segment

Generally speaking, a segment is a section, portion or part of a network. In the context of ITWissen.info, the term is used in a wide variety of technologies, for example in satellite transmission, where it refers to ground segments and space segments, or in local networks, where it is used to refer to network or LAN segments or link segments and thus to installation-related network sections, transmission sections or collision domains, or in data technology, where it is used to refer to data segments.

Innetwork technology and in Internetworking, segments can transport different data traffic and each of them can be secured against unauthorized access by appropriate security measures. They can be connected to each other via bridges, routers and switches to form a complete network. To increase the data rate, network segments can be reduced down to the backplane of routers or switches. This is known as collapsed backbone and microsegmentation. On the other hand, large network segments can be used to increase the network size.

In satellite communications, the segments are assigned geographically and to the orbit. Therefore, they are referred to as ground segments and space segments. While space segments describe the satellites in orbit, their orbital characteristics such as orbits and orbital altitudes, transponders, antennas and carrier frequencies, ground segments describe the communications equipment of the ground station. These are directional antennas and the transmitting and receiving equipment.