Page 624 - Introduction to Business

598 PART 6 Managing Business Operations, Management Information Systems, and the Digital Enterprise

data hierarchy. For example, a personnel database would include, among others,
the payroll file and the benefits file. The purpose of databases is to store and man-
age data using one location and to organize the data in such a way that it can pro-
database management system The vide data for many applications. A database management system is software for
software for creating and maintaining a creating and maintaining a database and for easily extracting data from a database.
database
Databases can be operational databases or data warehouses. An operational
operational database A database database is a database used to support the day-to-day operations of a firm. Exam-
used to support the day-to-day
operations in a firm ples of operational databases are personnel databases, customer databases, and
data warehouse A database used for inventory databases. Operational databases are also called transaction databases
various businesses’ analyses that and production databases. A data warehouse is a database that contains current
contains current and historical data and historic data from the various operational databases and is used for a variety of
from various operational databases
business analyses. One of the most successful uses of data warehouses is data min-
data mining Systematic searching for
patterns and trends in business ing. Data mining is the systematic search for patterns and trends in business activ-
activities that can be exploited by ities that can be exploited by managers to gain competitive advantage. Data marts
managers to gain competitive are subsets of a data warehouse that contain data for a certain group of users.
advantage
data marts Subsets of a data
warehouse that contain data for a Telecommunications Networks
certain group of users
telecommunication The communication Telecommunication is the communication of information by electronic means
of information by electronic means over over some distance. Telecommunications networks are collections of computer
some distance
hardware and software arranged to transmit information from one place to
telecommunications networks another. The essential components of a telecommunications network are commu-
Collections of computer hardware and
software arranged to transmit nications channels, communications processors, communications software, com-
information from one place to another puters, and input and output devices.
communications channels The physical Communications channels are the physical means by which information is
means by which information is transmitted. The most common media used for telecommunications channels are
transmitted
twisted-pair wire, coaxial cable, and fiber-optic cable. Twisted-pair wire consists of
twisted-pair wire Copper wires twisted
in pairs copper wires twisted in pairs. It is the oldest communication medium and the one
coaxial cable Sturdy copper or used in traditional telephone lines. Coaxial cable consists of sturdy copper or alu-
aluminum wire wrapped with spacers to minum wire wrapped with spacers to insulate it. It allows high-speed data trans-
insulate it mission and is also used for cable television. Fiber-optic cable consists of thou-
fiber-optic cable Thousands of hair-thin sands of hair-thin glass fiber filaments wrapped in a protective cover. Its
glass fiber filaments wrapped in a
protective cover transmission rate is approximately 60 times greater than coaxial cable and 3000
times greater than twisted-pair wire. The cost of fiber-optic cable is higher than the
cost of coaxial cable, which in turn is higher than the cost of twisted-pair wire.
In a telecommunications network, information travels as an electromagnetic
analog signal An electromagnetic signal that can be of two types. An analog signal is a continuous waveform that can
signal of a continuous waveform that handle voice communications. A digital signal is a discrete waveform that trans-
can handle voice communications
mits data coded as 0-bits and 1-bits, which are represented by on/off electric
digital signal An electromagnetic signal
of a discrete waveform that can handle pulses. Most computers communicate with digital signals. Traditional telephone
data communications lines use analog signals, while modern telephone lines use digital signals. For com-
puters to communicate via traditional telephone lines, a device called a modem is
modem A device that translates digital necessary. Modem is an abbreviation for modulation/demodulation. A modem
signals into analog signals and vice translates digital signals into analog signals and vice versa.
versa
Modems are the most common type of communications processors; other types
communications processors Devices are multiplexers, switches, and routers. Communications processors support the
that support the transmission and
reception of information in a transmission and reception of information in a telecommunications network. A
telecommunications network multiplexer is a communications processor that enables a single communications
multiplexer A communications channel to carry simultaneous information transmissions from multiple sources.
processor that enables a single Switches and routers are communications processors that interconnect different
communications channel to carry
simultaneous information transmissions telecommunications networks, and for this reason they are called internetwork
from multiple sources processors.

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