Notes

Introduction
Electronic commerce needs a network infrastructure to transport the content- data, audio, visual, text, animation and so on. This network infrastructure is provided by what is known as the I-way or information super highway.

Meaning
The information super highway may be defined as a high capacity, electronic pipeline to a consumer or business premise that is capable of simultaneously supporting a large number of e-commerce applications and providing interactive connectivity between users and services. The I-way has emerged as the basic network infrastructure for all types of e-commerce activities due to its capability to provide integrate voice, data and video services.

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Components of the I-way
It consist or various components which can be broadly categorized as;
1. Network access equipment
2. Access media
3. Global information distribution networks

1. Network access equipment: - which is at the consumer end and enables the consumer to access the network. It consists of the hardware such as computers, modems, routers, switches [email protected] for computer networks, set-top boxes for television networks and software platforms such as browsers and operating systems.
2. Access road or media: - provide the communication backbone for the transmission of data and information. The access providers may be differentiate into four categories: telecom based, cable TV based, wireless based or computer based on-line systems.
3. Global information distribution networks: providing the infrastructure for connecting across the countries and continents. They include such networks as the long distance telephone lines, the satellite networks and internet.

Consumer access equipment
The customer access [email protected] equipment or customer premises equipment or the terminal equipment consists of the equipment that the customer uses to connect to the network. This may consist of the TV set-top boxes or the TV signal descramblers, the computer and the modem, pagers and cellular phones etc.

Access roads or media
The access roads is the way in which the consumer homes and work places are linked with the backbone of the network infrastructure for e-commerce. These can be categorized into four major types;
1. Telecom based
2. Cable TV based
3. Wireless based
4. Internet, intranet and extranet based

Each of these access media has its own benefits and limitations and is faced with a number of challenges in this fast growing world e-commerce.

1. Telecom based
The telecom industry provides both long distance and local telephone services for e-commerce applications. The telecom companies provide a high speed pipeline capable for carrying high volumes of interactive voice, data and [email protected] video to homes and businesses connect these to the global information distribution networks, the backbone of the i-way.

The telecom networks has become the primary foundation for the I-way mainly for two reasons:
It is capable of handling millions of simultaneous calls.
It provides accurate usage tracking and billing.

However they have two limitations:
Lack of digital transmission capability
Uneven capacity distribution

2. Cable TV based
The cable TV network provides a popular media for pushing high speed data to homes. Statistics have shown that cable runs through 90 percent of the US homes today and still has a lot of unutilized capacity. The cable TV based networks may be wired or wireless.

3. Wireless based
The wireless operators are typically radio based i.e. cellular, paper and specialized mobile radio (SMR) based. The wireless based systems have revolutionized the ways of thinking about information delivery.
Technology is the most important factor. The rapid growth in technology has impacted the wireless industry in a number of ways:
o Apart from the voice calls, the cellular technology today has also facilitated short messaging services (SMS) using alphanumeric display and the multimedia services.
o Internet connectivity using the cellular networks has been made possible.
o The cellular networks using the analog technology are now upgrading to digital networks to provide greater capacity at lower costs as well as increase the quality and functionality of the cellular network. [email protected]
o Applications have been developed to facilitate mobile workers to exchange messages and data from their offices while on the road.

4. The internet
The internet forms a well known component of the global information distribution network. It targets a wide range of e-commerce applications such as video on demand, home shopping, e-mail, edi, information publishing, information retrieval, video conferencing and many more.
All the components of the I-way together provide a network infrastructure for the e-commerce activities. This requires the use of common standards and installing [email protected] gateways between various networks. A final requirement is the hardware and software to move huge amounts of data effortlessly over the complex network.

Global information distribution networks
The global information distribution networks consist of the infrastructure crossing the countries and continents. They include the long distance telephone lines, satellite networks, and the internet.
Long distance networks
Long distance telephone connectivity is provided through cable by the inter-exchange carriers. Long distance cellular networks are using the wireless technologies to connect the consumers worldwide.
Satellite networks
It play a vital role in the communication industry. They have advantages over the terrestrial networks in that:
a. They are accessible from any point of the globe.
b. They can provide broad band digital services to many points without the cost of acquiring wire/cable installation.
c. They can add receiving and sending sites without significant additional costs.