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COMPUTER NETWORKS

Btech (APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University)

Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university

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MODULE-1
USES OF COMPUTER NETWORKS
i)Bussiness Applications
 Resource sharing:-The goal is to make all programs,equipments
and data available to anyone on the network without regarding to
the physical location of the resources or the user.
Eg:A group of workers having a common printer.
 VPNS:-helps to join individual networks at different sites in to one
extended network.So computers and employess at far places may
easily communicate with each other.
 Client-server architecture:-Server may provide all the services
needed by the clients.
 Communication medium:-computer network act as a powerful
communication medium through services like email.
 VoIP(Voice Over IP):-Telephone calls between employees can be
carried out with computer networks which helps to control large
telephone bills.
 Desktop Sharing:-allows remote workers to see and interact on a
single screen,ie, to work together.
 e-commerce:-including shopping,ticket booking etc through
online.

ii)Home Applications

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 Connectivity:-Allows home computers to connect with remote

computers,including ecommerce,browsing,
 Reading newspapers online,using digital library,etc.
 Peer-to-peer communication:-There is no client and server,all are
equal.This can be used to share music,video etc.eg:email
 Instant messaging, Social network:-apllications like
twitter,whatsup etc. Important application is facebook.
 Collaborative sites:-Allows group of people to work together and
to make contents.eg:wikipedia
 Entertainment:-watching movies,downloading etc.eg:IPTV
 In everyday life:-security systems,sensors etc.

iii)Mobile users
Connectivity:-It includes celluler connectivity,wireless hotspots etc.
Messaging services:-Text messaging is used,it allows the user to send some
short messages throgh cellular networks to another mobile user.
Smart phones:Provides large and fast connectivity,supports hotspot etc.
GPS:-Are integrated with mobile phones to know the location also
provides all map services.
Wearable computers:-devices like smartwatches,implanted pacemakers
etc.

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NETWORKING DEVICES(comes under networking h/w)

1. Repeater –
 A repeater operates at the physical layer.
 Its job is to regenerate the signal over the same
network before the signal becomes too weak or
corrupted so as to extend the length to which the
signal can be transmitted over the same network.
 An important point to be noted about repeaters is
that they do not amplify the signal.
 When the signal becomes weak, they copy the
signal bit by bit and regenerate it at the original
strength.
 It is a 2 port device.
2. Hub –
 A hub is basically a multiport repeater.
 A hub connects multiple wires coming from
different branches, for example, the connector
in star topology which connects different
stations.
 Hubs cannot filter data, so data packets are sent
to all connected devices.
 Also, they do not have the intelligence to find
out the best path for data packets which leads
to inefficiencies and wastage.

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Types of Hub:Active hub,passive hub,Intelligent hub.

3. Bridge –
 A bridge operates at the data link layer.
 A bridge is a repeater, with add on the functionality
of filtering content by reading the MAC addresses
of source and destination.
 It is also used for interconnecting two LANs working
on the same protocol.
 2 port device.
Types of Bridges:-Transparent Bridges,Source Routing Bridges.

4. Switch –
 A switch is a multiport bridge with a buffer and a
design that can boost its efficiency(a large number
of ports imply less traffic) and performance.
 A switch is a data link layer device.
 The switch can perform error checking before
forwarding data, which makes it very efficient as it
does not forward packets that have errors and
forward good packets selectively to the correct port
only.

5. Routers –
 A router is a device like a switch that routes data
packets based on their IP addresses.
 The router is mainly a Network Layer device.
 Routers normally connect LANs and WANs together
and have a dynamically updating routing table

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based on which they make decisions on routing the

data packets.

6. Gateway –
 It is a passage to connect two networks together
that may work upon different networking models.
 They basically work as the messenger agents that
take data from one system, interpret it, and
transfer it to another system.
 Gateways are also called protocol converters and
can operate at any network layer.
 Gateway is also called a protocol converter.

