UNIT-2

COMPUTER NETWORKS
Introduction to Networking

 Network:- When several computers are connected together then this makes a network. i.e. a
network is a interconnected collection of autonomous computer.

 Node:- Any system or device connected to a network is called node. If we have a network
having 10 computer , a server and a printer then there are total 12 nodes in this network.
 Internet:- The Internet is a world wide network i.e. a network of networks is called Internet.
It connects many smaller networks together and allow all the computer to share information
with each other.

 Intranet:- The local network is called Intranet.

 Firewall :- A system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network

Networking Evolution

 In the 1960s a research project was commissioned by Advanced Research Projects Agency
Network (ARPANET)
 The first message was communicated between the University of California, Los Angeles
(UCLA) and Stanford Research Institute (SRI).
 Slowly but gradually, more and more organisations joined the ARPANET, and many
independent smaller networks were formed.
 First commercial use of ARPANET, was started in the name of Telenet (1974)
 National Science Foundation brings connectivity to more people with its NSFNET program
 The Berners-Lee at CERN developed HTML and URL, thus giving birth to World Wide Web
(www) in 1990

Types of Network (according to area covered)

1. LAN (Local Area Network)

 A Local Area Network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited
area such as a home, school, or office building

 A LAN is a privately owned network with in a single building or campus. They are widely used
in an office building, school, organization etc.
 The hardware as well as software resources are shared through LAN i.e. LAN users can share
information, files, printers, and other applications.

2. MAN (Metropolitan Area Network)

 A MAN is a network spread over a city. It is a bigger version of LAN. It might be private or
public.
  A MAN may cover a group of nearby corporate offices with in a city. It is smaller than WAN.

 A cable TV network, spread over a city can be termed as Metropolitan Area Network.

3. WAN (Wide Area Network)

 A network spread across countries is called WAN. A WAN is a group of computers that are
separated by large distance.

 Computers connected to wide area network are connected through public network such as
telephone system. Sometime computers can be connected through satellites.

 With the help of WAN data can be entered or retrieved from a very large distance with less
cost with the help of satellites.

4. PAN (Personal Area Network)

 A Personal Area Network or PAN is a network used for communication among various
electronic devices such as personal computers, mobile phones in a close proximity.

 A Personal Area Network is the interconnection of devices within the range of 8 - 10 meters.

 A Personal Area Network involve computer, mobile, printer etc.

 PAN can be established with cable or wireless. USB technology is used to establish wired PAN
and wireless PAN use Bluetooth technology, Hot spot technology.

 We can use this network to transfer files, digital photo, music files etc among the devices
spread with in the range of 8 - 10 meters.

Differences between types of network

Transmission Media

 Transmission media is a connecting cable between two different workstations(nodes). There

are main two types of communication media is used in network:

 Wired(Guided) media:- (a) Twisted Pair Cable (i). Unshielded twisted pair cable (ii). Shielded
twisted pair cable (b) Co-axial Cable (c) Optical Fiber Cable.

 Wireless(Unguided) media : (a) Radio Waves (b) Micro Waves (c) Satellite Link (d) Infrared
Waves (e) Laser

Guided Media –
Twisted Pair Cable

 A twisted pair cable is made of two plastic insulated copper wires twisted together to form a
single media. Out of these two wires only one carries actual signal and another is used for
ground reference. Usually, a number of such pairs are combined together and covered with a
protective outer wrapping as shown in figure.

 Twisted pairs are less expensive and most commonly used in telephone lines and LANs.

 The twists between wires is helpful in reducing noise (electro-magnetic interference) and
crosstalk.

 There are two types of twisted pairs cabling

1. Unshielded twisted pair (UTP)

2. Shielded twisted pair (STP)

 STP :- In STP cables, each pair shielded individually in metal foil which protects it from
external interference , noise and crosstalk.

 UTP :- UTP has seven categories, each suitable for specific use. In computer networks, Cat-5,
Cat-5e and Cat-6 cables are mostly used. UTP cables are connected by RJ45 connectors.

Co-axial Cable

 Coaxial cable is another type of data transmission medium. It is better shielded and has more
bandwidth than a twisted pair. Coaxial cable consist the followings layers in its construction:

1. The copper conductor

2. Insulation layer of plastic foam

3. Shield of wire mesh tube or metallic foil

4. Outer shield of tough plastic

 Suitable for high communication.

 Widely used for television signals.

 Transport multi-channel television signals around metropolitan areas. Advantages :

 Better data transmission than twisted-pair cables.

 Used for broadband transmission.

 Higher bandwidths up to near about 400-450 mbps. Disadvantages :

 Single cable failure can take down an entire network.

 Expensive

Optical Fiber Cable.

 The optical fiber cable carries data as light, which travels inside a thin fiber of glass. The core
of fiber optic cable is made of high quality glass or plastic. From one end of it light is emitted,
 it travels through it and at the other end light detector detects light stream and converts it to
electric data form.

 These cables are of light weight and have higher bandwidth which means higher data
transfer rate. Signals can travel longer distances and electromagnetic noise cannot affect the
cable. However, optic fibers are expensive and unidirectional.

Advantages :

 Secure transmission.

 Very high transmission capacity.

 Used for broadband transmission.

Disadvantages :

 Expensive.

 Hard to install

 Difficult to repair.

Wireless(Unguided) media

In wireless communication technology, information travels in the form of electromagnetic signals

through air.

NETWORK TOPOLOGY
A Network Topology is the way computer systems or network equipment connected to each other.
Topologies may define both physical and logical aspect of the network.
Bus Topology

 In bus topology all device share single communication line or cable known as bus. All devices
are connected to this shared line. Bus topology may have problem when more than one
hosts sending data at the same time.

 In this topology, a single backbone wire called bus is shared among the nodes, which makes
it cheaper and easier to maintain.

 Data sent from a node are passed on to the bus and hence are transmitted to the length of
the bus in both directions. That means, data can be received by any of the nodes connected
to the bus.

 It is one of the simple forms of networking where a failure of a device does not affect the
others. But failure of the shared communication line make all other devices fail.

 Both ends of the shared channel have line terminator. The data is sent in only one direction
and as soon as it reaches the extreme end, the terminator removes the data from the line.

Advantages :

 Easy to connect a computer or peripheral to a linear bus.

 Requires less cable length than a star topology.

Disadvantages:

 Entire network shuts down if there is a break in the main cable.

Star Topology

 In star topology all hosts are connected to a central device, known as switch or Hub device,
using a point-to-point connection. That is, there exists a point to point connection between
hosts and Switch/Hub.

 Star topology is considered very effective, efficient and fast as each device is directly
connected with the central device. Although disturbance in one device will not affect the rest
of the network, any failure in a central networking device may lead to the failure of complete
network.
 If switch fails, connectivity of all hosts to all other hosts fails. Every communication happens
between hosts, goes through switch/Hub only.

 Star topology is not expensive as to connect one more host, only one cable is required and
configuration is simple.

Advantages

 Easy to install

 Easy to configure

 If one link fails, the network can still functional

Disadvantages

 Everything depends on the switch/hub

Ring Topology

 In ring topology, each host machine is connected to exactly two other machines, creating a
circular network structure. When one host tries to communicate or send message to a host
which is not adjacent to it, the data travels through all intermediate hosts.

 The link in a ring topology is unidirectional. Thus, data can be transmitted in one direction
only (clockwise or counterclockwise).

Advantage :

 Additional components do not affect the performance of network.

 Requires less cable length than a star topology.

Disadvantage :

 If one node fails to pass the data, entire network has failed.

 Slower than star topology.

 Difficult to identify the problem in the case of network failure.

Mesh Topology

 In this type of topology, a host is connected to one or two or more than two hosts. This
topology may have hosts having point-to-point connection to every other hosts. Such a
network can handle large amounts of traffic since multiple nodes can transmit data
simultaneously.

 Also, such networks are more reliable in the sense that even if a node gets down, it does not
cause any break in the transmission of data between other nodes.

 This topology is also more secure as compared to other topologies because each cable
between two nodes carries different data. However, wiring is complex and cabling cost is
high in creating such networks.

 Mesh technology Can be of two types:

Full Mesh: All hosts have a point-to-point connection to every other host.
Partially Mesh: Not all hosts have point-to-point connection to every other host.

Advantages

 If one link breaks the rest of the network can still functional

Disadvantages

 A lots of cables are needed

 Too many cables means too much cost

  Complex Network

 Difficult to identify the problem

Tree or Hybrid Topology

 It is a hierarchical topology, in which there are multiple branches and each branch can have
one or more basic topologies like star, ring and bus.

 Such topologies are usually realised in WANs where multiple LANs are connected. Those
LANs may be in the form of a ring, bus or star.

 In figure, a hybrid topology is shown connecting 4 - star topologies in a bus.

Network devices

The following devices are required to form computer network:

 Ethernet Card(NIC Card)
 Modem
 RJ- 45 / RJ- 11 Connectors
 Hub
 Switch
 Repeater
 Access Point
 Router
 Gateway

Network Interface Card(NIC)

 NIC(Network Interface Card) is a device that enables a computer to connect to a network

using a port.

 It is a circuit board mounted on the motherboard of a computer. A NIC has a port where the
network cable plugs in.

 Now a days, most of the PCS and laptops are equipped with an integrated NIC on the
motherboard. Any computer which has to be connected to a network must have
NIC(Network Interface Card) installed on it.

Modem

 Modem stands for 'MOdulator DEModulator'. It refers to a device used for conversion
between analog signals and digital bits. We know computers store and process data in terms
of 0s and 1s.
  A modem is a device that allow you to connect and communicate with other computer via
telephone lines.

 A modem is used to convert data from digital signal to analog signal and vice versa.

 The modem at the sender's end acts as a modulator that converts the digital data into analog
signals. The modem at the receiver's end acts as a demodulator that converts the analog
signals into digital data for the destination node to understand.

 Convert digital signal into analog signal is called modulation. Convert analog signal into
digital signal is called demodulation.

RJ11 AND RJ45 Connectors

 RJ- 11 :- (Registered Jack- 11 ) - This connector is commonly known asphone connector ,

phone jack. It is four or six wire connector.

 RJ- 45 :- (Registered jack- 45 ) - This is eight wire connector commonly used to connect
computer on LAN(Local Area Network). It is similar to standard telephone connector(RJ11 )
but it is wider than RJ11.

Hub

 A hub is a small, simple and inexpensive device that is used to interconnect multiple
computer on a network. They are generally used to developed Local Network in office ,
building etc.

