INTRODUCTION TO NETWORKING

Networking is referred as connecting computers electronically for the purpose of sharing

informations. Resources such as files, applications, printers and softwares are common
information shared in a networking. The advantage of networking can be seen clearly in terms of
security, efficiency, manageability and cost effectiveness as it allows collaboration between
users in a wide range. Basically, network consist of hardware component such as computer,
hubs, switches, routers and other devices which form the network infrastructure. These are the
devices that play an important role in data transfer from one place to another using different
technologies such as radio waves and wires.
There are many types of network available in the networking industries and the most common
network are Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN).LAN network is made
up of two or more computers connected together in a short distance usually at home, office
buildings or school. WAN is a network that cover more wider area than LAN and usually covers
cities, countries and the whole world. Several major LAN can be connect together to form a
WAN.











WHAT I S CARRI ER SENSE MULTI PLE ACCESS (CSMA)
Carrier Sense Multiple Access is one of the popular ways to transmit information packets across
networks. Packets is referred as data bits which are sent over a network. According to Wikipedia,
Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) ) is a probabilistic Media Access Control (MAC)
protocol in which a node verifies the absence of other traffic before transmitting on a shared
transmission medium, such as an electrical bus, or a band of the electromagnetic spectrum. In a
simple word, CSMA will check to ensure the line is not being used before the data is sent, if it is
in use, it waits until the line is idle before proceeding with transmitting.
Ethernet networks which is widely used network in the world for the local area networking
technology use this method to send information packets. One of the important purpose CSMA
was developed is to minimize the chances of collision and improve the performance by
preventing computers from exchanging information at same time. Collision occurs when
computers attempt to send information to each other at the same time and the the data does not
reach its destination or destroyed. With CSMA, collision can be reduced as it will hold the data
and wait until the line is clear before data is transmitted to the particular computer and user.
The word "Carrier Sense" in fact describes how transmitter uses feedback from a receiver to
detect existence of encoded signal from any other station before trying to transmit. The chances
of collision can be reduced if the station can sense the medium before it is used. Before sending
information each of the station should first listen to the medium to identify if there is ongoing
transmission to be completed before proceed with its own transmission. CSMA is based on the
principle "sense before transmit" or "listen before talk".




Figure 1.0 Carrier Sense data transmission

"Multiple Access" refers to multiple stations which send and receive packets on the medium.
Multiple stations may share multiple access medium. This means every data bits transmitted by a
station is generally received by all the stations using that medium.




Figure 1.1 Example of Multiple Access Connection
CSMA actually uses several different methods where they wait for the medium to become idle,
known as the persistence strategy. Persistence strategy defines the procedures for a station that
senses a busy medium. Below are three persistent strategy that have been developed :
i. 1-persistent method
In this strategy, the station will sense the channel and transmit packets immediately if
the channel is sensed free. If the medium is busy it will wait until the channel
becomes idle.Then it will send the data with probability of 1.

ii. P-persistent method
In P-persistent protocol, when the line is free the sender will transmit frame with probability
p. If the medium is busy, it will wait until the line is free before sending the packet with
probability p. If the station choosedto hold back, it will not tranmsit with the probability 1-
p. The sender will wait and the process will be repeated until the frame are sent with the same
probability p when the next time slot is available.The strategy are used in WiFi and packet
radio systems.


Figure 1.3 Behaviour of three persistent method
iii. Non-persistent method
Station will sent immediately if the line is idle or the station will have to wait for a
random amount of time and then sense the line again to check its status. The
advantage of this strategy is that, it reduces the chances of collision since it is out of
ordinary for two station to wait for the same period of time before retrying
concurrently.

CARRI ER SENSE MULTI PLE ACCESS WI TH COLLI SI ON DETECTI ON
(CSMA / CD)
As described earlier, in CSMA data is transferred by sensing the channel. Possibility for collision
happends is high when the computers try to send information one to another concurrently. This
problem can be reduced if the station can detect if the data transmission deteriorate a collision
during the transmission. Instead of randomly transmitting data which has collided with others,
the collision can be detected by a station which could immediately halt the collided transmission
to reduce the duration of collision. The protocol which perform this action is called Carrier
Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection or CSMA/CD. It is a protocol used to ensure
only one network node are transmitted at one time in the Ethernet network. This is the technique
used to access the 802.3 Ethernet network channel.
Collision Detection
Collision Detection means that when two devices try to send data simultaneously at the same
time, they are able to detect this error. CSMA/CD operates in the same manner with CSMA
except the moment collision is detected, the operation of data transmission will be aborted
immediately. The collision that occurs on the shared media are detected when the devices in the
listening mode. When a device is in listening mode, it can detect collision occurs on the shared
media. The detection of a collision happen when there is increase of amplitude above the normal
level. Once the increase in the signal amplitude detected all the transmitting devices will transmit
to assure devices in network detect the collision.





Figure 1.4 Collision Detection Process

J amming Signal and Backoff Algorithm
Once the collision is heard the sender will send jamming signal to announce other devices that
the collision had happened and the devices should stop sending data onto the wire. After the
jamming signal is sent, the sender will wait for a indefinite amount of time. This random time
will ensure the devices which were involved in the collision do not transmit simultaneously
again. This process is called backoff algorithm which make sure traffic from two devices are not
transmitted at the same time. The backoff period is decided by collision counter of each node
and usually generate random numbers.The possibility of repeated collision exist even after the
backoff when the nodes trying to transmit the data again. It can be reduces if each nodes back
off at different time.

Retransmission
Final step in CSMA/CD data transmission process is retransmitting the frame that is corrupted
or terminated because of a collision. The process of retransmitting is performed after a collision
is detected, and the node backs off for a period of time. If the retransmission is successful, the
node clears its collision counter.

The entire operation of the CSMA/CD can be described by flow diagram in Figure 1.5. The
operation of CSMA/CD are same with CSMA before the collision detection starts as shown in
the diagram. The transmission is successful if there is no collision is detected. In case of collision
is detected, the transmission will be aborted. The jamming signal will be sent and all the station
involved in collision will backoff. The process will be repeated after the packets backs off.


Figure 1.5 Flow diagram for the CSMA/CD

As explained earlier we know that collisions occurs when two adaptors transmit at the same time
and the collision is sensed based on increase of voltages of signals in the line. It happened when :
> Both adapter found the line to be idle
> Both adapter had been waiting to for a busy line to become idle to transmit
Figure 1.6 below is used to explain the process of CSMA/CD.












Figure 1.6 Principle of CSMA/CD
1. Host A, Host B and Host C which wants to send data will listens before transmit to
ensure the line is free and ready to send data.
2. Since there the line is idle,Host A and host C on shared network tries to send frames.
3. Both Host A and Host C are listening and transmitting at the same time which cause a
collision to occurs.
4. The collision is detected by Host A and Host C and send out jamming signal to other
host for not sending data at this time. The data need to be retransmitted by both Host A
and Host C but need to assure it dont happen at the same time again. To avoid collision,
host A and host B that involved in collision will backoff before attempting to start the
entire process again by listening to the wire.



Advantages and Disadvantages of CSMA/CD

Advantages
CSMA/CD is reliable because it detect collisions and packets are re-sent. Data lost does
not happen.
A computer does not take turn or have to wait for its turn to transmit data so it makes
data transmitting relatively fast.
CSMA/CD control software is simple and less expensive.
It work best on a bus topology with bursty transmission.
Disadvantages
The collision detection system limit the cable length that can be used where it is limited
to 2500 meters
The collision cause network slow down due to retransmission process so it is not suitable
for large networks
Considered unsuitable for channels controlling automated equipment that must have
certain control over channel access