Transmission Media

Another aspect of WAN technologies that can have a big effect on the speed, bandwidth, and volume of data that can be transferred is the type of transmission media. Wireless transmissions use air as transmission media. This not only creates a bit of a challenge concerning security, it also presents us with signal degradation—the further the signal has to travel from the original source, the weaker it gets. A solution to this last snag comes to us via microwave repeaters, which retransmit signals through the air and bolster them. This approach is a lot more efficient because it can preserve signal strength over much greater distances.

The most far-reaching technology uses the air and even empty space to send electromagnetic signals to satellites from which they are then re-sent to distant geographic locations.

Wired Connections

Back on Earth, wired connections use either copper wire or glass fiber to carry bits as voltages or light pulses, respectively. That...