Point-to-Point Leased Line: What is it and How Does it Affect Your Business?
Point-to-point leased lines establish direct connections between two specific locations, offering secure and dedicated data transmission without sharing bandwidth. Ideal for linking offices or data centres, they ensure fast and reliable communication essential for critical operations.
For further information and pricing on leased lines, click here .
What is a Point-to-Point Leased Line
Advantages of Point-to-point Leased Lines
There are a few advantages to having a point-to-point leased line, which includes:
Increased Security – A point-to-point leased line (also called private lines for that reason) is private; you can even set them up so they don’t touch the provider’s network. However, doing this requires much more work with monitoring your network, so it’s essential to have the right infrastructure & IT/Networking experts in place. The connection would be solely for your company’s use & there would never be any public traffic on the line. This reduces your risk of malicious attacks.
Symmetrical bandwidth – Standard broadband connections often give you very different upload & download speeds. A point-to-point leased line connection guarantees you the same upload speeds as your download speeds, which are perfect for business applications like VoIP phones, data transfers, document uploads, etc.
Faster Data Transfers – A point-to-point leased line will give you faster data transfers because it’s delivered over fibre optic cables, which are symmetrical, so no more seeing the dreaded buffering symbol. This makes them perfect for things like video conferencing and VoIP.
Ultra Low Latency – Because they are entirely uncontended, there are minimal delays when communicating via the line. This allows you real-time access to any rapidly changing data your business may have.
Reliable data backup – Due to all the benefits listed above, they create the perfect network for fast & reliable data backup, which you can do across multiple sites simultaneously.
Disadvantages of Point-to-Point Leased Line
There are also a few disadvantages of point-to-point leased lines that are important to consider when making a decision.
Scalability – Because point-to-point leased lines are designed for two sites if you want to add more sites, it can be costly & a pretty long process – most providers would guide you to consider a WAN solution if you had more than one site.
Limited Visibility from your Network Provider – Most point-to-points will use a topology that effectively means the point-to-point wouldn’t touch your provider’s network. This means they would have no visibility & it would be your responsibility to monitor the line & fix it if it goes down for any reason.
Adding other services – If the point-to-point doesn’t touch your ISP’s network, you can struggle to add popular services, like SIP phones & the Internet.
Not always Point to Point – The idea of point A connecting to point B is great, but in reality, it’s often that point A connects to points C & D & maybe more before it gets to your point B It’s just other sites are invisible & you are invisible to them too.
The privacy of a point-to-point leased line means they are famous for some companies, including WAN network providers, Investment banks & data centre providers. Still, they would typically have a whole team of network experts & monitoring tools in place to oversee the circuit & spot any potential issues or threats.
The reality of point-to-point leased lines is if you need to know what they are, the chances are your business doesn’t need one. They do require extra resources & the skill level required are different from employees you can hire for the lower end of the wage bracket.
Below we’ve made a reference table of proper terminology relating to WAN and point-to-point leased lines:
Name
Meaning/Reference
Leased circuit,
Circuit
The words line and circuit are often used as synonyms in telco terminology, circuit refers to the electrical circuit between the two endpoints.
Serial link,
Serial line
The words link and line are also often used as synonyms. Serial, in this case, refers to the fact that the bits flow serially and that routers use serial interfaces.
Point-to-point link,
Point-to-point line
Refers to the fact the topology stretches between two points and two points only. (some older leased lines allowed more than two devices).
T1
A specific type of leased line that transmits data at 1.544 megabits per second (1.544 Mbps)
WAN link,
link
Both these terms are very general, with no reference to any specific technology.
Private line
Refers to the fact that other telco customers cannot copy data sent over the line, so the data is private.
We would love to help you get a quote for a point to point leased line if that is the right solution. If not & you want to look at WAN options, head over to our sister company, which is an expert in Wide Area Network Solutions .
A Handy Youtube Guide About Point-to-Point Leased Lines
VIDEO
Other Articles We Thought You Would Find Interesting
Other useful links about leased lines:
Ethernet First Mile Costs
EFM Business Broadband
Leased Lines – The Best Networks
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