DATA COMMUNICATION A COMPUTER NETWORKING

TABLE OF CONTENT

INTRODUCTION TO DATA COMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORKING. ------------------2

TRANSMISSION MEDIA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 14

NETWORK FUNDAMENTALS -----------------------------------------------------------------------30

THE INTERNET ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 45

THE WORLD WIDE WEB ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 75

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 INTRODUCTION TO DATA COMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORKING.

DATA COMMUNICATION NETWORK

Data communications are the exchange of data between two devices using one or multiple forms
of transmission medium using one of the three transmission modes. That is, data communication
is movement of data from one device or end-point to another device or end point through
electrical or optical medium. Systems that facilitate this movement of data between devices or
end-points are called data communication network. There are 5 components of a data
communication network. The devices which are in need to be a part of a data communication
network made up of computer hardware and software.
Data communication networks collect data from devices such as microphone and let the data to
be carried to the receiver or destination such as a micro-computer or minicomputer. However, it
could be the opposite, that is data communication networks can also carry data from a micro-
computer or minicomputer to a device such as printer. Data communications networks facilitate
more efficient use of computers and improve the day-to-day control of a business by providing
faster information flow. They also provide message transfer services to allow computer users to
talk to one another via electronic mail, chat, and video streaming.
COMMUNICATION MODEL
Communication models are systematic representations of the process which helps in
understanding how communication works can be done. Models show the process metaphorically
and in symbols. They form general perspectives on communication by breaking communication
from complex to simple and keeps the components in order. Communication models can
sometimes encourage traditional thinking and stereotyping but can also omit some major aspects
of human communication.
The key elements of the model are
 Source
 Transmitter
 Transmission medium/system
 Receiver
 Destination
 Protocol.
Source
This device generates the data to be transmitted; examples are telephones and personal
computers.
Transmitter
The transmitter is a device used to convert the data as per the destination requirement.

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Usually, the data generated by a source system are not transmitted directly in the form in which
they were generated. Rather, a transmitter transforms and encodes the information in such a way
as to produce electromagnetic signals that can be transmitted across some sort of transmission
system. For example, a modem takes a digital bit stream from an attached device such as a
personal computer and transforms that bit stream into an analog signal that can be handled by the
telephone network.
Transmission medium
Transmission system is the medium through which data is transmitted from one point to another.
In data communication network, the transmission medium is the physical path for the data to
travel to its destination. Receiver receives the data at one end of this path and the sender sent
from another end of the path. Transmission medium could be like twisted-pair cable, coaxial
cable, fiber-optic cable etc.
Receiver
In the communication process, the RECEIVER is the listener, reader, which is the individual to
whom a message is directed. The receiver is also called the audience or decoder.
The destination of a transmitted data is the receiver which will receive the data. The device that
receives the data is the Receiver. A receiver can again be a computer, cell phone, video camera
and so on.
Destination
The destination accepts the incoming data from the receiver.
Protocol
A protocol is nothing but a set of rules that applies on the full data communication procedure.
This is like an agreement between the two devices to successfully communicate with each other.
For example, how to send the data, how the data will be traveling, how to ensure that full data
has received how to handle errors in transmission etc. Both devices follow the same set of rules
or protocol so that they understand each other.
ANALOG AND DIGITAL TRANSMISSION
There are a number of differences between analog and digital transmission, and it is important to
understand how conversions between analog and digital occur. Let's look first at the older form
of transmission, analog.
ANALOG VERSUS DIGITAL TRANSMISSION

Feature Analog Characteristics Digital Characteristics

Signal Continuously variable, in both Discrete signal, represented as

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Feature Analog Characteristics Digital Characteristics

amplitude and frequency either changes in voltage or

changes in light levels

Traffic Hz (for example, a telephone channel Bits per second (for example, a T-1
measurement is 4KHz) line carries 1.544Mbps, and an E-1
line transports 2.048Mbps)

Bandwidth Low bandwidth (4KHz), which High bandwidth that can support
means low data transmission rates (up high-speed data and emerging
to 33.6Kbps) because of limited applications that involve video and
channel bandwidth multimedia

Network Low; one conversation per telephone High; multiplexers enable multiple
capacity channel conversations to share a
communications channel and hence
to achieve greater transmission
efficiencies

Network Poor; a lot of labor is needed for Good; smart devices produce
manageability network maintenance and control alerts, alarms, traffic statistics, and
because dumb analog devices do not performance measurements, and
provide management information technicians at a network control
streams that allow the device to be center (NCC) or network
remotely managed operations center (NOC) can
remotely monitor and manage the
various network elements

Power High because the signal contains a Low because only two discrete
requirement wide range of frequencies and signals—the one and the zero—
amplitudes need to be transmitted

Security Poor; when you tap into an analog Good; encryption can be used
circuit, you hear the voice stream in
its native form, and it is difficult to
detect an intrusion

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Feature Analog Characteristics Digital Characteristics

Error rates High; 10–5 bits (that is, 1 in 100,000 Low; with twisted-pair, 10–7 (that,
bits) is guaranteed to have an error is 1 in 10 million bits per second)
will have an error, with satellite,
10–9 (that is, 1 in 1 billion per
second) will have an error, and
with fiber, 10–11 (that is only 1 in
10 trillion bits per second) will
have an error

ANALOG AND DIGITAL DATA

DIGITAL DATA
This article is about broad technical and mathematical information regarding digital data. For
alternate or more specific uses, see Digital.
Digital data, in information theory and information systems, is the discrete, discontinuous
representation of information or works. Numbers and letters are commonly used representations.
Digital data can be contrasted with analog signals which behave in a continuous manner, and
with continuous functions such as sounds, images, and other measurements.
The word digital comes from the same source as the words digit and digitus (the Latin word for
finger), as fingers are often used for counting. Mathematician George Stibitz of Bell Telephone
Laboratories used the word digital in reference to the fast electric pulses emitted by a device
designed to aim and fire anti-aircraft guns in 1942. The term is most commonly used in
computing and electronics, especially where real-world information is converted to binary
numeric form as in digital audio and digital photography.
ANALOG DATA
Analog data is data that is represented in a physical way. Where digital data is a set of individual
symbols, analog data is stored in physical media, whether that's the surface grooves on a vinyl
record, the magnetic tape of a VCR cassette, or other non-digital media.
One of the big ideas behind today's quickly developing tech world is that much of the world's
natural phenomena can be translated into digital text, image, video, sound, etc. For example,
physical movements of objects can be modelled in a spatial simulation, and real-time audio and
video can be captured using a range of systems and devices.
Analog data may also be known as organic data or real-world data.
One way to characterize analog data is that it simply exists without being measured. For analog
data to be converted to digital form, it must be captured and rendered using specific technologies.

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Typically, digital data uses a simple binary system to build data sets that represent audio or video
input.
For one simple example of the difference between analog and digital data, consider moving
water. The analog data is the actual water surface in motion, which human senses would perceive
as the changes to physical motions as well as the color, texture and even smell of the water itself.
A digital format would convert either the physical movement, color properties or both into data
sets that will simulate these properties in a hardware interface, or store them for research
purposes.
Although some new technologies may blur the line between analog data and digital data, the
essential nature of analog data will always be the archetype on which digital conversions are
based. In other words, while digital data can simulate and render analog data, it is extremely
limited in its ability to comprehensively recreate analog data.
ANALOG AND DIGITAL SIGNALS
A signal is an electromagnetic or electrical current that carries data from one system or network
to another. In electronics, a signal is often a time-varying voltage that is also an electromagnetic
wave carrying information, though it can take on other forms, such as current. There are two
main types of signals used in electronics: analog and digital signals. This article discusses the
corresponding characteristics, uses, advantages and disadvantages, and typical applications of
analog vs. digital signals.
ANALOG SIGNAL
An analog signal is time-varying and generally bound to a range (e.g. +12V to -12V), but there is
an infinite number of values within that continuous range. An analog signal uses a given property
of the medium to convey the signal’s information, such as electricity moving through a wire. In
an electrical signal, the voltage, current, or frequency of the signal may be varied to represent the
information. Analog signals are often calculated responses to changes in light, sound,
temperature, position, pressure, or other physical phenomena.
When plotted on a voltage vs. time graph, an analog signal should produce a smooth and
continuous curve. There should not be any discrete value changes (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Analog Signal

DIGITAL SIGNAL

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A digital signal is a signal that represents data as a sequence of discrete values. A digital signal
can only take on one value from a finite set of possible values at a given time. With digital
signals, the physical quantity representing the information can be many things:
 Variable electric current or voltage
 Phase or polarization of an electromagnetic field
 Acoustic pressure
 The magnetization of a magnetic storage media
Digital signals are used in all digital electronics, including computing equipment and data
transmission devices. When plotted on a voltage vs. time graph, digital signals are one of two
values, and are usually between 0V and VCC (usually 1.8V, 3.3V, or 5V) (see Figure 2).

DIGITAL SIGNALS: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

ADVANTAGES
 Digital signals can convey information with less noise, distortion, and interference.
 Digital circuits can be reproduced easily in mass quantities at comparatively low costs.
 Digital signal processing is more flexible because DSP operations can be altered using
digitally programmable systems.
 Digital signal processing is more secure because digital information can be easily
encrypted and compressed.
 Digital systems are more accurate, and the probability of error occurrence can be reduced
by employing error detection and correction codes.
 Digital signals can be easily stored on any magnetic media or optical media using
semiconductor chips.
 Digital signals can be transmitted over long distances.
DISADVANTAGES:

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  A higher bandwidth is required for digital communication when compared to analog
transmission of the same information.
 DSP processes the signal at high speeds, and comprises more top internal hardware
resources. This result in higher power dissipation compared to analog signal processing,
which includes passive components that consume less energy.
 Digital systems and processing are typically more complex.

ANALOG SIGNALS: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

ADVANTAGES
 Analog signals are easier to process.
 Analog signals best suited for audio and video transmission.
 Analog signals are much higher density, and can present more refined information.
 Analog signals use less bandwidth than digital signals.
 Analog signals provide a more accurate representation of changes in physical phenomena,
such as sound, light, temperature, position, or pressure.
 Analog communication systems are less sensitive in terms of electrical tolerance.

DISADVANTAGES:
 Data transmission at long distances may result in undesirable signal disturbances.
 Analog signals are prone to generation loss.
 Analog signals are subject to noise and distortion, as opposed to digital signals which
have much higher immunity.
 Analog signals are generally lower quality signals than digital signals.

ANALOG AND DIGITAL SIGNALS: SYSTEMS AND APPLICATIONS

Traditional audio and communication systems used analog signals. However, with advances in
silicon process technologies, digital signal processing capabilities, encoding algorithms, and
encryption requirements — in addition to increases in bandwidth efficiencies — many of these
systems have become digital. They are still some applications where analog signals have legacy
use or benefits. Most systems that interface to real-world signals (such as sound, light,
temperature, and pressure) use an analog interface to capture or transmit the information. A few
analog signal applications are listed below:

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  Audio recording and reproduction
 Temperature sensors
 Image sensors
 Radio signals
 Telephones
 Control systems
MPS has a broad portfolio of analog parts, including the MP2322, MP8714, MP2145,
and MP8712.
Although many original communication systems used analog signaling (telephones), recent
technologies use digital signals because of their advantages with noise immunity, encryption,
bandwidth efficiency, and the ability to use repeaters for long-distance transmission. A few
digital signal applications are listed below:
 Communication systems (broadband, cellular)
 Networking and data communications
 Digital interfaces for programmability
TRANSMISSION IMPAIRMENT IN DATA COMMUNICATION
In communication system, analog signals travel through transmission media, which tends to
deteriorate the quality of analog signal, which means that the signal at the beginning of the
medium is not the same as the signal at the end of the medium. The imperfection causes signal
impairment. Below are the causes of the impairment.
Attenuation – It means loss of energy. The strength of signal decreases with increasing distance
which causes loss of energy in overcoming resistance of medium. This is also known as
attenuated signal. Amplifiers are used to amplify the attenuated signal which gives the original
signal back and compensate for this loss.
The impairment is caused by the strength of signals that degrades with distance over a
transmission link. Three factors are related to the attenuation:
 The received signal should have sufficient strength to be intelligently interpreted by a
receiver. An amplifier or a repeater is needed to boost the strength of the signal.
 A signal should be maintained at a level higher than the noise so that error will not be
generated. Again, an amplifier or a repeater can be used.
 Attenuation is an increasing function of frequency, with more attenuation at higher
frequency than at lower frequency. An equalizer can smooth out the effect of attenuation

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 across frequency bands, and an amplifier can amplify high frequencies more than low
frequencies.

Distortion – It means changes in the form or shape of the signal. This is generally seen in
composite signals made up with different frequencies. Each frequency component has its own
propagation speed travelling through a medium. And that’s why it delays in arriving at the final
destination every component arrive at different time which leads to distortion. Therefore, they
have different phases at receiver end from what they had at senders end.
The velocity of propagation of a signal through a guided medium varies with frequencies; it is
fast at the centre of the frequency, but it falls off at the two edges of
frequencies. Equalization techniques can be used to smooth out the delay distortion. Delay
distortion is a major reason for the timing jitter problem, where the receiver clock deviates from
the incoming signal in a random fashion so that an incoming signal might arrive earlier or late.
Noise – The random or unwanted signal that mixes up with the original signal is called noise.
There are several types of noise such as induced noise, crosstalk noise, thermal noise and
impulse noise which may corrupt the signal.
Impairment occurs when an unwanted signal is inserted between transmission and reception.
There are four types of noises:
 Thermal noise: Thermal noise is movement of electrons in wire which creates an extra
signal.
This noise is a function of temperature and bandwidth. It cannot be eliminated. The thermal
noise is proportional to the temperature and bandwidth as shown in the equation: thermal noise
= K(constant) *temperature *bandwith.
 Intermodulation noise: This noise is caused by nonlinearity in the transmission
system f 1; f2 frequencies could produce a signal at f1 + f2 or ABS (f1 − f2) and affect the
frequencies at f1 + f2 or ABS (f1 − f2).
 Cross talk: Cross talk noise is when one wire affects the other wire.
This type of noise is caused by electrical coupling in the nearby twisted pair or by unwanted
signal picked by microwave antennas. For example, sometimes when you are on the telephone,
you might hear someone else's conversation due to the cross talk problem.
 Impulse noise: Impulse noise is a signal with high energy that comes from lightning or
power lines
Irregular pulses and short duration of relative high amplitude cause impulse noise. This noise is
also caused by lightning and faults in the communication system. It is not an annoyance for
analog data, but it is an annoyance for digital data. For example, 0.01 sec at 4800 bps causes 50
bits of distortion.

