Leased Line
Leased Line Definition
A leased line is a dedicated network channel that a telecommunications company leases to a client for its private use. Organizations rent leased lines from a service provider for a fixed fee to connect geographically separate locations, such as offices or data centers, or to the Internet.
How a Leased Line Works
Unlike conventional lines, a leased line isn’t shared between multiple clients of a service provider. Organizations may use leased lines to connect two locations, for internet access, or as part of their broader wide area network (WAN). Customers usually pay for leased lines monthly to reserve the infrastructure as a closed circuit for their sole use. Because the bandwidth is dedicated, leased lines can offer stronger guarantees of performance, stability, and security.
Typically, providers create a leased line using their existing backbone network, with most modern lines consisting of fiber optic cable. Connecting new clients to the leased line often involves installing a “last mile” connection between the target buildings and the nearest point of presence (PoP).
Customers then link up to the leased line via network termination equipment (NTE), a business router, or an SD-WAN (software-defined WAN) device.
The Benefits of a Leased Line
- High bandwidth and speeds: Offers higher maximum speeds (typically fixed) and bandwidth than consumer-grade connections. Service-level agreements (SLAs), dedicated network monitoring, and maintenance often back this performance.
- Symmetrical speeds: May support identical upload and download speeds. Symmetrical speeds often improve bidirectional performance for activities such as file sharing, voice over IP (VoIP), and remote access.
- Network stability: Has a lower risk of external factors affecting network speeds or reliability, since the connection is dedicated. This reduces the risk of performance bottlenecks, especially due to fluctuating network traffic.
- Security: May reduce some of the risks associated with shared-access networks. Organizations can also exercise greater control over their traffic by configuring firewalls or intrusion detection systems at the network edge for additional protection.
Practical Uses of Leased Lines
Enterprise-level organizations are the primary users of leased lines. Individuals or small businesses may find leased lines too expensive or excessive for their needs.
Organizations use leased lines to support activities that require high speeds, reliability, and availability between potentially remote locations. Most applications involve real-time collaboration or communication, such as voice or video calls between corporate offices or connecting to a remote access server.
Leased lines can also provide high-speed internet uplinks with sufficient bandwidth to support an entire office. Today, that often includes real-time communication with cloud computing systems that support everyday operations.
Read More
FAQ
A leased line is a telecommunications service delivered over physical network infrastructure, providing a dedicated, private connection between two or more locations. A VPN is a technology that creates an encrypted connection over the existing network, such as the Internet. VPNs can work over leased lines, broadband, or other network connections.
Leased lines offer dedicated bandwidth over existing network infrastructure, whereas broadband shares the available bandwidth between neighboring users. Broadband connections are more susceptible to slowdowns or reliability issues due to their shared-use model.
A leased line is a dedicated network channel, while MPLS is a technique for creating long-range network connections by sending packets along predetermined paths. MPLS can route packets over a variety of networks, including leased lines.
45-Day Money-Back Guarantee