A REPORT ON NETWORKING SWITCHING AND ROUTING

What is Computer Network? A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information. Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics such as the medium used to transport the data, communications protocol used, scale, topology, and organizational scope. The rules and data formats for exchanging information in a computer network are defined by communications protocols. Well-known communications protocols are Ethernet, a hardware and Link Layer standard that is ubiquitous in local area networks, and the Internet Protocol Suite, which defines a set of protocols for internetworking, i.e. for data communication between multiple networks, as well as host-to-host data transfer, and application-specific data transmission formats.

Fig 1:People on the network sharing information.

Terminology related to network: 1.Speed :Measured in kbps

2.Capacity:Measured inkBps. 3.Bandwidth. 4.Latency 5.Reliability

Hardware components used that are necessary for network: 1.Hub: It regenrates the signal and always broadcast the signal. It is half duplex. 2.Switch: It always unicast or multicast as per the requirement. It is full duplex. It uses EEROM chip for MAC address resolution. 3.Gateway: Gateways can perform all of the functions of switches and routers as well as accomplish protocol conversion at all seven layers of the OSI Reference Model. 4.Router: It is device used on the network for traffic control. It is to find the best path.

Fig 2.Devices Now let us understand Broadcast and Collision domains: Broadcast domain: A broadcast domain is a logical division of a computer network, in which all nodes can reach each other by broadcast at the data link layer. A broadcast domain can be within the same LAN segment or it can be bridged to other LAN segments. Collision domain: A collision domain is a section of a network where data packets can collide with one another when being sent on a shared medium or through repeaters, in particular, when using early versions of Ethernet. A network collision occurs when more than one device attempts to send a packet on a network segment at the same time. Collisions are resolved using carrier sense multiple access or a variant thereof in which the competing packets are discarded and re-sent one at a time. This becomes a source of inefficiency in the network.[1]

What is IP and MAC address? IP address: It is a logical address on the network that makes us communicate with the world using network provided to us by an ISP. Eg;192.168.10.10 MAC address: It is 48 bit physical address in which 24 bits are vendor specific and 24 bits are registerd by IEEE to make it a unique address.Eg: AA:B3:47:B9:FF:AD

What is IP and MAC address binding?

For the computer to communicate with other computer on the network it needs to tell who am I. MAC address is used for synchronisation. IP address is used for transfer of data to each other.

So both of them are necessary.

OSI Model

The Open Systems Interconnection model (OSI model) is a product of the Open Systems Interconnection effort at the International Organization for Standardization. It is a prescription of characterizing and standardizing the functions of a communications system in terms of abstraction layers. Similar communication functions are grouped into logical layers. An instance of a layer provides services to its upper layer instances while receiving services from the layer below. For example, a layer that provides error-free communications across a network provides the path needed by applications above it, while it calls the next lower layer to send and receive packets that make up the contents of that path. Two instances at one layer are connected by a horizontal connection on that layer.

Subnetting:
A subnetwork, or subnet, is a logically visible subdivision of an IP network. The practice of dividing a network into subnetworks is called subnetting. All computers that belong to a subnet are addressed with a common, identical, most-significant bit-group in their IP address. This results in the logical division of an IP address into two fields, a network or routing prefix and the rest field. The rest field is a specific identifier for the computer or the network interface. The routing prefix is expressed in CIDR notation. It is written as the first address of a network followed by the bit-length of the prefix, separated by a slash (/) character. For example, 192.168.1.0/24 is the prefix of the Internet Protocol Version 4 network starting at the given address, having 24 bits allocated for the network prefix, and the remaining 8 bits reserved for host addressing. The IPv6 address specification 2001:db8::/32 is a large network for 2 96 hosts, having a 32-bit routing prefix. In IPv4 the routing prefix is also specified in the form of the subnet

mask, which is expressed in quad-dotted decimal representation like an address. For example, 255.255.255.0 is the network mask for the 192.168.1.0/24 prefix. Traffic between subnetworks is interchanged with special gateway computers called routers; they constitute logical or physical borders between the subnets. The benefits of subnetting vary with each deployment scenario. In the address allocation architecture of the Internet using Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) and in large organizations, it is necessary to allocate address space efficiently. It may also enhance routing efficiency, or have advantages in network management when subnetworks are administratively controlled by different entities in a larger organization. Subnets may be arranged logically in a hierarchical architecture, partitioning an organization's network address space into a tree-like routing structure.

Now let us understand ,What is routing and how it is done?

Routing:
It is process of finding the best path from all the alternatives present in the network.The work of routing is done by router which uses a number of algoriths and protocols for routing which are stored in the IOS of the router .The IOS is the operating system of router which has all its configrations.

Router uses a number of protocols as per the requirement:

Protocol name AD No.

OSPF 110

EIGRP 90

BGP 20

RIP 120

Static 1

Each and every protocol has its Administrative number ,which is 8 bit value by which router recognizes which protocol is alive. Configuration of router: Router has three modes: 1.User mode. The first mode that come immediately after we start the router and go CUI. 2. Privilege mode. This is the mode that provides privileges to work on.

3. Config mode. This is the mode where we can make any changes.The above two modes need a tight security. Some of the commands used in router are: a. Set router name:- hostname <router name>. b. Set the clock :- clock set <time> <month > <day> <year> c. Set password of user mode :i. line con 0 ii. Login iii. Password<variable> d. Set password of privilege mode :i. Line vty 0 4 ii. Login iii. Password <variable> There are many more commands to be used which are used as per the protocol :1. RIP i. ii. iii. iv. 2. OSPF i. ii. Access List: 1.It is used for router security i. ii. iii. iv. Access control of data. Permitting and denying traffic. Used for Nat Route filtering. Router ospf <router id(1-65535)> Network <IP> wildcard mask <area no> Router RIP Version 2 Network <network IP> No auto-summary

2.Rules for ACL:

i. ii. iii.

list is read from top to bottom. ACL is applied at the interface. All have specific ACL number.

3.Types of ACL: i. Standard.

ii. Extended. iv. Reflexive.

Switch: 1.It is a 2 layer devicewhich may be both managable and unmanagable. 2.Functions of switch: i. Address learning. ii. Port security. iii.Loop avoidance.

iv.Address filtering.

VLAN-Virtual Network 1.Functions of VLAN:i.Logically group of users. ii.Access control. iii.Quality of service. 2.Types of VLAN: i.TRUNK:- Switch to Switch. ii.ACCESS:- When computers need to be connected. iii.DYNAMIC:- by default.