DATA COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (EC 6501)

Chapter 1: Introduction To Communication

Networking
Lecture 1.2

By
Prof. Santos Kumar Das

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Outlines
 What are the network components?

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OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) Seven Layer
Model

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Network Components

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Network Components

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INTRODUCTION
Communication network can be categorized as follows:
 Data Networks
 Computer Networks
 Optical Networks

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Overview of Data networks

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Network Devices
 CSU/DSU (Channel Service
Repeater Unit/Data Service Unit):
translator between the LAN data
Hub format and the WAN data
Bridge format
 Network interface cards (NICs)
Switch  ISDN (Integrated Services
Router Digital Network) adapters
 Wireless access points (WAPs)
Gateway
 Modems
Brouter (Bridge +  Transceivers (media converters)
Router)  Firewalls

Twisted-pair cable

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Repeater
 Types
 Telephone repeater
 Optical communications repeater
 Radio repeater
 Data handling
 Analog repeater
 Digital repeater

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Repeater (Cont…)
 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.
 It doesn’t amplify the signal.
 When the signal becomes weak, it copies the signal
bit by bit and regenerate it at the original strength.
 It is a two port device.

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Repeater (Cont…)
 In digital communication systems, a repeater is a
device that receives a digital signal on an
electromagnetic or optical transmission medium and
regenerates the signal along the next leg of the
medium.
 In electromagnetic media, repeaters overcome the
attenuation caused by free-space electromagnetic-
field divergence or cable loss.
 A series of repeaters make possible the extension of a
signal over a distance.

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Repeater (Cont…)
 Repeaters remove the unwanted noise in an incoming
signal.
 Unlike an analog signal, the original digital signal,
even if weak or distorted, can be clearly perceived
and restored.
 With analog transmission, signals are re-strengthened
with amplifiers which unfortunately also amplify
noise as well as information.

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Repeater (Cont…)
 Because digital signals depend on the presence
or absence of voltage, they tend to dissipate
more quickly than analog signals and need
more frequent repeating.
 Whereas analog signal amplifiers are spaced at
18,000 meter intervals, digital signal repeaters
are typically placed at 2,000 to 6,000 meter
intervals.

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Repeater (Cont…)
 In a wireless communications system, a repeater consists of a
radio receiver, an amplifier, a transmitter, an isolator, and two
antennas.
 The transmitter produces a signal on a frequency that differs
from the received signal.
 This so-called frequency offset is necessary to prevent the
strong transmitted signal from disabling the receiver.
 The isolator provides additional protection in this respect.
 A repeater, when strategically located on top of a high building
or a mountain, can greatly enhance the performance of a
wireless network by allowing communications over distances
much greater than would be possible without it.
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Repeater (Cont…)
 In satellite wireless, a repeater (more frequently
called a transponder) receives uplink signals and
retransmits them, often on different frequencies, to
destination locations.

 In a cellular telephone system, a repeater is one of a

group of transceivers in a geographic area that
collectively serve a system user.

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Repeater (Cont…)
 In a fiber optic network, a repeater consists of a
photocell, an amplifier, and a light-emitting diode
(LED) or infrared-emitting diode (IRED) for each
light or IR signal that requires amplification.
 Fiber optic repeaters operates at power levels much
lower than wireless repeaters, and are also much
simpler and cheaper.
 However, their design requires careful attention to
ensure that internal circuit noise is minimized.
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Repeater (Cont…)
 Repeaters are commonly used by commercial and
amateur radio operators to extend signals in the radio
frequency range from one receiver to another.
 These consist of drop repeaters, similar to the cells in
cellular radio, and hub repeaters, which receive and
retransmit signals from and to a number of directions.
 A bus repeater links one computer bus to a bus in
another computer chassis, essentially chaining one
computer to another.

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Hub

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Hub (Cont..)
 A hub, also called a network hub, is a common
connection point for devices in a network.
 Hubs are devices commonly used to connect
segments of a LAN.
 The hub contains multiple ports.
 When a packet arrives at one port, it is copied
to the other ports so that all segments of the
LAN can see all packets.