7. NIC –

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 NIC or network interface card is a network adapter that

is used to connect the computer to the network.
 It is installed in the computer to establish a LAN.
 It has a unique id that is written on the chip, and it has
a connector to connect the cable to it.
 The cable acts as an interface between the computer
and router or modem.
 NIC card is a layer 2 device which means that it works
on both physical and data link layer of the network
model.

NETWORKING SOFTWARE

Protocol hierarchies
 To reduce the design complexity,most networks are
organized as layers each bulit upon the top of other.
 Each layer is a kind of virtual machine offering certain
services to the layer above it.
 A prortocol is an agreement between the communicating
parties on how communication is to proceed.
 It includes the entities as peers,between each peer of
adjascent layers there is an interface.
 The set of layersand protocols are called a network
architecture.
 A list of protocols used by a certain system one protocol
per layer is called a protocol stack.

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Advantages:-
 Reduce complexity of communication b/w networks.
 Increases network lifetime.
 Uses energy efficiently.
 Doesn’t require overall knowledge of network.

DESIGN ISSUES
A number of design issues exist for the layer to layer approach of
computer networks.
Some of the main design issues are as follows,
 Reliability
Network channels and components may be unreliable, resulting in
loss of bits while data transfer. So, an important design issue is to
make sure that the information transferred is not distorted.
 Mode of Communication:

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The designing of the layer should have to keep the mode of

transmission in mind. the protocol used for congestion control or
media access should be considered under the mode of transmission.
 Scalability
Networks are continuously evolving. The sizes are continually
increasing leading to congestion. Also, when new technologies are
applied to the added components, it may lead to incompatibility
issues. Hence, the design should be done so that the networks are
scalable and can accommodate such additions and alterations.
 Addressing
A naming or addressing system should exist so that each layer can
identify the sender and receivers of each message.
 Error Control
Unreliable channels introduce a number of errors in the data
streams that are communicated. So, the layers need to agree upon
common error detection and error correction methods so as to
protect data packets while they are transferred.
 Flow Control
If the rate at which data is produced by the sender is higher than the
rate at which data is received by the receiver, there are chances of
overflowing the receiver. So, a proper flow control mechanism needs
to be implemented.
 Resource Allocation
Computer networks provide services in the form of network
resources to the end users. The main design issue is to allocate and
deallocate resources to processes. The allocation/deallocation should
occur so that minimal interference among the hosts occurs and there
is optimal usage of the resources.
 Statistical Multiplexing

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It is not feasible to allocate a dedicated path for each message while

it is being transferred from the source to the destination. So, the data
channel needs to be multiplexed, so as to allocate a fraction of the
bandwidth or time to each host.
 Routing
There may be multiple paths from the source to the destination.
Routing involves choosing an optimal path among all possible paths,
in terms of cost and time. There are several routing algorithms that
are used in network systems.
 Security
A major factor of data communication is to defend it against threats
like eavesdropping and surreptitious alteration of messages. So, there
should be adequate mechanisms to prevent unauthorized access to
data through authentication and cryptography.

SERVICE PRIMITIVES
 A service is formally specified by a set of primitives (operations)
available to a user process to access the service.
 These primitives tell the service to perform some action or report
on an action taken by a peer entity.
 If the protocol stack is located in the operating system, as it often
is, the primitives are normally system calls.
 These calls cause a trap to kernel mode, which then turns control
of the machine over the operating system to send the necessary
packets.

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Reference Model
In computer networks, reference models give a conceptual framework that
standardizes communication between heterogeneous networks.
The two popular reference models are −
 OSI Model
 TCP/IP Protocol Suite
TCP/IP Model
 It stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
 It contains four layers, unlike seven layers in the OSI model
 Process/Application Layer
 Host-to-Host/Transport Layer
 Internet Layer
 Network Access/Link Layer

Transmission Control Protocol. Open Systems

Interconnection.
TCP/IP has 4 layers. OSI has 7 layers.
TCP/IP is more reliable OSI is less reliable
TCP/IP does not have very strict boundaries. OSI has strict boundaries
TCP/IP uses both session and presentation
layer in the application layer itself. OSI uses different
session and
presentation layers.