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DATA RATE LIMITS
A very important consideration in data communications is how fast we can send data, in bits per
second, over a channel. Data rate depends on three factors:
1. The bandwidth available
2. The level of the signals we use
3. The quality of the channel (the level of noise)
CAPACITY OF A SYSTEM
 The bit rate of a system increases with an increase in the number of signal levels we
use to denote a symbol.
 A symbol can consist of a single bit or “n” bits.
 The number of signal levels = 2n.
 As the number of levels goes up, the spacing between level decreases -> increasing
the probability of an error occurring in the presence of transmission impairments.
NYQUIST THEOREM
Nyquist gives the upper bound for the bit rate of a transmission system by calculating the bit rate
directly from the number of bits in a symbol (or signal levels) and the bandwidth of the system
(assuming 2 symbols/per cycle and first harmonic).
Nyquist theorem states that for a noiseless channel:
BitRate = 2 * Bandwidth * log2(L)
In the above equation, bandwidth is the bandwidth of the channel, L is the number of signal
levels used to represent data, and BitRate is the bit rate in bits per second.
Bandwidth is a fixed quantity, so it cannot be changed. Hence, the data rate is directly
proportional to the number of signal levels.
Note –Increasing the levels of a signal may reduce the reliability of the system.
Example
Does the Nyquist theorem bit rate agree with the intuitive bit rate described in baseband
transmission?
Solution
They match when we have only two levels. We said, in baseband transmission, the bit rate is 2
times the bandwidth if we use only the first harmonic in the worst case. However, the Nyquist
formula is more general than what we derived intuitively; it can be applied to baseband
transmission and modulation. Also, it can be applied when we have two or more levels of signals.
Example

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Consider a noiseless channel with a bandwidth of 3000 Hz transmitting a signal with two signal
levels. The maximum bit rate can be calculated as

Example
We need to send 265 kbps over a noiseless channel with a bandwidth of 20 kHz. How many
signal levels do we need?
Solution
We can use the Nyquist formula as shown:

Since this result is not a power of 2, we need to either increase the number of levels or reduce the
bit rate. If we have 128 levels, the bit rate is 280 kbps. If we have 64 levels, the bit rate is 240
kbps.
SHANNON’S THEOREM
Shannon’s theorem gives the capacity of a system in the presence of noise.
Capacity = bandwidth * log2(1 + SNR)
In the above equation, bandwidth is the bandwidth of the channel, SNR is the signal-to-noise
ratio, and capacity is the capacity of the channel in bits per second.
Bandwidth is a fixed quantity, so it cannot be changed. Hence, the channel capacity is directly
proportional to the power of the signal, as SNR = (Power of signal) / (power of noise).
The signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) is usually expressed in decibels (dB) given by the formula:
10 * log10(S/N) so for example a signal-to-noise ratio of 1000 is commonly expressed as:
10 * log10(1000) = 30 dB.
Example
Consider an extremely noisy channel in which the value of the signal-to-noise ratio is almost
zero. In other words, the noise is so strong that the signal is faint. For this channel the capacity C
is calculated as

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This means that the capacity of this channel is zero regardless of the bandwidth. In other words,
we cannot receive any data through this channel.
We can calculate the theoretical highest bit rate of a regular telephone line. A telephone line
normally has a bandwidth of 3000. The signal-to-noise ratio is usually 3162. For this channel the
capacity is calculated as

This means that the highest bit rate for a telephone line is 34.860 kbps. If we want to send data
faster than this, we can either increase the bandwidth of the line or improve the signal-to-noise
ratio.
Example
The signal-to-noise ratio is often given in decibels. Assume that SNRdB = 36 and the channel
bandwidth is 2 MHz. The theoretical channel capacity can be calculated as

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 TRANSMISSION MEDIA

TRANSMISSION MEDIA
Transmission media is a communication channel that carries the information from the sender to
the receiver. Data is transmitted through the electromagnetic signals.
The main functionality of the transmission media is to carry the information in the form of bits
through LAN (Local Area Network).
It is a physical path between transmitter and receiver in data communication. In a copper-based
network, the bits in the form of electrical signals. In a fibre based network, the bits in the form of
light pulses.
In OSI (Open System Interconnection) phase, transmission media supports the Layer 1.
Therefore, it is considered to be as a Layer 1 component.
The electrical signals can be sent through the copper wire, fibre optics, atmosphere, water, and
vacuum.
The characteristics and quality of data transmission are determined by the characteristics of
medium and signal.
Transmission media is of two types is wired media and wireless media. In wired media, medium
characteristics are more important whereas, in wireless media, signal characteristics are more
important.
Different transmission media have different properties such as bandwidth, delay, cost and ease of
installation and maintenance.
The transmission media is available in the lowest layer of the OSI reference model, i.e., Physical
layer.
TYPES OF TRANSMISSION MODES
Based on the direction of data from sender to receiver, there can be 3 types of transmission
modes which are as follows
 Simplex
 Half-duplex
 Duplex
SIMPLEX:
In simplex mode, among the two devices which are communicating with each other, one device
can only be a sender and the other can only be a receiver. Thus the sender device will not receive
data but will transmit data, and the receiver device will only receive data but will not transmit or
send any data. This transmission is unidirectional.

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Examples: Keyboards and monitors or displays, traditional FM radios etc. Traditional FM radios
only output broadcasted or transmitted audio from stations, but does not communicate back.
Advantage
 The sender can use the full capacity of the medium to transmit data, so more data is
transmitted at a time.
Disadvantage
 One way connection, so no inter-communication between devices.
HALF-DUPLEX
In half-duplex, both devices which are communicating with each other can send and receive data,
but not at the same time, that is, when one device is sending data then another device can only
receive that data but can’t send data back. This is like a narrow bridge where vehicles from both
end of the bridge can cross the bridge but not at the same time.
Examples: walkie-talkie, CB radios etc.
Advantage
 In half-duplex, both devices can send and receive data and also entire capacity of the
transmission medium is used when transmitting data.
Disadvantage
 As when one device is sending data then another one must wait, this can cause delay in
sending the data at the right time.
FULL-DUPLEX
In full-duplex or duplex mode, both devices can send and receive data at the same time. Here in
this transmission mode; data going in a direction will share the capacity of the transmission
medium with the data going in another direction. This sharing can be obtained by two ways, such
as, by sharing the capacity of the medium, or having two physically separated transmission paths.
Examples: telephone, cell phone networks etc.
Advantages
 Both parties can talk and listen to each other at the same time.
Disadvantages
 If there is no dedicated path in the network then the capacity will be divided into two.
FACTORS NEED TO BE CONSIDERED FOR DESIGNING THE TRANSMISSION
MEDIA:

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Bandwidth: All the factors are remaining constant, the greater the bandwidth of a medium, the
higher the data transmission rate of a signal.
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.
Impairments, such as attenuation, limit the distance. For guided media, twisted pair generally
suffers more impairment than coaxial cable, which in turn suffers more than optical fibre.
Interference: Interference is defined as the process of disrupting a signal when it travels over a
communication medium on the addition of some unwanted signal.
Interference from competing signals in overlapping frequency bands can distort or wipe out a
signal. Interference is of particular concern for unguided media, but it is also a problem with
guided media. For guided media, interference can be caused by emanations from nearby cables.
For example, twisted pair are often bundled together, and conduits often carry multiple cables.
Interference can also be experienced from unguided transmissions.
Proper shielding of a guided medium can minimize this problem.
CLASSIFICATION OF TRANSMISSION MEDIA:
1. Guided transmission media
2. Un Guided 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:

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 1. Twisted pair:
2. Coaxial cable
3. Fibre optic
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:
Category 1: Category 1 is used for telephone lines that have low-speed data.
 Category 2: It can support up to 4Mbps.
 Category 3: It can support up to 16Mbps.
 Category 4: It can support up to 20Mbps. Therefore, it can be used for long-distance
communication.

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  Category 5: It can support up to 200Mbps.
ADVANTAGES OF UNSHIELDED TWISTED PAIR:
 It is cheap.
 Installation of the unshielded twisted pair is easy.
 It can be used for high-speed LAN.
DISADVANTAGE:
 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:
 The cost of the shielded twisted pair cable is not very high and not very low.
 An installation of STP is easy.
 It has higher capacity as compared to unshielded twisted pair cable.
 It has a higher attenuation.
 It is shielded that provides the higher data transmission rate.
DISADVANTAGES
 It is more expensive as compared to UTP and coaxial cable.
 It has a higher attenuation rate.

COAXIAL CABLE
Coaxial cable is very commonly used transmission media, for example, TV wire is usually a
coaxial cable.
The name of the cable is coaxial as it contains two conductors parallel to each other.
It has a higher frequency as compared to Twisted pair cable.
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.
The middle core is responsible for the data transferring whereas the copper mesh prevents from

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the EMI (Electromagnetic interference).

COAXIAL CABLE IS OF TWO TYPES:

Baseband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting a single signal at high speed.
Broadband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting multiple signals
simultaneously.
ADVANTAGES OF COAXIAL CABLE:
 The data can be transmitted at high speed.
 It has better shielding as compared to twisted pair cable.
 It provides higher bandwidth.
DISADVANTAGES OF COAXIAL CABLE:
 It is more expensive as compared to twisted pair cable.
 If any fault occurs in the cable causes the failure in the entire network.
FIBRE OPTIC
Fibre optic cable is a cable that uses electrical signals for communication.
Fibre optic is a cable that holds the optical fibres coated in plastic that are used to send the data
by pulses of light.
The plastic coating protects the optical fibres from heat, cold, electromagnetic interference from
other types of wiring.
Fibre optics provides faster data transmission than copper wires.
Diagrammatic representation of fibre optic cable:

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BASIC ELEMENTS OF FIBRE OPTIC CABLE:
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.
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.
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.
THE ADVANTAGES OF FIBRE OPTIC CABLE OVER COPPER:
Greater Bandwidth: The fibre optic cable provides more bandwidth as compared copper.
Therefore, the fibre optic carries more data as compared to copper cable.
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.
Longer distances: The fibre optic cable carries the data at a longer distance as compared to
copper cable.
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.
Thinner and Sturdier: Fibre optic cable is thinner and lighter in weight so it can withstand
more pull pressure than copper cable.

UNGUIDED TRANSMISSION
An unguided transmission transmits the electromagnetic waves without using any physical
medium. Therefore it is also known as wireless transmission.
In unguided media, air is the media through which the electromagnetic energy can flow easily.
CLASSIFICATION OF UNGUIDED TRANSMISSION

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Unguided transmission is broadly classified into three categories:
 Radio waves
 Microwaves
 Infrared

MICROWAVES

MICROWAVES ARE OF TWO TYPES:

 Terrestrial microwave
 Satellite microwave communication.
TERRESTRIAL MICROWAVE TRANSMISSION
Terrestrial Microwave transmission is a technology that transmits the focused beam of a radio
signal from one ground-based microwave transmission antenna to another.
Microwaves are the electromagnetic waves having the frequency in the range from 1GHz to
1000 GHz.
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.
In this case, antennas are mounted on the towers to send a beam to another antenna which is km
away.
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:
Frequency range: The frequency range of terrestrial microwave is from 4-6 GHz to 21-23
GHz.

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Bandwidth: It supports the bandwidth from 1 to 10 Mbps.
Short distance: It is inexpensive for short distance.
Long distance: It is expensive as it requires a higher tower for a longer distance.
Attenuation: Attenuation means loss of signal. It is affected by environmental conditions and
antenna size.
ADVANTAGES OF MICROWAVE:
 Microwave transmission is cheaper than using cables.
 It is free from land acquisition as it does not require any land for the installation of
cables.
 Microwave transmission provides an easy communication in terrains as the installation
of cable in terrain is quite a difficult task.
 Communication over oceans can be achieved by using microwave transmission.
DISADVANTAGES OF MICROWAVE TRANSMISSION:
 Eavesdropping: An eavesdropping creates insecure communication. Any malicious
user can catch the signal in the air by using its own antenna.
 Out of phase signal: A signal can be moved out of phase by using microwave
transmission.
 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.
 Bandwidth limited: Allocation of bandwidth is limited in the case of microwave
transmission.
SATELLITE MICROWAVE COMMUNICATION
A satellite is a physical object that revolves around the earth at a known height.
Satellite communication is more reliable nowadays as it offers more flexibility than cable and
fibre optic systems.
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:

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  The coverage area of a satellite microwave is more than the terrestrial microwave.
 The transmission cost of the satellite is independent of the distance from the centre of
the coverage area.
 Satellite communication is used in mobile and wireless communication applications.
 It is easy to install.
 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:
 Satellite designing and development requires more time and higher cost.
 The Satellite needs to be monitored and controlled on regular periods so that it remains
in orbit.
 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.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TERRESTRIAL MICROWAVE AND SATELLITE
MICROWAVE TRANSMISSION SYSTEM
Terrestrial Microwave Transmission System (TMTS):
In these systems, the signals are extremely concentrated and the physical route must be line of
sight. The signals in these systems are extended with the help of Relay towers. Terrestrial
Microwave Systems need directional parabolic antennas to broadcast and receive signals in the
lower gigahertz range.
Satellite Microwave Transmission System (SMTS):
Satellite Microwave Transmission System uses satellites for broadcasting and receiving of
signals. These systems need satellites which are in the geostationary orbit which is 36000 km
above the earth. The satellite operates as repeaters with receiving antenna, transponder and
transmitting of signals.
The difference between terrestrial microwave and satellite microwave transmission systems are
as follows:
Terrestrial Microwave Transmission Satellite Microwave Transmission
System System
1. The frequency range needed is from 4 The frequency range used in this system
GHz to 6 GHz. is between 11 GHz to 14 GHz.
2. In this system, attenuation mainly Attenuation is generally affected by the
depends on frequency and signal frequency and power.

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 strength.
3. In terrestrial microwave transmission In satellite microwave transmission
system, signal requirements make system, the installation of satellites is
installation moderately difficult. extremely tough.
4. It requires focused signals and line of It requires the proper alignment of earth
sight as physical path. station antennas.
5. In these systems, short distance systems These systems are very expensive as
can be inexpensive but long distance cost of building and launching is very
systems are almost costly. high.
6. Relay towers are used to extend the Satellites are used for the expansion of
signals. signals.

INFRARED
An infrared transmission is a wireless technology used for communication over short ranges.
The frequency of the infrared in the range from 300 GHz to 400 THz.
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:
 It supports high bandwidth, and hence the data rate will be very high.
 Infrared waves cannot penetrate the walls. Therefore, the infrared communication in one
room cannot be interrupted by the nearby rooms.
 An infrared communication provides better security with minimum interference.
 Infrared communication is unreliable outside the building because the sun rays will
interfere with the infrared waves.
RADIO WAVES
Radio waves are the electromagnetic waves that are transmitted in all the directions of free
space.
Radio waves are omnidirectional, i.e., the signals are propagated in all the directions.
The range in frequencies of radio waves is from 3Khz to 1 khz.
In the case of radio waves, the sending and receiving antenna are not aligned, i.e., the wave sent

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by the sending antenna can be received by any receiving antenna.
An example of the radio wave is FM radio.

APPLICATIONS OF RADIO WAVES:

 A Radio wave is useful for multicasting when there is one sender and many receivers.
 An FM radio, television, cordless phones are examples of a radio wave.
ADVANTAGES OF RADIO TRANSMISSION:
 Radio transmission is mainly used for wide area networks and mobile cellular phones.
 Radio waves cover a large area, and they can penetrate the walls.
 Radio transmission provides a higher transmission rate.

METHODS OF PROPAGATION OF A RADIO WAVE

In Radio communication systems, we use wireless electromagnetic waves as the channel. The
antennas of different specifications can be used for these purposes. The mode of propagation of
electromagnetic waves in the atmosphere and in free space may be divided into the following
three categories:
 Ground wave propagation
 Sky wave propagation
 The line of sight (LOS) propagation
In ELF (Extremely low frequency) and VLF (Very low frequency) frequency bands, the Earth,
and the ionosphere act as a wave-guide for electromagnetic wave propagation. In these frequency
ranges, communication signals practically propagate around the world. The channel bandwidths

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are small. Therefore, the information is transmitted through these channels has slow speed and
confined to digital transmission.
GROUND WAVE PROPAGATION
Ground wave propagation of the wave follows the contour of the earth. Such a wave is called a
direct wave. The wave sometimes bends due to the Earth’s magnetic field and gets reflected the
receiver. Such a wave can be termed as a reflected wave. The following figure depicts ground
wave propagation.

The wave then propagates through the Earth’s atmosphere is known as a ground wave. The direct
wave and reflected wave together contribute the signal at the receiver station. When the wave
finally reaches the receiver, the lags are cancelled out. In addition, the signal is filtered to avoid
distortion and amplified for clear output.
Sky Wave Propagation
Sky wave propagation is preferred when the wave has to travel a longer distance. Here the wave
is projected onto the sky and it is again reflected back to the earth.

The sky wave propagation is well depicted in the above picture. Here the waves are shown to be
transmitted from one place and where it is received by many receivers. Hence, it is an example
of broadcasting.

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The waves, which are transmitted from the transmitter antenna, are reflected from the ionosphere.
It consists of several layers of charged particles ranging in altitude from 30-250 miles above the
surface of the earth. Such travel of the wave from the transmitter to the ionosphere and from
there to the receiver on Earth is known as Sky Wave Propagation. The ionosphere is the ionized
layer around the Earth’s atmosphere, which is suitable for skywave propagation.
THE LINE OF SIGHT (LOS) PROPAGATION
Among the modes of propagation, this line-of-sight propagation is the one, which we would have
commonly noticed. In the line-of-sight communication, as the name implies, the wave travels a
minimum distance of sight. Which means it travels to the distance up to which a naked eye can
see. Then we need to employ an amplifier cum transmitter here to amplify the signal and
transmit again.

