UNIT IV: COMPUTER NETWORK

A computer network is defined as the interconnection of different computers and other shared
devices such as printers etc. for the purpose of resource sharing, information processing and
dissemination. Computers may connect to each other either via wired (guarded) or wireless
(unguarded) media. Each computing device on a network is called a node.
Network Protocol: This consists of set rules and guidelines that govern the manner in which
information is passed round on the network.

Classification of Computer Networks

Computer networks are classified based on various factors. They includes:
 Administration
 Architecture
 Inter-connectivity
 Geographical span

Administration
From an administrator’s point of view, a network can be private network which belongs to a
single autonomous system (Admin) and cannot be accessed outside its physical or logical
domain or a network can be public which is accessed by all.

Network Architecture
Computer networks can be discriminated into various types such as Client-Server, peer-to-
peer or hybrid, depending upon its architecture.
 There can be one or more systems acting as Server(s) others being Client, the server
takes and processes request on behalf of Clients.
 Two systems can be connected Point-to-Point, or in back-to-back fashion. They both
reside at the same level and called peers.
 There can be hybrid network which involves network architecture of both the above
types.

Inter-Connectivity
 Every single device can be connected to every other device on network, making the
network mesh.
 All devices can be connected to a single medium but geographically disconnected,
created bus like structure.
  Each device is connected to its left and right peers only, creating linear structure. All
devices connected together with a single device, creating star like structure.
 All devices connected arbitrarily using all previous ways to connect each other, resulting
in a hybrid structure.

Computer Network Topologies

A Network Topology is the arrangement with which computer systems or network devices are
connected to each other. Topologies may define both physical and logical aspect of the
network. Both logical and physical topologies could be same or different in a same network.
Point-to-Point
Point-to-point networks contains exactly two hosts such as computer, switches or routers,
servers connected back to back using a single piece of cable. Often, the receiving end of one
host is connected to sending end of the other and vice-versa.
If the hosts are connected point-to point
logically, then may have multiple
intermediate devices. But the end hosts
are unaware of underlying network and
see each other as if they are connected directly.
Bus Topology
In case of Bus topology, all
devices share single
communication line or cable. Bus
topology may have problem while
multiple hosts sending data at the
same time. Therefore, Bus
topology either uses Carrier Sense
Multi Access/Collision Detection
(CSMA/CD) technology or
recognizes one host as Bus Master to solve the issue. It is one of the simple forms of
networking where a failure of a device does not affect the other devices. But failure of the
shared communication line can make all other devices stop functioning.

Both ends of the shared channel have line terminator. The data is sent in only one direction
and as soon as it reaches the extreme end, the terminator removes the data from the line.
Star Topology
All hosts in Star topology are connected to a central device, known as hub device, using a
point-to-point connection. That is, there
exists a point to point connection
between hosts and hub. The hub device
can be any of the following:
Layer-1 device such as hub or repeater
Layer-2 device such as switch or bridge
Layer-3 device such as router or gateway
As in Bus topology, hub acts as single
point of failure. If hub fails, connectivity
of all hosts to all other hosts fails. Every
communication between hosts, takes
place through only the hub. Star
topology is not expensive as it only requires connecting one more host, only one cable is
required and configuration is simple.

Ring Topology
In ring topology, each host machine connects to
exactly two other machines, creating a circular
network structure. When one host tries to
communicate or send message to a host which is
not adjacent to it, the data travels through all
intermediate hosts. To connect one more host in
the existing structure, the administrator may need
only one more extra cable.

Failure of any host results in failure of the whole ring. Thus, every connection in the ring is a
point of failure. There are methods which employ one more backup ring.
Mesh Topology
In this type of topology, a host is connected to one or multiple hosts. This topology has hosts
in point-to-point connection with every other host or
may also have hosts which are in point-to-point
connection to few hosts only.

Hosts in Mesh topology also work as relay for other

hosts which do not have direct point-to-point links.
Mesh technology comes into two types:
  Full Mesh: All hosts have a point-to-point connection to every other host in the network.
Thus for every new host n(n-1)/2 connections are required. It provides the most reliable
network structure among all network topologies.
 Partially Mesh: Not all hosts have point-to-point connection to every other host. Hosts
connect to each other in some arbitrarily fashion. This topology exists where we need to
provide reliability to some hosts out of all.

Tree Topology
Also known as Hierarchical Topology, this is the most common form of network topology in
use presently. This topology imitates as extended Star topology and inherits properties of bus
topology.
This topology divides the network in
to multiple levels/layers of network.
Mainly in LANs, a network is divided
into three types of network devices.
The lowermost is access-layer where
computers are attached. The middle
layer is known as distribution layer,
which works as mediator between
upper layer and lower layer. The
highest layer is known as core layer, and is central point of the network, i.e. root of the tree
from which all nodes fork.

Daisy Chain
This topology connects all the hosts in a linear fashion. Similar to Ring topology, all hosts are
connected to two hosts only,
except the end hosts. Means, if the
end hosts in daisy chain are
connected then it represents Ring
topology.
Each link in daisy chain topology represents single point of failure. Every link failure splits the
network into two segments. Every intermediate host works as relay for its immediate hosts.

