CHAPTER 12

Computer Network
Computer Network
• Computer Network:
◦ Is a collection of two or more computing devices, which are connected together to share
information and resources
◦ Connections between computing devices can be physical using wires or cables or wireless using
radio waves or infrared
Computer Network
Local Area Network (LAN)
• A Local Area Network (LAN) is a collection of networking equipment located
geographically close together (small geographical area).
◦ E.g. Single room, campus etc.
• Data transferred in High speed which ranges from 100 Mbps to Gbps for system
development and have a low implementation cost.
• Upper limit: 10 km ; Lower limit: 1 km
• Designed to share resources between PCs and workstation such as hardware or data.
Local Area
Network (LAN)
Metropolitan
Area
Network
(MAN)
Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
• The metropolitan area network (MAN) is designed to extend over an entire city.
• It may be a single network such as cable television network available in many cities .
• It may be a means of connecting a number of LANs
• MAN be operated by one organization or be shared and used by several organizations in
the same city
Wide Area
Network
(WAN)
Wide Area Network (WAN)
• Network that provides long distance transmission of data, voice, image and video
information over large geographical areas that may comprise a country, a continent.
• Range: Beyond 100 km.

• The largest WAN in existence is Internet.

Network Topology
• Topology refers to the layout of connected devices on a network.

• Topology considered as a shape of the network

◦ Geometric representation of the relationship of all the links
• Five Topology
◦ BUS
◦ STAR
◦ RING
◦ MESH
◦ TREE
Bus Topology
Bus Topology
• Bus topology uses a common bus or backbone to connect all devices with terminators at
both the ends
• Backbone acts as shared communication medium and each node (file server,
workstations, peripherals, etc.) is attached to it with an interface connector
• Message is passed back and forth along the cable, from one end of the network to the
other
• As the message passes each station, the station checks the destination address of the
message
◦ If address match, receive the message
◦ Else pass the message to the next station
Bus Topology
• Advantages:
◦ Connecting a computer or peripheral to a linear bus is easy
◦ Requires least amount of cabling to connect the computers
◦ Less expensive
◦ Easy to extend a bus since two cables can be joined into one longer cable with a connector

• Disadvantages:
◦ Entire network shut down if there is a failure in the backbone
◦ Heavy traffic can slow down a bus
Ring Topology
Ring Topology
• Computers are placed on a circle of cable without any terminated ends
• Each node has exactly two neighbors for communication
• All message traverse in a ring in the same direction (clockwise or counter clock wise) until
reaches its destination
Ring Topology
• Advantages:
◦ Easy to install and reconfigure
◦ Every computer has equal access to the ring

• Disadvantage:
◦ Failure in any cable or node breaks the loop and can take down entire network
◦ Maximum ring length and number of nodes are limited
Star Topology
Star Topology
• Devices are connected through centralized component known as “hub”
• Here each device has a dedicated point-to-point link to the central controller called
“Hub”(Act as a Exchange).
• There is no direct traffic between devices.
• The transmission are occurred only through the central “hub”.
• When device 1 wants to send data to device 2; First sends the data to hub. Which then
relays the data to the other connected device.
Star Topology
• Advantages:
◦ Installation and configuration are easy.
◦ The network is not disturbed even if a node fails or is removed from the network
◦ Easy to fault identification & to remove parts.

• Disadvantages:
◦ Requires a longer length of cable
◦ Dependency(whole n/w dependent on one single point(hub). When it goes down. The whole
system is dead.
Tree Topology
Tree Topology
• Tree Topology integrates the characteristics of Star and Bus topology.

• In Tree Topology, the number of Star networks are connected using Bus.

• This main cable seems like a main stem of a tree, and other star networks as the
branches.
Tree Topology
• Advantages:
◦ The distance to which a signal can travel increases as the signal passes through a chain of hubs
◦ Expansion of Network is possible and easy.
◦ Allows isolating and prioritizing communications from different nodes

• Disadvantages:
◦ If backbone line breaks, the entire segment goes down
◦ More difficult to configure and wire than other topologies
Mesh Topology
Mesh Topology
• Here every device has a point to point link to every other device.
• Node 1 node must be connected with n-1 nodes.
• A fully connected mesh can have n(n-1)/2 physical channels to link n devices.
• It must have n-1 I/O ports.
Mesh Topology
• Advantages:
◦ They use dedicated links so each link can only carry its own data load. So traffic problem can be
avoided
◦ It is robust. If any one link get damaged it cannot affect others

• Disadvantages:
◦ The amount of cabling and the number of I/O ports required are very large.
◦ Installation and reconfiguration is very difficult
◦ Hardware required to connected each device is highly expensive.
Networking Components
• Client/Workstation
• Server
• Network Interface Card
• Cable or media
• Hub
• Switch
• Router
Packet transfer example
You are accessing google site
• Sender : Your machine
• Receiver: google server
Packet transfer
Request:
your machine (web browser)-> local switch->organization router->intermediate
routers->google’s router->local switch (google) -> google server (web server)
Response:
google server (web server) -> local switch (google)->google’s router->intermediate
routers->organization router->local switch -> your machine (web browser)
Hub, Switch, and Router
• Router:
◦ This device forwards data packets along networks.
◦ It is connected to at least two networks, commonly two LANs or WANs or a LAN and
its ISPs network.
◦ Routers are located at gateways, the places where two or more networks connect.
◦ Routers use headers and forwarding tables to determine the best path for forwarding
the packets, and they use protocols such as ICMP to communicate with each other and
configure the best route between any two hosts.
Hub, Switch, and Router
• Switch:
◦ In networks, a device that filters and forwards packets between LAN segments.

◦ Switches operate at the data link layer (layer 2) and sometimes the network layer (layer
3) of the OSI Reference Model and therefore support any packet protocol.
Layer 3 versus Layer 2 Switch
• A L2 switch does switching only.
◦ This means that it uses MAC addresses to switch the packets from a port to the destination port
(and only the destination port).
◦ It therefore maintains a MAC address table so that it can remember which ports have which
MAC address associated.

• A L3 switch also does switching exactly like a L2 switch.

◦ The L3 means that it has an identity from the L3 layer.
◦ L3 switch is capable of having IP addresses and doing routing.
◦ For intra-VLAN communication, it uses the MAC address table. For extra-VLAN communication, it
uses the IP routing table.
Hub, Switch, and Router
• Hub:
◦ A common connection point for devices in a network.
◦ Hubs are commonly used to connect segments of a LAN.
◦ A hub contains multiple ports. When a packet arrives at one port, it is copied to the
other ports so that all segments of the LAN can see all packets.