The line-of-sight propagation will not be smooth if there occurs any obstacle in its transmission
path. As the signal can travel only to lesser distances in this mode, this transmission is used for
infrared or microwave transmissions.
Line of sight (LoS) is a type of propagation that can transmit and receive data only where
transmit and receive stations are in view of each other without any sort of an obstacle between
them. FM radio, microwave and satellite transmission are examples of line-of-sight
communication.
Long-distance data communication is more effective through wireless networks but geographical
obstacles and the curvature of the earth bring limitations to line-of-sight transmission. However,
these issues can generally be mitigated through planning, calculations and the use of additional
technologies.

For example, mobile phones use a modified line-of-sight transmission, which is made possible
through a combination of effects like diffraction, multipath reflection, local repeaters and rapid
handoff.
Free-space path loss

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Free-space path loss (FSPL) is the attenuation of radio energy between the feedpoints of two
antennas that results from the combination of the receiving antenna's capture area plus the
obstacle-free, line-of-sight path through free space (usually air). The "Standard Definitions of
Terms for Antennas", IEEE Std 145-1993, defines "free-space loss" as "The loss between two
isotropic radiators in free space, expressed as a power ratio." It does not include any power loss
in the antennas themselves due to imperfections such as resistance. Free space loss increases
with the square of distance between the antennas because the radio waves spread out by
the inverse square law and decreases with the square of the wavelength of the radio waves. The
FSPL is rarely used standalone, but rather as a part of the Friis transmission formula, which
includes the gain of antennas. It is a factor that must be included in the power link budget of a
radio communication system, to ensure that sufficient radio power reaches the receiver such that
the transmitted signal is received intelligibly.
Atmospheric Absorption
The Sun is the primary source of electromagnetic radiation on Earth. The Earth is constantly
bombarded with electromagnetic radiation (EMR), but before the electromagnetic energy from
the Sun reaches the Earth’s surface, it must pass through the atmosphere. The atmosphere
protects us from exposure to higher energy radiation that can be harmful to life – i.e. X-Ray and
Gamma Rays. As the energy passes through the atmosphere, it interacts with the molecules and
particles present in the atmosphere. In the atmosphere, EMR is scattered or reflected, absorbed
and a portion of the energy passes through the atmosphere to reach the Earth's surface.
This has significant implications to remote sensing, as most radiation detected by passive remote
sensors passes through the atmosphere where it interacts with the molecules and particles in the
atmosphere. In portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, significant amounts of energy are
absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere, with very little of the energy reaching the Earth's surface.
All radiation detected by remote sensors passes through the atmosphere for some distance, this
distance is known as path length. The path length can vary, it could be a short path (i.e. hand-
held camera) or a very long path (satellite based sensors).
A portion of the incoming solar radiation is absorbed by gases in the Earth's atmosphere. These
gases absorb electromagnetic energy at certain wavelengths, therefore in certain portions of the
electromagnetic spectrum very little energy is absorbed (for example the visible) while in other
portions like the Ultraviolet, nearly all incoming energy is absorbed. The portions of the
spectrum that are absorbed by atmospheric gases are known as absorption bands.
The primary gases that are responsible for the majority of the atmospheric absorption of energy
are water vapor, carbon dioxide, and ozone.
 Water Vapor (H2O): Very strong absorber in 5.5-7.0 μm range and > 27 μm. Note that
water vapor in the atmosphere is also variable in time and space. This means absorption
rates may vary depending on the location and the time of day and year.
 Carbon Dioxide (CO2) : Primarily absorbs radiation in the mid and far (thermal infrared)
infrared portions of the spectrum

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  Ozone (O3) : Absorbs strongly in the UV portion of the spectrum (very short
wavelengths) and is responsible for protecting us from damaging radiation that causes
skin cancer.
Multipath propagation
In radio communication, multipath is the propagation phenomenon that results
in radio signals reaching the receiving antenna by two or more paths. Causes of multipath
include atmospheric ducting, ionospheric reflection and refraction, and reflection from water
bodies and terrestrial objects such as mountains and buildings.
Multipath propagation causes multipath interference, including constructive and
destructive interference, and phase shifting of the signal; destructive interference causes fading.
This may cause a radio signal to become too weak in certain areas to be received adequately, so
multipath propagation can be detrimental in radio communication systems. Where the
magnitudes of the signals arriving by the various paths have a distribution known as the Rayleigh
distribution, this is known as Rayleigh fading. Where one component (often, but not necessarily,
a line of sight component) dominates, a Radian distribution provides a more accurate model, and
this is known as Radian fading. Where two components dominate, the behavior is best modeled
with the two-wave with diffuse power (TWDP) distribution. All of these descriptions are
commonly used and accepted and lead to results. However, they are generic and
abstract/hide/approximate the underlying physics. Whenever it is possible, one should try to
model the physics completely and abstract aftwards, if necessary.
Refraction
Refraction is the change in direction of a wave as it passes from one medium to another.
Refraction is caused by the wave's change of speed.

One example of this can be demonstrated by this stick. When we see it in the air, we see that it is
straight. But when the stick is inserted into the water, it appears to be sharply bent. This
difference in appearance is a result of the light waves that permit us to see the stick moving at
different speeds through the water than through the air.

Refraction occurs with any kind of wave. For example, water waves moving across deep water
travel faster than those moving across shallow water. A light ray that passes through a glass
prism is refracted or bent. This permits us to see the light in refractions of the various
wavelengths that it contains, thus showing us the rainbow of colour inside.

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 NETWORK FUNDAMENTALS

TYPES OF NETWORKS BY SPAN

1. Personal Area Network (PAN)
The smallest and most basic type of network, a PAN is made up of a wireless modem, a
computer or two, phones, printers, tablets, etc., and revolves around one person in one
building. These types of networks are typically found in small offices or residences, and are
managed by one person or organization from a single device.
2. Local Area Network (LAN)
We’re confident that you’ve heard of these types of networks before – LANs are the most
frequently discussed networks, one of the most common, one of the most original and one of
the simplest types of networks. LANs connect groups of computers and low-voltage devices
together across short distances (within a building or between a group of two or three buildings
in close proximity to each other) to share information and resources. Enterprises typically
manage and maintain LANs.
Using routers, LANs can connect to wide area networks (WANs, explained below) to rapidly
and safely transfer data.
3. Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)
Functioning like a LAN, WLANs make use of wireless network technology, such as Wi-Fi.
Typically seen in the same types of applications as LANs, these types of networks don’t
require that devices rely on physical cables to connect to the network.
4. Campus Area Network (CAN)
Larger than LANs, but smaller than metropolitan area networks (MANs, explained below),
these types of networks are typically seen in universities, large K-12 school districts or small
businesses. They can be spread across several buildings that are fairly close to each other so
users can share resources.
5. Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
These types of networks are larger than LANs but smaller than WANs – and incorporate
elements from both types of networks. MANs span an entire geographic area (typically a town
or city, but sometimes a campus). Ownership and maintenance is handled by either a single
person or company (a local council, a large company, etc.).
6. Wide Area Network (WAN)
Slightly more complex than a LAN, a WAN connects computers together across longer
physical distances. This allows computers and low-voltage devices to be remotely connected
to each other over one large network to communicate even when they’re miles apart.

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The Internet is the most basic example of a WAN, connecting all computers together around
the world. Because of a WAN’s vast reach, it is typically owned and maintained by multiple
administrators or the public.
7. Storage-Area Network (SAN)
As a dedicated high-speed network that connects shared pools of storage devices to several
servers, these types of networks don’t rely on a LAN or WAN. Instead, they move storage
resources away from the network and place them into their own high-performance network.
SANs can be accessed in the same fashion as a drive attached to a server. Types of storage-
area networks include converged, virtual and unified SANs.
8. System-Area Network (also known as SAN)
This term is fairly new within the past two decades. It is used to explain a relatively local
network that is designed to provide high-speed connection in server-to-server applications
(cluster environments), storage area networks (called “SANs” as well) and processor-to-
processor applications. The computers connected on a SAN operate as a single system at very
high speeds.
9. Passive Optical Local Area Network (POLAN)
As an alternative to traditional switch-based Ethernet LANs, POLAN technology can be
integrated into structured cabling to overcome concerns about supporting traditional Ethernet
protocols and network applications such as PoE (Power over Ethernet). A point-to-multipoint
LAN architecture, POLAN uses optical splitters to split an optical signal from one strand of
single mode optical fibre into multiple signals to serve users and devices.
10. Enterprise Private Network (EPN)
These types of networks are built and owned by businesses that want to securely connect its
various locations to share computer resources.
11. Virtual Private Network (VPN)
By extending a private network across the Internet, a VPN lets its users send and receive data
as if their devices were connected to the private network – even if they’re not. Through a
virtual point-to-point connection, users can access a private network remotely.
NETWOK TOPOLOGY
Topology defines the structure of the network of how all the components are interconnected to
each other. There are two types of topology: physical and logical topology.
Physical topology is the geometric representation of all the nodes in a network.

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BUS TOPOLOGY

The bus topology is designed in such a way that all the stations are connected through a single
cable known as a backbone cable.
Each node is either connected to the backbone cable by drop cable or directly connected to the
backbone cable.
When a node wants to send a message over the network, it puts a message over the network.
All the stations available in the network will receive the message whether it has been
addressed or not.
The bus topology is mainly used in 802.3 (ethernet) and 802.4 standard networks.
The configuration of a bus topology is quite simpler as compared to other topologies.
The backbone cable is considered as a "single lane" through which the message is broadcast to
all the stations.
The most common access method of the bus topologies is CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple
Access).
CSMA: It is a media access control used to control the data flow so that data integrity is
maintained, i.e., the packets do not get lost. There are two alternative ways of handling the
problems that occur when two nodes send the messages simultaneously.

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CSMA CD: CSMA CD (Collision detection) is an access method used to detect the collision.
Once the collision is detected, the sender will stop transmitting the data. Therefore, it works
on "recovery after the collision".
CSMA CA: CSMA CA (Collision Avoidance) is an access method used to avoid the collision
by checking whether the transmission media is busy or not. If busy, then the sender waits until
the media becomes idle. This technique effectively reduces the possibility of the collision. It
does not work on "recovery after the collision".
ADVANTAGES OF BUS TOPOLOGY:
 Low-cost cable: In bus topology, nodes are directly connected to the cable without
passing through a hub. Therefore, the initial cost of installation is low.
 Moderate data speeds: Coaxial or twisted pair cables are mainly used in bus-based
networks that support upto 10 Mbps.
 Familiar technology: Bus topology is a familiar technology as the installation and
troubleshooting techniques are well known, and hardware components are easily
available.
 Limited failure: A failure in one node will not have any effect on other nodes.
DISADVANTAGES OF BUS TOPOLOGY:
 Extensive cabling: A bus topology is quite simpler, but still it requires a lot of cabling.
 Difficult troubleshooting: It requires specialized test equipment to determine the cable
faults. If any fault occurs in the cable, then it would disrupt the communication for all
the nodes.
 Signal interference: If two nodes send the messages simultaneously, then the signals of
both the nodes collide with each other.
 Reconfiguration difficult: Adding new devices to the network would slow down the
network.
 Attenuation: Attenuation is a loss of signal leads to communication issues. Repeaters
are used to regenerate the signal.

RING TOPOLOGY

Ring topology is like a bus topology, but with connected ends.

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The node that receives the message from the previous computer will retransmit to the next
node.
The data flows in one direction, i.e., it is unidirectional.
The data flows in a single loop continuously known as an endless loop.
It has no terminated ends, i.e., each node is connected to other node and having no termination
point.
The data in a ring topology flow in a clockwise direction.
The most common access method of the ring topology is token passing.
Token passing: It is a network access method in which token is passed from one node to
another node.
Token: It is a frame that circulates around the network.
WORKING OF TOKEN PASSING
A token move around the network, and it is passed from computer to computer until it reaches
the destination.
The sender modifies the token by putting the address along with the data.
The data is passed from one device to another device until the destination address matches.
Once the token received by the destination device, then it sends the acknowledgment to the
sender.
In a ring topology, a token is used as a carrier.
ADVANTAGES OF RING TOPOLOGY:
1. Network Management: Faulty devices can be removed from the network without
bringing the network down.
2. Product availability: Many hardware and software tools for network operation and
monitoring are available.
3. Cost: Twisted pair cabling is inexpensive and easily available. Therefore, the
installation cost is very low.
4. Reliable: It is a more reliable network because the communication system is not
dependent on the single host computer.
DISADVANTAGES OF RING TOPOLOGY:
1. Difficult troubleshooting: It requires specialized test equipment to determine the cable
faults. If any fault occurs in the cable, then it would disrupt the communication for all
the nodes.
2. Failure: The breakdown in one station leads to the failure of the overall network.

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 3. Reconfiguration difficult: Adding new devices to the network would slow down the
network.
4. Delay: Communication delay is directly proportional to the number of nodes. Adding
new devices increases the communication delay.

STAR TOPOLOGY

Star topology is an arrangement of the network in which every node is connected to the
central hub, switch or a central computer.
The central computer is known as a server, and the peripheral devices attached to the server
are known as clients.
Coaxial cable or RJ-45 cables are used to connect the computers.
Hubs or Switches are mainly used as connection devices in a physical star topology.
Star topology is the most popular topology in network implementation.
ADVANTAGES OF STAR TOPOLOGY
1. Efficient troubleshooting: Troubleshooting is quite efficient in a star topology as
compared to bus topology. In a bus topology, the manager has to inspect the
kilometres of cable. In a star topology, all the stations are connected to the centralized
network. Therefore, the network administrator has to go to the single station to
troubleshoot the problem.
2. Network control: Complex network control features can be easily implemented in the
star topology. Any changes made in the star topology are automatically accommodated.
3. Limited failure: As each station is connected to the central hub with its own cable,
therefore failure in one cable will not affect the entire network.
4. Familiar technology: Star topology is a familiar technology as its tools are cost-
effective.
5. Easily expandable: It is easily expandable as new stations can be added to the open
ports on the hub.
6. Cost effective: Star topology networks are cost-effective as it uses inexpensive coaxial
cable.

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 7. High data speeds: It supports a bandwidth of approx 100Mbps. Ethernet 100BaseT is
one of the most popular Star topology networks.
DISADVANTAGES OF STAR TOPOLOGY
1. A Central point of failure: If the central hub or switch goes down, then all the
connected nodes will not be able to communicate with each other.
2. Cable: Sometimes cable routing becomes difficult when a significant amount of
routing is required.

TREE TOPOLOGY

Tree topology combines the characteristics of bus topology and star topology.
A tree topology is a type of structure in which all the computers are connected with each other
in hierarchical fashion.
The top-most node in tree topology is known as a root node, and all other nodes are the
descendants of the root node.
There is only one path exists between two nodes for the data transmission. Thus, it forms a
parent-child hierarchy.
ADVANTAGES OF TREE TOPOLOGY
 Support for broadband transmission: Tree topology is mainly used to provide
broadband transmission, i.e., signals are sent over long distances without being
attenuated.
 Easily expandable: We can add the new device to the existing network. Therefore, we
can say that tree topology is easily expandable.
 Easily manageable: In tree topology, the whole network is divided into segments
known as star networks which can be easily managed and maintained.
 Error detection: Error detection and error correction are very easy in a tree topology.
 Limited failure: The breakdown in one station does not affect the entire network.
 Point-to-point wiring: It has point-to-point wiring for individual segments.
DISADVANTAGES OF TREE TOPOLOGY

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  Difficult troubleshooting: If any fault occurs in the node, then it becomes difficult to
troubleshoot the problem.
 High cost: Devices required for broadband transmission are very costly.
 Failure: A tree topology mainly relies on main bus cable and failure in main bus cable
will damage the overall network.
 Reconfiguration difficult: If new devices are added, then it becomes difficult to
reconfigure.

MESH TOPOLOGY

Mesh technology is an arrangement of the network in which computers are interconnected

with each other through various redundant connections.
There are multiple paths from one computer to another computer.
It does not contain the switch, hub or any central computer which acts as a central point of
communication.
The Internet is an example of the mesh topology.
Mesh topology is mainly used for WAN implementations where communication failures are a
critical concern.
Mesh topology is mainly used for wireless networks.
Mesh topology can be formed by using the formula:
Number of cables = (n*(n-1))/2;
Where n is the number of nodes that represents the network.
Mesh topology is divided into two categories:
Fully connected mesh topology
Partially connected mesh topology

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Full Mesh Topology: In a full mesh topology, each computer is connected to all the
computers available in the network.
Partial Mesh Topology: In a partial mesh topology, not all but certain computers are
connected to those computers with which they communicate frequently.
ADVANTAGES OF MESH TOPOLOGY:
 Reliable: The mesh topology networks are very reliable as if any link breakdown will
not affect the communication between connected computers.
 Fast Communication: Communication is very fast between the nodes.
 Easier Reconfiguration: Adding new devices would not disrupt the communication
between other devices.
DISADVANTAGES OF MESH TOPOLOGY
 Cost: A mesh topology contains a large number of connected devices such as a router
and more transmission media than other topologies.
 Management: Mesh topology networks are very large and very difficult to maintain
and manage. If the network is not monitored carefully, then the communication link
failure goes undetected.
 Efficiency: In this topology, redundant connections are high that reduces the efficiency
of the network.

