UNIT II- COMPUTER NETWORKS

Network - It is a collection of interconnected autonomous computing devices used to

exchange information or resources.
Advantages:
- Sharing Resources
- Share software
- Share software
- Improve communications
Disadvantages:
- File security
- In centralized network, failure of server leads to network failure.
Components of network:
- Node
- Server
- Client
- Network hardware (hub, Switch, router, gateway etc)
- Channel (Guided/ Unguided)
- Software (protocols)
- Network services (file sharing, BNS etc)
Types of Network

Based on Component Based on Geographical

Role spread

- Client Server Network - Personal Area Network

- Peer to Peer Network (P2P) - Local Area Network
- Metropolitan Area Network
- Wide Area Network
Client Server Network Peer to Peer Network (P2P)
It is a centralized network It is a decentralized network
Clients are dependent on the server Clients are not dependent on the server
Data is backed up in server Data is not backed up

PAN LAN MAN WAN

It is spread over a It is spread over a It is spread over an It is spread over a
very small area small area i.e less area as big as city. very large area.
range of 10 meters than a km i.e 30-40 km
It is usually a single It is usually a single It is usually a It is usually a
network network single network network of many
networks.
Transfer an image Computers connected Cable TV Network Internet
from PC to phone via in Computer Lab
Bluetooth
WLAN- Wireless Local Area Network
EVOLUTION OF NETWORKING
ARPANET- Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (1969)
To connect computers at U.S defense and different universities
NSFnet- National Science Foundation Network (1980)
To make a network for academic and engineering research
Internet (1990)
ARPANET, NSFnet and other private network resulted into Internet
- It is a worldwide network of computer networks.
- Computers in Internet are not directly connected, it is connected through
gateway (device that connects dissimilar networks) to the internet backbone
(central structure that connects one or more networks).
Switching Topology Protocol Type of Network
Technique
Packet Switching Mesh Topology TCP/IP WAN
(Transmission
Control Protocol/
Internet Protocol)

Interspace
It is client/server software program that allows multiple users to communicate online
with real time audio, video and text chat in dynamic 3D environments.
Switching Techniques (Transmitting data across networks)
Circuit Switching Packet Switching
It is connection oriented It is connectionless
Data are transmitted through physical Fixed size of packets transmitted across
connection from source to destination the network through TCP/IP protocol
Circuit switching is more reliable Packet switching is less reliable

DATA COMMUNICATION TERMINOLOGIES

Channel: Medium used to carry information or data.
Baud: Unit of measurement of information carrying capacity of a channel. Bps-
another unit of measurement
bps- bits per second/ Bps- Bytes per second
mbps- mega bits per second/ Mega Bytes per second
Bandwidth- Difference between the highest and lowest frequencies of a channel.
High bandwidth channels – broadband
Low bandwidth channels - narrowband
TRANSMISSION MEDIA
Guided Media Unguided Media
Guided media transmit data through Unguided media transmit data through
physical cables waves (air, water or vacuum)
Used for short distance transmission Used for long distance transmission
Twisted Pair Cable, Coaxial Cable and Infrared, Microwave and Radio wave
Optic fiber cable

Guided Media Type Maximum Advantages Disadvantages

segment
length
Twisted Pair STP- Shielded 100 m  Easy to install  High
Cable Twisted pair and maintain attenuation
(LAN/  Flexible  Low
High electro UTP- 100 m
 Inexpensive bandwidth
magnetic Unshielded
capability
interference/ Twisted Pair
1 Mbps- 10
Carry electrical Mbps
signals)
Coaxial Cable Thinnet 185 m  Can be used  Expensive
(MAN/ for broadband than twisted
Low electro transmission pair cable
magnetic  Offers higher  Not
Thicknet 500m
interference/ bandwidth compatible
Carry electrical than twisted with twisted
signals) pair cable up to pair cable
400 Mbps
Optic fiber Single node 2 km  Suitable for  Most
cable harsh expensive of
(WAN/ industrial all the cables
No electro Multi node 100 km environment  Connection
magnetic  Very high loss and
interference/ transmission installation
Carry light capacity 2Gbps problem
signals)  Low
attenuation

