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Points Of
Difference
LAN MAN WAN
Definition A LAN (local area
network) is a group of
computers and network
devices connected
together, usually within
the same building.
A MAN (metropolitan area
network) is a larger
network that usually spans
several buildings in the
same city or town.
A WAN (wide area network),
in comparison to a MAN, is
not restricted to a geographical
location, although it might be
confined within the bounds of
a state or country. A WAN
connects several LANs, and
may be limited to an enterprise
(a corporation or an
organization) or accessible to
the public.
Area
Occupied
Group of computers
connected together
usually in a small area.
Within several buildings or
within a town.
Within borders or countries.
Speed High Speed Lower than LAN Comparatively low speed
Cost Relatively in-expensive A bit expensive. Very Costly
Technology Use Ethernet or Token
Ring networks
Networks based on X.25
protocol
X.25, ATM, Frame Relay
Transmission
medium
Uses guided and un-
guided
media(unshielded
twisted pair cabling or
wi-fi)
Guided or un-
guided(service provider
dependent)
Mostly un-guided
Data Rate >1000Mbps >200Mbps >150Mbps
Inter-
networking
devices used
Mostly uses Layer 1
and Layer 2 devices
Use Layer 1, Layer 2 and
Layer 3 devices
Use Layer 1, Layer 2 and
Layer 3 devices
Problems And
Errors
Fewer problems Moderate Higher level of problems
because of complex networks.
Examples Small office or a
internet cafe
A network of fire stations
in a suburban area
The Internet


Topic 2: The OSI Model

Definition:

Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) standard was developed in 1984 by the International Organization
for Standardization (ISO), a global federation of national standards organizations representing
approximately 130 countries.
The core of this standard is the OSI Reference Model, a set of seven layers that define the different
stages that data must go through to travel from one device to another over a network.

Explanation:

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The OSI model defines internetworking in terms of a vertical stack of seven layers. The upper layers of
the OSI model represent software that implements network services like encryption and connection
management. The lower layers of the OSI model implement more primitive, hardware-oriented functions
like routing, addressing, and flow control.
In the OSI model, data communication starts with the top layer at the sending side, travels down the OSI
model stack to the bottom layer, then traveses the network connection to the bottom layer on the receiving
side, and up its OSI model stack.
The OSI model was introduced in 1984. Although it was designed to be an abstract model, the OSI
model remains a practical framework for today's key network technologies like Ethernet and protocols
like IP.
Layer 1 - Physical
Physical layer defines the cable or physical medium itself, e.g., thinnet, thicknet, unshielded twisted pairs
(UTP). All media are functionally equivalent. The main difference is in convenience and cost of
installation and maintenance. Converters from one media to another operate at this level.
Layer 2 - Data Link
Data Link layer defines the format of data on the network. A network data frame, aka packet, includes
checksum, source and destination address, and data. The largest packet that can be sent through a data
link layer defines the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU). The data link layer handles the physical and
logical connections to the packet's destination, using a network interface. A host connected to an Ethernet
would have an Ethernet interface to handle connections to the outside world, and a loopback interface to
send packets to itself.
Ethernet addresses a host using a unique, 48-bit address called its Ethernet address or Media Access
Control (MAC) address. MAC addresses are usually represented as six colon-separated pairs of hex
digits, e.g., 8:0:20:11:ac:85. This number is unique and is associated with a particular Ethernet device.
Hosts with multiple network interfaces should use the same MAC address on each. The data link layer's
protocol-specific header specifies the MAC address of the packet's source and destination. When a packet
is sent to all hosts (broadcast), a special MAC address (ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff) is used.
Layer 3 - Network
NFS uses Internetwork Protocol (IP) as its network layer interface. IP is responsible for routing, directing
datagrams from one network to another. The network layer may have to break large datagrams, larger
than MTU, into smaller packets and host receiving the packet will have to reassemble the fragmented
datagram. The Internetwork Protocol identifies each host with a 32-bit IP address. IP addresses are
written as four dot-separated decimal numbers between 0 and 255, e.g., 129.79.16.40. The leading 1-3
bytes of the IP identify the network and the remaining bytes identifies the host on that network. The
network portion of the IP is assigned by InterNIC Registration Services, under the contract to the National
Science Foundation, and the host portion of the IP is assigned by the local network administrators. For
large sites, the first two bytes represents the network portion of the IP, and the third and fourth bytes
identify the subnet and host respectively.
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Even though IP packets are addressed using IP addresses, hardware addresses must be used to actually
transport data from one host to another. The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is used to map the IP
address to it hardware address.
Layer 4 - Transport
Transport layer subdivides user-buffer into network-buffer sized datagrams and enforces desired
transmission control. Two transport protocols, Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram
Protocol (UDP), sits at the transport layer. Reliability and speed are the primary difference between these
two protocols. TCP establishes connections between two hosts on the network through 'sockets' which are
determined by the IP address and port number. TCP keeps track of the packet delivery order and the
packets that must be resent. Maintaining this information for each connection makes TCP a stateful
protocol. UDP on the other hand provides a low overhead transmission service, but with less error
checking. NFS(Network File System) is built on top of UDP because of its speed and statelessness.
Statelessness simplifies the crash recovery.