HYBRID TOPOLOGY

The combination of various different topologies is known as Hybrid topology.

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A Hybrid topology is a connection between different links and nodes to transfer the data.
When two or more different topologies are combined together is termed as Hybrid topology
and if similar topologies are connected with each other will not result in Hybrid topology. For
example, if there exist a ring topology in one branch of ICICI bank and bus topology in
another branch of ICICI bank, connecting these two topologies will result in Hybrid topology.
ADVANTAGES OF HYBRID TOPOLOGY
 Reliable: If a fault occurs in any part of the network will not affect the functioning of
the rest of the network.
 Scalable: Size of the network can be easily expanded by adding new devices without
affecting the functionality of the existing network.
 Flexible: This topology is very flexible as it can be designed according to the
requirements of the organization.
 Effective: Hybrid topology is very effective as it can be designed in such a way that
the strength of the network is maximized and weakness of the network is minimized.
DISADVANTAGES OF HYBRID TOPOLOGY
 Complex design: The major drawback of the Hybrid topology is the design of the
Hybrid network. It is very difficult to design the architecture of the Hybrid network.
 Costly Hub: The Hubs used in the Hybrid topology are very expensive as these hubs
are different from usual Hubs used in other topologies.
 Costly infrastructure: The infrastructure cost is very high as a hybrid network requires
a lot of cabling, network devices, etc.
NETWORK ARCHITECTURE
PEER-TO-PEER (P2P) MODEL
Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that
partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent
participants in the application. They are said to form a peer-to-peer network of nodes.

A peer-to-peer (P2P) network in which interconnected nodes ("peers") share resources

amongst each other without the use of a centralized administrative system

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A network based on the client–server model, where individual clients request services and
resources from centralized servers
Peers make a portion of their resources, such as processing power, disk storage or network
bandwidth, directly available to other network participants, without the need for central
coordination by servers or stable hosts. Peers are both suppliers and consumers of resources,
in contrast to the traditional client–server model in which the consumption and supply of
resources is divided.
While P2P systems had previously been used in many application domains, the architecture
was popularized by the file sharing system Napster, originally released in 1999. The concept
has inspired new structures and philosophies in many areas of human interaction. In such
social contexts, peer-to-peer as a meme refers to the egalitarian social networking that has
emerged throughout society, enabled by Internet technologies in general.
CLIENT–SERVER MODEL
Client–server model is a distributed application structure that partitions tasks or workloads
between the providers of a resource or service, called servers, and service requesters,
called clients. Often clients and servers communicate over a computer network on separate
hardware, but both client and server may reside in the same system. A server host runs one or
more server programs, which share their resources with clients. A client usually does not share
any of its resources, but it requests content or service from a server. Clients, therefore, initiate
communication sessions with servers, which await incoming requests. Examples of computer
applications that use the client–server model are email, network printing, and the World Wide
Web.

A computer network diagram of clients communicating with a server via the Internet

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Client and server role
The "client–server" characteristic describes the relationship of cooperating programs in an
application. The server component provides a function or service to one or many clients,
which initiate requests for such services. Servers are classified by the services they provide.
For example, a web server serves web pages and a file server serves computer files. A shared
resource may be any of the server computer's software and electronic components,
from programs and data to processors and storage devices. The sharing of resources of a
server constitutes a service.
Whether a computer is a client, a server, or both, is determined by the nature of the application
that requires the service functions. For example, a single computer can run web server and file
server software at the same time to serve different data to clients making different kinds of
requests. Client software can also communicate with server software within the same
computer. Communication between servers, such as to synchronize data, is sometimes
called inter-server or server-to-server communication.
Client and server communication
In general, a service is an abstraction of computer resources and a client does not have to
be concerned with how the server performs while fulfilling the request and delivering the
response. The client only has to understand the response based on the well-known application
protocol, i.e. the content and the formatting of the data for the requested service.
Clients and servers exchange messages in a request–response messaging pattern. The client
sends a request, and the server returns a response. This exchange of messages is an example
of inter-process communication. To communicate, the computers must have a common
language, and they must follow rules so that both the client and the server know what to
expect. The language and rules of communication are defined in a communications protocol.
All protocols operate in the application layer. The application layer protocol defines the basic
patterns of the dialogue. To formalize the data exchange even further, the server may
implement an application programming interface (API). The API is an abstraction layer for
accessing a service. By restricting communication to a specific content format, it
facilitates parsing. By abstracting access, it facilitates cross-platform data exchange.
A server may receive requests from many distinct clients in a short period of time. A computer
can only perform a limited number of tasks at any moment, and relies on a scheduling system
to prioritize incoming requests from clients to accommodate them. To prevent abuse and
maximize availability, the server software may limit the availability to clients. Denial of
service attacks are designed to exploit a server's obligation to process requests by overloading
it with excessive request rates. Encryption should be applied if sensitive information is to be
communicated between the client and the server.
Example
When a bank customer accesses online banking services with a web browser (the client), the
client initiates a request to the bank's web server. The customer's login credentials may be

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stored in a database, and the web server accesses the database server as a client.
An application server interprets the returned data by applying the bank's business logic, and
provides the output to the web server. Finally, the webserver returns the result to the client
web browser for display.
In each step of this sequence of client–server message exchanges, a computer processes a
request and returns data. This is the request-response messaging pattern. When all the requests
are met, the sequence is complete and the web browser presents the data to the customer.
NETWORK DEVICES
Network devices, or networking hardware, are physical devices that are required for
communication and interaction between hardware on a computer network.
TYPES OF NETWORK DEVICES
1. Repeater – A repeater operates at the physical layer. Its job is to regenerate the signal over
the same network before the signal becomes too weak or corrupted so as to extend the length
to which the signal can be transmitted over the same network. An important point to be noted
about repeaters is that they do not amplify the signal. When the signal becomes weak, they
copy the signal bit by bit and regenerate it at the original strength. It is a 2 port device.
2. Hub – A hub is basically a multiport repeater. A hub connects multiple wires coming from
different branches, for example, the connector in star topology which connects different
stations. Hubs cannot filter data, so data packets are sent to all connected devices. In other
words, collision domain of all hosts connected through Hub remains one. Also, they do not
have the intelligence to find out best path for data packets which leads to inefficiencies and
wastage.
TYPES OF HUB
Active Hub:- These are the hubs which have their own power supply and can clean, boost,
and relay the signal along with the network. It serves both as a repeater as well as wiring
centre. These are used to extend the maximum distance between nodes.
Passive Hub :- These are the hubs which collect wiring from nodes and power supply from
active hub. These hubs relay signals onto the network without cleaning and boosting them and
can’t be used to extend the distance between nodes.
Intelligent Hub :- It work like active hubs and include remote management capabilities. They
also provide flexible data rates to network devices. It also enables an administrator to monitor
the traffic passing through the hub and to configure each port in the hub.
3. Bridge – A bridge operates at data link layer. A bridge is a repeater, with add on the
functionality of filtering content by reading the MAC addresses of source and destination. It is
also used for interconnecting two LANs working on the same protocol. It has a single input
and single output port, thus making it a 2 port device.
TYPES OF BRIDGES

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Transparent Bridges:- These are the bridge in which the stations are completely unaware of
the bridge’s existence i.e. whether or not a bridge is added or deleted from the network,
reconfiguration of the stations is unnecessary. These bridges make use of two processes i.e.
bridge forwarding and bridge learning.
Source Routing Bridges:- In these bridges, routing operation is performed by source station
and the frame specifies which route to follow. The host can discover frame by sending a
special frame called discovery frame, which spreads through the entire network using all
possible paths to destination.
4. Switch – A switch is a multiport bridge with a buffer and a design that can boost its
efficiency(a large number of ports imply less traffic) and performance. A switch is a data link
layer device. The switch can perform error checking before forwarding data, that makes it
very efficient as it does not forward packets that have errors and forward good packets
selectively to correct port only. In other words, switch divides collision domain of hosts,
but broadcast domain remains same.

5. Routers – A router is a device like a switch that routes data packets based on their IP
addresses. Router is mainly a Network Layer device. Routers normally connect LANs and
WANs together and have a dynamically updating routing table based on which they make
decisions on routing the data packets. Router divide broadcast domains of hosts connected
through it.

6. Gateway – A gateway, as the name suggests, is a passage to connect two networks together
that may work upon different networking models. They basically work as the messenger
agents that take data from one system, interpret it, and transfer it to another system. Gateways
are also called protocol converters and can operate at any network layer. Gateways are
generally more complex than switch or router.

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7. Brouter – It is also known as bridging router is a device which combines features of both
bridge and router. It can work either at data link layer or at network layer. Working as router,
it is capable of routing packets across networks and working as bridge, it is capable of filtering
local area network traffic.

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 THE INTERNET

INTERNET ARCHITECTURE
The Internet architecture is based on a simple idea: ask all networks to carry a single packet
type, a specific format, the IP protocol. Besides, this IP packet must have an address defined
with sufficient generality to identify each computer and terminals scattered throughout the
world.
WHAT IS AN INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER?
What is an Internet Service Provider? Internet Service Providers (also called ISPs) are
companies that provide telecommunications services including data communications access
and telephone connection. According to the National Communications Authority, there are
about 54 ISPs currently operating in the country.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ISP’S.
ISP’s provide different services, with the most standard of services being internet provision
which comes in the form of broadband services. What is an Internet Service Provider?
Broadband services are what ISPs in Ghana offer, this encompasses Digital subscriber line
(DSL), Cable Broadband, Satellite and Fibre optic service. We can safely assume that the age
of the Dial-up is fast behind us.
DSL: Digital subscriber line is not a typical service offered by most ISP’s in the country, it
operates over telephone lines, and it’s stable and reliable service depending on your proximity
to its central hub. The further you are the slower and erratic the service.
Cable broadband like the DSL is not typical. It operates on TV wires provided by cable
television providers with speeds of up to 100mbps.
Satellite: This is the most common type of broadband available today. It uses satellite to beam
signals directly to user satellite dishes. Its coverage is everywhere unlike the limited reach of
the cable or DSL. It provides stable reliable and fast Internet services with no matter where
you are. This option is quite expensive.
Fiber optic service: this is the latest addition to the broadband unit, it works on an optical
network using light., yes light, so you can imagine how fast and reliable this one is. The only
issue is it can be accessed in limited areas with fiber setup and is very expensive.
Aside from internet ISPs also provide other services like domain name registration, domain
name hosting, email and website hosting, dial-up access, leased line access and much more.
What is an Internet Service Provider? To know what to consider in choosing an ISP for your
home or office look to our next article.
END SYSTEM

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In networking jargon, a computer connected to a computer network is sometimes referred to
as an end system or end station, because they sit at the edge of the network. The end
user directly interacts with (one of) the end systems. End systems are the devices that provide
information or services.
End systems that are connected to the Internet are also referred to as internet hosts; this is
because they host (run) internet applications such as a web browser or an email retrieval
program. The Internet's end systems include some computers with which the end user does not
directly interact. These include mail servers, web servers, or database servers. With the
emergence of the internet of things, household items (such as toasters and refrigerators) as
well as portable, handheld computers and digital cameras are all being connected to the
internet as end systems.
End systems are generally connected to each other using switching devices known
as routers rather than using a single communication link. The path that transmitted
information taken from the sending end system, through a series of communications links and
routers, to the receiving end system is known as a route or path through the network. The
sending and receiving route can be different, and can be reallocated during transmission due to
changes in the network topology. Normally the cheapest or fastest route is chosen. For the end
user the actual routing should be completely transparent.
WIRELESS ACCESS POINT
In computer networking, a wireless access point (WAP), or more generally just access
point (AP), is a networking hardware device that allows other Wi-Fi devices to connect to a
wired network. As a standalone device, the AP may have a wired connection to a router, but,
in a wireless router, it can also be an integral component of the router itself. An AP is
differentiated from a hotspot which is a physical location where Wi-Fi access is available.

HOTSPOT (WI-FI)
A hotspot is a physical location where people may obtain Internet access, typically using Wi-
Fi technology, via a wireless local-area network (WLAN) using a router connected to
an Internet service provider.
Public hotspots may be created by a business for use by customers, such as coffee shops or
hotels. Public hotspots are typically created from wireless access points configured to provide
Internet access, controlled to some degree by the venue. In its simplest form, venues that
have broadband Internet access can create public wireless access by configuring an access
point (AP), in conjunction with a router to connect the AP to the Internet. A single wireless
router combining these functions may suffice.
A private hotspot, often called tethering, may be configured on a smartphone or tablet that has
a network data plan, to allow Internet access to other devices via Bluetooth pairing, or through
the RNDIS protocol over USB, or even when both the hotspot device and the device[s]

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accessing it are connected to the same Wi-Fi network but one which does not provide Internet
access. Similarly, a Bluetooth or USB OTG can be used by a mobile device to provide
Internet access via Wi-Fi instead of a mobile network, to a device that itself has neither Wi-Fi
nor mobile network capability.
USES
The public can use a laptop or other suitable portable device to access the wireless connection
(usually Wi-Fi) provided. Of the estimated 150 million laptops, 14 million PDAs, and other
emerging Wi-Fi devices sold per year for the last few years,[when?] most include the Wi-Fi
feature.
The iPass 2014 interactive map, that shows data provided by the analysts Maravedis Rethink,
shows that in December 2014 there are 46,000,000 hotspots worldwide and more than
22,000,000 roamable hotspots. More than 10,900 hotspots are on trains, planes and airports
(Wi-Fi in motion) and more than 8,500,000 are "branded" hotspots (retail, cafés, hotels). The
region with the largest number of public hotspots is Europe, followed by North America and
Asia.
Libraries throughout the United States are implementing hotspot lending programs to extend
access to online library services to users at home who cannot afford in-home Internet access or
do not have access to Internet infrastructure. The New York Public Library was the largest
program, lending out 10,000 devices to library patrons. Similar programs have existed in
Kansas, Maine, and Oklahoma; and many individual libraries are implementing these
programs.
Wi-Fi positioning is a method for geolocation based on the positions of nearby hotspots.
SECURITY ISSUES
Security is a serious concern in connection with public and private hotspots. There are three
possible attack scenarios. First, there is the wireless connection between the client and the
access point, which needs to be encrypted, so that the connection cannot be eavesdropped or
attacked by a man-in-the-middle attack. Second, there is the hotspot itself. The WLAN
encryption ends at the interface, then travels its network stack unencrypted and then, third,
travels over the wired connection up to the BRAS of the ISP.
Depending upon the setup of a public hotspot, the provider of the hotspot has access to the
metadata and content accessed by users of the hotspot. The safest method when accessing the
Internet over a hotspot, with unknown security measures, is end-to-end encryption. Examples
of strong end-to-end encryption are HTTPS and SSH.
Some hotspots authenticate users; however, this does not prevent users from viewing network
traffic using packet sniffers.
Some vendors provide a download option that deploys WPA support. This conflicts with
enterprise configurations that have solutions specific to their internal WLAN.

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The Opportunistic Wireless Encryption (OWE) standard provides encrypted
communication in open Wi-Fi networks, alongside the WPA3 standard, but is not yet widely
implemented.

