WHAT IS NETWORK

A network is a set of devices (often referred to as nodes) connected by communication links. A node
can be a computer, printer, or any other device capable of sending and/or receiving data generated by
other nodes on the network.

“Computer network’’ to mean a collection of autonomous computers interconnected by a single

technology.

Two computers are said to be interconnected if they are able to exchange information. The connection
need not be via a copper wire; fiber optics, microwaves, infrared, and communication satellites can also
be used.

Networks come in many sizes, shapes and forms, as we will see later.

They are usually connected together to make larger networks, with the Internet being the most well-
known example of a network of networks.

Component of Computer Network

A data communications system has five components

I. Message. The message is the information (data) to be communicated. Popular forms of

information include text, numbers, pictures, audio, and video.

2 Sender. The sender is the device that sends the data message. It can be a computer,
workstation, telephone handset, video camera, and so on.

3. Receiver. The receiver is the device that receives the message. It can be a computer,
workstation, telephone handset, television, and so on.

4. Transmission medium. The transmission medium is the physical path by which a message
travels from sender to receiver. Some examples of transmission media include twisted-pair
wire, coaxial cable, fiber-optic cable, and radio waves.

5. Protocol. A protocol is a set of rules that govern data communications. It represents an

agreement between the communicating devices. Without a protocol, two devices may be
connected but not communicating, just as a person speaking French cannot be understood by a
person who speaks only Japanese.
Benefits of computer network

Connectivity and Communication: Networks connect computers and the users of those
computers. Individuals within a building or work group can be connected into local area
networks (LANs); LANs in distant locations can be interconnected into larger wide area
networks (WANs). Once connected, it is possible for network users to communicate with each
other using technologies such as electronic mail. This makes the transmission of business (or
non-business) information easier, more efficient and less expensive than it would be without
the network.

Data Sharing: One of the most important uses of networking is to allow the sharing of data.
Before networking was common, an accounting employee who wanted to prepare a report for
her manager would have to produce it on his PC, put it on a floppy disk, and then walk it over to
the manager, who would transfer the data to her PC's hard disk. (This sort of “shoe-based
network” was sometimes sarcastically called a “sneakernet”.)

Hardware Sharing: Networks facilitate the sharing of hardware devices. For example, instead of
giving each of 10 employees in a department an expensive color printer (or resorting to the
“sneakernet” again), one printer can be placed on the network for everyone to share.

Internet Access: The Internet is itself an enormous network, so whenever you access the
Internet, you are using a network. The significance of the Internet on modern society is hard to
exaggerate, especially for those of us in technical fields.
Internet Access Sharing: Small computer networks allow multiple users to share a single
Internet connection. Special hardware devices allow the bandwidth of the connection to be
easily allocated to various individuals as they need it, and permit an organization to purchase
one high-speed connection instead of many slower ones.

Data Security and Management: In a business environment, a network allows the

administrators to much better manage the company's critical data. Instead of having this data
spread over dozens or even hundreds of small computers in a haphazard fashion as their users
create it, data can be centralized on shared servers. This makes it easy for everyone to find the
data, makes it possible for the administrators to ensure that the data is regularly backed up,
and also allows for the implementation of security measures to control who can read or change
various pieces of critical information.

Performance Enhancement and Balancing: Under some circumstances, a network can be used
to enhance the overall performance of some applications by distributing the computation tasks
to various computers on the network.

Entertainment: Networks facilitate many types of games and entertainment. The Internet itself
offers many sources of entertainment, of course. In addition, many multi-player games exist
that operate over a local area network. Many home networks are set up for this reason, and
gaming across wide area networks (including the Internet) has also become quite popular.

Wired Transmission Media

One of the most convenient way to transfer data from one computer to another, even before
the birth of networking, was to save it on some storage media and transfer physical from one
station to another. Though it may seem old-fashion way in today’s world of high speed internet,
but when the size of data is huge, the magnetic media comes into play.

