L7- Building Telecommunication System (Part 3)

Question 1

An important current development in organizational computing is ____________ - moving from platforms based on mainframes and minicomputers to a microcomputing environment. These architectures are
based on the client/server model.

Answer 1

downsizing

Question 2

Most frequently used models of client/server computing are:

Answer 2

1. Two-Tier Architecture
2. Three-Tier Architecture

Question 3

TRUE OR FALSE:
In client/server computing, individual applications are actually written to run on several computer platforms to take advantage of their capabilities.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

TRUE OR FALSE:
2. Main objective of a client is to provide a graphical user interface to a user
3. Main objective of a server is to provide shared services to clients

Answer 4

True

Question 5

Characteristics of Two-Tier Architecture:

Answer 5

1. Client performs presentation services. It displays the GUI and runs the program that determines what happens when the user selects a menu option.
2. Server manages the accesses to
   the database
3. Clients send remote procedure calls to activate specific applications logic on a server.

Question 6

Characteristics of Three-Tier Architecture:

Answer 6

An application server runs most of the application logic, with the user workstation responsible for the display at the front end and the database server providing database servers at the back end. Objective is to distribute application so as to reduce the overall hardware costs while minimizing the network traffic.

Question 7

Issues of client/server computing:

Answer 7

1. Is attractive in terms of their acquisition price as related to their performance
2. Is moving computing control out of the data centers and into the end-user areas
3. Software is complex, and is expensive to maintain
4. Generate significant traffic on the firm’s backbone network that connects clients and servers
5. Can be performed in LAN and WAN environments

Question 8

_________________are the fundamental infrastructure of organizational computing. These long-distance telecommunications networks employ a variety of equipment so that the expensive links may be used effectively.

Answer 8

Wide Area Networks

Question 9

A WAN has a powerful ______________. The host runs a system program, called a telecommunications monitor, which processes incoming messages, passing them to the appropriate application programs, and accepts outgoing messages from the applications in order to transmit them into the network.

Answer 9

Host Computer

Question 10

Relieves the host computer of most of the
tasks involved in network control. Under
the control of its own software, the _____________ accepts messages coming from the network and routes outgoing messages to their destinations.

Answer 10

Front-end Processor
- It performs the necessary code conversions, encrypts and decrypts secure messages, and performs error checking so that the host deals with Aclean@ messages

Question 10

Manages several terminals, connecting them to a single telecommunications link, and performs communication tasks for them, such as screen formatting, code conversion, and error checking.

Answer 10

Cluster Controller
-may also allow the terminals to share a high-speed printer and may handle electronic mail among
the cluster terminals.

Question 11

Combines the data that terminals send to it over local low-speed links into a single stream. This stream is then transmitted over a high-speed telecommunications channel and is split by another on the opposite end of the channel

Answer 11

Multiplexor

Question 12

Combines transmission from several slower terminals that operate in a burst mode into a single transmission stream that requires a link of lower speed than the sum of the speeds of all the terminals combined.

Answer 12

Concentrator
-stores messages from terminals and forwards them when warranted.

Question 13

Establishes connections between nodes that need to communicate.

Answer 13

Switches

Question 14

Include a variety of dumb terminals, with no processing capacity and intelligent terminals with processing capacity, such as personal computers.

Answer 14

Access Terminals

Question 15

The essential providers of telecommunications
links and services are common carriers and the vendors of enhanced services on value-added networks. These include:

Answer 15

1. Common carriers
2. Providers of value-added networks
3. Private lines and private networks

Question 16

Are companies licensed by a country’s government to provide telecommunications services to the public. The vast majority provide telephone service. These carriers offer the use of a wide-area telecommunications infrastructure, that is, facilities for the transmission of voice and data messages.

Answer 16

Common Carriers

Question 17

Common carriers offer a service called _______________ where a user firm can purchase guaranteed access to facilities with specified capabilities, such as transmission speed and access points.

