Assignment of Workshop on Information Technology

Submitted To: Mr. Inderpal Singh

Submitted by: Charanjit Singh MBA 2nd sem Roll no. 11-107

TOPIC: Computer Networking

Computer network
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information.Where at least one process in one device is able to send/receive data to/from at least one process residing in a remote device, then the two devices are said to be in a network. Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics such as the medium used to transport the data, communications protocol used, scale, topology, and organizational scope. Communications protocols define the rules and data formats for exchanging information in a computer network, and provide the basis for network programming. Well-known communications protocols are Ethernet, a hardware and Link Layer standard that is ubiquitous in local area networks, and the Internet Protocol Suite, which defines a set of protocols for internetworking, i.e. for data communication between multiple networks, as well as host-to-host data transfer, and application-specific data transmission formats.

Computer networking is sometimes considered a sub-discipline of electrical engineering, telecommunications, computer science, information technology or computer engineering, since it relies upon the theoretical and practical application of these disciplines. A computer network is a collection of autonomous computers. The definition is as simple as that. More complex definitions can be found on text books and other websites, but I believe in an approach that should make sense in the simplest way. If you think about computer network, then you should consider the fact that it simple means various computers connected to each other which should facilitate sharing of resources. This article on computer networks will cover only the basics of what all you need to know on a superficial level. Each section will be explained in detail in later articles.

The Need For Computer Networks

As businesses grows, so does the requirements. Companies that start out small grow into large organizations where they have thousands of offices spread across different parts of the globe. Companies needed a cost effective solution for connecting all their businesses in different places and thus computer networks were invented. In olden times, a single computer used to process all the requirements of a large organization or university. Gone are those days where centralized computing was the norm. With the advent of technology and the reduction in prices of computers, businesses found it more cost effective to have a lot of computers do the job a single computer did. This proved effective in many ways 1. Higher reliability 2. Better efficiency 3. Ability to troubleshoot better 4. Reduced latency These computers were collectively termed as computer networks. These computers had the ability to exchange data between them and share resources. Resource sharing was one of the most important features of computer networks. With resource sharing, computers were able to deliver higher return of investment. To print a document each computer need not have its own printer. Any computer in the network could access a printer, even remotely, when free to print the required information. This also increased reliability because if one computer or printer in a network went down, another computer or printer could take its place. As uptime is critical for every business, computer networks began to spread fast.

Types of computer network

Computer network can be wired or wireless which includes LAN,CAN,MAN and WAN

1) Local Area Network

It connects computer and work stations to share the data and resource such as Printer as Fax. As the name suggest a LAN is a local set up for interconnecting computers. Companies privately own LANs and are used to connect the local computers through the use of cables. Most often time these local area networks are privately owned and exist within a building or extend up-to a few kilometers. The best use they are put into is to enable resource sharing between computers within an office. In my company we have several workstations and only a small number of printers. We have enabled wireless LAN as well as local LAN to enable resource sharing as it is a key factor in reducing business costs Lan Features a) Allows the users to share device like printer or faxes in a network b) Covered a local area of 1 KM c) Low cost Network management is always a pain for system administrators. This is avoided by restricting the size of the network so that the worst case scenario is already known and risk assessment can be done. In simple LAN configuration, a single cable runs through the entire set up and the peripherals and computers are attached to the cable. Traditional LAN speeds are 10Mbps to 100Mbps. Modern LAN cables are capable of much higher data transfer per second. In case two or more systems needs to use the LAN at the same time, then an arbitration mechanism is deployed to resolve the conflict. A first come first serve policy or a prioritized approach may be taken.

LAN Topologies
Below you can see various LAN topologies

2) Campus Area Network (CAN)

It's made up of two or more LAN's with in a limited area. It can cover many buildings in a area Can Features a)It's connect two or more Lan's within a Campus b)Covers privately owned campus with an area of 5 to 100 K.M c)Data Transmission rate - Variable d)High Cost

3)Metropolitan Area Network

Man is the inter connection of network in a city. It allows sharing resource in a city. The best exmaple for MAN is the Television cable network in city. MAN Features a)It covers large area than LAN but smaller area than WAN with in area of 2 to 100 km. b)Data transmission rate - variable c)High Cost. MAN or the Metropolitan Area Network is basically a bigger LAN. The technology used in LAN and WAN are the same. When LAN is restricted to a building or a few kilometers, WAN can basically serve as a backbone for connecting many office networks within a geographical area together. It supports video as well as audio. this makes it suitable for certain cable TV networks. The design simplicity of MAN comes from the fact that there is no switching in involved. There is a standard that is adopted for all metropolitan area networks. It is Distributed Queue Dual Bus (DQDB) or IEEE 802.6. There are basically two buses in a DQDB. One on the upper end and one on the lower end. Each of theses buses have a head end which indicates the direction of information flow. If you want to send information to a computer which is situated to the right of the host computer, then the upper bus is chosen. The lower one for communicating with computers to the left of the network.