For example, a bank has to handle and transfer huge data of its customer, which stores a
backup of it at some geographically far-away place for security reasons and to keep it from
uncertain calamities. If the bank needs to store its huge backup data then its,transfer through
internet is not [Link] WAN links may not support such high [Link] if they do; the
cost too high to afford.

In these cases, data backup is stored onto magnetic tapes or magnetic discs, and then shifted
physically at remote places.

Twisted Pair Cable

A twisted pair cable is made of two plastic insulated copper wires twisted together to form a
single media. Out of these two wires, only one carries actual signal and another is used for
ground reference. The twists between wires are helpful in reducing noise (electro-magnetic
interference) and crosstalk.

Twisted Pair Cables are further of two types :

1. Unshielded Twisted Pair Cables (UTP) :

These are a pair of two insulated copper wires twisted together without any other insulation or
shielding and hence are called unshielded twisted pair cables. They reduce the external
interference due to the presence of insulation. Unshielded twisted pair cables are arranged in
pairs so that we can add a new connection whenever required. The DSL or telephone lines in
our houses have one extra pair in them. When UTP are arranged in pairs, each pair is coded
with a different color as defined by the 25-pair color code developed by AT&T Corporation. The
Electronic Industries Association divides UTP into 7 categories based on some standards.
Categories are based upon cable quality where 1 is the highest quality and 7 is the lowest
quality. Each cable in a category is put to a different use as needed.

Advantages –

1. These cables are cost-effective and easy to install owing to their compact size.

2. They are generally used for short-distance transmission of both voice and data.

3. It is less costly as compared to other types of cables.

Disadvantages –

1. The connection established using UTP is not secure.

2. They are efficient only for a distance up to 100 meters and have to be installed in pieces
of up to 100 meters.

3. These cables have limited bandwidth.

2. Shielded Twisted Pair Cables (STP) :

These types of cables have extra insulation or protective covering over the conductors in
the form of a copper braid covering. This covering provides strength to the overall
structure of the cable. It also reduces noise and signal interference in the cable. The
shielding ensures that the induced signal can be returned to the source via ground and
only circulate around the shield without affecting the main propagating signal. The STP
cables are also color-coded like the UTP cables as different color pairs are required for
analog and digital transmission. These cables are costly and difficult to install.

Advantages –

1. They are generally used for long-distance communication and transmission and are
installed underground.

2. The protective shield prevents external electromagnetic noise penetration into the
cable.

3. They have a higher bandwidth as compared to UTP.

 Disadvantages –

1. These cables are very expensive.

2. They require a lot of maintenance which increases the cost more.

3. These can be installed underground only.

4. The length of the segment is similar to UTP for these cables.

Coaxial Cable

A coaxial cable is an electrical cable with a copper conductor and an insulator shielding
around it and a braided metal mesh that prevents signal interference and cross talk.
Coaxial cable is also known as coax.

The core copper conductor is used for the transmission of signals and the insulator is
used to provide insulation to the copper conductor and the insulator is surrounded by a
braided metal conductor which helps to prevent the interference of electrical signals
and prevent cross talk. This entire setup is again covered with a protective plastic layer
to provide extra safety to the cable.
Copper conductor: A central conductor, which consists of copper. The conductor is the point at
which data transmits.

Insulator: Dielectric plastic insulation around the copper conductor. it is used to maintain the
spacing between the center conductor and shield.

Braided mesh: A braided mesh of copper helps to shield from electromagnetic interference,
The braid provides a barrier against EMI moving into and out of the coaxial cable.

Protective plastic layer: An external polymer layer, which has a plastic coating. It is used to
protect internal layers from damages.

Applications of Coaxial cable

The coaxial cables are used in Ethernet LANs and also used in MANs

1. Television: Coaxial cable used for television would be 75 Ohm and RG-6 coaxial cable.

2. Internet: Coaxial cables are also used for carrying internet signals, RG-6 cables are used
for this.

3. CCTV: The coaxial cables are also used in CCTV systems and both RG-59 AND RG-6
cables can be used.

4. Video: The coaxial cables are also used in video Transmission the RG-6 is used for better
digital signals and RG-59 for lossless transmission of video signals.

