Introduction to IT Ch-V

Chapter 5
Computer Networks and Data Communication
Objective: On completion of this module, students should be able to
 Understand computer networking
 Differentiate between different types of networks
 Explain terminology associated with network components
Introduction
When microcomputers first come in to existence, each person’s computer was stand-alone device. If you want to
produce a letter, draw picture or do a spreadsheet, your computer would load from its disk drive(s) the software for
each of the applications you would use. If you wrote a document with your word processor and wanted to give it to
some one else to edit with their word processor, you would have used what was affectionately known as the
“sneaker net.” That is, you put the document on a diskette, and the sneakers on your feet walked over to the other
person and delivered the diskette. Here people ask the question why it is not possible to hook the stand-alone
computers together and share the information, data, or application software. The solution for this question becomes
Networking.
Data communication is the exchange of information between two agents
Networking
By definition, a network refers to things that are hooked together. For example, we can take the following as
examples of networking:
 Networking of telephone line
 Networking of universities
 Networking of departments in an organization
By the same reasoning, a group of computers that are connected together are known as networking.
Computer networks can be classified by
I. Physical Topology
II. Size
III. Architecture (configuration)
Physical Topology
Refers to the way in which a network laid out physically or to the arrangement or physical layout of computers,
cables, and other components on the network.
 The choice of one topology over another will have an impact on the
 Types of equipment that the network needs
 Growth of the network – scalability
 Way the network managed
Four basic topologies are possible: mesh, star, bus, and ring
Mesh Topology
Every device has a dedicated point-to-point link to every other device. Every device must have n-1 I/O ports.
Advantages:
 No traffic problem
 Robust; a failure of a link has no effect on others
 Privacy or security
 Fault identification and isolation are easy
Disadvantages:

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 Amount of cabling and I/O ports needed (expensive)

Fig: Mesh Topology

Star Topology
Each device has a dedicated point-to-point link only to a central controller, usually called a Concentrator
Advantages:
 Robust; a failure of a link has no effect on others
 Fault identification and isolation are easy
 Less expensive than mesh (but more expensive than others)
Disadvantage:
 Single point of failure

Fig: Star Topology

Bus Topology
Multipoint (one long cable acts as a backbone to link all the devices in the network)
Advantages:
 Ease of installation; less cabling than star or mesh
Disadvantages:
 Difficult reconnection (adding new devices) and fault isolation
 A fault in the bus cable stops all transmission

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Fig: Bus Topology

Ring Topology
Each device has a dedicated point-to-point connection only with 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
incorporates a repeater (to regenerate bits received before passing it).

Fig: Ring Topology

Advantages:
 Relatively easy to install and configure - adding or deleting a device requires changing only two
connections
 Fault isolation is simplified (if one device does not receive a signal within a specified period, it can
issue an alarm)
Disadvantages:
 A break in the ring (such as a disabled station) can disable the entire network
Size
Based on size, ownership, and the distance it covers network categorized as:
 Local Area Network (LAN)
 Wide Area Network (WAN) &
 Metropolitan Network (MAN)
Local Area Network (LAN): Usually privately owned and links devices in a single office, building or campus

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Fig: LAN

Wide Area Network (WAN): Covering large geographic area; may utilize public, leased, or private
communications equipment

Fig: WAN

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN): Designed to extend over an entire city; it may be a single network or
interconnected LANs
Network Architecture
 Includes the type of computers on the network and determines how network resources are handled. There
are two common models of network architecture.
 Peer-to-peer
 Client/Server
Peer-to-peer Model
Each node considered as equal in terms of resource sharing and responsibilities
Pros
 Easy to set up
 Less expensive
 Demands moderate level of skill to administer
 User is able to control their own resources
Cons
 Only < 10 nodes
 Very low level of security
 Performance suffers when a computer is accessed
Peer-to-peer networks are good choices for environments where:
 There are 10 users or fewer
 Users share resources, such as printers, but no specialised servers exist
 Security is not an issue
Client Server Model
 Consists of a group clients connected to a server
 Server – with more RAM, larger hard disk, more processing power…
Pros

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 High level of security

 No limit on number of nodes
Cons
 Difficult to set up
 Expensive

Fig: Client Server Model

Transmission media
It is a physical media that carries a signal from the transmitter to the receiver.
 Two basic categories
 Guided
 Unguided
Guided – uses a cabling system that guides the signals along a specific path
E.g. Fiber Optics, Twisted Pair etc…
Unguided – consists of a means for the data signals to travel but nothing to guide them along a specific path.
E.g. Wireless
 N.B. Understanding the characteristics of different types of transmission media and how they relate to other
aspects of a network is necessary for the development of a successful network.
Bandwidth – the maximum volume of information that can be transferred over a communication medium.
Measured in bits per second (bps) in digital circuits
Guided Media - Cable Types
 Twisted-Pair Cable
 Optical Fiber
 Coaxial Cable
Twisted-Pair Cable
 Consists of two pairs of insulated copper wires twisted around each other
Advantages:
 Protect against cross talk & interference
 Easy to add computers to network
 Well understood technology
 Less expensive

