Unit-1

NETWORKS
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.
“Computer network’’ to mean a collection of autonomous computers interconnected by a
single technology. Two computers are said to be interconnected if they are able to exchange
information.
The connection need not be via a copper wire; fibre optics, microwaves, infrared, and
communication satellites can also be used. Networks come in many sizes, shapes and forms,
as we will see later. They are usually connected together to make larger networks, with the
Internet being the most well-known example of a network of networks.
There is considerable confusion in the literature between a computer network and a
distributed system. The key distinction is that in a distributed system, a collection of
independent computers appears to its users as a single coherent system. Usually, it has a
single model or paradigm that it presents to the users. Often a layer of software on top of
the operating system, called middleware, is responsible for implementing this model. A well-
known example of a distributed system is the World Wide Web. It runs on top of the
Internet and presents a model in which everything looks like a document (Web page).
USES OF COMPUTER NETWORKS
Business Applications

 To distribute information throughout the company (resource sharing). sharing physical

resources such as printers, and tape backup systems, is sharing information
 Client-server model. It is widely used and forms the basis of much network usage.
 Communication medium among employees. Email (electronic mail), which employees
generally use for a great deal of daily communication.
 Telephone calls between employees may be carried by the computer network instead
of by the phone company. This technology is called IP telephony or Voice over IP (VoIP)
when Internet technology is used.
 Desktop sharing lets remote workers see and interact with a graphical computer
screen.
 doing business electronically, especially with customers and suppliers. This new
model is called e-commerce (electronic commerce) and it has grown rapidly in recent
years.
Home Applications

 peer-to-peer communication
 person-to-person communication
 electronic commerce
  entertainment.(game playing,)
Mobile Users

 Text messaging or texting

 Smart phones,
 GPS (Global Positioning System)
 m-commerce
 NFC (Near Field Communication)
Social Issues
With the good comes the bad, as this new-found freedom brings with it many unsolved
social, political, and ethical issues. Social networks, message boards, content sharing sites,
and a host of other applications allow people to share their views with like-minded
individuals.
As long as the subjects are restricted to technical topics or hobbies like gardening, not too
many problems will arise. The trouble comes with topics that people actually care about,
like politics, religion, or sex.
Views that are publicly posted may be deeply offensive to some people. Worse yet, they
may not be politically correct. Furthermore, opinions need not be limited to text; high-
resolution colour photographs and video clips are easily shared over computer networks.
Some people take a live-and-let-live view, but others feel that posting certain material (e.g.,
verbal attacks on particular countries or religions, pornography, etc.) is simply unacceptable
and that such content must be censored. Different countries have different and conflicting
laws in this area. Thus, the debate rages. Computer networks make it very easy to
communicate.
They also make it easy for the people who run the network to snoop on the traffic. This sets
up conflicts over issues such as employee rights versus employer rights. Many people read
and write email at work.
Many employers have claimed the right to read and possibly censor employee messages,
including messages sent from a home computer outside working hours. Not all employees
agree with this, especially the latter part. Another conflict is centred around government
versus citizen’s rights. A new twist with mobile devices is location privacy.
As part of the process of providing service to your mobile device the network operators
learn where you are at different times of day. This allows them to track your movements.
They may know which nightclub you frequent and which medical centre you visit.
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. Response time is the elapsed time between an inquiry and a response. 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.
Performance is often evaluated by two networking metrics: throughput and delay. We
often need more throughput and less delay. However, these two criteria are often
contradictory. If we try to send more data to the network, we may increase throughput but
we increase the delay because of traffic congestion in the network.
Reliability
In addition to accuracy of delivery, network reliability is measured by the frequency of
failure, the time it takes a link to recover from a failure, and the network's robustness in a
catastrophe.
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.

Physical Structures
Before discussing networks, we need to define some network attributes.
Type of Connection
A network is two or more devices connected through links. A link is a communications
pathway that transfers data from one device to another. There are two possible types of
connections: point-to-point and multipoint.
Point-to-Point
A point-to-point connection provides a dedicated link between two devices. The
entire capacity of the link is reserved for transmission between those two devices. Most
point-to-point connections use an actual length of wire or cable to connect the two ends,
but other options, such as microwave or satellite links, are also possible When you change
television channels by infrared remote control, you are establishing a point-to-point
connection between the remote control and the television's control system.
Multipoint
A multipoint (also called multi-drop) connection is one in which more than two specific
devices share a single link in a multipoint environment, the capacity of the channel is
shared, either spatially or temporally. If several devices can use the link simultaneously, it is
a spatially shared connection. If users must take turns, it is a timeshared connection.

Physical Topology
The term physical topology refers to the way in which a network is laid out physically.
Two or more devices connect to a link; two or more links form a topology. The topology of a
network is the geometric representation of the relationship of all the links and linking
devices (usually called nodes) to one another. There are four basic topologies possible:
mesh, star, bus, and ring.

MESH
A mesh topology is the one where every node is connected to every other node in the
network.
A mesh topology can be a full mesh topology or a partially connected mesh topology.
In a full mesh topology, every computer in the network has a connection to each of the
other computers in that network. The number of connections in this network can be
calculated using the following formula (n is the number of computers in the network): n(n-
1)/2.
In a partially connected mesh topology, at least two of the computers in the network have
connections to multiple other computers in that network. It is an inexpensive way to
implement redundancy in a network. In the event that one of the primary computers or
connections in the network fails, the rest of the network continues to operate normally.
Advantages of a mesh topology

 Can handle high amounts of traffic, because multiple devices can transmit data
simultaneously.

 A failure of one device does not cause a break in the network or transmission of data.

 Adding additional devices does not disrupt data transmission between other devices.
Disadvantages of a mesh topology

 The cost to implement is higher than other network topologies, making it a less desirable
option.

 Building and maintaining the topology is difficult and time consuming.

 The chance of redundant connections is high, which adds to the high costs and potential
for reduced efficiency.
STAR
 A star network, star topology is one of the most common network setups. In this
configuration, every node connects to a central network device, like a hub, switch, or
computer. The central network device acts as a server and the peripheral devices act as
clients. Depending on the type of network card used in each computer of the star topology,
a coaxial cable or a RJ-45 network cable is used to connect computers together.
Advantages of star topology.

 Centralized management of the network, through the use of the central computer, hub,
or switch.

 Easy to add another computer to the network.

 If one computer on the network fails, the rest of the network continues to function
normally.

 The star topology is used in local-area networks (LANs), High-speed LANs often use a star
topology with a central hub.
Disadvantages of star topology

 Can have a higher cost to implement, especially when using a switch or router as the
central network device.

 The central network device determines the performance and number of nodes the
network can handle.

 If the central computer, hub, or switch fails, the entire network goes down and all
computers are disconnected from the network
BUS

A line topology, a bus topology is a network setup in which each computer and network
device are connected to a single cable or backbone.
Advantages of bus topology

 It works well when you have a small network.

 It's the easiest network topology for connecting computers or peripherals in a linear
fashion.

 It requires less cable length than a star topology.

Disadvantages of bus topology

 It can be difficult to identify the problems if the whole network goes down.

 It can be hard to troubleshoot individual device issues.

 Bus topology is not great for large networks.

 Terminators are required for both ends of the main cable.

 Additional devices slow the network down.

 If a main cable is damaged, the network fails or splits into two.

RING

A ring topology is a network configuration in which device connections create a circular

data path. In a ring network, packets of data travel from one device to the next until they
reach their destination. Most ring topologies allow packets to travel only in one direction,
called a unidirectional ring network. Others permit data to move in either direction, called
bidirectional. The major disadvantage of a ring topology is that if any individual connection
in the ring is broken, the entire network is affected. Ring topologies may be used in either
local area networks (LANs) or wide area networks (WANs).
Advantages of ring topology

 All data flows in one direction, reducing the chance of packet collisions.

 A network server is not needed to control network connectivity between each

workstation.

 Data can transfer between workstations at high speeds.

 Additional workstations can be added without impacting performance of the network.