5. HDTV: The HDTV uses RG-11 as it provides more space for signals to transfer.

Advantages

1. Coaxial cables support high bandwidth.

 2. It is easy to install coaxial cables.

3. coaxial cables have better cut-through resistance so they are more reliable and durable.

4. Less affected by noise or cross-talk or electromagnetic inference.

5. Coaxial cables support multiple channels

Disadvantages

1. Coaxial cables are expensive.

2. The coaxial cable must be grounded in order to prevent any crosstalk.

3. As a Coaxial cable has multiple layers it is very bulky.

4. There is a chance of breaking the coaxial cable and attaching a “t-joint” by hackers, this
compromises the security of the data.

Fiber Optics
An Optical Fiber is a cylindrical fiber of glass which is hair thin size or any transparent
dielectric medium. The fiber which is used for optical communication is waveguides
made of transparent dielectrics.

Main element of Fiber Optics:

1. Core:
It is the central tube of very thin size made of optically transparent dielectric medium
and carries the light transmitter to receiver and the core diameter may vary from about
5um to 100 um.

2. Cladding:
 It is outer optical material surrounding the core having reflecting index lower than core
and cladding helps to keep the light within the core throughout the phenomena of total
internal reflection.

3. Buffer Coating:

It is a plastic coating that protects the fiber made of silicon rubber. The typical diameter
of the fiber after the coating is 250-300 um.

WIRELESS TRANSMISSION MEDIA

Wireless transmission is a form of unguided media. Wireless communication involves no
physical link established between two or more devices, communicating wirelessly.
Wireless signals are spread over in the air and are received and interpreted by
appropriate antennas.

When an antenna is attached to electrical circuit of a computer or wireless device, it

converts the digital data into wireless signals and spread all over within its frequency
range. The receptor on the other end receives these signals and converts them back to
digital data.

A little part of electromagnetic spectrum can be used for wireless transmission.

Radio Transmission

Radio frequency is easier to generate and because of its large wavelength it can
penetrate through walls and structures [Link] waves can have wavelength from 1
mm – 100,000 km and have frequency ranging from 3 Hz (Extremely Low Frequency) to
300 GHz (Extremely High Frequency). Radio frequencies are sub-divided into six bands.

Radio waves at lower frequencies can travel through walls whereas higher RF can travel
in straight line and bounce [Link] power of low frequency waves decreases sharply as
they cover long distance. High frequency radio waves have more power.
Lower frequencies such as VLF, LF, MF bands can travel on the ground up to 1000
kilometers, over the earth’s surface.

Radio waves of high frequencies are prone to be absorbed by rain and other obstacles.
They use Ionosphere of earth atmosphere. High frequency radio waves such as HF and
VHF bands are spread upwards. When they reach Ionosphere, they are refracted back to
the earth.

Microwave Transmission

Electromagnetic waves above 100 MHz tend to travel in a straight line and signals over
them can be sent by beaming those waves towards one particular station. Because
Microwaves travels in straight lines, both sender and receiver must be aligned to be
strictly in line-of-sight.

Microwaves can have wavelength ranging from 1 mm – 1 meter and frequency ranging
from 300 MHz to 300 GHz.
Microwave antennas concentrate the waves making a beam of it. As shown in picture
above, multiple antennas can be aligned to reach farther. Microwaves have higher
frequencies and do not penetrate wall like obstacles.

Microwave transmission depends highly upon the weather conditions and the frequency
it is using.

Infrared Transmission

Infrared wave lies in between visible light spectrum and microwaves. It has wavelength
of 700-nm to 1-mm and frequency ranges from 300-GHz to 430-THz.

Infrared wave is used for very short range communication purposes such as television
and it’s remote. Infrared travels in a straight line hence it is directional by nature.
Because of high frequency range, Infrared cannot cross wall-like obstacles.

