Protocol: Protocol is a set of rules who is are used in digital communication to connect network

device and exchange information between them.

Different type of protocol

Communication Protocols:

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol): A reliable, connection-oriented protocol that ensures

the accurate delivery of data by establishing a connection between sender and receiver.

UDP (User Datagram Protocol): A connectionless, faster protocol that does not guarantee
delivery but is suitable for real-time applications where speed is critical.

Internet Protocols:

IP (Internet Protocol): The core protocol of the Internet, responsible for addressing and routing
packets between devices on a network.

ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol): Used for error reporting and diagnostics in IP
networks, often associated with the "ping" command.

Application Layer Protocols:

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol): Used for transmitting hypermedia documents on the
World Wide Web.
HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure): A secure version of HTTP that uses encryption
(SSL/TLS) to protect data during transmission.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol): Used for transferring files between computers on a network.

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol): Handles the sending of email messages.
POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) and IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol): Protocols for
retrieving emails from a server.

What is network?

A network is a set of devices (often referred to as nodes) connected by communication links. A node
can be a computer, printer, or any other device capable of sending and/or receiving data generated
by other nodes on the network.

Network Criteria
A network must be able to meet a certain number of criteria. The most important of these are
performance, reliability, and security.
Performance:
Performance can be measured in many ways, including transit time and response time. Transit time is
the amount of time required for a message to travel from one device to another. The performance of a
network depends on a number of factors, including the number of users, the type of transmission
medium, the capabilities of the connected hardware, and the efficiency of the software.
Reliability:
Network reliability is measured by the frequency of failure, the time it takes a link to recover from a
failure.
Security:
Network security issues include protecting data from unauthorized access, protecting data from
damage and development, and implementing policies and procedures for recovery from breaches
and data losses.

Different type of Network topology:

Point to Point

Point-to-point networks are a very basic and simple type of

networks containing exactly two hosts that can be computer, switches,
routers, servers which directly connected end to end using a single piece
of cable. In simple the receiving end of one node (Destination) is
connected to the sending end of another host.

Bus Network Topology

In a Bus topology, a common bus or medium is used for communication

in the network i.e, It uses a single cable that work like a backbone of the
entire network, but it can link more than two hosts.

Its working is simple so when a sender sends a message, all other

computers that are connected to the network can hear it, but only the
receiver accepts that message and others rejects it. Here the failure of
one device does not affect other devices. However, the failure of the
common communication line can affect all other devices that result in to
stop working of the network.

In the below picture you can see both ends of the cable have a line
terminator. The terminator removes the data from the line. Bus
technology as soon as it reaches the extreme end. Data flow in Bust
topology is one-directional and this topology is mainly used for small
networks like LAN, etc.

Advantages of Bus Network Topology:

1. Easy to install and use.

2. If one node stop functioning, it will not affect other connected
nodes.
3. Less cabling is required because it's used in short areas.
4. It is in the budget of every administrator.

Disadvantages of Bus Network Topology:

1. Efficiency will reduce when you expand the network.

 2. If the bus fails, the whole network will fail.
3. Messages are reaching all to nodes that lead to security concerns.
4. Higher chances of congestion and traffic on the bus because of its
single source of communication.

Star Network Topology

In Star topology all hosts are directly connected to a centralized device

that can be a hub or switch, Here the relation between the node and the
central device is point-to-point. Any host requesting for service or
providing service, first contact the switch or hub for communication.

This topology is also mostly used in small areas like LAN's (Local Area
Network) and it provides security and speed.
Advantages of Star Network Topology:

1. Because of centralized control, it is easy to troubleshoot network.

2. It is also less expensive and easy to expand by adding nodes.
3. If one node stop functioning, it will not affect other connected
nodes.
4. Easy to reconfigure and upgrade

Disadvantages of Star Network Topology:

1. If the centralized device fails, the full network will fail.

2. It is limited when expanding due to the number of ports in a
centralized device.
Ring Network Topology

In-ring topology, each node connects to exactly two other nodes, like a
ring. When a host tries to send a message to a non-adjoining host, the
data will transmit across all intermediate hosts. You need only one cable
to expand this network.

Failure of any one host will stop the working of the whole ring. Here all
the machines are connected with each other in a closed-loop. This
topology mainly used on token-based systems where the token travel in
a loop in a particular direction.

Advantages of Ring Network Topology:

 1. Easy to install due to low requirements of cables.
2. Reduces data collision.
3. Easy to troubleshoot as the token will not pass through the faulty
nodes.
4. Each node gets the same time interval.

Disadvantages of Ring Network Topology:

1. If any one node fails, the whole network stops communication.

2. Slow data travelling speed as every message has to go through the
ring path
3. Hard to reconfigure which always lead to the breakage of the ring.

Mesh Network Topology

In Mesh network topology hosts are interconnected with each other. This
is the topology where every host that is present in the network are
directly connected with each other without any centralized device.

Mesh network topology further has two types::

1. Full Mesh: In this network each node connected with every host
that reconnected to the network.
2. Partial Mesh: As its name here some nodes are not connected to
every node.
Advantages of Mesh Network Topology:

1. Dedicated connection to every host that provides fast

communication.
2. No congestion or traffic problems.
3. No broadcasting maintains privacy and security issues because of
the presence of a separate channel for communication.
4. If one node fails, the other will be alternatively available in the
network.

Disadvantages of Mesh Network Topology:

1. Lots of cables required to build this topology.

2. Very Expensive.
3. As it looks in the diagram it is also complex to implement.
 4. Difficult to maintain.

Tree Network Topology

In Tree network topology all nodes are connected to the same cable and
those connections can be directly and indirectly. You can also say that
this topology is a mix of bus and star topology.

This topology is a hierarchy i.e, The entire network is divided into parts,
so that can be easily managed and maintained. Here a root hub and all
the other sub-hubs are connected to each other.

This topology is multiple layers of the network where three are main
layers that responsible to build Tree network topology:

1. Access Layer: It is the lowermost layer that connects all nodes

with it
2. Distribution Layer: This is the layer that works in the middle of
both the core layer and access layer.
3. Core Layer: The main core layer is the root layer and works on
the upper part of the network.
Advantages of Tree Network Topology:

1. Hierarchy structure makes it easy to troubleshoot.

2. Almost no data loss while transmitting.
3. A very scalable topology.
4. Other networks will not be affected if one of them fails.

Disadvantages of Tree Network Topology:

1. Lots of hardware and cables required that makes it expensive.

2. Difficult to implement.
3. It is very hard to maintain
4. It requires high maintenance.

Hybrid Network Topology

A network is said to be Hybrid if it including two or more topologies i.e,
a combination of other topologies. As you can see in the below image
there are two different topologies start and ring that making a Hybrid
network topology.

It is a very smart type of topology that inherits all benefits of other

topologies to make an efficient hybrid topology. Internet is the most
common example of the largest Hybrid topology.
Advantages of Tree Network Topology:

1. It is capable to manage a large number of nodes.

2. It is a very flexible topology that can be modified according to the
requirements.
3. Very Reliable and Secure
4. If one node fails it will not affect others or an entire network

Disadvantages of Tree Network Topology:

1. Very Complex design.

2. Expensive to implement because of multiple topologies.