 A hub has multiple ports into which the cables from individuals computers' NIC are inserted.
This way all computers are connected together through the NIC of hub.

 Whenever a computer has to send some information to some other computer(s), the
information is sent by the NIC to the hub.

 The hub then transmits this information to other computers attached to it. The computer(s)
for which the information is intended receive this information and accept it. While other
computers on the network simply reject the information.

 Now a days switch is used in place of hub.

Switch

 A switch is a network device which is used to interconnect computers on a network(LAN).

They are also inexpensive and provide better performance then hub.

 A switch is a intelligent hub.

 When a switch receive a data packet, it forward the packet directly to the recipient device
instead of broadcasting the message.
  Unlike hub, instead of broadcasting the received information, a switch sends the information
only those computers for which it is intended.

Repeater

 A repeater is an analog device that works with signals on the cables to which it is connected.
The weakened signal appearing on the cable is regenerated and put back on the cable by a
repeater.

 A Repeater is a device that regenerates the received signals and re-transmits to its
destination.

 Since signal becomes weak after a certain distance and can't reach to its destination, so
repeater is used to amplify the weak signal and transmit the strong signal.

Wireless Access Point(WAP)

 This device allows a wireless connection to a wired network using Wi-Fi standard.

 It connects users to other users within the network and also can serve as the point of
interconnection between the WLAN and a fixed wire network.

Router

 A router is a device that forward the data packets from the source machine to the
destination machine using shortest path.

 A router is a network device that can receive the data, analyse it and transmit it to other
networks. A router connects a local area network to the internet. Compared to a hub or a
switch, a router has advanced capabilities as it can analyse the data being carried over a
network, decide/alter how it is packaged, and send it to another network of a different type.
For example, data has been divided into packets of a certain size. Suppose these packets are
to be carried over a different type of network which cannot handle bigger packets. In such a
case, the data is to be repackaged as smaller packets and then sent over the network by a
router.

Gateway

 A gateway is a device which is used to connect different types of network.

 Gateway serves as the entry and exit point of a network, as all data coming in or going out of
a network must first pass through the gateway in order to use routing paths.

 If a node from one network wants to communicate with a node of a foreign network, it will
pass the data packet to the gateway, which then routes it to the destination using the best
possible route.
INTRODUCTION TO WEB SERVICES

WWW (World Wide Web)

 The World Wide Web (WWW) is an Internet service, based on a set of protocols, which
allows a configured server computer to distribute documents across the internet in a
standard way.

 The World Wide Web is a collection of millions of files stored on thousands of web server all
over the world. These files represent text document, picture, video, sounds, programs etc.

 Specifies a way to request and send a document over the Internet.

 The flow of information is controlled by a protocol HTTP/HTTPs.

 Works easily with most Internet browsers.

 Allows to create, link or display multimedia web pages.

 Supports hypertext files and hyperlinks and frames.

 Provide interactivity between users and servers.

Web Browser

 A Web Browser is a WWW client application that navigates through the World Wide Web
and request, receive, display HTML web pages.

 Today’s web browser display animated images, play sound and video, provide encryption.

 Most popular browsers are: Netscape navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox,
Google Chrome etc.

Web Server

 A Web Server is a computer with an Internet connection that responds to the requests made
by web browser and run software designed to send out HTML pages and other file formats
(like multimedia files).

 The server should have a relatively high speed connection on Internet to deal with number
of connections simultaneously.

Web Sites, Web Address and Web Pages

 The Internet is the global network of computing devices.

 A Website is a collection of web pages belonging to a particular person or organisation.

 Each document on the website, which may contain text, images and multimedia files is called
a Web Page.

 The first page of any website is called home page and the address of home page is called the
URL. The URL of home page also serves as URL of website. The home page of each website
helps the viewers to find whatever they interested to find on that site.

 Each web site has a unique address called Web Address.

IP Address

 IP address is a numerical label assigned to each device participating in the network that uses
internet for communication. In other word we can say that IP address is the address of the
device connected to internet.

 IP addresses are managed by ISP (Internet Service Providers).

 It is a unique address that can be used to uniquely identify each node in a network. However,
unlike MAC address, IP address can change if a node is removed from one network and
connected to another network.

 The initial IP Address called version 4 (IPV4 in short), is a 32 bit numeric address, written as
four numbers separated by periods, where each number is the decimal (base-10)
representation for an 8-bit binary (base-2) number and each can take any value from 0 - 255.
A sample IPV4 address looks like [Link]
 it was realised that the 32-bit IP address will not be sufficient as it offers just under 4.3 billion
unique addresses. Thus, a 128 bits IP address, called IP version 6 (IPV6 in short) was
proposed. An IPv6 address is represented by eight groups of hexadecimal (base-16) numbers
separated by colons. A sample IPV6 address looks like:
2001:CDBA:0000:0000:0000:0000:3257:9652

URL

 Every document on the Web has a unique address. This address is known as Uniform
Resource Locator ( URL ).
 It is also referred to as a web address. URLs consist of multiple parts including a protocol and
domain name that tell a web browser how and where to retrieve a resource.

 A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is used to address a document (or other data) on the web.

 An example of a URL is [Link] which is the URL for the Computer

Hope website.

Domain Name

 A domain name is a unique name for a web site, like [Link]. Domain names must be
registered.

 A domain name is your website name. A domain name is the address where Internet users
can access your website.
  A domain name is the part of your web address that comes after "www". For example, in
[Link] the domain name is [Link].

 A domain name becomes your Business Address so care should be taken to select a domain
name.

 When domain names are registered they are added to a large domain name register, and
information about your site.

Web Hosting

 Web Hosting is a concept to make your website visible to the world. Web Hosting is a service
which allocate space for customers to showcase their websites on servers that are connected
to Internet**.

 The core components in web hosting environment are: Web Server, Mail Server, Database
Server, Web Browser, Website/Page editor, FTP Client, Email Client, Database Administration
Client etc.

HTML

 Stands for Hyper Text Markup Language.

 HTML is not a programming language, it is a markup language.

 A markup language is a set of pre defined markup tags.

 HTML uses the tags to design the layout of a document and to specify the hyperlinks.

 It tells the browser how to display text, pictures and other support media.

 Support multimedia and new page layout features.

XML

 Stands for eXtensible Markup Language.

 As we know that a markup language is a mechanism to identify structure in a document.
XML defines a standard way to add mark-up to documents. while XML focus on carrying data
or exchange of data.

 XML tags are case sensitive.

 HTML is a set of predefined tags while XML provides an ability to define tags and the
structural relationship between them.

Difference between HTML and XML

 In HTML all tags are predefined while in XML we can define our own tags.

 In HTML tags are case insensitive while in XML tags are case sensitive.

 HTML focus on designing of web page while XML focus on carrying data or exchange of data.

Web Scripting

 The process of creating and embedding scripts in a web page is known as web-scripting.
  Scripts may be written for a variety of purpose such as for automatic processes on local
computer or to generate web pages on web.

 The programming languages in which scripts are written are called scripts languages. Most
common scripts languages are:- VB Script, Java Script, ASP, JSP, PERL, PHP etc.

Client Side Script: Client side scripts are downloaded and executed at client end by the browser.

 The client side scripts is browser dependent.

 Some popular client side script languages are VB Script, Java Script, PHP.

Server Side Script: Server side scripts are executed at server end and result is sent to the client end.

 The server side scripts does not depend on browser.

 Some popular server side script languages are ASP, JSP, PERL, PHP.

Web 2.0

 Web 2.0 is the term given to describe a second generation of the World Wide Web that is
focused on the ability for people to collaborate and share information online.
 Over time Web 2.0 has been used more as a marketing term than a computer-science-based
term.

 Web2.0 examples include hosted services (Google Maps), Web applications ( Google Docs,
Flickr), Video sharing sites (YouTube), wikis (MediaWiki), blogs (WordPress), social
networking (Facebook, Twitter), & content hosting services and many more.

 The user is expected to interact and to create content with others. Social media sites such as
Facebook and Twitter are examples of Web 2.0 tools.

MEASURING CAPACITY OF COMMUNICATION MEDIA

Bandwidth

 Bandwidth of a channel is the range of frequencies available for transmission of data through
that channel.
 Higher the bandwidth, higher the data transfer rate.
 Normally, bandwidth is the difference of maximum and minimum frequency contained in the
composite signals.
 Bandwidth is measured in Hertz (Hz).

Data Transfer Rate (bit rate)

 Data travels in the form of signals over a channel. One signal carries one or more bits over
the channel.
 Data transfer rate is the number of bits transmitted between source and destination in one
second.
 It is measured in terms of bits per second (bps).
Cookies

 Cookies are small piece of information website can store in your browser. For example: when
you sign into your online banking website, a cookie remembers your login information.
Cookies can be of two types:

 First Party Cookies: These are the cookies that stores your own login id, passwords, auto fill
information etc.

 Third Party Cookies: These are the cookies that websites store to know about your search
history and web browsing history so as to place advertisement as per your interest.

SWITCHING_TECHNIQUES

Switching

 In a network having multiple devices, we are interested to know how to connect the sender
and receiver so that one-to-one communication is possible. One solution is to make a
dedicated connection between each pair of devices (mesh topology) or between a central
device and every other device (a star topology). However, we know that such methods are
costly in case of large networks.

 An alternative to this is switching whereby data is routed through various nodes in a

network. This switching process forms a temporary route for the data to be transmitted.

 Switching Techniques are mechanisms for transferring/moving data from one network
segment to another.

 There are three typical switching techniques :

1 - Circuit Switching
2 - Message Switching
3 - Packet Switching

Circuit Switching

 In circuit switching, to transfer data circuit must be established so that the data transfer can
take place. i.e. when two nodes communicates with each other over a dedicated
communication path, it is called circuit switching.

 Circuits can be permanent or temporary. Applications which use circuit switching may have
to go through three phases:
(i) Establish a circuit
(ii)Transfer of data
(iii)Disconnect the circuit

 Circuit switching was designed for voice applications. Telephone call is the best suitable
example of circuit switching. Before a user can make a call, a path that connects the caller's
telephone to the receiver's telephone is established by making a connection.
Message Switching

 In message switching, there is no need to establish a dedicated path between two stations.

 A switch working on message switching, first receives the whole message and buffers it until
there are resources available to transfer it to the next hop. If the next hop is not having
enough resource to accommodate large size message, the message is stored and switch
waits.

 When a station sends a message, the destination address is appended to the message. The
message is then transmitted through the network, from node to node. Each node receives
the entire message, stores it, and then transmits the message to the next node.

