UNIT 4: COMPUTER

NETWORKS
LIU WEN

LAN

Alocal area network(LAN) is acomputer networkthat

interconnects computers within a limited area such as a home,
school, computer laboratory, or office building, using network
media.
Advantages:

Speed
Cost
Ease of Setup
Disadvantages:
Limited to Small Area

WAN

A WAN connection should truly only occur in large environments.

WAN connections are available from house to house, city to city,
and country to country.

Advangatges:
Allow for much larger and more intricate network
Can cover near infinite geographical distance
Disadvantages:
Cost
Speed
Ease of Use

RING NETWORKS

A ring network is a local area network (LAN) in which thenodes

(workstations or other devices) are connected in a closed loop configuration.

Advantages:
Even when the load on the network increases, its performance is better than
that ofBus topology.

There is no need for network server to control the connectivity between

workstations.

Disadvantages:
If one workstation or port goes down, the entire network gets affected.
Network is highly dependent on the wire which connects different
components.

BUS NETWORKS
Bus Topology is the simplest ofnetwork topologies. In this type of topology,
all the nodes (computers as well as servers) are connected to the single cable
Advantages (benefits) of Linear Bus Topology
1)It is easy to set-up and extend bus network.
2)Cable length required for this topology is the least compared to other
networks.

Disadvantages (Drawbacks) of Linear Bus Topology

1)There is a limit on central cable length and number of nodes that can be
connected.
2)Dependency on central cable in this topology has its disadvantages.If the
main cable (i.e. bus ) encounters some problem, whole network breaks
down.

STAR NETWORKS
In Star topology, all the components of network are connected to the central
device called hub which may be a hub, a router or a switch.

Advantages of Star Topology

1)As compared to Bus topology it gives far much better performance, signals
dont necessarily get transmitted to all the workstations.

2)Easy to connect new nodes or devices. In star topology new nodes can be
added easily without affecting rest of the network. Similarly components can
also be removed easily.

Disadvantages of Star Topology

1) Too much dependency on central device has its own drawbacks. If it fails
whole network goes down.
2) The use of hub, a router or a switch as central device increases the overall
cost of the network.

TREE NETWORKS
Tree Topology integrates the characteristics of Star andBus Topology.
Advantages of Tree Topology
1.It is an extension of Star and bus Topologies, so in networks where
these topologies can't be implemented individually for reasons related
to scalability, tree topology is the best alternative.
2. Expansion of Network is possible and easy.

Disadvantages of Tree Topology

1.Because of its basic structure, tree topology, relies heavily on the
main bus cable, if it breaks whole network is crippled.
2.As more and more nodes and segments are added, the maintenance
becomes difficult.

WIRELESS LANS (WLANS)

Awireless local area network(WLAN) is awireless computer
networkthat links two or more devices using a wireless distribution
method within alimited areasuch as a home, school, computer
laboratory, or office building.

Advantages:
Mobility: With a laptop computer or mobile device, access can be
available throughout a school, at the mall, on an airplane, etc. More
and more businesses are also offering free Wi-Fi access.

Disadvantages:
Interference: Because wireless networks use radio signals and similar
techniques for transmission, they are susceptible to interference from
lights and electronic devices.

WIFI

Wi-Fi(orWiFi) is alocal area wireless technologythat allows

an electronic device to participate incomputer networking.

Advantagesof Wi-Fi
The mainadvantagesof using Wi-Fi technology is the lack of
wires. This is a wireless connection that can merge together
multiple devices.

Disadvantages of Wi-Fi
Call quality is greatly influenced by the environment, is

particularly sensitive to electromagnetic radiation generated

by household appliances. This primarily affects the speed of
data transmission.

BLUETOOTH

Bluetoothis awirelesstechnology standard for exchanging

data over short distances.

The Advantages of Bluetooth

Bluetooth does not require a clear line of sight between the
synced devices. This means that the devices need not be
facing each other, and it is also possible to carry out transfers
when both the devices are in separate rooms.

The Disadvantages of Bluetooth

Though the transfer speeds are impressive at around 1 Mbps,
certain other technologies like Infrared can offer speeds up to

MODEMS
A modem is adeviceorprogramthat enables acomputerto
transmitdataover, for example, telephone or cable lines.

NETWORK HUBS
A common connection point fordevicesin anetwork. Hubs
are commonly used to connectsegmentsof aLAN.

SWITCHES
in a telecommunications network, a switch is a device that
channels incoming data from any of multiple input ports to
the specific output port that will take the data toward its
intended destination.

BRIDGES
In telecommunication networks, a bridge is a product that
connects a local area network (LAN) to another local area
network that uses the same protocol (for example, Ethernet
or token ring).

ROUTERS
Arouter is a networking device that forwardsdata
packetsbetween computer networks.

HTTP PROXY SERVERS

Incomputer networks, aproxy serveris aserverthat acts
as an intermediary for requests fromclientsseeking
resources from other servers.

WEBSITES
Awebsite, also written asweb site,or simplysite,is a set
of relatedweb pagestypically served from a singleweb
domain.