Serial transmissions sequentially send one bit at a time over a single channel. A serial port is bidirectional. Synchronous serial communications require a clocking signal.
Point-to-Point links are usually more expensive than shared services; however, the benefits may outweigh the costs. Constant availability is important for some protocols, such as VoIP.
SONET is an optical network standard that uses STDM for efficient use of bandwidth. In the United States, OC transmission rates are standardized specifications for SONET.
The bandwidth hierarchy used by carriers is different in North America (T-carrier) and Europe (E-carrier). In North America, the fundamental line speed is 64 kbps, or DS0. Multiple DS0s are bundled together to provide higher line speeds.
The demarcation point is the point in the network where the responsibility of the service provider ends and the responsibility of the customer begins. The CPE, usually a router, is the DTE device. The DCE is usually a modem or CSU/DSU.
A null modem cable is used to connect two DTE devices together without the need for a DCE device by crossing the Tx and Rx lines. When using this cable between routers in a lab, one of the routers must provide the clocking signal.
Cisco HDLC is a bit-oriented synchronous data link layer protocol extension of HDLC and is used by many vendors to provide multiprotocol support. This is the default encapsulation method used on Cisco synchronous serial lines.
Synchronous PPP is used to connect to non-Cisco devices, to monitor link quality, provide authentication, or bundle links for shared use. PPP uses HDLC for encapsulating datagrams. LCP is the PPP protocol used to establish, configure, test, and terminate the data link connection. LCP can optionally authenticate a peer using PAP or CHAP. A family of NCPs are used by the PPP protocol to simultaneously support multiple network layer protocols. Multilink PPP spreads traffic across bundled links by fragmenting packets and simultaneously sending these fragments over multiple links to same remote address, where they are reassembled.