Data Communication and Computer

Networks

Introduction

Dr. SHUCHITA UPADHYAYA BHASIN

Professor
Department of Computer Science &
Applications
 CONTENTS
Network Characterization:
 Introduction & Data Communication
Concepts
Goals and Applications
Transmission Technologies
Categorization according to Size, Purpose

By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin

 INTRODUCTION
A Computer Network may be defined as “an interconnected collection of
autonomous computers”.
Two computers are said to be interconnected if they are able to
exchange information.
The connections may be thru copper wires, optical fibers, and wireless
electromagnetic or optical media.
 ‘Autonomous’ means that there is no master/slave relationship between
the connected devices.

Terminal Workstation
 DATA COMMUNICATION CONCEPTS

• Data Communication is the exchange of data (in the form of 0’s and 1’s) between
two devices via some form of transmission medium (such as a cable).
• A communication system is a set of devices (hardware and software) whose
purpose is sharing data.

By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin

 Goals/ Objectives/Applications of computer networks

For Companies/Organizations
• Fast means of sharing and transfer of files/data or sharing
of load
• Centralized software management
• Cost effectiveness
• fast access
• Scalability
• Reliability
For People
• Access to Remote Information
• Person –to-person Communication
• Interactive Entertainment

By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin

 Network Design – Transmission Technologies
Point-to-Point ( Store-and Forward / Multipoint (Broadcast Transmission
Switched Transmission Technology) Technology)
multiple communication channels single communication channel
(mostly in WANs) (mostly in LANs)
•

Point-point line configuration Multipoint line configuration

By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin

 Categorization of Networks
Based on size
 Personal area network (PAN)
 Local area network (LAN)
 Metropolitan area network (MAN)
 Wide area network (WAN)

Based on purpose
 Storage area network (SAN)
 Enterprise private network (EPN)
 Virtual private network(VPN)
By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin
 Personal Area Network (PAN)

Computer network organized around an individual person in a small office or

residence
PANs can be used for communication among the personal devices themselves
(intrapersonal communication), or for connecting to a higher level network and
the Internet.
PAN may include wireless computer keyboard, mouse, Bluetooth enabled
headphones, wireless printers, TV remotes etc
Examples are Bluetooth, Zigbee, Wi-Bree, IRDA, RFID, NFC, Wireless USB,
UWB

By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin

 Local Area Network (LAN)
• Devices in a limited geographical area such as home, school, computer
laboratory or office building

• Can be Wired or Wireless

• High speed and relatively low cost

• Use only one type of transmission medium

• Transmission technology used is broadcasting

• Design issue - arbitration mechanism (Media Access Control) to resolve

conflicts amongst multiple simultaneous transmissions over the single
media.

By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin

 COMPONENTS OF LANs

• Computers and other devices such

as printers
• A relatively powerful computer
which functions as the network
"server"
• A communications channel
connecting the computers and
devices.
• Network Interface Card (also
referred to as an adapter/LAN card)
for a computer or Device to be
connected to the LAN.
• One or more Switches/Hubs
• Popular LAN operating Systems
(Novell NetWare and Windows
2000 server, Linux, Unix)

By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin

 Characteristics of LANs
• LANs have data rates in the 4 to 16Mbs range. Today,
however, speeds are increasing and can reach 100 and
1000 Mbps with gigabit systems
• A local area network (LAN) is usually privately owned and
links the devices in a single office, building or campus.
• Typically used for single sites where people need to share
resources among themselves but not with the rest of the
outside world
• If a LAN is entirely wireless, it is referred to as a wireless
local area network, or WLAN.
• Common topologies are Bus, Ring, Star
• Earlier common LAN standards - ARCNET, Token bus, Token
Ring etc.
• Current technologies - IEEE 802.3 Ethernet over twisted
pair cabling, and Wi-Fi (wireless IEEE 802.11)
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LOCAL AREA NETWORK

