Scribd
Upload
3 views

Network Basics

Uploaded by

Omer Mohamed
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
3 views

Network Basics

Uploaded by

Omer Mohamed
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 12

Basic Networking Concepts:

LANs, WANs, and Multiplexing


Carey Williamson
Department of Computer Science
University of Calgary
LANs and WANs

 Networks come in many shapes and sizes


 LAN: Local Area Network
— Limited geographic coverage (e.g., lab, building)
— Examples: home network, Ethernet LAN, WiFi
 MAN: Metropolitan Area Network
— Size of a “city” (1-10 km or so)
 WAN: Wide Area Network
— Large geographic coverage (e.g., country, planet)
— Examples: CANARIE, cellular networks, Internet
 Technologies differ (capacity, distance, $$)

CPSC 441 2
Some Useful Analogies

 Many of the concepts in computer networks are not


really new, but come from other familiar areas…
 Telephone network: (POTS: Plain Old Telephone System)
— Phone calls, trunk lines, toll offices, circuit-switching
 Postal system: (most similar to Internet packet-switching!)
— Letters/parcels, addresses, mail carriers, post office
 Highway network:
— Cars/buses, streets/highways, rush hour, collisions
 Broadcast TV:
— Channels, stations, TVs, streaming (live/stored)

CPSC 441 3
Communications Networks

 Historically, there have been two different


philosophies guiding the design, operation, and
evolution of communication networks
— the “telco” view (i.e., telecommunications networks to
support voice telephony and other types of services,
such as fax, dialup modems, etc.)
— the “data networking” view (i.e., the Internet)
 While the two approaches share some similar
goals and challenges (e.g., scale, geography,
heterogeneity), they have quite different
underlying assumptions
CPSC 441 4
Telco Networks (1 of 2)

 Over 100 years old


 Circuit-switched network
 Designed for transmission of human voice
 Twisted pair copper wire for residential access
— “cheap”, adequate bandwidth, easy to handle...
 Aggregation of multiple calls at toll office for
multiplexing/demultiplexing using TDM
 Low bandwidth required per call (e.g., 64 kbps)
 Fixed bandwidth required per call

CPSC 441 5
Telco Networks (2 of 2)

 Call routing and circuit allocation decided once per call


at time of call arrival
 End-to-end path allocation, with dedicated circuit
(reserved bandwidth) per active call
 All bits travel same path; stay in same order
 Call state information crucial in network switches
 Busy signal if no path possible (blocking <= 2%)
 Billing model based on time used (in minutes)
 Single class of service; high reliability (99.99%)
 Additional services: faxes, modems, mobility, ...
CPSC 441 6
The Internet (1 of 2)

 About 50 years old


 Packet-switched network
 Designed for transmission of data
 Variable-size packets permitted
 Wide range of access technologies
 Wide range of user and application behaviour
 Bursty, variable bandwidth required by apps
 Aggregation of traffic at routers/switches
 Transmission links shared on stat mux basis

CPSC 441 7
The Internet (2 of 2)

 Connection-less network layer protocol (IP)


 “Best effort” datagram delivery model
 Packet routing decided on a per-packet basis
 No end-to-end path allocation; no reserved bandwidth
per active call
 Packets can travel any path; packets can be delayed,
lost, duplicated, re-ordered
 Minimal state info in network switches
 Single class of service
 Billing model? (hours? pkts? bytes? bandwidth?)
CPSC 441 8
Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)

 Static channel allocation mechanism


 Divides a fixed resource among N concurrent users
 Done in the time domain (i.e., turn-taking, time slots)
 Give each user all of the channel part of the time
 Examples:
— Classroom scheduling; traffic lights; daily TV programs
— T1 digital transmission standard (1.5 Mbps)
 Very efficient if N is fixed and all N users are active
 Very inefficient for bursty and unpredictable traffic

CPSC 441 9
Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM)

 Static channel allocation mechanism


 Divides a fixed resource among N concurrent users
 Done in the frequency domain (i.e., Hertz) (Hz)
 Give each user part of the channel all of the time
 Examples:
— Radio stations; TV channels; WiFi channels
— CRTC regulation of wireless/cellular technologies
 Very efficient if N is fixed and all N users are active
 Very inefficient for bursty and unpredictable traffic

CPSC 441 10
Statistical Multiplexing (Stat Mux)

 Flexible (dynamic) channel allocation mechanism


 Shares a fixed resource among N concurrent users
 Done dynamically on a packet-by-packet basis
 Give each user the channel when they need it
 Hope they don’t all need it at exactly same time!
 Examples:
— Cars on city streets; letters sent via Canada Post
— Internet packets on ISP link
 Very efficient for bursty and unpredictable traffic, even
if N is unknown or highly dynamic
CPSC 441 11
Summary

 There are several key concepts that underly many of the


computer networks that we will talk about:
— Network edge: end system devices, access links, LAN
— Network core: aggregation, switching, multiplexing, WAN
 Many of the design principles will be familiar to you
from other human “communication systems”
 An “internetwork” is a “network of networks”
 “The Internet” is a massive global internetwork
 Protocols are the glue for putting these together

CPSC 441 12

You might also like