UNIT 1

Introduction to computer network

Data Communication:
When we communicate, we are sharing information. This sharing can be local or remote.
Between individuals, local communication usually occurs face to face, while remote
communication takes place over distance.

Components:
A data communications system has five components.

1. Message.
• The message is the information (data) to be communicated. Popular forms of
information include text, numbers, pictures, audio, and video.
2. Sender.
• The sender is the device that sends the data message. It can be a computer,
workstation, telephone handset, video camera, and so on.
3. Receiver.
• The receiver is the device that receives the message. It can be a computer,
workstation, telephone handset, television, and so on.
4. Transmission medium.
• The transmission medium is the physical path by which a message travels from
sender to receiver. Some examples of transmission media include twisted-pair
wire, coaxial cable, fiber-optic cable, and radio waves
5. Protocol.
• A protocol is a set of rules that govern data communications. It represents an
agreement between the communicating devices. Without a protocol, two devices
may be connected but not communicating, just as a person speaking French
cannot be understood by a person who speaks only Japanese.

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.
Distributed Processing
Most networks use distributed processing, in which a task is divided among multiple
computers. Instead of one single large machine being responsible for all aspects of a
process, separatecomputers (usually a personal computer or workstation) handle a subset.

Network Criteria
A network must be able to meet a certain number of criteria. The most important of
these areperformance, 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.
 LAN, MAN, WAN
Categories of Networks

Local Area Networks:

• Local area networks, generally called LANs.
• Privately-owned networks within a single building or campus of up to a few kilometres in
size.
• They are widely used to connect personal computers and workstations in company offices
and factories to share resources (e.g., printers) and exchange information.

LANs are distinguished from other kinds of networks by three characteristics:

(1) Their size,
(2) Their transmission technology, and
(3) Their topology.

• LANs are restricted in size, which means that the worst-case transmission time is
bounded and known in advance. Knowing this bound makes it possible to use
certain kinds of designs that would not otherwise be possible.
• It also simplifies network management.
• LANs may use a transmission technology consisting of a cable to which all the
machines are attached, like the telephone company party lines once used in rural
areas.
• Traditional LANs run at speeds of 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps, have low delay
(microseconds or nanoseconds), and make very few errors.
• Newer LANs operate at up to 10 Gbps.

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN):

• A metropolitan area network, or MAN, covers a city.
• The best-known example of a MAN is the cable television network city.
Wide Area Network (WAN).

• A wide area network, or WAN, spans a large geographical area, often a country or
continent.
• It contains a collection of machines intended for running user (i.e., application)
programs. These machines are called as hosts. The hosts are connected by a
communication subnet, or just subnet for short. The hosts are owned by the
customers (e.g., people's personal computers), whereas the communication subnet
is typically owned and operated by a telephone company or Internet service
provider. The job of the subnet is to carry messages from host to host, just as the
telephone system carries words from speaker to listener.
• In most wide area networks, the subnet consists of two distinct components:
transmission lines and switching elements.
• Transmission lines move bits between machines. They can be made of copper
wire, optical fiber, or even radio links. In most WANs, the network contains
numerous transmission lines, each one connecting a pair of routers. If two routers
that do not share a transmission line wish tocommunicate, they must do this
indirectly, via other routers. When a packet is sent from onerouter to another
via one or more intermediate routers, the packet is received at each intermediate
router in its entirety, stored there until the required output line is free, and then
forwarded. A subnet organized according to this principle is called a store-
and-forward or packet-switched subnet. Nearly all wide area networks (except
those using satellites) have store-and-forwardsubnets. When the packets are small
and all the same size, they are often called cells.
• The principle of a packet-switched WAN is so important. Generally, when a
process on somehost has a message to be sent to a process on some other host, the
sending host first cuts the message into packets, each one bearing its number in the
sequence. These packets are then injected into the network one at a time in quick
succession. The packets are transported individually over the network and
deposited at the receiving host, where they are reassembled into the original
message and delivered to the receiving process. A stream of packets resulting from
some initial message is illustrated in Fig.
• In this figure, all the packets follow the route ACE, rather than ABDE or ACDE.
In some networks all packets from a given message must follow the same route;
 in others each packed is routed separately. Of course, if ACE is the best route,
all packets may be sent along it, even ifeach packet is individually routed.

