Ethernet over TDM

You’ve heard of Ethernet over Copper and Ethernet over Fiber, but have you heard of Ethernet over TDM? Here’s why it’s good to be familiar with this technology and what it can do for you.

TDM stands for Time Division Multiplexing. It’s the basis of T1 lines and SONET fiber optic carrier services. TDM was the chosen protocol of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) when the decision was made to transition from analog to digital mid-20th century. It is still important is because it is still around and going strong.

TDM is a way to transmit multiple signals on one digital line or wireless channel. The way TDM works is that a digital transmission is divided up into timeslots. Each timeslot contains the digitized information for one signal. All the timeslots are linked together like railroad cars into a frame that contains all of the digital bits, end to end. This frame is then transmitted from source to destination. Once one frame is sent another immediately follows.

Think of TDM as a round-robin polling process. You take a chunk of information from one source, then a chunk from another source, and so on. When you’ve got something from all sources that you wish to multiplex, then you start over with the first source again. That way you always have fresh data from frame to frame.

What TDM did for the phone companies was to pack 24 separate telephone calls onto one T1 line instead of 24 separate telephone wires. The multiplexing process combines all calls into one bitstream that is sent down the physical copper wires. At the other end, a complementary process called demultiplexing separates the individual calls so they can be used by particular telephones.

Ethernet is not a TDM process. Instead, it bundles bits of data into packages called packets. The packets are sent on their way individually when they are ready. There’s no assembling the packets into a multiplexed “train” so that they can all travel together. Each packet is switched and routed individually.

From the sound of it, you would think that TDM circuits, like T1 lines, and packet switched circuits, like Ethernet over Copper, would be incompatible. It’s true that they are completely different technologies and don’t exist on the same piece of wire at the same time. That would really create a mess and you’d get completely jumbled up data. However, clever engineering can let one protocol carry another. This is where the idea of Ethernet over TDM comes about.

How Ethernet over TDM works is that the underlying transmission protocol is TDM. A typical example is a T1 line. The T1 frames are transmitted at a rate of 1.5 Mbps from source to destination. Ethernet packets are loaded into those T1 frames. In this case all the claptrap associated with dividing the T1 line into 24 separate channels is ignored. The internal channels are combined so that Ethernet packets can use the entire frame. The T1 timing and waveforms are preserved so that T1 interfaces and signal regenerators will work as-is.

Why go to all this trouble to piggyback Ethernet on top of a T1 TDM system? It’s to give you more options. Ethernet over Copper is a distance limited technology that works great within a couple of miles from the central office, but loses signal strength and bandwidth fast as you get farther away. T1 has fewer distance limitations and delivers a steady bandwidth of 1.5 Mbps even out into rural areas. As a newer development, Ethernet over Copper is also less available than T1 lines that have been around for 50 years or more.

So, if you want the advantages of Ethernet that include bandwidth scalability, easy interfacing to your network, and standardized services such as Ethernet Line and Ethernet LAN, but can’t get Ethernet over Copper or Ethernet over Fiber, consider Ethernet over TDM. This is also known as Ethernet over T1 or Ethernet over DS1. Check pricing and availability on all Copper Ethernet Services now.

Press Releases Get Social

Press releases have done a rapid evolution over the past couple of decades. The legacy press release is a single piece of paper written to a proscribed format intended for journalists. The Internet encouraged PRs to move online with email distribution. The rise of social media is causing businesses to once again review just what a press release is and what it should do. The press release has become the social media news release.

Why would a company publish a press release, news release or social media news release? It’s no accident that the abbreviation PR is used for both press release and public relations. They are tightly linked. They’re both about managing information from a company intended to its target audience, often the general public. Press releases are announcements about new products, events, issues and so on. They may be for general distribution or targeted at a specific interest group or customer base.

In the traditional approach, there is an intermediary between the company issuing the press release and the readers. That is the magazine, newspaper or newsletter publishers or radio and TV stations. PRs are usually directed to particular journalists or the newsroom in general. Press release issuers aren’t in the publication business... or at least they didn’t use to be.

The Internet scrambles these relationships. Now everyone can be both a consumer and a publisher. Publication lead times have shrunk from months down to hours or less. Yesterday’s news might now be last hour’s news or, oh, so 10 minutes ago.

Readership has also moved. Daily and weekly newspapers are the walking dead for the most part. The national news evening wrapups have thinner viewership every year. Even magazine racks are thinning out. Where did everybody go? They’re still reading, but what they’re reading is Facebook pages, tweets, blogs and online news media. Others aren’t reading at all. They’re absorbed in video content they find on YouTube, Vimeo and other platforms.

To reach both the press and your target audience, you need an up to date technology solution that embraces both traditional media and the influencers of the new social media. If you don’t have one already, take a close look at what Mynewsdesk has to offer.

Mynewsdesk is a cost effective PR platform that works with social media. It’s an online resource that you pay for by the month. There are several plans, depending on how many features you want and need to support your public relations efforts.

What you get is your own customized online social media newsroom. You’ll gain the ability to create and manage social media news releases, press contacts, photos, videos, blog, Facebook, Twitter, links, current news, network and sharing. Add your newsroom to your Facebook Page with a Facebook app. Customize the look and feel of your newsroom and then embed it into your own website and publish your stories.

