Course : Introduction to Computing

Module No. : 3 (Internet and Cyber Security)

Title : A. Introduction to Computer Networks

Objectives :

Computer Networks

A computer network is a group of two or more interconnected computer systems. You

can establish a network connection using either cable or wireless media.

Every network involves hardware and software that connects computers and tools.

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A computer network is mainly of four types:

● LAN(Local Area Network) is consist of a series of computers linked together to

form a network within a location. The computers in a LAN connect to each other
via TCP/IP ethernet or Wi-Fi. A LAN is normally exclusive to an organization,
such as a school, office, association or church.

● PAN(Personal Area Network) is a computer network for interconnecting

electronic devices centered on an individual person's workspace. A PAN
provides data transmission among devices such as computers, smartphones,
tablets and personal digital assist.

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● MAN(Metropolitan Area Network) is a computer network that is larger than
a single building local area network (LAN) but is located in a single
geographic area that is smaller than a wide area network (WAN).
Generally, it is several LANs interconnected by dedicated backbone
connections. It may also refer to public use networking infrastructure in
a municipality or region.

● WAN(Wide Area Network is a network that uses various links—private

lines, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), virtual private networks
(VPNs), wireless (cellular), the Internet—to connect smaller
metropolitan and campus networks in diverse locations into a single,
distributed network. The sites they connect could be a few miles apart
or halfway around the globe. In an enterprise, the purposes of a WAN
could include connecting branch offices or even individual remote
workers with headquarters or the data center in order to share corporate
resources and communications.

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Advantages of computer networks:

● Helps you to connect with multiple computers together to send and receive
information when accessing the network.
● Helps you to share printers, scanners, and other devices.
● Helps you to share information at very fast speed
● Electronic communication is more efficient and less expensive than without the
network.

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NETWORK TOPOLOGIES

How are these computers connected? They can be connected through wired or wireless
media and some network devices in between. The connection between computers can
be done with both the physical and logical configurations.

A physical topology indicates arrangement of hardware elements of a computer

network. It reflects physical layout of devices and cables to a form a connected network.
This has major impact on cost, scalability and bandwidth capacity of network based
on selection and availability of devices. It is the physical connection of the network.

A logical topology depicts logistics of network concerned with transmission of

data.This has major impact on speed and delivery of data packets. It also handles
flow control and ordered delivery of data packets from the source device to the
destination.It is the data path followed within the network.

What are the types of network topology?

● Bus Topology Simple layout and

cheap but vulnerable to failure
and only suitable for low traffic
volumes. Not used for office
networks today, but can still be
found within some consumer
products.

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● Ring Topology Easy to manage and
with a low risk of collision but reliant on
all nodes being powered up and in full
working order. Rarely used today.

● Star Topology All devices are

connected to a central switch,
which makes it easy to add new
nodes without rebooting all
currently connected devices. This
topology makes efficient use of
cable and is easy to administer.
On the other hand, the health of
the switch is vital. This topology
requires monitoring and
maintenance. However, it is a
commonly encountered topology.

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● Tree Topology A hierarchical layout
that links together groups of nodes.
Creates parent-child dependencies
between root nodes and regular nodes.
This layout can be vulnerable to failure
if a root node has a problem. This
topology is complicated and difficult to
manage and it uses a lot of cable.

● Mesh Topology Each node is connected to

every other mode with a direct link. This
topology creates a very reliable network, but
requires a large amount of cable and is difficult
to administer. Wifi networks make this topology
more feasible.

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● Hybrid Topology Combines two or
more of the standard topologies.
This can be a good solution to
create quickly link together different
existing networks into a unified
system. Don’t confuse the term
“hybrid network topology” with
“hybrid system” – a term that is
applied to the combination of onsite
and cloud resources.

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Components of a computer network:

• hosts with Network Interface Card (PCs, laptops, handhelds)

• routers & switches (IP router, Ethernet switch)
• media links (wired, wireless)
• protocols (IP, TCP, CSMA/CD, CSMA/CA)
• network OS/applications (network services)
• humans and service agents Hosts, routers & links form the hardware side.

Protocols & applications form the software side. Protocols can be viewed as the “glue”
that binds everything else together.

NETWORK MEDIA

Network media refers to the physical communication channels used to interconnect

nodes on a computer network. Wired through cables and wireless through air are the
two main media types. Typical examples of network media include copper coaxial cable,
copper twisted pair cables and optical fiber cables used in wired networks, and radio
waves used in wireless data communications networks.

Wired networks
The implementation of connecting nodes together in the network is mainly
through using cables.

3 Types of cable used

Coaxial cables or coax is a type of electrical

cable consisting of an inner conductor surrounded by
a concentric conducting shield, with the two
separated by a dielectric (insulating material); many
coaxial cables also have a protective outer sheath or
jacket. The term "coaxial" refers to the inner
conductor and the outer shield sharing a geometric
axis.