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Transport layer in TCP/IP does not provide

assurance delivery of packets.
In OSI model,
transport layer
provides assurance
delivery of packets.
network layer only provides connection
less services.
Connection less and
connection oriented
both services are
provided by network
layer in OSI model.
Protocols cannot be replaced easily in
TCP/IP model. While in OSI model,
Protocols are better
covered and is easy
to replace with the
change in technology

TCP/IP

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1. Network Access Layer –

This layer corresponds to the combination of Data Link

Layer and Physical Layer of the OSI model. It includes
hardware addressing and the protocols allows for the
physical transmission of data.

2. Internet Layer –

This layer parallels the functions of OSI’s Network layer.

It defines the protocols which are responsible for logical
transmission of data over the entire network. The main
protocols residing at this layer are :
1. IP – stands for Internet Protocol and it is responsible for
delivering packets from the source host to the destination host
by looking at the IP addresses in the packet headers. IP has 2

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versions:
IPv4 and IPv6.
2. ICMP – stands for Internet Control Message Protocol. It
is encapsulated within IP datagrams and is responsible for
providing hosts with information about network problems.
3. ARP – stands for Address Resolution Protocol. Its job is
to find the hardware address of a host from a known IP
address. ARP has several types: Reverse ARP, Proxy ARP,
Gratuitous ARP and Inverse ARP.

3. Host-to-Host Layer –

This layer is analogous to the transport layer of the OSI model.

It is responsible for end-to-end communication and error-free
delivery of data. The two main protocols present in this layer
are :
1. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) – It is known to
provide reliable and error-free communication between end
systems. It performs sequencing and segmentation of data,also
has acknowledgment feature and controls the flow of the data
through flow control mechanism.
2. User Datagram Protocol (UDP) – On the other hand
does not provide any such features. It is the go-to protocol if
your application does not require reliable transport as it is very
cost-effective. Unlike TCP, which is connection-oriented
protocol, UDP is connectionless.

4. Application Layer –

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This layer performs the functions of top three layers of the OSI
model: Application, Presentation and Session Layer. It is
responsible for node-to-node communication and controls
user-interface specifications
1. HTTP and HTTPS – HTTP stands for
Hypertext transfer protocol. It is used by the World Wide Web
to manage communications between web browsers and
servers. HTTPS stands for HTTP-Secure. It is a combination of
HTTP with SSL(Secure Socket Layer).
2. SSH – SSH stands for Secure Shell. It is a
terminal emulations software similar to Telnet. The reason SSH
is more preferred is because of its ability to maintain the
encrypted connection.
3. NTP – NTP stands for Network Time
Protocol. It is used to synchronize the clocks on our computer
to one standard time source.

Topology

 Topology defines the structure of the network of how all

the components are interconnected to each other. There
are two types of topology: physical and logical topology.
 Physical topology is the geometric representation of all
the nodes in a network.

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Bus Topology

o The bus topology is designed in such a way that

all the stations are connected through a single cable known
as a backbone cable.
o Each node is either connected to the backbone
cable by drop cable or directly connected to the backbone
cable.

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o When a node wants to send a message over the

network, it puts a message over the network. All the
stations available in the network will receive the message
whether it has been addressed or not.
o The most common access method of the bus
topologies is CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access).

CSMA: It is a media access control used to control the data

flow so that data integrity is maintained, i.e., the packets do
not get lost.

CSMA CD: CSMA CD (Collision detection) is

an access method used to detect the collision.
Once the collision is detected, the sender will
stop transmitting the data. Therefore, it works
on "recovery after the collision".

CSMA CA: CSMA CA (Collision Avoidance) is an access

method used to avoid the collision by checking whether the
transmission media is busy or not. If busy, then the sender
waits until the media becomes idle.

Advantages of Bus topology:

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o Low-cost cable: In bus topology, nodes are

directly connected to the cable without passing through a
hub. Therefore, the initial cost of installation is low.
o Familiar technology: Bus topology is a familiar
technology as the installation and troubleshooting
techniques are well known, and hardware components are
easily available.
o Limited failure: A failure in one node will not
have any effect on other nodes.

