====== Communication Link ======

In networking, a //communication link// is a physical connection between an [[end-system]] and a [[router]] or between [[router|routers]]. 

There are many different types of links. For example you might be using an [[wifi|IEEE 802.11]] (WiFi) wireless link to connect your computers at home to your [[broadband|broadband connection]]; your broadband connection will be either an [[hfc|Hybrid Fibre Coax]] (HFC) or [[adsl|Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line]] (ADSL) connection to your [[isp|Internet Service Provider]] (ISP). Your ISP connects to the wider [[Internet]] by one of a number of possible [[wan|wide area network]] (WAN) links. In the University, the links used to interconnect the computers in the various PC labs will be either 100 Mbit/s or 1 Gbit/s [[Ethernet]]. You can also use [[WiFi]] to connect your laptop to the University's campus network. 

If you are reading this glossary entry in a web browser running on your laptop at home, the [[http|Hypertext Transmission Protocol]] (HTTP) messages exchanged between your browser and the Blackboard programme running on a web server at the University will have required messages to pass through many different links and will have used several different forms of [[link_medium|transmission media]]. Two important link properties are its [[bandwidth]] (which defines its [[transmission delay]]) and the end-to-end distance of the [[host]] or [[router]] connection points (which defines its [[propagation delay]]).


----
[[Glossary]] : [[glossary#A|A]] | [[glossary#B|B]] | [[glossary#C|C]] | [[glossary#D|D]] | [[glossary#E|E]] | [[glossary#F|F]] | [[glossary#G|G]] | [[glossary#H|H]] | [[glossary#I|I]] | [[glossary#J|J]] | [[glossary#K|K]] | [[glossary#L|L]] | [[glossary#M|M]] | [[glossary#N|N]] | [[glossary#O|P]] | [[glossary#Q|Q]] | [[glossary#R|R]] | [[glossary#S|S]] | [[glossary#T|T]] | [[glossary#U|U]] | [[glossary#V|V]] | [[glossary#W|W]] | [[glossary#X|X]] | [[glossary#Y|Y]] | [[glossary#Z|Z]]