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Hub (Cont..)
 Hub is one of the basic icons of networking devices which
works at physical layer and hence connect networking devices
physically together.
 Hubs are fundamentally used in networks that use twisted pair
cabling to connect devices.
 They are designed to transmit the packets to the other
appended devices without altering any of the transmitted
packets received.
 They act as pathways to direct electrical signals to travel
along.
 They transmit the information regardless of the fact if data
packet is destined for the device connected or not.

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Hub (Cont..)
 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.  
 They do not have intelligence to find out best path for data
packets which leads to inefficiencies and wastage.
 They are classify in two categories:
 Active Hub
 Passive Hub

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Hub (Cont..)
Active Hub
 They are smarter than the passive hubs.
 They not only provide the path for the data signals, in fact they
regenerate, concentrate and strengthen the signals before
sending them to their destinations.
 Active hubs are also termed as ‘repeaters’.

Passive Hub
 They are more like point contact for the wires to built in the
physical network.
 They have nothing to do with modifying the signals.

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Hub (Cont..)
Ethernet Hubs
 It is a device connecting multiple Ethernet devices
together and makes them perform the functions as a
single unit.
 They vary in speed in terms of data transfer rate.
 Ether utilizes Carrier Sense Multiple Access with
Collision Detect (CSMA/CD) to control Media
access.
 Ethernet hub communicates in half-duplex mode
where the chances of data collision are inevitable at
most of the times.
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Bridge

How a bridge works.

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Bridge (Cont…)
 A bridge is a computer networking device that builds
the connection with the other bridge networks which
use the same protocol.
 It works at the Data Link layer of the OSI Model and
connects the different networks together and develops
communication between them.
 It connects two local-area networks; two physical
LANs into larger logical LAN or two segments of the
same LAN that use the same protocol.

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Bridge (Cont…)
 Bridge is a repeater, with add on functionality of
filtering content by reading the MAC addresses of
source and destination.
 It has a single input and single output port, thus
making it a 2 port device.
 Apart from building up larger networks, bridges are
also used to segment larger networks into smaller
portions.
 The bridge does so by placing itself between the two
portions of two physical networks and controlling the
flow of the data between them.
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Bridge (Cont…)
 Bridges nominate to forward the data after inspecting into the
MAC address of the devices connected to every segment.
 The forwarding of the data is dependent on the
acknowledgement of the fact that the destination address
resides on some other interface.
 It has the capacity to block the incoming flow of data as well.
 Today Learning bridges have been introduced that build a list
of the MAC addresses on the interface by observing the traffic
on the network.
 This is a leap in the development field of manually recording
of MAC addresses.

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Bridge (Cont…)
 Types of Bridges: There are mainly three types in which bridges can be
characterized.
 Transparent Bridge: As the name signifies, it appears to be transparent
for the other devices on the network. The other devices are ignorant of
its existence. It only blocks or forwards the data as per the MAC
address.
 Source Route Bridge: It derives its name from the fact that the path
which packet takes through the network is implanted within the packet.
It is mainly used in Token ring networks.
 Translational Bridge: The process of conversion takes place via
Translational Bridge. It converts the data format of one networking to
another. For instance Token ring to Ethernet and vice versa.

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Switch

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Switch (Cont…)
 It belongs to data link layer.
 Switches are the linkage points of an Ethernet
network.
 Just as in hub, devices in switches are connected to
them through twisted pair cabling.
 But the difference shows up in the manner both the
devices; hub and a switch treat the data they receive.
 Hub works by sending the data to all the ports on the
device whereas a switch transfers it only to that port
which is connected to the destination device.

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Switch (Cont…)
 A switch does so by having an in-built learning of the MAC address
of the devices connected to it.
 Since the transmission of data signals are well defined in a switch
hence the network performance is consequently enhanced.
 Switches operate in full-duplex mode where devices can send and
receive data from the switch at the simultaneously unlike in half-
duplex mode.
 The transmission speed in switches is double than in Ethernet hub
transferring a 20Mbps connection into 30Mbps and a 200Mbps
connection to become 300Mbps.
 Performance improvements are observed in networking with the
extensive usage of switches in the modern days.