Unguided Uses Advantages Disadvantages

Media
Infrared TV  Secure  It is unidirectional and
(Cannot travel Remote, Communication cannot penetrate through
for long wireless  Not susceptible to objects
distance) speakers weather condition  Can be used for short
distance
Microwave Cellular  Offers freedom from  It is unidirectional and
(Can travel for phones, land acquisition cannot penetrate through
long distance) satellite rights objects
networks  Ease of  Insecure Communication
communication over  Susceptible to weather
difficult terrain condition
Radiowave AM and  It is omnidirectional  Insecure Communication
(Can travel for FM radio, and can penetrate  Susceptible to weather
long distance) television, through objects condition
cellular  It offers mobility
phones

NETWORK TOPOLOGY
Pattern of interconnection of nodes in a network.
Factors to be considered for topology selection

 Length of the cable

 Fault diagnosis
 Network failure
 Future growth
Topology Diagram Advantages Disadvantages
Star  Centralized  Long cable length
Topology control needed
 Ease of service  Difficult to
 Fault diagnosis is expand in future
easy  Central Node
Dependency

Bus  Short cable length  Fault diagnosis is

Topology  Easy to expand in difficult
future  Central cable
dependency,
nodes must be
intelligent

Tree  Fault diagnosis is  If backbone line

Topology easy breaks, the entire
 Highly secure network goes
down.
 Difficult to
configure

NETWORK DEVICES
Modem- Modulation/ Demodulation
It is a device that allows you to connect and communicate with other computers via
telephone lines. Modulator (Sender’s end) changes the digital data into analog data and
demodulator (Receiver’s end) converts analog data back to digital data.
Types: Internal modem- fixed inside the computer / External modem- connected
externally to a computer
RJ- 45/ RJ-11 (RJ- Registered Jack)
RJ-45 is an 8 wire connector used to connect computers on the local area networks.
RJ-11 is a 4 wire connector used for telephone lines in home and small office setup.
Network Interface Card
NIC is a device that helps the workstation establish a connection with the network. NIC is
also called TAP( Terminal Access Point). NIC manufacturer assigns MAC (Media Access
Control) address to each NIC card.
IP Address MAC Address
It is a logical address used to uniquely It is a physical address assigned to the
identify system in the network. system by the manufacturer of NIC.
Two types Size of MAC address is 48 bits/ 6 bytes.
IPV4 – 32 bit address
IPV6 – 128 bit address
Eg: 192.165.1.12 Eg: 10:B5:03:63:2E:FC

Ethernet Card
Ethernet is a LAN Architecture which uses either a bus or star topology to connect
devices in wired LAN.
Hub and Switch
Hub Switch
Hub is a unicast device. Switch is a multicast device.
Offers single lane connection Offers two – lane connection
Shares bandwidth Does not share bandwidth
Inexpensive Expensive

Types of Hub
Active hub: Electrically amplifies the signal and pass from one system to another. Active
concentrator’s works similar to repeater.
Passive hub: Pass the signal without any change.
Repeater
It is a device that amplifies a signal being transmitted and restores signal on the network
when the single span of cable length exceeds 100m.
Two kinds: Amplifier and Signal repeater
Bridge Router Gateway
Bridge is a device that Router works like a bridge Gateway is a device that
connects two networks and but can handle different connects dissimilar
can handle networks of protocols. networks.
same protocols. It uses logical address It uses physical address
It supports dynamic It does not support
routing dynamic routing
Wi-Fi Card
It is a device used to connect computer to the internet through wireless network. It can
be internal or external. The most commonly used Wi-Fi card is PCI Express.
Firewall
It is used to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. It also provides
data security in the network. Firewall can be implemented in both software or hardware
or combination of both.
80-20 rule - In a properly designed network, 80 percent of the traffic on network is local
and 20 percent should need to move across a backbone. As per 80- 20 rule server must
be placed in a building where there are maximum number of computers.
NETWORK PROTOCOLS
Protocol- It is a set of rules that two or more machines must follow to exchange those
messages.
HTTP- Hyper Text Transfer Protocol
It is an application level protocol used to transfer hypertext (Text, audio, video, graphics)
on WWW( World Wide Web)
HTTP Protocol consists of HTTP Requests and HTTP Responses. Hyper-text exchanged
using HTTP goes as plain text i.e. anyone between the browser and server can read it
relatively easily if one intercepts this exchange of data.
HTTP HTTPs (HTTP Secure)
HTTP protocol does not provide data HTTPs guarantees data security
security
HTTP does not have encryption HTTPS employs an encryption mechanism
mechanism called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
HTTP works at Application Layer HTTPS works at Transport Layer
In HTTP, URL begins with “http://” In HTTPs, URL starts with “https://”

