A leased line is a dedicated telecommunication line that runs from a main hub to a single location without connecting to any other service. It is used to create a dial-in connection with no interference. While the structure of telecommunications systems is similar, a dedicated line avoids problems caused by shared traffic. Leased lines are still used in secure government sites or utility companies to prevent interference or eavesdropping. High-bandwidth digital transmissions also use leased lines to prevent signal degradation.
A leased line is a telecommunication line that only serves a specific purpose. The line will run from the main local hub directly to a single location without connecting to any other service. This single location could be a specific computer, phone, network, or user. The purpose of a leased line is to create a dial-in connection to a communication hub that will never have interference from any other user or service. Using a leased line is less common today than in previous decades, but they are still common in select cases.
Regardless of the type of communication, the structure of a telecommunications system is generally very similar. Whether it’s a phone call or an Internet connection, the way information is transmitted from one area to another is based largely on the same principles. An area is made up of several hubs that continually move downhill in ever smaller and smaller versions. There might be a hub for a street, then a neighborhood, then a city, a county, and so on. While the exact names and structure of these devices change, the general theory does not.
In this system, a service will share the vast majority of its airtime with other information. This information will use space on the line, potentially slowing down the overall throughput of the service. When it reaches one of the hubs, other services may take priority, for any number of reasons, and the service may have to wait to be routed to the next hub. These two factors play a very critical role in the speed and viability of any transmitted signal.
By using a dedicated line, a service can avoid these problems. The line will connect to a single location, service or user on one end and a specific point on the other. The endpoint of the line could be a regional hub bypassing smaller hubs, a dedicated data transmitter, or even a different single location, service, or user. In any case, the line will have no branches between its ends, allowing full access to the one service.
In the early days of high-speed transmission, using a leased line was a common way to ensure that time-sensitive information arrived on time. As the speed and bandwidth of communication services increased, it was seldom necessary to use a leased line. Even with shared traffic, the slowdown of an in-use network is a fraction of what it was in previous decades.
Even with higher transmission speeds, there are still some areas that use leased lines. In areas such as secure government sites or utility companies, using leased lines prevents outside interference or eavesdropping on sensitive information. In these cases, using a single line is more for safety than for its original purpose. Also, high-bandwidth digital transmissions, such as those from a television station, will use a leased line to help prevent artifacts and signal degradation.
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