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Network Topologies
Networks are laid out in several different ways. The five main types of network
arrangements are bus, ring, star, cloud and mesh. A topology is essentially the virtual
structure of a network. The layout does not always correspond to the physical layout.
Bus
A ring network operates in a closed loop system. Each device on the network has two
neighbouring devices to communicate with. Any communication that is sent or received in a
ring network can only travel in one direction, the same direction. e.g. clockwise.
Since all the devices are on a loop, one small cable failure can break the loop and bring the
network down entirely.
To deploy a ring network, you normally use a data link technology called Token Ring
technology. Token ring technology operates at layer 2 of the OSI model. Ring topologies,
whilst not all that common are sometimes found in school campuses or office buildings. An
advantage to this type of network is that data does not have to be transmitted via a central
server rather the data passes through all the nodes until it reaches its destination. A major
disadvantage to this kind of network is that if one end device or node fails, it can bring the
entire network down.
Star
undergo damage and cease to work it wont bring the rest of the LAN network down. But if
the central hub fails then the network will stop working altogether.
Mesh
Broadband is a high bandwidth connection to the internet and is much faster to use than
the traditional telephone and modem, as information can be sent and received at a much
faster rate. Broadband is provided over a phone line, it involves large volumes of
information being carried at high speeds to a modem and to a pc. This therefore allows text,
graphical websites and videos to be experienced in real time. A user with a broadband
Internet connection will have a much faster and more enjoyable experience while on the
Internet when compared to someone with a dial-up connection.
The phone line is unaffected this means that you can make telephone calls while the
Internet is on and you are using it
You can take advantage of instant messaging and online high speed interactive games.
It is convenient because the internet connection is always on.
Network operating systems (NOS) provide controlled access to services on a network. When
you use NOS, you would normally pair it with a high specification computer that has
adequate storage, memory and sufficient processing capabilities to handle the tasks it needs
to carry out. This software also allows multiple computers to communicate with each other
and share files and with one another. Some examples of networking operating systems are
Widows server 2008/2010, Sun Solaris, Linux, etc...
Network Connection Software
Network connection software is a type of software that checks for connectivity in a network.
It monitors your bandwidth and ensures that you are always online. Examples of this
software are SNMP, this stands for Simple Network Management Protocol. This is a tool for
designed for network administrators. They use this to monitor the networks and also to
check their map of their network availability and performance.
Broadband
Network Access Methods
Token Passing is a communications network access method that makes use of a constantly
repeating packet of data (the token). This token is relayed onto the network by the
computer that wishes to send a message. The computer that wants to send the message will
have to wait for an empty token. Once the empty token is acquired, it is filled with the
address of the destination computer and some or all of its message contents. Every
computer or device on the network will constantly check the tokens that pass through to
ascertain as to whether it is a recipient of the message. If it is, the computer will grab the
message contents and the token will be reset to an empty status. Token passing is found
mainly in ring topologies.
Carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) is a network access method protocol which outlines
how network devices should react when two pcs or devices try to use a single data channel,
such as Ethernet, simultaneously.
Ethernet networks use CSMA/collision detection (CD) to constantly monitor the traffic that
passes through the line. If there is no data transmission occurring at the time, a particular
node can transmit its data. If two nodes try to send data at the same time, this causes a
collision. This collision is detected by all nodes on the network. CSMA/CA acts to prevent
collisions before they happen.