COMPUTER NETWORKS

Evaluation of networking:
Computer Networks:- A computer network is an interconnection among two or more computers or
computing devices which allows computers to share data and resources
among each other.

Arpanet:- It stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. It is the first internet method
which was used to share the data’s among different computers based on packet switching
method. It was introduced by U.S. Department of Defense.

NSFnet:- It stands for National Science Foundation Network. It was introduced by National Science
Foundation and it was more capable than ARPANET. It allowed only the academic research
on its network and not any kind of private business on it.
Data communication terminologies:-

Concept of communication:- Communication involves transmission of verbal and non-verbal

messages. It consists of a sender, a receiver and channel of
communication.

Sender:- A sender is a device or someone who encodes and sends a message to a receiver through
a particular channel.

Receiver:- A receiver is the device which is expecting the data from other device on the network.

Message:- A message is a communication or statement conveyed from one person or group to another
which can be transmitted verbally or in writing even can also be sent via a look or a gesture.

Protocol:- A network protocol is an established set of rules that determine how data is transmitted
between different devices in the same network. Example: TCP/IP, HTTP, FTP.

i. HTTP:- (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) is a communication protocol used to establish a

connection with the server and send HTML pages back to the user's browser.

ii. FTP:- (File Transfer Protocol) is the computer application used to transfer files from one
computer to another over a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN) such as the
Internet.

iii. PPP:- (Point to Point Protocol) is a TCP/IP protocol that is used to connect one computer
system to another. A PPP connection exists when two systems physically connect through a
telephone network or internet.

iv. SMTP:- (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a set of communication guidelines that allow software
to transmit an electronic mail over the internet.

v. TCP/IP:- (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol) is a set of standardized rules that
allow computers to communicate on a network such as the internet.

vi. POP3:- (Post Office Protocol3) It is the protocol for receiving email over the internet. Generally it
is used to receive emails from a remote mail server and send to a local client over a TCP/IP
connection.

vii. HTTPS :- (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure) It is a protocol where encrypted HTTP data is
transferred over a secure connection as a result the privacy and integrity of data are maintained
and authentication of websites is also validated.

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 viii. TELNET:- It is a protocol that allows a user to connect to remote computers (called hosts) over
a TCP/IP network (such as the internet). It enables a user to manage an account or device
remotely.

ix. VoIP:- (Voice Over Internet Protocol) It is a technology that allows someone to make voice calls
using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular phone line. It converts the voice into
a digital signal.

x. IP address:- (Internet Protocol address) It is an identifying number that is associated with a

specific computer or computer network. When connected to the internet, the IP address allows
the computers to send and receive informations.
Measuring capacity of communication media:

i. Data Transfer Rate:- It is the amount of digital data that is moved from one place to another in a
given time.

ii. Bandwidth: - Bandwidth is the data transfer capacity of a computer network in bits per second
(Bps). It means the maximum data transfer rate of a network or Internet connection.

Switching Techniques:

In large networks, there can be multiple paths from sender to receiver. The switching technique will
decide the best route for data transmission.
Circuit Switching: Circuit switching is a switching technique that establishes a dedicated path between
sender and receiver, for which it can be called as connection oriented transmission.
In this case once the connection is established then the dedicated path will remain to
exist until the connection is terminated.

Packet Switching:- It is a method of transferring the data to a network in form of packets. In order to
transfer the file fast and efficiently manner over the network and minimize the
transmission response time, the data is broken into small pieces of variable length
(about 200 bytes on average), called Packet. At the destination, all these small parts
(packets) have to be reassembled, belonging to the same file.

Message switching:- In this case the source computer sends data or the message to the switching office
first, which stores the data in its buffer, then looks for a free link to another switching
office and then sends the data to this office, in this way it helps in reducing the traffic
congestion in the network.