Disadvantages of Bus topology:

o Difficult troubleshooting, Extensive cabling: It

requires specialized test equipment to determine the cable
faults. If any fault occurs in the cable, then it would disrupt
the communication for all the nodes.

o Signal interference: If two nodes send the

messages simultaneously, then the signals of both the nodes
collide with each other.
o Attenuation: Attenuation is a loss of signal leads
to communication issues. Repeaters are used to regenerate
the signal.

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Ring Topology

o Ring topology is like a bus topology, but

with connected ends.
o The node that receives the message from
the previous computer will retransmit to the next
node.
o The data flows in one direction, i.e., it is
unidirectional.
o It has no terminated ends, i.e., each node is
connected to other node and having no termination
point.
o The most common access method of the ring
topology is token passing.

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o Token passing: It is a network access

method in which token is passed from one node to
another node.

Advantages of Ring topology:

o Network Management: Faulty devices can be

removed from the network without bringing the
network down.
o Product availability: Many hardware and
software tools for network operation and monitoring are
available.
o Reliable: It is a more reliable network because
the communication system is not dependent on the
single host computer.

Disadvantages of Ring topology:

o Difficult troubleshooting: It requires specialized

test equipment to determine the cable faults. If any fault
occurs in the cable, then it would disrupt the
communication for all the nodes.
o Reconfiguration difficult: Adding new devices to
the network would slow down the network.

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o Delay: Communication delay is directly

proportional to the number of nodes. Adding new
devices increases the communication delay.

Star Topology

o Star topology is an arrangement of the

network in which every node is connected to the
central hub, switch or a central computer.
o The central computer is known as
a server, and the peripheral devices attached to
the server are known as clients.
o Hubs or Switches are mainly used as
connection devices in a physical star topology.

Advantages of Star topology

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o Efficient
troubleshooting: Troubleshooting is quite
efficient in a star topology as compared to bus
topology. In a bus topology, the manager has to
inspect the kilometers of cable. In a star
topology, all the stations are connected to the
centralized network. Therefore, the network
administrator has to go to the single station to
troubleshoot the problem.
o Network control: Complex network
control features can be easily implemented in the
star topology. Any changes made in the star
topology are automatically accommodated.
o Limited failure: As each station is
connected to the central hub with its own cable,
therefore failure in one cable will not affect the
entire network.
o Easily expandable: It is easily
expandable as new stations can be added to the
open ports on the hub.
o High data speeds: It supports a
bandwidth of approx 100Mbps. Ethernet

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100BaseT is one of the most popular Star

topology networks.

Disadvantages of Star topology

o A Central point of failure: If the central

hub or switch goes down, then all the connected
nodes will not be able to communicate with each
other.
o Cable: Sometimes cable routing becomes
difficult when a significant amount of routing is
required.

Tree topology

o Tree topology combines the characteristics

of bus topology and star topology.

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o A tree topology is a type of structure in

which all the computers are connected with each
other in hierarchical fashion.
o The top-most node in tree topology is
known as a root node, and all other nodes are the
descendants of the root node.
o There is only one path exists between two
nodes for the data transmission. Thus, it forms a
parent-child hierarchy.

Advantages of Tree topology

o Support for broadband

transmission: Tree topology is mainly used to
provide broadband transmission, i.e., signals are
sent over long distances without being
attenuated.
o Easily expandable: We can add the new
device to the existing network. Therefore, we can
say that tree topology is easily expandable.
o Easily manageable: In tree topology, the
whole network is divided into segments known as
star networks which can be easily managed and
maintained.

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Disadvantages of Tree topology

o Difficult troubleshooting: If any fault

occurs in the node, then it becomes difficult to
troubleshoot the problem.
o High cost: Devices required for broadband
transmission are very costly.
o Failure: A tree topology mainly relies on
main bus cable and failure in main bus cable will
damage the overall network.

Mesh topology

o Mesh technology is an arrangement of the

network in which computers are interconnected
with each other through various redundant
connections.