 This type of network is called a store-and-forward network. Message switching is replaced

by packet switching. Message switching has some drawbacks:

 Every switch in transit path needs enough storage to accommodate entire message.

 Because of store-and-forward technique and waits included until resources available,

message switching is very slow.

Packet Switching

 Message switching is replaced by packet switching.

 In packet switching, each information or message to be transmitted between sender and

receiver is broken down into smaller pieces, called packets. These packets are then
transmitted independently through the network.

 Different packets of the same message may take different routes depending on availability.

 Each packet has two parts — a header containing the address of the destination and other
information, and the main message part.
 When all the packets reach the destination, they are reassembled and the complete message
is received by the receiver.

 Now it is easier for intermediate networking devices to store smaller size packets

 Improve performance as the access time is reduced.

 Throughout of network is improved.

NETWORK PROTOCOLS

A protocol is a set of rules(software), which the computers use to communicate with each other
across the network. It is a communication system that allows computers around the world to
communicate and to exchange data with each other.

The following protocol are commonly used:

(i) HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
(ii) HTTPs Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure
(iii) TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
(iv) FTP File Transfer Protocol
(v) POP Post Office Protocol
(vi) SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
(vii) VoIP Voice Over Internet Protocol
(viii) PPP Point to Point Protocol

HTTP

 HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol.

 HTTP is designed for transferring a hypertext (i.e. text, image, graphics etc) among two or
more systems.

 When a user select a hypertext link, client computer uses HTTP to contact the server, and ask
the server to response with action. The server accepts the request, and then uses HTTP
protocol to perform action.

 HTTP consist of two parts:- (i) set of request from browsers to server (ii) set of responses
going back to other way.

HTTPs

 HTTPs stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol(secure). Here ‘s’ stands for ‘Secure’ or
‘Security’. HTTPs is the secure version of HTTP.

 It is used to encrypt all the communication between the client browser(request) and the web
server(response).

 HTTP and HTTPs both are used for transferring data between the client browser (request)
and the web server (response), but in case of HTTPs the transferring of data is done in an
encrypted format.
 It is often used to protect highly confidential online transaction like online banking or online
shopping etc.

TCP/IP

 TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.

 In TCP/IP two protocol TCP and IP work together.

 TCP:- It is a popular communication protocol which is used for communicating over a

network. It divides any message into series of packets that are sent from source to
destination and there it gets reassembled at the destination.
  IP:- It is designed explicitly as addressing protocol. It is mostly used with TCP. The IP
addresses in packets help in routing them through different nodes in a network until it
reaches the destination system.

 So we can say that TCP is responsible for breaking and assembling the data while IP is
responsible for sending the data/packets to the correct destination.

FTP

 FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It is used to transfer computer files between client and
server on internet. Types of files may include program files, multimedia files, text files, and
documents, etc.

 FTP is most commonly used to download a file from server using internet or to upload a file
to a server.

 FTP is the simplest and most secure way to exchange files over the internet. The main
objectives of FTP are:

1. Transmitting and sharing the files(computer programs/data).

2. Indirect or implicit use of remote computers.

3. To transfer data reliably and efficiently.

4. It uses TCP/IP protocols to enable data transfer.

POP

 It stands for Post Office Protocol. It is designed for receiving incoming E-mails.

 It extracts and retrieve the emails from the mail server.

 The third version of this protocol POP 3 is commonly used in most email client/server
communication architecture.

 POP 3 allows you to download email messages on your local computer and read them even
when you are offline.

 When you use POP 3 to connect to your email account, emails are downloaded locally and
removed from the email server. This means that if you access your account from multiple
locations, that may not be the best option for you. On the other hand, if you use POP 3 , your
messages are stored on your local computer, which reduces the space your email account
uses on your web server.

SMTP

 SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.

 It is used for sending email messages to mail server. It only handle outgoing messages not
incoming messages.

 SMTP does not create messages, rather it helps in forwarding messages between client and
servers. It uses TCP to send messages to another host.

 SMTP is used two times- between the sender and the sender’s mail server and between the
two mail servers.
VoIP

 VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. For transferring the voice , VoIP protocol is
used.

 It is a technology that allows us to make voice calls using a broadband Internet connection
instead of a regular (or analog) phone line.

 VoIP services convert our voice into a digital signal that travels over the Internet. If we are
calling a regular phone number, the signal is converted to a regular telephone signal i.e. an
analog signal before it reaches the destination.

 VoIP can allow you to make a call directly from a computer having a special VoIP phone, or a
traditional phone connected to a special adapter. Wireless hot spots in locations such as
airports, hospitals, cafes etc allow you to connect to the Internet and can enable you to use
VoIP service wirelessly.

 A high-speed Internet connection is required for better VoIP services.

PPP

 This protocol defines how two devices will authenticate each other and establish a direct link
between them to exchange data.
 This protocol maintains data integrity ensuring that the packets arrive in order. It intimates
the sender about damage or lost packets and asks to resend it
 h apter
C
10 Computer Networks

“Hoaxes use weaknesses in human

behavior to ensure they are replicated and
distributed. In other words, hoaxes prey on
the Human Operating System.”

— Stewart Kirkpatrick

In this Chapter
»» Introduction to Computer
Networks
»» Evolution of Networking 10.1 Introduction to Computer Networks
»» Types of Networks
We are living in a connected world. Information
»» Network Devices is being produced, exchanged, and traced across
»» Networking Topologies the globe in real time. It's possible as almost
»» Identifying Nodes everyone and everything in the digital world is
in a Networked interconnected through one way or the other.
Communication
»» Internet, Web and the
Internet of Things
»» Domain Name System

Figure 10.1: Interconnection forming a social network

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 Activity 10.1 A group of two or more similar things or people
Identify some other interconnected with each other is called network (Figure
networks in the 10.1). Some of the examples of network in our everyday
real world. life includes:
• Social network
• Mobile network
• Network of computers
• Airlines, railway, banks, hospitals networks
A computer network (Figure 10.2) is an interconnection
among two or more computers or computing devices.
Such interconnection allows computers to share data
and resources among each other. A basic network may
connect a few computers placed in a room.
The network size may vary from small to large
depending on the number of computers it connects.
A computer network can include different types of
hosts (also called nodes) like server, desktop, laptop,
cellular phones.

Networking
Device

Figure 10.2: A computer network

Apart from computers, networks include networking
devices like switch, router, modem, etc. Networking
devices are used to connect multiple computers in
different settings. For communication, data in a network
is divided into smaller chunks called packets. These
packets are then carried over a network. Devices in a
network can be connected either through wired media
like cables or wireless media like air.
In a communication network, each device that is a
part of a network and that can receive, create, store
or send data to different network routes is called a
node. In the context of data communication, a node
can be a device such as a modem, hub, bridge, switch,
router, digital telephone handset, a printer, a computer
or a server.

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 Interconnectivity of computing devices in a network Activity 10.2
allows us to exchange information simultaneously with Create a hotspot using
many parties through email, websites, audio/video a smartphone and
calls, etc. Network allows sharing of resources. For connect other
example, a printer can be made available to multiple devices to it.
computers through a network; a networked storage
can be accessed by multiple computers. People often
connect their devices through hotspot, thus forming a
small personal network.

10.2 Evolution of Networking

In the 1960s a research project was commissioned by
Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET)
in the U.S. Department of Defence to connect the
academic and research institutions located at different
places for scientific collaborations. The first message was
communicated between the University of California, Los
Angeles (UCLA) and Stanford Research Institute (SRI).
Slowly but gradually, more and more organisations
joined the ARPANET, and many independent smaller
networks were formed. Few of the milestones in the
magnificent journey of evolution of computer networks
is depicted in the timeline shown in Figure 10.3.
The idea of Advanced First version of Wi-fi
Research Project Agency TCP/IP introduced as (802.11) standard was
Network (ARPANET) is standard protocol on introduced
conceptualized ARPANET National Science
Roy Tomlinson develops Foundation brings
network messaging or connectivity to more
E-mail. Symbol @ people with its NSFNET
comes to mean "at" program
1961 1997
1982
1971 1986

1969 1983
1990
1974 Domain Name System
ARPANET became introduced
functional by
connecting UCLA and
SRI
The term Internet was The Berners-Lee at
coined, CERN developed HTML
and URL, thus giving
First commercial use of birth to World Wide Web
ARPANET, was started (www)
in the name of Telenet

Figure 10.3: Timeline showing evolution of networking

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 Notes 10.3 Types of Networks
There are various types of computer networks ranging
from network of handheld devices (like mobile phones
or tablets) connected through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth within
a single room to the millions of computers spread across
the globe. Some are connected wireless while others are
connected through wires.
Based on the geographical area covered and data
transfer rate, computer networks are broadly categorised
as:
• PAN ( Personal Area Network)
• LAN (Local Area Network)
• MAN (Metropolitan Area Network)
• WAN (Wide Area Network)

10.3.1 Personal Area Network (PAN)

It is a network formed by connecting a few personal
devices like computers, laptops, mobile phones, smart
phones, printers etc., as shown in Figure 10.4. All these
devices lie within an approximate range of 10 metres.
A personal area network may be wired or wireless.
For example, a mobile phone connected to the laptop
through USB forms a wired PAN while two smartphones
communicating with each other through Bluetooth
technology form a wireless PAN or WPAN.

Figure 10.4: A Personal Area Network

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 10.3.2 Local Area Network (LAN)
It is a network that connects computers, mobile phones, Explore and find out
tablet, mouse, printer, etc., placed at a limited distance. the minimum internet
The geographical area covered by a LAN can range from speed required to
a single room, a floor, an office having one or more make a video call.
buildings in the same premise, laboratory, a school,
college, or university campus. The connectivity is done
by means of wires, Ethernet cables, fibre optics, or Wi-Fi.
A Local Area Network (LAN) is shown in Figure 10.5.

Figure 10.5: A Local Area Network

LAN is comparatively secure as only authentic

users in the network can access other computers or
shared resources. Users can print documents using
a connected printer, upload/download documents
and software to and from the local server. Such LANs
provide the short range communication with the high
speed data transfer rates. These types of networks can
be extended up to 1 km. Data transfer in LAN is quite
high, and usually varies from 10 Mbps (called Ethernet)
to 1000 Mbps (called Gigabit Ethernet), where Mbps
stands for Megabits per second. Ethernet is a set of rules
that decides how computers and other devices connect
with each other through cables in a local area network
or LAN.
10.3.3 Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) is an extended form of
LAN which covers a larger geographical area like a city or
a town. Data transfer rate in MAN also ranges in Mbps,

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 but it is considerably less as compared to LAN. Cable TV
network or cable based broadband internet services are
examples of MAN. This kind of network can be extended
up to 30-40 km. Sometimes, many LANs are connected
together to form MAN, as shown in Figure 10.6.

