The Backbone Network is the intermediate infrastructure link in the telecommunications network hierarchy that connects the local access network (Access Network) to the backbone network, which is the main high-speed Internet highway. This part of the network is responsible for carrying aggregated data from end users to the global network and vice versa.
Conceptually, the Backbone Network functions as a regional or metropolitan switch. It aggregates traffic from multiple LANs and routes it to high-capacity backbone networks for long-distance transmission. Its efficiency and capacity are critical to the quality and speed of the connection, especially for broadband access.
Although it is a technical element of the network infrastructure, its quality and reliability indirectly affect the speed of access to websites. Loading speed is an official ranking factor (Core Web Vitals), making the efficiency of the network infrastructure important for the end user experience.