Disadvantages of ring topology

 All data being transferred over the network must pass through each workstation on the
network, which can make it slower than a star topology.

 The entire network will be impacted if one workstation shuts down.

 The hardware needed to connect each workstation to the network is more expensive than
Ethernet cards and hubs/switches.

Hybrid Topology
A network can be hybrid. For example, we can have a main star topology with each branch
connecting several stations in a bus topology as shown in Figure

Computer Network Types

A computer network is a group of computers linked to each other that enables the
computer to communicate with another computer and share their resources, data,
and applications.

A computer network can be categorized by their size. A computer network is mainly

of four types:

o LAN(Local Area Network)

o PAN(Personal Area Network)
 o MAN(Metropolitan Area Network)
o WAN(Wide Area Network)

LAN(Local Area Network)

o Local Area Network is a group of computers connected to each other in a small area
such as building, office.
o LAN is used for connecting two or more personal computers through a
communication medium such as twisted pair, coaxial cable, etc.
o It is less costly as it is built with inexpensive hardware such as hubs, network adapters,
and ethernet cables.
o The data is transferred at an extremely faster rate in Local Area Network.
o Local Area Network provides higher security.

PAN(Personal Area Network)

o Personal Area Network is a network arranged within an individual person, typically
within a range of 10 meters.
o Personal Area Network is used for connecting the computer devices of personal use
is known as Personal Area Network.
 o Thomas Zimmerman was the first research scientist to bring the idea of the Personal
Area Network.
o Personal Area Network covers an area of 30 feet.
o Personal computer devices that are used to develop the personal area network are
the laptop, mobile phones, media player and play stations.

There are two types of Personal Area Network:

o Wired Personal Area Network

o Wireless Personal Area Network

Wireless Personal Area Network: Wireless Personal Area Network is developed by

simply using wireless technologies such as WIFI, Bluetooth. It is a low range network.

Wired Personal Area Network: Wired Personal Area Network is created by using
the USB.

Examples Of Personal Area Network:

o Body Area Network: Body Area Network is a network that moves with a person. For
example, a mobile network moves with a person. Suppose a person establishes a
network connection and then creates a connection with another device to share the
information.
o Offline Network: An offline network can be created inside the home, so it is also
known as a home network. A home network is designed to integrate the devices
such as printers, computer, television but they are not connected to the internet.
o Small Home Office: It is used to connect a variety of devices to the internet and to a
corporate network using a VPN
MAN(Metropolitan Area Network)
o A metropolitan area network is a network that covers a larger geographic area by
interconnecting a different LAN to form a larger network.
o Government agencies use MAN to connect to the citizens and private industries.
o In MAN, various LANs are connected to each other through a telephone exchange
line.
o The most widely used protocols in MAN are RS-232, Frame Relay, ATM, ISDN, OC-3,
ADSL, etc.
o It has a higher range than Local Area Network(LAN).

Uses Of Metropolitan Area Network:

o MAN is used in communication between the banks in a city.
o It can be used in an Airline Reservation.
o It can be used in a college within a city.
o It can also be used for communication in the military.

WAN(Wide Area Network)

 o A Wide Area Network is a network that extends over a large geographical area such
as states or countries.
o A Wide Area Network is quite bigger network than the LAN.
o A Wide Area Network is not limited to a single location, but it spans over a large
geographical area through a telephone line, fibre optic cable or satellite links.
o The internet is one of the biggest WAN in the world.
o A Wide Area Network is widely used in the field of Business, government, and
education.

Examples Of Wide Area Network:

o Mobile Broadband: A 4G network is widely used across a region or country.
o Last mile: A telecom company is used to provide the internet services to the
customers in hundreds of cities by connecting their home with fiber.
o Private network: A bank provides a private network that connects the 44 offices.
This network is made by using the telephone leased line provided by the telecom
company.

Advantages of Wide Area Network:

Following are the advantages of the Wide Area Network:
 o Geographical area: A Wide Area Network provides a large geographical area.
Suppose if the branch of our office is in a different city then we can connect with
them through WAN. The internet provides a leased line through which we can
connect with another branch.
o Centralized data: In case of WAN network, data is centralized. Therefore, we do not
need to buy the emails, files or back up servers.
o Get updated files: Software companies work on the live server. Therefore, the
programmers get the updated files within seconds.
o Exchange messages: In a WAN network, messages are transmitted fast. The web
application like Facebook, Whatsapp, Skype allows you to communicate with friends.
o Sharing of software and resources: In WAN network, we can share the software and
other resources like a hard drive, RAM.
o Global business: We can do the business over the internet globally.
o High bandwidth: If we use the leased lines for our company then this gives the high
bandwidth. The high bandwidth increases the data transfer rate which in turn
increases the productivity of our company.

Disadvantages of Wide Area Network:

The following are the disadvantages of the Wide Area Network:

o Security issue: A WAN network has more security issues as compared to LAN and
MAN network as all the technologies are combined together that creates the security
problem.
o Needs Firewall & antivirus software: The data is transferred on the internet which
can be changed or hacked by the hackers, so the firewall needs to be used. Some
people can inject the virus in our system so antivirus is needed to protect from such a
virus.
o High Setup cost: An installation cost of the WAN network is high as it involves the
purchasing of routers, switches.
o Troubleshooting problems: It covers a large area so fixing the problem is difficult.

Internetwork
 o An internetwork is defined as two or more computer network LANs or WAN or
computer network segments are connected using devices, and they are configured
by a local addressing scheme. This process is known as internetworking.
o An interconnection between public, private, commercial, industrial, or government
computer networks can also be defined as internetworking.
o An internetworking uses the internet protocol.
o The reference model used for internetworking is Open System
Interconnection(OSI).

Types Of Internetwork:
1. Extranet: An extranet is a communication network based on the internet protocol
such as Transmission Control protocol and internet protocol. It is used for
information sharing. The access to the extranet is restricted to only those users who
have login credentials. An extranet is the lowest level of internetworking. It can be
categorized as MAN, WAN or other computer networks. An extranet cannot have a
single LAN, atleast it must have one connection to the external network.

2. Intranet: An intranet is a private network based on the internet protocol such

as Transmission Control protocol and internet protocol. An intranet belongs to an
organization which is only accessible by the organization's employee or members.
The main aim of the intranet is to share the information and resources among the
organization employees. An intranet provides the facility to work in groups and for
teleconferences.

Intranet advantages:
o Communication: It provides a cheap and easy communication. An employee of the
organization can communicate with another employee through email, chat.
o Time-saving: Information on the intranet is shared in real time, so it is time-saving.
o Collaboration: Collaboration is one of the most important advantage of the intranet.
The information is distributed among the employees of the organization and can only
be accessed by the authorized user.
o Platform independency: It is a neutral architecture as the computer can be
connected to another device with different architecture.
o Cost effective: People can see the data and documents by using the browser and
distributes the duplicate copies over the intranet. This leads to a reduction in the cost.
OSI Model
o OSI stands for Open System Interconnection is a reference model that
describes how information from a software application in
one computer moves through a physical medium to the software application
in another computer.
o OSI consists of seven layers, and each layer performs a particular network
function.
o OSI model was developed by the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) in 1984, and it is now considered as an architectural
model for the inter-computer communications.
o OSI model divides the whole task into seven smaller and manageable tasks.
Each layer is assigned a particular task.
o Each layer is self-contained, so that task assigned to each layer can be
performed independently.

Characteristics of OSI Model:

o The OSI model is divided into two layers: upper layers and lower layers.
o The upper layer of the OSI model mainly deals with the application related
issues, and they are implemented only in the software. The application layer is
closest to the end user. Both the end user and the application layer interact
with the software applications. An upper layer refers to the layer just above
another layer.
 o The lower layer of the OSI model deals with the data transport issues. The
data link layer and the physical layer are implemented in hardware and
software. The physical layer is the lowest layer of the OSI model and is closest
to the physical medium. The physical layer is mainly responsible for placing
the information on the physical medium.

