Computer Networks

It is a collection of autonomous/individual/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, it can be fiber optics, microwaves, infrared, and communication satellites can also
be used. Networks come in many sizes, shapes and forms. They are usually connected together to make larger
networks, with the Internet being the most well-known example of a network of networks.

USES OF COMPUTER NETWORKS

i. Business Applications
 Most companies have a substantial number of computers. For ex: A company may have a computer for
each worker and use them to design products, write brochures, and do the payroll. Initially, some of these
computers may have worked in isolation from the others, but at some point, management may have
decided to connect them to be able to distribute information throughout the company. This is resource
sharing. The goal is to make all programs, equipment, and especially data available to anyone on the
network without regard to the physical location of the resource or the user. An obvious example is having
a group of office workers share a common printer. None of the individuals really needs a private printer,
and a high-volume networked printer is often cheaper, faster, and easier to maintain than a large collection
of individual printers.

 However, probably even more important than sharing physical resources such as printers, and tape backup
systems, is sharing information. Companies small and large are vitally dependent on computerized
information. Most companies have customer records, product information, inventories, financial
statements, tax information, and much more online. If all of its computers suddenly went down, a bank
could not last more than five minutes. A modern manufacturing plant, with a computer-controlled
assembly line, would not last even 5 seconds. Even a small travel agency or three-person law firm is now
highly dependent on computer networks for allowing employees to access relevant information and
documents instantly.

 Imagine a company’s information system as consisting of one or more databases with company
information and some number of employees who need to access them remotely. In this model, the data
are stored on powerful computers called servers. Often these are centrally housed and maintained by a
system administrator. In contrast, the employees have simpler machines, called clients, on their desks,
with which they access remote data, for example, to include in spreadsheets they are constructing. The
client and server machines are connected by a computer network. This model is called as Client-server
model.

 Other, richer forms of communication are made possible by computer networks. Video can be added to
audio so that employees at distant locations can see and hear each other as they hold a meeting. This
technique is a powerful tool for eliminating the cost and time previously devoted to travel. Desktop
sharing lets remote workers see and interact with a graphical computer screen. This makes it easy for two
or more people who work far apart to read and write a shared blackboard or write a report together. When
one worker makes a change to an online document, the others can see the change immediately, instead of
waiting several days for a letter.

 Many companies is doing business electronically, especially with customers and suppliers. This new
model is called e-commerce (electronic commerce) and it has grown rapidly in recent years. Airlines,
bookstores, and other retailers have discovered that many customers like the convenience of shopping
from home.
ii. Home Applications
 People initially bought computers for word processing and games. Recently, the biggest reason to buy a
home computer was probably for Internet access. Now, many consumer electronic devices, such as set-
top boxes, game consoles, and clock radios, come with embedded computers and computer networks,
especially wireless networks, and home networks are broadly used for entertainment, including listening
to, looking at, and creating music, photos, and videos.

 Internet access provides home users with connectivity to remote computers. As with companies, home
users can access information, communicate with other people, and buy products and services with e-
commerce. Access to remote information comes in many forms. It can be surfing the World Wide Web
for information or just for fun. Information available includes the arts, business, cooking, government,
health, history, hobbies, recreation, science, sports, travel, and many others.

 Many professional organizations, such as the ACM (www.acm.org) and the IEEE Computer Society
(www.computer.org), already have all their journals and conference proceedings online. Electronic book
readers and online libraries may make printed books obsolete.

 Much of this information is accessed using the client-server model, but there is different, popular model
for accessing information that goes by the name of peer-to-peer communication. In this form, individuals
who form a loose group can communicate with others in the group. Many peer-to-peer systems, such as
BitTorrent, do not have any central database of content. Instead, each user maintains his own database
locally and provides a list of other nearby people who are members of the system

 Any teenager worth his or her salt is addicted to instant messaging. There are multi-person messaging
services, such as the Twitter service that lets people send short text messages called ‘‘tweets’’ to their
circle of friends or other willing audiences.

 The Internet can be used by applications to carry audio (e.g., Internet radio stations) and video (e.g.,
YouTube).

 Between person-to-person communications and accessing information are social network applications.
Here, the flow of information is driven by the relationships that people declare between each other. One
of the most popular social networking sites is Facebook.

 Even more loosely, groups of people can work together to create content. A wiki, for example, is a
collaborative Web site that the members of a community edit. The most famous wiki is the Wikipedia, an
encyclopedia anyone can edit, but there are thousands of other wikis.

 Next category is entertainment. This has made huge strides in the home in recent years, with the
distribution of music, radio and television programs, and movies over the Internet beginning to rival that
of traditional mechanisms. Users can find, buy, and download MP3 songs and DVD-quality movies and
add them to their personal collection.

iii. Mobile Users

o Mobile computers, such as laptop and handheld computers, are one of the fastest-growing segments of the
computer industry. Connectivity to the Internet enables many of these mobile uses. Since having a wired
connection is impossible in cars, boats, and airplanes, there is a lot of interest in wireless networks.

o Wireless hotspots based on the 802.11 standard are another kind of wireless network for mobile
computers. They have sprung up everywhere that people go, resulting in a patchwork of coverage at cafes,
hotels, airports, schools, trains and planes
 o There are also true mobile, wireless applications, such as people walking around stores with a handheld
computers recording inventory. At many busy airports, car rental return clerks work in the parking lot with
wireless mobile computers. They scan the barcodes or RFID chips of returning cars, and their mobile
device, which has a built-in printer, calls the main computer, gets the rental information, and prints out
the bill on the spot.

o Smart phones, such as the popular iPhone, combine aspects of mobile phones and mobile computers. The
(3G and 4G) cellular networks to which they connect can provide fast data services for using the Internet
as well as handling phone calls

o Since mobile phones know their locations, often because they are equipped with GPS (Global Positioning
System) receivers, some services are intentionally location dependent. Mobile maps and directions are an
obvious candidate as your GPS-enabled phone and car probably have a better idea of where you are than
you do. So, too, are searches for a nearby bookstore or Chinese restaurant, or a local weather forecast.
Other services may record location, such as annotating photos and videos with the place at which they
were made. This annotation is known as ‘‘geo-tagging.’’

o Sensor networks are made up of nodes that gather and wirelessly relay information they sense about the
state of the physical world. The nodes may be part of familiar items such as cars or phones, or they may
be small separate devices.

o Wearable computers are another promising application. Smart watches with radios.
iv. Social Issues
Computer networks allow ordinary citizens to distribute and view content in ways that were not previously
possible. But along with the good comes the bad, as this new-found freedom brings with it many unsolved social,
political, and ethical issues. Let us just briefly mention a few of them.

 Social networks, message boards, content sharing sites, and a host of other applications allow people to
share their views with like-minded individuals. As long as the subjects are restricted to technical topics or
hobbies like gardening, not too many problems will arise.

 The trouble comes with topics that people actually care about, like politics, religion, or sex. Views that
are publicly posted may be deeply offensive to some people. Worse yet, they may not be politically correct.

 Furthermore, opinions need not be limited to text; high-resolution color photographs and video clips are
easily shared over computer networks. Some people take a live-and-let-live view, but others feel that
posting certain material (e.g., verbal attacks on particular countries or religions.) is simply unacceptable
and that such content must be censored. Different countries have different and conflicting laws in this
area.