Transmission Media:-

Wired communication Media:

Twisted Pair Cable: It is the two insulated copper wires which are twisted around each other to reduce
crosstalk or electromagnetic induction between pairs of wires.
Types of Twisted Pair Cables:

There are two types of twisted pair cables available. These are:
i) Shielded Twisted Pair(STP) Cable.
ii) Unshielded Twisted Pair(UTP) Cable

Advantages

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 • Easy to install and maintain
• Physically flexible
• Low weight and very inexpensive
• Easily connected
Disadvantages
• It is incapable carrying a signal over long distances.
• Low bandwidth for which it is unsuitable for broadband applications.
Coaxial Cable: It is a type of shielded and insulated copper cable is used as a transmission line for radio
frequency signals.
Types of coaxial cables:
The two most common types of cables are Thicknet and Thinnet. Whereas thicknet is
thicker, the thinnet on the other hand is thinner .
Advantages
 Used for broadband transmission
 Higher bandwidth.
Disadvantages
 Expensive as compared to twisted pair cable
 It is not compatible with twisted pair cable
Fiber optic / Optical fiber : It contains anywhere from a few to hundreds of optical fibers within a plastic
casing and transfer data signals in the form of light.
Types of Optical Fibers:
i) Single node fibre optic cable: It supports a segment length of up to 2kms and
bandwidth of up to 100Mbps
ii) Multi node fibre optic cable: It has a segment length of 100kms and bandwidth of
2Gbps.
Advantages
 It is immune to electrical and magnetic interference i.e. noise in any form is travelling
on a modulated light beam.
 It guarantees secure transmission and has a very high transmission capacity.
 It can be used for broadband transmission.
Disadvantages
 Installation problem
 These are more difficult to solder
 These are the most expensive of all the cables.
Wireless communication Media:
Radio waves:- A radio wave is a type of electromagnetic signal designed to carry information
through the air over relatively long distances.
Advantages
 It is easy to communicate through radio waves in difficult terrains since there is no
need of digging and laying cables.

 Radio waves can travel through long distances in all directions. Also they can easily
pass through obstacles like a building so they can be used for both indoor and
outdoor communication.
Disadvantages
 Insecure communication
 Weather effective

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Microwaves:- The transmission of signals that uses high frequency beams of radio waves i.e
microwaves, either directly or via a satellite. The receivers for microwave signals are
usually disc-shaped antennae from a foot to a few feet across and are often seen installed
in business locations or near private homes.
Advantage:
 It offers ease of communication over difficult terrain
 Microwaves have the ability to communicate over oceans
Disadvantages:
 Insecure
 Signal strength become weak after travelling a certain distance so require amplification.
 Weather effective
 Bandwidth allocation is limited
 The cost of design, implementation is high.
Infrared Waves:
It uses a beam of infrared light to transmit information between two electronic devices.
Advantage:
 Since it is having short range of communication hence it is considered to be a secure
mode of transmission.
 It is quite inexpensive transmission medium.
Disadvantages:
 It can only be used for short range communication
 Infrared wave transmission cannot pass through obstructions like walls, buildings etc.
Satelite:-
A satellite network is a combination of nodes that provides communication from one point
on the Earth to another.
Advantages
 Area coverage through this transmission is quite large.
 Can cover large areas of the earth.
Disadvantages
 Technological limitations
 Over crowding
 The investment cost is high

Network Devices

Modem:- Stands for Modulator-Demodulator. It is a hardware component that allows a

computer or another device, such as a router or switch, to connect to the Internet. Its
work is to modulating/ demodulating the signals, means convert the digital signal to
analog signal and vice –versa.

Ethernet Card:- It is a kind of network adapter and is also known as Network Interface Card (NIC). It
supports high-speed network connections via cables. An Ethernet Card contains
connections for either coaxial or twisted pair cables or even for fibre optic cable.

RJ45:- RJ-45 , short form of Registered Jack - 45 , is an eight wired connector that is used to
connect computers on a local area network(LAN), especially Ethernet.

Repeater:- A repeater is a network device that amplifies and restores signals for long-distance
transmission.

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Hub:- A hub is a physical layer networking device which is used to connect multiple devices
in a network. They are generally used to connect computers in a LAN. It is a multiport
repeater and shared the network connectivity among the nodes.

Switch:- Switches allow devices to share and transfer data, enabling communication between
devices on the network. Switches work by processing packets of data and routing them
to the intended destination(s). The network connectivity is unshared among the nodes.
It is a multiport Bridge.

Bridge:- Bridges are used to connect two sub networks that use interchangeable protocols. It
combines two LANs to form an extended LAN. The main difference between the bridge
and repeater is that the bridge has a penetrating efficiency.

Router:- A router is a switching device for networks, which is able to route network packets,
based on their addresses, to other networks or devices.

