the growth experienced by technology as a whole. With all the improvements in these devices it can be difficult to keep up with what is best and the vocabulary and terms required to understand don't help things either. Let's try to understand a little better by looking at what is different between "broadband" and "narrowband" routers.
Most people became aware of modems before routers. Modems used to be pretty archaic in the early days. The early modem's speed was measured in kilobits per second, abbreviated kbps. Modem technology progressed from 14kbs, to 28kbps, and then to 56kbps. How times have changed. These older modems directly connected to a standard phone line and were considered "narrowband".
Modems are interesting but let's move on to routers which are mostly broadband today. Modern broadband routers typically connect to high speed internet through DSL or cable.
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.
A tuning fork is a good example of a narrowband device. It resonates at only one frequency, 440Hz (middle A). A human voice on the other hand can sing at many frequencies. You might therefore say the human voice has "wider band" of frequencies than a tuning fork.
Understanding the difference between broadband and narrowband is interesting but how is it important? Well, broadband devices are typically faster! Why?
Let's dig in a bit deeper into our analogy to get a better understanding.
Now consider trying to send two streams of data at the same time. Two tuning forks at the same time are hard to tell apart. However two singers at once are easy to differentiate.
Similarly, digital devices use ones and zeros. If we think of "ones" and "zeros" as being "on" and "off" respectively we can apply this to tuning forks and singers. Two tuning forks "on" is hard to differentiate from one tuning fork "on" and the other "off". However, it is easy to tell which of two singers is "on" or "off" or even if both are "on". We therefore call tuning forks narrowband since they can only stream one set of data at a time, while the singers can send many streams of data.
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.
Most people became aware of modems before routers. Modems used to be pretty archaic in the early days. The early modem's speed was measured in kilobits per second, abbreviated kbps. Modem technology progressed from 14kbs, to 28kbps, and then to 56kbps. How times have changed. These older modems directly connected to a standard phone line and were considered "narrowband".
Modems are interesting but let's move on to routers which are mostly broadband today. Modern broadband routers typically connect to high speed internet through DSL or cable.
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.
A tuning fork is a good example of a narrowband device. It resonates at only one frequency, 440Hz (middle A). A human voice on the other hand can sing at many frequencies. You might therefore say the human voice has "wider band" of frequencies than a tuning fork.
Understanding the difference between broadband and narrowband is interesting but how is it important? Well, broadband devices are typically faster! Why?
Let's dig in a bit deeper into our analogy to get a better understanding.
Now consider trying to send two streams of data at the same time. Two tuning forks at the same time are hard to tell apart. However two singers at once are easy to differentiate.
Similarly, digital devices use ones and zeros. If we think of "ones" and "zeros" as being "on" and "off" respectively we can apply this to tuning forks and singers. Two tuning forks "on" is hard to differentiate from one tuning fork "on" and the other "off". However, it is easy to tell which of two singers is "on" or "off" or even if both are "on". We therefore call tuning forks narrowband since they can only stream one set of data at a time, while the singers can send many streams of data.
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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