LAN 1

Networking LAN 3
Device

LAN 2

Figure 10.6: A Metropolitan Area Network

10.3.4 Wide Area Network (WAN)

Wide Area Network connects computers and other
It is possible to access LANs and MANs, which are spread across different
your bank account geographical locations of a country or in different
from any part of the countries or continents. A WAN could be formed
world. Whether the by connecting a LAN to other LANs (Figure 10.7) via
bank’s network is a wired/wireless media. Large business, educational
LAN, MAN, WAN or
any other type? and government organisations connect their different
branches in different locations across the world through
WAN. The Internet is the largest WAN that connects
billions of computers, smartphones and millions of
LANs from different continents.

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 Network User Network User
Network User Network User

Network Switch Network Switch

Network User Network User
Internet

Network User Network User Network User Network User

LAN 1 - Delhi LAN 1 - Shimla

Figure 10.7: A Wide Area Network

10.4 Network Devices

To communicate data through different transmission
media and to configure networks with different
functionality, we require different devices like Modem,
Hub, Switch, Repeater, Router, Gateway, etc. Let us
explore them in detail.
10.4.1 Modem
Modem stands for ‘MOdulator DEModulator’. It refers to
a device used for conversion between analog signals and
digital bits. We know computers store and process data
in terms of 0s and 1s. However, to transmit data from
a sender to a receiver, or while browsing the internet,
digital data are converted to an analog signal and the
medium (be it free-space or a physical media) carries
the signal to the receiver. There are modems connected
to both the source and destination nodes. The modem
at the sender’s end acts as a modulator that converts
the digital data into analog signals. The modem at the
receiver’s end acts as a demodulator that converts
the analog signals into digital data for the destination
node to understand. Figure 10.8 shows connectivity
using a modem.

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 Analog Signal
Modulation Demodulation
Digital Signal Demodulation Modulation Digital Signal

Telephone Line
Modem Modem

Figure 10.8: Use of modem

10.4.2 Ethernet Card
Ethernet card, also known as Network Interface Card
(NIC card in short) is a network adapter used to set
up a wired network.
It acts as an interface
between computer and
the network. It is a circuit
board mounted on the
motherboard of a computer
as shown in Figure
10.9. The Ethernet cable
connects the computer to
the network through NIC.
Ethernet cards can support
data transfer between 10
Mbps and 1 Gbps (1000
Mbps). Each NIC has a
MAC address, which helps
in uniquely identifying the
computer on the network.
Figure 10.9: A Network Interface Card

10.4.3 RJ45
RJ 45 or Registered Jack-45 is an
eight-pin connector (Figure 10.10)
that is used exclusively with
Ethernet cables for networking.
It is a standard networking
interface that can be seen at
the end of all network cables.
Basically, it is a small plastic plug
that fits into RJ-45 jacks of the
Ethernet cards present in various
Figure 10.10: RJ 45
computing devices.

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 10.4.4 Repeater
Data are carried in the form of signals over the cable.
These signals can travel a specified distance (usually
about 100 m). Signals lose their strength beyond this
limit and become weak. In such conditions, original An Internet service
signals need to be regenerated. provider (ISP) is any
organisation that
A repeater is an analog device that works with signals
provides services
on the cables to which it is connected. The weakened for accessing the
signal appearing on the cable is regenerated and put Internet.
back on the cable by a repeater.
10.4.5 Hub
An Ethernet hub (Figure 10.11) is a network device used
to connect different devices through wires. Data arriving
on any of the lines are sent out on all the others. The
limitation of Hub is that if data from two devices come
at the same time, they will collide.

Activity 10.3
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Find and list a
few ISPs in your
region.

Figure 10.11: A network hub with 8 ports

10.4.5 Switch
A switch is a networking device (Figure 10.12) that
plays a central role in a Local Area Network (LAN). Like
a hub, a network switch is used to connect multiple
computers or communicating devices. When data
arrives, the switch extracts the
destination address from the data
packet and looks it up in a table to
see where to send the packet. Thus,
it sends signals to only selected
devices instead of sending to all.
It can forward multiple packets at
the same time. A switch does not
forward the signals which are noisy
or corrupted. It drops such signals
and asks the sender to resend it. Figure 10.12: Cables connected to a network switch

Ethernet switches are common in homes/offices

to connect multiple devices thus creating LANs or to
access the Internet.

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 Notes 10.4.6 Router
A router (Figure 10.13) is a network device that can
receive the data, analyse it and transmit it to other
networks. A router connects a local area network to the
internet. Compared to a hub or a switch, a router has
advanced capabilities as it can analyse the data being
carried over a network, decide/alter how it is packaged,
and send it to another network of a different type. For
example, data has been divided into packets of a certain
size. Suppose these packets are to be carried over a
different type of network which cannot handle bigger
packets. In such a case, the data is to be repackaged
as smaller packets and then sent over the network by
a router.

Figure 10.13: A router

A router can be wired or wireless. A wireless router
can provide Wi-Fi access to smartphones and other
devices. Usually, such routers also contain some ports
to provide wired Internet access. These days, home Wi-Fi
routers perform the dual task of a router and a modem/
switch. These routers connect to incoming broadband
lines, from ISP (Internet Service Provider), and convert
them to digital data for computing devices to process.
10.4.7 Gateway
As the term “Gateway” suggests, it is a key access point
that acts as a “gate” between an organisation's network
and the outside world of the Internet (Figure 10.14).
Gateway serves as the entry and exit point of a network,
as all data coming in or going out of a network must
first pass through the gateway in order to use routing
paths. Besides routing data packets, gateways also
maintain information about the host network's internal
connection paths and the identified paths of other
remote networks. If a node from one network wants to
communicate with a node of a foreign network, it will

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 pass the data packet to the gateway, which then routes
it to the destination using the best possible route.

[Link]/8 Server GATEWAY Server [Link]/8

IP ADDRESS IP ADDRESS

PC 4 PC 5 PC 4 PC 5

PC 1 PC 2 PC 3 PC 1 PC 2 PC 3

Figure 10.14: A network gateway

For simple Internet connectivity at homes, the

gateway is usually the Internet Service Provider that
provides access to the entire Internet. Generally, a
router is configured to work as a gateway device
in computer networks. But a gateway can be
implemented completely in software, hardware, or
a combination of both. Because a network gateway
is placed at the edge of a network, the firewall is
usually integrated with it.

10.5 Networking Topologies

We have already discussed that a number of computing
devices are connected together to form a Local Area
Network (LAN), and interconnections among millions of
LANs forms the Internet. The arrangement of computers
and other peripherals in a network is called its topology.
Common network topologies are Mesh, Ring, Bus, Star
and Tree.

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 10.5.1 Mesh Topology
In this networking topology, each communicating
device is connected with every other device in the
network as shown in Figure 10.15. Such a network can
handle large amounts of traffic since multiple nodes
can transmit data simultaneously. Also, such networks
are more reliable in the sense that even if a node gets
down, it does not cause any break in the transmission
of data between other nodes. This topology is also
more secure as compared to other topologies because
each cable between two nodes carries different data.
However, wiring is complex and cabling cost is high in
creating such networks and there are many redundant
or unutilised connections.

Figure 10.15: A mesh topology

To build a fully-
10.5.2 Ring Topology
connected mesh
topology of n nodes, In ring topology (Figure 10.16), each node is connected
it requires n(n-1)/2 to two other devices, one each on either side, as shown
wires. in Figure 10.16. The nodes connected with each
other thus forms a ring. The link in a ring topology is
unidirectional. Thus, data can be transmitted in one
direction only (clockwise or counterclockwise).

Figure 10.16: A ring topology

10.5.3 Bus Topology

In bus topology (Figure 10.17), each communicating
device connects to a transmission medium, known as
bus. Data sent from a node are passed on to the bus
and hence are transmitted to the length of the bus in
both directions. That means, data can be received by
any of the nodes connected to the bus.

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 Bus

Figure 10.17: A bus topology

In this topology, a single backbone wire called bus is
shared among the nodes, which makes it cheaper and
easier to maintain. Both ring and bus topologies are
considered to be less secure and less reliable.
10.5.4 Star Topology
In star topology (Figure 10.18), each communicating
How will a Bus and
device is connected to a central node, which is a Ring topology behave
networking device like a hub or a switch, as shown in in case a Node is
Figure 10.18. down?
Star topology is considered very effective, efficient
and fast as each device is directly connected with the
central device. Although disturbance in one device will
not affect the rest of the network, any failure in a central
networking device may lead to the failure of complete
network.

Figure 10.18: A star topology

The central node can be either a broadcasting device

means data will be transmitted to all the nodes in the
network, or a unicast device means the node can identify
the destination and forward data to that node only.
10.5.5 Tree or Hybrid Topology
It is a hierarchical topology, in which there are multiple
branches and each branch can have one or more basic
topologies like star, ring and bus. Such topologies are
usually realised in WANs where multiple LANs are
connected. Those LANs may be in the form of a ring,
bus or star. In figure 10.19, a hybrid topology is shown
connecting 4-star topologies in a bus.
In this type of network, data transmitted from source
first reaches the centralised device and from there the
data passes through every branch where each branch
can have links for more nodes.