7 Layers of OSI Model

There are the seven OSI layers. Each layer has different functions. A list of seven
layers are given below:

1. Physical Layer
2. Data-Link Layer
3. Network Layer
4. Transport Layer
5. Session Layer
6. Presentation Layer
7. Application Layer

1) Physical layer

o The main functionality of the physical layer is to transmit the individual bits
from one node to another node.
 o It is the lowest layer of the OSI model.
o It establishes, maintains and deactivates the physical connection.
o It specifies the mechanical, electrical and procedural network interface
specifications.

Functions of a Physical layer:

o Line Configuration: It defines the way how two or more devices can be
connected physically.
o Data Transmission: It defines the transmission mode whether it is simplex,
half-duplex or full-duplex mode between the two devices on the network.
o Topology: It defines the way how network devices are arranged.
o Signals: It determines the type of the signal used for transmitting the
information.

2) Data-Link Layer

o This layer is responsible for the error-free transfer of data frames.

o It defines the format of the data on the network.
o It provides a reliable and efficient communication between two or more
devices.
o It is mainly responsible for the unique identification of each device that resides
on a local network.
o It contains two sub-layers:
o Logical Link Control Layer
o It is responsible for transferring the packets to the Network layer
of the receiver that is receiving.
 o It identifies the address of the network layer protocol from the
header.
o It also provides flow control.
o Media Access Control Layer
o A Media access control layer is a link between the Logical Link
Control layer and the network's physical layer.
o It is used for transferring the packets over the network.

Functions of the Data-link layer

o Framing: The data link layer translates the physical's raw bit stream into
packets known as Frames. The Data link layer adds the header and trailer to
the frame. The header which is added to the frame contains the hardware
destination and source address.

o Physical Addressing: The Data link layer adds a header to the frame that
contains a destination address. The frame is transmitted to the destination
address mentioned in the header.
o Flow Control: Flow control is the main functionality of the Data-link layer. It is
the technique through which the constant data rate is maintained on both the
sides so that no data get corrupted. It ensures that the transmitting station
such as a server with higher processing speed does not exceed the receiving
station, with lower processing speed.
o Error Control: Error control is achieved by adding a calculated value CRC
(Cyclic Redundancy Check) that is placed to the Data link layer's trailer which
is added to the message frame before it is sent to the physical layer. If any
error seems to occur, then the receiver sends the acknowledgment for the
retransmission of the corrupted frames.
o Access Control: When two or more devices are connected to the same
communication channel, then the data link layer protocols are used to
determine which device has control over the link at a given time.

3) Network Layer
 o It is a layer 3 that manages device addressing, tracks the location of devices
on the network.
o It determines the best path to move data from source to the destination
based on the network conditions, the priority of service, and other factors.
o The Data link layer is responsible for routing and forwarding the packets.
o Routers are the layer 3 devices, they are specified in this layer and used to
provide the routing services within an internetwork.
o The protocols used to route the network traffic are known as Network layer
protocols. Examples of protocols are IP and Ipv6.

Functions of Network Layer:

o Internetworking: An internetworking is the main responsibility of the

network layer. It provides a logical connection between different devices.
o Addressing: A Network layer adds the source and destination address to the
header of the frame. Addressing is used to identify the device on the internet.
o Routing: Routing is the major component of the network layer, and it
determines the best optimal path out of the multiple paths from source to the
destination.
o Packetizing: A Network Layer receives the packets from the upper layer and
converts them into packets. This process is known as Packetizing. It is achieved
by internet protocol (IP).

4) Transport Layer
 o The Transport layer is a Layer 4 ensures that messages are transmitted in the
order in which they are sent and there is no duplication of data.
o The main responsibility of the transport layer is to transfer the data
completely.
o It receives the data from the upper layer and converts them into smaller units
known as segments.
o This layer can be termed as an end-to-end layer as it provides a point-to-
point connection between source and destination to deliver the data reliably.

The two protocols used in this layer are:

o Transmission Control Protocol

o It is a standard protocol that allows the systems to communicate over
the internet.
o It establishes and maintains a connection between hosts.
o When data is sent over the TCP connection, then the TCP protocol
divides the data into smaller units known as segments. Each segment
travels over the internet using multiple routes, and they arrive in
different orders at the destination. The transmission control protocol
reorders the packets in the correct order at the receiving end.
o User Datagram Protocol
o User Datagram Protocol is a transport layer protocol.
o It is an unreliable transport protocol as in this case receiver does not
send any acknowledgment when the packet is received, the sender
does not wait for any acknowledgment. Therefore, this makes a
protocol unreliable.

Functions of Transport Layer:

 o Service-point addressing: Computers run several programs simultaneously
due to this reason, the transmission of data from source to the destination not
only from one computer to another computer but also from one process to
another process. The transport layer adds the header that contains the
address known as a service-point address or port address. The responsibility
of the network layer is to transmit the data from one computer to another
computer and the responsibility of the transport layer is to transmit the
message to the correct process.
o Segmentation and reassembly: When the transport layer recives the
message from the upper layer, it divides the message into multiple segments,
and each segment is assigned with a sequence number that uniquely
identifies each segment. When the message has arrived at the destination,
then the transport layer reassembles the message based on their sequence
numbers.
o Connection control: Transport layer provides two services Connection-
oriented service and connectionless service. A connectionless service treats
each segment as an individual packet, and they all travel in different routes to
reach the destination. A connection-oriented service makes a connection with
the transport layer at the destination machine before delivering the packets. In
connection-oriented service, all the packets travel in the single route.
o Flow control: The transport layer also responsible for flow control but it is
performed end-to-end rather than across a single link.
o Error control: The transport layer is also responsible for Error control. Error
control is performed end-to-end rather than across the single link. The sender
transport layer ensures that message reach at the destination without any
error.

5) Session Layer
 o It is a layer 3 in the OSI model.
o The Session layer is used to establish, maintain and synchronizes the
interaction between communicating devices.

Functions of Session layer:

o Dialog control: Session layer acts as a dialog controller that creates a dialog
between two processes or we can say that it allows the communication
between two processes which can be either half-duplex or full-duplex.
o Synchronization: Session layer adds some checkpoints when transmitting the
data in a sequence. If some error occurs in the middle of the transmission of
data, then the transmission will take place again from the checkpoint. This
process is known as Synchronization and recovery.

6) Presentation Layer

o A Presentation layer is mainly concerned with the syntax and semantics of the
information exchanged between the two systems.
o It acts as a data translator for a network.
o This layer is a part of the operating system that converts the data from one
presentation format to another format.
o The Presentation layer is also known as the syntax layer.

Functions of Presentation layer:

o Translation: The processes in two systems exchange the information in the

form of character strings, numbers and so on. Different computers use
different encoding methods, the presentation layer handles the
interoperability between the different encoding methods. It converts the data
 from sender-dependent format into a common format and changes the
common format into receiver-dependent format at the receiving end.
o Encryption: Encryption is needed to maintain privacy. Encryption is a process
of converting the sender-transmitted information into another form and sends
the resulting message over the network.
o Compression: Data compression is a process of compressing the data, i.e., it
reduces the number of bits to be transmitted. Data compression is very
important in multimedia such as text, audio, video.

7) Application Layer

o An application layer serves as a window for users and application processes to

access network service.
o It handles issues such as network transparency, resource allocation, etc.
o An application layer is not an application, but it performs the application layer
functions.
o This layer provides the network services to the end-users.