FREE HOTSPOTS OPERATE IN TWO WAYS:

 Using an open public network is the easiest way to create a free hotspot. All that is
needed is a Wi-Fi router. Similarly, when users of private wireless routers turn off
their authentication requirements, opening their connection, intentionally or not, they
permit piggybacking (sharing) by anyone in range.
 Closed public networks use a HotSpot Management System to control access to
hotspots. This software runs on the router itself or an external computer allowing
operators to authorize only specific users to access the Internet. Providers of such
hotspots often associate the free access with a menu, membership, or purchase limit.
Operators may also limit each user's available bandwidth (upload and download speed)
to ensure that everyone gets a good quality service. Often this is done through service-
level agreements.[citation needed]
COMMERCIAL HOTSPOTS
A commercial hotspot may feature:
 A captive portal / login screen / splash page that users are redirected to
for authentication and/or payment. The captive portal / splash page sometimes includes
the social login buttons.
 A payment option using a credit card, iPass, PayPal, or another payment service
(voucher-based Wi-Fi)
 A walled garden feature that allows free access to certain sites
 Service-oriented provisioning to allow for improved revenue
 Data analytics and data capture tools, to analyze and export data from Wi-Fi clients
Many services provide payment services to hotspot providers, for a monthly fee or
commission from the end-user income. For example, Amazingports can be used to set up
hotspots that intend to offer both fee-based and free internet access, and ZoneCD is a Linux
distribution that provides payment services for hotspot providers who wish to deploy their
own service.[citation needed]
Major airports and business hotels are more likely to charge for service, though most hotels
provide free service to guests; and increasingly, small airports and airline lounges offer free
service. Retail shops, public venues and offices usually provide a free Wi-Fi SSID for their
guests and visitors.

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Roaming services are expanding among major hotspot service providers. With roaming
service the users of a commercial provider can have access to other providers' hotspots, either
free of charge or for extra fees, which users will usually be charged on an access-per-minute
basis.
SOFTWARE HOTSPOTS
Many Wi-Fi adapters built into or easily added to consumer computers and mobile devices
include the functionality to operate as private or mobile hotspots, sometimes referred to as
"mi-fi". The use of a private hotspot to enable other personal devices to access
the WAN (usually but not always the Internet) is a form of bridging, and known as tethering.
Manufacturers and firmware creators can enable this functionality in Wi-Fi devices on many
Wi-Fi devices, depending upon the capabilities of the hardware, and most modern consumer
operating systems, including Android, Apple OS X 10.6 and later, Windows,
and Linux include features to support this. Additionally wireless chipset manufacturers such
as Atheros, Broadcom, Intel and others, may add the capability for certain Wi-Fi NICs,
usually used in a client role, to also be used for hotspot purposes. However, some service
providers, such as AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile charge users for this service or prohibit and
disconnect user connections if tethering is detected.
Third-party software vendors offer applications to allow users to operate their own hotspot,
whether to access the Internet when on the go, share an existing connection, or extend the
range of another hotspot.
HOTSPOT 2.0
Hotspot 2.0, also known as HS2 and Wi-Fi Certified Pass point, is an approach to public
access Wi-Fi by the Wi-Fi Alliance. The idea is for mobile devices to automatically join a Wi-
Fi subscriber service whenever the user enters a Hotspot 2.0 area, in order to provide better
bandwidth and services-on-demand to end-users and relieve carrier infrastructure of some
traffic.
Hotspot 2.0 is based on the IEEE 802.11u standard, which is a set of protocols published in
2011 to enable cellular-like roaming. If the device supports 802.11u and is subscribed to a
Hotspot 2.0 service it will automatically connect and roam.
SUPPORTED DEVICES
 Apple mobile devices running iOS 7 and up
 Some Samsung Galaxy smartphones
 Windows 10 devices have full support for network discovery and connection.
 Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 lack network discovery, but support connecting to a
network when the credentials are known.
COMPUTER NETWORK – ADDRESSING (PORT , LOGICAL , SPECIFIC AND
PHYSICAL ADDRESS BASIC OVERVIEW )

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We already know that in any network transmission model, any two devices shall start
communication by the virtue of their unique address. In simple words, we can say that if any
two devices want to engage in any kind of dialogue (communication), then they should first
identify themselves in this complex network transmission arena. So first they should know
each other’s respective addresses (of source and destination).
In the internet employing TCP/IP protocol, we have four levels of addresses being in use for
different layers. Now let us see the different addressing methods in detail.
TYPES OF ADDRESSING METHODS
 Physical address
 Logical address (IP)
 Port address and
 Specific address
Before we dig deep into each type of addressing, we should first understand the respective
mapping (implementation) of each address in each of the layers of TCP/IP model:

TCP/IP Layer Addressing Used

Application layer Specific address

Transport layer Port address

Network or Internet Layer Logical address

Data link layer/Physical

layer Physical address

1. MAC ADDRESSES (PHYSICAL ADDRESS):

It is also known as the ‘Link address‘ . It is basically the address of any particular node that
has been described by the LAN or WAN (already covered in the previous post).
It is further included inside the frame which is utilized by the DLL (data link layer) of OSI
model. It is the bottom-most layer (bottom-most address in OSI model) address.
The packets through the source to destination hosts move across physical networks. The
internet protocol address details is not useful however the host and routers are acknowledged
by their MAC addresses .

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A MAC address is basically a local address. It will be unique locally but it is not unique
universally. The format and size of this kind of address will further change depending on the
network.
Most importantly we should be able to map an IP address into a corresponding MAC address.
The size and format of any physical address vary depending on the nature of network.
The Ethernet (LAN) uses a 48-bit (6-byte) physical address which is normally produced in
the network interfacing card (NIC).
The sender computer with a physical address of 15 wants of communicate with the receiver
computer with a physical address 54.
The frame sent by any sender consists of the destination address,senders address,encapsulated
data, and a trailer that contains the error control bit.
When this frame travels over the bus topology ,each and every computer receives it and tries
to match it with its own physical address.Each of the stations having a physical address which
is other than 54 declines the frame simply because the destination target contained in the
framework doesn’t match it’s very own physical address .
If the destination address in the frame header does not match with the physical address it will
simply drop the frame.
At receiver computer(D) the destinations address matches with its physical address (54).So the
frame is accepted and decapsulation is carried out to recover the data.Thus finally the frame is
checked, the header and the trailer are dropped, and the data part is then decapsulated and
delivered to the upper layer.
2. LOGICAL ADDRESS(IP ADDRESSES):
Logical address is required to facilitate universal communication in which different types of
the physical networks can be involved. In a universal addressing system, every single host will
be recognized individually, regardless of any fundamental physical network.
The logical address is also called the IP (Internet Protocol) address.
The internet consists of many physical networks interconnected via devices like routers.
Internet is a packed switched networked that means the data from the source computer is sent
in the form of small packets carrying the destination address upon them.
A packet starts from the source host,passes through many physical networks, and finally
reaches the destination host.When the frame reaches the destination, the packet is then
decapsulated.
The destination logical address further matches the logical address of a particular computer.
The data are then finally decapsulated from the packet and then delivered (forwarded) to the
upper layer.

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The message frame is initially received by every unit on the LAN network , but is then
declined by all apart from the necessarily required router, which ultimately realizes that the
location destination address in the frame fits with its own target physical address. The router
then finally decapsulates the data packet in order to retrieve the destination logical address .
At the network level , the hosts and routers are further recognised by their IP Addresses.Note
that although the physical addresses will change itself from the hop to hop movement (each
jump transition) , the logical addresses will remain the same from the source to destination .
An IP address is an internetwork address .It is a universally unique address.
Every protocol involved in internetwork requires IP address.The logical address used on the
internet is currently a 32-bit address . The same IP address can be used by more than one
computer on the internet.
3. PORT ADDRESS:
The IP and Physical address are essential for any level of data traveling from the certain
specific source to the destination host that is required. But in today’s modern computers, we
may require to run multiple processes on it simultaneously.
Let us suppose a computer says ‘A’ first initiate communication with another computer
named ‘C’ by using TELNET. Further, consider now, the same computer ‘A’ communicates
with any computer ‘B’ simultaneously by means of the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) .
The main objective of the internet is the process to process communications. For this purpose,
it is necessary to label or name a specific process.
Thus the process needs addresses. The label that is allocated to a process is known as the port
address.It is a 16 bit address field .
The physical addresses change for each and every trip a packet takes, but the logical and port
addresses basically will remain as it is.
4. SPECIFIC ADDRESSES:
A few of the applications generally have simple (easy to use) address. Examples of specific
addresses are the e-mail addresses of the University Resource Locators(URL).
Examples mainly consist of the email address (for eg, [email protected]) and the
Universal Resource Locator (URL) (for eg , www.gmail.com).
These kinds of addresses are designed for a specific address. However, this address gets
changed according to the required logical and port addresses sent from the sender computer.
So this is it from this topic of different addressing methods implemented in TCP/IP
architecture. From the next post onwards we will start looking into each of the protocols in
detail. So stay tuned.
DOMAIN NAME

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A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy,
authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are used in various networking
contexts and for application-specific naming and addressing purposes. In general, a domain
name identifies a network domain, or it represents an Internet Protocol (IP) resource, such as a
personal computer used to access the Internet, a server computer hosting a website, or the web
site itself or any other service communicated via the Internet. In 2017, 330.6 million domain
names had been registered.

Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System (DNS).
Any name registered in the DNS is a domain name. Domain names are organized in
subordinate levels (subdomains) of the DNS root domain, which is nameless. The first-level
set of domain names are the top-level domains (TLDs), including the generic top-level
domains (gTLDs), such as the prominent domains com, info, net, edu, and org, and
the country code top-level domains (ccTLDs). Below these top-level domains in the DNS
hierarchy are the second-level and third-level domain names that are typically open for
reservation by end-users who wish to connect local area networks to the Internet, create other
publicly accessible Internet resources or run web sites.
The registration of these domain names is usually administered by domain name
registrars who sell their services to the public.
A fully qualified domain name (FQDN) is a domain name that is completely specified with all
labels in the hierarchy of the DNS, having no parts omitted. Traditionally a FQDN ends in a
dot (.) to denote the top of the DNS tree. Labels in the Domain Name System are case-
insensitive, and may therefore be written in any desired capitalization method, but most
commonly domain names are written in lowercase in technical contexts.
Domain name registrations are overseen by an organization called ICANN (Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). ICANN specifies which domain name
extensions are available and keeps a centralized database of where the domain names point to.
Every website that you visit effectively consists of two main elements: a domain name and
a web server.

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 1. A web server is a physical machine that hosts the files and the databases that your
website is made from and sends them out to people across the internet when they visit
your site from their machine.
2. The domain name is what people type in to access your site, and it points the web
browser to the server that stores those resources. Without a domain name, people
would need to remember the specific IP address of your server — and that’s just not
going to happen.
HOW DO DOMAINS WORK?
Domain names work by acting as a shortcut to the server that hosts your website.
Without a domain name, anyone who wanted to visit your website would have to enter the full
IP address. But the problem is that an IP address is difficult for people to memorize or to
include on advertising materials.
In our case, Hostinger.com is the domain name. Let’s say it points to the IP
address 100.90.80.70. The IP address points to a server, but it doesn’t resolve the website if
visitors try to use it. That’s because for an IP address to resolve a website, the remote server
needs to be using port 80 with a default page (i.e. index.html) stored in its web-apps directory.
As you can see, messing around with server defaults and IP addresses can be both confusing
and time-consuming. That’s why the vast majority of website owners opt to utilize a service
like Hostinger which offers bundled domain names with annual web hosting packages.
Domains can also use redirects, which essentially allow you to specify that if people visit your
domain, they’re automatically forwarded to another. This can be useful for campaigns and
microsites or for forwarding people to dedicated landing pages on your main site. They can
also come in useful for avoiding confusion around spellings. For example, if you
visit www.fb.com, you’ll be forwarded to www.facebook.com.
SUBDOMAINS
Subdomains are the part of a domain that comes before the main domain name and domain
extension. They can help you organize your website. For example, docs.themeisle.com. In this
URL, docs is the subdomain.
A subdomain is an additional part to your main domain name. Subdomains are created to
organize and navigate to different sections of your website. You can create multiple
subdomains or child domains on your main domain.
For example:
store.yourwebsite.com
In this example, ‘store’ is the subdomain, ‘yourwebsite’ is the primary domain and ‘.com’ is
the top level domain (TLD). You can use any text as your subdomain, but you want to make
sure it’s easy to type and remember.

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To answer the question of “what are subdomains” in more detail, you should first know
about the anatomy of a URL! Let us examine the URL of ThemeIsle.
https://themeisle.com/
This URL contains two parts:
 A protocol (https:) is a set of guidelines that a browser follows to send a request to the
server.
 The domain, themeisle.com, or URL to the main website. A domain consists of two
parts:
o the TLD (top level domain) which is the .com part (or another domain
extension), and
o the SLD (second level domain), themeisle, the name that you buy from
a domain registrar.
A subdomain contains a second name before the SLD. For instance, if the Themeisle blog was
hosted on https://blog.themeisle.com, the blog would be the subdomain.
WHAT IS A SUBDOMAIN USED FOR?
The most common use-case of a subdomain is for creating a testing or staging version of a
website. Often developers will test new plugins and updates on a subdomain staging
site before publishing them live on the Internet.
Another common use of a subdomain is to create an online eCommerce store. Often
companies want a separate subdomain to handle transactions because eCommerce sites
typically require a more complex set up.
We have also seen companies use subdomains for their mobile websites (m.yoursite.com),
location-specific sites (uk.yoursite.com), and creating sub-sections of the website.
You can install WordPress on your subdomain, and it will work as a separate installation from
your main website.
You can use a subdomain to serve a specific group of users on your site like
‘guest.yourwebsite.com’, ‘user.yourwebsite.com’, and more. This is how website
builder platforms like WordPress.com, blogger.com, and others offer custom websites to users.
Subdomains can be very useful in organizing your website content more efficiently. The right
use of a subdomain does not affect your main website’s SEO. However, when in doubt, we
recommend keeping everything on the same domain and avoid using a subdomain for public
sites.
Some other uses of subdomains are:

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  Create different language versions of a website (en.yoursite.com).
 Create a mobile version of a website (m.yoursite.com).
 Set up a network of unrelated sites. For example, how you can sign up for a
WordPress.com account and create your own blog on a subdomain
(yourblog.wordpress.com).
HOW TO CREATE A SUBDOMAIN
You can easily create a subdomain in your domain registrar or your WordPress
hosting account. In this example, we will create a subdomain using our hosting
company Bluehost, but the process is similar in all platforms.
To create a subdomain in Bluehost, you must log in to your web host account. Then click on
the “Domains” tab on the left. This will open a submenu with several options.
You can get creative with subdomains. You may point a subdomain to a section or a single
page in your website too.
For example, if you have a personal portfolio site, you could host your contact form
at hireme.yourname.com.
WHAT IS A WILDCARD SUBDOMAIN?
A wildcard is basically a “catch-all” subdomain. It lets you create tons of subdomains without
having to manually set up each one.
For example, if you wanted to create a WordPress multisite network, you could use a wildcard
subdomain so that each network site can get its own subdomain (like WordPress.com).
A wildcard subdomain is represented by an asterisk. For example, *.yoursite.com.
DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM.
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and decentralized naming system for
computers, services, or other resources connected to the Internet or a private network. It
associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating
entities. Most prominently, it translates more readily memorized domain names to the
numerical IP addresses needed for locating and identifying computer services and devices
with the underlying network protocols. By providing a worldwide, distributed directory
service, the Domain Name System has been an essential component of the functionality of the
Internet since 1985.
The Domain Name System delegates the responsibility of assigning domain names and
mapping those names to Internet resources by designating authoritative name servers for each
domain. Network administrators may delegate authority over sub-domains of their allocated
name space to other name servers. This mechanism provides distributed and fault-
tolerant service and was designed to avoid a single large central database.

