NETWORK DEVICES

To communicate data through different

transmission media and to configure
network with different functionality, we
require devices like Modem, Hub, Switch,
Gateway, etc.
1. Modem
Modem stands for ‘MOdulator DEMolulator’.
It refers to a device used for conversion
between analog signals and digital bits.
The modem at the sender’s end acts as a
modulator that converts the digital data into
analog signals. The modem at the receiver’s
end acts as a demodulator that converts the
analog signals into digital data for the
destination node to understand
2. Ethernet Card
Ethernet card, also known as Network
Interface Card (NIC card in short) is a
network adaptor used to set up a wired
network.
It acts as an interface between computer
and the network. It is a circuit board
mounted on the motherboard of a computer.
The Ethernet cable connects the computer
to the network through NIC. Each NIC has a
MAC address, which helps in uniquely
identifying the computer on the network.
3. Repeater
A repeater is an analog device that works
with signals on the cables to which it is
connected.
The weakened signal appearing on the cable
is regenerated and put back on the cable by
a repeater. These signals can travel a
specified distance (usually about 100 m).
Signals lose their strength beyond this limit
and become weak.
4. Hub
An Ethernet hub is a network device used to
connect different devices through wires.
Data arriving on any of the lines are sent out
on all the others.
The limitation of hub is that if data from two
devices come at the same time, they will
collide.
5. Switch
A switch is a networking device that plays a
central role in a Local Area Network (LAN).
Like a hub, a network switch is used to
connect multiple computers or
communicating devices.
When data arrives, the switch extracts the
destination address from the data packet
and looks it up in a table to see where to
send the packet.
Thus it sends signals to only selected
devices instead of sending to all. It can
forward multiple packets at the same time.
6. Router
A router is a network device that can
receive the data, analyse it and transmit it
to other networks.
A router connects a local area network to
the internet. Compared to a hub or a switch,
a router has advanced capabilities as it can
analyse the data being carried over a
network, decide or alter how it is packaged,
and send it to another network of a different
type.
A router can be wired or wireless. A wireless
router can provide Wi-Fi access to
smartphones and other devices. Usually,
such routers also contain some ports to
provide wired Internet access.
7. Gateway
As the term “Gateway” suggests, it is a
key access point that acts as a “gate”
between an organisation's network and
the outside world of the Internet.
Gateway serves as the entry and exit
point of a network, as all data coming in
or going out of a network must first pass
through the gateway in order to use
routing paths.
Besides routing data packets, gateways
also maintain information about the host
network's internal connection paths and
the identified paths of other remote
networks.
If a node from one network wants to
communicate with a node of a foreign
network, it will pass the data packet to
the gateway, which then routes it to the
destination using the best possible route.
 NETWORK TOPOLOGIES
The arrangement of computers and other
peripherals in a network is called its
topology. Common network topologies are
mesh, ring, bus, star and tree.
1. Mesh Topology
In this networking topology, each
communicating device is connected with
every other device in the network as shown
in Figure 5.12. Such a network can handle
large amounts of traffic since multiple nodes
can transmit data simultaneously. Also, such
networks are more reliable in the sense that
even if a node gets down, it does not cause
any break in the transmission of data
between other nodes.

2. Ring Topology
In ring topology, each node is connected
to two other devices, one each on either
side, as shown in Figure .
The nodes connected with each other
thus form a ring.
The link in a ring topology is
unidirectional. Thus, data can be
transmitted in one direction only
(clockwise or counterclockwise).
3. Bus Topology
In this topology, a single backbone wire
called bus is shared among the nodes,
which makes it cheaper and easy to
maintain.
Both ring and bus topologies are
considered to be less secure and less
reliable.
In bus topology, each communicating
device connects to a transmission
medium, known as bus.
Data sent from a node are passed on to
the bus and hence are transmitted to the
length of the bus in both directions. That
means data can be received by any of the
nodes connected to the bus.
4. Star Topology
In star topology, each communicating
device is connected to a central node,
which is a networking device like a hub or
a switch, as shown in Figure.
Star topology is considered very effective,
efficient and fast as each device is
directly connected with the central
device.
Although disturbance in one device will
not affect the rest of the network, any
failure in the central networking device
may lead to the failure of complete
network.
The central node can be either a
broadcasting device means data will be
transmitted to all the nodes in the
network, or a unicast device means the
node can identify the destination and
 forward data to that node only.

5. Tree or Hybrid Topology

It is a hierarchical topology, in which
there are multiple branches and each
branch can have one or more basic
topologies like star, ring and bus.
Such topologies are usually realised in
WANs where multiple LANs are
connected.
Those LANs may be in the form of ring,
bus or star. In figure, a hybrid topology is
shown connecting 4 star topologies in
bus.
In this type of network, data transmitted
from source first reaches the centralised
device and from there the data passes
through every branch where each branch
can have link for more nodes
 The Internet
The Internet is a worldwide network that
links computers. People may exchange
information and converse through the
Internet from any location with an
Internet connection. The Internet is a vast
network that connects billions of
computers and other electronic devices
all around the world.
 Applications of Internet
Following are some of the broad areas or
services provided through Internet:
• The World Wide Web (WWW)
• Electronic mail (Email)
• Chat
• Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
1. The World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW) or web in
short, is an ocean of information, stored
in the form of trillions of interlinked web
pages and web resources.
The resources on the web can be shared
or accessed through the Internet. Earlier,
to access files residing in different
computers, one had to login individually
to each computer through the Internet.
Besides, files in different computers were
sometimes in different formats, and it was
difficult to understand each other’s files
and documents.

• HTML — HyperText Markup Language or

HTML is a language which is used to
design standardised Web Pages so that
the Web contents can be read and
understood from any computer across the
globe. It uses tags to define the way page
content should be displayed by the web
browser. Basic structure of every
webpage is designed using HTML.
• URI — Uniform Resource Identifier or
URI is a unique identifier to identify a
resource located on the web. URI
 identifies a resource (hardware or
software) either by its location or by its
name or by both.
2. Electronic Mail (Email)
Email is the short form of electronic mail.
It is one of the ways of sending and
receiving message(s) using the Internet.
An email can be sent anytime to any
number of recipients at anywhere. The
message can be either text entered
directly onto the email application or an
attached file (text, image audio, video,
etc.) stored on a secondary storage.
An existing file can be sent as an
attachment with the email, so no need to
type it again. To use email service, one
needs to register with an email service
provider by creating a mail account.
These services may be free or paid.
Some of the popular email service
providers are Google (gmail), Yahoo
(yahoo mail), Microsoft (outlook), etc.
3. Chat
Chatting or Instant Messaging (IM) over
the Internet means communicating to
people at different geographic locations in
real time through text message(s).
It is a forum where multiple people
connect to each other, to discuss their
common interests. Two individuals can
also send messages instantly.
The sender types a message and sends it;
the receiver immediately receives the
message and can read and revert through
text message.
All this happens in real time, as if the
sender and receiver were sitting in the
same place. For a successful chat session,
the communicating parties should be
online simultaneously, and use the same
chat application.
4. VoIP
Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP, allows
us to have voice call (telephone service)
over the Internet, i.e., the voice
transmission over a computer network
rather than through the regular telephone
network.
It is also known as Internet Telephony or
Broadband Telephony.
But to avail the phone service over the
Internet, we need to have an Internet
connection with reasonably good speed.
VoIP works on the simple principle of
converting the analogue voice signals into
digital and then transmitting them over the
broadband line
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