Functions of Application layer:

o File transfer, access, and management (FTAM): An application layer allows

a user to access the files in a remote computer, to retrieve the files from a
computer and to manage the files in a remote computer.
o Mail services: An application layer provides the facility for email forwarding
and storage.
o Directory services: An application provides the distributed database sources
and is used to provide that global information about various objects.
Transmission media
o Transmission media is a communication channel that carries the information from the
sender to the receiver. Data is transmitted through the electromagnetic signals.
o The main functionality of the transmission media is to carry the information in the
form of bits through LAN(Local Area Network).
o It is a physical path between transmitter and receiver in data communication.
o In a copper-based network, the bits in the form of electrical signals.
o In a fibre based network, the bits in the form of light pulses.
o In OSI(Open System Interconnection) phase, transmission media supports the Layer
1. Therefore, it is considered to be as a Layer 1 component.
o The electrical signals can be sent through the copper wire, fibre optics, atmosphere,
water, and vacuum.
o The characteristics and quality of data transmission are determined by the
characteristics of medium and signal.
o Transmission media is of two types are wired media and wireless media. In wired
media, medium characteristics are more important whereas, in wireless media, signal
characteristics are more important.
 o Different transmission media have different properties such as bandwidth, delay, cost
and ease of installation and maintenance.
o The transmission media is available in the lowest layer of the OSI reference model,
i.e., Physical layer.

Some factors need to be considered for designing the

transmission media:
o Bandwidth: All the factors are remaining constant, the greater the bandwidth of a
medium, the higher the data transmission rate of a signal.
o Transmission impairment: When the received signal is not identical to the
transmitted one due to the transmission impairment. The quality of the signals will
get destroyed due to transmission impairment.
o Interference: An interference is defined as the process of disrupting a signal when it
travels over a communication medium on the addition of some unwanted signal.

Causes Of Transmission Impairment:

o Attenuation: Attenuation means the loss of energy, i.e., the strength of the signal
decreases with increasing the distance which causes the loss of energy.
o Distortion: Distortion occurs when there is a change in the shape of the signal. This
type of distortion is examined from different signals having different frequencies.
Each frequency component has its own propagation speed, so they reach at a
different time which leads to the delay distortion.
o Noise: When data is travelled over a transmission medium, some unwanted signal is
added to it which creates the noise.

Classification Of Transmission Media:

Guided Media
It is defined as the physical medium through which the signals are transmitted. It is
also known as Bounded media.

Types Of Guided media:

Twisted pair:
Twisted pair is a physical media made up of a pair of cables twisted with each other.
A twisted pair cable is cheap as compared to other transmission media. Installation of
the twisted pair cable is easy, and it is a lightweight cable. The frequency range for
twisted pair cable is from 0 to 3.5KHz.

A twisted pair consists of two insulated copper wires arranged in a regular spiral
pattern.

The degree of reduction in noise interference is determined by the number of turns

per foot. Increasing the number of turns per foot decreases noise interference.
Types of Twisted pair:

Unshielded Twisted Pair:

An unshielded twisted pair is widely used in telecommunication. Following are the
categories of the unshielded twisted pair cable:

o Category 1: Category 1 is used for telephone lines that have low-speed data.
o Category 2: It can support upto 4Mbps.
o Category 3: It can support upto 16Mbps.
o Category 4: It can support upto 20Mbps. Therefore, it can be used for long-distance
communication.
o Category 5: It can support upto 200Mbps.

Advantages Of Unshielded Twisted Pair:

o It is cheap.
o Installation of the unshielded twisted pair is easy.
o It can be used for high-speed LAN.

Disadvantage:

o This cable can only be used for shorter distances because of attenuation.

Shielded Twisted Pair

A shielded twisted pair is a cable that contains the mesh surrounding the wire that
allows the higher transmission rate.

Characteristics Of Shielded Twisted Pair:

o The cost of the shielded twisted pair cable is not very high and not very low.
 o An installation of STP is easy.
o It has higher capacity as compared to unshielded twisted pair cable.
o It has a higher attenuation.
o It is shielded that provides the higher data transmission rate.

Disadvantages

o It is more expensive as compared to UTP and coaxial cable.

o It has a higher attenuation rate.

Coaxial Cable
o Coaxial cable is very commonly used transmission media, for example, TV wire is
usually a coaxial cable.
o The name of the cable is coaxial as it contains two conductors parallel to each other.
o It has a higher frequency as compared to Twisted pair cable.
o The inner conductor of the coaxial cable is made up of copper, and the outer
conductor is made up of copper mesh. The middle core is made up of non-
conductive cover that separates the inner conductor from the outer conductor.
o The middle core is responsible for the data transferring whereas the copper mesh
prevents from the EMI(Electromagnetic interference).

Coaxial cable is of two types:

1. Baseband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting a single signal at

high speed.
2. Broadband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting multiple signals
simultaneously.

Advantages Of Coaxial cable:

 o The data can be transmitted at high speed.
o It has better shielding as compared to twisted pair cable.
o It provides higher bandwidth.

Disadvantages Of Coaxial cable:

o It is more expensive as compared to twisted pair cable.

o If any fault occurs in the cable causes the failure in the entire network.

Fibre Optic
o Fibre optic cable is a cable that uses electrical signals for communication.
o Fibre optic is a cable that holds the optical fibres coated in plastic that are used to
send the data by pulses of light.
o The plastic coating protects the optical fibres from heat, cold, electromagnetic
interference from other types of wiring.
o Fibre optics provide faster data transmission than copper wires.

Diagrammatic representation of fibre optic cable:

Basic elements of Fibre optic cable:

o Core: The optical fibre consists of a narrow strand of glass or plastic known as a core.
A core is a light transmission area of the fibre. The more the area of the core, the
more light will be transmitted into the fibre.
o Cladding: The concentric layer of glass is known as cladding. The main functionality
of the cladding is to provide the lower refractive index at the core interface as to
 cause the reflection within the core so that the light waves are transmitted through
the fibre.
o Jacket: The protective coating consisting of plastic is known as a jacket. The main
purpose of a jacket is to preserve the fibre strength, absorb shock and extra fibre
protection.

Following are the advantages of fibre optic cable over copper:

o Greater Bandwidth: The fibre optic cable provides more bandwidth as compared
copper. Therefore, the fibre optic carries more data as compared to copper cable.
o Faster speed: Fibre optic cable carries the data in the form of light. This allows the
fibre optic cable to carry the signals at a higher speed.
o Longer distances: The fibre optic cable carries the data at a longer distance as
compared to copper cable.
o Better reliability: The fibre optic cable is more reliable than the copper cable as it is
immune to any temperature changes while it can cause obstruct in the connectivity of
copper cable.
o Thinner and Sturdier: Fibre optic cable is thinner and lighter in weight so it can
withstand more pull pressure than copper cable.

Un-Guided Transmission
o An unguided transmission transmits the electromagnetic waves without using any
physical medium. Therefore it is also known as wireless transmission.
o In unguided media, air is the media through which the electromagnetic energy can
flow easily.

Unguided transmission is broadly classified into three categories:

Radio waves
o Radio waves are the electromagnetic waves that are transmitted in all the directions
of free space.
o Radio waves are omnidirectional, i.e., the signals are propagated in all the directions.
o The range in frequencies of radio waves is from 3Khz to 1 khz.
 o In the case of radio waves, the sending and receiving antenna are not aligned, i.e., the
wave sent by the sending antenna can be received by any receiving antenna.
o An example of the radio wave is FM radio.

Applications of Radio waves:

o A Radio wave is useful for multicasting when there is one sender and many receivers.
o An FM radio, television, cordless phones are examples of a radio wave.

Advantages of Radio transmission:

o Radio transmission is mainly used for wide area networks and mobile cellular phones.
o Radio waves cover a large area, and they can penetrate the walls.
o Radio transmission provides a higher transmission rate.

Microwaves

Microwaves are of two types:

o Terrestrial microwave
o Satellite microwave communication.

Terrestrial Microwave Transmission

o Terrestrial Microwave transmission is a technology that transmits the focused beam
of a radio signal from one ground-based microwave transmission antenna to another.
o Microwaves are the electromagnetic waves having the frequency in the range from
1GHz to 1000 GHz.
o Microwaves are unidirectional as the sending and receiving antenna is to be aligned,
i.e., the waves sent by the sending antenna are narrowly focussed.
o In this case, antennas are mounted on the towers to send a beam to another antenna
which is km away.
 o It works on the line of sight transmission, i.e., the antennas mounted on the towers
are the direct sight of each other.

