Network

A network is a set of devices (often referred to as nodes) connected by communication links. A node can
be a computer, printer, or any other device capable of sending and/or receiving data generated by other
nodes on the network.
“The connectivity of two or more than two devices through some transmission medium to share the
information with each other”.
A group of computers and other devices joint together through some transmission medium is called
Computer Network.

Why Computer Network?

To share information or receive a service via a network, group members must be able to communicate
with each other. So, that is why we need computer networking.

Data Communication:
Data communication is the exchange of digital or analog data using digital or analog signals via some sort
of transmission medium.

Local Communication:
When the data travels a short distance, such that when data is send from computer to printer, the
communication referred to as “Local Communication”.

Tele Communication:
When the data travels a long distance, the communication referred to as “Tele Communication”.
The prefix “Tele” is derived from Greek word which means “Far”.
For example, a person make a call to a person setting in the next room or next building is an example of
Telecommunication.

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Components of Data Communication:
In 1949, a Claude Shannon an Engineer at T -Bell lab describes the components of data communication.

Data Communication has the five main components:

Source/Sender: - The source initiates/originates the communication. It is actually that device which
generates data, which is to be transmitted.
It is also called sender (is a device that sends the data message). It can be a computer (transform digital
signals), telephone (transmit analog signals), workstation, video camera and so on.

Message: - The message is the information that the source want to communicate to the receiver. Popular
form of the information includes text, numbers, pictures, audio & video.

Medium: - The transmission medium is the physical path by which a message travels from sender to
receiver. OR The encoded message travels by means of transmission media include, twisted-pair cable,
fiber optic cable and radio waves etc.

Receiver: - The receiver is a device that receives the message. It can be computer, workstation,
telephone handset, television and so on.

Protocols: - A protocol is set of rules that govern data communication.

A protocol defines what is communicated, how it is communicated, and when it is communicated.
Without a protocol, two devices may be connected but not communicating, just as a person speaking
French cannot be understood by a person who speaks only Japanese.

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History of Network

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4
Categories of Networks:
Today when we speak, we are generally referring the primary categories PAN, LAN, MAN and WAN.
The category into which a network falls is determined by technology its size, standard port & cable.

PAN:
Interconnects wireless devices such as PDAs, laptops and notebooks, and music playback devices used
over short distances such as a few meters.

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LAN:
A Local Area Network can connect many types of computing devices together such as microcomputers,
minicomputers and switches.
A LAN is usually privately owned links the devices in a single office, building, or campus. Depending on
the need of organization and the type of technology used.
A LAN can be as simple as two PCs and a printer in someone’s home office, or it extend throughout a
company and include voice, sound, and video peripherals. Currently LAN size is limited to a few
kilometers.

Some Characteristics:
➢ Old LAN speed is from 4 to 16 Mbps
➢ Modern LAN speed is from 100Mbps to 1000Mbps
➢ Distance is limited to few kilometers

MAN:
A high speed (100Mbps) network which spans city distances. OR It may be a single network such as a
cable television network, or it may be a means of connecting a number of LANs into a larger network, so
that resources may be shared LAN-to-LAN as well as device-to-device.

A MAN may be wholly owned and operated by a private company, or it may be a service provided by a
public company, such as a local telephone company.
Many telephone companies provided a popular MAN service called Switched Multi-megabit Data Service
(SMDS). It is a service for handling high-speed communication for metropolitan area network.

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 A MAN based on Cable TV

WAN:
The network between different cities, countries or in the world using WAN standard port & routing
technology is called WAN. OR
A WAN is a network that covers a large geographical area using communication channel that combines
many types of media such as telephone lines, cables & radio waves.
The Internet is the World’s largest WAN.

WAN Characteristics:
They use data lines which belong to a third party service provider such as the telephone company. They
require special interfaces to the data lines such as synchronous modems & routers.
Routing technology is a crucial component of a WAN. Routers decide how a packet should be sent in
order that it arrives at its intended destination.

