Introduction to Data Communication & Networking

What is Computer Network?

A computer network is an interconnection of various computers to share software, hardware,
resources and data through a communication medium between them. A Computer Networking is
a set of autonomous computers that permits distributed processing of the information and data
and increased Communication of resources.
Advantages of Computer Networks / Goal of networks / Uses of Computer Network:
These purposes must be fulfilled by various advantages of networks.
1. Resource Sharing
Resource sharing means the goal is to make all programs, data and equipment available to
anyone on the network without regard to the physical location of the resource and the user.
2. High Reliability
Network provides high reliability by having alternative sources of supply.
3. Low Cost/Saving Money
Small computers have a much better price/performance ratio than large one. Mainframes are
roughly a factor of forty faster than the fastest single chip microprocessors, but they cost a
thousand times more. This imbalance has caused many system designers to build systems
consisting of powerful personal computers, as per user, with data kept on one or more shared
file server machines.
4. Communications
Another goal of setting up a computer network has little to do with technology at all. A
computer network can provide a powerful communication medium among widely separated
people. Using a network, it is easy for two or more people who live far apart to write a report
together.
5. Improve Performance
The goal of a network is to improve accessibility as well as performance of a system. The
performance of a computer can be improved by adding one or more processors to it as the
work load on it grows.
6. Distribution of Workload:
If one computer becomes saturated with too much load, the work can be reloaded through the
network onto other computers in the network.
7. Protecting Information:
A network provides a more secure environment for an organizations important data. They
provide an additional layer of security using user account, login and password.

What are the different types of computer networks?

1. Broadcast Networks.
In broadcast networks, a single communication channel is shared among all the computers of the
network. This means, all the data transportation occurs through this shared channel. The data is
transmitted in the form of packets. The packets transmitted by one computer are received by all
others in the network. The destination of packet is specified by coding the address of destination
computer in the address field of packet header. On receiving a packet, every computer checks
whether it is intended for it or not. If the packet is intended for it, it is processed otherwise, it is

discarded. There is another form of broadcast networks in which the packets transmitted by a
computer are received by a particular group of computers. This is called as "Multicasting".
2. Point to Point or Store and Forward Networks.
This is the other type of networks on the basis of transmission technology. The store and forward
networks consist of several interconnected computers and networking devices. The data is
transmitted in the form of packets. Each packet has its own source and destination address. To go
from a source to a destination, a packet on this type of network may first have to visit one or
more intermediate devices or computers that are generally called as "routers". The packets are
stored on an intermediate router unless the output line is free. When the output line is free, it is
forwarded to the next router. The routing algorithms are used to find a path from the source to
destination. The routing algorithms play a very important role in this type of network.
Explain the types of Networks.
Computer Networks fall into three classes regarding the size, distance and the structure namely:
LAN (Local Area Network), MAN (Metropolitan Area Network), WAN (Wide Area Network).
Local Area Networks
Local area networks, generally called LANs, are privately-owned networks within a single
building or campus of up to a few kilometers in size. They are widely used to connect personal
computers and workstations in company offices and factories to share resources (e.g., printers)
and exchange information. LANs are distinguished from other kinds of networks by three
characteristics: (1) their size, (2) their transmission technology, and (3) their topology.
LANs are restricted in size, which means that the worst-case transmission time is bounded and
known in advance. It also simplifies network management.
LANs may use a transmission technology consisting of a cable to which all the machines are
attached, like the telephone company party lines. Traditional LANs run at speeds of 10 Mbps to
100 Mbps.
Various topologies are possible for broadcast LANs following figure shows two of them.
Two broadcast networks. (a) Bus. (b) Ring.

In a bus network one machine is the master and is allowed to transmit. All other machines are
required to persist from sending.
A second type of broadcast system is the ring. In a ring, each bit propagates around on its own,
not waiting for the rest of the packet to which it belongs.
Wild Area Networks
A wide area network (WAN) is a telecommunication network. A wide area network is simply a
LAN of LANs or Network of Networks. WANs connect LANs (Local Area Networks) that may
be on opposite sides of a building, across the country or around the world.
In most wide area networks, the subnet consists of two distinct components: transmission lines
and switching elements. Transmission lines move bits between machines. They can be made of
copper wire, optical fiber, or even radio links. Switching elements are specialized computers that
connect three or more transmission lines. When data arrive on an incoming line, the switching
element must choose an outgoing line on which to forward them. These switching computers
have been called by various names in the past; the name router is now most commonly used.