TOPOLOGIES
Topology defines the structure of the network of how all the components are
interconnected to each other. There are two types of topology: physical and
logical topology.

Types of Network Topology

Physical topology is the geometric representation of all the nodes in a network. There
are six types of network topology which are Bus Topology, Ring Topology, Tree
Topology, Star Topology, Mesh Topology, and Hybrid Topology.

Bus Topology:
 Bus topology is a network type in which every computer and network device is
connected to a single cable. It is bi-directional. It is a multi-point connection and a non-
robust topology because if the backbone fails the topology crashes. In Bus Topology,
various MAC (Media Access Control) protocols are followed by LAN ethernet
connections like TDMA, Pure Aloha, CDMA, Slotted Aloha, etc.

Figure 3: A bus topology with shared backbone cable. The nodes are connected to the
channel via drop lines.

Advantages of this topology:

 If N devices are connected to each other in a bus topology, then the number of cables
required to connect them is 1, known as backbone cable, and N drop lines are required.

 Coaxial or twisted pair cables are mainly used in bus-based networks that support up to
10 Mbps.

 The cost of the cable is less compared to other topologies, but it is used to build small
networks.

 Bus topology is familiar technology as installation and troubleshooting techniques are

well known.

Disadvantages

 A bus topology is quite simpler, but still, it requires a lot of cabling.

 If the common cable fails, then the whole system will crash down.

 If the network traffic is heavy, it increases collisions in the network. To avoid this,
various protocols are used in the MAC layer known as Pure Aloha, Slotted Aloha,
CSMA/CD, etc.

 Adding new devices to the network would slow down networks.

 Security is very low.

Ring Topology:

In this topology, it forms a ring connecting devices with exactly two neighboring devices.

A number of repeaters are used for Ring topology with a large number of nodes,
because if someone wants to send some data to the last node in the ring topology with
100 nodes, then the data will have to pass through 99 nodes to reach the 100th node.
Hence to prevent data loss repeaters are used in the network.

The data flows in one direction, i.e.., it is unidirectional, but it can be made bidirectional
by having 2 connections between each Network Node, it is called Dual Ring Topology.
In-Ring Topology, the Token Ring Passing protocol is used by the workstations to
transmit the data.

Figure 4: A ring topology comprises 4 stations connected with each forming a ring.

The most common access method of ring topology is token passing.

 Token passing: It is a network access method in which a token is passed from one node
to another node.

 Token: It is a frame that circulates around the network.

The following operations take place in ring topology are :

1. One station is known as a monitor station which takes all the responsibility for
performing the operations.
2. To transmit the data, the station has to hold the token. After the transmission is done,
the token is to be released for other stations to use.

3. When no station is transmitting the data, then the token will circulate in the ring.

4. There are two types of token release techniques: Early token release releases the token
just after transmitting the data and Delayed token release releases the token after the
acknowledgment is received from the receiver.

Advantages of this topology:

 The data transmission is high-speed.

 The possibility of collision is minimum in this type of topology.

 Cheap to install and expand.

 It is less costly than a star topology.

Problems with this topology:

 The failure of a single node in the network can cause the entire network to fail.

 Troubleshooting is difficult in this topology.

 The addition of stations in between or the removal of stations can disturb the whole
topology.

 Less secure.

Tree Topology :

This topology is the variation of the Star topology. This topology has a hierarchical flow
of data. In Tree Topology, protocols like DHCP and SAC (Standard Automatic
Configuration ) are used.
 Figure 5: In this, the various secondary hubs are connected to the central hub which
contains the repeater. This data flow from top to bottom i.e. from the central hub to the
secondary and then to the devices or from bottom to top i.e. devices to the secondary
hub and then to the central hub. It is a multi-point connection and a non-robust
topology because if the backbone fails the topology crashes.

Advantages of this topology :

 It allows more devices to be attached to a single central hub thus it decreases the
distance that is traveled by the signal to come to the devices.

 It allows the network to get isolated and also prioritize from different computers.

 We can add new devices to the existing network.

