As described in the foregoing sections, teleports inherently involve all or almost all forms of technology: satellite, terrestrial radio (microwave and millimeter-wave), fiber optic, copper coaxial cables, and computer (both hardware and software). Few, if any, other types of telecommunications installation include this all-embracing family of technologies.

In common, however, with many systems it is only the larger sub-units that are visible on a day-to-day basis to the casual observer and this mainly comprises the satellite and terrestrial antennas. Staff operating within a teleport complex of whatever form will, of course, be all too familiar with computer screens full of information every day.

Behind all this lie generally invisible but extremely important entities, and these include the electronic cards, the fiber optics and other cabling (usually contained in ducting), and the software housed in disk memory on the computer systems.

An interesting numerical comparison can be made by taking the ratios of typical physical dimensions relating to specific parts implemented within such comprehensive systems.

At one extreme, the antennas may on occasion have reflector diameters of around four meters (just over 12 ft). On the other hand, a great many system components have devices with microscopic dimensions. Examples include the internal core of a single-mode optical fiber that is around eight microns in diameter and the feature sizes applying to the fastest transistors in the integrated circuits on the electronic cards that can be as small as 0.15 microns.

Applicable ratios therefore are:

In the physical technologies...