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 Figure 10.19: A hybrid topology

10.6 Identifying Nodes in a Networked

Communication
Each node in a network should be uniquely identified
so that a network device can identify the sender and
receiver and decide a routing path to transmit data.
Let us explore further and know how each node is
distinguished in a network.
10.6.1 MAC Address
MAC stands for Media Access Control. The MAC address,
also known as the physical or hardware address, is a
unique value associated with a network adapter called
a NIC. The MAC address is engraved on NIC at the time
of manufacturing and thus it is a permanent address
and cannot be changed under any circumstances. The
machine on which the NIC is attached, can be physically
identified on the network using its MAC address.
Each MAC address is a 12-digit hexadecimal numbers
(48 bits in length), of which the first six digits (24 bits)
contain the manufacturer’s ID called Organisational
Unique Identifier (OUI) and the later six digits (24 bits)
represents the serial number assigned to the card by
the manufacturer. A sample MAC address looks like:

Activity 10.4
Explore how can you
find the MAC 10.6.2 IP Address
address of your
computer
IP address, also known as Internet Protocol address,
system. is also a unique address that can be used to uniquely
identify each node in a network. The IP addresses

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 are assigned to each node in a network that uses the
Internet Protocol for communication. Thus, if we know Do mobile phones
a computer’s IP address, we can communicate with have a MAC address?
that computer from anywhere in the world. However, Is it different from
unlike MAC address, IP address can change if a node the IMEI number of
mobile phones?
is removed from one network and connected to another
network.
The initial IP Address called version 4 (IPV4 in short),
is a 32 bit numeric address, written as four numbers
separated by periods, where each number is the decimal
(base-10) representation for an 8-bit binary (base-2)
number and each can take any value from 0 - 255. A
sample IPV4 address looks like:
192:168:0:178
With more and more devices getting connected to
the Internet, it was realised that the 32-bit IP address
will not be sufficient as it offers just under 4.3 billion
unique addresses. Thus, a 128 bits IP address, called IP
version 6 (IPV6 in short) was proposed. An IPv6 address
is represented by eight groups of hexadecimal (base-16)
numbers separated by colons. A sample IPV6 address
looks like:
2001:CDBA:0000:0000:0000:0000:3257:9652

10.7 Internet, Web and the Internet of Things

The Internet is the global network of computing devices
including desktop, laptop, servers, tablets, mobile
phones, other handheld devices, printers, scanners,
routers, switches, gateways, etc. Moreover, smart
electronic appliances like TV, AC, refrigerator, fan, light,
etc. can also communicate through a network. The list
of such smart devices is always increasing e.g., drones,
vehicles, door lock, security camera. We have already
studied IoT and WoT in class 11.
The Internet is evolving every day and it is difficult
to visualise or describe each and every aspect of the
architecture of the Internet. Computers are either
connected to a modem through a cable or wirelessly (Wi-
Fi). That modem, be it wired or wireless, is connected to
a local Internet Service Provider (ISP) who then connects
to a national network. Many such ISPs connect together
forming a regional network and regional networks
connect together forming a national network, and such
country-wise networks form the Internet backbone.

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 The Internet today is a widespread network, and its
influence is no longer limited to the technical fields of
computer communications. It is being used by everyone
in the society as is evident from the increasing use of
online tools for education, creativity, entertainment,
You are encouraged socialisation, and e-commerce.
to take up any area
of concern where 10.7.1 The World Wide Web (WWW)
you think IoT can be The World Wide Web (WWW) or web in short, is an
immensely beneficial ocean of information, stored in the form of trillions
and discuss it with
your peers. An of interlinked web pages and web resources. The
example for the same resources on the web can be shared or accessed
can be preventing through the Internet.
road accidents.
Earlier, to access files residing in different
computers, one had to login individually to each
computer through the Internet. Besides, files in
different computers were sometimes in different
formats, and it was difficult to understand each other’s
files and documents. Sir Tim Berners-Lee — a British
computer scientist invented the revolutionary World
Wide Web in 1990 by defining three fundamental
technologies that lead to creation of web:
• HTML – HyperText Markup Language. It is a language
which is used to design standardised Web Pages so
that the Web contents can be read and understood
from any computer. Basic structure of every webpage
is designed using HTML.
• URI – Uniform Resource Identifier. It is a unique
address or path for each resource located on the
web. It is also known as Uniform Resource Locator
(URL). Every page on the web has a unique URL.
Examples are: [Link]
[Link],[Link] etc. URL
is sometimes also called web address. However,
a URL is not only the domain name. It contains
other information that completes a web address,
as depicted below:
Domain Name

[Link]
URL

• HTTP – The HyperText Transfer Protocol is a set of

rules which is used to retrieve linked web pages
across the web. The more secure and advanced
version is HTTPS.

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 Many people confuse the web with the Internet. Notes
The Internet as we know is the huge global network
of interconnected computers, which may or may not
have any file or webpage to share with the world. The
web on the other hand is the interlinking of collection
of Webpages on these computers which are accessible
over the Internet. WWW today gives users access to a
vast collection of information created and shared by
people across the world. It is today the most popular
information retrieval system

10.8 Domain Name System

The Internet is a vast ocean where information is
available in the form of millions of websites. Each website
is stored on a server which is connected to the Internet,
which means each server has an IP address. Every
device connected to the Internet has an IP address. To
access a website, we need to enter its IP address on our
web browser. But it is very difficult to remember the IP
addresses of different websites as they are in terms of
numbers or strings.
However, it is easier to remember names, and
therefore, each computer server hosting a website or
web resource is given a name against its IP address.
These names are called the Domain names or hostnames
corresponding to unique IP addresses assigned to each
server. For easy understanding, it can be considered
as the phonebook where instead of remembering each
person’s phone number, we assign names to their
numbers. For example, IP addresses and domain names
of some websites are as follows:
Table 10.1 Examples of domain names and their
mapped IP addresses
Domain Name IP Address
[Link] [Link]
[Link] [Link]
[Link] [Link]

[Link] [Link]

10.8.1 DNS Server

Instead of remembering IP addresses, we assign a
domain name to each IP. But, to access a web resource,
a browser needs to find out the IP address corresponding
to the domain name entered. Conversion of the domain

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 name of each web server to its corresponding IP address
is called domain name resolution. It is done through
a server called DNS server. Thus, when we enter a
URL on a web browser, the HTTP protocol approaches
a computer server called DNS server to obtain the IP
address corresponding to that domain name. After
getting the IP address, the HTTP protocol retrieves the
information and loads it in our browser.
In Figure 10.20, an example is shown in which the
HTTP requests a DNS server for corresponding IP addss,
and the server sends back an IP address.
DNS root servers
User
are named using
alphabets A through
M for the first
13 letters of the
alphabet. Ten of [Link]
these servers are HTTP in DNS
Browser [Link] Server
in the US, one in
London, one in
Stockholm, and
one in Japan.
The organisation
Figure 10.20: Request of IP address corresponding to domain name
Internet Assigned
Numbers Authority A DNS server maintains a database of domain names
(IANA) keeps this
list of DNS root and their corresponding IP addresses. To understand
servers. how the domain name resolution works, we have to
understand how and where the DNS servers are kept.
The DNS servers are placed in hierarchical order. At
the top level, there are 13 servers called root servers.
Then below the root servers there are other DNS servers
at different levels. A DNS server may contain the IP
address corresponding to a domain or it will contain
the IP address of other DNS servers, where this domain
entry can be searched.

Summary
• A computer network is an interconnection among
two or more computers or computing devices.
• A computer network allows computers to share
data and resources among each other.
• Networking devices are used to connect multiple
computers in different settings.

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 Notes
• In a communication network, each device that is
a part of a network and that can receive, create,
store or send data to different network routes is
called a node.
• Based on the geographical area covered and data
transfer rate, computer networks are broadly
categorised into LAN (Local Area Network), MAN
(Metropolitan Area Network) and WAN (Wide Area
Network).
• LAN is a network that connects a variety of nodes
placed at a limited distance ranging from a single
room, a floor, an office or a campus having one or
more buildings in the same premises.
• Ethernet is a set of rules that decides how
computers and other devices connect with each
other through cables in a LAN.
• Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) is an extended
form of LAN which covers a larger geographical
area like a city or a town.
• Cable TV network or cable based broadband
internet services are examples of MAN.
• Wide Area Network (WAN) connects computers
and other LANs and MANs, which are spread
across different geographical locations of a
country or in different countries or continents.
• The Internet is the largest WAN that connects
billions of computers, smartphones and millions
of LANs from different continents.
• Modem stands for ‘MOdulator DEModulator’,
is a device used for conversion between electric
signals and digital bits.
• Ethernet card, also known as Network Interface
Card (NIC card in short) is a network adaptor
used to set up a wired network.
• Each NIC has a MAC address, which helps in
uniquely identifying the computer on the network.
• A repeater is an analog device that regenerate the
signals on the cables to which it is connected.
• A switch is a networking device used to connect
multiple computers or communicating devices.
• A router is a network device that can receive the
data, analyse it and transmit it to other networks.

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 Notes • Gateway serves as the entry and exit point of a
network, as all data coming in or going out of a
network must first pass through the gateway in
order to use routing paths.
• The arrangement of computers and other
peripherals in a network is called its topology.
• Common network topologies are Mesh, Ring, Bus,
Star and Tree.
• In mesh topology each communicating device is
connected with every other device in the network.
• In ring topology, each node is connected to two
other devices, one each on either side.
• In bus topology, a single backbone wire called
bus is shared among the nodes, which makes it
cheaper and easy to maintain.
• In star topology, each communicating device is
connected to a central networking device like a
hub or a switch.
• In tree or hybrid topology, there are multiple
branches and each branch can have one or more
basic topologies like star, ring and bus.
• The MAC address, also known as the physical or
hardware address, is a unique permanent value
associated with a network adapter called a NIC.
It is used to physically identify a machine on the
network.
• IP address, also known as Internet Protocol
address, is a unique address that can be used to
uniquely identify each node in a network.
• Unlike MAC address, IP address can change if a
node is removed from one network and connected
to another network.
• The Internet is the global network of computing
devices.
• The World Wide Web (WWW) or web in short, is an
ocean of information, stored in the form of trillions
of interlinked web pages and web resources.
• Sir Tim Berners-Lee — a British computer
scientist invented the revolutionary World Wide
Web in 1990.
• HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a
language which is used to design standardised
Web Pages so that the Web contents can be read

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 and understood from any computer. Notes
• URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) or URL (Uniform
Resource Locator) is a unique address or path for
each resource located on the web.
• HTTP – The HyperText Transfer Protocol is a set of
rules which is used to retrieve linked web pages
across the web. The more secure and advanced
version is HTTPS.
• Each computer server hosting a website or web
resource is given a name against its IP address.
These names are called the Domain names or
hostnames.
• Conversion of the domain name of each web server
to its corresponding IP address is called domain
name resolution. It is done through a server called
DNS server.

Exercise
1. Expand the following:
a) ARPANET
b) MAC
c) ISP
d) URI
2. What do you understand by the term network?
3. Mention any two main advantages of using a network of
computing devices.
4. Differentiate between LAN and WAN.
5. Write down the names of few commonly used networking
devices.
6. Two universities in different States want to transfer
information. Which type of network they need to use for
this?
7. Define the term topology. What are the popular network
topologies?
8. How is tree topology different from bus topology?
9. Identify the type of topology from the following:
a) Each node is connected with the help of a single cable.
b) Each node is connected with central switching
through independent cables.

