COMPUTER NETWORK AND

INTERNET
NETWORK
 A computer network is a collection of
computers and hardware components
interconnected by communication channels that
allow sharing of resources and information

Types of Network:
 Local Area Network(LAN)

 Metropolitan Area Network(MAN)

 Wide Area Network(WAN)

NETWORK
 LAN: When computers located within a small
geographical area such as office or a University
Campus are connected together we call it a Local
Area Network.

 MAN: The geographical range of MAN is bigger than

LAN. It covers a small city.

 WAN: Wide area network span broad geographical

distances, ranging from several miles to across entire
continents. WAN may consist of a combination of
switched and dedicated lines, microwaves, and
satellite communication.
Speed: Offers lower bandwidth and higher latency compared to LANs and MANs due
to the significant distances and potential for data bottlenecks.
NETWORK
Types of LAN
 Client-server: A client server LAN consists of the
requesting microcomputers, called clients, and the
supplying devices that provides the services, called
servers. The server is a powerful computer that
manages shared devices and software. Example file
server, database server.

 Peer-to-peer: In a peer-to-peer LAN all

microcomputers on the network communicate directly
with one another without the help of a server. This is
less expensive than a client-server LAN and works
effectively with up to 25 computers and thus
appropriate for small groups.
NETWORK
Components of a LAN
LANs are made up of the following components:
 Connection or cabling system

 Microcomputers with interface cards

 Network operating systems

 Other shared devices

 Bridges and gateways

 USES OF COMPUTER NETWORKS
Business Applications
1. First goal is the resource sharing to make all programs, equipment, and specially data available to
anyone on the network without regard to the physical location of the resource and the user.
2. A computer network can provide a powerful communication medium among employees.
3. Many companies are doing business electronically with other companies, especially suppliers and
customers.
4. Doing business with consumers over the Internet.

Home Applications
Some of the popular uses of the Internet for home users are as follows:
1. Access to remote information
2. Person-to-person communication
3. Interactive entertainment
4. Electronic Commerce
Mobile users
People on the road and sea may use their portable electronic equipment to send and receive telephone
calls, faxes, electronic mail, surf the web, access remote files, and log on to the remote machines.

Social issues
A popular feature of many networks is newsgroups or bulletin boards whereby people can exchange
messages with like-minded individuals.
NETWORK TOPOLOGY

 Network Topology refers to the physical data

path that traffic takes across the network. Three
basic types of topologies are bus, star and ring.
Types:
 Bus

 Star

 Ring
BUS TOPOLOGY

 In a bus topology, Each node is connected to a

common cable called a bus. Each node has a
unique address. All nodes will receive a message,
but only the addressed node is to respond.
BUS TOPOLOGY

Advantages
 If one node is down, the network is still available.

 Fewer wires or lines are needed.

Disadvantage
 Difficult to administer/troubleshoot.

 Limited cable length and number of stations.

 If there is a problem with the cable, the entire

network goes down.
 Performance degrades as additional computers
are added or on heavy traffic.
STAR TOPOLOGY

 In a star topology a central host computer connected

to a number of small computers or terminals. This
topology is useful for applications where some
processing must be centralized and some can be
performed locally.
Advantages
 Good performance
 Easy to set up and to expand.
 Any non-centralized failure will have very little effect
on the network
Disadvantage
 If the central host computer is down, the network will
come to standstill.
STAR TOPOLOGY
RING TOPOLOGY

 In a ring topology all computers are connected by

a closed loop in a manner that passes data in one
direction from one computer to another.
RING TOPOLOGY

Advantage
 Data is quickly transferred.

