Dedicated Line

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.

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.

Famous quotes containing the words dedicated and/or line:

    I made no vows, but vows
    Were then made for me; bond unknown to me
    Was given, that I should be, else sinning greatly,
    A dedicated Spirit.
    William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

    I love them
    for finding what
    I can’t find,
    and for loving me
    for the line I wrote,
    and for forgetting it....
    Denise Levertov (b. 1923)