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Basic Network Terminologies:

Data:
Data can exist in a variety of forms -- as numbers or text on pieces of paper, as bits and bytes stored in
electronic memory, or as facts stored in a person's mind. Strictly speaking, data is the plural of datum, a
single piece of information.

Bit Rate or Data Rate:

In telecommunications and computing, bit rate (sometimes written bitrate) is the number of bits that are
processed per unit of time.
It is the speed at which data can be transmitted from one device to another device. Data rates are often
measured in conjunction with an SI prefix such as megabits (million bits/sec) or megabytes (million
bytes/sec) per second. These are usually abbreviated as Mbps and MBps respectively.

Baud Rate:
Baud rate by definition means the number of times a signal in a communications channel changes its
state in unit time usually one second.

Peak Data Rate:

Peak data rate is the maximum data transfer rate for a device, typically available in short bursts during
transfer activity, and not sustainable for long periods of time.

Burst Data:
It is a term which means a specific amount of data sent or received in one intermittent operation. For
example: An average download speed of a file is 2Mbps, while having “peaks” bursting up, say 2.4Mbps.

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What do you find on a network?
The following types of nodes may be found on a data communications system.

Host:
A central computer which stores data and executes programs for terminals. It is usually associated with
minicomputers or mainframes. It requires a multi-tasking, multi-user operating system such as UNIX.

Terminal:
A computing device which is composed of a video screen and a keyboard. It allows a user to
communicate with a host by typing in information or commands. The host communicates with the
terminal by updating the CRT (video). Terminals cannot execute programs.

Workstation/Client:
The computer which use but do not provide network resources. Client also called Front End computer.
OR
A computer which takes advantage of the services provided by servers on the network. A workstation has
its own processing capabilities since it is a full-fledged computer with a microprocessor.
“Client” often refers to the workstation’s operating system such as Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX.

Server based Network:

Server is computer that provides network resources or services. Server also called Back End computer.
Server based network also called client-server network, containing Client & the server that support them.
Examples include file, print or communication servers.

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Peer-to-Peer Network:
Peer-to-Peer or simply peer means the computer which has both qualities as server as well as client. It
means which both use & provide network resources.
Peer network which have no servers & use the network to share resources among independent peers.
Users simply share disk space & resources, such as printers & faxes.

In a peer-to-peer system there are no fixed clients and servers.

Network Topology:
The network topology is the shape or the physical connectivity of the network. It refers to the
configuration of cables, computers, and other devices.

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Bus Topology:
A bus topology is a multipoint. One long cable acts as a backbone to link to the entire device in a
network. In this topology all the computers are connected in a series to a single shared cable having
terminators to each end.
Nodes are connected to the bus cable by drop-line and tap.
A drop-line is a connection running b/w the device and main cable. A tap is a connector that either
splices into the main cable to create a contact with the metallic core.

Advantages:
➢ Not much expensive
➢ Require less cable length as compare to star topology
➢ Better for small networks when security is not a big issue

Disadvantages:
➢ If one computer fails the remaining devices will not be able to send or receive data
➢ Entire network shuts down if there is a break in the main cable
➢ Difficult to identify the problem if the entire network is shut down
➢ Every computer can see the data in the network which is not good security wise
➢ Adding more computers will slow the speed of data transfer

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Star Topology:
In star topology, each device has a dedicated point -to-point link only to the central controller, usually
called HUB.
In star topology communication with a central HUB that resend the message either to all the computers
(in a broadcast star network) or only to the destination computer (in a switch star network).
The devices are not directly linked to one another. The controller acts as an exchange, if one device want
to send data to another, it send the data to the controller, which than relays the data to the other connected
device.

Advantages:
➢ Easy to install devices in the network
➢ No disruption occur when adding or removing new devices
➢ Easy to detect and faults and remove parts
➢ If one station goes down the entire network will not affected

Disadvantages:
➢ Require more cable and Extra device as compare to Bus topology
➢ If the central device (Hub, Switch) fails the entire network will shut down

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Ring Topology:
In ring topology, each device has a dedicated point -to-point connection with only to the two devices on
either side of it.
A signal is passed along the ring in one direction, from device to device, until it reaches its destination.
Each device in the ring incorporates the repeater, when a device receives a signal intended for another
device; its repeater generates the bit and passes them along.

