The tree of data connectivity

The goal of data connectivity is to allow people to communicate with everyone else. The form of the connection may be voice, text, video, files, or some other type of data. However, the ideal is that it can transfer between any two (or more) people.

So, how does that happen? Well, the actual form of the data is in files that have some type of format. These formats, or organized forms, are standardized so that it can be created and transmitted, and then received and used. Examples of these are Adobe PDF files, Audio MP3 files, and Video MPEG-4 files. Voice is usually digitally encoded using one of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) standardized formats such as G.711 or G.729.

Once a file has been created, it is transferred to the desired recipient. The current dominant types of transferring may be classified into wireless and landline. Wireless includes cellular data (and voice), Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. Landline (using a physical medium for transfer such as a cable or fiberoptic line) makes use of many different protocols.

Wireless is the current popular option for the "end user" -- the person who is making use of the device that allows them to transfer data (remember that voice is just one form of data). However, wireless has significant restrictions. These restrictions are distance and/or speed. Companies are now marketing devices called "femtocells" (the actual brand and name of the device may not include this name) which are placed in homes or businesses to allow faster transmission by reducing the distance between the cell phone or Wi-Fi device and a landline.

Yes, a landline. Because of transmission requirements (which go beyond the scope of this current blog), it is just impossible to handle all of the data needs without going to a landline. A landline is self-contained for bandwidth (data capacity) while wireless must compete with all other wireless activity. So, landlines will (in my limited ability to read a crystal ball) always be needed and they form the trunks and branches of the tree of data connectivity with the wireless devices now being used as the leaves.