Layer 5 - Session
The session protocol defines the format of the data sent over the connections. The NFS uses the Remote
Procedure Call (RPC) for its session protocol. RPC may be built on either TCP or UDP. Login sessions
uses TCP whereas NFS and broadcast use UDP.
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Layer 6 - Presentation
External Data Representation (XDR) sits at the presentation level. It converts local representation of data
to its canonical form and vice versa. The canonical uses a standard byte ordering and structure packing
convention, independent of the host.
Layer 7 - Application
Provides network services to the end-users. Mail, ftp, telnet, DNS, NIS, NFS are examples of network
applications.
The TCP/IP Reference Model
TCP/IP originated out of the investigative research into networking protocols that the US Department of
Defense (DoD) initiated in 1969. In 1968, the DoD Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) began
researching the network technology that is called packet switching.
The original focus of this research was that the network be able to survive loss of subnet hardware, with
existing conversations not being broken off. In other words, DoD wanted connections to remain intact as
long as the source and destination nodes were functioning, even if some of the machines or transmission
lines in between were suddenly put out of operation. The network that was initially constructed as a result
of this research to provide a communication that could function in wartime., then called ARPANET,
gradually became known as the Internet. The TCP/IP protocols played an important role in the
development of the Internet. In the early 1980s, the TCP/IP protocols were developed. In 1983, they
became standard protocols for ARPANET.
Because of the history of the TCP/IP protocol suite, it's often referred to as the DoD protocol suite or the
Internet protocol suite.
Figure : TCP/IP model layers
Network Access Layer The lowest layer of the TCP/IP protocol hierarchy. It defines how to use the
network to transmit an IP datagram. Unlike higher-level protocols, Network Access Layer protocols must
know the details of the underlying network (its packet structure, addressing, etc.) to correctly format the
data being transmitted to comply with the network constraints. The TCP/IP Network Access Layer can
encompass the functions of all three lower layers of the OSI reference Model (Physical, Data Link and
Network layers).
As new hardware technologies appear, new Network Access protocols must be developed so that TCP/IP
networks can use the new hardware. Consequently, there are many access protocols - one for each
physical network standard.
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Access protocol is a set of rules that defines how the hosts access the shared medium. Access protocol
have to be simple, rational and fair for all the hosts.

Functions performed at this level include encapsulation of IP datagrams into the frames transmitted by the
network, and mapping of IP addresses to the physical addresses used by the network. One of TCP/IP's
strengths is its universal addressing scheme. The IP address must be converted into an address that is
appropriate for the physical network over which the datagram is transmitted.
Internet layer Provides services that are roughly equivalent to the OSI Network layer. The primary
concern of the protocol at this layer is to manage the connections across networks as information is
passed from source to destination. The Internet Protocol (IP) is the primary protocol at this layer of the
TCP/IP model.
Transport layer It is designed to allow peer entities on the source and destination hosts to carry on a
conversation, just as in the OSI transport layer. Two end-to-end transport protocols have been defined
here TCP and UDP.
Application Layer includes the OSI Session, Presentation and Application layers as shown in the
Figure . An application is any process that occurs above the Transport Layer. This includes all of the
processes that involve user interaction. The application determines the presentation of the data and
controls the session. There are numerous application layer protocols in TCP/IP, including Simple Mail
Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and Post Office Protocol (POP) used for e-mail, Hyper Text Transfer Protocol
(HTTP) used for the World-Wide-Web, and File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Most application layer
protocols are associated with one or more port number.









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Topic 3: Network Topology

Definition: In communication networks, a topology is usually a schematic description of the arrangement
of a network, including its nodes and connecting lines. There are two ways of defining network geometry:
the physical topology and the logical (or signal) topology. The physical topology of a network is the
actual geometric layout of workstations. The physical topology of a network refers to the configuration of
cables, computers, and other peripherals. Physical topology should not be confused with logical topology
which is the method used to pass information between workstations.

Types of Physical Network Topologies

1)BusTopology
2)StarTopology
3)RingTopology
4)MeshTopology
5) HybridTopology

Factors to be taken into consideration while choosing a Network topology
1) Scale of your project (in terms of number of components to be connected).