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 Notes 10. What do you mean by a modem? Why is it used?
11. Explain the following devices:
a) Switch
b) Repeater
c) Router
d) Gateway
e) NIC
12. Draw a network layout of star topology and bus
topology connecting five computers.
13. What is the significance of MAC address?
14. How is IP address different from MAC address?
Discuss briefly.
15. What is DNS? What is a DNS server?
16. Sahil, a class X student, has just started understanding
the basics of Internet and web technologies. He is a bit
confused in between the terms “World Wide Web” and
“Internet”. Help him in understanding both the terms
with the help of suitable examples of each.

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 h apter
C
11 Data Communication

“People already have bionic arms and legs that

work by the power of thought. And we increasingly
outsource mental and communicative activities to
computers. We are merging with our smartphones.
Very soon, they will just be part of the body”

— Yuval Noah Harari

In this Chapter
»» Concept of Communication
»» Components of Data
Communication 11.1 Concept of Communication
»» Measuring Capacity of The term “Data Communication” comprises two
Communication Media words: Data and Communication. Data can be
»» Types of Data any text, image, audio, video, and multimedia
Communication files. Communication is an act of sending or
»» Switching Techniques receiving data. Thus, data communication refers
»» Transmission Media to the exchange of data between two or more
networked or connected devices. These devices
»» Mobile Telecommunication
Technologies must be capable of sending and receiving data
over a communication medium. Examples of
»» Protocol
such devices include personal computers, mobile
phones, laptops, etc. As we can see in Figure
11.1, four different types of devices — computer,
printer, server and switch are connected to form
the network. These devices are connected through
a media to the network, which carry information
from one end to other end.

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 Central Server Sharing Printer
connected to Switch

Switch

Figure 11.1: A simple network of computing devices

11.2 Components of Data Communication

Whenever we talk about communication between
two computing devices using a network, five most
important aspects come to our mind. These are sender,
receiver, communication medium, the message to be
communicated, and certain rules called protocols to be
followed during communication. The communication
media is also called transmission media. Figure
11.2 shows the role of these five components in data
communication.

Sender

Activity 11.1 Transmission Receiver

List various types Media
of senders on a Figure 11.2: Components of data communication
network.
Sender: A sender is a computer or any such device
which is capable of sending data over a network. It
can be a computer, mobile phone, smartwatch, walkie-
talkie, video recording device, etc.
Receiver: A receiver is a computer or any such device
which is capable of receiving data from the network.
It can be any computer, printer, laptop, mobile phone,
television, etc. In computer communication, the sender
and receiver are known as nodes in a network.

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 Message: It is the data or information that needs to
be exchanged between the sender and the receiver.
Messages can be in the form of text, number, image,
audio, video, multimedia, etc.
Communication media: It is the path through which
the message travels between source and destination.
It is also called medium or link which is either wired
or wireless. For example, a television cable, telephone
cable, ethernet cable, satellite link, microwaves, etc.
We will study about various communication media in
section 11.5.
Protocols: It is a set of rules that need to be followed by
the communicating parties in order to have successful
and reliable data communication. You have already
come across protocols such as Ethernet and HTTP.

11.3 Measuring Capacity of Communication Media

In data communication, the transmission medium is
also known as channel. The capacity of a channel is the
maximum amount of signals or traffic that a channel
can carry. It is measured in terms of bandwidth and
data transfer rate as described below:
11.3.1 Bandwidth
Bandwidth of a channel is the range of frequencies
available for transmission of data through that channel. Activity 11.2
Higher the bandwidth, higher the data transfer rate.
Find out how
Normally, bandwidth is the difference of maximum and
many hertz is
minimum frequency contained in the composite signals. 10 Megahertz.
Bandwidth is measured in Hertz (Hz).
1 KHz =1000 Hz
1 MHz =1000 KHz = 1000000 Hz
11.3.2 Data Transfer Rate
Data travels in the form of signals over a channel. One
signal carries one or more bits over the channel. Data
MBps stands for
transfer rate is the number of bits transmitted between Megabyte per
source and destination in one second. It is also known second whereas
as bit rate. It is measured in terms of bits per second Mbps stands
(bps). The higher units for data transfer rates are: for Megabit per
second.
1 Kbps=210 bps=1024 bps
1 Mbps=220 bps=1024 Kbps
1 Gbps=230 bps=1024 Mbps
1 Tbps=240 bps=1024 Gbps

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 Notes Example 11.1 A user wants to upload a text document at
the rate of 10 pages per 20 second. What will be the required
data rate of the channel? (Assume that 1 page contains 1600
characters and each character is of 8 bits).

Solution:

11.4 Types of Data Communication

Data communication happens in the form of signals
between two or more computing devices or nodes.
The transfer of data happens over a point-to-point
or multipoint communication channel. Data
communication between different devices are broadly
categorised into 3 types: Simplex communication, Half-
duplex communication, and Full-duplex communication.
11.4.1 Simplex Communication
It is a one way or unidirectional communication between
two devices in which one device is sender and other one
is receiver. Devices use the entire capacity of the link
to transmit the data. It is like a one way street where
vehicles can move in only one direction. For example,
data entered through a keyboard or audio sent to a
speaker are one way communications.
With the advent of IoT, controlling home appliances
is another example of simplex communication as shown
in the Figure 11.3. One can control fans, lights, fridge,
oven etc. while sitting in the office or driving a car.

Simplex One Direction

Figure 11.3: Simplex communication

11.4.2 Half-duplex Communication

It is two way or bidirectional communication between two
devices in which both the devices can send and receive
data or control signals in both directions, but not at the
same time, as shown in Figure 11.4. While one device is
sending data, the other one will receive and vice-versa. It
is like sharing a one-way narrow bridge among vehicles

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 moving in both directions. Vehicles cannot pass the Notes
bridge simultaneously. Basically, it is a simplex channel
where the direction of transmission can be switched.
Application of such type of communication can be found
in walkie-talkie where one can press the push-to-talk
button and talk. This enables the transmitter and turns
off the receiver in that device and others can only listen.

OR

Figure 11.4: Half-duplex where communication occurs in two

different moments.

11.4.3 Full-duplex Communication

It is two way or bidirectional communication in which
both devices can send and receive data simultaneously,
as shown in Figure 11.5. It is like a two way road where
vehicles can go in both directions at the same time.
This type of communication channel is employed to
allow simultaneous communication, for example, in our
mobile phones and landline telephones. The capacity
of the transmission link is shared between the signals
going in both directions. This can be done either by
using two physically separate simplex lines — one for
sending and other for receiving, or the capacity of the
single channel is shared between the signals travelling
in different directions.

Both Directions

A B
Figure 11.5: Full duplex transmission of data

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 11.5 Switching Techniques
VoIP is a In a network having multiple devices, we are interested
communication to know how to connect the sender and receiver so that
methodology one-to-one communication is possible. One solution is
designed to to make a dedicated connection between each pair of
deliver both voice
devices (mesh topology) or between a central device and
and multimedia
communications every other device (a star topology). However, we know
over Internet that such methods are costly in case of large networks.
protocol.
An alternative to this is switching whereby data
is routed through various nodes in a network. This
switching process forms a temporary route for the
data to be transmitted. Two commonly used switching
techniques are — Circuit Switching and Packet
Switching.
11.5.1 Circuit Switching
Voice over Long- In circuit switching, before a communication starts,
Term Evolution a dedicated path is identified between the sender and
(VoLTE) is a the receiver. This path is a connected sequence of links
standard for high- between network nodes. All packets follow the same
speed wireless
communication path established during the connection.
for mobile phones, In earlier days, when we placed a telephone call, the
including IoT and switching equipment within the telephone system finds
wearables.
out a physical path or channel all the way from our
telephone at home to the receiver’s telephone. This is an
example of circuit switching.
11.5.2 Packet Switching
In packet switching, each information or message to
be transmitted between sender and receiver is broken
down into smaller pieces, called packets. These packets
are then transmitted independently through the
network. Different packets of the same message may
take different routes depending on availability.
Each packet has two parts — a header containing
the address of the destination and other information,
and the main message part. When all the packets reach
the destination, they are reassembled and the complete
message is received by the receiver.
Unlike circuit switching, a channel is occupied
in packet switching only during the transmission of
the packet. On completion of the transmission, the
channel is available for transfer of packets from other
communicating parties.

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 11.6 Transmission Media Notes
A transmission medium can be anything that can
carry signals or data between the source (transmitter)
and destination (receiver). For example, as we switch
on a ceiling fan or a light bulb, the electric wire is the
medium that carries electric current from switch to the
fan or bulb. Two men are talking as shown in Figure
11.6. Here the medium is air.

Figure 11.6: Two person communicating

In data communication, transmission media

are the links that carry messages between two or
more communicating devices. Transmission can be
classified as guided or unguided. Figure 11.7 shows the
classification of communication media.
In guided transmission, there is a physical link
made of wire/cable through which data in terms of
signals are propagated between the nodes. These are
usually metallic cable, fiber-optic cable, etc. They are
also known as wired media.
In unguided transmission, data travels in air in
terms of electromagnetic waves using an antenna. They
are also known as wireless media.

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 Communication
Media

Wired Wireless Media

(Electromagnetic
Media
waves)

Twisted Pair Fiber-Optic

Co-axial Cable Radio Waves Micro Waves Infrared Waves
Cable Cable

Figure 11.7: Classification of communication media

Dish-shaped antennas are used for sending and

receiving data at longer distances. These antennas are
mounted on taller buildings so that it would be in line-of-
sight. Waves gradually become weaker and weaker after
travelling a certain distance through the air. Therefore
repeaters are installed to regenerate the signals of the
same energy.
11.6.1 Wired Transmission Media
Any physical link that can carry data in the form of
signals belongs to the category of wired transmission
media. Three commonly used guided/wired media for
data transmission are, twisted pair, coaxial cable, and
fiber optic cable. Twisted-pair and coaxial cable carry
the electric signals whereas the optical fiber cable
carries the light signals.
(A) Twisted Pair Cable
A twisted-pair consists of two copper wires twisted like
a DNA helical structure. Both the copper wires are
insulated with plastic covers. Usually, a number of
such pairs are combined together and covered with a
protective outer wrapping, as shown in Figure 11.8.
Twisted Pair of Cables

Figure 11.8: Twisted pair of cables

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 Each of the twisted pairs act as a single communication
link. The use of twisted configuration minimises the
effect of electrical interference from similar pairs close
by. Twisted pairs are less expensive and most commonly
used in telephone lines and LANs. These cables are of
two types: Unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) and Shielded
twisted-pair (STP), as shown in Figure 11.9.