Most common LAN topologies are bus, ring and star.

Distance Location Network Used

10 meters Classroom LAN
100 meters Building LAN
1000 meters Campus LAN
2-50 kilometers City MAN
100 kilometers County WAN
1,000 kilometers Continent WAN
10,000 kilometers Planet – Internet WAN

THE INTERNET
• The Internet has come a long way since the 1960s.
• The Internet today is not a simple hierarchicalstructure.
• It is made up of many wide- and local-area networks joined by connecting devices
andswitching stations.
• It is difficult to give an accurate representation of the Internet because it is
continually changing-new networks are being added, existing networks are adding
addresses, and networks of defunct companies are being removed.
• Today most end users who want Internetconnection use the services of Internet
service providers (lSPs). There are international service providers, national
service providers, regional service providers, and local service providers. The
Internet today is run by private companies, not the government. Figure 1.13 shows
a conceptual (not geographic) view of the Internet.
International Internet Service Providers:
At the top of the hierarchy are the international service providers that connect
nations together.
National Internet Service Providers:
The national Internet service providers are backbone networks created and
maintained by specialized companies. There are many national ISPs operating in North
America; some of the most well known are SprintLink, PSINet, UUNet Technology,
AGIS, and internet Mel. To provide connectivity between the end users, these backbone
networks are connected by complex switching stations (normally run by a third party)
called network access points (NAPs). Some national ISP networks are also connected to
one another by private switching stations called peering points. These normally operate at
a high data rate (up to 600 Mbps).
Regional Internet Service Providers:
Regional internet service providers or regional ISPs are smaller ISPs that are
connectedto one or more national ISPs. They are at the third level of the hierarchy with a
smaller data rate. Local Internet Service Providers:
Local Internet service providers provide direct service to the end users. The
local ISPscan be connected to regional ISPs or directly to national ISPs. Most end users
are connected tothe local ISPs. Note that in this sense, a local ISP can be a company that
just provides Internet services, a corporation with a network that supplies services to its
own employees, or a nonprofit organization, such as a college or a university, that runs its
own network. Each of these local ISPs can be connected to a regional or national service
provider.
PROTOCOLS AND STANDARDS Protocols:

• In computer networks, communication occurs between entities in different systems.

• An entity is anything capable of sending or receiving information. However, two
entities cannot simply send bit streams to each other and expect to be understood. For
communication to occur, the entities must agree on a protocol.
• A protocol is a set of rules that govern data communications.
• A protocol defines what is communicated, how it is communicated, and when it is
communicated.
• The key elements of a protocol are syntax, semantics, and timing.

o Syntax.
• The term syntax refers to the structure or format of the data,
meaning the orderin which they are presented. For example, a
simple protocol might expect the first 8 bits of data to be the
address of the sender, the second 8 bits to be the address of the
receiver, and the rest of the stream to be the message itself.
o Semantics.
• The word semantics refers to the meaning of each section of bits.
How is a particular pattern to be interpreted, and what action is
to be taken based on that interpretation? For example, does an
address identify the route to be taken or the final destination of
the message?
o Timing.
• The term timing refers to two characteristics:
• when data should be sent
• how fast they can be sent.
• For example, if a sender produces data at 100 Mbps but the
receiver can process data at only 1 Mbps, the transmission will
overload the receiver and some data willbe lost.
Standards
Standards are essential in creating and maintaining an open and competitive market
for equipment manufacturers and in guaranteeing national and international
interoperability of data and telecommunications technology and processes.
Standards provide guidelines to manufacturers, vendors, government agencies, and
other service providers to ensure the kind of interconnectivity necessary in today's
marketplace and in international communications.
 Data communication standards fall into two categories: de facto (meaning "by fact"
or "by convention") and de jure (meaning "by law" or "by regulation").
o De facto.
• Standards that have not been approved by an organized body but
have been adopted as standards through widespread use are de
facto standards. De facto standards are often established
originally by manufacturers who seek to define the functionality
of a new product or technology.

o De jure.
• Those standards that have been legislated by an officially
recognized body are de jure standards.