Computer Networking

Network Hardware: Broadcast network, Pont to point network, LAN, MAN, WAN, Wireless
network, Home network
 Network Hardware

• There is no generally accepted taxonomy into

which all computer networks fit, but two
dimensions stand out as important:
transmission technology and scale.
• Broadly speaking, there are two types of
transmission technology that are in
widespread use. They are as follows:
o Broadcast links.
o Point-to-point links.
 Broadcast links
• Broadcast networks have a single communication channel that is
shared by all the machines on the network.
• Short messages, called packets in certain contexts, sent by any
machine are received by all the others. An address field within the
packet specifies the intended recipient.
• Broadcast systems generally also allow the possibility of addressing
a packet to all destinations by using a special code in the address
field. When a packet with this code is transmitted, it is received and
processed by every machine on the network. This mode of
operation is called broadcasting.
• Some broadcast systems also support transmission to a subset of
the machines, something known as multicasting. One possible
scheme is to reserve one bit to indicate multicasting. The remaining
n - 1 address bits can hold a group number.
 Point-to-point links
• In contrast, point-to-point networks consist of many
connections between individual pairs of machines. To
go from the source to the destination, a packet on this
type of network may have to first visit one or more
intermediate machines.
• Often multiple routes, of different lengths, are
possible, so finding good ones is important in point-to-
point networks.
• As a general rule (although there are many exceptions),
smaller, geographically localized networks tend to use
broadcasting, whereas larger networks usually are
point-to-point.
 Classification by scale
• An alternative criterion for classifying
networks is their scale.
• Personal Area Network: networks that are
meant for one person.
• Beyond the personal area networks come
longer-range networks. These can be divided
into
o local
o metropolitan
o wide area networks.
 Local Area Networks (LANs)
• Local area networks, generally called LANs, are
privately-owned networks within a single building
or campus of up to a few kilometers in size.
• They are widely used to connect personal
computers and workstations in company offices
and factories to share resources (e.g., printers)
and exchange information.
• LANs are distinguished from other kinds of
networks by three characteristics:
(1) their size,
(2) their transmission technology
(3) their topology.
• Ethernet is a way of connecting computers
together in a local area network or LAN.
• Various topologies are possible for broadcast
LANs.(a) Bus. (b) Ring.
• Broadcast networks can be further divided
into static and dynamic, depending on how
the channel is allocated.
• A typical static allocation would be to divide time
into discrete intervals and use a round-robin
algorithm, allowing each machine to broadcast only
when its time slot comes up.
• Static allocation wastes channel capacity
when a machine has nothing to say during its
allocated slot, so most systems attempt to
allocate the channel dynamically (i.e., on
demand).
 Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN)
• A metropolitan area network, or MAN, covers
a city. The best-known example of a MAN is
the cable television network available in
many cities.
 Wide Area Networks (WAN)
• A wide area network, or WAN, spans a large geographical
area, a country or continent.
• It contains a collection of machines intended for running user
(i.e., application) programs and call these machines hosts.
• The hosts are connected by a communication subnet, or just
subnet for short. The hosts are owned by the customers (e.g.,
people's personal computers),
• The communication subnet is typically owned and operated
by a telephone company or Internet service provider.
• The job of the subnet is to carry messages from host to host.
• In most wide area networks, the subnet consists of two
distinct components: transmission lines and switching
elements.
Packet-Switched WAN
• In most WANs, the network contains numerous transmission lines, each
one connecting a pair of routers. If two routers that do not share a
transmission line wish to communicate, they must do this indirectly, via
other routers.
• When a packet is sent from one router to another via one or more
intermediate routers, the packet is received at each intermediate router,
stored there until the required output line is free, and then forwarded.
• A subnet organized according to this principle is called a store-and-forward
or packet-switched subnet.
• Nearly all wide area networks (except those using satellites) have store-
and-forward subnets. When the packets are small and all the same size,
they are called cells.
 Wireless Networks
• wireless networks can be divided into
three main categories:
–System interconnection.
–Wireless LANs.
–Wireless WANs.
• System interconnection is all about interconnecting the components of a
computer using short-range radio. Almost every computer has a monitor,
keyboard, mouse, and printer connected to the main unit by cables.
• The next step up in wireless networking are the wireless LANs. These are
systems in which every computer has a radio modem and antenna with
which it can communicate with other systems.
• The third kind of wireless network is used in wide area systems. The radio network
used for cellular telephones is an example of a low-bandwidth wireless system.
• This system has already gone through three generations. The first generation was
analog and for voice only. The second generation was digital and for voice only.
The third generation is digital and is for both voice and data.

(a) Bluetooth configuration. (b) Wireless LAN.

 Home Networks

• The fundamental idea is that in the future most homes

will be set up for networking. Every device in the home
will be capable of communicating with every other
device, and all of them will be accessible over the
Internet.
• Many devices are capable of being networked.
• Some of the categories (with examples) are as follows:
– Computers (desktop PC, notebook PC, PDA, shared peripherals).
– Entertainment (TV, DVD, VCR, camcorder, camera, stereo, MP3).
– Telecommunications (telephone, mobile telephone, intercom, fax).
– Appliances (microwave, refrigerator, clock, furnace, airco, lights).
– Telemetry (utility meter, smoke/burglar alarm, thermostat, babycam).
 Internetworks
• A collection of interconnected networks is called an
internetwork or internet.
• A common form of internet is a collection of LANs connected
by a WAN.
o Subnets, networks, and internetworks are often confused.
o subnet makes the most sense in the context of a wide area
network, where it refers to the collection of routers and
communication lines owned by the network operator.
o The combination of a subnet and its hosts forms a network.
o An internetwork is formed when distinct networks are
interconnected.
QUIZ