11-26-2019, 08:15 AM
Not only have networks been rapidly increasing in number and size; the bandwidth or "throughput" capacity of the individual links of which they are composed has been expanding greatly as well. Wide-area networks now typically operate at 1.5 megabits (million bits) per second, and many local-area networks have transmission rates of 10 megabits per second. Systems that use optical fibers as the transmission medium support rates of 100 megabits and, in a few cases, 1 gigabit (billion bit).