2) Amount of traffic expected on the network.

3) Budget allotted for the network i.e. amount of money you are willing to invest.

4) Required response time.

Linear Bus
A linear bus topology consists of a main run of cable with a terminator at each end. All nodes (file server,
workstations, and peripherals) are connected to the linear cable.

Fig.1. Linear Bus topology
Advantages of a Linear Bus Topology
Easy to connect a computer or peripheral to a linear bus.
Requires less cable length than a star topology.
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Disadvantages of a Linear Bus Topology

Entire network shuts down if there is a break in the main cable.
Terminators are required at both ends of the backbone cable.
Difficult to identify the problem if the entire network shuts down.
Not meant to be used as a stand-alone solution in a large building.
Star
A star topology is designed with each node (file server, workstations, and peripherals) connected directly
to a central network hub, switch, or concentrator.
Data on a star network passes through the hub, switch, or concentrator before continuing to its
destination. The hub, switch, or concentrator manages and controls all functions of the network. It also
acts as a repeater for the data flow. This configuration is common with twisted pair cable; however, it can
also be used with coaxial cable or fiber optic cable.

Fig 2. Star topology
Advantages of a Star Topology
Easy to install and wire.
No disruptions to the network when connecting or removing devices.
Easy to detect faults and to remove parts.
Disadvantages of a Star Topology
Requires more cable length than a linear topology.
If the hub, switch, or concentrator fails, nodes attached are disabled.
More expensive than linear bus topologies because of the cost of the hubs, etc.

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Ring topology
Alternatively referred to as a ring network, the ring topology is a computer network configuration where
each network computer and device are connected to each other forming a large circle (or similar shape).
Each packet is sent around the ring until it reaches its final destination. Today, the ring topology is
seldom used. Below is a visual example of a simple computer setup on a network using a ring topology.

Advantages of Ring Topology

1) This type of network topology is very organized. Each node gets to send the data when it receives an
empty token. This helps to reduces chances of collision. Also in ring topology all the traffic flows in only
one direction at very high speed.

2) Even when the load on the network increases, its performance is better than that of Bus topology.

3) There is no need for network server to control the connectivity between workstations.

4) Additional components do not affect the performance of network.

5) Each computer has equal access to resources.


Disadvantages of Ring Topology

1) Each packet of data must pass through all the computers between source and destination. This
makes it slower than Star topology.

2) If one workstation or port goes down, the entire network gets affected.

3) Network is highly dependent on the wire which connects different components.


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Hybrid Topology

Hybrid, as the name suggests, is mixture of two different things. Similarly in this type of topology we
integrate two or more different topologies to form a resultant topology which has good points(as well as
weaknesses) of all the constituent basic topologies rather than having characteristics of one specific
topology. This combination of topologies is done according to the requirements of the organization.

For example, if there exists a ring topology in one office department while a bus topology in another
department, connecting these two will result in Hybrid topology. Remember connecting two similar
topologies cannot be termed as Hybrid topology. Star-Ring and Star-Bus networks are most common
examples of hybrid network.


Let's see the benefits and drawbacks of this networking architecture.



Hybrid Network Topology


Advantages of Hybrid Network Topology

1) Reliable: Unlike other networks, fault detection and troubleshooting is easy in this type of topology.
The part in which fault is detected can be isolated from the rest of network and required corrective
measures can be taken, WITHOUT affecting the functioning of rest of the network.

2) Scalable: Its easy to increase the size of network by adding new components, without disturbing
existing architecture.

3) Flexible: Hybrid Network can be designed according to the requirements of the organization and by
optimizing the available resources. Special care can be given to nodes where traffic is high as well as
where chances of fault are high.
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4) Effective: Hybrid topology is the combination of two or more topologies, so we can design it in such a
way that strengths of constituent topologies are maximized while there weaknesses are neutralized. For
example we saw Ring Topology has good data reliability (achieved by use of tokens) and Star topology
has high tolerance capability (as each node is not directly connected to other but through central device),
so these two can be used effectively in hybrid star-ring topology.


Disadvantages of Hybrid Topology

1) Complexity of Design: One of the biggest drawback of hybrid topology is its design. Its not easy
to design this type of architecture and its a tough job for designers. Configuration and installation
process needs to be very efficient.

2) Costly Hub: The hubs used to connect two distinct networks, are very expensive. These hubs are
different from usual hubs as they need to be intelligent enough to work with different architectures
and should function even if a part of network is down.

3) Costly Infrastructure: As hybrid architectures are usually larger in scale, they require a lot of
cables, cooling systems, sophisticate network devices, etc.