FTP- File Transfer Protocol

FTP is a standard client/server communication protocol for the exchange of files
across internet. Data can be transferred reliably and efficiently. It is an application
layer protocol that moves files between local and remote file systems.
PPP- Point to Point Protocol
It is a data link layer communication protocol used to connect one system to another.
Computers use PPP to communicate over the telephone network or the Internet. PPP is
the best solution for dial up internet connections.
Layered PPP- IPCP/ NCP/LCP
TCP/IP- Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol
It is the base communication protocol of the internet. IP part of TCP/IP uses numeric IP
address to join network segments and TCP part provides reliable delivery of messages
between networked computers.
How Internet functions?

 At the source computer, the message to be sent is divided into packets.

 Each packet is numbered.
 All these packets are sent to the address of destination computer.
 The destination computer receives packet in random manner, reassembled in the order
of their number and the original message is obtained.
 TCP is responsible for dividing the message into packets at the source and
reassembling packets at the destination.
 IP is responsible for handling the address of the destination.

SMTP- Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

This protocol is used when you send email to another email users. It is used by Mail
Transfer Agent (MTA) to deliver the sent email to the recipient’s mail server. SMTP
protocol can only be used to send email and to receive them.
POP3- Post Office Protocol 3
This protocol provides a simple, standardized way for users to access mailboxes and
download messages to their computers. Advantage of POP3 is once messages are
downloaded, the user can disconnect the internet connection and read his/her mail
without incurring communication costs.
Telnet
Telnet is an older internet utility that lets you to log on to remote computer systems.
Remote desktop- that allows a user to access an operating computer system’s desktop.
The access occurs via the Internet or through another network in another geographical
location and allows users to interact with that system as if they were physically at their
own computer.
VoIP- Voice over Internet Protocol
VoIP enables voice communications over the internet through the compression of voice
into data packets that can be efficiently transferred over data networks and then converted
back into voice at the other end.
Popular video conferencing protocols are H.323, SIP(Session Initiation Protocol), VoIP
Connecting wirelessly to Internet
Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity)- 300 feet covers a floor of a building, home
WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for microwave access) – 6 miles covers a small
city
INTRODUCTION TO WEB SERVICES
WWW(World Wide Web)
WWW is a set of protocols to access any document on the net through URLs. It is a subset
of the Internet consisting of websites and webpages that are accessible via a web browser.
URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
URL is used to specify addresses on the World Wide Web. It locate any resource
connected to the web (e.g., hypertext pages, images, and sound files) from web server into
web browser. URL syntax type://address/path
type- specifies the type of server in which the file is located
address- address of the server and path- location of file on server

Example:
Domain Name
A URL specifies the distinct address for each resource on the Internet. An internet
address which is character based is called a Domain Name. The character based system
by which servers are identified is known as Domain Name System (DNS). DNS map the
IP address of the server with the Domain Name of the website.
Website
A location on a net server is called a website which contains a collection of webpages.
Each website has a unique address called URL. The documents residing on web sites are
called web pages.
Web browser Web Server
It is a WWW client that navigates through It is a WWW Server that responds to the
the world wide web and displays web requests made by web browsers.
pages.
Internet Explorer, Google Chrome Apache Server, IBM Server

Web hosting
It is a means of hosting web server application on computer through which electronic
content on the internet is readily available to any web browser client.
Types:
Free hosting- Hosting web pages of no cost. Virtual or shared hosting- server is shared
among many websites. Dedicated hosting- entire server allocated to a website.
Colocation hosting- similar to dedicated but server administration carried by web
hosting company.
Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) Extensible Markup Language (XML)

HTML tags are predefined tags. XML tags are user-defined tags.

HTML is not Case sensitive. XML is Case sensitive.

HTML is used to display the data. XML is used to store data.

HTML is static in nature. XML is dynamic in nature.