Advantages:
➢ Not very expensive
➢ Even when the load on the network increases, its performance is better than that of Bus topology.

Disadvantages:
➢ If one workstation goes down, the entire network gets affected.
➢ Data flow is only in one direction

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Mesh Topology:
In mesh topology, every device has a dedicated point -to-point link to every other device. The term
dedicated means that link carries traffic only b/w two devices it connects.
In mesh topology we need n (n-1)/2 duplex mode links.

Advantages:
➢ Data can be transmitted simultaneously within different devices unlike bus and ring topology
➢ Alternative path can be used in case of, if damage occur in other path
➢ If one computer fails the entire network will not be affected

Disadvantages:
➢ Very expensive as compare to other topologies
➢ Adding one new device will require more n(n-1)/2 connections
➢ Due to high no of connections set-up and maintenance of this topology is very difficult

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Hybrid Topology:
Hybrid Topology uses a combination of any two or more topologies in such a way that the resulting
network does not exhibits one of the standard topology (e.g. Bus Star Ring etc.)
A Hybrid topology is always produced when two different basic networks are combined.
Two common examples for hybrid network are Star Ring Network and Star Bus Network.

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Data Flow Modes:

Simplex:
In simplex mode of data flow, communication can take place in only one direction. It means the sender
will always send & the receiver will always receive. An example is TV waves, we can watch different
channels on TV but there is no need to send any type of signals from TV. Another example is line printer.

Half-Duplex:
A half-duplex system can transmit data in both direction, but only in one direction at a time. It means that
at a time one computer can only send or receive, when one device completes a transmission, this device
must “turn over” the medium to the other device so that this second device has turn to transmit.

Full-duplex:
This type of data flow allows a device to send & receive data simultaneously is called duplex or full -
duplex system. This system provides two ways to simultaneously data transfer by providing each device
with a separate communication channel.

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Network Devices:
MODEM:
Modem is used to transfer data from one place to another place via conventional telephone lines. As
telephone lines work only on analog signals while computer sends the data in digital format so, to
overcome this problem modem first convert computer digital data into analog signal. This process is
called “Modulation”.
On the receiving side modem reconvert the analog signals into digital form and this process is called
“Demodulation”.
That’s why the word “Modem” is the combination of these two terms.

Modem Types:

1) Internal Modem:
Most of modems are Internal and placed internally in computer mother board. These modem uses CPU’s
processing for its some functionalities.

2) External Modem:
These are expensive and use externally which is connected with the serial port of the computer. External
modem is used when there are more than one user, in such case external modem is used.

NIC: (Network Interface card)

They are also known as “Network Card”. NIC cards are used to attach a computer with a network. They
usually are in the form of adapter cards which are placed in the computer’s mother board slots.
There are different NIC used for different types of cables. For example UTP and Fiber Optic have
different types of NIC cards.
Speed range is from 10 mbps to 1000mbps. They are plug and play which do not requires any installation
driver software.

HUB:
Hub work as a central device in a computer network. All the computer are connected with the HUB
through cables. Hub consists of some number of ports and every port can be used to connect a computer
with it.

Working:
Hub receive message from any computer within the network and sends it to all the computers in network
via its ports.

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HUB TYPES:
1) Passive:
They are very simple. They are unable to perform operations on data signals. It does not provide any
processing or regeneration of signals. They also do not require any power source. Due to this these type of
hub doesn’t carry out signals for long distance.
They are inexpensive but limited performance.

2) Active:
Active HUB work like as a repeater. So it is also called a “Multiport Repeater”.
Active Hub can Amplify signals and remove the errors from signals. This phenomenon is known as
“signal regeneration”. Due to signal regeneration there are less chance of errors in data transmission.
Besides this range between two computers can also be extended.
These are expensive than Passive Hub.