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o There are multiple paths from one

computer to another computer.
o The Internet is an example of the mesh
topology.
o Mesh topology is mainly used for WAN
implementations where communication failures
are a critical concern.
o Mesh topology can be formed by using the
formula:
Number of cables = (n*(n-1))/2;

Mesh topology is divided into two

categories:

o Fully connected mesh topology

o Partially connected mesh topology

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o Full Mesh Topology: In a full mesh

topology, each computer is connected to all the
computers available in the network.
o Partial Mesh Topology: In a partial mesh
topology, not all but certain computers are
connected to those computers with which they
communicate frequently.

Advantages of Mesh topology:

Reliable: The mesh topology networks are

very reliable as if any link breakdown will not
affect the communication between connected
computers.

Fast Communication: Communication is

very fast between the nodes.

Easier Reconfiguration: Adding new

devices would not disrupt the communication
between other devices.

Disadvantages of Mesh topology

o Cost: A mesh topology contains a large

number of connected devices such as a router
and more transmission media than other
topologies.

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o Management: Mesh topology networks

are very large and very difficult to maintain and
manage. If the network is not monitored
carefully, then the communication link failure
goes undetected.
o Efficiency: In this topology, redundant
connections are high that reduces the efficiency
of the network.

Hybrid Topology

o The combination of various different

topologies is known as Hybrid topology.

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o A Hybrid topology is a connection between

different links and nodes to transfer the data.
o When two or more different topologies are
combined together is termed as Hybrid topology
and if similar topologies are connected with each
other will not result in Hybrid topology. For
example, if there exist a ring topology in one
branch of ICICI bank and bus topology in another
branch of ICICI bank, connecting these two
topologies will result in Hybrid topology.

Advantages of Hybrid Topology

o Reliable: If a fault occurs in any part of

the network will not affect the functioning of the
rest of the network.
o Scalable: Size of the network can be
easily expanded by adding new devices without
affecting the functionality of the existing network.
o Flexible: This topology is very flexible as
it can be designed according to the requirements
of the organization.

Disadvantages of Hybrid topology

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o Complex design: The major drawback of

the Hybrid topology is the design of the Hybrid
network. It is very difficult to design the
architecture of the Hybrid network.
o Costly Hub: The Hubs used in the Hybrid
topology are very expensive as these hubs are
different from usual Hubs used in other
topologies.
o Costly infrastructure: The infrastructure
cost is very high as a hybrid network requires a
lot of cabling, network devices, etc.

Encoding and Decoding

Encoding is the process of converting the data or a given sequence of
characters, symbols, alphabets etc., into a specified format, for the
secured transmission of data. Decoding is the reverse process of encoding
which is to extract the information from the converted format.
Encoding techniques:-
i)Manchester Encoding
Manchester encoding is a synchronous clock encoding technique used by
the physical layer of the Open System Interconnection [OSI] to encode
the clock and data of a synchronous bit stream .

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 A logic 0 is indicated by a 0 to 1 transition at the

center of the bit and logic 1 by 1 to 0 transition.
 The signal transitions do not always occur at the
‘bit boundary’ but there is always a transition at the center
of each bit.
 The Manchester Encoding is also called Biphase
code as each bit is encoded by a positive 90 degrees phase
transition or by negative 90 degrees phase transition.

ii)Differencial manchester encoding

In Differential Manchester Encoding the Bit 0 represent

Inversion whereas 1 represents no inversion.

 The transition at the middle bit is used only for

Synchronization.
 At 0 Transition will be there at the beginning of
the Bit interval.
 At 1 Transition will be absent at the beginning of
the Bit interval.

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Causes Of Transmission Impairment:

o Attenuation: Attenuation means the loss of

energy, i.e., the strength of the signal decreases
with increasing the distance which causes the
loss of energy.
o Distortion: Distortion occurs when there is a
change in the shape of the signal. This type of
distortion is examined from different signals
having different frequencies. Each frequency
component has its own propagation speed, so
they reach at a different time which leads to the
delay distortion.