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Switch (Cont…)
 Switch is a multi port bridge with a buffer and a
design that can boost its efficiency(large number of
ports imply less traffic) and performance.
 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.

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Router

A router with
two LAN ports and two WAN
ports.

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Router(Cont…)

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Router (Cont…)
 Router is a device like a switch that routes data packets based
on their IP addresses.
 Router is mainly a Network Layer device.
 They process logical addressing information in the Network
header of a packet such as IP Addresses. Router is used to
create larger complex networks by complex traffic routing.
 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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Router (Cont…)
 Functionality
 When a router receives the data, it determines the
destination address by reading the header of the packet.
 Once the address is determined, it searches in its routing
table to get know how to reach the destination and then
forwards the packet to the higher hop on the route.
 The hop could be the final destination or another router.
 Routing tables play a very pivotal role in letting the router
makes a decision. Thus a routing table is ought to
be updated and complete.

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Router (Cont…)
 The two ways through which a router can receive information are
 Static Routing: In static routing, the routing information is fed into the
routing tables manually. It does not only become a time-taking task but
gets prone to errors as well. The manual updating is also required in case
of statically configured routers when change in the topology of the network
or in the layout takes place. Thus static routing is feasible for tinniest
environments with minimum of one or two routers. 
 Dynamic Routing: For larger environment dynamic routing proves to be
the practical solution. The process involves use of peculiar routing
protocols to hold communication. The purpose of these protocols is to
enable the other routers to transfer information about to other routers, so
that the other routers can build their own routing tables.

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Router (Cont…)
 The two ways through which a router can receive information are
 Static Routing: In static routing, the routing information is fed into the
routing tables manually. It does not only become a time-taking task but
gets prone to errors as well. The manual updating is also required in case
of statically configured routers when change in the topology of the network
or in the layout takes place. Thus static routing is feasible for tinniest
environments with minimum of one or two routers. 
 Dynamic Routing: For larger environment dynamic routing proves to be
the practical solution. The process involves use of peculiar routing
protocols to hold communication. The purpose of these protocols is to
enable the other routers to transfer information about to other routers, so
that the other routers can build their own routing tables.

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Gateway

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Gateway (Cont…)
 Gateway, as the name suggests, is a passage to
connect two networks together that may work upon
different networking models.
 They basically works 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.

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Gateway (Cont…)
 Gateway is a device which is used to connect
multiple networks and passes packets from one
packet to the other network.
 Acting as the ‘gateway’ between different networking
systems or computer programs, a gateway is a device
which forms a link between them.
 It allows the computer programs, either on the same
computer or on different computers to share
information across the network through protocols.
 A router is also a gateway, since it interprets data
from one network protocol to another.
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Gateway (Cont…)
 Others such as bridge converts the data into
different forms between two networking
systems.
 Then a software application converts the data
from one format into another.
 Gateway is a viable tool to translate the data
format, although the data itself remains
unchanged. Gateway might be installed in
some other device to add its functionality into
another.
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Brouter

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Brouter (Cont…)
 Bridge + Router
 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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Brouter (Cont…)
 Brouters are the combination of both the
bridge and routers.
 They take up the functionality of the both
networking devices serving as a bridge when
forwarding data between networks, and
serving as a router when routing data to
individual systems.
 Brouter functions as a filter that allows some
data into the local network and redirects
unknown data to the other network.
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Twisted-pair cable

Pinouts for a straight-through

twisted-pair cable, used for Pinouts for a crossover
different devices twisted-pair cable, used for same
type of devices
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CSU/DSU (Channel Service
Unit/Data Service Unit)
translator between the LAN data
format and the WAN data format

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Modem

An internal modem (left) and a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory

Card International Association) modem (right)

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Network Interface Cards (NICs):
network card, network adapter,
and LAN adapter

32-bit PCI, slots on a system board.

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