SWITCH:
Switch stores all computers and devices addresses in the network. It sends data only to the requested
computer rather than a HUB. In case of HUB there is high data traffic because all the ports are busy while
transferring data while in switch case data has an address of the receiver’s computer and only two ports
are busy, one is for sender and other is for receiver which result less data traffic.

Switch Types:
I) Store and Forward Switch:
In this type switch waits until the arrival of complete frame. This frame is buffered. Buffer is a place
where data is temporary stored. From the buffered frame receiver address can be found. For checking
frame validity a process id performed on each frame which is called CRC (cyclic redundancy check). If
the frame is valid then it will forward otherwise not.
Here is one problem using this type of switch, it is very time consuming because of buffering each frame.

II) Cut Through Switch:

In cut through switch there is no buffering concept while it gets the first 64bits and from this the receiver
address is extracted and immediately sent it via a suitable port to its destination. There is no CRC
technique which result fast data transmission but the problem is there is a chance of forwarding wrong
frame to the destination.

REPEATER:
The signal sent through cable in the network is accurate at some distance. After that it starts getting weak
and a time comes at which signals strength is zero. To solve this problem we use repeater.
Ordinary repeater to not interfere or change the signal. It only amplify signals and reduce the weakness in
signals. But due to amplification it produce some noise. Noise is the disturbance of signals during data
transmission. This noise is produced due to electromagnetic interference which is also known as EMI.

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BRIDGE:
Bridge is used to combine two networks or divide a network into pieces. Bridge only forward the selected
signals while repeater forwards all the signals.
It waste the unimportant signals.

Working of Bridge:
Let suppose there are two departments (Admin and Sales) in a company and there data traffic is very
high. To reduce the data traffic we divide it in A B section and place a Bridge device between them. After
that the data from these two will first arrive to the bridge. If LAN A’s data belongs to a computer within
the LAN “A”. Then Bridge will ignore it because this data can be sent without the bridge.
In other case if LAN A’s want to send data to a computer in LAN B then Bridge will send it to LAN B.
Bridge also store network devices addresses in a Table.

ACCESS POINT:
In computer networking, a wireless access point (WAP) is a networking hardware device that allows a
Wi-Fi device to connect to a wired network. The WAP usually connects to a router (via a wired network)
as a standalone device, but it can also be an integral component of the router itself.

ROUTER:
Router is used for Routing, And Routing is the process of sending data to a specific location within the
network.
In Bridge there were some drawbacks. If there are multiple paths available then bridge cannot decide the
shortest path to use for data transmission.
Router is intelligent and uses some algorithm to choose the right path for data transmission and also store
all network address in table called Routing Table.
Router also can divide a network into small pieces.

Types of Routers:
1) Static Router:
In this type of router all the addresses of network devices are manually configured and stored in Routing
Table.

2) Dynamic Router:
Dynamic Router obtain these addresses automatically by learning from data traffic and by communicating
with other routers.

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Transmission Media:
A transmission medium can be broadly defined as anything can carry information from a source to a
destination.
For example, the transmission medium for two people having a dinner conversation is the air. For
message, the transmission medium might be a mail carrier, a truck, or an airplane.
In data communication, the definition of information and the transmission medium is more specific.
The transmission medium is usually free space, metallic cable, or fiber-optic cable.
The use of long-distance communication using electric signals started with the invention of the
th
telegraph by Morse in the 18 century. Communication by Telegraph was slow and dependent on
metallic medium. Extended the range of the human voice became possible when the Telephone was
invented in 1869, but the communication was un-reliable due to the poor quality of the wires, then
Wireless communication started in 1895. We have come a long way. Better metallic media have been
invented.

Guided Media:
The cable media is called guided media. There are three types of cable media.
a) Twisted-Pair Cable
b) Coaxial Cable
c) Fiber-optic Cable

Twisted Pair Cable:

A twisted pair consist of two conductors, each with its own plastic insulation, twisted together. Twisted-
Pair Cable has become the dominant cable type for all new network designs that employ copper cable.
Among the several reasons for the popularity of this cable, the most significant is its low cost. Twisted
pair consists of one or more twisted pairs of cables. The frequency range for twisted pair cable is 100Hz
up to 5 MHz
There are two types of twisted pair cable:

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Shielded Twisted Pair: (STP)
IBM produce a version of twisted pair cable for its use called shielded twisted pair (STP). Shielded
Twisted Pair has the shield over the pairs and also has plastic jacket. Shielded twisted pair (STP) is
suitable for environments with electrical interference; however, the extra shielding can make the cables
quite bulky and more expensive. Shielded twisted pair is often used on networks using Token Ring
topology.