Characteristics of Microwave:

o Frequency range: The frequency range of terrestrial microwave is from 4-6 GHz to
21-23 GHz.
o Bandwidth: It supports the bandwidth from 1 to 10 Mbps.
o Short distance: It is inexpensive for short distance.
o Long distance: It is expensive as it requires a higher tower for a longer distance.
o Attenuation: Attenuation means loss of signal. It is affected by environmental
conditions and antenna size.

Advantages of Microwave:

o Microwave transmission is cheaper than using cables.

o It is free from land acquisition as it does not require any land for the installation of
cables.
o Microwave transmission provides an easy communication in terrains as the
installation of cable in terrain is quite a difficult task.
o Communication over oceans can be achieved by using microwave transmission.

Disadvantages of Microwave transmission:

o Eavesdropping: An eavesdropping creates insecure communication. Any malicious

user can catch the signal in the air by using its own antenna.
o Out of phase signal: A signal can be moved out of phase by using microwave
transmission.
o Susceptible to weather condition: A microwave transmission is susceptible to
weather condition. This means that any environmental change such as rain, wind can
distort the signal.
o Bandwidth limited: Allocation of bandwidth is limited in the case of microwave
transmission.

Satellite Microwave Communication

o A satellite is a physical object that revolves around the earth at a known height.
 o Satellite communication is more reliable nowadays as it offers more flexibility than
cable and fibre optic systems.
o We can communicate with any point on the globe by using satellite communication.

How Does Satellite work?

The satellite accepts the signal that is transmitted from the earth station, and it
amplifies the signal. The amplified signal is retransmitted to another earth station.

Advantages of Satellite Microwave Communication:

o The coverage area of a satellite microwave is more than the terrestrial microwave.
o The transmission cost of the satellite is independent of the distance from the centre
of the coverage area.
o Satellite communication is used in mobile and wireless communication applications.
o It is easy to install.
o It is used in a wide variety of applications such as weather forecasting, radio/TV signal
broadcasting, mobile communication, etc.

Disadvantages of Satellite Microwave Communication:

o Satellite designing and development requires more time and higher cost.
o The Satellite needs to be monitored and controlled on regular periods so that it
remains in orbit.
o The life of the satellite is about 12-15 years. Due to this reason, another launch of the
satellite has to be planned before it becomes non-functional.

Infrared
o An infrared transmission is a wireless technology used for communication over short
ranges.
o The frequency of the infrared in the range from 300 GHz to 400 THz.
o It is used for short-range communication such as data transfer between two cell
phones, TV remote operation, data transfer between a computer and cell phone
resides in the same closed area.

Characteristics Of Infrared:
 o It supports high bandwidth, and hence the data rate will be very high.
o Infrared waves cannot penetrate the walls. Therefore, the infrared communication in
one room cannot be interrupted by the nearby rooms.
o An infrared communication provides better security with minimum interference.
o Infrared communication is unreliable outside the building because the sun rays will
interfere with the infrared waves.

Network Standards
Networking standards define the rules for data communications that are
needed for interoperability of networking technologies and processes.
Standards help in creating and maintaining open markets and allow different
vendors to compete on the basis of the quality of their products while being
compatible with existing market products.

During data communication, a number of standards may be used

simultaneously at the different layers. The commonly used standards at each
layer are −

 Application layer − HTTP, HTML, POP, H.323, IMAP

 Transport layer − TCP, SPX
 Network layer −IP, IPX
 Data link layer − Ethernet IEEE 802.3, X.25, Frame Relay
 Physical layer −RS-232C (cable), V.92 (modem)

Types of Standards
Standards are of two types

 De facto − These are the standards that are followed without any formal plan or approval
by any organization. They have come into existence due to traditions or facts. For
example, the HTTP had started as a de facto standard.
 De jure − These standards are the ones which have been adopted through legislation by
any officially recognized standards organization. Most of the communication standards
that are used today are de jure standards.

Standards Organizations
Some of the noted standards organizations are

 International Standards Organization (ISO)

 International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
 Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE)
  American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
 Internet Research Task Force (IETF)
 Electronic Industries Association (EIA)

Network Software
Network software is an umbrella term used to describe a wide range
of software that streamlines the operations, design, monitoring, and
implementation of computer networks.

Network software is a fundamental element for any networking system. It

helps administrators and security personnel reduce network complexities,
and manage, monitor, and better control network traffic. Network software
plays a crucial role in managing a network infrastructure and simplifying
IT operations by facilitating communication, security, content, and data
sharing.

Network software offers useful benefits to organizations. It has become an

important tool in facilitating round-the-clock communication and allowing
an uninterrupted exchange of information. One of the most significant
advantages of network software is its direct correlation with productivity.
The centralized nature of network software increases the productivity of
the complete system. This helps reduce end-user technical support
problems.

Functions of network software

 User management allows administrators to add or remove

users from the network. This is particularly useful when hiring
or relieving
 File management lets administrators decide the location of
data storage and control user access to that data.
 Access enables users to enjoy uninterrupted access to network
resources.
 Network security systems assist administrators in looking after
security and preventing data breaches.
Key Components of Network Software
Network software is an advanced, robust, and secure alternative to traditional
networking, making the network easier to administer in terms of management,
modifications, configuration, supply resources, and troubleshooting. The use of
network software makes it possible to administer from one centralized user
interface while completely eliminating the need to acquire additional hardware.
It offers administrators the option to customize with greater flexibility to change
and define the network speed, expand network capacity, and look after security.

To understand how it works, let’s look at the components that frame network
software.

Components of Network Software

1. Application layer

The first component is the application layer or the application plane, which
refers to the applications and services running on the network. It is a program
that conveys network information, the status of the network, and the network
requirements for particular resource availability and application. This is done
through the control layer via application programming interfaces (APIs). The
application layer also consists of the application logic and one or more API
drivers.
2. Control layer

The control layer lies at the centre of the architecture and is one of the most
important components of the three layers. You could call it the brain of the
whole system. Also called the controller or the control plane, this layer also
includes the network control software and the network operating system within
it. It is the entity in charge of receiving requirements from the applications and
translating the same to the network components. The control of the
infrastructure layer or the data plane devices is also done via the controller. In
simple terms, the control layer is the intermediary that facilitates
communication between the top and bottom layers through APIs interfaces.

3. Infrastructure layer

The infrastructure layer, also called the data plane, consists of the actual
network devices (both physical and virtual) that reside in this layer. They are
primarily responsible for moving or forwarding the data packets after receiving
due instructions from the control layer. In simple terms, the data plane in the
network architecture components physically handles user traffic based on the
commands received by the controller.

The application program interface (API) ties all three components together.
Communication between these three layers is facilitated through northbound
and southbound application program interfaces. The northbound API ties
communication between the application and the control layers, whereas the
southbound API enables communication between the infrastructure and the
control layers.
1. Northbound API

Applications communicate to the controller to present the status of the network

infrastructure and request resources based on availability. This communication
between the application and the control layer happens via northbound APIs that
help instruct what resources the application requires and routes them to the
destination in question.

Northbound APIs are majorly RESTful APIs. The control layer decides how the
applications are allotted the resources available in the network. Through
its automated intelligence, the control layer also finds an ideal route for the
application as per its latency and security.
2. Southbound API

The control layer communicates with the infrastructure layer (routers and
switches) via southbound APIs. The network infrastructure is informed about
the route the application data must move on based on the configurations made
by the controller. The controller can control and change how the routers and
switches move the data.

A major difference between traditional network software architecture and SDN

architecture is that the former’s control and infrastructure layers are integrated.
This only allows limited changes to the overall system as the network devices
become an obstruction in the logical network traffic flow. On the other hand,
SDN separates the control layer from the infrastructure layer and centrally
integrates the network intelligence. The centralized and separated operations
enable organizations to have greater agility to manage, monitor, deploy, expand,
automate, and troubleshoot the network.
Types of Network Software
There are numerous types of network software available, with most of
them being categorized under the communications and security arena. The
varieties of network software differ based on their key features and costs.
The main role of network software is to eliminate the dependence on
hardware by streamlining communications across multiple devices,
locations, and systems.