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 BUS Topology for LANs
• Bus topology is the most common type of multipoint topology used in local area
networks.
• Bus topology is characterized by one starting point and one ending point.
• Each computer on the network has just one connection. This connection is attached
to a single cable that is shared by all other devices on the network.
• A bus network topology works well for smaller networks and is inexpensive to
install. However, it can become slow when more devices are added to the network.
• Advantages: easy to install and uses less cabling than mesh, star, or tree topologies.
Disadvantages: difficult reconfiguration and fault isolation. difficult to add new
devices

By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin

BUS Topology - Egs. IEEE 802.3 Ethernet LAN standard
using coaxial cables (10Base2 and 10Base5) , IEEE
802.4 Token Bus

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 RING Topology for LANs
• Ring is a circle with no ends.
• All the devices on the network are
connected to the ring.
• Works well for a computer network
with many devices attached to it.
• Each device has a dedicated point-
to-point line configuration only with
the two devices on either side of it.
• Advantages : easy to install and
reconfigure. To add or delete a
device require only two
connections. Easy fault isolation.
• Disadvantage: A break in the ring
(such as a disabled station) can
disable the entire network.

• Eg. IEEE 802.5 Token ring LAN

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RING - Eg. – IEEE 802.5 Token Ring

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 STAR TOPOLOGY
• A star topology describes a network in which all the devices are
connected to a central device, which may be a hub or a switch,
through dedicated links.
• A star topology does not allow direct traffic between devices. If
one device wants to send data to another, it sends the data to
the central hub or switch, which then relays the data to the
other connected device

• Example is IEEE Ethernet LAN (10BASE-T, 100BASE-T )

Advantages:
 It is easy to install and reconfigure.
 Troubleshooting and management is the easiest in
this topology.
 The star topology is robust. If one link fails, only that
link is affected. This factor also lends itself to easy
fault identification and fault isolation.
Disadvantages:
 A big amount of cabling and a big number of I/O
ports are required, i.e, the hardware required can be
very expensive but Star topology requires far less
cable than Mesh topology.

By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin

 Tree Topology
(mostly used in MANs)
• A tree topology is a variation of a
star.
• Nodes are linked to a central hub that
controls the traffic to the network.
• The majority of devices connect to a
secondary hub that in turn is connected to a
central hub.
• The central hub in a tree is an active hub.
An active hub contains a repeater, which is a
hardware device that regenerates the
received bit patterns before sending out.
Repeating improves the transmission
quality, and increases distance that a signal
can travel.
• Avantages and disadvantages of a tree
topology are generally the same as those of
a star.
• Example: cable TV technology (MAN) where
the main cable from the main office is
divided into many branches and each
branch is divided into smaller branches and
so on.

By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin

STAR Topology – eg. IEEE 802.3 Ethernet LAN standard
(10Base T and 100Base T)

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LAN with Internet Access

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Single building LAN Multiple-building LAN

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 LAN – HOME AREA NETWORK Wireless
Home LAN
If multiple individuals use the same
network within a residence, the network is
sometimes referred to as a home area
network, or HAN
Connects
 Computers
 Pperipheral devices
 Telephones
 Digital recorders
 CCTV & televisions
 Video games
 Home Security Systems
 “smart” appliances,
 Fax machines
In a very typical setup, a residence will have
a single wired Internet connection
connected to a modem. This modem then
provides both wired and wireless
connections for multiple devices.
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Wired LAN (Home Network) or HAN

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Wired and Wireless LANs having Access to the
Internet

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 WIRELESS LANs - Wi-Fi
Provides a connection through an access point to the wider
Internet.

Independent Basic Service Set Extended Basic Service Set

Desktop Printer

Existing LAN...

