Case Project 2-1 Expanding the Network Backbone

Why Ethernet is still a good choice for the network backbone.

Ethernet is a good choice because it is the current International Standard and was
designed with backwards compatibility in mind. Ethernet as a standard is constantly
evolving and being developed to adapt to the ever increasing demands of the users.

Furthermore Ethernet will continue to be a good choice because manufacturers of all

the hardware which is involved in networking have adopted Ethernet meaning
interconnectivity between different brands/types of equipment will be maintained
and policed. Because all the manufacturers develop according to the Ethernet
standard there is high competition between them to make them faster and cheaper
for the user.

Whilst there are other alternatives, ie. Token ring, with the current cheap prices and
current speeds of fibre cables reaching up to bursts of 100gbps at this point in time
there really is no other option that you would for the backbone.

Case Project 2-4 More Questions About the OSI Reference Model

Network Function OSI Layer

Encoding and signalling; Physical data Layer 1 Physical
transmission over a medium; Hardware
specifications; Topology. Handles data-
carrying signal.
Defines how data is formatted for Layer 2 Data Link
transmission and how access to the
network is controlled sublayers are:
media access control (MAC) and logical
link control (LLC) sends
acknowledgements of individual frames
Encapsulation, fragmentation, Layer 3 Network
addressing, routing and traffic
management. Ensures data is received in
the order it was sent
End to end connections, reliability error Layer 4 Transport
recovery and flow control. Resizes
frames to match the receiving network
Establishment, management and Layer 5 Session
termination of connections
Formats, Compresses and encrypts data Layer 6 Presentation
to be sent across a network
Provides network services to user Layer 7 Application
applications such as sharing remote
drives, sharing remote printers, handles
email messages, provides file transfer
 services, file management systems,
terminal services.

Case Project 2-5 More Questions about the OSI Reference Model

The media access control address (MAC) address is the physical address or unique
identifier assigned most commonly by the manufacturer of a network interface card
and are stored in its firmware, the ip address is the virtual address where as the MAC
address is the physical address