Next, manage your network and increase your influence. You’ll easily create and update personalized contact lists or import them from Excel and CVS. Strengthen relationships by inviting key people to follow your newsroom and send exclusive content to your most important contacts. Why settle for a list of names when you can have richer social profiles that include your contacts’ email addresses, Twitter names, job titles, phone numbers and other key information. It’s all part of the same toolset.

Now find out who’s talking about you online. Gain leverage by finding, listening to and engaging with people who talk about your brand online. You’ll monitor conversations about your brand, industry or competitors online through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and 40,000 other sources. Engage instantly, identify your key influencers and get them into your network.

Finally, know how you are doing by viewing real-time results of your PR activities. Remove the guesswork by analyzing the reach and distribution of what you publish in your newsroom. Find out how people find your newsroom through search terms and referring websites. Know what countries your visitors come from. Make sure everyone in your organization stays on top of your PR efforts by sending out key reports by email on a schedule you set.

Are you feeling that your own PR efforts are mired in the past, using tools that once worked well but are increasingly ineffective? Are you a new company that needs to get a fast and effective launch? Why not try a new social media platform without risk? Get a free 30 day trial of Mynewsdesk and see how well it works for you.

Mobile Wireless 3G Broadband

Most of us are now broadband dependent. We really can’t function if we can’t get connected to the Internet. That’s meant a wireline solution for the home and office and whatever on the go.

Whatever? Wireless standards are all over the map. LAN technology has long settled on 10/100 Ethernet with Gigabit Ethernet the emerging standard that's backwards compatible with earlier 10/100 standards. For wireless, the one common thread is WiFi. Nearly every wireless device can now communicate on a WiFi 802.11 b/g/n network. That would be great if you could connect to WiFi everywhere you go. Unfortunately, that’s far from the case.

One solution is to use a WiFi router at home or in the office and then go out in search of WiFi hotspots all over town. We hang out in our favorite restaurants and coffee shops to be able to connect our computing devices. In-between we simply go without.

The only nationwide wireless broadband network available is the cellular phone network. Cell phone towers were originally erected to provide a cordless mobile phone telephone service. It wasn’t long before the cell phone channels were doing double duty. Some were still assigned to carry phone conversations. Others were set up to transport Internet data. The latest technology is 4G. It’s fast and reliable, but it is still in the process of deployment. Can you get 4G? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on where you are. The established standard is 3G wireless. it’s available just about everywhere and gives you the same bandwidth performance as a basic DSL service. In many cases, it works as well as the T1 line at the office.

Many people have 3G wireless plans on their smartphones. That’s an excellent way to always have broadband with you. Some plans are set up for tethering. You can share your 3G mobile wireless broadband with several other devices using WiFi. In essence, you become the WiFi hotspot everywhere you need one.

That’s great if you happen to have a 3G smartphone with a tethering options. But what if you don’t? Is it possible to have 3G connectivity to your laptop, notebook, tablet or e-reader?

You bet it is. What you need is known as a wireless modem aircard. This is the radio set that connects to the cellular network. How does it connect to your device? There are two methods. For laptop computers, a broadband USB modem just plugs into an open USB connector. This device looks like one of those memory “dongles.” In this case, the primary function is wireless connectivity. It may do double duty if it also has a Micro-SD slot so that you can plug in a memory card up to 32 GB. That way you only need to carry one device for both file storage and wireless connectivity.

A more universal solution is MiFi mobile hotspot. This is a device about the size of a deck of cards that has a wireless modem aircard, battery and WiFi card all built-in. What it does is connect the 3G cellular wireless network to your device using WiFi. There are no wires involved. You can support up to 4 WiFi enabled devices from your MiFi anywhere you can get a cellular signal.

How much does it cost to get mobile wireless 3G broadband? DataJack has plans starting at under $10 for 200 MB. That’s pretty light duty for email and some Web browsing. If you need more, pick a 500 MB, 1GB or 5GB plan. They’ve got a chart to help you pick the right size wireless plan. The 200 MB plan is good for some 800 Web pages or 20,000 emails a month. The big 5GB plan will cover 20,000 Web Pages or 500,000 emails a month. These are just estimates, of course. Downloading music, video or apps will burn through those MB faster than general Web browsing or email activity.

If you go to a cell phone store to buy 3G wireless, they’ll hand you a 2 year contract to sign. Buy your plan through DataJack and you’ll have nationwide coverage (check the map to be sure your area is covered) with no contact, no termination fees and no activation fee. if you decide you don’t really need it anymore, you aren’t stuck for months or years paying through the nose.

By the way, another great use for one of these 3G wireless services is backup for your desktop computer. How big of a disaster is it if your Cable or DSL goes out while you are in the middle of something important? With a wireless option, you can keep working on the Internet during outages plus have mobile capability the rest of the time.

Does this sound like the service you’ve been wanting but didn’t know was available? Learn more, check coverage and order your DataJack Mobile Wireless 3G Broadband service now.