Access Point

Desktop Server

AD HOC Network Desktop

Infrastructure Mode
Network

Tablet
Tablet

Laptop Laptop

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By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin
 HiperLAN 1/2
• High Performance Radio LAN (HiperLAN 1) standard
 provide high speed communications (20Mbps)
 supports data such as video, voice, text, etc.
• HiperLAN 2
 provide high speed access (up to 54 Mbps) to a variety of
networks including 3G mobile networks, ATM networks and IP
based networks, and also for
 private use as a wireless LAN system.

By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin

 HomeRF
quality-of-service support for streaming media
I – node ( Isochronous) – Voice devices
A node (asynchronous) - data devices

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 Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
• MAN is a computer network larger than a Local Area
Network, covering an area as large as an entire city, or
a large campus
• When this type of network is specifically designed for a
college campus, it is sometimes referred to as a
campus area network, or CAN.
• A MAN usually interconnects a number of local area
networks (LANs) using a high-capacity backbone
technology, such as fibre-optical links, and provides up-
link services to wide area networks (or WAN) and
the Internet.
• A MAN may be wholly owned and operated by a
private company, or it may be a service provided by a
public company, such as a local telephone company.
By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin
By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin
By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin
 WiMAX - Worldwide Interoperability for
Microwave Access
Metropolitan Area Network Technology
• Technology for wirelessly delivering high-speed
Internet service to large geographical areas.

• “fourth generation,” or 4G,

• Surpasses the 30-metre (100-foot) wireless range
of a conventional Wi-Fi local area network (LAN),
offering a metropolitan area network with a
signal radius of about 50 km (30 miles).

• Enables the delivery of wireless broadband

access as an alternative to cable and DSL".

By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin

By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin
By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin
Wide Area Network

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 Wide Area Network
• Networks that connect users over vast geographical
distances are referred to as wide area networks (WAN).
• The communication links connecting nodes in a wide
area network are either phone lines, microwave links, or
satellites.
• For a computer to communicate with another computer
over phone lines, a device called a modem is required.
Modems can be internal or external.
• A modem (an abbreviation of modulator-demodulator)
converts the computers digital signals into analog signals
for transmission over phone lines (a process called
modulation). The modem at the receiving end reconverts
the analog signals back into digital signals that the
receiving computer can understand.
By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin
 Wide Area Network
• A Wide Area Network (WAN) provides long-distance
transmission of data, voice, image, and video information
over large geographical areas that may comprise a country,
a continent, or even the whole world.
• A WAN can contain multiple smaller networks, such as
LANs or MANs. The Internet is the best-known example of a
public WAN.
• LANs are connected to WAN through a network device
called router.
• WAN s use technologies like ATM, Frame Relay, X.25 etc.
• The communication medium in WAN can be PSTN or
satellite links due to longer distances involved.
• WAN operates on switching.

By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin

 WAN Topologies
• A mesh or complete mesh topology is also called a
point-to-point topology.
• Each device is connected directly to all other devices on Complete Mesh
the network.
• Mostly used in a wide area networks (WAN)
• Advantages :
 the use of a dedicated links guarantees that each
connection can carry its own load,
 Secondly, a mesh topology is robust. If one link becomes
unusable, it does not incapacitate the entire system.
 Thirdly, when every message sent travels along a
dedicated link, only the intended recipient sees it.. This
ensures privacy.
 easy fault identification and fault isolation due to
Point-to Point links.

• Disadvantages :
 the hardware required can be very expensive due to
the requirement of big amount of cabling and a big
number of I/O ports. Partial Mesh
 Installation and reconfiguration are difficult because
every device must be connected to every other device.

• For these reasons a mesh topology is usually

implemented in a limited fashion called partial
mesh
• instead of a one-to-one connection between
every two devices, only a limited number of
connections are made between the devices with
the objective of attaining a connected network
in which every node can be reached from every
other node through direct or indirect links.
By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin
 HYBRID Topology
• Not all topologies are
strictly mesh, bus, star,
or ring. Some variations
of these topologies,
known as hybrid
topologies, are also
used.
• These variations are
combinations of two or
more topologies and
are called Hybrid
Topologies.