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o Noise: When data is travelled over a transmission

medium, some unwanted signal is added to it
which creates the noise.

TRANMISSION MEDIA

Guided Media

It is defined as the physical medium through which the signals

are transmitted. It is also known as Bounded media.

Types Of Guided media:

Twisted pair:

o Twisted pair is a physical media made up of a pair

of cables twisted with each other. A

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o The frequency range for twisted pair cable is

from 0 to 3.5KHz.

o A twisted pair consists of two insulated copper

wires arranged in a regular spiral pattern.

o The degree of reduction in noise interference is

determined by the number of turns per foot. Increasing the
number of turns per foot decreases noise interference.

Types of Twisted pair:

Unshielded Twisted Pair:

An unshielded twisted pair is widely used in

telecommunication. Following are the categories of the
unshielded twisted pair cable:

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o Category 1: Category 1 is used for telephone

lines that have low-speed data.
o Category 2: It can support upto 4Mbps.
o Category 3: It can support upto 16Mbps.
o Category 4: It can support upto 20Mbps.
Therefore, it can be used for long-distance
communication.
o Category 5: It can support upto 200Mbps.

Advantages Of Unshielded Twisted Pair:

o It is cheap.
o Installation of the unshielded twisted pair is easy.
o It can be used for high-speed LAN.

Disadvantage:

o This cable can only be used for shorter distances

because of attenuation.

Shielded Twisted Pair

A shielded twisted pair is a cable that contains the mesh

surrounding the wire that allows the higher transmission
rate.

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Characteristics Of Shielded Twisted Pair:

o An installation of STP is easy.

o It has higher capacity as compared to unshielded
twisted pair cable.
o It has a higher attenuation.
o It is shielded that provides the higher data
transmission rate.

Disadvantages

o It is more expensive as compared to UTP and

coaxial cable.
o It has a higher attenuation rate.

Coaxial Cable

o The name of the cable is coaxial as it contains

two conductors parallel to each other.
o It has a higher frequency as compared to Twisted
pair cable.
o The inner conductor of the coaxial cable is made
up of copper, and the outer conductor is made up of

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copper mesh. The middle core is made up of non-

conductive cover that separates the inner conductor
from the outer conductor.
o The middle core is responsible for the data
transferring whereas the copper mesh prevents from
the EMI(Electromagnetic interference).

Coaxial cable is of two types:

1. Baseband transmission: It is defined as the

process of transmitting a single signal at high speed.
2. Broadband transmission: It is defined as the
process of transmitting multiple signals simultaneously.

Advantages Of Coaxial cable:

o The data can be transmitted at high speed.

o It has better shielding as compared to twisted
pair cable.
o It provides higher bandwidth.

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Disadvantages Of Coaxial cable:

o It is more expensive as compared to twisted pair

cable.
o If any fault occurs in the cable causes the failure
in the entire network.

Fibre Optic
o Fibre optic cable is a cable that uses electrical
signals for communication.
o Fibre optic is a cable that holds the optical fibres
coated in plastic that are used to send the data by pulses
of light.

Diagrammatic representation of fibre optic cable:

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Basic elements of Fibre optic cable:

o Core: The optical fibre consists of a narrow

strand of glass or plastic known as a core. A core is a
light transmission area of the fibre. The more the area of
the core, the more light will be transmitted into the
fibre.
o Cladding: The concentric layer of glass is known
as cladding. The main functionality of the cladding is to
provide the lower refractive index at the core interface
as to cause the reflection within the core so that the
light waves are transmitted through the fibre.
o Jacket: The protective coating consisting of
plastic is known as a jacket. The main purpose of a jacket
is to preserve the fibre strength, absorb shock and extra
fibre protection.

Following are the advantages of fibre optic cable over

copper:

o Greater Bandwidth: The fibre optic cable

provides more bandwidth as compared copper.
Therefore, the fibre optic carries more data as compared
to copper cable.

