What is Network? topology.

These topologies
• A network consists of two or more include:
computers that are linked in order to – Bus
share resources (such as printers – Ring
and CDs), exchange files, or allow – Star
electronic communications.  LANs are capable of very
• The computers on a network may high transmission rates (100s
be linked through cables, Mb/s to G b/s).
telephone lines, radio waves, LOCAL AREA NETWORK (LAN)
satellites, or infrared light beams.
Different Types of Networks
• Depending upon the
geographical area covered by a
network, it is classified as:
– Local Area Network (LAN)
– Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
– Wide Area Network (WAN)
Local Area Network (LAN) Advantages of LAN
A LAN is a network that is used for  Speed
communicating among computer  Cost
devices, usually within an office  Security
building or home.  E-mail
 LAN’s enable the sharing of  Resource Sharing
resources such as files or Disadvantages of LAN
hardware devices that may  Expensive To Install
be needed by multiple users  Requires Administrative Time
 Is limited in size, typically  File Server May Fail
spanning a few hundred  Cables May Break
meters, and no more than a
mile Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
 Is fast, with speeds from 10  A metropolitan area network
Mbps to 10 Gbps (MAN) is a large computer
 Requires little wiring, typically network that usually spans a
a single cable connecting to city or a large campus.
each device  A MAN is optimized for a
 Has lower cost compared to larger geographical area
MAN’s or WAN’s than a LAN, ranging from
 LAN’s can be either wired or several blocks of buildings to
wireless. Twisted pair, coax or entire cities.
fibre optic cable can be used  A MAN might be owned and
in wired LAN’s operated by a single
 Every LAN uses a protocol – a organization, but it usually will
set of rules that governs how be used by many individuals
packets are configured and and organizations.
transmitted.  A MAN often acts as a high
 Nodes in a LAN are linked speed network to allow
together with a certain sharing of regional resources.
  A MAN typically covers an Wide Area Network (WAN)
area of between 5 and 50 km
diameter.
 Examples of MAN: Telephone
company network that
provides a high speed DSL to
customers and cable TV
network.

Metropolitan Area Network

NETWORK DEVICES
The network devices are the nodes
of the network. They are devices
that aid connection and
communication. The common
Wide Area Network (WAN) network devices are:
 WAN covers a large geographic The hub
area such as country, continent The network interface card
or even whole of the world. The switch
 A WAN is two or more LANs The router
connected together. The LANs The modem
can be many miles apart.
 To cover great distances, WANs
may transmit data over leased HUB
high-speed phone lines or Hub is one of the basic icons of
wireless links such as satellites. networking devices which works at
 Multiple LANs can be connected physical layer and hence connect
together using devices such as networking devices physically
bridges, routers, or gateways, together. Hubs are fundamentally
which enable them to share used in networks that use twisted
data. pair cabling to connect devices.
 The world's most popular WAN is They are designed to transmit the
the Internet. packets to the other appended
devices without altering any of the
transmitted packets received. They
act as pathways to direct electrical
signals to travel along. They transmit
the information regardless of the fact if devices that connect a computer with
data packet is destined for the device the network. They are installed on the
connected or not. mother board. They are responsible for
developing a physical connection
Switches between the network and the
Switches are the linkage points of an computer. Computer data is translated
Ethernet network. Just as in hub, into electrical signals send to the
devices in switches are connected to network via Network Interface Cards.
them through twisted pair cabling. But
the difference shows up in the manner MODEM
both the devices; hub and a switch Modem is an acronym for modulator /
treat the data they receive. Hub works demodulator; it is a device that can
by sending the data to all the ports on convert a digital data to an analog
the device whereas a switch transfers it data and vice versa.
only to that port which is connected to The most familiar example is a voice
the destination device. band modem that turns the digital
data of a personal computer into
Bridges modulated electrical signals in the
A bridge is a computer networking voice frequency range of a telephone
device that builds the connection with channel.
the other bridge networks which use These signals can be transmitted over
the same protocol. It works at the Data telephone lines and demodulated by
Link layer of the OSI Model and another modem at the receiver side to
connects the different networks recover the digital data.
together and develops
communication between them. It BENEFIT OF NETWORKING
connects two local-area networks; two 1. Helps to enhance connectivity
physical LANs into larger logical LAN or Networks connect and link
two segments of the same LAN that use unlimited number of computers. This
the same protocol. in turn connects the people using
those computers. Individuals within
Routers a work group are connected
Routers are network layer devices and through local area networks. These
are particularly identified as Layer- 3 connections ease out
devices of the OSI Model. They process communication between people
logical addressing information in the using technologies like e-mail.
Network header of a packet such as IP Today e-mail has become the
Addresses. Router is used to create easiest and cheapest mode of
larger complex networks by complex transformation of information
traffic routing. It has the ability to between the users.
connect dissimilar LANs on the same 2. Networking helps in sharing of
protocol. It also has the ability to limit hardware:
the flow of broadcasts. A router Networks help in sharing of different
primarily comprises of a hardware kinds of hardware devices. For
device or a system of the computer example, sharing of a single printer
which has more than one network in an office of twenty people is
interface and routing software. done through networking of wires.
This saves lot of cost that could
Network card otherwise have incurred if twenty
Network cards also known as Network different printers were provided for
Interface Cards (NICs) are hardware each computer in use.
3. Eases out management of data.
Networking provides the
advantage of centralization of data
from all the user systems to one
system where it can be managed in
an easy and better way.
4. Internet
The most beautiful gift of networking
is internet that is massively used by
people all over the world.
Whenever you are accessing
Internet, you are making use of a
network. The benefits of internet
need no mentioning. Thanks to the
wonderful world of networking.
5. Data Sharing
Sharing of data through the use of
networks helps save a lot of time
and energy. It also facilitates the
use of applications like databases
that are based on ability of many
individuals to access and to share
exactly the same data.

Prepared by:

Glaiza B. Higo, LPT