Network Software Types

1. Network storage software

In many ways, data within networks is like a child. With time, it only grows,
and as it does, it requires adequate attention. Soon enough, data needs to be
stored spanning multiple locations and a wide range of devices. Network
storage software allows businesses to utilize a standard interface that manages
countless databases between users or clients. It serves as a good manager of
access between various departments or essential communities within an
organization. This way, anybody having access can view or retrieve information
with just a click, and at the same time, security concerns are also taken care of.

2. Data archiving software

In today’s day and age of dynamic networks spread across various functioning
corporate entities, data once misplaced is data lost. Hence, it is vital to take
regular backups. As organizations grow and networks evolve in size, it gets
especially tricky to save data appropriately. In addition to that, data that needs
to be stored increases at a rapid pace, and its management gets costlier. In such
a situation, data archiving software is a perfect choice.

Organizations have heaps of data that might not have to be utilized daily but is
still essential to be stored for various purposes, one of them being for regular
compliance. Data archiving software enables better management of such
information and is an optimal solution to reduce costs while ensuring that the
data is being protected. However, as a word of caution, archive software does
not function the same way as regular standard backups. Hence, it is always
recommended to ensure that the archived data doesn’t need to be accessed soon.

3. Patch management software

It is a nightmare for IT employees to install updates on each device individually.

Moreover, when a network consists of numerous devices, ensuring the timely
installation of updates is not only expensive but often a cumbersome process as
well. As the name suggests, patch management software aids in the smoother
management of updates across numerous devices on the network through the
installation of patches. This makes the process more seamless and enables each
machine to download a patch managed by central software and run updates
automatically. Patch management software is the more hassle-free and effective
way to perform continuous updates across devices and systems in an
organization.

4. Security surveillance software

A majority of network software focuses on data storage and linking devices.

However, they do not incorporate protection for a network. This is where
security surveillance software comes into the picture. It monitors and connects
the various security solutions within a network. Specific software is ideal for
large networks as it effortlessly links throughout locations and provides credible
browser-based live and recorded footage to an organization. On the other hand,
better-targeted software works well in protecting vulnerable units by building a
network architecture that reduces attack surfaces, thereby keeping components
hidden from any malicious parties. This happens through developing outbound-
only connections with cloud services and providers.

5. Asset management software

One of the most challenging tasks in any organization is to keep the network up
and running efficiently. Achieving this demands greater visibility of the
network infrastructure as well as regular tracking and monitoring of essential
metrics. That’s where asset management software comes to the rescue.
Compared to most of its counterparts, asset management software operates from
a centralized server room or hub and is not connected to any hardware. This is
good in terms of cost reduction and offers an excellent experience to the users
and clients.

6. Deployment and migration software

Managing a network comes with regular upgrades or movement of assets, and

this can sometimes become a herculean task. However, it doesn’t have to be so.
The use of deployment and migration software aids organizations in making
processes such as upgrading systems hassle-free. The software provides an
interface that enables easy monitoring of any deployment or data movement
between the hardware and databases within the network. It also ensures
mandatory checks on compatibility when any data is being moved between
regular backups and archives, thereby significantly reducing the chances of data
loss.

7. Printer and fax software

Printers and fax machines are indispensable equipment for any working
organization. As an organization grows, so does the number of assets involved
within its network. Standard options such as Wi-Fi printing might not always be
the best choice, especially for big corporations or schools that span across many
floors. This software provides an easy-to-use interface that enables the
undertaking and maintenance of multiple tasks. That’s not it! With this
software, one can easily set IP printing across networks or even deploy updates.
What’s more? In some cases, it can also enable organizations to fax or print
important documents and correspondence across different locations.
8. Network management software

In a sea of countless options, why should an organization opt for network

management software? The reason is quite apparent. Their primary function is
to monitor, manage, and troubleshoot any hurdles in network performance
across the whole device infrastructure. While a network monitoring
software might have some basic options plugged in to troubleshoot, network
management software is equipped to manipulate and modify network
performance for the better. These software applications are hosted by several
industry-leading brands.

Network Hardware
Network hardware is a set of physical or network devices that are essential for interaction and
communication between hardware units operational on a computer network. These are
dedicated hardware components that connect to each other and enable a network to function
effectively and efficiently.

Today, technology has penetrated its tentacles into every nook and corner of our lives. It has
gone from being just an industry add-on to an inevitable necessity. As tech enablement is
driving the industrial transformation, it’s important for businesses to build a network that is
secure, reliable and keeps the users in touch with their applications. The core of this very
foundation is leveraged by the basic network hardware.

Network hardware plays a key role as industries grow as it supports scalability. It integrates
any number of components depending on the enterprise’s needs. Network hardware helps
establish an effective mode of communication, thereby improving the business standards. It
also promotes multiprocessing and enables sharing of resources, information, and software
with ease.

Network equipment is part of advancements of the Ethernet network protocol and utilizes a
twisted pair or fibre cable as a connection medium. Routers, hubs, switches, and bridges are
some examples of network hardware.

Let’s look at the fundamental devices of a computer network.

 Modems: A modem enables a computer to connect to the internet via a

telephone line. The modem at one end converts the computer’s digital signals
into Analog signals and sends them through a telephone line. At the other end,
it converts the Analog signals to digital signals that are understandable for
another computer.
 Routers: A router connects two or more networks. One common use of the
router is to connect a home or office network (LAN) to the internet (WAN). It
 generally has a plugged-in internet cable along with cables that connect
computers on the LAN. Alternatively, a LAN connection can also be wireless
(Wi-Fi-enabled), making the network device wireless. These are also referred to
as wireless access points (WAPs).
 Hubs, bridges, and switches: Hubs, bridges, and switches are connecting units
that allow multiple devices to connect to the router and enable data transfer to
all devices on a network. A router is a complex device with the capabilities of
hubs, bridges, and even switches.
Hubs: A hub broadcasts data to all devices on a network. As a result, it
consumes a lot of bandwidth as many computers might not need to receive the
broadcasted data. The hub could be useful in linking a few gaming consoles in a
local multiplayer game via a wired or wireless LAN.
Bridges: A bridge connects two separate LAN networks. It scans for the
receiving device before sending a message. This implies that it avoids
unnecessary data transfers if the receiving device is not there. Moreover, it also
checks to see whether the receiving device has already received the message.
These practices improve the overall performance of the network.
Switches: A switch is more powerful than a hub or a bridge but performs
a similar role. It stores the MAC addresses of network devices and transfers
data packets only to those devices that have requested Thus, when the demand
is high, a switch becomes more efficient as it reduces the amount of latency.
 Network interface cards: A network interface card (NIC) is a hardware unit
installed on a computer, which allows it to connect to a network. It is typically
in the form of a circuit board or chip. In most modern machines, NICs are built
into the motherboards, while in some computers, an extra expansion card in the
form of a small circuit board is added externally.
 Network cables: Cables connect different devices on a network. Today, most
networks have cables over a wireless connection as they are more secure, i.e.,
less prone to attacks, and at the same time carry larger volumes of data per
second.
 Firewall: A firewall is a hardware or software device between a computer and
the rest of the network open to attackers or hackers. Thus, a LAN can be
protected from hackers by placing a firewall between the LAN and the internet
connection. A firewall allows authorized connections and data-like emails or
web pages to pass through but blocks unauthorized connections made to a
computer or LAN.
Network Architecture: Key Components
Network architecture defines the structural and logical design of a network. It constitutes
hardware devices, physical connections, software, wireless networks, protocols, and
transmission media. It gives a detailed overview of the whole network, which organizations
use to create LAN, WAN, and other specific communication tunnels.
 Network Architecture
Network architecture can be viewed from different vantage points depending on the size and
purpose of the network. WAN refers to a group of interconnected networks distributed over
large distances, while LAN refers to a computer network that interconnects computers within
a limited space. Therefore, the architecture of a WAN will vary from that of a LAN in a small
office.