Answer 17

virtual private network

Question 18

Value-added vendors lease facilities from the common carriers and provide telecommunications services to their own customers. These vendors add value to the basic infrastructure furnished by the common carrier. The __________________ provided by the vendors furnish services over and above those provided by common carriers.

Answer 18

value-added networks (VAN)

Question 19

Instead of using a service that has to be shared with others, a firm may lease its own private lines or entire networks from carriers. This can have economic advantages as compared with VAN use, as well as provide faster and more secure communications

Answer 19

Private Lines and Private Networks

Question 20

A global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities, consisting of interconnected networks using standardized communication protocols.

Answer 20

Internet

Question 21

Characteristics of the Internet:

Answer 21

1. It is run in a decentralized fashion by a number of voluntary organizations, the principal of which is the Internet Society.
2. It is a medium of communication, a source of information, and a developing means of electronic commerce.
3. A major obstacle to its development has become the limited capacity of the links interconnecting the networks.

Question 22

The principal categories of Internet use include:

Answer 22

1. Communication
2. Information Access
3. Electronic commerce

Question 23

It is an information service available over the Internet, providing access to distributed electronic documents via hyper links.

Answer 23

The World Wide Web

Question 24

TRUE OR FALSE:
The World Wide Web is a client/server system.

Answer 24

True

Question 25

Access to the Web is through a client program, known as a __________. This sends out for the needed page into the Internet, interprets the formatting directions on the retrieved page, and displays the page
accordingly on the screen.

Answer 25

browser

Question 26

To access a Web site, you provide the browser with the site’s identifier, known as a ____________

Answer 26

URL (Uniform Resource Locator)

Question 27

A ____________ is a Web facility that maintains its own information about the documents available on the Web.

Answer 27

search engine

Question 28

It is sharing business information, maintaining
business relationships, and conducting business transactions by means of telecommunications networks.

Answer 28

Electronic commerce

Question 29

The framework of electronic commerce is summarized in three levels:

Answer 29

1. Infrastructure
   - the hardware, software, databases, and telecommunications that together deliver such functionality as the Web over the Internet, and support EDI and other forms of messaging over the Internet or over value-added networks.
2. Services
   - messaging and a variety of services enabling the finding and delivery of information, as well as negotiation, transaction business, and settlement.
3. Products and structures
   - direct provision of commercial services to consumers and business partners, intra-organizational information sharing and collaboration, and organization of electronic markets and supply chains.

Question 30

Using the Internet, many firms have implemented internal networks of Web sites, known as __________, are set up on corporate LANs and WANs.

Answer 30

Intranets

Question 31

An Intranet is separated from the public Internet by a facility called _____________. The said program runs on the server computer, preventing access to the Intranet from the public Internet, but allowing access to the
Internet. Intranet is, in effect, the owner company’s private Internet.

Answer 31

firewall

Question 32

The high-level design of a blueprint for the organizational information system is known as the ____________________. This plan must support the present and future computing and communications needs of a business.

Answer 32

information system architecture

Question 33

Fundamental components of an architectural plan must address the following concerns:

Answer 33

1. How will the processing power be distributed
2. Where will the databases be located
3. Network interconnections
4. Protocols

Question 34

Using Telecommunications for Business Process Redesign and to Seek Competitive Advantage

Through telecommunications, this value may be:

Answer 34

1. An increase in the efficiency of operations
2. Improvements in the effectiveness of management
3. Innovations in the marketplace

Question 35

Telecommunications may provide these values through the following impacts:

Answer 35

1. Time compression
   - Telecommunications enable a firm to transmit raw data and information quickly and accurately between remote sites.
2. Overcoming geographical dispersion
   - Telecommunications enable an organization with geographically remote sites to function, to a degree, as though these sites were a single unit. The firm can then reap benefits of scale and scope which would otherwise be unobtainable.
3. Restructuring business relationships
   - Telecommunications make it possible to create systems which restructure the interactions of people
   within a firm as well as a firm’s relationships with its customers. Operational efficiency may be raised by
   eliminating intermediaries from various business processes.