From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In
computer networks
and telecommunications, a
dedicated line
is a
communications cable
or other facility dedicated to a specific application, in contrast with a
shared resource
such as the
telephone network
or the
Internet
. It is a communication path between two points.
In practice, such services may not be provided by a single, discrete, end-to-end cable, but they do provide guarantees of constant
bandwidth
availability and near-constant
latency
, properties that cannot be guaranteed for more public systems. Such properties add a considerable premium to the price charged.
As more general-purpose systems have improved, dedicated lines have been steadily replaced by
intranets
and the public Internet, but they are still useful for
time-critical
, high-bandwidth applications such as
video
transmission.
Some institutions such as NPR and other news agencies have large numbers of private lines with people that they frequently interview, (often government agencies) though these are being phased out in favor of VoIP systems.
See also
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