IT Assignment on

Networking

Abhishek Srivastava
PGDM Sec B
Roll.no 04

Acharya Institute Of Management & Sciences Page 1

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NETWORKING DEFINITION:
In information technology, a network is a series of points or nodes interconnected by
communication paths. Networks can interconnect with other networks and contain sub-
networks .The most common topology or general configurations of networks include the
bus, star, token ring, and mesh topologies. Networks can also be characterized in terms of
spatial distance as local area networks (LANs), metropolitan area networks (MANs), and
wide area networks (WANs).A given network can also be characterized by the type of data
transmission technology in use on it (for example, a TCP/IP or Systems Network
Architecture network); by whether it carries voice, data, or both kinds of signals; by who
can use the network (public or private); by the usual nature of its connections (dial-up or
switched, dedicated or non-switched, or virtual connections); and by the types of physical
links (for example, optical fiber, coaxial cable, and Unshielded Twisted Pair). Large
telephone networks and networks using their infrastructure …

The act of working using computer network; the act of connecting computers into network;
the act of meeting new people in a business or social context

Types of networks:
Personal area network

A personal area network(PAN) is a computer network used for communication among

computer devices close to one person. Some examples of devices that are used in a PAN
are personal computers, printers, fax machines, telephones, PDAs, scanners, and even
video game consoles. Such a PAN may include wired and wireless connections between
devices. The reach of a PAN is typically at least about 20-30 feet (approximately 6-9
meters), but this is expected to increase with technology improvements.

Local area network

A local Area Network (LAN) is a computer network covering a small physical area, like a
home, office, or small group of buildings, such as a school, or an airport. Current wired
LANs are most likely to be based on Ethernet technology, although new standards like ITU-
G.hn also provide a way to create a wired LAN using existing home wires (coaxial cables,
phone lines and power line.

Campus area network

A campus area network (CAN) is a computer network made up of an interconnection of

local area networks (LANs) within a limited geographical area. It can be considered one
form of a metropolitan area network, specific to an academic setting.

In the case of a university campus-based campus area network, the network is likely to
link a variety of campus buildings including; academic departments, the university library

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and student residence halls. A campus area network is larger than a local area network but
smaller than a wide area network (WAN) (in some cases).

The main aim of a campus area network is to facilitate students accessing internet and
university resources. This is a network that connects two or more LANs but that is limited
to a specific and contiguous geographical area such as a college campus, industrial
complex, office building, or a military base. A CAN may be considered a type of MAN
(metropolitan area network), but is generally limited to a smaller area than a typical MAN.
This term is most often used to discuss the implementation of networks for a contiguous
area. This should not be confused with a Controller Area Network. A LAN connects network
devices over a relatively short distance. A networked office building, school, or home
usually contains a single LAN, though sometimes one building will contain a few small LANs
(perhaps one per room), and occasionally a LAN will span a group of nearby buildings.

Metropolitan area network

A metropolitan area network (MAN) is a network that connects two or more local area
networks or campus area networks together but does not extend beyond the boundaries of
the immediate town/city. Routers, switches and hubs are connected to create a
metropolitan area network.

Wide area network

A wide area network(WAN) is a computer network that covers a broad area (i.e. any
network whose communications links cross metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries.
Less formally, a WAN is a network that uses routers and public communications links.
Contrast with 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 (e.g., a city) respectively. The largest
and most well-known example of a WAN is the Internet. A WAN is a data communications
network that covers a relatively broad geographic area (i.e. one city to another and one
country to another country) and that often uses transmission facilities provided by
common carriers, such as telephone companies. WAN technologies generally function at
the lower three layers of the OSI reference model: the physical layer, the data link layer,
and the network layer

Global area network

A global area networks (GAN) (see also IEEE 802.20) specification is in development by
several groups, and there is no common definition. In general, however, a GAN is a model
for supporting mobile communications across an arbitrary number of wireless LANs,
satellite coverage areas, etc. The key challenge in mobile communications is "handing off"
the user communications from one local coverage area to the next. In IEEE Project 802,
this involves a succession of terrestrial WIRELESS local area network (WLAN)

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Virtual private network

A virtual private network (VPN) is a computer network in which some of the links between
nodes are carried by open connections or virtual circuits in some larger network (e.g., the
Internet) instead of by physical wires. The data link layer protocols of the virtual network
are said to be tunneled through the larger network when this is the case. One common
application is secure communications through the public Internet, but a VPN need not have
explicit security features, such as authentication or content encryption. VPNs, for example,
can be used to separate the traffic of different user communities over an underlying
network with strong security features.

