What is a backbone in IT?

In computer science and telecommunications, a backbone is an area of a telecommunications network that has particularly high bandwidths. Its task is to establish the connection between several independent networks. A special feature here is the connection of different types of networks.

For a backbone, fiber optic cables are usually used, which can transport particularly large amounts of data. This is especially important in the local area network, where they are laid parallel to power lines in the form of fiber optic cables. Copper lines are only used for the last few kilometers to the end consumer, i.e. the Internet user. In Germany, the fiber optic network is not yet fully developed, but fiber optics often form the backbone, especially in large cities. Redundancy is particularly important: Here, alternative lines are made available that step in in the event of a failure. There are also backbones at the local level. This refers to parts of the network that connect different floors in buildings. In networks on a university campus or on large company premises, for example, there are fiber optic lines between the individual buildings.

Backbones are important for Internet users because they enable high speeds for their connection. If you also rent a web server, you will get the highest transmission rates from a provider with a connection to one. centron.de operates its data center in Germany and is directly connected to a backbone node with redundancy in the event of a power outage or network node failure. Thus, centron.de offers you the greatest possible availability of your server.