Hosted Voice Goes Mobile

There’s a major migration in progress right now. Can you guess what it is? If you answered “to the cloud,” you’d be right, of course. If you answered “PBX to the cloud,” you’d have read my mind. Companies are abandoning their PBX telephone systems in favor of cloud communications systems. You may know these as hosted PBX or hosted VoIP. Now, that also includes mobile.

Megapath’s Hosted voice Mobile gives you the ability to have one-number VoIP calling from your desk phone, desktop computer or smartphone. The key is the one-number capability. Do you have one of those business cards with half a dozen different phone numbers? I’ll bet that confuses your customers and prospects. Hey, what are you supposed to do. You can’t be in the office all the time. Sometimes you are at your desk, sometimes you are out and about, the rest of the time you are at home. If a really important call comes in you aren’t about to quibble that you are “off duty” at home.

Legacy approaches to solving this problem include having a calling service that will try to locate you, carrying a pager (very legacy), remembering to forward to your phones, one by one, when you make a move, having a secretary take messages for you and leave them on your desk or just relying on voice mail that you check all the time. None of these approaches has been ideal, but they sure beat missing a critical communication.

This is where cloud technology shines. Location doesn’t mean a thing to the cloud, because it covers all locations. With cloud services you can be anywhere and access your account in the cloud using whatever compatible device you happen to have handy. With Hosted Voice Mobile, you use an easy-to-manage Web portal that controls call routing using a single VoIP number. That’s right. You hand out one number and know that you’ll get calls to that number no matter where you happen to be.

Hosted PBX systems relieve you of the responsibility to maintain a small telephone switching system in your back room. This function moves to a much larger platform at your cloud service provider. All you have in-house are IP phones, a voice gateway that delivers telephone services, plus your mobile smartphones. The hosted system contains the functionality for such features as Find Me / Follow Me and Visual Voicemail. Now that includes your smartphone as well as your desk phone.

Megapath goes beyond some of the basic hosted PBX services to include features like HD voice for crystal clear call quality, free domestic calling that includes long distance and the ability to replicate key telephone systems.

What’s a key system? If you have a phone system that has individual buttons for all the outside phone lines, you have a key system. Key phones have lights next to each line switch so you know when the line is busy. If you want to make an outgoing call, you select an unused line. If you want to join a conversation in progress, you push the button for that line and you are conferenced in.

PBX telephone systems differ from key systems in that the PBX manages the outside lines. You don’t have the ability to pick a line and probably don’t even know how many lines there are. They are placed in a pool and assigned as needed. That’s when an incoming call comes into the system, or someone requests an outside line by dialing a number, usually “9.”

Are you feeling constrained by the limitations of your present phone system or are experiencing outages that are time consuming and expensive? Before you get a loan to buy yet another in-house phone system, check out the options available with one of the newer hosted VoIP systems. You’ll avoid large capital investments, pay per seat per month, and gain valuable features such as mobile integration that you don’t have now. Compare competitive cloud hosted communications systems with what you have now and see what you’ve been missing.

Hosted Social Commerce Apps For Facebook

Just as e-commerce has become an established and accepted channel for business and shopping, the next wave of technology washes ashore. This is social commerce, an adjunct to and potentially more popular way to conduct business online. Social commerce is an outgrowth of social media, especially using the two most popular platforms, Facebook and Twitter. If social media is where people want to spend their time online, then social media is where you have to go to find customers.

The big challenge is how to you leverage the power of social media? You can flail around trying different approaches. Perhaps you can build a website, launch an e-mail campaign or write a blog. All of these do-it-yourself approaches are now old school as far as the Web is concerned. You won’t be need to be learning new software on your PC or deploying more of your own servers. What you need to be working with are hosted solutions. Facebook itself is a hosted solution, although it should be considered just the basic platform for your social commerce efforts. To get the social performance you are after, you’ll want to add some advanced apps to your Facebook page.

What sort of apps are we talking about? How about apps that give you the ability to create deal shares, fan offers, fund raising donations, viral messaging, photo showcases, RSS feeds, add Twitter feeds, recruit volunteers and so on. Can you build these apps yourself and have them work flawlessly on your Facebook page? Can you even find these functions here and there around the Web? Even if you could, they’ll never have a consistent look and feel.

What you need is an “app buffet” from North Social. The apps are part of a large collection that you choose from to power your Facebook page. Each app has its own content management system. You set preferences, upload images, links and text. No need to learn or write any code.

What kind of results can you get with the North Social app collection power your Facebook page? Here’s an example to give you an idea what’s possible:



Anxious to give this a try? You should know that every account comes with a 14 day free trial. Accounts range from starter to enterprise level. All of the apps are unlocked and ready to use for every account? What differentiates the account levels? It’s based on the number of fans you have. The starter account has a limit of 1,000 fans. The professional account moves that limit up to 50,000. The Enterprise account has unlimited fans and up to 5 Facebook pages. All other accounts are for a single page only, although you can always sign up for more accounts if you need them.

The future of social commerce is already here. Learn more, watch demo videos on each of the apps, and then pick the account appropriate for the size (and social popularity) of your business and start your 14 day free trial.