Compare and contrast the following WAN terms: CPE, CO, local loop, DCE, DTE, and demarcation point.

Compare and contrast the following WAN terms: CPE, CO, local loop, DCE, DTE, and demarcation point.

Customer Premises Equipment (CPE):

• The devices and inside wiring located at the subscriber’s premises and connected with a carrier’s telecommunication channel.
• The subscriber either owns the CPE or leases it from the service provider.

Central office (CO):

• A local service provider facility or building where local telephone cables link to longhaul, all digital, fiber-optic communications lines through a system of switches and other equipment.

Local loop:

• Often called the “last mile,” it is the copper or fiber telephone cable that connects the CPE at the subscriber site to the CO of the service provider.

Data Communications Equipment (DCE):

• Also called data circuit-terminating equipment, the DCE consists of devices that put data on the local loop.
• The DCE primarily provides an interface to connect subscribers to a communication link in the WAN cloud.

Data Terminal Equipment (DTE):

• The customer devices that pass the data from a customer network or host computer for transmission over the WAN.
• The DTE connects to the local loop through the DCE.

Demarcation point:

• Physically, the demarcation point is the cabling junction box, located on the customer premises, that connects the CPE wiring to the local loop and officially separates the customer equipment from service provider equipment.
• It is the place where the responsibility for the connection changes from the user to the service provider.

Exam with this question: EWAN v4 Chapter 1 Check Your Understanding: Introduction to WANs