Unshielded Twisted Pair:

The most common twisted pair cable used in data communication is referred to as UTP. Unshielded
twisted pair (UT is generally the best option for local networks. The quality of UTP may vary from
telephone-grade wire to extremely high-speed cable. The cable has four pairs of wires inside the jacket.

UTP Categories:
The (EIA/TIA) Electronic Industry Association/Telecommunication industry association has developed
standards to classify UTP cable into seven categories. Categories are determined by cable quality, with 1
is the lowest and 7 is the highest. Each EIA categories is suitable for specific uses.

Applications
Twisted pair cables are used in telephone lines to provide voice and data channels.
The local loop (the line that connects subscribers to the central telephone office) commonly used
commonly consist of UTP.
The DSL lines that are used by the telephone companies to provide high-data-rate connections also use
the high-bandwidth of UTP cables.
Local area networks, such as 10baseT and 100baseT, also use twisted-pair cables.

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Coaxial Cable:
Coaxial cable is an electrical cable consisting of a round conducting wire, surrounded by an insulating
spacer, surrounded by a cylindrical conducting sheath, and usually surrounded by a final insulating layer.

Most common use of coax (the short form of coaxial cable) today is in standard cable TV. If you have the
chance to examine a cable, you will find that it has a fairly simple design. A copper conductor lies in the
center of the cable, which is surrounded by insulation. A braided or mesh outer covering surrounds the
insulation. This is also a conductor.

A PVC plastic jacket encases the covering the cable is designed to carry a high-frequency or broadband
signal, as a high-frequency transmission line. Because the electromagnetic field carrying the signal exists
(ideally) only in the space between the inner and outer conductors, it cannot interfere with or suffer
interference from external electromagnetic fields.

Thick Net or RG-8

Thick Net is older and one of the first types of coaxial cable used in networks. RG-8 is strung in a
physical bus topology. Its thick shielding makes it fairly immune to noise but also very rigid and difficult
to work with. RG-8 requires connectors, called vampire taps that pierce through its thick outer shielding.
Both ends of the bus must be terminated with a 50-ohm resistor; without both functioning resistors, the
network will fail.

Thin Net or RG-58

Thin Net cable is far more flexible than Thick Net and much easier to work with. RG-58 cabling is also
strung as a physical bus. It is capable of connecting a maximum of 30 devices on up to a 185-meter length
of cable. Thin Net is constructed like Thick Net, except that the central conductor and the insulation are
much thinner. British Naval Connectors (BNCs) are crimped onto the cable for connectivity, and 50-ohm
resistors are required at each end of the cable. They used to be common for implementing computer
networks, in particular Ethernet, but twisted pair cables have replaced them in most applications.

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The IEEE shorthand identifiers, such as 10Base5, 10Base2, 10BaseT, and 10BaseTX include three
pieces of information:
1. The number 10: At the front of each identifier, 10 denotes the standard data transfer speed over these
media - ten megabits per second (10Mbps).
2. The Word Base: Short for Baseband, this part of the identifier signifies a type of network that uses only one
carrier frequency for signaling and requires all network stations to share its use.

3. The segment type or segment length: This part of the identifier can be a digit or a letter.
Digit - shorthand for how long (in meters) a cable segment may be before attenuation sets in. For example, a
10Base5 means 10Mbps transfer rate having maximum 5 segments of 100 meters long.

Letter - Identifies a specific physical type of cable. For example, the T at the end of 10BaseT stands for twisted -
pair

10Base2
An Ethernet term which means a maximum transfer rate of 10Mbps that uses baseband signaling, with a
contiguous cable segment length of 100 meters and a maximum of 2 segments.