Setting up the layout of the network architecture is critical, as it can either enhance or hamper
the overall performance of the entire system. For example, selecting inappropriate
transmission media or equipment for an expected server load in a network can cause
slowdowns in different parts of the network.

As more user devices connect to the network, network architecture becomes even more
significant by adding a security layer to protect connected devices. Additionally, modern
network architectures support advanced user recognition and authorization.

Most network architectures are built on the open systems interconnection (OSI) model. Here,
network tasks are segregated into seven logical layers, right from the lowest to the highest
abstraction. For example, the lowest physical layer manages the wire and cable connections
of the network, while the highest application layer deals with APIs that perform application-
specific functions such as chat or file sharing. Overall, with the OSI model, troubleshooting
the network is easier as the problems are isolated from each other at different layers.
What is a Telephone?
A telephone or simply referred to as a phone, is a device that sends and receives
sound across a certain distance. A telephone's primary job is to transform analogue
sounds into electrical signals that may be transmitted to other phone users. The
name telephone comes from the Greek roots tele, which has a meaning of phone
and afar that means sound or voice. The main credit for inventing the telephone is
Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. It makes people capable of communicating with
others over almost any distance.

One of the most instant and widespread forms of communication is telephone

communication. In order to exchange information in all areas of human life, the
telephone has proved to be invaluable. It can be used in many different areas, such
as social contacts, business, science, personal services, government, or public health.

In 1887, there were around 200,000 telephones in the world, and in 1928, about 30
million, and in 1958, approximately 118 million, and over 330 million in 1995.
According to the University of California at Berkeley, there were around 1.3 billion
main telephone lines in use worldwide in 2004.

The concept of the telephone as a system entails a number of elements. The

telephone equipment itself is the first element. Then there are several types of
apparatus for transmitting electromagnetic signals over long distances. Third,
because the transmission lines are organised in multi-levelled structures, they can
interconnect any desired telephone set upon request. Finally, signalling facilities are
available for informing the individual who has been contacted, controlling switching
operations, and clearing the circuits after the call has been completed. Telephony is a
scientific and technological discipline that aids in the development of all of the
telephone system's parts.

Telephone Network
The structure of the telephone network may be described in terms of whole plant
connections available between telephone exchanges. The three broad categories,
long-haul networks, exchange area, and local, are included in the telephone network.
The local network functions for linking telephones in businesses and residences to a
central office in order to serve a specific geographical area. The size may be different
in the cities and country. In cities, it can be 11.5 sq. mi and 123.5 sq. mi in the
country.
Local lines or loops are telephone lines that connect a subscriber to the central office.
Central offices are linked through the exchange area network. The telephone
connections that connect one telephone exchange to another are known as trunks in
North America and junctions in Europe. For indicating the location in the system,
every telephone is assigned a number. The switching network identifies that the call
is initiating from which telephone and from which is receiving the call. For a signal
path, it sets up the circuit connection from this information.

Parts of a telephone
A telephone is a complete system, not just a thing, which only sits on the table at
home. A whole slew of communication devices, including the cable that runs through
the wall and the handset on your end that sends phone signals all over the country.
Additionally, some switching equipment aids in the proper routing of calls.

Let's take an example of a typical phone handset. In this handset, a loudspeaker

located at the top, you press it against your ear. A microphone is situated near the
user's mouth at the bottom of the telephone system. Two pairs of copper wires are
included with a single thick, coiled cable that comes out of the handset. The output
pair is in charge of transmitting electrical signals from the microphone to the
telephone system. The input pair is responsible for taking incoming signals from the
telephone system and sending them to the speakers.

What's inside an antique telephone?

o Dial mechanism: As the dial rotates and creates dialling pulses by
interrupting the circuit placed between the exchange and the phone. For
example, you create four pulses if you dial number "4," and if you dial "8", you
make eight pulses, and so on.
o Bells: To indicate an incoming call, earlier phones contained real shiny metal
bells inside them. On the other hand, beepers or buzzers are included within
modern phones, but they do not provide sound nearly so nice.
o Electromagnet: This electrical magnet turns on and off rapidly at the time of
phone rings; a clapper is moved in between the bells and makes them a ring.
o Tilting switch mechanism: This mechanism helps to explore when the
handset is picked up or put back. It also disconnects the phone from the local
exchange if the handset is resting on the switch. The circuit that connects the
exchange to the phone is only completed when you lift the handset.
 o Circuit board: All of the small wires come together on this circuit board,
which controls several aspects of the phone.

Quality of Telephone Communication

The essential requirements for high-quality telephone transmission are audibility,
naturalness, and intelligibility of conveyed speech. These criteria are essentially the
harmonic components of the human voice. The network structure has a significant
impact on the quality of telephone service because it is fully dependent on the
network structure to which subscribers are connected.

As compared to the total amount of subscribers, the number of subscribers making a

call telephone call in one go is always less. This is the fundamental reason why, when
comparing the number of subscribers served by a central office to the number of
channels in the commercial telephone system, the number of customers served by a
central office is much smaller. Due to this kind of design, when the telephone traffic
is high, a connection may be blocked.

To prevent the occurrence of channel overload, good planning based on statistical

analysis is used. Increasing the number of channels that can be carried by a single
underlying medium is another technique to increase network quality. For instance,
600 voice channels could be carried by a coaxial cable in 1940. By the early 1950s,
the number of speech channels had risen to 1,860, and by the 1980s, it had risen to
13,200. The microwave radio system saw a comparable expansion in bandwidth; in
the 1950s, there were 2400 channels, which expanded to 42,000 channels in the
1980s. In this direction, fibre optic technology promises to offer even faster progress.

The invention of the telephone

The story of Alexander Graham Bell is controversial in terms of inventing telephones;
however, he is generally credited with inventing telephones. Bell's mother was deaf;
this was a reason that became Bell interested in sound and speech. His father and
grandfather have extensive experience teaching deaf individuals, and as a result, they
are considered experts in the field. Also, before making Bell's name as an inventor, he
became an of the deaf people.

But at the same time, like Bell, some other inventors were also working on the idea of
making the telephone. For example, mere hours after Bell filed his own patent
application, Elisha Gray (1835-1901) filed a patent on a comparable innovation.
Antonio Meucci, a third inventor, came before either Bell or Gray. He is said to have
invented the telephone in the 1840s. When the US Congress passed a bill in his
honor, finally his contribution was recognized in 2002.

Types of phones
Smartphones, cordless or wireless phones, regular mobile phones, and classic corded
phones are the four main types of phones (uses a rotary dial or has buttons). Cell
phones and smartphones have mostly supplanted the landline telephone in modern
times. This is because smartphones and cell phones provide better service, as well as
their prices have come down drastically.

How to connect a landline phone

Standard house phones are connected to a wall with the help of an RJ-11 connector.
When connecting a phone to a modem, the phone connects to the "line out"
connector. From there, the landline connects to the "line in" connector of the
modem.

What does a telephone exchange do?

The term "telephone exchanges" has been used several times without elaborating on
what they perform or how they operate.

Assume, in the street, there are five people. They want to chat with each other;
therefore, they need telephones. Actually, it is easier to wire some baked bean cans.
A connection is needed for all people to connect with all of the others, but that
means there is a very complicated mess; here are requirements for four lines
stretching and four baked bean cans in each home. We might be able to live with it,
but it isn't ideal. Assume there are 5,000 people in your community who all wish to
talk to each other. There would be needed 4999 lines for each house. And, think
about if there are more than 10 million people in the city and they all want to talk
with each other.