A VPN allows computer users to appear to be editing from an IP address location other
than the one which connects the actual computer to the Internet.

Internetwork

An Internetwork is the connection of two or more distinct computer networks or network

segments via a common routing technology. The result is called an internetwork (often
shortened to internet). Two or more networks or network segments connect using devices
that operate at layer 3 (the 'network' layer) of the OSI Basic Reference Model, such as a
router. Any interconnection among or between public, private, commercial, industrial, or
governmental networks may also be defined as an internetwork.

In modern practice, interconnected networks use the Internet Protocol. There are at least
three variants of internetworks, depending on who administers and who participates in
them:

• Intranet
• Extranet
• Internet

Intranets and extranets may or may not have connections to the Internet. If connected to
the Internet, the intranet or extranet is normally protected from being accessed from the
Internet without proper authorization. The Internet is not considered to be a part of the
intranet or extranet, although it may serve as a portal for access to portions of an
extranet.

Intranet

An intranet is a set of networks, using the Internet Protocol and IP-based tools such as
web browsers and file transfer applications, that is under the control of a single
administrative entity. That administrative entity closes the intranet to all but specific,
authorized users. Most commonly, an intranet is the internal network of an organization. A
large intranet will typically have at least one web server to provide users with
organizational information.

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Extranet

An extranet is a network or internetwork that is limited in scope to a single organization or

entity but which also has limited connections to the networks of one or more other usually,
but not necessarily, trusted organizations or entities (e.g., a company's customers may be
given access to some part of its intranet creating in this way an extranet, while at the
same time the customers may not be considered 'trusted' from a security standpoint).
Technically, an extranet may also be categorized as a CAN, MAN, WAN, or other type of
network, although, by definition, an extranet cannot consist of a single LAN; it must have
at least one connection with an external network.

Internet

The Internet consists of a worldwide interconnection of governmental, academic, public,

and private networks based upon the networking technologies of the Internet Protocol
Suite. It is the successor of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET)
developed by DARPA of the U.S. Department of Defense. The Internet is also the
communications backbone underlying the World Wide We (WWW). The 'Internet' is most
commonly spelled with a capital 'I' as a proper noun, for historical reasons and to
distinguish it from other generic internetworks.

Participants in the Internet use a diverse array of methods of several hundred

documented, and often standardized, protocols compatible with the Internet Protocol Suite
and an addressing system (IP Addresses) administered by the Internet Assigned Numbers
Authority and address registries. Service providers and large enterprises exchange
information about the reachability of their address spaces through the Border Gateway
Protocol (BGP), forming a redundant worldwide mesh of transmission paths.

Diagram of Networking

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HDFC BANK (PROFILE)

Housing Development Finance Corporation

Founded in 1977 by Hasmukh bhai Parakh
HDFC Bank was incorporated in August 1994
Among the first in new generation commercial banks
Registered office in Mumbai, India
Promoted by HDFC, the parent company
IPO in India in 1995
Listed in NSE, BSE, NYSE(ADR)

Type: Public
Founded :1994
Headquarters :HDFC Bank Ltd., Mumbai, India
Industry Banking, Insurance, Capital Markets and allied industries
Products Loans, Credit Cards, Savings, Investment vehicles, Insurance etc.
Net revenue :Rs. 2,509.6 crores
Net income :Rs. 4,634.3 crores
Website :www.hdfcbank.com

Current Status
761 branches
1977 ATM’s in the country
327 cities in India
All branches are OLRT connected
16 branches in Middle east
6 in Africa
Representative offices in Hong Kong, New York, London & Singapore

Networking at HDFC
HDFC Bank had a centralized IP-based network right since its inception. All branches
across the country converge at their respective zonal hub location, which in turn conects to
the data center at Chandivili, Mumbai.