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The Domain Name System also specifies the technical functionality of the database service
that is at its core. It defines the DNS protocol, a detailed specification of the data structures
and data communication exchanges used in the DNS, as part of the Internet Protocol Suite.
The Internet maintains two principal namespaces, the domain name hierarchy[1] and
the Internet Protocol (IP) address spaces.[2] The Domain Name System maintains the domain
name hierarchy and provides translation services between it and the address spaces.
Internet name servers and a communication protocol implement the Domain Name
System.[3] A DNS name server is a server that stores the DNS records for a domain; a DNS
name server responds with answers to queries against its database.
The most common types of records stored in the DNS database are for Start of Authority
(SOA), IP addresses (A and AAAA), SMTP mail exchangers (MX), name servers (NS),
pointers for reverse DNS lookups (PTR), and domain name aliases (CNAME). Although not
intended to be a general purpose database, DNS has been expanded over time to store records
for other types of data for either automatic lookups, such as DNSSEC records, or for human
queries such as responsible person (RP) records. As a general purpose database, the DNS has
also been used in combating unsolicited email (spam) by storing a real-time blackhole
list (RBL). The DNS database is traditionally stored in a structured text file, the zone file, but
other database systems are common.
FUNCTION
An often-used analogy to explain the Domain Name System is that it serves as the phone
book for the Internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into IP addresses. For
example, the domain name www.example.com translates to the addresses 93.184.216.34 (IPv4)
and 2606:2800:220:1:248:1893:25c8:1946 (IPv6). The DNS can be quickly and transparently
updated, allowing a service's location on the network to change without affecting the end
users, who continue to use the same hostname. Users take advantage of this when they use
meaningful Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) and e-mail addresses without having to know
how the computer actually locates the services.
An important and ubiquitous function of the DNS is its central role in distributed Internet
services such as cloud services and content delivery networks.[4] When a user accesses a
distributed Internet service using a URL, the domain name of the URL is translated to the IP
address of a server that is proximal to the user. The key functionality of the DNS exploited
here is that different users can simultaneously receive different translations for
the same domain name, a key point of divergence from a traditional phone-book view of the
DNS. This process of using the DNS to assign proximal servers to users is key to providing
faster and more reliable responses on the Internet and is widely used by most major Internet
services.[5]
The DNS reflects the structure of administrative responsibility in the Internet.[6] Each
subdomain is a zone of administrative autonomy delegated to a manager. For zones operated
by a registry, administrative information is often complemented by the

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registry's RDAP and WHOIS services. That data can be used to gain insight on, and track
responsibility for, a given host on the Internet.[7]
NAME SERVERS
The Domain Name System is maintained by a distributed database system, which uses
the client–server model. The nodes of this database are the name servers. Each domain has at
least one authoritative DNS server that publishes information about that domain and the name
servers of any domains subordinate to it. The top of the hierarchy is served by the root name
servers, the servers to query when looking up (resolving) a TLD.
Authoritative name server
An authoritative name server is a name server that only gives answers to DNS queries from
data that has been configured by an original source, for example, the domain administrator or
by dynamic DNS methods, in contrast to answers obtained via a query to another name server
that only maintains a cache of data.
An authoritative name server can either be a primary server or a secondary server. Historically
the terms master/slave and primary/secondary were sometimes used interchangeably[29] but
the current practice is to use the latter form. A primary server is a server that stores the
original copies of all zone records. A secondary server uses a special automatic updating
mechanism in the DNS protocol in communication with its primary to maintain an identical
copy of the primary records.
Every DNS zone must be assigned a set of authoritative name servers. This set of servers is
stored in the parent domain zone with name server (NS) records.
An authoritative server indicates its status of supplying definitive answers,
deemed authoritative, by setting a protocol flag, called the "Authoritative Answer" (AA) bit in
its responses. This flag is usually reproduced prominently in the output of DNS administration
query tools, such as dig, to indicate that the responding name server is an authority for the
domain name in question.

The right to use a domain name is delegated by domain name registrars which are accredited
by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) or other
organizations such as OpenNIC, that are charged with overseeing the name and number
systems of the Internet. In addition to ICANN, each top-level domain (TLD) is maintained
and serviced technically by an administrative organization, operating a registry. A registry is
responsible for operating the database of names within its authoritative zone, although the
term is most often used for TLDs. A registrant is a person or organization who asked for
domain registration. The registry receives registration information from each domain
name registrar, which is authorized (accredited) to assign names in the corresponding zone
and publishes the information using the WHOIS protocol. As of 2015, usage of RDAP is
being considered.

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ICANN publishes the complete list of TLDs, TLD registries, and domain name registrars.
Registrant information associated with domain names is maintained in an online database
accessible with the WHOIS service. For most of the more than 290 country code top-level
domains (ccTLDs), the domain registries maintain the WHOIS (Registrant, name servers,
expiration dates, etc.) information. For instance, DENIC, Germany NIC, holds the DE domain
data. From about 2001, most Generic top-level domain (gTLD) registries have adopted this
so-called thick registry approach, i.e. keeping the WHOIS data in central registries instead of
registrar databases.
For top-level domains on COM and NET, a thin registry model is used. The domain registry
(e.g., GoDaddy, BigRock and PDR, VeriSign, etc., etc.) holds basic WHOIS data (i.e.,
registrar and name servers, etc.). Organizations, or registrants using ORG on the other hand,
are on the Public Interest Registry exclusively.
Some domain name registries, often called network information centers (NIC), also function
as registrars to end-users, in addition to providing access to the WHOIS datasets. The top-
level domain registries, such as for the domains COM, NET, and ORG use a registry-registrar
model consisting of many domain name registrars. In this method of management, the
registry only manages the domain name database and the relationship with the registrars.
The registrants (users of a domain name) are customers of the registrar, in some cases through
additional subcontracting of resellers.
INTERNET APPLICATIONS
TELNET
Telnet is an application protocol used on the Internet or local area network to provide a
bidirectional interactive text-oriented communication facility using a
virtual terminal connection. User data is interspersed in-band with Telnet control information
in an 8-bit byte oriented data connection over the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).
Telnet was developed in 1969 beginning with RFC 15, extended in RFC 855, and
standardized as Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Internet Standard STD 8, one of the
first Internet standards. The name stands for "teletype network".
Historically, Telnet provided access to a command-line interface on a remote host. However,
because of serious security concerns when using Telnet over an open network such as the
Internet, its use for this purpose has waned significantly in favor of SSH.
The term telnet is also used to refer to the software that implements the client part of the
protocol. Telnet client applications are available for virtually all computer platforms. Telnet is
also used as a verb. To telnet means to establish a connection using the Telnet protocol, either
with a command line client or with a graphical interface. For example, a common directive
might be: "To change your password, telnet into the server, log in and run
the passed command." In most cases, a user would be telnetting into a Unix-like server system
or a network device (such as a router).

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FTP: FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL
File Transfer Protocol enables file sharing between hosts, both local and remote, and runs on
top of TCP. For file transfer, FTP creates two TCP connections: control and data connection.
The control connection is used to transfer control information like passwords, commands to
retrieve and store files, etc., and the data connection is used to transfer the actual file. Both of
these connections run in parallel during the entire file transfer process.
Advantages
 Enables sharing large files and multiple directories at the same time.
 Let you resume file sharing if it was interrupted.
 Let you recover lost data, and schedule a file transfer.
Disadvantages
 FTP lacks security. Data, usernames, and passwords are transferred in plain text,
making them vulnerable to malicious actors.
 FTP lacks encryption capabilities, making it non-compliant with industry standards.
ELECTRONIC MAIL (EMAIL OR E-MAIL)
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between
people using electronic devices. Email entered limited use in the 1960s, but users could only
send to users of the same computer, and some early email systems required the author and the
recipient to both be online simultaneously, similar to instant messaging. Ray Tomlinson is
credited as the inventor of email; in 1971, he developed the first system able to send mail
between users on different hosts across the ARPANET, using the @ sign to link the user name
with a destination server. By the mid-1970s, this was the form recognized as email.
Email operates across computer networks, primarily the Internet. Today's email systems are
based on a store-and-forward model. Email servers accept, forward, deliver, and store
messages. Neither the users nor their computers are required to be online simultaneously; they
need to connect, typically to a mail server or a webmail interface to send or receive messages
or download it.
Originally an ASCII text-only communications medium, Internet email was extended
by Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) to carry text in other character sets and
multimedia content attachments. International email, with internationalized email addresses
using UTF-8, is standardized but not widely adopted.
The history of modern Internet email services reaches back to the early ARPANET, with
standards for encoding email messages published as early as 1973 (RFC 561). An email
message sent in the early 1970s is similar to a basic email sent today.
WORLD WIDE WEB

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The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information
system where documents and other web resources are identified by Uniform Resource
Locators (URLs, such as https://example.com/), which may be interlinked by hyperlinks, and
are accessible over the Internet. The resources of the Web are transferred via the Hypertext
Transfer Protocol (HTTP), may be accessed by users by a software application called a web
browser, and are published by a software application called a web server. The World Wide
Web is not synonymous with the Internet, which pre-dated the Web in some form by over two
decades and upon which technologies the Web is built.
English scientist Sir Timothy Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989. He wrote
the first web browser in 1990 while employed at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland. The
browser was released outside CERN to other research institutions starting in January 1991,
and then to the general public in August 1991. The Web began to enter everyday use in 1993-
4, when websites for general use started to become available. The World Wide Web has been
central to the development of the Information Age, and is the primary tool billions of people
use to interact on the Internet.
Web resources may be any type of downloaded media, but web pages are hypertext
documents formatted in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Special HTML syntax
displays embedded hyperlinks with URLs which permits users to navigate to other web
resources. In addition to text, web pages may contain references to images, video, audio, and
software components which are either displayed or internally executed in the user's web
browser to render pages or streams of multimedia content.
Multiple web resources with a common theme and usually a common domain name, make up
a website. Websites are stored in computers that are running a web server, which is a program
that responds to requests made over the Internet from web browsers running on a user's
computer. Website content can be provided by a publisher, or interactively from user-
generated content. Websites are provided for a myriad of informative, entertainment,
commercial, and governmental reasons.
PROTOCOLS

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

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 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.
FUNCTIONS OF THE OSI LAYERS
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

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 7. Application Layer

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.

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 o Signals: It determines the type of the signal used for transmitting the information.
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.

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 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 occurr, 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.
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.

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 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).
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.

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 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 receives 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.
SESSION LAYER

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 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.
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.

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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.
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

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 storage.
o Directory services: An application provides the distributed database sources and is
used to provide that global information about various objects.

TCP/IP model
o The TCP/IP model was developed prior to the OSI model.
o The TCP/IP model is not exactly similar to the OSI model.
o The TCP/IP model consists of five layers: the application layer, transport layer,
network layer, data link layer and physical layer.
o The first four layers provide physical standards, network interface, internetworking,
and transport functions that correspond to the first four layers of the OSI model and
these four layers are represented in TCP/IP model by a single layer called the
application layer.
o TCP/IP is a hierarchical protocol made up of interactive modules, and each of them
provides specific functionality.
Here, hierarchical means that each upper-layer protocol is supported by two or more lower-
level protocols.
FUNCTIONS OF TCP/IP LAYERS:

NETWORK ACCESS LAYER

o A network layer is the lowest layer of the TCP/IP model.
o A network layer is the combination of the Physical layer and Data Link layer defined
in the OSI reference model.
o It defines how the data should be sent physically through the network.
o This layer is mainly responsible for the transmission of the data between two devices
on the same network.

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 o The functions carried out by this layer are encapsulating the IP datagram into frames
transmitted by the network and mapping of IP addresses into physical addresses.
o The protocols used by this layer are ethernet, token ring, FDDI, X.25, frame relay.
Internet Layer
o An internet layer is the second layer of the TCP/IP model.
o An internet layer is also known as the network layer.
o The main responsibility of the internet layer is to send the packets from any network,
and they arrive at the destination irrespective of the route they take.
FOLLOWING ARE THE PROTOCOLS USED IN THIS LAYER ARE:
IP Protocol: IP protocol is used in this layer, and it is the most significant part of the entire
TCP/IP suite.
Following are the responsibilities of this protocol:
o IP Addressing: This protocol implements logical host addresses known as IP
addresses. The IP addresses are used by the internet and higher layers to identify the
device and to provide internetwork routing.
o Host-to-host communication: It determines the path through which the data is to be
transmitted.
o Data Encapsulation and Formatting: An IP protocol accepts the data from the
transport layer protocol. An IP protocol ensures that the data is sent and received
securely, it encapsulates the data into message known as IP datagram.
o Fragmentation and Reassembly: The limit imposed on the size of the IP datagram
by data link layer protocol is known as Maximum Transmission unit (MTU). If the
size of IP datagram is greater than the MTU unit, then the IP protocol splits the
datagram into smaller units so that they can travel over the local network.
Fragmentation can be done by the sender or intermediate router. At the receiver side,
all the fragments are reassembled to form an original message.
o Routing: When IP datagram is sent over the same local network such as LAN, MAN,
WAN, it is known as direct delivery. When source and destination are on the distant
network, then the IP datagram is sent indirectly. This can be accomplished by routing
the IP datagram through various devices such as routers.
ARP Protocol
o ARP stands for Address Resolution Protocol.
o ARP is a network layer protocol which is used to find the physical address from the IP
address.

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 o The two terms are mainly associated with the ARP Protocol:
o ARP request: When a sender wants to know the physical address of the
device, it broadcasts the ARP request to the network.
o ARP reply: Every device attached to the network will accept the ARP request
and process the request, but only recipient recognize the IP address and sends
back its physical address in the form of ARP reply. The recipient adds the
physical address both to its cache memory and to the datagram header
ICMP Protocol
o ICMP stands for Internet Control Message Protocol.
o It is a mechanism used by the hosts or routers to send notifications regarding
datagram problems back to the sender.
o A datagram travels from router-to-router until it reaches its destination. If a router is
unable to route the data because of some unusual conditions such as disabled links, a
device is on fire or network congestion, then the ICMP protocol is used to inform the
sender that the datagram is undeliverable.
o An ICMP protocol mainly uses two terms:
o ICMP Test: ICMP Test is used to test whether the destination is reachable or
not.
o ICMP Reply: ICMP Reply is used to check whether the destination device is
responding or not.
o The core responsibility of the ICMP protocol is to report the problems, not correct
them. The responsibility of the correction lies with the sender.
o ICMP can send the messages only to the source, but not to the intermediate routers
because the IP datagram carries the addresses of the source and destination but not of
the router that it is passed to.
TRANSPORT LAYER
The transport layer is responsible for the reliability, flow control, and correction of data
which is being sent over the network.
The two protocols used in the transport layer are User Datagram protocol and
TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL.
o User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
o It provides connectionless service and end-to-end delivery of transmission.
o It is an unreliable protocol as it discovers the errors but not specify the error.

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 o User Datagram Protocol discovers the error, and ICMP protocol reports the
error to the sender that user datagram has been damaged.
o UDP consists of the following fields:
Source port address: The source port address is the address of the application
program that has created the message.
Destination port address: The destination port address is the address of the
application program that receives the message.
Total length: It defines the total number of bytes of the user datagram in
bytes.
Checksum: The checksum is a 16-bit field used in error detection.
o UDP does not specify which packet is lost. UDP contains only checksum; it
does not contain any ID of a data segment.

o Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

o It provides a full transport layer services to applications.
o It creates a virtual circuit between the sender and receiver, and it is active for
the duration of the transmission.
o TCP is a reliable protocol as it detects the error and retransmits the damaged
frames. Therefore, it ensures all the segments must be received and
acknowledged before the transmission is considered to be completed and a
virtual circuit is discarded.
o At the sending end, TCP divides the whole message into smaller units known
as segment, and each segment contains a sequence number which is required
for reordering the frames to form an original message.
o At the receiving end, TCP collects all the segments and reorders them based
on sequence numbers.
APPLICATION LAYER
o An application layer is the topmost layer in the TCP/IP model.
o It is responsible for handling high-level protocols, issues of representation.

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 o This layer allows the user to interact with the application.
o When one application layer protocol wants to communicate with another application
layer, it forwards its data to the transport layer.
o There is an ambiguity occurs in the application layer. Every application cannot be
placed inside the application layer except those who interact with the communication
system. For example: text editor cannot be considered in application layer while web
browser using HTTP protocol to interact with the network where HTTP protocol is
an application layer protocol.
FOLLOWING ARE THE MAIN PROTOCOLS USED IN THE APPLICATION
LAYER:
o HTTP: HTTP stands for Hypertext transfer protocol. This protocol allows us to
access the data over the world wide web. It transfers the data in the form of plain text,
audio, video. It is known as a Hypertext transfer protocol as it has the efficiency to
use in a hypertext environment where there are rapid jumps from one document to
another.
o SNMP: SNMP stands for Simple Network Management Protocol. It is a framework
used for managing the devices on the internet by using the TCP/IP protocol suite.
o SMTP: SMTP stands for Simple mail transfer protocol. The TCP/IP protocol that
supports the e-mail is known as a Simple mail transfer protocol. This protocol is used
to send the data to another e-mail address.
o DNS: DNS stands for Domain Name System. An IP address is used to identify the
connection of a host to the internet uniquely. But, people prefer to use the names
instead of addresses. Therefore, the system that maps the name to the address is
known as Domain Name System.
o TELNET: It is an abbreviation for Terminal Network. It establishes the connection
between the local computer and remote computer in such a way that the local terminal
appears to be a terminal at the remote system.
o FTP: FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. FTP is a standard internet protocol used
for transmitting the files from one computer to another computer.

