hing tech- niques capable of carrying classed traffic and priority based packet switching, both sides of the BLSR become useful. If one side fails, lower priority traffic gets delayed or dropped while higher priority traffic moves. More information on these emerging standards and technologies is as close as your favorite Internet search engine. 4 NETWORK TECHNOLOGY AND METHODOLOGY TRANSMISSION TECHNOLOGY AND METHODS Basically there are two types of transmission facilities: analog and digital. Transmission facilities can also be segmented according to electrical baseband, radio frequency, and optical media. In a simple third set of terms, it's either wired or wireless. (Wouldn't Marconi be proud that his term came back in vogue in the 21st Century?) Digital transmission techniques and methods are all within the OSI stack's lowest layer, most often referred to as layer 1 or the physical layer. In addition to physical transmission, or aspects related to physical movement of energy across a media, layer 1 is sometimes seen as a link in the sense that it behaves like a single link in a chain, or as a link between two other objects. In the case of transmission media in communications networks, the link characterization would apply when used to link together two switches, routers, or other network interface devices. At the outset, telegraph and telephone technology were based on use of direct current power and metal conductors connecting transmit and receive hardware. As demand for service grew, tubes and later transistors enabled designers to place more than one conversation or transmission on a pair of wires. Thus, the communications industry became part of the electronics evolution along with radio, and later television. The telephone industry was granted rights to use parts of the radio spectrum and viewed by regulators similar to the broadcast industry as being "in the public interest, convenience, and necessity." At one time, the FCC was organized into bureaus and included separate broadcast and common carrier bur