There are many different types of networks and they can be: a LAN, WAN, PAN, CAN.

The most know networks are LAN (local area networks) and WAN (wide area network) PAN (personal area network).

LAN
It is known as a local area network. It is used in schools, computer laboratories and office buildings High data transfer rate

WAN
A WAN network is a build up of multiple LAN networks which are connected together via an Ethernet Network Connected through public networks, such as the telephone system. Or connected via leased lines or satellites

Internet
The internet is a basically a lot of wan networks together Internet serves billions of uses every day. You can do many things on the internet such as watch movies online; go on social networks such as facebook and twitter

PAN
PAN is a personal area network network is made up from personal devices such as a mobile phone, listen to music they use Bluetooth and infrared.

WAN Technologies
They are Frame relay, MPLS and ATM Frame relay is the world most commonly used WAN protocols because it is the cheapest. And the most popular because it is simply to configure the users equipment. MPLS (multiprotocol label switching). directs data from one of

the network node to the next based on short path labels rather than finding long network ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode.) is another switching technique designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks and encodes the data into small, fixed-sized cells.

Logical and physical topologies Star topologies

Ring

Bus

A star network consists of one central switch, hub or computer, which acts as a conduit to transmit messages. This topology consists of a central node, to which all other computers are connected; this central node provides a common connection point for all nodes through a hub.

This is a set of clients which are connected via a shared communications line, which is called a Bus. The network has problems when two people on the network want to send a message because there will be a collision.

This network topology is made up of a node connect to two other nodes. This creates a pathway all around the network.

Mesh topologies
A mesh topology is where all of the computers and network devices are interconnected with each other. It allows for most transmissions to be distributed, even if one of the connections go down.

More examples of topologies

Network accesses

There are different types of networks and they are CSMA, token passing. There are two from of CSMA, the first from is CSMA/ CD and CSMA CA. CSMA/ CD stands for the carrier sense multiple access collision detection. It is used in a wired network since it was possible to detect a collision on the network. This procedure is used in WANs and LANs. Token passing Token passing is a channel access method where a signal called a token is passed between nodes that authorize the node to communicate. The most well-known examples are token ring and arcnet.

CSMA CA is the carriers sense multiple access collisions avoidance. When nodes are trying to transmit simultaneously in a shared network, the node which wishes to transmit first has to listen to the medium for a pre determined period to assess the channel state

Application layer protocols

There are many types of application layer protocols and they are DNS, DHCP, HTTP, FTP and there are many more.

DNS Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers systems, services, or any other resource that connected to the Internet or a private network.

HTTP The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a networking protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web.

DHCP The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a network configuration protocol for hosts on Internet Protocol (IP) networks. Computers that are connected to IP networks must be configured before they can communicate with other hosts.

Network protocols and standards

There are many type of network protocols and standards, some example are, AppleTalk, UDP, 802.2 and 802.3, FDDI and 802.5. 802.2 The IEEE divides this layer into two sub layers the logical link control (LLC) layer and the media access control (MAC) layer. The MAC layer varies for different network types and is defined by standards IEEE 802.3 through IEEE 802.5.

UDP UDP stands for users datagrams protocols. It uses a thing called connectionless transport layer protocol which is in the TCP/IP protocol stack. UDP is a simple protocol that exchanges datagrams without acknowledgments or guaranteed delivery, requiring that error processing and retransmission be handled by other protocols. 802.3

AppleTalk Apple talk was create for is a proprietary suite of protocols developed by Apple Inc for networking computers. AppleTalk's Datagram Delivery Protocol corresponds closely to the Network layer of the Open Systems Interconnection communication model. FDDI FDDI stands for fibre distributed data interface. FDDI is a set of ANSI (American national standards institute) protocols for sending digital data over a fibre optic cable. FDDI networks are token-passing networks, and can support data rates of up to 100 Mbps (100 million bits) per second.

Wireless technologies
There are wireless technologies as well and they are 802.11, infrared, Bluetooth, 3G.

802.3 Defines the MAC layer for bus networks that use CSMA/CD. This is the basis of the Ethernet standard.

Bluetooth Is a proprietary which uses an open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances. It uses mobile devices to create a personal area networks (PANs) with high levels of security. Infrared 802.11 Is a set of standards for implementing wireless local area network (WLAN) computer communication in the 2.4, 3.6 and 5 GHz frequency bands. Infrared technology allows computing devices to communicate via short range wireless signals. With infrared, computers can transfer files and other digital data bidirectional

Network models The OSI has 7 layers and those layers are Physical, data link, network, transport, session, presentation and application.
Layer 7 (application) supports application and end-user processes. Everything at this layer is application-specific Layer 6 (presentation) This layer provides independence from differences in data representation. It does this by translating from an application to network format, and vice versa. This layer establishes, manages and terminates connections between applications. Layer 5 (session) the session layer sets up, coordinates, and terminates conversations, exchanges, and dialogues between the applications at each end. Layer 4 (transport), this layer provides transfer of data between or hosts, end systems, and is responsible for end-to-end error recovery and flow control. It ensures complete data transfer. Layer 3 (network) this provides switching and routing technologies, creating logical paths. This is known as virtual circuits and they are used for transmitting data from node to node. Layer 2 (Data link) at this layer, the data packets are encoded and will be decoded into bits. It furnishes transmission protocol knowledge and management and handles errors in the physical layer, flow control and frame synchronization. Layer 1(Physical) This layer conveys the bit stream through the network at the electrical and mechanical level. It provides the hardware means of sending and receiving data on a carrier, including defining cables, cards and physical aspects.

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TCP/IP
TCP/IP stands for transmission control Protocol / Internet Protocol. TCP/IP is the communication protocol for communication between computers on the Internet. Some keywords Retransmissions, Connection orientated, Windowing, Acknowledgement, reliable.