Chapter 5

Computer Network
 Introduction of Network
• A computer network is a group of devices
connected with each other through a
transmission medium such as wires, cables
etc. These devices can be computers, printers,
scanners, Fax machines etc. The purpose of
having computer network is to send and
receive data stored in other devices over
the network.
Network
 Introduction of Network
• Peer-to-peer networking is a server
less networking technology that allows
several network devices to share resources
and communicate directly with each other.
Such computers are known as Autonomous
computers.
Network without Server(Peer to Peer)
Network with Server
 Introduction of Network
• The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network
(ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-
switching network in 1960 by US department.
• Data communication refers to the exchange
of data between a source and a receiver via form
of transmission media such as a wire cable. Data
communication is said to be local if
communicating devices are in the same building
or a similarly restricted geographical area.
Data Communication Network
 Components of a Data Communication
Network
Following are the five components of a data
communication network.
• Data
• Sender
• Receiver
• Transmission Medium
• Protocol
 Components of a Data Communication
Network
• Data:
• Communication of data means a message or data
will be transmitted from one device and will be
received in the destination or target device. Thus
the first component in a data communication
network is data or message to that needs to be
delivered and received. Data or message can be
of various forms such as text, audio, video, image
or combinations of these forms etc.
 Components of a Data Communication
Network
• Sender:
• A data must has to be sent to a destination
from a source. This source is called the sender.
The device that sends the data to the
destination or target is the Sender. It can be a
computer, cell phone, video camera and so on.
 Components of a Data Communication
Network
• Receiver:
• The destination of a transmitted data is the
receiver which will receive the data. The
device that receives the data that was sent by
the Sender is the Receiver. A receiver can
again be a computer, cell phone, video camera
and so on.
 Components of a Data Communication
Network
• Transmission medium:
• In data communication network, the
transmission medium is the physical path for
the data to travel to its destination after being
sent by the Sender. Receiver receives the data
at one end of this path and the sender sent
from another end of the path. Transmission
medium could be like twisted-pair cable,
coaxial cable, fiber-optic cable etc.
 Components of a Data Communication
Network
• Protocol:
• A protocol is nothing but a set of rules that applies
on the full data communication procedure. This is
like an agreement between the two devices to
successfully communicate with each other. For
example, how the data will be sent, how the data
will be traveling, how to ensure that full data has
received, how to handle errors in transmission etc.
Both devices follow the same set of rules or
protocol so that they understand each other.
 Twisted Pair Cable
• One of the earliest guided transmission media is
twisted pair cables. A twisted pair cable comprises
of two separate insulated copper wires, which are
twisted together and run in parallel. The copper
wires are typically 1mm in diameter. While twisted-
pair cable is used by older telephone networks and
is the least expensive type of local-area network
(LAN) cable, most networks contain some twisted-
pair cabling at some point along the network.
• Twisted pair cable is commonly used for networking.
Twisted Pair Cable
 Advantages of Twisted Pair Cable
• It is relatively easy to implement and
terminate.
• It is the least expensive media of transmission
for short distances.
• If portion of a twisted pair cable is damaged it
does not effect the entire network.
 Disadvantages of Twisted Pair Cable
• It supports lower bandwidth as compared to
other Medias. It supports 10 mbps up to a
distance of 100 meters.
• It offers very poor security and is relatively
easy to tap.
• Being thin in size, they are likely to break
easily.
 Coaxial cable
• Coaxial cable was invented in 1880 by English
engineer and mathematician Oliver, who patented
the invention and design that same year. AT&T
established its first cross-continental coaxial
transmission system in 1940.
• Coaxial cable is commonly used by cable operators,
telephone companies, and internet providers
around the world to convey data, video, and voice
communications to customers. It has also been used
extensively within homes.
 Coaxial Cable
• Coaxial cable received its name because it
includes one physical channel that carries the
signal surrounded after a layer of insulation by
another concentric physical channel, both
running along the same axis. The outer channel
serves as a ground. Many of these cables or
pairs of coaxial tubes can be placed in a single
outer sheathing and, with repeaters, can carry
information for a great distance.
Coaxial Cable
 Advantages of coaxial cable :-
• It has higher bandwidth, hence it can support
mixed range of services.
• Because of its insulation, coaxial cable has
lower error rates.
• It uses for longer distances at higher data rates.
