TOPIC 8

COMPUTER NETWORKS
What is a computer network?
 A network is a collection of computers and related devices, connected so that they can communicate
with each other and share information, software, peripheral devices, and/or processing power.

Classification of networks
Local Area Network or LAN
 LAN covers a small region of space, typically a single building. maximum network coverage is about 3
km and is characterized by high speed data transmission
 Local Area Network is a group of computers connected to each other in a small area such as building,
office.
 LAN is used for connecting two or more personal computers through a communication medium such as
twisted pair, coaxial cable, etc.
 It is less costly as it is built with inexpensive hardware such as hubs, network adapters, and ethernet
cables.
 The data is transferred at an extremely faster rate in Local Area Network.
 Local Area Network provides higher security.

Metropolitan Area Network or MAN

 MAN is a collection of LANs within the same geographical area, for instance a city. It enables network
coverage of 10 t0 16 miles.
 A metropolitan area network is a network that covers a larger geographic area by interconnecting a
different LAN to form a larger network.
 Government agencies use MAN to connect to the citizens and private industries.
 In MAN, various LANs are connected to each other through a telephone exchange line.
 The most widely used protocols in MAN are RS-232, Frame Relay, ATM, ISDN, OC-3, ADSL, etc.
 It has a higher range than Local Area Network(LAN).

Uses Of Metropolitan Area Network:

o MAN is used in communication between the banks in a city.
o It can be used in an Airline Reservation.
o It can be used in a college within a city.
o It can also be used for communication in the military.

Wide Area Network or WAN

 WAN is a long distance network: it connects systems together throughout a country or even beyond the
border. It is characterized by low data rates and hardware and software components come form a wide
variety of vendors.
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 A Wide Area Network is a network that extends over a large geographical area such as states or
countries.
 A Wide Area Network is quite bigger network than the LAN.
 A Wide Area Network is not limited to a single location, but it spans over a large geographical area
through a telephone line, fibre optic cable or satellite links.
 The internet is one of the biggest WAN in the world.
 A Wide Area Network is widely used in the field of Business, government, and education.

Following are the advantages of the Wide Area Network:

o Geographical area: A Wide Area Network provides a large geographical area. Suppose if the branch
of our office is in a different city then we can connect with them through WAN. The internet provides
a leased line through which we can connect with another branch.
o Centralized data: In case of WAN network, data is centralized. Therefore, we do not need to buy the
emails, files or back up servers.
o Get updated files: Software companies work on the live server. Therefore, the programmers get the
updated files within seconds.
o Exchange messages: In a WAN network, messages are transmitted fast. The web application like
Facebook, Whatsapp, Skype allows you to communicate with friends.
o Sharing of software and resources: In WAN network, we can share the software and other
resources like a hard drive, RAM.
o Global business: We can do the business over the internet globally.
o High bandwidth: If we use the leased lines for our company then this gives the high bandwidth. The
high bandwidth increases the data transfer rate which in turn increases the productivity of our
company.

The internet
 It’s the biggest computer network in the world which links smaller networks world wide. It doesn’t
belong to any particular organization.
 Internet is the worldwide, publicly accessible network of interconnected computer networks that
transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP).
 It is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and
government networks, which together carry various information and services, such as electronic mail,
online chat, file transfer, and the interlinked Web pages and other documents of the World Wide Web.

Intranet
 Is a LAN which has facilities e.g. email within a particular combination but those resources cannot be
retrieved from outside the organization.
Extranet
 A network belonging to a particular organization and has connection to the outside world therefore
users from outside world can retrieve information from outside.

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 NETWORK TOPOLOGY
Topology refers to the layout of connected devices on a network. Network topologies are categorized into
the following basic types:

 bus
 ring
 star
 tree
 bus

Bus topology

 Bus network 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.

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.

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.)

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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

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. (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.