10Base5
An Ethernet term which means a maximum transfer rate of 10Mbps that uses baseband signaling, with a
contiguous cable segment length of 100 meters and a maximum of 5 segments.

10BaseT
An Ethernet term which means a maximum transfer rate of 10Mbps that uses baseband signaling and
twisted pair cabling with a segment length of 100 meters and a router after every 2 segments, if in case of
large network.

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Fiber-Optic Cable:
Fiber Optic is made of glass or plastic and transmits signals in the form of light. Fiber Optic Cable is the
ideal for data transmission. It is not only provide extremely high bandwidths, but it also present no
problems with EMI and supports durable cables and cable runs as long as several kilometers.
A cable, consisting of a center glass core surrounded by layers of plastic, that transmits data using light
rather than electricity. It has the ability to carry more information over much longer distances.
A data transmission medium consisting of glass fibers. Light-emitting diodes send light pulses through
the fiber to a detector which then converts the light signal to an electronic signal
The central conductor of a fiber optic cable is a fiber that consists of highly refined glass or cladding that
reflects signals back into the fiber to reduce signal loss.

The outer jacket is made of either PVC (polyvinyl chloride) or Teflon (a trademark for a plastic material
is used as a coating). Inside the jacket are Kevlar strands to strengthen the cable. Kevlar is a strong
material used in the fabrication of bulletproof vests.
Bandwidth of fiber optic varies from 1Gbps to 100Gbps.

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Unguided media:
Wireless media is called unguided media.
Unguided media transport electromagnetic waves without using physical conductor. Such type of
communication is often refer to as wireless communication.
We use wireless media where cabling would be impossible or inconvenient. And also useful for people
who move around a lot within their work environment. It is also useful for temporary installation.
Electromagnetic spectrum (the complete range of electromagnetic radiation from the shortest waves to the
longest (radio waves)) for wireless communication

Propagation methods:
Unguided signals can travel from the source to destination in several ways.

Ground Propagation:
In ground propagation, radio waves travel through the lowest portion of atmosphere.

Sky Propagation:
In sky propagation, higher frequency radio waves radiates upward into the ionosphere where they are
reflected to back to the earth.

Line-of-sight:
In line-of-sight propagation, very high frequency signals are transmitted to straight lines directly from
antenna to antenna.
Note: Ionosphere in which incoming ionizing radiation from space creates ions and free electrons that
can reflect radio signals, enabling their transmission around the world.

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Wireless Media:
1) Radio Wave
2) Microwave
3) Infrared

Radio waves:
Electromagnetic waves ranging in frequencies between 3 kHz and 1 GHz are normally called Radio
waves. Radio waves are Omni-directional. Radio waves use Omni-directional antennas that send out
signals in all direction. It means that the sending and receiving antennas do not have to be aligned. A
sending antenna send waves that can be received by any antenna.
The Omni-directional characteristics of radio waves make them useful for multicasting, in which there is
one sender but many receivers. AM & FM radio, television and cordless phone are example of
multicasting.

Microwaves:
Electromagnetic waves having frequencies between 3GHz and 300 GHz are called microwave.
It is also called Terrestrial Microwaves (Relating to earth).
Microwaves are unidirectional so it needs unidirectional antennas that send out signals in one direction.
This means that the sending and receiving antennas need to be aligned.
Microwave transmission is used to communicate via satellite and they used for unicast communication
such as cellular telephone, satellite networks.

A satellite acts as a microwave relay station, receiving signals sent from a ground-based station (earth
station), amplifying them, and retransmitting them on a different frequency to another ground based
station.
Initially used for telephone and television signals, communications satellites can also be used for high-
speed transmission of computer data.

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Infrared transmission:
This technology uses infrared light to transmit data.
Infrared signals can be used for short-range communication in a closed area using line-of-sight
propagation.
You are already familiar with this technology because your remote control uses it to communicate with
your TV set.
Printers and laptop computers are sometimes equipped with infrared ports so that you can print from your
laptop without requiring a cable. This can be very handy for mobile workers.
In general, infrared transmission can achieve high output, up to 10Mbps, however, distance is limited,
usually to 100 feet. Although it is not affected by EMI, ambient light can degrade its performance.

