COMPUTER NETWORKING ( Part-II )

Network Types
Broadly, three types of Networks-LAN ( Local Area Network) -MAN ( Metropolitan Area Network ) -WAN ( Wide Area Network )

LOCAL AREA NETWORK(LAN)

LANs are usually confined to a Building or a set of Buildings in a Campus. LANs are localised & small Networks connected with a number of Computers . A number of LANs may be interconnected by suitable means through Bridges, Routers etc. LANs are usually connected through Media Cables. Wireless Links are also being used instead of Media Cables..

METROPOLITAN AREA NETWORK(MAN)

A MAN is normally designed to extend over a City. MANs are connected using Cables, Routers and Gateways etc. Cable Laying for a MAN may be costly and problematic affairs. In such cases, the concerned authority may take help of Telecom Service Providers for hiring of Cables on rental basis.

WIDE AREA NETWORKS(WAN)

Terminals of a WAN are located at different cities/towns. A WAN may be implemented by interconnecting a number of LANs of an organisation located at various places through dedicated or dialup links. A WAN may be a simple one if number of remote users are few. But when a large number LANs are interconnected and more number of users are there, the set up may become very much complex and it may need lot of maintenance efforts.

A TYPICAL COMPUTER NETWORK

171.69.236.3 171.69.236.4

Internet

Internet

171.69.236.1

DMZ

Engineering 11.0.0.0

Marketing 12.0.0.0

Executive 14.0.0.0

Server

Intranet

Server

Gateway

TOPOLOGY OF COMPUTER NETWORKS

Topology refers to the arrangements of Computers and associated elements in a Network. There are two Topologies-Physical Topology -Logical Topology Physical Topology is concerned with the interconnection of the H/W components of the N/W. Logical Topology gives information about how the Communication occurs among the N/W elements.

PHYSICAL TOPOLOGY
There three primary categories-Bus Topology: Here all the Computers are connected to a common path called Bus. -Star Topology: In this case the N/W components are extended from the Server through some distribution points like Hubs/Switches. -Ring Topology: It is the case where the N/W elements are connected one after another in the form of a Ring.

BUS TOPOLOGY NETWORK

1 2 3 4

A sends to 4

PHYSICAL TOPOLOGY (Contd.)

Apart from above three Topology categories, there are some other Topology options like-Tree Topology which is basically a combination of Bus and Star Topologies. -Star-Wired Ring Topology which is externally a Star Topology but from working point of view a Ring Topology. -Mesh Topology where each Computer has redundant data paths to some other Computers.

GENERAL FEATURES OF PHYSICAL TOPOLOGIES

Bus Topology- Easy to connect terminals & needs less Cable lengths. Maintenance is not smooth. Star Topology- Easy installation and maintenance. It requires more cable lengths and costlier than Bus Topology. Ring Topology- Point to Point wiring with complex procedures to configure.

LOGICAL TOPOLOGY
Logical Topologies are actually Networking Protocols which define the rules related to the Communication between the N/W elements of Networks. The rules include guidelines that regulate the following characteristics of a Network-Access Method -Allowed Physical Topologies -Types of Cablings -Speed of Data Transfer

COMMONLY USED PROTOCOLS

The most common protocols are-Ethernet -Local talk -Token Ring -FDDI(Fibre Distributed Data Interface )

ETHERNET
Developed as per IEEE standard 802.3 Works on the principle of CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Detect). The principle is that if two Computers transmit at the same time , Collision occurs. So a Computer listens for sometime before transmission of data and if the N/W is free then it transmits. Thus Collision is avoided.

ETHERNET (Contd.)
Ethernet uses NIC to identify the Station Address. The NIC has 6-byte physical address. In order to increase the speed of Ethernet working, new standards were developed . These are termed as Fast Ethernet. Now Ethernet working speed goes upto 100 mbps.

LOCAL TALK
A N/W protocol developed by Apple Computers, Inc. This was meant for Macintosh Computers. It works on CSMA/CA ( Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Avoidance )
Here a Computer signals it intents before it transmits.

It can work in Bus, Star etc. Topologies. Speed of transmission is low-230 kbps.

TOKEN RING
In Ethernet Collision cannot be avoided totally. So IEEE developed Token Ring according to its standard known as 802.5 It works on round-robin fashion. Each device is given a Token for certain time and during this period, it is to perform its job. When time out occurs, it has to release the Token to the next device and same thing is repeated. Once a cycle is over, then second cycle will start. It uses NIC with 6-byte station address. Speed is possible upto 100 mbps with Copper Cables.

FDDI
Standardised by ANSI and ITU-T. Initial developments were aiming to overcome the shortcomings of Ethernet and Token Ring over Copper Cables. It uses Fibre Optic Cables instead of Copper Cables. The arrangements are complex and cost is more. FDDI uses Token Ring principle for Communicating and it uses NIC with 6-byte address. Speed is 100 mbps and even more..

THANKS