Gateway:- A gateway is a network node that forms a passage between two networks operating
with different transmission protocols. That means it serve as an entry and exit point for
a network as all data must pass through or communicate with the gateway prior to
being routed.

Wifi card:- A Wi-Fi card connects the device either in USB port or a wider card slot. It receives the
wireless signal and communicates with the wireless network, enabling to access the
Web with the device.

Types of Network

PAN:- (Personal Area Network), is an interconnection of personal technology devices to

communicate over a short distance, which is less than 33 feet or 10 meters or within
the range of an individual person, typically using some form of wireless technologies.

LAN:- (Local Area Network), is a collection of devices connected together in one physical
location or a small geographic area, such as a building, office, or home.

MAN:- (Metropolitan Area Network), is a computer network that interconnects users with
computer resources in a geographic region of the size of a metropolitan area near
about in the range of 5 and 50 km diameter.

WAN:- (Wide Area Network), is a collection of local-area networks (LANs) or other networks
that communicate with one another spans over a large geographical area, often a
country or a continent. That’s why it is also termed as network of networks.

Networking Topologies

Bus Topology:- It is a type of network topology in which all devices in the network are connected by
one central RJ-45 network cable or coaxial cable.

Advantages
 Short cable length
 Easy to extend
Disadvantages
 Fault diagnosis is difficult
 Fault isolation is difficult
Star Topology:- It is a network topology in which each network component is physically connected to
a central node termed as server and the connecting nodes act like clients.
Advantages
 Ease of service
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  One device per connection
 Centralized control
Disadvantages
 Long cable length
 Difficult to expand
 Central node dependency
Tree Topology:- It is having a tree structure in which all the computer are connected like the branches
of the tree. In Computer Network, tree topology is called as a combination of a Bus
and Start network topology.
Advantages
 Simulates hierarchical flow of data
 Easy to extend
Disadvantages
 Long cable length
 Root dependency
Introduction to Web services:

WWW:- World Wide Web—commonly referred to as W3, or the Web—is an interconnected system
of public webpages accessible through the Internet.
HTML:- (HyperText Markup Language) is the most basic building block of the Web. It is the set of
markup symbols or codes inserted into a file intended for display on the Internet. It defines the
meaning and structure of web content.
XML:- Extensible Markup Language is a text-based markup language and file format for storing,
transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. XML tags identify the data and are used to
store and organize the data, rather than specifying how to display it like HTML tags, which are
used to display the data.
Domain name:- A domain name (often simply called a domain) is an easy-to-remember name that's
associated with a physical IP address on the Internet. For instance, the domain name
example.com might translate to the physical address 198.102. 434.8. Other
examples of domain names are google.com and wikipedia.org.
URL:- Uniform Resource Locator. It is the resource address on the internet. URL is the character
string (address) which is used to access data from the internet. For example:
https://online.mothers.edu.in

Web site:- A website is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common
domain name and published on at least one web server and typically dedicated to a particular
topic or purpose, such as news, education, commerce, entertainment, or social networking.

Web Browser:- It is is an application used to access and view websites. For example:- Google chrome,
Microsoft edge, Mozilla firefox…
Web Server:- It is a remote computer or a computer program that delivers web pages to a user's
computer, or a client, upon request from a web browser. For example:- Google web
server, Apache.
Web Hosting:- Web hosting is an online service that allows someone to publish his/her website files
onto the internet as a result any one can access it easily through web.

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 FULL FORMS

AM : Amplitude Modulation
CDMA : Code Division Multiple Access
DGM : Data Grade Medium
EDGE : Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution
FM : Frequency Modulation
FTP : File Transfer Protocol
GSM : Global System for Mobile
HTML : Hypertext Mark up Language
HTTP : Hypertext Transfer Protocol
IMAP : Internet Message Access Protocol
LAN : Local Area Network
MAC : MEDIA ACCESS CONTROL
MAN : Metropolitan Area Network
NFS : Network File System
NIC : Network Interface Card
PPP : Point to Point Protocols
SIM : Subscriber Identification Module
SLIP : Serial Line Internet Protocol
SMS : Short Message Service
SMTP : Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
TCP/IP : Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol
URL : Uniform Resource Locator
VoIP : Voice Over Internet Protocol
WAN : Wide Area Network
WLL : Wireless in Local Loop
WWW : World Wide Web
XML : eXtensible Markup Language

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