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 THE WORLD WIDE WEB

WEB IMPLEMENTATION
Implementation is the process of building the web according to its design. A web implementer
creates hypertext mark-up language (HTML), Common Gateway Interface (CGI) programs,
and/or Java scripts and/or applets.
The implementation process resembles software development because it involves using a
specific syntax for encoding web structures or a programming language in a formal language
in computer files. Although there are automated tools to help with the construction of HTML
documents, a thorough grounding in HTML enriches the web implementer’s expertise.
KEY IMPLEMENTATION PRACTICES
At the outset, create an extendible directory and file structure to manage the web's files and/or
software components (CGI or Java programs).
 Use HTML tools where helpful.
 Check the web's implementation in various browsers.
 Use templates or web generating schemes for supporting a consistent look and feel.
HTML
The HyperText Markup Language, or HTML is the standard markup language for documents
designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such
as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScript.
Web browsers receive HTML documents from a web server or from local storage
and render the documents into multimedia web pages. HTML describes the structure of a web
page semantically and originally included cues for the appearance of the document.
HTML elements are the building blocks of HTML pages. With HTML constructs, images and
other objects such as interactive forms may be embedded into the rendered page. HTML
provides a means to create structured documents by denoting structural semantics for text such
as headings, paragraphs, lists, links, quotes and other items. HTML elements are delineated
by tags, written using angle brackets. Tags such as <img /> and <input /> directly introduce
content into the page. Other tags such as <p> surround and provide information about
document text and may include other tags as sub-elements. Browsers do not display the
HTML tags, but use them to interpret the content of the page.
HTML can embed programs written in a scripting language such as JavaScript, which affects
the behavior and content of web pages. Inclusion of CSS defines the look and layout of
content. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), former maintainer of the HTML and
current maintainer of the CSS standards, has encouraged the use of CSS over explicit
presentational HTML since 1997.[2]

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JAVASCRIPT
JavaScript (/ˈdʒɑːvəˌskrɪpt/),[8] often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that
conforms to the ECMAScript specification.[9] JavaScript is high-level, often just-in-time
compiled, and multi-paradigm. It has curly-bracket syntax, dynamic typing, prototype-
based object-orientation, and first-class functions.
Alongside HTML and CSS, JavaScript is one of the core technologies of the World Wide
Web.[10] Over 97% of websites use it client-side for web page behavior,[11] often
incorporating third-party libraries.[12] All major web browsers have a dedicated JavaScript
engine to execute the code on the user's device.
As a multi-paradigm language, JavaScript supports event-driven, functional,
and imperative programming styles. It has application programming interfaces (APIs) for
working with text, dates, regular expressions, standard data structures, and the Document
Object Model (DOM).
The ECMAScript standard does not include any input/output (I/O), such
as networking, storage, or graphics facilities. In practice, the web browser or other runtime
system provides JavaScript APIs for I/O.
JavaScript engines were originally used only in web browsers, but they are now core
components of other software systems, most notably servers and a variety of applications.
FEATURES
The following features are common to all conforming ECMAScript implementations, unless
explicitly specified otherwise.
Imperative and structured
JavaScript supports much of the structured programming syntax
from C (e.g., if statements, while loops, switch statements, do while loops, etc.). One partial
exception is scoping: originally JavaScript only had function scoping with var; then block
scoping was added in ECMAScript 2015 with the keywords let and const. Like C, JavaScript
makes a distinction between expressions and statements. One syntactic difference from C
is automatic semicolon insertion, which allow semicolons (which terminate statements) to be
omitted.
Weakly typed
JavaScript is weakly typed, which means certain types are implicitly cast depending on the
operation used.
The binary + operator casts both operands to a string unless both operands are numbers. This
is because the addition operator doubles as a concatenation operator
The binary - operator always casts both operands to a number
Both unary operators (+, -) always cast the operand to a number
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Values are cast to strings like the following:
Strings are left as-is
Numbers are converted to their string representation
Arrays have their elements cast to strings after which they are joined by commas (,)
Other objects are converted to the string [object Object] where Object is the name of the
constructor of the object
Values are cast to numbers by casting to strings and then casting the strings to numbers. These
processes can be modified by defining toString and valueOf functions on the prototype for
string and number casting respectively.
JavaScript has received criticism for the way it implements these conversions as the
complexity of the rules can be mistaken for inconsistency. For example, when adding a
number to a string, the number will be cast to a string before performing concatenation, but
when subtracting a number from a string, the string is cast to a number before performing
subtraction.
JavaScript type conversions
left operand operator right operand result
[] (empty array) + [] (empty array) "" (empty string)
[] (empty array) + {} (empty "[object
object) Object]" (string)
false (boolean) + [] (empty array) "false" (string)
"123"(string) + 1 (number) "1231" (string)
"123" (string) - 1 (number) 122 (number)
Often also mentioned is {} + [] resulting in 0 (number). This is misleading: the {} is
interpreted as an empty code block instead of an empty object, and the empty array is cast to a
number by the remaining unary + operator. If you wrap the expression in parentheses ({} +
[]) the curly brackets are interpreted as an empty object and the result of the expression
is "[object Object]" as expected.
Dynamic
Typing
JavaScript is dynamically typed like most other scripting languages. A type is associated with
a value rather than an expression. For example, a variable initially bound to a number may be
reassigned to a string. JavaScript supports various ways to test the type of objects,
including duck typing.
Run-time evaluation
JavaScript includes an eval function that can execute statements provided as strings at run-
time.

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OBJECT-ORIENTATION (PROTOTYPE-BASED)
Prototypal inheritance in JavaScript is described by Douglas Crockford as:
You make prototype objects, and then … make new instances. Objects are mutable in
JavaScript, so we can augment the new instances, giving them new fields and methods. These
can then act as prototypes for even newer objects. We don't need classes to make lots of
similar objects… Objects inherit from objects. What could be more object oriented than that?
In JavaScript, an object is an associative array, augmented with a prototype (see below); each
key provides the name for an object property, and there are two syntactical ways to specify
such a name: dot notation (obj.x = 10) and bracket notation (obj['x'] = 10). A property may be
added, rebound, or deleted at run-time. Most properties of an object (and any property that
belongs to an object's prototype inheritance chain) can be enumerated using a for...in loop.
Prototypes
JavaScript uses prototypes where many other object-oriented languages
use classes for inheritance. It is possible to simulate many class-based features with prototypes
in JavaScript.
Functions as object constructors
Functions double as object constructors, along with their typical role. Prefixing a function call
with new will create an instance of a prototype, inheriting properties and methods from the
constructor (including properties from the Object prototype).[50] ECMAScript 5 offers
the Object.create method, allowing explicit creation of an instance without automatically
inheriting from the Object prototype (older environments can assign the prototype
to null).[51] The constructor's prototype property determines the object used for the new
object's internal prototype. New methods can be added by modifying the prototype of the
function used as a constructor. JavaScript's built-in constructors, such as Array or Object, also
have prototypes that can be modified. While it is possible to modify the Object prototype, it is
generally considered bad practice because most objects in JavaScript will inherit methods and
properties from the Object prototype, and they may not expect the prototype to be
modified.[52]
Functions as methods
Unlike many object-oriented languages, there is no distinction between a function definition
and a method definition. Rather, the distinction occurs during function calling; when a
function is called as a method of an object, the function's local this keyword is bound to that
object for that invocation.
FunctionalEdit
A function is first-class; a function is considered to be an object. As such, a function may have
properties and methods, such as .call() and .bind().[53] A nested function is a function defined
within another function. It is created each time the outer function is invoked. In addition, each

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nested function forms a lexical closure: The lexical scope of the outer function (including any
constant, local variable, or argument value) becomes part of the internal state of each inner
function object, even after execution of the outer function concludes.[54] JavaScript also
supports anonymous functions.
DelegativeEdit
JavaScript supports implicit and explicit delegation.
Functions as roles (Traits and Mixins)
JavaScript natively supports various function-based implementations of Role[55] patterns
like Traits[56][57] and Mixins.[58] Such a function defines additional behavior by at least one
method bound to the this keyword within its function body. A Role then has to be delegated
explicitly via call or apply to objects that need to feature additional behavior that is not shared
via the prototype chain.
Object composition and inheritance
Whereas explicit function-based delegation does cover composition in JavaScript, implicit
delegation already happens every time the prototype chain is walked in order to, e.g., find a
method that might be related to but is not directly owned by an object. Once the method is
found it gets called within this object's context. Thus inheritance in JavaScript is covered by a
delegation automatism that is bound to the prototype property of constructor functions.
MiscellaneousEdit
JS is a zero-index language.
Run-time environment
JavaScript typically relies on a run-time environment (e.g., a web browser) to provide objects
and methods by which scripts can interact with the environment (e.g., a web page DOM).
These environments are single-threaded. JavaScript also relies on the run-time environment to
provide the ability to include/import scripts (e.g., HTML <script> elements). This is not a
language feature per se, but it is common in most JavaScript implementations. JavaScript
processes messages from a queue one at a time. JavaScript calls a function associated with
each new message, creating a call stack frame with the function's arguments and local
variables. The call stack shrinks and grows based on the function's needs. When the call stack
is empty upon function completion, JavaScript proceeds to the next message in the queue.
This is called the event loop, described as "run to completion" because each message is fully
processed before the next message is considered. However, the language's concurrency
model describes the event loop as non-blocking: program input/output is performed
using events and callback functions. This means, for instance, that JavaScript can process a
mouse click while waiting for a database query to return information.[59]
Variadic functions

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An indefinite number of parameters can be passed to a function. The function can access them
through formal parameters and also through the local arguments object. Variadic functions can
also be created by using the bind method.
Array and object literals
Like many scripting languages, arrays and objects (associative arrays in other languages) can
each be created with a succinct shortcut syntax. In fact, these literals form the basis of
the JSON data format.
Regular expressions
JavaScript also supports regular expressions in a manner similar to Perl, which provide a
concise and powerful syntax for text manipulation that is more sophisticated than the built-in
string functions.[60]
Promises
JavaScript also supports promises, which are a way of handling asynchronous operations.
There is a built-in Promise object that gives access to a lot of functionalities for handling
promises, and defines how they should be handled. It allows one to associate handlers with an
asynchronous action's eventual success value or failure reason. This lets asynchronous
methods return values like synchronous methods: instead of immediately returning the final
value, the asynchronous method returns a promise to supply the value at some point in the
future. Recently, combinator methods were introduced in the JavaScript specification, which
allows developers to combine multiple JavaScript promises and do operations on the basis of
different scenarios. The methods introduced are: Promise.race, Promise.all, Promise.allSettled
and Promise.any.
Vendor-specific extensionsEdit
Historically, some JavaScript engines supported these non-standard features:
conditional catch clauses (like Java)
array comprehensions and generator expressions (like Python)
concise function expressions (function(args) expr; this experimental syntax predated arrow
functions)
ECMAScript for XML (E4X), an extension that adds native XML support to ECMAScript
(unsupported in Firefox since version 21
CSS
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of
a document written in a markup language such as HTML.[1] CSS is a cornerstone technology
of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and JavaScript.[2]

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CSS is designed to enable the separation of presentation and content, including layout, colors,
and fonts.[3] This separation can improve content accessibility, provide more flexibility and
control in the specification of presentation characteristics, enable multiple web pages to share
formatting by specifying the relevant CSS in a separate .css file which reduces complexity and
repetition in the structural content as well as enabling the .css file to be cached to improve the
page load speed between the pages that share the file and its formatting.
Separation of formatting and content also makes it feasible to present the same markup page
in different styles for different rendering methods, such as on-screen, in print, by voice (via
speech-based browser or screen reader), and on Braille-based tactile devices. CSS also has
rules for alternate formatting if the content is accessed on a mobile device.[4]
The name cascading comes from the specified priority scheme to determine which style rule
applies if more than one rule matches a particular element. This cascading priority scheme is
predictable.
The CSS specifications are maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Internet
media type (MIME type) text/css is registered for use with CSS by RFC 2318 (March 1998).
The W3C operates a free CSS validation service for CSS documents.[5]
In addition to HTML, other markup languages support the use of CSS
including XHTML, plain XML, SVG, and XUL.
XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language that defines a set of rules for
encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable.
The World Wide Web Consortium's XML 1.0 Specification[2] of 1998[3] and several other
related specifications[4]—all of them free open standards—define XML.[5]
The design goals of XML emphasize simplicity, generality, and usability across
the Internet.[6] It is a textual data format with strong support via Unicode for different human
languages. Although the design of XML focuses on documents, the language is widely used
for the representation of arbitrary data structures[7] such as those used in web services.
Several schema systems exist to aid in the definition of XML-based languages, while
programmers have developed many application programming interfaces (APIs) to aid the
processing of XML data.
ApplicationsEdit
The essence of why extensible markup languages are necessary is explained at Markup
language (for example, see Markup language § XML) and at Standard Generalized Markup
Language.
Hundreds of document formats using XML syntax have been
developed,[8] including RSS, Atom, SOAP, SVG, and XHTML. XML-based formats have
become the default for many office-productivity tools, including Microsoft Office (Office

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Open XML), OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice (OpenDocument), and Apple's iWork[citation
needed]. XML has also provided the base language for communication protocols such
as XMPP. Applications for the Microsoft .NET Framework use XML files for configuration,
and property lists are an implementation of configuration storage built on XML.[9]
Many industry data standards, such as Health Level 7, OpenTravel Alliance, FpML, MISMO,
and National Information Exchange Model are based on XML and the rich features of the
XML schema specification. Many of these standards are quite complex and it is not
uncommon for a specification to comprise several thousand pages.[citation needed] In
publishing, Darwin Information Typing Architecture is an XML industry data standard. XML
is used extensively to underpin various publishing formats.
XML is widely used in a Service-oriented architecture (SOA). Disparate systems
communicate with each other by exchanging XML messages. The message exchange format
is standardised as an XML schema (XSD). This is also referred to as the canonical schema.
XML has come into common use for the interchange of data over the
Internet. IETF RFC:3023, now superseded by RFC:7303, gave rules for the construction
of Internet Media Types for use when sending XML. It also defines the media
types application/xml and text/xml, which say only that the data is in XML, and nothing about
its semantics.
RFC 7303 also recommends that XML-based languages be given media types ending in +xml;
for example image/svg+xml for SVG. Further guidelines for the use of XML in a networked
context appear in RFC 3470, also known as IETF BCP 70, a document covering many aspects
of designing and deploying an XML-based language.
Key terminologyEdit
The material in this section is based on the XML Specification. This is not an exhaustive list
of all the constructs that appear in XML; it provides an introduction to the key constructs most
often encountered in day-to-day use.
Character
An XML document is a string of characters. Almost every legal Unicode character may
appear in an XML document.
Processor and application
The processor analyzes the markup and passes structured information to an application. The
specification places requirements on what an XML processor must do and not do, but the
application is outside its scope. The processor (as the specification calls it) is often referred to
colloquially as an XML parser.
Markup and content
The characters making up an XML document are divided into markup and content, which may
be distinguished by the application of simple syntactic rules. Generally, strings that constitute

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markup either begin with the character < and end with a >, or they begin with the
character & and end with a ;. Strings of characters that are not markup are content. However,
in a CDATA section, the delimiters <![CDATA[ and ]]> are classified as markup, while the
text between them is classified as content. In addition, whitespace before and after the
outermost element is classified as markup.
Tag
A tag is a markup construct that begins with < and ends with >. Tags come in three flavors:
start-tag, such as <section>;
end-tag, such as </section>;
empty-element tag, such as <line-break />.
Element
An element is a logical document component that either begins with a start-tag and ends with
a matching end-tag or consists only of an empty-element tag. The characters between the start-
tag and end-tag, if any, are the element's content, and may contain markup, including other
elements, which are called child elements. An example is <greeting>Hello, world!</greeting>.
Another is <line-break />.
Attribute
An attribute is a markup construct consisting of a name–value pair that exists within a start-tag
or empty-element tag. An example is <img src="madonna.jpg" alt="Madonna" />, where the
names of the attributes are "src" and "alt", and their values are "madonna.jpg" and "Madonna"
respectively. Another example is <step number="3">Connect A to B.</step>, where the name
of the attribute is "number" and its value is "3". An XML attribute can only have a single
value and each attribute can appear at most once on each element. In the common situation
where a list of multiple values is desired, this must be done by encoding the list into a well-
formed XML attribute[i] with some format beyond what XML defines itself. Usually this is
either a comma or semi-colon delimited list or, if the individual values are known not to
contain spaces,[ii] a space-delimited list can be used. <div class="inner greeting-
box">Welcome!</div>, where the attribute "class" has both the value "inner greeting-box"
and also indicates the two CSS class names "inner" and "greeting-box".
XML declaration
XML documents may begin with an XML declaration that describes some information about
themselves. An example is <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>.
Bottom of Form
PHP
This article is about the scripting language. For other uses, see PHP (disambiguation).