Types of Connectors:

RJ-11 (Registered Jack)

Standard telephone cable connectors, RJ-11 has 4 wires (and RJ-12 has 6 wires). RJ-11 is the acronym
for Registered Jack-11, a four- or six-wire connector primarily used to connect telephone equipment.

RJ-11 Pin Signal Name

1 VCC (5 volts regulated)

2 Power Ground

3 One Wire Data

4 One Wire Ground

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RJ-45 (Registered Jack)
The acronym for Registered Jack-45 is RJ-45. The RJ-45 connector is an eight-wire connector
that is commonly used to connect computers to a local area network (LAN), particularly Ethernet
LANs. Although they are slightly larger than the more commonly used RJ-11 connectors, RJ-45s
can be used to connect some types of telephone equipment.

BNC (Bayonet Neill Concelman)

The most common type of connector used with coaxial cables is the BNC connector.
Different types of adapters are available for BNC connectors, including a T-connector, barrel connector,
and terminator.
Connectors on the cable are the weakest points in any network. To help avoid problems with your
network, always use the BNC connectors that crimp, rather than screw, onto the cable.

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OSI Model: (Open System Interconnect)
OSI model consist of 7 layers and each layer communicate with the same layer on the receiving side. It is
developed in order to establish a communication between two systems which are entirely different,
hardware wise, Architecture wise and software wise.

1) Application Layer:
The Application layer provides services to those software through which the user requests to network
services.
This layer is not about your computer application such as like Microsoft Word, or Corel Draw etc. It is
about the browsers, FTP clients and Mail client applications.

2) Presentation Layer:
As representation of data can be different of every computer due to its architecture or operating system so,
the Presentation layer converts the data sent by the application layer into a common format which is
known to the application layer at the receiving side.
This layer also provide the services of encryption and decryption.

3) Session Layer
This layer provides the connection establishment, starting session, managing and ending session between
users on different machines.

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4) Transport Layer
The transport layer is responsible for the delivery of a messages from one process to another.
Here the messages is divided into segments (Pieces of Data) with segment containing a sequence number.
These numbering helps to reassemble the message correctly upon arriving at the destination.
Transport layer makes sure that weather the data is completely arrived or it is not been changed.
Connection Control: - Transport layer can be either connection less or connection oriented and for this
two different protocols are used TCP and UDP.
TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is a connection oriented protocol. TCP is used where a reliable
connection is required means where it is not desired to lose any data which is being transferred over the
network.
UDP (User Datagram Protocol) is a connection less protocol. UDP is light weighted protocol and is used
for small data with high speed. It does not care much about reliability.

5) Network Layer
Here the segments encapsulated into packets received from the transport layer. In this layer routing take
place which works on logical IP addressing.
Here segments become packets by adding the source and destination addresses to the segment. And after
that these packets are sent to the data link layer.

6) Data Link Layer

In this layer the packets are assembled into frames where switches take place in the network. Each frame
is encoded with the MAC (Media Access Control) address.
Mac address prevents collision in the same region.

7) Physical Layer
Physical layer transforms the frames into bits and then sent over the network by a physical hardware over
a medium i.e. Ethernet.

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TCP/IP:
The Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol is a network communication protocol. It can be used
as a communications protocol on private networks and it is the default protocol in use on the internet.
When you set up any system to have direct access to the Internet, whether it is via dial - up or one of the
high speed technologies in use today, your system will need to utilize the TCP/IP protocol whether it is a
Windows based system or not.
Also, if the given system needs to communicate to other TCP/IP systems on the local LAN or WAN it
will need to utilize the TCP/IP protocol as well.