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o Faster speed: Fibre optic cable carries the data in

the form of light. This allows the fibre optic cable to
carry the signals at a higher speed.
o Longer distances: The fibre optic cable carries
the data at a longer distance as compared to copper
cable.
o Better reliability: The fibre optic cable is more
reliable than the copper cable as it is immune to any
temperature changes while it can cause obstruct in the
connectivity of copper cable.
o Thinner and Sturdier: Fibre optic cable is thinner
and lighter in weight so it can withstand more pull
pressure than copper cable.

UnGuided Transmission
o An unguided transmission transmits the
electromagnetic waves without using any
physical medium. Therefore it is also known
as wireless transmission.
o In unguided media, air is the media through
which the electromagnetic energy can flow
easily.

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Unguided transmission is broadly classified into three

categories:

Radio waves
o Radio waves are the electromagnetic waves that
are transmitted in all the directions of free space.
o Radio waves are omnidirectional, i.e., the signals
are propagated in all the directions.
o The range in frequencies of radio waves is from
3Khz to 1 khz.
o In the case of radio waves, the sending and
receiving antenna are not aligned, i.e., the wave
sent by the sending antenna can be received by
any receiving antenna.
o example:FM radio.

Advantages Of Radio transmission:

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o Radio transmission is mainly used for wide area

networks and mobile cellular phones.
o Radio waves cover a large area, and they can
penetrate the walls.
o Radio transmission provides a higher
transmission rate.

Microwaves

Microwaves are of two types:

o Terrestrial microwave
o Satellite microwave communication.

Terrestrial Microwave Transmission

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o Terrestrial Microwave transmission is a

technology that transmits the focused
beam of a radio signal from one ground-
based microwave transmission antenna to
another.
o Microwaves are the electromagnetic waves
having the frequency in the range from
1GHz to 1000 GHz.
o Microwaves are unidirectional as the
sending and receiving antenna is to be
aligned,
o In this case, antennas are mounted on the
towers to send a beam to another antenna
o It works on the line of sight transmission.

Advantages Of Microwave:

o Microwave transmission is cheaper than

using cables.
o It is free from land acquisition as it does
not require any land for the installation of
cables.

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o Communication over oceans can be

achieved by using microwave transmission.

Disadvantages of Microwave
transmission:

o Eavesdropping: An eavesdropping
creates insecure communication. Any
malicious user can catch the signal in the
air by using its own antenna.
o Out of phase signal: A signal can be
moved out of phase by using microwave
transmission.
o Susceptible to weather condition: A
microwave transmission is susceptible to
weather condition. This means that any
environmental change such as rain, wind
can distort the signal.

Satellite Microwave Communication

o Satellite communication is more reliable

nowadays as it offers more flexibility than
cable and fibre optic systems.

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o We can communicate with any point on the

globe by using satellite communication.

How Does Satellite work?

The satellite accepts the signal that is

transmitted from the earth station, and it
amplifies the signal. The amplified signal is
retransmitted to another earth station.

Advantages Of Satellite Microwave

Communication:

o The coverage area of a satellite microwave

is more than the terrestrial microwave.
o The transmission cost of the satellite is
independent of the distance from the
centre of the coverage area.
o Satellite communication is used in mobile
and wireless communication applications.

Disadvantages Of Satellite Microwave

Communication:

o Satellite designing and development

requires more time and higher cost.

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o The Satellite needs to be monitored and

controlled on regular periods so that it
remains in orbit.

Infrared
o An infrared transmission is a wireless
technology used for communication over
short ranges.
o The frequency of the infrared in the range
from 300 GHz to 400 THz.
o It is used for short-range communication
such as data transfer between two cell
phones, TV remote operation, data transfer
between a computer and cell phone
resides in the same closed area.

Characteristics Of Infrared:

o It supports high bandwidth, and hence the

data rate will be very high.
o Infrared waves cannot penetrate the walls.
Therefore, the infrared communication in

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one room cannot be interrupted by the

nearby rooms.
o An infrared communication provides better
security with minimum interference.
o Infrared communication is unreliable
outside the building because the sun rays
will interfere with the infrared waves.