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PHP is a general-purpose scripting language especially suited to web development.[5] It was
originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994.[6] The
PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group.[7] PHP originally stood
for Personal Home Page,[6] but it now stands for the recursive initialism PHP: Hypertext
Preprocessor.[8]
PHP code is usually processed on a web server by a PHP interpreter implemented as a module,
a daemon or as a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) executable. On a web server, the result of
the interpreted and executed PHP code – which may be any type of data, such as
generated HTML or binary image data – would form the whole or part of an HTTP response.
Various web template systems, web content management systems, and web frameworks exist
which can be employed to orchestrate or facilitate the generation of that response.
Additionally, PHP can be used for many programming tasks outside of the web context, such
as standalone graphical applications[9] and robotic drone control.[10] PHP code can also be
directly executed from the command line.
The standard PHP interpreter, powered by the Zend Engine, is free software released under
the PHP License. PHP has been widely ported and can be deployed on most web servers on
almost every operating system and platform, free of charge.[11]
The PHP language evolved without a written formal specification or standard until 2014, with
the original implementation acting as the de facto standard which other implementations
aimed to follow. Since 2014, work has gone on to create a formal PHP specification.[12]
W3Techs reports that, as of April 2021, "PHP is used by 79.2% of all the websites whose
server-side programming language we know."[13]
IMPLEMENTATIONS
The only complete PHP implementation is the original, known simply as PHP. It is the most
widely used and is powered by the Zend Engine. To disambiguate it from other
implementations, it is sometimes unofficially called "Zend PHP". The Zend
Engine compiles PHP source code on-the-fly into an internal format that it can execute, thus it
works as an interpreter.[195][196] It is also the "reference implementation" of PHP, as PHP
has no formal specification, and so the semantics of Zend PHP define the semantics of PHP.
Due to the complex and nuanced semantics of PHP, defined by how Zend works, it is difficult
for competing implementations to offer complete compatibility.
PHP's single-request-per-script-execution model, and the fact the Zend Engine is an
interpreter, leads to inefficiency; as a result, various products have been developed to help
improve PHP performance. In order to speed up execution time and not have to compile the
PHP source code every time the web page is accessed, PHP scripts can also be deployed in the
PHP engine's internal format by using an opcode cache, which works by caching the compiled
form of a PHP script (opcodes) in shared memory to avoid the overhead
of parsing and compiling the code every time the script runs. An opcode cache, Zend Opcache,

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is built into PHP since version 5.5.[197] Another example of a widely used opcode cache is
the Alternative PHP Cache (APC), which is available as a PECL extension.[198]
While Zend PHP is still the most popular implementation, several other implementations have
been developed. Some of these are compilers or support JIT compilation, and hence offer
performance benefits over Zend PHP at the expense of lacking full PHP compatibility.
Alternative implementations include the following:
HHVM (HipHop Virtual Machine) – developed at Facebook and available as open source, it
converts PHP code into a high-level bytecode (commonly known as an intermediate language),
which is then translated into x86-64 machine code dynamically at runtime by a just-in-
time (JIT) compiler, resulting in up to 6× performance improvements.[199] However, since
version 7.2 Zend has outperformed HHVM,[200] and HHVM 3.24 is the last version to
officially support PHP.[201]
Parrot – a virtual machine designed to run dynamic languages efficiently; Pipp transforms the
PHP source code into the Parrot intermediate representation, which is then translated into the
Parrot's bytecode and executed by the virtual machine.
PeachPie – a second-generation compiler to .NET Common Intermediate Language (CIL)
bytecode, built on the Roslyn platform; successor of Phalanger, sharing several architectural
components
Phalanger – compiles PHP into Common Intermediate Language (CIL) bytecode; predecessor
of PeachPie
Quercus – compiles PHP into Java bytecode
HipHop – developed at Facebook and available as open source, it transforms the PHP scripts
into C++ code and then compiles the resulting code, reducing the server load up to 50%. In
early 2013, Facebook deprecated it in favor of HHVM due to multiple reasons, including
deployment difficulties and lack of support for the whole PHP language, including
the create_function() and eval() constructs.
LICENSING
PHP is free software released under the PHP License, which stipulates that:
Products derived from this software may not be called "PHP", nor may "PHP" appear in their
name, without prior written permission from [email protected]. You may indicate that your
software works in conjunction with PHP by saying "Foo for PHP" instead of calling it "PHP
Foo" or "phpfoo".
This restriction on use of "PHP" makes the PHP License incompatible with the General Public
License (GPL), while the Zend License is incompatible due to an advertising clause similar to
that of the original BSD license.
DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNITY

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PHP includes various free and open-source libraries in its source distribution, or uses them in
resulting PHP binary builds. PHP is fundamentally an Internet-aware system with built-in
modules for accessing File Transfer Protocol (FTP) servers and many database servers,
including PostgreSQL, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server and SQLite (which is an embedded
database), LDAP servers, and others. Numerous functions familiar to C programmers, such as
those in the stdio family, are available in standard PHP builds.
PHP allows developers to write extensions in C to add functionality to the PHP language. PHP
extensions can be compiled statically into PHP or loaded dynamically at runtime. Numerous
extensions have been written to add support for the Windows API, process management
on Unix-like operating systems, multibyte strings (Unicode), cURL, and several
popular compression formats. Other PHP features made available through extensions include
integration with IRC, dynamic generation of images and Adobe Flash content, PHP Data
Objects (PDO) as an abstraction layer used for accessing databases, and even speech
synthesis. Some of the language's core functions, such as those dealing with strings and arrays,
are also implemented as extensions. The PHP Extension Community Library (PECL) project
is a repository for extensions to the PHP language.
Some other projects, such as Zephir, provide the ability for PHP extensions to be created in a
high-level language and compiled into native PHP extensions. Such an approach, instead of
writing PHP extensions directly in C, simplifies the development of extensions and reduces
the time required for programming and testing.
By December 2018 the PHP Group consisted of ten people: Thies C. Arntzen, Stig
Bakken, Shane Caraveo, Andi Gutmans, Rasmus Lerdorf, Sam Ruby, Sascha Schumann, Zeev
Suraski, Jim Winstead, and Andrei Zmievski. Zend Technologies provides a PHP
Certification based on PHP 7 exam (and previously based on PHP 5.5) for programmers to
become certified PHP developers.
INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION
There are two primary ways for adding support for PHP to a web server – as a native web
server module, or as a CGI executable. PHP has a direct module interface called Server
Application Programming Interface (SAPI), which is supported by many web servers
including Apache HTTP Server, Microsoft IIS, Netscape (now defunct) and iPlanet. Some
other web servers, such as OmniHTTPd, support the Internet Server Application Programming
Interface (ISAPI), which is a Microsoft's web server module interface. If PHP has no module
support for a web server, it can always be used as a Common Gateway Interface (CGI)
or FastCGI processor; in that case, the web server is configured to use PHP's CGI executable
to process all requests to PHP files.
PHP-FPM (FastCGI Process Manager) is an alternative FastCGI implementation for PHP,
bundled with the official PHP distribution since version 5.3.3. When compared to the older
FastCGI implementation, it contains some additional features, mostly useful for heavily
loaded web servers. When using PHP for command-line scripting, a PHP command-line
interface (CLI) executable is needed. PHP supports a CLI server application programming

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interface (SAPI) since PHP 4.3.0. The main focus of this SAPI is
developing shell applications using PHP. There are quite a few differences between the CLI
SAPI and other SAPIs, although they do share many of the same behaviors. PHP has a direct
module interface called SAPI for different web servers; in case of PHP 5 and Apache 2.0 on
Windows, it is provided in form of a DLL file called php5apache2.dll, which is a module that,
among other functions, provides an interface between PHP and the web server, implemented
in a form that the server understands. This form is what is known as a SAPI.
There are different kinds of SAPIs for various web server extensions. For example, in addition
to those listed above, other SAPIs for the PHP language include the Common Gateway
Interface (CGI) and command-line interface (CLI).
PHP can also be used for writing desktop graphical user interface (GUI) applications, by using
the PHP-GTK extension. PHP-GTK is not included in the official PHP distribution, and as an
extension it can be used only with PHP versions 5.1.0 and newer. The most common way of
installing PHP-GTK is compiling it from the source code.
When PHP is installed and used in cloud environments, software development kits (SDKs) are
provided for using cloud-specific features. For example:
Amazon Web Services provides the AWS SDK for PHPWindows Azure can be used with the
Windows Azure SDK for PHP. Numerous configuration options are supported, affecting both
core PHP features and extensions Configuration file php.ini is searched for in different
locations, depending on the way PHP is used. The configuration file is split into various
sections, while some of the configuration options can be also set within the web server
configuration. USE

A broad overview of the LAMP software bundle, displayed here together with Squid
PHP is a general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited to server-side web
development, in which case PHP generally runs on a web server. Any PHP code in a
requested file is executed by the PHP runtime, usually to create dynamic web page content or
dynamic images used on websites or elsewhere.[234] It can also be used for command-
line scripting and client-side graphical user interface (GUI) applications. PHP can be deployed

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on most web servers, many operating systems and platforms, and can be used with
many relational database management systems (RDBMS). Most web hosting providers
support PHP for use by their clients. It is available free of charge, and the PHP Group
provides the complete source code for users to build, customize and extend for their own use.

Dynamic web page: example of server-side scripting (PHP and MySQL)

Originally designed to create dynamic web pages, PHP now focuses mainly on server-side
scripting,[235] and it is similar to other server-side scripting languages that provide dynamic
content from a web server to a client, such as Microsoft's ASP.NET, Sun
Microsystems' JavaServer Pages,[236] and mod_perl. PHP has also attracted the development
of many software frameworks that provide building blocks and a design structure to
promote rapid application development (RAD). Some of these
include PRADO, CakePHP, Symfony, CodeIgniter, Laravel, Yii
Framework, Phalcon and Laminas, offering features similar to other web frameworks.
The LAMP architecture has become popular in the web industry as a way of deploying web
applications.[237] PHP is commonly used as the P in this bundle
alongside Linux, Apache and MySQL, although the P may also refer to Python, Perl, or some
mix of the three. Similar packages, WAMP and MAMP, are also available
for Windows and macOS, with the first letter standing for the respective operating system.
Although both PHP and Apache are provided as part of the macOS base install, users of these
packages seek a simpler installation mechanism that can be more easily kept up to date.
For specific and more advanced usage scenarios, PHP offers a well defined and documented
way for writing custom extensions in C or C++. Besides extending the language itself in form
of additional libraries, extensions are providing a way for improving execution speed where it
is critical and there is room for improvements by using a true compiled language. PHP also
offers well defined ways for embedding itself into other software projects. That way PHP can
be easily used as an internal scripting language for another project, also providing tight
interfacing with the project's specific internal data structures. PHP received mixed reviews
due to lacking support for multithreading at the core language level, though using threads is
made possible by the "pthreads" PECL extension. A command line interface, php-cli, and
two ActiveX Windows Script Host scripting engines for PHP have been produced.
Popularity and usage statisticsEdit
PHP is used for Web content management systems including MediaWiki, WordPress, Joomla,
Drupal, Moodle, eZ Publish, eZ Platform, and SilverStripe. Websites using PHP

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include Facebook, Digg, Dailymotion, and Tumblr. As of January 2013, PHP was used in
more than 240 million websites (39% of those sampled) and was installed on 2.1 million web
servers. As of March 2021, PHP was used as the server-side programming language on 79.1%
of websites, down from 83.5% previously, where the language could be determined, and PHP
7 is the most used version of the language with 50.3% of all websites on the web are using
that version.
CLIENT-SIDE vs. SERVER-SIDE
Client-side means that the action takes place on the user’s (the client’s) computer. Server-side
means that the action takes place on a web server.
So what do we mean by action? And why does some action take place on your computer and
some on a server?
When we say action we mean all that work that programming languages do. You will
remember from our term about programming languages that they are the doers of the web.
Programming languages like Ruby, Python, and JavaScript do things like: send an email, ask
the bank how much money you have in your account, or tell a photo slideshow to advance to
the next image.
In order for a programming language to do its job, the computer has to understand the
language its speaking.
Almost every computer in the world understands one programming language: JavaScript. For
this reason, most things that can be accomplished using JavaScript can be done without
needing access to a web server. Thus, though you are usually connected to the Internet when
you run JavaScript scripts, you could just as easily disconnect from the Internet and run those
same scripts on your computer (the client-side).
On the other hand, if you want to use a programming language (Ruby, PHP, and Python, etc)
you need access to a server that understands the language. Tasks that need to be accomplished
with those languages happen on that server, meaning they are done server-side.
But can’t I just install a programming language on my computer?
Yes, you can install programming languages on your computer but that still won’t let you find
out your bank account balance without being connect to your bank’s servers.
The reason for this is databases. Data storage is the other thing that is usually handled server-
side. If data was stored client-side, your bank would have to keep track of thousands if not
millions of user databases all over the world. Instead, they keep all their user data in one
centralized database where they have easy access to it, and you do too via the Internet.
SERVER-SIDE ACTIVITY
Server-side code is used to invoke the Web DataWindow generator. During the generation
process:

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Using the default XHTML export template or a custom template you created, an XHTML
rendering of the DataWindow is generated in a DOM tree.
A CSS style sheet is generated in a DOM tree with the style information for the DataWindow
elements.
Generating as many of the style rules in CSS as possible (including all absolute positions)
increases page download speed because the stylesheet is downloaded only once and cached.
Client-side JavaScript files are generated for instantiating the control object and the array of
row elements.
You can improve performance by generating most of this client-side JavaScript in static files.
For information about how you create and deploy the static JavaScript files, see “Generating
JavaScript for common management tasks”.
A reverse transformation of the XHTML DOM tree to XML (DataWindow content) and
XSLT (DataWindow layout) occurs.
XSLT also creates the structural layout of the page, saving bandwidth. Server processing is
also reduced by offloading work to the client.
A small amount of JavaScript is generated to perform explicit transformation on the client side
to render in the browser a fully functional DataWindow in XHTML.

XHTML and HTML DataWindows The XHTML Web DataWindow generates separate
CSS and JavaScript files, but it does not generate the XML content and XSLT structure in
separate files. It renders an XHTML page in the browser. The HTML Web DataWindow
renders an HTML page.
CLIENT-SIDE ACTIVITY
When a user accesses a Web page containing the XML Web DataWindow, the client browser:
Downloads the source XML file (DataWindow content for the page) and the XSLT stylesheet,
which is cached locally.
Performs the transformation using the XSLT processor built in to the client browser.
Outputs the XHTML result into a <div> section on the page.
Downloads, caches, and applies the CSS stylesheet for display in the browser.
Downloads and caches JavaScript files.
When there is a subsequent action by the user (HTTP Post/HTTP response), regenerates and
downloads the XML file and JavaScript row objects file for the updated DataWindow page.
Browser requirements for the XML Web DataWindow

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The XML Web DataWindow requires browsers that support the latest client-side
technologies—XML, XSLT, XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You can select the browser to use
for the XML Web DataWindow (XHTML format) in the Web Generation page in the
DataWindow object property view:

Browser XML parser/XSLT processor XSLT version

Internet Explorer 5, 5.5 MSXML 2.0, 2.5 (update required) XSL-WD

Internet Explorer 6.0 MSXML 3.0 XSLT 1.0

Netscape 6+ TransforMiiX XSLT 1.0

Mozilla 1.0 TransforMiiX XSLT 1.0

MSXML 2.6 or higher is required with Internet Explorer The XML Web DataWindow
requires MSXML 2.6 or higher with Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer 5 or 5.5 includes
MSXML 2.0 or 2.5, so you must either update MSXML to 2.6 or higher or use Internet
Explorer 6.0. For information about MSXML versions, refer to “Version list for the Microsoft
XML parser” on the Microsoft Help and Support Web site.

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