Computer Network

Network
 A group of two or more similar things or people interconnected with
each other is called network.
 E.g.
o Social network
o Mobile network
o Network of computers
o Airlines, railways, banks, hospital networks
Computer network
 A computer network is an interconnection among two or more
computers or computing devices.
 Features
o Share data
o Share resources
Hosts of computer network also known as nodes
 In a communication network each device that is a part of a network and
that can receive, create, store or send data to different network routes is
called node
 E.g.
o Server
o Desktop
o Laptop
o Cellular phones
o Switch
o Router
o Modem
o Hub
o Bridge
o Printer
Communication
 Data in network is divided into smaller chunks called packets.
 These packets are then carried over a network
Connections
 Devices can be connected through
o Wired media like cables
o Wireless media like air
Evolution of networking
 ARPANET= Advance Research Projects Agency Network
 The first message was from University of California (UCLA) and Stanford
Research Institute.
1. 1961 – The idea of ARPANET is conceptualized
2. 1969 – ARPANET became functional by connecting UCLA and SRI
3. 1971 – Roy Tomlinson develops Network messaging or Email
4. 1974 – The term Internet was coined
5. 1982 – TCP/IP introduced as standard protocol on ARPANET
6. 1983 – Domain name system introduced
7. 1986 – National science foundation brings connectivity to more people
with its NSFNET program
8. 1990 – Berner-Lee developed HTML and URL and WWW
9. 1997 – Wi-fi was introduced (802.11)
Types of networks
 There are various types of computer networks ranging from network of
Handheld devices connected through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth within a single
room to millions of computers spread across the globe.
 Based on geographical area covered and data transfer rate, computer
networks are categorized as
1. PAN
2. LAN
3. MAN
4. WAN
PAN
 Formed by connecting personal devices like computers, laptops, phones,
printers etc.
 Through Bluetooth or USB
 Within range of 10 meters.
 May be wired or wireless
 Can be PAN or WPAN
LAN
 It is a network that connects devices placed at a limited distance.
 The geographical area can be one room to different buildings in same
premise.
 It is comparatively secure and authentic.
 Limited users can upload, download, print and share documents and
software.
 Can extend to 1 km
 Can be from 10 mbps to 1000 mbps
 Can use ethernet cables or wireless connection.
MAN
 Extended form of LAN
 Covers larger geographical area like a city or a town
 Data transfer in MAN also ranges in MBPS but is considerably less than
LAN.
 Cable TV network or Cable based broadband are MANS
 Can be extended up to 30-40 Kms
WAN
 Connects computers and other LAN’s and MANs which are spread across
different geographical location of a country or in different countries or
continents.
 Can be formed by connecting many LANs via wired/wireless
 Usage
1. Large Business
2. Educational and GOVT org
 Internet is the largest WAN
Network devices
 Used to communicate data
 Through devices like
1. Modem
2. Hub
3. Switch
4. Repeater
5. Router
6. Gateway
Modem
 MOdulator DEModulator
 Device used for conversion between analog signals and digital bits.
 Computers store and process data in 0s in 1s.
 While exchanging data or browsing digital data are converted to analog
signal and the medium carries the signal to the receiver.
 Modems will be connected to both the source and destination nodes.
 Sender end acts as modulator that converts digital data into analog
signals.
 Modem at receiver’s end acts as demodulator that converts analog into
digital.
Ethernet card
 Network Interface Card
 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 motherboards of a computer.
 The ethernet cable connects the computer to network through NIC
 Support transfer between 10mbps to 1 gbps
 Each NIC has mac address for identification
RJ45
 Registered Jack-45
 Used with ethernet cable
 Standard networking interface can be seen at end of all cables
 Ethernet cards are present in various computing devices
Repeater
 Data is carried in form of signals.
 Can travel a specified distance around 100 meters
 Signals loose strength beyond this limit and need to be regenerated.
 Repeater is an analogue device that works with signals on the cables to
which it is connected
 Weakened signal is regenerated and put back on cable by repeater
Hub
 Network device used to connect different devices though wires.
 Data arriving on any of the lines are sent to all others.
 The limitation of hub is that if data from two devices come at the same
time they collide
Switch
 Networking device that plays central role in LAN
 Used to connect multiple computers or communicating devices.
 Extracts the required the destination and sends to specific computers.
