CS 305

Computer Network 1

Lecture 1: Introduction

NUB
2020
1
Student Assessment
Method Marks
Final Exam 50
Mid-Term Exam 25
Term Work 2 Quizzes 10
Tutorial 15 25
Total 100

Reference
Forouzan, B. A., Data Communications and
Networking, McGraw Hill, 5th Edition, 2013.
Chapters 1, 2, 8, 9

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Topics
1. Introduction to networks
2. ISO-OSI & TCP/IP models
3. Network devices
4. Spanning tree protocol
5. IP address & subnetting
6. NAT, DHCP
7. Application layer protocols

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Network
• Network
— A collection of nodes, devices or hosts (e.g. a
computer, printer, etc) connected by
communication links.
• Communication link
— A medium through which data can be
transferred (e.g. coaxial cable, Ethernet cable,
air, optical fiber)
• Internet
— Network of networks

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Basic Principle of the Internet
• Consider the following network in which end devices (A, B,
…) are connected to a central communication company
consisting of several switches or routers (I, II, ….).
• To connect two end devices over this network, we have
two approaches:
— Circuit switching
— Packet switching

End device
(computer or
a telephone)
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Switch
Circuit Switching
• In a circuit-switched network, a temporary connection
between two stations is established by reserving a
dedicated path made of one or more links.

• Resources are reserved for the entire duration of the

connection. These resources are unavailable to other
connections even if there is no activity for a long time

• Circuit-switching is not efficient; however, the delay is

minimal.

• Traditional landline phone network uses this approach.

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Packet Switching
• In this approach, a message from one end system to
another is divided into packets (datagrams) of fixed or
variable size.
• Each packet is treated independently of the others.
• Packets may travel different paths (depending on
traffic), arrive out of order or may get lost or dropped
because of a lack of resources.

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Packet Switching
• In a packet-switched network, there is no resource
reservation; resources are allocated on demand.
Therefore, it is more efficient than circuit switching.

• If a source sends a packet and there is a delay of a few

minutes before another packet can be sent, the
resources can be reallocated during these minutes for
packets from other sources.

• The drawback is that a packet may experience a wait at

a switch before it is forwarded depending on the traffic.

• Packet switching is the technique adopted in the

Internet.
8
Network Scale
• Networks can be classified based on the size of
the area they occupy:
— Local Area Networks (LANs): Room, building,
campus

— Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs): City

— Wide Area Networks (WANs): Country or continent

— The Internet: The whole world

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Network Connection
• Multipoint
— Single communication channel
shared by all nodes in the
network
— Support unicast (single
receiver), multicast and
broadcast
• Point-to-point
— A link connects only two nodes
— A packet travelling from one
source to destination may go
through several links.
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Unicast, Multicast, & Broadcast
• Unicast
— single receiver
• Multicast
—sending a packet from one sender to multiple
receivers using a single transmit operation
— Streaming continuous media (e.g., the transfer of
audio and text of a live lecture to a set of
distributed lecture participants
• Broadcast
— all nodes with a LAN receives the sent frame

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Network Topology (layout)

• Knowing the layout of the network assists in:

— understanding signal flow
— troubleshooting problems
— planning or expanding a new network
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 Mesh topology

For a fully-connected mesh topology with n stations, n(n − 1)

how many physical links are needed? 2
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Mesh topology
• Used in Wide-Area Netwowks (WANs)
• Pros:
— Multiple paths to the same place
(redundancy) → robust against faults
— Load balancing
• Cons:
—Large amount of cabling

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Bus topology
• In this technique, all devices are connected
to a single coaxial cable (a multipoint
connection).

• Used in early LANs – no longer used.

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Ring topology
• Early IBM LANs
• Currently used in wide area networks (WAN).

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Star topology
• All devices are connected to a central device (e.g. a
hub or a switch).
— First with hubs (repeated traffic)
— Later with switches (bridged traffic)

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Star topology
• Today, this is the main method used to build
small or large networks.
• Pros:
— Small amount of cabling
— Easy to add new device
• Cons:
—If the hub goes down, whole system is dead.

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