INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTING

CHAPTER 4: SOFTWARE IN GENERAL

LESSON 1 – LAN, WAN, CONNECTIVITY, AND COMMUNICATION MEDIUM

Local Area Network and Wide Area Network

Have you heard before of the term Local Area Network or LAN? Maybe in
computer shops, school, office or even at home. Local Area Network (LAN)
is the smallest grouping among the Internet Technologies. According to
Webopedia.com “A local-area network (LAN) is a computer network that
spans a relatively small area. Most LANs are confined to a single building or
group of buildings, however, one LAN can be connected to other LANs over
any distance via telephone lines and radio waves. A system of LANs
connected in this way is called a wide-area network (WAN).”

Local Area Network (LAN) has different variety of standards and the most
common is known to be Ethernet. LANs using this standard are reffered to as
Ethernet LANs but it doesn’t stop there because there are also different variety
like Home Networks, Wireless LANs and Personal Area Network.

Figure 4.1 – Diagram of a Local Area Network

Home Network is a type of network that is being utilized nowadays by

individuals for their homes and apartments. This network allows all users to
connect and share resources.

Wireless LAN is somehow the same as with the Local Area Network but the
only difference is the way it is deployed. Wireless LAN uses radio frequency
to connect to different computer and devices. This type of network won’t
work without the Wireless Access Point that serves as the base station.

Personal Area Network is a type of wireless network that works within a very
small area – your immediate sorroundings. PANs connect cellphones to
headsets, PDAs to other PDAs, keyboards to cellphone, and so on.
 INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTING
CHAPTER 4: SOFTWARE IN GENERAL
LESSON 1 – LAN, WAN, CONNECTIVITY, AND COMMUNICATION MEDIUM

Aside from the LAN or the Local Area Network, we also do have the Wide
Area Network. Wide Area Network (WAN) is a much bigger network than
LAN because if we talk about WAN we are talking about a large geographical
scope. According to ComputerHope.com “WAN is a collection of computers
and network resources connected via a network over a geographic area. Wide-
Area Networks are commonly connected either through the Internet or special
arrangements made with phone companies or other service providers. A WAN
is different from a MAN because of the distance between each of the
networks. In a WAN, one network may be anywhere from several hundred
miles away, to across the globe in a different country.” If you want to learn
more about WAN Technologies, it is much more detailed in the Data
Communication and Networking 4 (Wide Area Network Technologies).

Figure 4.2 – Diagram of Wide Area Network

Connectivity
When we say Connectivity, it is more on the network design, network model,
and network infrastructure or network architecture. Because connectivity
deals with the arrangement and coordination of different devices inside a
network. There are various technology that is associated in this topic and we
will be discussing it one by one.

Client-Server Model, according to Techopedia.com is a distributed

communication framework of network processes among service requestors,
clients and service providers. The client-server connection is established
through a network or the Internet.

The client-server model is a core network computing concept also building

functionality for email exchange and Web/database access. Web technologies
and protocols built around the client-server model are:

- Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTING
CHAPTER 4: SOFTWARE IN GENERAL
LESSON 1 – LAN, WAN, CONNECTIVITY, AND COMMUNICATION MEDIUM

- Domain Name System (DNS)

- Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)

- Telnet

Figure 4.3 – Client – Server Model

Clients include Web browsers, chat applications, and email software, among
others. Servers include Web, database, application, chat and email, etc.

A server manages most processes and stores all data. A client requests
specified data or processes. The server relays process output to the client.
Clients sometimes handle processing, but require server data resources for
completion.

While Peer-to-Peer Model, according to Computeworld.com is a network

created when two or more PCs are connected and share resources without
going through a separate server computer. A P2P network can be an ad hoc
connection—a couple of computers connected via a Universal Serial Bus to
transfer files. A P2P network also can be a permanent infrastructure that links
a half-dozen computers in a small office over copper wires. Or a P2P network
can be a network on a much grander scale in which special protocols and
applications set up direct relationships among users over the Internet.
 INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTING
CHAPTER 4: SOFTWARE IN GENERAL
LESSON 1 – LAN, WAN, CONNECTIVITY, AND COMMUNICATION MEDIUM

Figure 4. 4 – Peer to Peer Model

Aside from the Client/Server and PeerToPeer Model, we also have different
topologies or network arrangement. But what is a Network Topology?
According to Computing Essentials book of O’Leary, Network Topology is
the way to arranged or configure a network. And it has 6 different common
types, such as Bus Network (a network arrangement wherein all devices are
connected into a common cable called Bus or Backbone), Ring Network (a
design wherein each computer or device is connected with other two computer
or device forming a ring), Star Network (each devices is connected directly to
a central network switch), Tree Network (each device is connected to a central
node, either directly or through one or more other devices. The central node is
connected to two or more subordinate nodes that in turn are connected to other
subordinates and so forth, forming a treelike structure), Hybrid Network
(combination of different topologies that is utilize by big organization for their
complex network) and Mesh Network (newest type of topology that does not
use a specific physical layout because mesh requires that each node have more
than one connection to the other nodes).

Communication Medium
Data transmission and other Networking technologies is nothing without the
bridge or the Communication Medium. This Communication Medium plays a
vital role in the data transmission or networking because they are the one who
carry the data from one point to another. Communication Medium can be
either wireless or wired (physical connection).

Wired (Physical Connection) uses tangible medium to link two different

devices communicating to one another. Wired Connection has variants such as
Twisted Pair Cable, Coaxial Cable and Fiber Optic Cable.
INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTING
CHAPTER 4: SOFTWARE IN GENERAL
LESSON 1 – LAN, WAN, CONNECTIVITY, AND COMMUNICATION MEDIUM

Twisted Pair Cable are pairs of copper thin copper wire that are literally
twisted together. Common application of Twisted Pair is the LAN Cables and
the Telephone Cable.

Figure 4.5 – Picture of a Twisted Pair cable

Coaxial Cable is a high-frequency transmission cable, which replaces the

multiple thin wires of UTP or STP. Coaxial uses a single solid copper core
and is usually applied in Cable Antenna Television.

Fiber Optic Cable is the thinnest type of cable because it utilizes fiber optics
which is usually 9micro meter to 65micro meter. Imagine, Fiber optic can be
much thinner than your hair. Fiber Optic uses light for transmission instead of
the electric current. Compared to Coaxial and UTPs, it transmits data much
faster, reliable and lighter.

Figure 4.6 – Picture of Optical Fiber cable

Wireless Connections is the opposite of Wired (Physical Connection)

because in wireless it uses radio frequency, microwave, satellite or even
infrared which cannot be seen by human eye.
INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTING
CHAPTER 4: SOFTWARE IN GENERAL
LESSON 1 – LAN, WAN, CONNECTIVITY, AND COMMUNICATION MEDIUM

Radio Frequency is a wireless transmission that uses electromagnetic waves to

transmit data through air. This transmission is usually measured in Hertz
(KHz, MHz or GHz). One Hertz is equivalent to one cycle per second.

Microwave is another type of electromagnetic waves whose frequencies is

between 1 GHz to 30 GHz. That is widely used for point to point
communication because of their small wavelengths (that allows antennas to
direct them in narrow beams).

Satellite is a communication system that act as a middleman or transponder to

transmit data from one point to another in a large geographica scope.

Figure 4.7 – Image of a Satellite

Infrared is still an electromagnetic waves whose wavelengths are longer than
the visible lights but shorter than the radio waves. In order to use Infrared you
need to make the two devices near to each other or their IR Transmitter and
Receiver should be facing one another.

Figure 4.8 – Application of Infrared