TCP/IP version 4 (IPv4):

IPv4 addresses are made of up four 8- bit fields (octets) and are32- bits in size total. Microsoft TCP/IP
version 4 supports the standard classes of address, which defines which bits are used for the network ID
and which bits are used for the host ID. There are 5 TCP/IP version 4 (IPv4) addresses, although for the
most part, only the A, B, and C classes are used.
TCP/IP version 4 address are made of both a network ID and a host ID. The network ID address identifies
the physical network where the hosts exist. The host ID address identifies the individual TCP/IP host on a
network. The host ID must be unique on the internal network, that is, no two nodes on a given network
can have the same network ID AND host ID.
The first octet referred here is the left most of all. The octets numbered as follows depicting dotted
decimal notation of IP Address:

Number of networks and number of hosts per class can be derived by this formula:

When calculating hosts IP addresses, 2 IP addresses are decreased because they cannot be assigned to
hosts i.e. the first IP of a network is network number and the last IP is reserved for Broadcast IP.

Class A:
The first bit of the first octet is always set to 0 (zero). Thus the first octet ranges from 1 – 127, i.e.

Class A addresses only include IP starting from 1.x.x.x to 126.x.x.x only. The IP range 127.x.x.x is
reserved for loopback IP addresses.

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The default subnet mask for Class A IP address is 255.0.0.0 which implies that Class A addressing can
have 126 networks (27-2) and 16777214 hosts (224-2).
Class A: IP address format thus, is 0NNNNNNN.HHHHHHHH.HHHHHHHH.HHHHHHHH

Class B:
An IP address which belongs to class B has the first two bits in the first octet set to 10, i.e.

Class B IP Addresses range from 128.0.x.x to 191.255.x.x. The default subnet mask for Class B is
255.255.x.x.
Class B has 16384 (214) Network addresses and 65534 (216-2) Host addresses.
Class B IP address format is, 10NNNNNN.NNNNNNNN.HHHHHHHH.HHHHHHHH

Class C:
The first octet of Class C IP address has its first 3 bits set to 110, that is

Class C IP addresses range from 192.0.0.x to 192.255.255.x. The default subnet mask for Class B is
255.255.255.x.
Class C gives 2097152 (221) Network addresses and 254 (28-2) Host addresses.
Class C IP address format is 110NNNNN.NNNNNNNN.NNNNNNNN.HHHHHHHH

Class D:
Very first four bits of the first octet in Class D IP addresses are set to 1110, giving a range of

Class D has IP address rage from 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255. Class D is reserved for Multicasting. In
multicasting data is not destined for a particular host, that's why there is no need to extract host address
from the IP address, and Class D does not have any subnet mask.

Class E:
This IP Class is reserved for experimental purposes only like for R&D or Study. IP addresses in this class
ranges from 240.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.254. Like Class D, this class too is not equipped with any subnet
mask.

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TCP/IP version 6 (IPv6):
IPv6 addresses are a set of specifications from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and has been
designed to overcome the current shortage of addresses under TCP/IP version 4.
According to the United Nations, world population reached 7 Billion on October 31, 2011
Under IPv4 every IP address is 32 bit long, which allows 4.3 billion unique IP addresses. In comparison,
IPv6 addresses are 128 bits, which allow approximately three hundred and forty trillion, trillion, trillion
unique IP addresses.
This protocol is not yet fully implemented due to some issues.

Subnet Masks:
A subnet mask is a 32 bit number that masks an IP address, and divides the IP address into network
address and host address.
Subnet mask is made by setting network bits to all “1s” and setting host bits to all “0s”.

Sub netting:
The process of dividing a network into two or more networks is called sub netting.

Routed VS Routing Protocol:

Routed Protocol:
Routed protocols are those by which data can be routed. In this kind of protocol we require an IP
addressing scheme and sub netting.
Routed protocol only used between hosts.
Example:
IP (Internet Protocol) is an example of routed protocol.

Routing Protocol:
Routing protocol supports a routed protocol by providing mechanisms for sharing routing information.
Routing protocols only used between routers. A routing protocol allows the routers to build and maintain
routing tables.
Example of routing protocols are routing information, Interior gateway routing protocol (IGRP),
Enhanced Interior gateway routing protocol (EIGRP), and open shortest path first (OSPF).

The End

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