CSC3161: Computer

Networking

YEAR 3
LECTURER: Dr. Alfred UWITONZE
CONTACTS: Phone number: 0788549588
E-mail: alfruwitonze@gmail.com
1 Academic Year 2020-2021
02/25/2022
 LIVING IN A NETWORK-CENTRIC WORLD

COMMUNICATION-AN ESSENTIAL PART OF

OUR LIVES
WHAT IS COMMUNICATION?
Communication in our daily lives takes many forms and
occurs in many environments.
We have different expectations depending on whether we
are chatting via the Internet or participating in a job
interview.
Each situation has its corresponding expected behaviors
and styles.

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COMMUNICATION-AN ESSENTIAL PART OF

OUR LIVES
WHAT IS COMMUNICATION?
Communication can be defined as the meaningful
exchange of information between two or a group
of people.
Communication rules may vary according to the context.
If a message conveys an important fact or concept, a
confirmation that the message has been received and
understood is necessary.
Less important messages may not require an
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COMMUNICATING OVER NETWORKS

Being able to reliably communicate to anyone, anywhere,
is becoming increasingly important to our personal and
business lives.
In order to support the immediate delivery of the millions
of messages being exchanged between people all over the
world, we rely on a web of interconnected networks.

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COMMUNICATING OVER NETWORKS

All networks have four basic elements in common:
Rules or agreements which govern how the messages are
sent, directed, received and interpreted.
The messages or units of information that travel from one
device to another
A means of interconnecting these devices
A medium that can transport the messages from one device
to other Devices on the network that exchange messages
with each other

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THE ELEMENTS OF A NETWORK

The diagram shows elements of a typical network,
including devices, media, and services, tied together by
rules, that work together to send messages.
We use the word messages as a term that encompasses
web pages, e-mail, instant messages, telephone calls, and
other forms of communication enabled by the Internet.

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THE ELEMENTS OF A NETWORK

FOUR ELEMENTS OF A NETWORK:
Rules
Medium
Messages
Devices
Protocols are the rules that the networked devices use to
communicate with each other.
The industry standard in networking today is a set of
protocols called TCP/IP (Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol).

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THE NETWORK ARCHITECTURE

Network architecture refers to both the technologies that
support the infrastructure and the programmed services
and protocols that move the messages across that
infrastructure.
As the Internet and networks in general, evolve, we are
discovering that there are four basic characteristics that
the underlying architectures need to address in order to
meet user expectations: fault tolerance, scalability, quality
of service, and security.

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THE NETWORK ARCHITECTURE

Fault Tolerance
The expectation that the Internet is always available to
the millions of users who rely on it requires a network
architecture that is designed and built to be fault tolerant.
A fault tolerant network is one that limits the impact of a
hardware or software failure and can recover quickly
when such a failure occurs.
These networks depend on redundant links, or paths,
between the source and destination of a message. If one
link or path fails, processes ensure that messages can be
instantly routed over a different link transparent to the
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THE NETWORK ARCHITECTURE

Scalability
A scalable network can expand quickly to support new
users and applications without impacting the performance
of the service being delivered to existing users.
Thousands of new users and service providers connect to
the Internet each week.
The ability of the network to support these new
interconnections depends on a hierarchical layered design
for the underlying physical infrastructure and logical
architecture.

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THE NETWORK ARCHITECTURE

Quality of Service (QoS)
The Internet is currently providing an acceptable level of
fault tolerance and scalability for its users.
But new applications available to users over
internetworks create higher expectations for the quality of
the delivered services.
Voice and live video transmissions require a level of
consistent quality and uninterrupted delivery that was not
necessary for traditional computer applications.

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THE NETWORK ARCHITECTURE

Security
The Internet has evolved from a tightly controlled
internetwork of educational and government
organizations to a widely accessible means for
transmission of business and personal communications.
As a result, the security requirements of the network have
changed.
The security and privacy expectations that result from the
use of internetworks to exchange confidential and
business critical information exceed what the current
architecture can deliver.
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FAULT TOLERANT NETWORK ARCHITECTURE

The Internet, in its early inception, was the result of
research funded by the United States Department of
Defense (DoD).
Its primary goal was to have a communications medium
that could withstand the destruction of numerous sites and
transmission facilities without disruption of service.