By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin

By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin
By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin
Internet: network of networks

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Wireless Networks

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DIGITAL CELLULAR RADIO

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 CELLULAR SYSTEM

Mobile switching
center (MSC)
BS
MS

Cell
Public switched
telephone network
(PSTN)

Stationary
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phone
Components of cellular network architecture

correspondent
wired public
telephone
network

MSC MSC

MSC
MSC
MSC

different cellular networks,

operated by different providers

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 Categorization Based on Purpose
Storage area network (SAN)
Enterprise private network (EPN)
Virtual private network(VPN)
• Storage Area Network (SAN) is an enterprise-level
storage network of several (often, hundreds)
of storage devices (hard drives, disk arrays, tape
libraries etc) managed by intelligent devices and
accessible to servers so that the devices appear
as locally attached to the operating system.
• Allows for maximally efficient use of all available
storage space,
• lowers total costs of ownership (TCO)
• If a hard drive fails for some reason, the other hard
drives in the storage network rebuild the data so no
information is lost.

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STORAGE AREA NETWORK

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 Enterprise Private Network (EPN)
• Enterprise Private Network (EPN) is a
computer network that helps enterprise
companies to connect their number of offices
each in a secure way over a network.
• Mainly set up to share computer resources.
• Telecommuters can access the corporate
network through a VPN that can be accessed
via dial-up, DSL, cable modem, or other access
method.

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Enterprise Private Network (EPN)

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 Virtual Private Network (VPN)
• Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a network that is constructed by
using public wires — usually the Internet — to connect to a
private network, such as a company's internal network.
• It uses encryption and other security mechanisms to ensure that
only authorized users can access the network and that the data
cannot be intercepted.
• The first step to security is a firewall between the client and the
host server - remote user establish an authenticated connection
with the firewall.
• Encryption works by having all data sent from one computer
encrypted in such a way that only the computer it is sending to
can decrypt the data.
• A VPN might be used by teleworkers as a secure connection to
their office. Students can use VPNs to connect to their school or
university.

By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

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Virtual Private Network (VPN)

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 Distinction between LANs, WANs and MANs – detailed description is already covered in presentation 1
LAN MAN WAN
Scale Devices in a limited MAN is a computer network A Wide Area Network (WAN)
geographical area such as larger than a Local Area provides long-distance transmission
home, school, computer Network, covering an area as of data, voice, image, and video
laboratory or office building large as an entire city, or a information over large geographical
large campus areas that may comprise a country, a
continent, or even the whole world.

Transmission broadcasting Usually broadcast Point-to-point / store-and-forward/

technology Switched

Topologies Bus, Ring, Star Star, Tree Mesh, Hybrid

Design issues arbitration mechanism Arbitration mechanism Routing, Congestion Control, Error
(Media Access Control) to (media access control), control, flow control, addressing
resolve conflicts amongst addressing, error control
multiple simultaneous
transmissions over the single
media, addressing, error
control

By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin

 Self Assessment Questions
1. What is a computer network? What are the objectives and
applications of Computer Networks?
2. Describe the design of networks on the basis of transmission
technologies.
3. How are computer networks categorized?
4. How will you characterize Local Area Networks (LAN)? What are the
components of LANs? Depict the topologies used in LANs and show
diagrammatically how two LANs can be connected using a bridge and
have Internet access also.
5. Depict diagrammatically a wired and wireless Home Area Network
and Local Area Network.
6. Give examples of wireless LAN standards and show their deployment
using diagrams.
7. How is a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) characterized? Give
examples of wired and wireless MANs with their deployment
diagrams.
8. Depict the infrastructure of a Wide Area Network as well as the
hierarchical infrastructure of the Internet.
9. Distinguish between LANs, MANs and WANs on the basis of scale,
transmission technologies, and topologies.
10. Explain the categorization of networks based on purpose.
By Dr. Shuchita Upadhyaya Bhasin