• Easy to handle.
• Relatively inexpensive as compared to optic
fiber cables.
 Disadvantages of coaxial cable :-
• Installation cost in the local environment are
high.
• Susceptible to damage from lightening strikes.
• Number of node connection is limited.
• One of its primary uses is for signal
transmission across the entire network if there
is a failure in one cable the whole network will
be down.
 Optical-Fiber Cable
• A fiber-optic cable, also known as an optical-fiber
cable, is an assembly similar to an electrical cable, but
containing one or more optical fibers that are used to
carry light. The optical fiber elements are typically
individually coated with plastic layers and contained in
a protective tube suitable for the environment where
the cable will be deployed. Different types of cable are
used for different applications, for example, long
distance telecommunication, or providing a high-
speed data connection between different parts of a
building.
 Optical-Fiber Cable
• Optical fiber uses light pulses instead of electrical
pulses to transmit information, thus delivers
hundreds of times higher bandwidth than
traditional electrical systems. Fiber optic cable
can be protected by sheathing and armor to
make it resistant to harsh environmental
conditions. Hence it is widely adopted in
commercial business, governments, military and
many other industries for voice, video and data
transmission.
Optical-Fiber Cable
Optical-Fiber Cable
 Advantages Optical-Fiber Cable
• Greater bandwidth & faster speed—Optical fiber cable
supports extremely high bandwidth and speed. The large
amount of information that can be transmitted per unit of
optical fiber cable is its most significant advantage.
• Cheap—Long, continuous miles of optical fiber cable can be
made cheaper than equivalent lengths of copper wire. With
numerous vendors swarm to compete for the market share,
optical cable price would sure to drop.
• Thinner and light-weighted—Optical fiber is thinner, and can
be drawn to smaller diameters than copper wire. They are of
smaller size and light weight than a comparable copper wire
cable, offering a better fit for places where space is a concern.
 Advantages Optical-Fiber Cable
• Higher carrying capacity—Because optical fibers are much thinner
than copper wires, more fibers can be bundled into a given-
diameter cable. This allows more phone lines to go over the same
cable or more channels to come through the cable into your cable
TV box.
• Less signal degradation—The loss of signal in optical fiber is less
than that in copper wire.
• Light signals—Unlike electrical signals transmitted in copper wires,
light signals from one fiber do not interfere with those of other
fibers in the same fiber cable. This means clearer phone
conversations or TV reception.
• Long lifespan—Optical fibers usually have a longer life cycle for over
100 years.
Disadvantages Optical-Fiber Cable
• Low power—Light emitting sources are
limited to low power. Although high power
emitters are available to improve power
supply, it would add extra cost.
• Distance—The distance between the
transmitter and receiver should keep short or
repeaters are needed to boost the signal.
 Types of Network
• Computer Network Types
• A computer network is a group of computers
linked to each other that enables the
computer to communicate with another
computer and share their resources, data, and
applications.
• A computer network can be categorized by
their size.
 Types of Networks
• There are many types of computer networks,
the common types of area networks including
those five:
• PAN- Personal Area Network
• LAN - Local Area Network
• WAN - Wide Area Network
• MAN - Metropolitan Area Network
• CAN - Campus Area Network.
 Personal Area Network
• Personal Area Network is a network arranged within an
individual person, typically within a range of 10 meters.
• Personal Area Network is used for connecting the computer
devices of personal use is known as Personal Area Network.
• Thomas Zimmerman was the first research scientist to
bring the idea of the Personal Area Network.
• Personal Area Network covers an area of 30 feet.
• Personal computer devices that are used to develop the
personal area network are the laptop, mobile phones,
media player and play stations.
Personal Area Network
 Personal Area Network
There are two types of Personal Area Network:
• Wired Personal Area Network
• Wireless Personal Area Network
 Personal Area Network
• Wireless Personal Area Network: Wireless
Personal Area Network is developed by simply
using wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth. It is a low range network.
• Wired Personal Area Network: Wired
Personal Area Network is created by using the
USB.
 Local Area Network
• Local area network is a group of computers
connected with each other in a small places
such as school, hospital, apartment etc.
•
LAN is secure because there is no outside
connection with the local area network thus
the data which is shared is safe on the local
area network and can’t be accessed outside.
 Local Area Network
• LAN due to their small size are considerably
faster, their speed can range anywhere from
100 to 100Mbps.
• LANs are not limited to wire connection,
there is a new evolution to the LANs that
allows local area network to work on a
wireless connection.
Local Area Network
 Advantages of LAN