Network

Based on the bank's hub & spoke architecture for the network, the branches are distributed
under different regions and each major location has a regional hub. The branches falling
under a location connect to the hub at the main region. These hubs then connect to the
central site (data center) using a combination of 2 Mbps and 64 Kbps pipes, depending on
the total volume of the transactions that pass through.

C.N. Ram, Head-Information Technology, HDFC Bank says, "Each branch is connected to
their regional hub, as to connect every branch directly to the data center involves huge
costs. This kind of architecture helps save cost."

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A highlight of HDFC Bank's network is the presence of two or more hubs in one location.
"To balance the load and reduce the dependency on a single line, the bank has two hub
locations within a region to share the load. The branches are split between the two hubs,
so that one hub failure does not incapacitate all the branches in that region," explained
C.N. Ram.

A step ahead

In the coming years HDFC Bank plans to deploy connections, with built-in redundancy in
the network. For example, Madras could be connected to Bangalore and Kolkata, with all
three of them being connected to Chandivili. Therefore, if the Kolkata-Chandivili link fails,
then Kolkata will use the Madras link to connect to the Chandivili data center.

The bank is also considering alternate connectivity solutions as VSATs are relatively more
expensive, and in remote areas it is difficult to set up the required infrastructure.

The bank has tested CDMA and GSM solutions—specially for ATMs as they consume very
small bandwidths.

The bank's servers have also undergone phases of development inline with the bank's
expansion plans.

Servers

The bank started with applications on SCO-Unix boxes from Compaq almost eight years
back. The software then used was MicroBanker from i-flex Solutions (then called CITIL).
The set-up supported about 10 branches initially.

"With an expansion in the number of branches the bank felt the need to consider
Unix/RISC boxes rather than an Intel/SCO Unix platform, and selected the Sun platform.
Since then the bank has been running applications on a Sun platform," said C.N. Ram.

With the growth in transaction volumes, number of branches and the number of users the
hardware platform has also been upgraded. Till recent times the database was operating
on a direct attached storage (DAS), and from 1st April 2003 the bank switched to storage
attached network (SAN).

The bank's earliest server was a Sun Ultra 170; over time it moved to Sun Ultra 3500,
4500, and then Sun E10 K. Now the applications run on Sun's Star Fire 15K Server.

Banking applications

The bank uses separate software for corporate and retail banking as there was no single
package that met both their business requirements.

On the corporate side HDFC Bank started with MicroBanker and then moved to Flexcube in
2002. They use Flexcube UBS, which operates on a Compaq Alpha box-GS160. This

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database was also on DAS and was moved to SAN over last year (December 2002). The
bank uses SAN solutions from Hitachi Data Systems. On the retail side the bank uses
Finware from i-flex solutions.

The bank did not face any serious migration issues as they use upgraded products or new
products usually from the same vendors. The vendors have programs that enable the
migration or upgrades.

"When HDFC Bank had acquired Times Bank in 2000 all the Times Bank customers were
shifted from their package (called Kapiti) to HDFC Bank's Finware and MicroBanker. We
had the vendors develop the software required to migrate the data from Kapiti to Finware
so that the task for the operating departments was greatly reduced and the conversion
was done in a short space of three months with minimum disruption to customer service,"
said C.N. Ram.

Storage

The bank currently deploys SAN but feels they will need to consider NAS sometime in the
future. According to C. N. Ram the bank's storage requirement is growing at a rate of four
to five percent every month. With an increase in data volume, the capacity of the hardware
also needs to be updated. This calls for huge investments as all areas like backup, disaster
recovery and others need to be addressed. The bank has to store data for seven years as
per the RBI guidelines, and as it is not necessary to store the data on-line—the bank uses
tapes for off-line storage. The bank anticipates storage costs to come down, and bulk
purchases would be economical.

Disaster Recovery setup

C.N. Ram says, "Our approach is that we need to protect our data first as the basis for a
business continuity plan."

The bank has a disaster recovery (DR) site at Chennai. The data at the main center is
replicated in real-time on-line at the Chennai site. The data is stored on the servers at the
DR site and the database is constantly replenished. If some disaster was to occur, data (up
to the last second) will be replicated, and be available. This gives both, the bank and the
customer a feeling of security.

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