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FAULT TOLERANT NETWORK ARCHITECTURE

Circuit Switched Connection-oriented Networks
A physical, dedicated path or circuit is temporary setup
between the source and destination.
The circuit is maintained for the duration of the call.
Early circuit-switched networks do not dynamically
recover from drop circuits

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FAULT TOLERANT NETWORK ARCHITECTURE

Packet Switched Connectionless Networks
The entire message is broken into packets which are
addressed and numbered.
Any packets can be sent through the network using any
available path.
Individual blocks containing addressing information,
indicates both their origination point and their final
destination.

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A SCALABLE NETWORK ARCHITECTURE

The fact that the Internet is able to expand at the rate that
it is, without seriously impacting the performance
experienced by individual users, is a function of the
design of the protocols and underlying technologies on
which it is built.
At each level or layer of the hierarchy, individual network
operators maintain peering relationships with other
operators at the same level.
As a result, network traffic that is destined for local or
regional services does not need to traverse to a central
point for distribution. Common services can be duplicated
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PROVIDING QUALITY OF SERVICE

Networks must provide secure, predictable, measurable,
and, at times, guaranteed services.
The packet-switched network architecture does not
guarantee that all packets that comprise a particular
message will arrive on time, in their correct in order, or
even that they will arrive at all.
Networks also need mechanisms to manage congested
network traffic.
Congestion is caused when the demand on the network
resources exceeds the available capacity.

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PROVIDING QUALITY OF SERVICE

Achieving the required Quality of Service (QoS) by
managing the delay and packet loss parameters on a
network becomes the secret to a successful end-to-end
application quality solution.
Assigning priorities
The characteristics of the information being
communicated also affect its management. For example,
the delivery of a movie uses a relatively large amount of
network resources when it is delivered continuously
without interruption.
Other types of service - e-mail, for example - are not
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PROVIDING QUALITY OF SERVICE

Assigning priorities
QoS mechanisms enable the establishment of queue
management strategies that enforce priorities for different
classifications of application data.
Without properly designed and implemented QoS
mechanisms, data packets will be dropped without
consideration of the application characteristics or priority.
Examples:
Time-sensitive communication; telephony or video
distribution.
Non time-sensitive communication - decrease priority for
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web page retrieval or e-mail
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PROVIDING QUALITY OF SERVICE

Assigning priorities
Examples:
High importance to organization; increase priority for
production control or business transaction data.
Undesirable communication - decrease priority or block
unwanted activity, like peer-to-peer file sharing or live
entertainment.

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PROVIDING NETWORK SECURITY

The network infrastructure, services, and the data
contained on network attached computers are crucial
personal and business assets.
Compromising the integrity of these assets could have
serious business and financial repercussions.

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PROVIDING NETWORK SECURITY

Consequences of a network security breach could
include:
Network outage that prevents communications and
transactions occurring.
Misdirection and loss of personal or business funds
Company intellectual property (research ideas, patents or
designs) that is stolen and used by a competitor
Customer contract details that become known to
competitors or made public, resulting in a loss of market
confidence in the business

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PROVIDING NETWORK SECURITY

There are two types of network security concerns that
must be addressed to prevent serious consequences:
network infrastructure security and content security.
Securing a network infrastructure includes the physical
securing of devices that provide network connectivity and
preventing unauthorized access to the management
software that resides on them.

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PROVIDING NETWORK SECURITY

Content security refers to protecting the information
contained within the packets being transmitted over the
network and the information stored on network attached
devices.
Security measures taken in a network should:
Prevent unauthorized disclosure or theft of information
Prevent unauthorized modification of information
Prevent Denial of Service

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 END OF UNIT!!!

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