• Resource Sharing: LAN provides resource sharing

such as computer resources like printers, scanners,
modems, DVD-ROM drives, and hard disks can be
shared within the connected devices. This reduces
cost and hardware purchases.
• Software Applications Sharing: In a Local Area
Network, it is easy to use the same software in a
number of computers connected to a network
instead of purchasing the separately licensed
software for each client a network.
 Advantages of LAN

• Centralized Data: The data of all network users

can be stored on a hard disk of the central/server
computer. This help users to use any computer in
a network to access the required data.
• Internet Sharing: Local Area Network provides
the facility to share a single internet connection
among all the LAN users. In school labs and
internet Cafes, single internet connection is used
to provide internet to all connected computers.
 Advantages of LAN

• Easy and Cheap Communication: Data and

messages can easily be shared with the other
computer connected to the network.
• Data Security: Since data is stored on the
server computer, it will be easy to manage
data at only one place and the data will be
more secure too.
 Disadvantages of LAN

• High Setup Cost: The initial setup costs of

installing Local Area Networks is high because
there is special software required to make a
server. Also, communication devices like an
Ethernet cable, switches, hubs, routers, cables
are costly.
• Data Security Threat: Unauthorized users can
access important data of an office or campus if a
server hard disk is not properly secured by the
LAN administrator.
 Disadvantages of LAN

• LAN Maintenance Job: Local Area Network

requires a LAN Administrator because there are
problems such as software installations, program
faults or hardware failures or cable disturbances
in Local Area Network. A LAN Administrator is
required to maintain these issues.
• Covers Limited Area: LANs are restricted in size
they cover a small area like a single office, single
building or a group of nearby buildings.
 Metropolitan Area Network
• MAN network covers larger area by
connections LANs to a larger network of
computers. In Metropolitan area network
various Local area networks are connected
with each other through telephone lines. The
size of the Metropolitan area network is larger
than LANs and smaller than WANs(wide area
networks), a MANs covers the larger area of a
city or town.
Metropolitan Area Network
 Advantages of MAN
• Less Expensive:
It is less expensive to attach MAN with WAN Network.
MAN gives you good efficiency of data. All data on MAN
is easily manageable in a centralized way.
• Sending Local Emails:
You can send local emails fast and free on MAN.
• High Speed than LAN:
The speed of data can easily reach 1000 Mbps, as MAN
uses fiber optics. Files and database transfer rates are
fast.
 Advantages of MAN
• Sharing of the Internet:
With the installation of MANs, users can share their
internet connection. In this way, multiple users can get
the same high-speed internet.
• Conversion of LAN to MAN is Easy:
MAN is a combination of two or more LAN network. So
it is a faster way to connect two LAN networks
together. It is possible by the fast configuration of links.
• High Security:
MAN’s has a high-security level than WAN.
 Disadvantages of MAN
• 1: Difficult To Manage:
It is very difficult to manage if the size and number of LANs
network increase. This is due to security and extra
configuration problems.
2: Internet Speed Difference:
As it cannot work on phone copper wires. Copper wires affect
the speed of MAN. So high cost is needed for fiber optics.
3: Hackers Attack:
In this network, there is a high risk of attacking hackers as
compared to LAN. So data may be a leak. Highly security staff
is the need in MAN.
 Disadvantages of MAN
• 4: Technical Staff Requires to Set up:
Highly technical people require to setup MAN.
The technical people are network
administrators and troubleshooters.
5: Need More wires:
In MAN more than LAN network, cables
require. As you know, it is a combination of
two LANs.
 Wide Area Network (WAN)
• A wide area network (WAN) is a
telecommunications network that extends over a
large geographical area for the primary purpose of
computer networking. Wide area networks are
often established with
leased telecommunication circuits.[1]
• Business, as well as education and government
entities use wide area networks to relay data to
staff, students, clients, buyers and suppliers from
various locations across the world.
 Wide Area Network (WAN)
• Similar types of networks are
personal area networks (PANs),
local area networks (LANs),
campus area networks (CANs), or
metropolitan area networks (MANs) which are
usually limited to a room, building, campus or
specific metropolitan area, respectively.
Wide Area Network (WAN)
 Advantages of WAN
• Covers large geographical area: Wide area network
covers a large geographical area of more than 1000km. If
your office is in different cities or countries then you can
connect your office branches through Wide Area Network.
• Centralized data: Wide area networks also provide you
the facility of sharing the data to all of your connected
devices in a network.For example, through WAN
connection all office branches can share the data through
the head office server. You can get back up, support, and
other useful data from the head office and all data are
synchronized with all other office branches.
 Advantages of WAN
• Get updated files and data: Wide Area Networks
provide you the facility of getting updated files and
data from the server. If a server is updated with new
data then all connecting devices receive that
updated data within seconds.
• Sharing of software : Like LANs, we can share
software applications.
• High bandwidth: WANs covers a large geographical
area of more than 1000km. therefore WANs have
high bandwidth compared to LANs and MANs.
Disadvantages of a wide area network (WAN)