4) Wide Area Network (WAN)

Wan covers a wide geographical area which includes multiple computer or Lan's.It connects computers through public network like telephone system,leaseline..etc Wan Features a)Most opf the Wan's use lease line for internet access b)Data transmission rate - 64 Kpbs or 2mbps c)High Cost When we talk about LAN and MAN, there are certain restrictions in terms of the network boundary. However, in some cases, boundaries for networks are not feasible when long distance communication is necessary. In case of WAN or Wide Area Network, it spans a very large geographical area as in a continent or country. Normally WANs are just physical extensions of LANs. They are built using private leased lines. Their huge coverage area makes the cost go higher and transmission speeds to drop down. What companies do to avoid spending too much money and time in managing individual leased lines is they deploy VPN or Virtual Private Network over internet

connections which are cheap. Note that the routers and switches you use must be capable of handling VPN traffic. When VPNs are introduced as cost saving alternatives, we must ensure that the security of our data is intact. Several encryption schemes are used which will help keep the data private and prevent unauthorized viewing or interception of sensitive data. Host and subnet aspects are introduced in WANs. Hosts are simply put, the systems that are connected to the WAN network. Image a telephone. What does it do? It helps us to pass a voice message from a person on one end of the phone line to another. The subnet has a similar function of information transfer between hosts. Talking about subnet, there are two main components when the Wide Area Networks are considered. 1. Switching elements 2. Transmission lines Let us start with what transmission lines are. Simply put transmission lines is a a medium to transfers bits of information between the machines in the network. To connect these transmission lines, we use specialized computers called switching elements. It performs intelligent switching function. When it receives an input packet, it decides which output line to forward it to. You should note that that subnet mentioned here is a little ambiguous. Subnet here and subnetting for network address is not the same. Here, the term subnet is used as a generic term for computer components in the WAN.

Network topologies are categorized into the following basic types:

bus ring star tree mesh . Bus Topology Bus use a common backbone to connect all devices. A single cable, the backbone functions as a shared communication medium that devices attach or tap into with an interface connector. A device wanting to communicate with another device on the network sends a broadcast message onto the wire that all other devices see, but only the intended recipient actually accepts and processes the message. Ethernet bus topologies are relatively easy to install and don't require much cabling compared to the alternatives. 10Base-2 ("ThinNet") and 10Base-5 ("ThickNet") both were popular Ethernet cabling options many years ago for bus topologies. However, bus networks work best with a limited number of devices. If more than a few dozen computers

are added to a network bus, performance problems will likely result. In addition, if the backbone cable fails, the entire network effectively becomes unusable. Illustration - Bus Topology Diagram

Ring Topology In a ring network, every device has exactly two neighbors for communication purposes. All messages travel through a ring in the same direction (either "clockwise" or "counterclockwise"). A failure in any cable or device breaks the loop and can take down the entire network. To implement a ring network, one typically uses FDDI, SONET, or Token Ring technology. Ring topologies are found in some office buildings or school campuses. Illustration - Ring Topology Diagram

Star Topology Many home networks use the star topology. A star network features a central connection point called a "hub" that may be a hub, switch or router. Devices typically connect to the hub with Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) Ethernet. Compared to the bus topology, a star network generally requires more cable, but a failure in any star network cable will only take down one computer's network access and not the entire LAN. (If the hub fails, however, the entire network also fails.)

Illustration - Star Topology Diagram

Tree Topology Tree topologies integrate multiple star topologies together onto a bus. In its simplest form, only hub devices connect directly to the tree bus, and each hub functions as the "root" of a tree of devices. This bus/star hybrid approach supports future expandability of the network much better than a bus (limited in the number of devices due to the broadcast traffic it generates) or a star (limited by the number of hub connection points) alone. Illustration - Tree Topology Diagram

Mesh Topology Mesh topologies involve the concept of routes. Unlike each of the previous topologies, messages sent on a mesh network can take any of several possible paths from source to destination. (Recall that even in a ring, although two cable paths exist, messages can only travel in one direction.) Some WANs, most notably the Internet, employ mesh routing.

A mesh network in which every device connects to every other is called a full mesh. As shown in the illustration below, partial mesh networks also exist in which some devices connect only indirectly to others. Illustration - Mesh Topology Diagram

Topologies remain an important part of network design theory. You can probably build a home or small business computer network without understanding the difference between a bus design and a star design, but becoming familiar with the standard topologies gives you a better understanding of important networking concepts like hubs, broadcasts, and routes.

Computer Network Hardware

Here are some of the common computer hardware devices that we see in a computer network. 1. Routers 2. Hubs 3. Switches 4. Network Gateways 5. Network Firewalls 6. Adapters 7. Bridges 8. NIC or Network Interface Card

Digital Modem
The modem that is used to send and to receive data to and from a digital telephone line is called digital modem. ISDN modem and DSL modem are the best example of digital

modem. These modem are used to send and receive the digital data to and from the digital line, So there is no need to convert to analog signals because digital lines already use the digital signals.

Bridge
It is an electronic device that connects two same type of networks and control the traffic between them. A bridge basically split an overloaded network into two separate network for reducing the amount of traffic on each segment and increase the performance of each network. A bridge looks at the information in each packet header and forwards data from one LAN to another.

Router
An electronic device that connects many computers together and transmits data to its correct destination using the available path on the network is called router. It stores the information of each node on the network and to use these information to transfer date between nodes. Routable Protocols There are not all protocols works with routers. Routable protocols are -IP -IPX -OSI -DECnet -XNS Like a bridge, a router looks at each packet's header to determine the destination of packet and thus reach its destination. Some routers also have built-in antivirus protection. Similarly, some routers also support wireless communication Type of Routers Static Router. An administrator manually set up the router path and configuration of static router. Dynamic Router. A dynamic router automatically find the path to its destination with minimal configuration.

Gateway
A gateway is an electronic device that can perform logical function. A gateway is a device or system (because it may be a hardware or software) that connects two or more networks to share their information from one to the other. Packets from different networks have different type of information in their headers, and information in different format. The gateway can take a packet from one type of network, read the header, and then encapsulates the entire packet into a new one, adding a header that is understood by the network.