Hybrid Topology
A network structure whose design contains more than one topology is said to be hybrid
topology. Hybrid topology inherits merits and demerits of all the incorporating topologies.
 The above picture represents an arbitrarily
hybrid topology. The combining topologies may
contain attributes of Star, Ring, Bus, and Daisy-
chain topologies. Most WANs are connected by
means of Dual-Ring topology and networks
connected to them are mostly Star topology
networks. Internet is the best example of largest
Hybrid topology

Geographical Span
Geographically a network can be seen in one of the following categories:
 It may be spanned across your table, among Bluetooth enabled devices,. Ranging not
more than few meters.
 It may be spanned across a whole building, including intermediate devices to connect all
floors.
 It may be spanned across a whole city.
 It may be spanned across multiple cities or provinces.
 It may be one network covering the whole world.

Personal Area Network

A Personal Area Network (PAN) is the smallest network. This may include Bluetooth enabled
devices or infra-red enabled devices. PAN has connectivity range up to 10 meters. PAN may
include wireless computer keyboard and mouse, Bluetooth enabled headphones, wireless
printers and TV remotes. For example, Piconet is Bluetooth-enabled Personal Area Network
which may contain up to 8 devices connected together in a master-slave fashion.

Local Area Network

A computer network spanned inside a building and operated under single administrative
system is generally termed as Local Area Network (LAN). Usually, LAN covers an organization’
offices, schools, colleges or universities. Number of systems connected in LAN may vary from
as least as two to as much as 16 million.
LAN provides a useful way of sharing the resources between end users. The resources such as
printers, file servers, scanners, and internet are easily sharable among computers.
LANs are composed of inexpensive networking and routing equipment. It may contains local
servers serving file storage and other locally shared applications. It mostly operates on private
IP addresses and does not involve heavy routing. LAN works under its own local domain and
controlled centrally.
LAN uses either Ethernet or Token-ring technology. Ethernet is most widely employed LAN
technology and uses Star topology, while Token-ring is rarely seen. LAN can be wired, wireless,
or in both forms at once.

Metropolitan Area Network

The Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) generally expands throughout a city such as cable TV
network. It can be in the form of Ethernet, Token-ring, ATM, or Fiber Distributed Data
Interface (FDDI).
Metro Ethernet is a service which is provided by ISPs. This service enables its users to expand
their Local Area Networks. For example, MAN can help an organization to connect all of its
offices in a city.
Backbone of MAN is high-capacity and high-speed fiber optics. MAN works in between Local
Area Network and Wide Area Network. MAN provides uplink for LANs to WANs or internet.

Wide Area Network

As the name suggests, the Wide Area Network (WAN) covers a wide area which may span
across provinces and even a whole country. Generally, telecommunication networks are Wide
Area Network. These networks provide connectivity to MANs and LANs. Since they are
equipped with very high speed backbone, WANs use very expensive network equipment.
WAN may use advanced technologies such as Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Frame
Relay, and Synchronous Optical Network (SONET). WAN may be managed by multiple
administration.

Network Applications
Computer systems and peripherals are connected to form a network.They provide numerous
advantages:
 Resource sharing such as printers and storage devices
 Information sharing and exchange by using Web or Internet, e-Mails and FTP
 Parallel computing
 Communication by means of IP phones, Video conferencing, Instant messaging etc

Internet
The internet also known as the network of networks is the largest computer network in
existence on this planet. It can be defined as a network of networks consisting of global
network of computers that communicate using internet protocols (IP). It was created by US
department of defense, in 1969, under the name ARPANET (Advanced Research Project
Agency Network). The internet hugely connects all WANs and it can have connection to LANs
and Home networks. The internet enables its users to share and access enormous amount of
information worldwide, it uses World Wide Web (WWW), file transfer protocol (FTP), email
services, audio and video streaming etc at huge level.
Internet is widely deployed on World Wide Web services using HTML linked pages and is
accessible by client software known as Web Browsers, it works on Client-Server model, i.e.
when a user using a web browser (client) requests a page located on a Web Server anywhere
in the world, the Web Server responds with the proper HTML page. The communication delay
is very low.
Internet is serving many proposes and is involved in many aspects of life. Some of them are:
 Web sites
 E-mail
 Instant Messaging
 Blogging
 Social Media
 Marketing
 Networking
 Resource Sharing
 Audio and Video Streaming

Uses of Internet
1. Information dissemination
2. Product / service development
3. Transaction processing
4. Relation enhancing
5. Entertainment
6. Education
7. Religion etc.
Internet Terminologies
1. Web: it consist of interconnected systems of sites and places that can store information
in a multimedia form
2. HTML: the format used on the web. It means hypertext markup language
3. HTTP: hypertext transfer protocol
4. URL: Uniform (Universal) Resource locator, used to find a particular website
5. Web browser: software which enables us access the internet. E.g. Internet explorer,
Mozilla Firefox.
6. TCP/IP: the standardized set of rules that allow different computers on different
networks to communicate with each other efficiently
7. WAP: this is wireless application protocol that allows the use of mobile phones for a
wide range of inter actions with the web.
E-mail
An email is the electronic transmission of coded, graphics or textual information. It is a system
that intends to replace the movement of paper messages. It can be sent or received by several
people at different locations and within different time zones.
When the information is posted by the sender, it goes to a central computer which allocates
disk storage as mailbox to each user.
Both the sender and the receiver must require an email address that must be used to send or
receive email.
Advantages
1. Speed in information transmission
2. Cheaper than fax
3. Efficiency
4. Security.