 The transmission of data is relatively simple as

packets travel in one direction only.
 Adding additional nodes has very little impact on
bandwidth
Disadvantage
 The main disadvantage of a ring is larger
communication delays if the number of nodes
increases.
CHARACTERISTICS OF DATA
COMMUNICATIONS
1. Signal type: analog or digital
 Analog signal: An analog signal is a continuous signal
that contains time-varying quantities. For example
sound, light and radio wave.
 Digital signal: A digital signal is a discrete waveform
that transmits data coded into two discrete states as
1-bits and 0 bits, which are represented as on-off
electrical pulse.
CHARACTERISTICS OF DATA
COMMUNICATIONS
2. Transmission mode:
Asynchronous: In asynchronous transmission,
also called start-stop transmission, each character
is bracketed by start and stop bits. For each
character the transmitter transmits the character
bits, one start bit, one parity bit(error check bit)
and one or two stop bits. Asynchronous
communication is inexpensive but slow.
CHARACTERISTICS OF DATA
COMMUNICATIONS
 Synchronous: In synchronous transmission,
characters are sent as blocks or packets. Headers
and tailer bytes are inserted as identifiers at the
beginnings and the ends of the blocks. In addition
error check bits are transmitted before the tailer
bytes.
CHARACTERISTICS OF DATA
COMMUNICATIONS
3. Direction of flow:

Receiver
i) Simplex Sender

i) Half Duplex Sender Receiver

a type of transmission mode where devices can
communicate in both directions, but only one
direction at a time.

ii) Full Duplex Sender Receiver

CHARACTERISTICS OF DATA
COMMUNICATIONS
4. Transmission rate:
 Frequency:
The amount of data that can be transmitted on a channel
depends on the wave frequency- the cycle per second (hertz).

 Bandwidth:
Bandwidth is the range of frequencies that is available for the
transmission of data. The greater the bandwidth of a channel
the more data can be transmitted.

-Narrowband: Range in sped from 45 to 300 baud (bit per

second). Used for handling low data volume.
-Voice band: Speeds up to 9600 baud. Used for telephone
voice communication.
-Broadband: Speed of 1 million baud or more. Used when
large volumes of data are to be transmitted at high speed.
COMMUNICATION MEDIA
 Physical communication media are the physical
channels through which information is
transmitted between computers in a network. A
channel can utilize different kinds of
telecommunication media:
 twisted wire

 coaxial cable

 fiber optics

 terrestrial microwave

 Satellite and

 wireless transmission
TWISTED WIRE:

 Twisted wire consists of strands of copper wire

twisted in pairs and is the oldest transmission
medium. Although it is low in cost, twisted pair is
relatively slow for transmission data, and high-
speed transmission causes interference called
crosstalk.
COAXIAL CABLE
 Coaxial Cable consists of thickly insulated copper
wire, which can transmit a larger volume of data
than twisted wire can. It is faster, more
interference-free transmission medium, with
speeds up to 200 megabits per second. However,
coaxial cable is thick, is hard to wire in many
buildings, and cannot support analog phone
conversations.
FIBER OPTICS

 Fiber optics cable consists of thousands of

strands of clear glass fiber, the thickness of a
human hair, which are bound into cables. Data
are transformed into pulses of light, which are
sent through the fiber optics cable by a laser
device at a rate of 100 Mbps to 2Gbps.
FIBER OPTICS

Advantages:
 Very high bandwidth.

 Protection against electromagnetic interference.

 More secure, as they cannot be trapped easily.

 Light weight and no corrosion.

Disadvantages:
 It is more difficult to work with,

 more expensive,

 hard to install

 They are fragile and cannot have sharp bends.

COMMUNICATION MEDIA
Microwave
Microwave systems transmit high-frequency radio signals
through the atmosphere and are widely used for high-volume,
long-distance, point-to-point communication. The great
advantage of microwaves is the large bandwidth of 40 to 200
MHz available which will permit data transmission rates in
the range of 250 Mbps. The capital investment needed to
install microwave link is very high.
Satellite
A communication satellite is essentially a microwave relay
station in the sky. Conventional communication satellites
move in stationary orbits approximately 22000 miles above
the earth. Communication satellites are cost effective for
transmitting large quantities of data over long distances.
Initial cost of placing a satellite is very high.