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 Twisted pair cables is a type of wiring in which two conductors of a single circuit
are twisted together for the purposes of improving electromagnetic compatibility.
Compared to a single conductor or an untwisted balanced pair, a twisted pair reduces
electromagnetic radiation from the pair and crosstalk between neighboring pairs and
improves rejection of external electromagnetic interference. It was invented by
Alexander Graham Bell.[1]

Fiber optic cables is an assembly similar

to an electrical cable, but containing one or
more optical fibers that are used to carry
light. The optical fiber elements are
typically individually coated with plastic
layers and contained in a protective tube
suitable for the environment where the
cable is used. Different types of cable[1] are
used for different applications, for example,
long distance telecommunication, or
providing a high-speed data connection between different parts of a building.

Wireless networks is a computer network that uses wireless data connections between
network nodes.Examples of wireless networks include cell phone networks, wireless
local area networks (WLANs), wireless sensor networks, satellite communication
networks, and terrestrial microwave networks.Each node should have a wireless
adapter to be able to connect to the wireless access point to be connected to the

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network.Two of the most common interfaces for wireless network adapters are USB and
expansion card slots.

USB Wireless Adapter look similar to USB flash memory

drives, though some models may have protruding antennas.
The advantage of a USB wireless adapter is that it is
portable, easy to set up and use, and compatible with a
wide variety of computers.

Wireless Adapter Expansion Card A type of wireless adapter that can also be referred
to as a wireless network interface card. The two most common standards for expansion
cards are Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI™) and Peripheral Component
Interconnect Express (PCIe®), with PCIe being the newer and faster of the two. The
advantage of expansion cards is that they are able to support more antennas, which
can result in better signal strength. However,
compatibility is limited to desktops only.

Some laptops may be equipped with

ExpressCard™ or PCMCIA™ card slots,
which can be used to add wireless
networking. Those add-on cards may
sometimes be called expansion cards as
well, but very few new laptops support
ExpressCard or PCMCIA cards.

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NETWORK HARDWARE

1. Repeater – A repeater operates at the physical layer. Its job is to regenerate the
signal over the same network before the signal becomes too weak or corrupted so as to
extend the length to which the signal can be transmitted over the same network. An
important point to be noted about repeaters is that they do not amplify the signal. When
the signal becomes weak, they copy the signal bit by bit and regenerate it at the original
strength. It is a 2 port device.

2. Hub – A hub is basically a multiport repeater. A hub connects multiple wires coming
from different branches, for example, the connector in star topology which connects
different stations. Hubs cannot filter data, so data packets are sent to all connected
devices. In other words, collision domain of all hosts connected through Hub remains
one. Also, they do not have the
intelligence to find out best path for
data packets which leads to
inefficiencies and wastage.

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Types of Hub
● Active Hub:- These are the hubs which have their own power supply and can
clean, boost, and relay the signal along with the network. It serves both as a
repeater as well as wiring centre. These are used to extend the maximum
distance between nodes.
● Passive Hub :- These are the hubs which collect wiring from nodes and
power supply from active hub. These hubs relay signals onto the network
without cleaning and boosting them and can’t be used to extend the distance
between nodes.
● Intelligent Hub :- It work like active hubs and include remote management
capabilities. They also provide flexible data rates to network devices. It also
enables an administrator to monitor the traffic passing through the hub and to
configure each port in the hub.

3. Bridge – A bridge operates at data link layer. A bridge is a repeater, with add on the
functionality of filtering content by reading the MAC addresses of source and
destination. It is also used for interconnecting two LANs working on the same protocol.
It has a single input and single output port, thus making it a 2 port device.

Types of Bridges
● Transparent Bridges:- These are the bridge in which the stations are
completely unaware of the bridge’s existence i.e. whether or not a bridge is
added or deleted from the network, reconfiguration of the stations is

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 unnecessary. These bridges make use of two processes i.e. bridge forwarding
and bridge learning.

● Source Routing Bridges:- In these bridges, routing operation is performed

by source station and the frame specifies which route to follow. The host can
discover frame by sending a special frame called discovery frame, which
spreads through the entire network using all possible paths to destination.

4. Switch – A switch is a multiport bridge with a buffer and a design that can boost its
efficiency(a large number of ports imply less traffic) and performance. A switch is a data
link layer device. The switch can perform error checking before forwarding data, that
makes it very efficient as it does not forward packets that have errors and forward good
packets selectively to correct port only. In other words, switch divides collision domain
of hosts, but broadcast domain remains same.

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5. Routers – A router is a device like a switch that routes data packets based on their
IP addresses. Router is mainly a Network Layer device. Routers normally connect LANs
and WANs together and have a dynamically updating routing table based on which they
make decisions on routing the data packets. Router divide broadcast domains of hosts
connected through it.

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6. Gateway – A gateway, as the name suggests, is a passage to connect two
networks together that may work upon different networking models. They
basically work as the messenger agents that take data from one system, interpret
it, and transfer it to another system. Gateways are also called protocol converters
and can operate at any network layer. Gateways are generally more complex
than switch or router.
7. Brouter – It is also known as bridging router is a device which combines
features of both bridge and router. It can work either at data link layer or at
network layer. Working as router, it is capable of routing packets across networks
and working as bridge, it is capable of filtering local area network traffic.

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