Metal Shield

(a) UTP (b)) STP

Plastic Cover Plastic Cover

Figure 11.9: UTP Cable and STP Cable

(B) Coaxial cable
Coaxial cable is another type of data transmission
medium. It is better shielded and has more bandwidth Backbone networks
than a twisted pair. As shown in Figure 11.10, it has a interconnect different
copper wire at the core of the cable which is surrounded segments of the
with insulating material. The insulator is further network and provide
a path to exchange
surrounded with an outer conductor (usually a copper information between
mesh). This outer conductor is wrapped in a plastic different LANs or
cover. The key to success of coaxial cable is its shielded subnetworks..
design that allows the cable's copper core to transmit
data quickly, without interference of environmental
factors. These types of cables are used to carry signals
of higher frequencies to a longer distance.
Braided
outer Conductor
Copper
Core

Protective Insulating
Plastic Covering Material

Figure 11.10: A coaxial cable

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 (C) Optical Fibre
The optical fiber cable carries data as light, which travels
The number of
oscillations a inside a thin fiber of glass (Figure 11.11). Optic fiber
wave makes per uses refraction to direct the light through the media. A
second is called its thin transparent strand of glass at the centre is covered
frequency, and it with a layer of less dense glass called cladding. This
is measured in Hz whole arrangement is covered with an outer jacket made
(Hertz).
of PVC or Teflon. Such types of cables are usually used
in backbone networks. These cables are of light weight
and have higher bandwidth which means higher data
transfer rate. Signals can travel longer distances and
electromagnetic noise cannot affect the cable. However,
optic fibers are expensive and unidirectional. Two cables
are required for full duplex communication.

Glass

Sender Receiver

Cladding of less
dense material
Figure 11.11: Fiber optic cable

Geostationary 11.6.2 Wireless Transmission Media

satellites orbiting
around the Earth In wireless communication technology, information
are used to In wireless communication technology, information
deliver broadband travels in the form of electromagnetic signals through
Internet service,
air. Electromagnetic spectrum of frequency ranging
similar to the way
satellite is used from 3 KHz to 900 THz is available for wireless
for television and communication (Figure 11.12). Wireless technologies
telephone signals. allow communication between two or more devices in
These satellites short to long distance without requiring any physical
use microwaves
media. There are many types of wireless communication
for communication
between a satellite technologies such as Bluetooth, WiFi, WiMax etc.
dish placed at our The electromagnetic spectrum range (3KHz to
home and the hub
900THz) can be divided into 4 categories (Figure 11.12) -
of satellite internet
service providers. Radio waves, Microwaves, Infrared waves and Visible or
Light waves, according to their frequency ranges. Some

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 of the properties of each wave are listed in Table 11.1.
Electromagnetic
of these, three are useful for Wave Spectrum
wireless communication.
3 1 300 400 900
KHz GHz GHz THz THz

Radio Microwaves Infrared Light

Waves Waves Waves
Figure 11.12: Electromagnetic waves spectrum
Table 11.1 Classification of transmission waves and their properties
Transmission
Properties
Waves
Radio Waves 1. Waves of frequency range 3 KHz - 1 GHz
2. Omni-directional, these waves can move in all directions
3. Radio waves of frequency 300KHz-30MHz can travel long distance
4. Susceptible to interference
5. Radio waves of frequency 3-300KHz can penetrate walls
6. These waves are used in AM and FM radio, television, cordless phones.

Microwaves 1. Electromagnetic waves of frequency range 1GHz - 300GHz.

2. Unidirectional, can move in only one direction.
3. Cannot penetrate solid objects such as walls, hills or mountains.
4. Needs line-of-sight propagation i.e. both communicating antenna must
be in the direction of each other.
5. Used in point-to-point communication or unicast communication such
as radar and satellite.
6. Provide very large information-carrying capacity.

Infrared waves 1. Electromagnetic waves of frequency range 300GHz - 400THz.

2. Very high frequency waves.
3. Cannot penetrate solid objects such as walls.
4. Used for short-distance point-to-point communication such as mobile-
to-mobile, mobile-to-printer, remote-control-to-TV, and Bluetooth-
enabled devices to other devices like mouse, keyboards etc.

11.6.3 Wireless Technologies

(A) Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology that can
be used to connect mobile-phones, mouse, headphones,
keyboards, computers, etc. wirelessly over a short
distance. One can print documents with bluetooth-

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 enabled printers without a physical connection. All these
bluetooth-enabled devices have a low cost transceiver
chip. This chip uses the unlicensed frequency band of
2.4 GHz to transmit and receive data. These devices can
send data within a range of 10 meters with a speed of
1 - 2 Mbps.
In Bluetooth technology, the communicating devices
within a range of 10 meters build a personal area
network called piconet. The devices in a piconet work
in a master-slave configuration. A master device can
communicate with up to 7 active slave devices at the
same time.
Bluetooth technology allows up to 255 devices to build
a network. Out of them, 8 devices can communicate at
the same time and remaining devices can be inactive,
waiting for a response command from the master device.
(B) Wireless LAN
This is another way of wireless communication. Wireless
LAN is a local area network (LAN), and it is a popular way
to connect to the Internet. The international organisation
IEEE assigns numbers to each different standards of
LAN. The wireless LAN is number as 802.11, and it is
popularly known as Wi-Fi.
These networks consist of communicating devices
such as laptops and mobile phones, as well as the
network device called APs (access points) which is
installed in buildings or floors (Figure 11.13). An access
point is a device that is used to create a wireless local
area network, by connecting to a wired router, switch,
or hub. The APs are
To wired network
connected to a wired
Access Point
network, and all the
devices communicate
or access the Internet
through an access
point.
Wi-Fi gives users
the flexibility to move
around within the
network area while
Smartphone being connected to the
Tablet
Laptop Desktop network. Following are
some of the benefits of
Figure 11.13: Access point creating a wireless LAN WLAN:

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 • Wireless connections can be used to extend or replace
an existing wired infrastructure
WiMax stands
• Resulted in increased access for mobile devices
for Worldwide
• Provides easy access to the Internet in public places Interoperability
for Microwave
11.7 Mobile Telecommunication Technologies Access. Like Wi-Fi,
it is also used for
Today the mobile phone network is the most used communication in
network in the world. The ability to be connected to wireless networks
but there is a
the network on-the-go makes it very convenient to
difference. Whereas
communicate with people via call or instant messages. Wi-Fi is used to
It is also handy to access the Internet using the mobile form small wireless
phone network through wireless connection. Besides, networks (WLANs),
the Internet of Things (IoT) is letting us control and WiMax uses a
larger spectrum to
communicate with other smart devices as well.
deliver connections
The architecture of the mobile network has rapidly to various devices
evolved over the last few decades. The different landmark on the network. It
has a higher data
achievements in mobile communication technologies are
transfer rate and
classified as different generations. They are identified can span over a
as 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G. Let us briefly discuss the larger area. That
mobile telecommunication generations. is why it is used in
MAN applications.
The first generation (1G) mobile network system came
around 1982. It was used to transmit only voice calls.
The analog signals were used to carry voices between
the caller and receiver.
The second generation (2G) mobile network system
came around 1991. Instead of analog signals, voice
calls were transmitted in digital form thus providing
improved call quality. This increased capacity allowed
more people to talk simultaneously, and led to improved
security as the signals could be encrypted. It also
enabled an additional service to send SMS and MMS
(Multimedia messages).
The third generation (3G) mobile network technology
was developed during late 90s, but it was introduced
commercially around 2001. It offered both digital voice
and data services. 3G provided Internet access via the
same radio towers that provide voice service to the mobile
phone. It facilitated greater voice and data capacity.
Therefore, more simultaneous calls could happen in
the same frequency range and also a significantly faster
data transfer speed.
Demand for faster data is always increasing and
thus 4G mobile networks were developed and now

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 5G networks have also come into being. 4G is much
Explore how 5G can faster than 3G and this has revolutionised the field of
impact society. telecommunication by bringing the wireless experience
to a new level altogether. 4G systems support interactive
multimedia, voice, video, wireless internet and other
broadband services. Technologically, 4G is very different
compared to 3G.
The fifth generation or 5G is currently under
development. It is expected to be a milestone development
for the success of IoT and Machine to Machine (M2M)
communications. Machine to machine (M2M) is direct
communication between devices — wired and wireless.
5G is expected to allow data transfer in Gbps, which is
much faster than 4G. It is expected to be able to support
all the devices of the future such as connected vehicles
and the Internet of Things.

11.8 Protocol
In communication, Protocol is a set of standard rules
that the communicating parties — the sender, the
receiver, and all other intermediate devices need
to follow. We know that the sender and receiver can
be parts of different networks, placed at different
geographic locations. Besides, the data transfer rates in
different networks can vary, requiring data to be sent in
different formats.
11.8.1 Need for Protocols
We need protocols for different reasons such as flow
control, access control, addressing, etc. Flow control is
required when the sender and receiver have different
speeds of sending and receiving the data. Figure 11.14
shows that Computer A is sending data at the speed
of 1024 Mbps and computer B is receiving data at the
speed of 512 Mbps. In this case, Computer B must be
able to inform computer A about the speed mismatch
so that computer A can adjust its data transmission
rate. Otherwise some data will be lost, as shown in
Figure 11.14.
Access control is required to decide which nodes in
a communication channel will access the link shared
among them at a particular instant of time. Otherwise,
the transmitted data packets will collide if computers
are sending data simultaneously through the same link
resulting in the loss or corruption of data.

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 A B

1024 Mbps 512 Mbps

Received Packets
Loss Packets
Figure 11.14: Speed mismatch between two computers can result into
loss of data

Protocols also define:

• how computers identify one another on a network.
• the form to which the data should be converted
for transit.
• how to decide whether the data received is for that
node or to be forwarded to another node.
• ensuring that all the data have reached the destination
without any loss.
• how to rearrange the packets and process them at
the destination.
If all the rules or protocols of a communication
network are defined at one place, it becomes complex to
ensure that communicating parties follow the guidelines.
In this section, we will briefly talk about some of the
protocols required in communication.
11.8.2 HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. It is
the primary protocol used to access the World Wide
Web. Tim Berners-Lee led the development of HTTP at
CERN in 1989 in collaboration with Internet Hypertext refers to
Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the World Wide a document that
Web Consortium (W3C). contains images
or text that can be
HTTP is a request-response (also called client- linked to another
server) protocol that runs over TCP. The common use document or text.
of HTTP is between a web browser (client) and a web
server (server). HTTP facilitates access of hypertext from
the World Wide Web by defining how information are
formatted and transmitted, and how the Web servers
and browsers should respond to various commands.