• Security problems: Wide Area Networks faces more

security problem as compare to LANs and MANs.
One of the key disadvantages of WANs is a security issue
when many different people have the ability to use
information from other computers.
• Needs firewall and antivirus software: As it faces
security issue, therefore it is a basic need of WANs to use
firewalls and antivirus software to protect data transfer
on the internet which can be accessed and changed by
hackers. Also, some people can inject a virus into the
computers so antivirus software is also needed to install.
 Disadvantages of a wide area network
(WAN)
• The setup cost is high: A WAN network covers a large
geographical area, it is very expensive to setup in the initial
stage. It may involve purchasing different networking devices,
i.e routers, switches, and extra security software.
• Troubleshooting problems: A WAN network covers large
geographical areas, so fixing the problem in a network is a
very difficult job. Most of WANs wires go into the sea and if
those wires get broken. It involves a lot of hard work to fix
those lines under the sea.
• Maintenance Issues: Once set up, maintaining a WAN network
is a full-time job which requires high tech skills of network
supervisors and technicians.
 Cluster Area Network
• A campus area network, or CAN, is a large network
that connects a number of smaller local area
networks together in a limited geographical
area. This type of network is commonly found on
college and university campuses.
• Campus Area Network (CAN) is larger than a Local
Area network (LAN) but smaller than Wide Area
Network (WAN). Wires, wireless or some other
technology can be used to connect these
computers.
 Cluster Area Network
• Campus Area Network (CAN) is a computer network.
It is made up of two or more Local Area Networks
(LANs) within a limited area. It ran cover many
buildings in an area. The main feature of Campus
Area Network (CAN) is that all of the computers
which are connected together have some relationship
to each other. For example, different building in a
campus can be connected using Campus Area
Network (CAN). It will help to interconnect academic
departments, library and computer laboratories.
Cluster Area Network
Advantages of campus area network (CAN)

• Economical:
• CAN is economical in the sense that it uses fewer
cables, switches, hubs and routers.
• Sharing of data is easy:
• In CAN, the message is sent one time and is
transferred to all the linked departments easily.
• Use a wireless connection:
• CAN use a wireless connection for connecting
different departments and buildings across one
organization.
Advantages of campus area network (CAN)

• Transferring files is fast:

• In CAN, files are transferred with high speed
over the network (internet).
• One ISP across all departments:
• In CAN, the internet is used from the same ISP
(Internet Service Provider).
 Disadvantages of campus area network
(CAN)
• Limitation for connecting nodes:
• The connection between nodes (computers) is
limited in size i.e. you cannot connect a large
number of nodes together in CAN. And also
CAN have a maximum length of 40 meters.
 Terms related to Internet
• Intranet:
A local or restricted communications network,
especially a private network created using World Wide
Web software.
• URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. A URL is
nothing more than the address of a given unique
resource on the Web. In theory, each valid URL
points to a unique resource. Such resources can be
an HTML page, a CSS document, an image, etc. .
 Terms related to Internet
• An ISP (Internet service provider) is a company that
provides individuals and other companies access to the
Internet and other related services such as Web site
building and virtual hosting.
Example : Airtel,Reliance, BSNL etc
• Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label
assigned to each device connected to a computer network
that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.[1][2] An
IP address serves two main functions: host or network
interface identification and location addressing.
• Example: 45.79.151.25
 Terms related to Internet
• The Domain Name System (DNS) is a
hierarchical and decentralized naming system
for computers, services, or other resources
connected to the Internet or a private
network. It associates various information
with domain names assigned to each of the
participating entities.
DNS
 Terms related to Internet
• A web page
It is a specific collection of information provided by a
website and displayed to a user in a web browser. A
website typically consists of many web pages linked
together in a coherent fashion. The name "web page" is a
metaphor of paper pages bound together into a book.
• Website:
A group of World Wide Web pages usually containing
hyperlinks to each other and made available online by an
individual, company, educational institution, government,
or organization
 Terms related to Internet
• A web portal is a specially designed website
that brings information from diverse sources,
like emails, news ,quotes ,online forums and
search engines, together in a uniform way.
Usually, each information source gets its
dedicated area on the page for displaying
information; often, the user can configure
which ones to display.
 Terms related to Internet
• A modem – a portmanteau of "modulator-
demodulator" – is a hardware device that
converts data into a format suitable for a
transmission medium so that it can be
transmitted from one computer to another.
 Network Devices
• Hubs
• A hub is a physical layer networking device which is
used to connect multiple devices in a network. They
are generally used to connect computers in a LAN.
• A hub has many ports in it. A computer which
intends to be connected to the network is plugged
in to one of these ports. When a data frame arrives
at a port, it is broadcast to every other port,
without considering whether it is destined for a
particular destination or not.
HUB
 Network Devices
• A network switch is networking hardware that
connects devices on a computer network by
using packet switching to receive and forward
data to the destination device.
 Network Devices
• A router is a networking device that forwards
data packets between computer networks.
Routers perform the traffic directing functions
on the Internet. Data sent through the
internet, such as a web page or email, is in the
form of data packets
 Terms related to Internet
• A gateway is a hardware device that acts as a "gate"
between two networks. It may be a router, firewall,
server, or other device that enables traffic to flow in and
out of the network.
• While a gateway protects the nodes within network, it
also a node itself. The gateway node is considered to be
on the "edge" of the network as all data must flow
through it before coming in or going out of the network.
It may also translate data received from outside networks
into a format or protocol recognized by devices within
the internal network.
 Terms related to Internet
• A link or A hyperlink (or edge) of
a network (or graph) is one of the connections
between the nodes (or vertices) of
the network.
A hyperlink, or simply a link, is a reference to
data that the user can follow by clicking or
tapping. A hyperlink points to a whole document
or to a specific element within a document.
 Terms related to Internet
• Hypertext is text displayed on a computer
display or other electronic devices with
references to other text that the reader can
immediately access. Hypertext documents are
interconnected by hyperlinks, which are
typically activated by a mouse click, keypress
set or by touching the screen.
 Terms related to Internet
• Bandwidth is the maximum rate of data
transfer across a given path. Bandwidth may
be characterized as network bandwidth, data
bandwidth, or digital bandwidth.
 Network Protocols
• A network protocol is an established set of
rules that determine how data is transmitted
between different devices in the same
network. Essentially, it allows connected
devices to communicate with each other,
regardless of any differences in their internal
processes, structure or design.
 HTTP
• Stands for "Hypertext Transfer Protocol." HTTP
is the protocol used to transfer data over the
web. It is part of the Internet protocol suite
and defines commands and services used for
transmitting webpage data.
• When accessing any web page entering http://
in front of the address tells the browsers to
communicate over HTTP.
 FTP(File Transfer Protocol )
• The File Transfer Protocol is a standard
network protocol used for the transfer of
computer files between a client and server on
a computer network. FTP is built on a client-
server model architecture using separate
control and data connections between the
client and the server.
 TCP/IP Protocol
• TCP/IP, or the Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol, is a suite of
communication protocols used to
interconnect network devices on the internet.
TCP/IP can also be used as a communications
protocol in a private computer network
 TCP/IP Protocol
• TCP defines how applications can create channels of
communication across a network. It also manages
how a message is assembled into smaller packets
before they are then transmitted over the internet
and reassembled in the right order at the destination
address.
• IP defines how to address and route each packet to
make sure it reaches the right destination. Each
gateway computer on the network checks this IP
address to determine where to forward the message.
Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)

• The Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is

an Internet standard protocol used by email clients
to retrieve email messages from a mail server over
a TCP/IP connection.
• MAP was designed with the goal of permitting
complete management of an email box by multiple
email clients, therefore clients generally leave
messages on the server until the user explicitly
deletes them.
 SMTP(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
• SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.
• SMTP is a set of communication guidelines
that allow software to transmit an electronic
mail over the internet is called Simple Mail
Transfer Protocol.
• It is a program used for sending messages to
other computer users based on e-mail
addresses.
SMTP