PERFORMANCE OF A NETWORK

Performance of a network indicates the measure of service

quality of a network as perceived by the user. There are
different ways to measure the performance of a network,
depending upon the nature and design of the network. The
characteristics that measure the performance of a network
are :
 Bandwidth
 Throughput
 Latency (Delay)
 Bandwidth – Delay Product
 Queuing time

BANDWIDTH
o Bandwidth is characterized as the measure of
data or information that can be transmitted in a
fixed measure of time.

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o In the case of digital devices, the bandwidth is

measured in bits per second(bps) or bytes per
second. In the case of analogue devices, the
bandwidth is measured in cycles per second, or
Hertz (Hz).

THROUGHPUT
Throughput is the number of messages successfully transmitted
per unit time.
o It is controlled by available bandwidth, the
available signal-to-noise ratio and hardware limitations.
o Bandwidth is the potential measurement of a
link, whereas throughput is an actual measurement of how
fast we can send data.
o Throughput as unit of bits per second(bps),
which has evolved to bytes per second(Bps), kilobytes per
second(KBps), megabytes per second(MBps) and gigabytes
per second(GBps).
o Throughput may be affected by numerous
factors:- analogue physical medium
-available processing
power of the system
components,
-end-user
behaviour.

Example:

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Input:A network with bandwidth of 10 Mbps can pass only an

average of 12, 000 frames
per minute where each frame carries an average of 10, 000 bits.
What will be the
throughput for this network?

Output: We can calculate the throughput as-

Throughput = (12, 000 x 10, 000) / 60 = 2 Mbps
 LATENCY
latency(also known as delay) is defined as the total time
taken for a complete message to arrive at the destination,
starting with the time when the first bit of the message is
sent out from the source and ending with the time when the
last bit of the message is delivered at the destination.
 Latency = Propagation Time + Transmission Time
+ Queuing Time + Processing Delay
Propagation Time:- It is the time required for a bit to travel
from the source to the destination. Propagation time can be
calculated as the ratio between the link length (distance) and
the propagation speed over the communicating medium.
Propagation time = Distance / Propagation speed
Example:
Input: What will be the propagation time when the distance
between two points is
12, 000 km? Assuming the propagation speed to be 2.4 * 10^8
m/s in cable.

Output: We can calculate the propagation

time as-

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Propagation time = (12000 * 10000) / (2.4

* 10^8) = 50 ms
Transmission Time-: Transmission time is a time based on how
long it takes to send the signal down the transmission line. The
transmission time of a message relies upon the size of the
message and the bandwidth of the channel.
Transmission time = Message size / Bandwidth
Example:
Input:What will be the propagation time and the transmission
time for a 2.5-kbyte
message when the bandwidth of the network is 1 Gbps?
Assuming the distance between
sender and receiver is 12, 000 km and speed of light is 2.4 *
10^8 m/s.

Output: We can calculate the propagation and transmission

time as-
Propagation time = (12000 * 10000) / (2.4 * 10^8) = 50 ms
Transmission time = (2560 * 8) / 10^9 = 0.020 ms

Queuing Time:- Queuing time is a time based on how long the

packet has to sit around in the router. The queuing time is
usually not a fixed factor, hence it changes with the load thrust
in the network. In cases like these, the packet sits waiting,
ready to go, in a queue.

Processing Delay: Processing delay is the delay based on how

long it takes the router to figure out where to send the packet.
As soon as the router finds it out, it will queue the packet for
transmission.

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BANDWIDTH – DELAY PRODUCT Bandwidth delay product is a

measurement of how many bits can fill up a network link. It gives
the maximum amount of data that can be transmitted by the
sender at a given time before waiting for acknowledgment. Thus
it is the maximum amount of unacknowledged data.
Consider that the link capacity of a channel is 512 Kbps and round
– trip delay time is 1000ms.
The bandwidth delay product = 512 × 103 bits/sec × 1000 ×
10−3 sec
= 512,000 bits = 64,000 bytes = 62.5
KB

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