This is why telephone exchanges come into use. Rather than being linked to
everyone else, everyone is connected to their local exchange, which is connected to
the other exchanges. In the above example, only one line is needed by four people,
and the exchange would have the potential to provide a connection between any
pair of them. In another example, only one line is still needed by 10 million people.
But there is a need to add more local exchanges when the number of people
increases. And, now one person is not connecting with another, but one person is
connecting with another local exchange through their local exchange (a potentially a
series of exchanges).
Any connection between one line and another is not permanent. When there was
less of a rush of people using the telephone, it was much easier for operators at
telephone exchanges to manually keep track of the calls; they used to accomplish
this by plugging leads in and out of switchboards. But as people came to expect
faster calls and the size of the system was rapidly increased, it became difficult. Also,
if anyone thinks that the invention of telephones was first before exchanges, he
would be wrong. Exchanges for the telegraph were implemented a few years before
Bell patented his phone, therefore the basic notion of central switching offices
emerged before. This concept aided in the exchange of electrical messages between
locations.

Making international calls

Once, from one phone to another, all calls were carried down wires. This was a
reason; long-distance calls were more expensive to make and took longer to route.
While making an international call, the delay time was much between you and the
person who is another end; that's why international calls took so long to route. This
was because of the time for signals to travel down the wire.

Now, there are a variety of different ways to travel the calls; however, most calls still
travel from homes to local exchanges with old-style copper wires. But calls have the
potential to go between exchanges down ultra-fast cables. Also, with the help of
using microwave towers, longer-distances calls are often beamed between urban
centers. Typically, international calls are bounced all over the world with the help of
using space satellites.

Microwave towers, fibre-optics, and satellites transmit and receive phone calls as
pulses of electromagnetic radiation travelling at the speed of light, rather than as
electrical impulses. Therefore, as compared to before, modern international phone
calls are more reliable, much cheaper, and faster. Additionally, now calls took very
little time to connect.

Integrated Services Digital Network

In this article will learn about the ISDN. In this we will learn about the introduction,
various principle, services and ISDN channels in detail.

Introduction:
ISDN is a set of protocols that is based on high-speed fully digitized telephone
service. The main aim of ISDN is to provide a fully integrated digital service to the
users.

In ISDN there are following three types of ISDN services:

Bearer Services:

Backward Skip 10sPlay VideoForward Skip 10s

This type of services is used to transfer information such as voice, data, and video
between the users without manipulating the content of the network information. It
belongs to the first 3 layers of the OSI reference model.

Tele Services:

In these types of services, the network may change the contents of the data. It
belongs to the last 4 layers of the OSI reference model. It includes telephony, tele
box, fax, and teleconferencing etc.

Supplementary Services:

It provides additional functionality to the bearer services and teleservices. Some of

the examples of supplementary services are reverse charging, call waiting, and
message handling.

Principles of ISDN:
Following are the principles of ISDN are:

o It supports both circuit switching & packet switching with the connections at 64 kbps.
o In ISDN layered protocol architecture is used for specification.
 o ISDN services provides maintenance.
o ISDN services includes some network management functions.
o In ISDN network several configurations are possible for implementing.

ISDN SERVICES:
Following are the two types of services associated with ISDN:

Basic Rate Interface:

In the Basic Rate Interface digital pipe consists of 2 B channels and a 1 D channel.
Therefore it is denoted as "2B + 1 D". These two B channels have a data rate of 64
kbps each, and the D channel have a data rate of 16 kbps. It has also a usable
bandwidth of 144 kbps.

Basic Rate Interface allows the concurrent use of voice and various data applications
such as packet-switched access, a link to a central alarm service, video, tax, etc. The
signalling information for the two channels is sent onto the D channel. The two B
channels can be used for one 128 kbps connection or two independent connections
on the two channels.

The following figure shows the basic structure of the frame in the Basic Rate
Interface is:

This service is used to meet the needs of most individual users, including residential
and small offices. In this case, the two B channels and the D channel are multiplexed
with overhead bits in the form of the frame structure. The overhead bits include
framing, DC balancing, and other bits.

The 48-bit frame consists of

o 16 bits of B1 Channel
o 16 bits of B2 Channel
o 4 bits of D channel
o 12 overhead bits

The frame is transmitted in 250 µsec, which results in the following bit rates:

o In frame each B channel = 16 / 250 µsec = 64 kbps

o In frame D channel = 4 / 250 µsec = 16 kbps
o In frame Overhead Bits = 12 / 250 µsec = 48 kbps
o In frame Overall Bit rate = 48 / 250 µsec = 192 kbps

Primary Rate Interface:

Primary Rate Interface consists of either 23 B channels or 30 B channels and a one 64
Kbps D channel. In North America and the Japan, 23 B channels and one D channel
are used. It is also denoted by '23 B + 1 D'. In addition, the Primary Rate Interface
service itself uses 8 kbps of overhead. Therefore 23D + 1D requires a data rate of
1.544 Mbps. In the case of 30 B channels and one D channel, the total bit rate is
2.048 Mbps.

The following figure shows the basic structure of the frame in the Primary Rate
Interface is:
ISDN CHANNELS:
ISDN structure have a central ISDN office in which all the users are linked to this
through a digital pipe. This digital pipe has different capacities and have a different
data transfer rates and these are organized into multiple channels of different sizes.

ISDN standard have the following three types of channels:

B Channel:
It stands for Bearer channel. It has a 64 kbps standard data rate. It is a basic user
channel and can carry any digital information in full-duplex mode. In this
transmission rate does not exceed 64 kbps. It can carry digital voice, digital data, and
any other low data rate information.

D Channel:
It stands for Data Channel. This channel carry control signal for bearer services. This
channel is required for signalling or packet-switched data and all-controlling signals
such as establishing calls, ringing, call interrupt, etc.

H Channel:
It stands for Hybrid Channel. It provides user information at higher bit rates.
There are 3 types of Hybrid Channel depending on the data rates. Following are the
hybrid channels types:

o Hybrid Channel 0 with 384 kbps data rate.

o Hybrid Channel 11 with 1536 kbps data rate.
o Hybrid Channel 12 with 1920 kbps data rate.

ISDN Devices:
Following are the types of ISDN devices:

TE1:Terminal equipment type (TE1) are specialized ISDN terminals. It includes digital
telephone instruments such as FAX, or data terminal equipment. All these devices
have an S-bus ISDN interface.

TE2:Terminal equipment type (TE2) is Non-ISDN compatible is connected through a

Terminal Adapter. It includes Analog phones and 3270 terminal Fax.

TA: It stands for Terminal Adapter. This device acts as an intermediary device for
non-ISDN terminal devices. It converts the non-ISDN interface of these devices to the
ISDN interface. The ISDN terminal Adapter can be either a standalone device or a
board inside the Terminal equipment type 2. Some of the examples of Terminal
adapter are EIA/TIA-232-C, V.24 etc.

NT1: It stands for Network termination type 1. It provides a line termination at the
customer's premise. They can also provide line monitoring, power feeding, error
statistics, and proper timing.

NT2:It stands for Network termination type 2. It provides a switching, multiplexing,

concentrating, or distributing information for the customer's premises. Some
examples of Network termination type 2 are this could be a LAN server or Private
Branch Exchange etc.

ISDN Reference Points:

It specifies the number of reference points that provide interfaces between the
adjacent devices.

Following Figure displays the working of ISDN reference points:

In the above figure it shows an ISDN configuration in which 3 devices attached to an
ISDN switch at the central office. In which 2 devices are ISDN compatible and they
are attached through the S reference point to Network termination type 2 devices.
Out of these third device is a standard non-ISDN telephone and is attached to a
Terminal Adapter through an R reference point.

These reference points are R, S, T, and U.

o R:It stands for Rate transfer point. It is an interface for non-ISDN devices and
therefore is the reference point between non-ISDN equipment and a Terminal
Adapter. It can be RS-232-C, V, or X series of ITU-T standard or ordinary telephone
interface with two wires.
o S:It stands for System transfer point. The interface between the user terminal and
NT2. It is a four-wire balanced to which upto eight ISDN terminals can be connected.
The physical connector for S - interface on terminals and NT1 is an 8-pin RJ-45
connector.
o T:It stands for Terminal transfer point. It is the interface between Network
termination type 1 and Network termination type 2
o U: It is the interface between Network termination type 1 device and the line
termination equipment in the carrier network. The U interface is the local copper pair
of the access network. The same pair is used for full-duplex transmission of digital
signals.