Data Communication and Computer

Networks

 Presented by:
 Humera Kalsoom
Data Communication and Computer
Networks

 Data Communication refers to the process of exchanging data or information

(through a computer network) between two or more devices or systems through
a transmission medium such as cables, optical fibers, or wireless mediums.
 Computer network A collection of computing devices that are connected in
various ways in order to communicate and share resources

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I
Networking

 The generic term node or host refers to any device on a

network
 Data transfer rate The speed with which data is moved from
one place on a network to another
 Data transfer rate is a key issue in computer networks

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 Networking
 Computer networks have opened up an entire frontier in the world of computing
called the client/server model

Figure 15.1 Client/Server interaction 15-5

Networking

 File server A computer that stores and manages files for

multiple users on a network
 Web server A computer dedicated to responding to requests
(from the browser client) for web pages

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Types of Networks

 Local-area network (LAN) A network that connects a

relatively small number of machines in a relatively close
geographical area

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Types of Networks

 Various configurations, called topologies, have

been used to administer LANs
 Ring topology A configuration that connects all nodes
in a closed loop on which messages travel in one
direction
 Star topology A configuration that centers around one
node to which all others are connected and through
which all messages are sent
 Bus topology All nodes are connected to a single
communication line that carries messages in both
directions

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 Types of Networks

Figure 15.2 Various network topologies

 A bus technology called Ethernet has become the industry

standard for local-area networks
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Types of Networks

 Wide-area network (WAN) A network that connects

two or more local-area networks over a potentially large
geographic distance
Often one particular node on a LAN is set up to serve as a
gateway to handle all communication going between that
LAN and other networks
Communication between networks is called
internetworking
The Internet, as we know it today, is essentially the ultimate
wide-area network, spanning the entire globe

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 Types of Networks

 Metropolitan-area network (MAN) The communication infrastructures that have

been developed in and around large cities

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So, who owns the Internet?

Well, nobody does. No single person or company owns the

Internet or even controls it entirely. As a wide-area network, it
is made up of many smaller networks. These smaller networks
are often owned and managed by a person or organization. The
Internet, then, is really defined by how connections can be
made between these networks.

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 Types of Networks

Figure 15.1 Local-area networks connected across a distance to

create a wide-area network 15-13
Internet Connections

 Internet backbone A set of high-speed networks that carry

Internet traffic
These networks are provided by companies such as AT&T,
GTE, and IBM
 Internet service provider (ISP) A company that provides
other companies or individuals with access to the Internet

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Internet Connections

 There are various technologies available that you can

use to connect a home computer to the Internet
 A phone modem converts computer data into an analog
audio signal for transfer over a telephone line, and then a
modem at the destination converts it back again into data
 A digital subscriber line (DSL) uses regular copper phone
lines to transfer digital data to and from the phone
company’s central office
 A cable modem uses the same line that your cable TV
signals come in on to transfer the data back and forth

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Internet Connections

 Broadband A connection in which

transfer speeds are faster than 128 bits per
second
 DSL connections and cable modems are
broadband connections
 The speed for downloads (getting data from the
Internet to your home computer) may not be the
same as uploads (sending data from your home
computer to the Internet)

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 Packet Switching
 To improve the efficiency of transferring information over a
shared communication line, messages are divided into fixed-
sized, numbered packets
 Network devices called routers are used to direct packets
between networks
Figure 15.4
Messages
sent by
packet
switching

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Open Systems

 Proprietary system A system that uses

technologies kept private by a particular
commercial vendor
One system couldn’t communicate with another, leading
to the need for
 Interoperability The ability of software and
hardware on multiple machines and from multiple
commercial vendors to communicate
Leading to
 Open systems Systems based on a common model
of network architecture and a suite of protocols
used in its implementation

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 Open Systems
 The International
Organization for
Standardization (ISO)
established the Open
Systems Interconnection
(OSI) Reference Model
 Each layer deals with a
particular aspect of
network communication
Figure 15.5 The layers of the OSI Reference Model

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 Network Protocols
 Network protocols are layered such that each one relies on the protocols that
underlie it
 Sometimes referred to as a protocol stack

Figure 15.6 Layering of key network protocols

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TCP/IP

 TCP stands for Transmission Control

Protocol
TCP software breaks messages into packets, hands them off to the
IP software for delivery, and then orders and reassembles the
packets at their destination

 IP stands for Internet Protocol

IP software deals with the routing of packets through the maze of
interconnected networks to their final destination

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TCP/IP (cont.)

 UDP stands for User Datagram Protocol

 It is an alternative to TCP
 The main difference is that TCP is highly reliable, at the cost of
decreased performance, while UDP is less reliable, but generally
faster

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High-Level Protocols

 Other protocols build on the foundation established by the

TCP/IP protocol suite
 Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
 File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
 Telnet
 Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (http)

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MIME Types

 Related to the idea of network protocols and standardization is

the concept of a file’s MIME type
 MIME stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension
 Based on a document’s MIME type, an application program can
decide how to deal with the data it is given

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MIME Types

Figure 15.7
Some
protocols and
the ports they
use
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Firewalls

 Firewall A machine and its software that serve as a special

gateway to a network, protecting it from inappropriate access
 Filters the network traffic that comes in, checking the validity of
the messages as much as possible and perhaps denying some
messages altogether
 Enforces an organization’s access control policy

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 Firewalls

Figure 15.8 A firewall protecting a LAN 15-27

Network Addresses

 Hostname A unique identification that specifies a particular

computer on the Internet
For example
matisse.csc.villanova.edu
condor.develocorp.com

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Network Addresses

 Network software translates a hostname into its corresponding

IP address
For example
205.39.145.18

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Network Addresses

 An IP address can be split into

 network address, which specifies a specific
network
 hostnumber, which specifies a particular
machine in that network

Figure 15.9
An IP address is
stored in four
bytes

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Domain Name System

 A hostname consists of the computer name

followed by the domain name
 csc.villanova.edu is the domain name
 A domain name is separated into two or more
sections that specify the organization, and possibly a
subset of an organization, of which the computer is a
part
 Two organizations can have a computer named the
same thing because the domain name makes it clear
which one is being referred to

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 Domain Name System
 The very last section of the domain is called its top-
level domain (TLD) name

Figure 15.10 Top-level domains, including some relatively new ones 15-32
Domain Name System

 Organizations based in countries other

than the United States use a top-level
domain that corresponds to their two-
letter country codes

Figure 15.11
Some of the top-level domain
names based on country codes

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Domain Name System

 The domain name system (DNS) is chiefly used to translate

hostnames into numeric IP addresses
 DNS is an example of a distributed database
 If that server can resolve the hostname, it does so
 If not, that server asks another domain name server

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