 Error detection and error correction are very easy in a tree topology.

Problems with this topology :

 If the central hub gets fails the entire system fails.

 The cost is high because of the cabling.

 If new devices are added, it becomes difficult to reconfigure.

Mesh Topology:

In a mesh topology, every device is connected to another device via a particular channel. In
Mesh Topology, the protocols used are AHCP (Ad Hoc Configuration Protocols), DHCP (Dynamic
Host Configuration Protocol), etc.
Figure 1: Every device is connected to another via dedicated channels. These channels are
known as links.

 Suppose, the N number of devices are connected with each other in a mesh topology,
the total number of ports that are required by each device is N-1. In Figure 1, there are 5
devices connected to each other, hence the total number of ports required by each
device is 4. The total number of ports required=N*(N-1).

 Suppose, N number of devices are connected with each other in a mesh topology, then
the total number of dedicated links required to connect them is NC2 i.e. N(N-1)/2. In
Figure 1, there are 5 devices connected to each other, hence the total number of links
required is 5*4/2 = 10.

Advantages of this topology:

 Communication is very fast between the nodes.

 It is robust.

 The fault is diagnosed easily. Data is reliable because data is transferred among the
devices through dedicated channels or links.

 Provides security and privacy.

Problems with this topology:

 Installation and configuration are difficult.

 The cost of cables is high as bulk wiring is required, hence suitable for less number of
devices.

 The cost of maintenance is high.

Star Topology:
In star topology, all the devices are connected to a single hub through a cable. This hub is the
central node and all other nodes are connected to the central node. The hub can be passive in
nature i.e., not an intelligent hub such as broadcasting devices, at the same time the hub can be
intelligent known as an active hub. Active hubs have repeaters in them. Coaxial cables or RJ-45
cables are used to connect the computers. In Star Topology, many popular Ethernet LAN
protocols are used as CD(Collision Detection), CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access), etc.

Figure 2: A star topology having four systems connected to a single point of connection i.e.
hub.

Advantages of this topology:

 If N devices are connected to each other in a star topology, then the number of cables
required to connect them is N. So, it is easy to set up.

 Each device requires only 1 port i.e. to connect to the hub, therefore the total number
of ports required is N.

 It is Robust. If one link fails only that link will affect and not other than that.

 Easy to fault identification and fault isolation.

 Star topology is cost-effective as it uses inexpensive coaxial cable.

Problems with this topology:

 If the concentrator (hub) on which the whole topology relies fails, the whole system will
crash down.

 The cost of installation is high.

 Performance is based on the single concentrator i.e. hub.

TYPES OF NETWORK
A computer network is a cluster of computers over a shared communication path that works for
the purpose of sharing resources from one computer to another, provided by or located on the
network nodes.

Some of the uses of computer networks are the following:

 Communicating using email, video, instant messaging, etc.

 Sharing devices such as printers, scanners, etc.

 Sharing files

 Sharing software and operating programs on remote systems

 Allowing network users to easily access and maintain information

1. Local Area Network (LAN)

2. Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
3. Wide Area Network (WAN)

1. Local Area Network (LAN)

LAN is the most frequently used network. A LAN is a computer network that
connects computers together through a common communication path, contained
within a limited area, that is, locally. A LAN encompasses two or more computers
connected over a server. The two important technologies involved in this network
are Ethernet and Wi-fi.

Examples of LAN are networking in a home, school, library, laboratory, college,

office, etc.
2. Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) :
A MAN is larger than a LAN but smaller than a WAN.
This is the type of computer network that connects computers over a geographical
distance through a shared communication path over a city, town or metropolitan
area.
Examples of MAN are networking in towns, cities, a single large city, large area
within multiple buildings, etc.

3. Wide Area Network (WAN) :

WAN is a type of computer network that connects computers over a large geographical
distance through a shared communication path. It is not restrained to a single location
but extends over many locations. WAN can also be defined as a group of local area
networks that communicate with each other.

The most common example of WAN is the Internet.