 Does not forward signals that are corrupted or noisy.
 Common in homes/offices to connect multiple devices.
Router
 Network device that receives the data, analyses it and transmit it to
other networks.
 It connects LAN to internet.
 Compared to hub or switch router has advanced capabilities as it can
analyze data being carried over network.
 Data is sent in packets.
 Different networks have different capabilities.
 Router repackages the data in smaller packets so that the receiver
network can collect and transfer the data.
 Can be wired and wireless
Gateway
 It is a key access point that acts as a gate between an organizations
network and the outside world of internet.
 Serves as entry and exit point of a network.
 Also maintain information about 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.
Networking 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.
Mesh Topology
 In Mesh Topology, each communicating device is connected with every
other device in the network.
 It can handle large amounts of traffic since multiple nodes can transmit
data simultaneously.
 As each node is connected to each other the disturbance in one node
does not affect the transmission of data between other nodes.
 It is more secure as compared to other topologies
 However, its costly
Ring Topology
 Each node is connected to two other devices each on either side.
 Data transmission is unidirectional. Clockwise or anticlockwise
Bus Topology
 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.
 In this topology a single backbone wire called bus is shared among the
nodes, which makes it cheaper and easier to maintain.
 Both ring and star topologies are considered to be less secure and less
reliable.
Star Topology
 In a star topology each communicating device is connected to a central
node which is a networking device like a hub or a switch.
 Star topology is considered very effective, efficient and fast as each
device is directly connected with the central device.
 Disturbance in one device will not affect rest of the network
 Any failure in 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 i.e., the
node can identify the destination and forward data to a specific node.
Tree or Hybrid Topology
 It is a hierarchical topology with multiple branches and each branch
having one or more basic topology.
 They are found in WANs that connect multiple LANs.
 LANs forming WANs maybe in the form of ring, bus or star.
Identifying nodes in a networked communication
 Each node in a network should be uniquely identified so that a network
device can identify the sender and receiver and decide a routing path to
transmit data.
MAC Address (Media Access Control)
 Also known as physical or hardware address, is a unique value
associated with a network adapter called a NIC.
 MAC is engraved on NIC at time on manufacturing and cannot be
changed under any circumstances.
 Each MAC address is a 12-digit hexadecimal numbers (48 bit).
 First 6 digit (24 bit) = manufacturer’s ID called Organizational Unique
Identifier (OUI)
 Later 6 digit (24 bit) = serial no. assigned to the card by the
manufacturer.
IP Address (Internet Protocol)
 It is a unique address that can be used to identify each node in a
network.
 The IP addresses are assigned to each node in a network that uses the
Internet Protocol for Communication.
 Unlike MAC IP address can be changed if network is changed.
 Initial IP address called version 4 also IPV4 was 32 bits.
 IPV4 looks like 192.168.0.178
 No. of nodes increased and shortage was developed
 Now it is changed to 128 bits and is known as IPV6
 IPV6 looks like 2001:CDBA:0000:0000:0000:0000:3257:9652
Internet, Web and the Internet of Things
 The Internet is the global network of computing devices including
desktop, laptop, servers, tablets, mobile phones, other handheld
devices, printers, scanners, routers, switches, gateways, etc.
 Computers are either connected to a modem through a cable or
wirelessly.
 That modem be it wired or wireless is connected to ISP.
 ISP connect together to make regional network
 Regional network connects together to make national network.
 And national network forms the internet backbone.
The World Wide Web
 WWW is an ocean of information stored in the form of trillions of
interlinked web pages and web resources.
 Sir Tim Berners-Lee – a British computer scientist invented the
revolutionary World Wide Web in 1990 by defining three fundamental
technologies.
o HTML – Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a language which is
used to design standardised Web Pages so that the Web contents
can be read and understood from any computer.
o URL – Uniform Resource Identifier. It is a unique address or path
for each resource located on the web. It is also known as Uniform
Resource Locator (URL).
o HTTP – The Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is a set of rules which is
used to retrieve linked web pages across the web. The more
secure and advanced version is HTTPS
Domain Name System
 Every website has an IP address and we need to enter the IP address on
our web browser.
 It is difficult to remember the IP address so the concept of domain
names or host names was introduced.
 A domain name is an alternative to the IP address.
 For e.g., Wikipedia.org = 198.35.26.96