Mesh Topology

In a mesh network topology, each of the network node, computer and other devices, are
interconnected with one another. Every node not only sends its own signals but also relays data from
other nodes. In fact a true mesh topology is the one where every node is connected to every other
node in the network. This type of topology is very expensive as there are many redundant
connections, thus it is not mostly used in computer networks. It is commonly used in wireless
networks.


Advantages of Mesh topology

1) Data can be transmitted from different devices simultaneously. This topology can withstand high
traffic.
2) Even if one of the components fails there is always an alternative present. So data transfer doesnt get
affected.
3) Expansion and modification in topology can be done without disrupting other nodes.


Disadvantages of Mesh topology

1) There are high chances of redundancy in many of the network connections.

2) Overall cost of this network is way too high as compared to other network topologies.

3) Set-up and maintenance of this topology is very difficult. Even administration of the network is
tough.
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Topic 4: Client-Server Architecture
Client-server architecture can be considered as a network environment that exchanges information
between a server machine and a client machine where server has some resources that can be shared by
different clients.

In a Client/server architecture individual computers (known as clients) are connected to a central
computer which is known as server. We can take an example of a file server to understand the core
process of a client/server network, the file server acts as a storage space on the network for the files,
spreadsheets, databases, etc. Instead of storing these records on every individual computer, the file server
allows the clients to store their files on one central computer and make them sharable. The client-server
architecture is beneficial in reducing the multiple iterations of a single file and allowing the organization
to have one centralized point for every computer to access the same file.
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Most of the Net Applications use the Client Server architecture. These terms refer to the two processes or
two applications which will be communicating with each other to exchange some information. One of the
two processes acts as a client process and another process acts as a server.
Client Process:
This is the process which typically makes a request for information. After getting the response this
process may terminate or may do some other processing.
For example: Internet Browser works as a client application which sends a request to Web Server to get
one HTML web page.
Server Process:
This is the process which takes a request from the clients. After getting a request from the client, this
process will do required processing and will gather requested information and will send it to the requestor
client. Once done, it becomes ready to serve another client. Server process are always alert and ready to
serve incoming requests.
For example: Web Server keeps waiting for requests from Internet Browsers and as soon as it gets any
request from a browser, it picks up a requested HTML page and sends it back to that Browser.
Notice that the client needs to know of the existence and the address of the server, but the server does not
need to know the address or even the existence of the client prior to the connection being established.
Once a connection is established, both sides can send and receive information.

2-tier and 3-tier architectures:
There are two types of client server architectures:
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2-tier architectures: In this architecture, client directly interact with the server. This type of
architecture may have some security holes and performance problems. Internet Explorer and Web
Server works on two tier architecture.
3-tier architectures: In this architecture, one more software sits in between client and server.
This middle software is called middleware. Middleware are used to perform all the security
checks and load balancing in case of heavy load. A middleware takes all requests from the client
and after doing required authentication it passes that request to the server. Then server does
required processing and sends response back to the middleware and finally middleware passes
this response back to the client. If you want to implement a 3-tier architecture then you can keep
any middle ware like Web Logic or WebSphere software in between your Web Server and Web
Browsers.
Topic 5: Static, Active And Dynamic Pages
The web documents may be classified into three major types:

i. Static webpages.

ii.Dynamic webpages.

iii. Active webpages.
A static web page is one where the content is written like an ordinary document and does not tend to
change.
Active web pages: This type of web pages may update in dynamic way but total program execution part
deals with client machine not the server(the client being responsible solely for program execution).
Applets is a type of active web pages.
A dynamic web page is one where the content changes rapidly. It is typically provided via a scripting
feature such as Microsoft's ASP, Coldfusion or PHP. These "server side" scripts control the selection and
presentation of the information and deliver a page "dynamically", that page may be unique every time it is
requested.
Dynamic content may often, however, be provided from a database source.

Static Pages
Most of these advantages and disadvantages apply to normal HTML pages in particular.
Advantages

Quick and easy to put together, even by someone who doesn't have much experience.
Ideal for demonstrating how a site will look.
Cache friendly, one copy can be shown to many people.


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Disadvantages

Difficult to maintain when a site gets large.
Difficult to keep consistent and up to date.
Offers little visitor personalization.
Dynamic Pages
Typically written in various scripting languages or technologies such as ASP, PHP, Perl or J SP.
Advantages

Offers highly personalized and customized visitor options.
Database access improves the personalized experience (as opposed to using just client side
cookies)
Scripts can read in data sources and display it differently depending on how it is run.
Can create the illusion of being updated regularly using time and date sensitive routines to display
pre-written text.

Disadvantages

Personalized pages are not very cache friendly.
Requires a basic minimum knowledge of the language being used.
Scripts need more consideration when uploading and installing, particularly to Unix-related
servers.