Internet Backbone
Internet backbone is the physical networks ( usually relying on fiber optic cable ) that carries internet traffic between different networks and is measured in megabits per second. It is true that because data travel at the speed of light. Any place connected to any of the backbone network should be as accessible as any other place. In reality however congestion at network hubs and junctions makes places with high levels of capacity better positioned to be home to companies that distribute large amounts of data via the internet. if the pipes are not big enough relative to the amount of data going through them data transmission speeds will get slow. However it can be an issue for companies especially those companies that are hosting and transmitting large amounts of data. As a result having a high capacity of internet backbone in a metropolitan area relative to demand is a competitive advantage.
The internet backbone is a collaboration of multiple networks routing facilities and servers that provides a multiple redundancy approach to keeping information online.
The national science foundation (NSF) created the first high speed backbone in 1987s. Called NSFNET, that has connected 170 smaller networks together and operated at 1.544Mbps.
Backbones are typically fiber optic trunk lines. The trunk line has multiple fiber optic cables combined to gather to increase the capacity.
The internet backbone uses fiber optic cables, which are very thin strands of glass to send data. Fiber optic equipment uses lasers to transmit data with pulses of light. These stands of glass are actually stronger than steel. There are very long fibers. Which are up to 15 miles (24 mils) long laid beneath cities to connect network to each other. They are often buried next to railroads or under streets in cities.
Other types of backbone connection include satellite and radio links satellites orbiting earth provide connections for many long distance links. An earth station is a site on earth that communicates with the satellites. The earth station sends the signal to the satellite and the satellite relays the signal to an earth station a particular destination. Satellite links are slower than fiber optic links and satellite links sometimes experience problems caused by environmental events like supports.