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Disadvantages:
 Susceptibility to noise
 Least secure
 Distance limitations
 For analog, repeaters needed every 5-6km
 For digital, repeaters needed every 2-3km
There are two types of twisted-pair cable
◦ Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
◦ Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)
Coaxial Cable
 Copper center shielded by a plastic insulating material.
Advantages:
◦ Transmits up to 10Mbps over 500m
◦ Easy to install
◦ Low maintenance
◦ Good resistance to noise over long distances
Disadvantages:
◦ Inflexible
◦ Low security
◦ Limited distance
Optical Fiber cable
 Uses light rather than voltage to indicate one and zeros.
Advantages:
 High speed transmission
 High security
 Smallest in size
 Supports voice & video data
 Not effected by extreme electromagnetic fields
 Crosstalk and impulse
Disadvantages:
 Expensive
 Difficult to install
 Require two cables to transmit & receive data
 Require special connections
Network Devices
1. Network Interface Card (NIC)
2. Repeaters
3. Hubs & Switches
4. Bridge
5. Routers
6. Gateways
Network Interface Card
 Physically connects computer to transmission media
 Amplifies electronic signals
 Packages data for transmission
 Installed in a slot with a cable plugged into the back

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 Operate at 10Mbps/100Mbps
 Each NIC is associated with a unique address called MAC (Media Access Control)
Address
Repeaters
 Connects two segments of a network cable
 Electrically amplifies the signal it receives and rebroadcasts it
 Used when the total length of your network cable exceeds the standards set for the type of cable being
used
◦ E.g. The length limit for unshielded twisted-pair cable is 100 meters
Hubs & Switches
 Hub
 retransmits incoming signal to all outgoing lines
 only one station can transmit at a time to avoid collisions
 Acts as a connecting point
 Switch
 Offers direct connection to a particular PC
Bridge
 make possible the interconnection of two LANs with no or minimal reconfiguration of the hosts that are
part of each LAN
 Bridges may be needed to interconnect two LANs
◦ Either as part of the initial design or when needed in the future.
Routers
 Transfer information from one network to another
 Evaluate network traffic and stop local traffic from causing congestion
 Filter out packets that need not be received
 can even "listen" to the entire network to determine which sections are busiest
 Expensive & difficult to operate
Gateways
 Special-purpose computer allowing communications between dissimilar systems on the network
 Difficult to install & configure
 Expensive

Introduction to the Internet

 The Internet can be defined as worldwide interconnection scheme for accessing various computer networks
from other computers. It is a network of networks. There were 38 million computers networked to the
Internet in 1996.
Service of the Internet
 E-mail transfer
 USENET
 World Wide Web (WWW, Web, W3)
 File transfer/access (FTP)
 Remote login/ execution (Telnet)
 Video Conferencing
Electronic mail service
 A user belongs to the Internet, if and only if he/she is subscribed to the Internet server. (i.e., he/she has
account name and user’s key word or password). Every user, which belongs to the network, has his/her
account and computer system that provides the account. To send a message to someone you need an
address, which comprises of the user name/account and the domain name.

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 The user name identifies the sender or the recipients. The domain name identifies the computer system on
which the user has an account. For Example [email protected]. This address is the address of the
user(s) with user name maths.aau and has account name at the computer system at telecom.net.et. In
general, the text before @ is called user name; the text after @ is the domain name. Usually the domain
name has extensions like .com, .org, .gov.
 By specifying the appropriate address you can send a message to the user of that address; and you can
receive your message from abroad by searching in your mailbox by logging in to the Internet. Once you
belong to the Internet you can access your mail or other service from any computer.
USENET
 Is a worldwide distributed discussion group consists of a set of newsgroups. News group are named
hierarchically by subject.
 Articles or messages are posted to news groups and the articles are then broadcasted to other
interconnected computer systems. Anyone with the appropriate software can post and read news message.
World Wide Web (WWW, Web, W3)
 It the process of sharing common information of the world by the help of the Internet services. It includes
education, health, games, chat, sport, news and others.
 Document on the web contains multimedia formats: text, image, figures, animation, video, and sound and
also contains hyperlinks (which appear as highlighted or underlined images or texts, or icons, or hotspots in
images) to other documents stored anywhere on the web.
 It requires special software programs like Netscape, Internet Explorer, or others. They are called Web
Browsers.
 To access information by browsing, you have to know the address (URL Uniform Resource Locator) of the
page that you want to browse. It gives the exact path to the page. In most case it will have the following
format. http://www.cnn.com
File transfer (FTP)
 It helps to transfer files and programs from one system to another. Uses the file transfer protocol. Using
FTP programs we can upload or download files. But to do this there should be an admission from the
remote computer.
Remote Login (Telnet)
 It is a program that lets you log into a remote computer directly through the Internet and you can work on
that computer.
Video Conferencing:
 Video conferencing means making a conference on the Internet by individuals who live in different
locations. This takes place at the same time in different location. It is similar to conference in a hall except
they are at distant.

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