In most WANs, the network contains numerous transmission lines, each one connecting a pair of
routers. If two routers that do not share a transmission line wish to communicate, they must do
this indirectly, via other routers.
Metropolitan Area Networks:A metropolitan area network, or MAN, covers a city. The best-known example of a MAN is the
cable television network available in many cities. MANs (Metropolitan Area Networks) rarely
extend beyond 100 KM and frequently comprise a combination of different hardware and
transmission media.
The two most important components of MANs (Metropolitan Area Networks) are security and
standardization. Security is important because information is being shared between dissimilar
systems. Standardization is necessary to ensure reliable data communication.
A MAN (Metropolitan Area Networks) usually interconnects a number of local area networks
(LANs) using a high-capacity backbone technology, such as fiber-optical links, and provides uplink services to wide area networks (or WAN) and the Internet.
MAN (Metropolitan Area Networks) adopted technologies from both LAN (local area networks)
and WAN (Wide Area Networks) to serve its purpose. Some legacy technologies used for MAN
(Metropolitan Area Networks) are ATM, FDDI, DQDB and SMDS.

Inter-Networking
When two or more computer networks or computer network segments are connected using
devices such as a router then it is called as computer internetworking. Any interconnection
among or between public, private, commercial, industrial, or governmental computer networks
may also be defined as an internetwork or Internetworking. The most notable example of
internetworking is the Internet. The standard reference model for internetworking is Open
Systems Interconnection (OSI). Internetworking is implemented in Layer 3 (Network Layer).
What are the various types of network topology? What are the implications of having
different topology?
Network topologies: Network topology defined as the logical connection of various computers in
the network. The six basic network topologies are: bus, ring, star, tree, mesh and hybrid.
1. Bus Topology:
In bus topology all the computers are connected to a long cable called a bus. A node that
wants to send data puts the data on the bus which carries it to the destination node. In this
topology any computer can data over the bus at any time. Since, the bus is shared among
all the computers. When two or more computers to send data at the same time, an
arbitration mechanism is needed to prevent simultaneous access to the bus.

A bus topology is easy to install but is not flexible i.e., it is difficult to add a new node to
bus. In addition to this the bus stops functioning even if a portion of the bus breaks down.
It is also very difficult to isolate fault.
2. Ring Topology:
In ring topology, the computers are connected in the form of a ring. Each node has
exactly two adjacent neighbors. To send data to a distant node on a ring it passes through
many intermediate nodes to reach to its ultimate destination.

A ring topology is as to install and reconfigure. In this topology, fault isolation is easy
because a signal that circulates all the time in a ring helps in identifying a faulty node.
The data transmission takes place in only one direction. When a node fails in ring, it

breaks down the whole ring. To overcome this drawback some ring topologies use dual
rings. The topology is not useful to connect large number of computers.
3. Star Topology:
In star topology all the nodes are connected to a central node called a hub. A node that
wants to send some six data to some other node on the network, send data to a hub which
in turn sends it the destination node. A hub plays a major role in such networks.

Star topology is easy to install and reconfigure. If a link fails then it separates the node
connected to link from the network and the network continues to function. However, if
the hub goes down, the entire network collapses.
4. Tree Topology:
Tree topology is a hierarchy of various hubs. The entire nodes are connected to one hub
or the other. There is a central hub to which only a few nodes are connected directly.

The central hub, also called active hub, looks at the incoming bits and regenerates them
so that they can traverse over longer distances. The secondary hubs in tree topology may
be active hubs or passive hubs. The failure of a transmission line separates a node from
the network.
5. Mesh Topology:
A mesh topology is also called complete topology. In this topology, each node is
connected directly to every oilier node in the network. That is if there are n nodes then
there would be n(n 1)/2 physical links in the network.

As there are dedicated links, the topology does not have congestion problems. Further it
does not need a special Media Access Control (MAC) protocol to prevent simultaneous
access to the transmission media since links are dedicated, not shared.
The topology also provides data security. The network can continue to function even in
the failure of one of the links. Fault identification is also easy.
The main disadvantage of mesh topology is the complexity of the network and the cost
associated with the cable length. The mesh topology is not useful for medium to large
networks.