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 Notes A web page is written using a markup language like
HTML and is stored on a web server for access via its
URL. Once a user opens a web browser and types in the
URL of the intended web page, a logical communication
link between the user machine (client) and the web
server is created using HTTP.
For example, whenever we enter the URL http//
[Link] in a browser, it sends HTTP request
to the web-server where [Link] is hosted. The
HTTP response from the web-server fetches and
sends the requested Web-page, which is displayed on
your browser.
11.8.3 File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the protocol used for
transferring files from one machine to another. Like
HTTP, FTP also works on a client-server model.
When a user requests for a file transfer with another
system, FTP sets up a connection between the two
nodes for accessing the file. Optionally, the user can
authenticate using user ID and password. The user
then specifies the file name and location of the desired
file. After that, another connection sets up and the file
transfer happens directly between the two machines.
However, some servers provide FTP logins without
authentication for accessing files.
File transfer between two systems seems simple
and straightforward because FTP takes care of issues
between two communicating devices, such as:
• use of different conventions while naming files.
• representation of text and data in different formats.
• having different directory structure

11.8.4 Point to Point Protocol (PPP)

PPP is a communication protocol which establishes
a dedicated and direct connection between two
communicating devices. This protocol defines how two
devices will authenticate each other and establish a
direct link between them to exchange data. For example,
two routers with direct connection communicate using
PPP. The Internet users who connect their home
computers to the server of an Internet Service Provider
(ISP) through a modem also use PPP.
The communicating devices should have duplex
modes for using this protocol. This protocol maintains

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 data integrity ensuring that the packets arrive in order.
It intimates the sender about damage or lost packets
and asks to resend it.
11.8.5 Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
SMTP is a protocol used for email services. It uses
information written on the message header (like an
envelope on a letter sent by post), and is not concerned
with the content of the email message. Each email
header contains email addresses of recipients. The
email containing header and body are entered into a Activity 11.3
queue of outgoing mails. Find and list
The SMTP sender program takes mails from the other Email
Protocols.
outgoing queue and transmits them to the destination(s).
When the SMTP sender successfully delivers a
particular mail to one or more destinations, it removes
the corresponding receiver’s email address from the
mail’s destination list. When that mail is delivered to all
the recipients, it is removed from the outgoing queue.
The SMTP receiver program accepts each mail that has
arrived and places it in the appropriate user mailbox.

11.8.6 Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/

Internet Protocol (IP)
TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/
Internet Protocol. It is a set of standardised rules that
uses a client-server model of communication in which a
user or machine (a client) requests a service by a server
in the network.
The IP protocol ensures that each computer or node
connected to the Internet is assigned an IP address,
which is used to identify each node independently. It can
be considered to be the adhesive that holds the whole
Internet together. TCP ensures that the message or data
is broken into smaller chunks, called IP packets. Each
of these packets are routed (transmitted) through the
Internet, along a path from one router to the next, until
it reaches the specified destination. TCP guarantees the
delivery of packets on the designated IP address. It is
also responsible for ordering the packets so that they
are delivered in sequence.
There are many redundant connection paths in
the Internet, with backbones and ISPs connecting to
each other in multiple locations. So, there are many

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 Notes possible paths between two hosts. Hence, two packets
of the same message can take two different routes
depending on congestion and other factors in different
possible routes. When all the packets finally reach the
destination machine, they are reassembled into the
original message at the receiver’s end.

Summary
• Data communication refers to the exchange of
data between two or more networked or connected
devices like laptops, PC, printers, routers etc.
• Sender, receiver, messages, channel and protocols
are major components of data communication.
• In data communication, transmission media are
the links that carry messages between two or
more communicating devices. These are broadly
classified into guided and unguided media.
• In guided transmission, there is a physical link
made of wire/cable through which data in terms
of signals are propagated between the nodes.
These are usually metallic cable, fiber-optic cable,
etc. They are also known as wired media.
• In unguided transmission, data travels in air in
terms of electromagnetic waves using an antenna.
They are also known as wireless media.
• The capacity of channels is measured in
bandwidth. The unit of bandwidth is Hertz.
• Communication can be done in three different
modes — simplex, half-duplex, and full-duplex
communication.
• Switching techniques are alternative to dedicated
lines whereby data is routed through various
nodes in a network. It forms a temporary route
for the data to be transmitted. Two commonly
used switching techniques are – circuit switching
and packet switching.
• Electromagnetic spectrum of frequency ranging
from 3 KHz to 900 THz is available for wireless
communication. This spectrum range (3KHz to
900THz) can be divided into four categories- Radio

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 waves, Microwaves, Infrared waves and Visible or Notes
Light waves, according to their frequency ranges.
• Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology
that can be used to connect mobile-phones,
mouse, headphones, keyboards, computers, etc.
wirelessly over a short distance.
• Based on the architecture of the mobile network,
mobile communication technologies are classified
into different generations identified as 1G, 2G,
3G, 4G, and 5G.
• In communication, protocol is a set of standard
rules that the communicating parties — the
sender, the receiver, and all other intermediate
devices need to follow. Flow control, access
control, addressing, etc. are examples of protocol.
• HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. It
is the primary protocol used to access the World
Wide Web, which was developed by Tim Berners-
Lee at CERN in 1989.
• File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the protocol
used for transferring files from one machine to
another. Like HTTP, FTP also works on a client-
server model.
• Point-to-Point protocol (PPP) defines how two
devices will authenticate each other and establish
a direct link between them to exchange data.
• TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/
Internet Protocol. It is a set of standardised rules
that uses a client-server model of communication
in which a user or machine (a client) requests a
service by a server in the network.

Exercise
1. What is data communication? What are the main
components of data communication?
2. Which communication mode allows communication in
both directions simultaneously?
3. Among LAN, MAN, and WAN, which has the highest
speed and which one can cover the largest area?

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 Notes 4. What are three categories of wired media? Explain them.
5. Compare wired and wireless media.
6. Which transmission media carries signals in the form of
light?
7. List out the advantages and disadvantages of optical
fiber cable.
8. What is the range of frequency for radio waves?
9. 18 Gbps is equal to how many Bits per second?
10. HTTP stands for?
11. Write short note on the following:
a) HTTP
b) Bandwidth
c) Bluetooth
d) DNS
e) Data transfer rate
12. What is protocol in data communication? Explain with
an example.
13. A composite signal contains frequencies between 500
MHz and 1GHz. What is the bandwidth of a signal?

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1. The Career Ladder University is setting up it Academic Block at Newton’s Road and planning to set up a
network. The university has 3 academic blocks and one Human Resource Center as shown in the diagram:

Business Technology
School Park

LAW
School HR
Center

Distances between various blocks

Number Of Computers in each center
Law School to Business School 40 m
Law School 15
Law School to Technology Park 80 m
Technology Park 40
Law School to HR Center 105 m
HR Center 115
Business School to Technology Park 30 m
Business School 25
Business School to HR Center 35 m
Technology Park to HR Center 15 m
(i) Suggest a most suitable cable layout of connections between the blocks/school and Topology.
(ii) Suggest the most suitable place (i.e., School/park/center) to install the server of this university with a
suitable reason.
(iii) Suggest the placement of the network devices in each block to connect all the computers with in
these blocks.
(iv) The university is planning to connect its admission office in the closest big city, which is more than
250 KM from University, Suggest an economic way to connect it (LAN,MAN, WAN). Justify your
answer.

2. Indian School in Mumbai is starting up the network between its different wings. There are four buildings
named as SENIOR, JUNIOR, ADMIN and HOSTEL as shown below:

SENIOR ADMIN

JUNIOR HOSTEL

The distance between various buildings are as follows:

ADMIN TO SENIOR 200 m
ADMIN TO JUNIOR 150 m
ADMIN TO HOSTEL 50 m
SENIOR TO JUNIOR 250 m
SENIOR TO HOSTEL 350 m
JUNIOR TO HOSTEL 325 m
 Number of computers in each building are:
SENIOR 130
JUNIOR 80
ADMIN 160
HOSTEL 50
(i) Suggest the cable layout of connections between the buildings.
(ii) Suggest the most suitable place for server of this school. Justify your answer also.
(iii) Suggest the placement of the following devices with justification.
a. Repeater
b. Hub/Switch
(iv) The school also has inquiry office in another city about 50-60 km away in hill region. Suggest
the suitable transmission media to inter connect to school and inquiry office out of the
following:
a. Fibre Optic Cable
b. Microwave
c. Radiowave

3. Mega University of India is starting its first campus in Ana Nagar of South India with its center admission
office in Kolkata. The university has 3 major buildings comprising Academic Building, Research Building
and Admin Building in the 4 Km area campus.

Distance between various locations: Number of Computers in

Research Building to Admin Building 90 m Building/Office
Research Building to Academic Building 80 m Research Building 20
Academic Building to Admin Building 15 m
Delhi Admission Office to Parampur 1450 Km Academic Building 150
Campus Admin Building 35
Delhi Admission Office 5
(i). Suggest a most suitable cable layout amongst various buildings inside university campus for connecting
the buildings.
(ii). Suggest the most suitable place ([Link]) to install the server of this university with a suitable
reason.
(iii). Suggest an efficient network devices from the following in each block to connect all the computers
with in these blocks:
 (i) SWITCH (ii) GATEWAY (iii) REAPETER
(iv). Suggest the most suitable very high speed service to provide data connectivity between Admission
Office located in Delhi and campus located in Parampur from the following options:
 Co-axial cable Network
 Telephone Line
 Satellite connection
 Leased line

4. Lovely Professional University of India is starting its first campus in Ana Nagar of South India with its
center admission office in Kolkata. The university has 3 major blocks comprising Office Block, Science
Block and Commerce Block in the 5 KM area campus.

Distances between various blocks

Office Block to Commerce Block 70 m
Office Block to Science Block 80 m
Science Block to Commerce Block 25 m
Kolkata Admission Office to Ana Nagar Campus 2050 Km

Number Of Computers in each center

Office Block 20
Commerce Block 130
Science Block 40
Kolkata Admission Office 10
(i) Suggest a most suitable cable layout amongst various blocks inside university campus for connecting
the blocks.
(ii) Suggest the most suitable place ([Link]) to install the server of this university with a suitable reason.
(iii) Which hardware device will you suggest to be procured by the company to protect and control the
internet uses within the campus.
(iv) Which of the following will you suggest to establish the online face-to-face communication between
the people in the Admission office in Kolkata and Anna Nagar Campus.
 Email
 Text Chat
 Video Conferencing
 Cable TV
 ASSIGNMENT - III
SUBJECT: COMPUTER SCIENCE (083)
UNIT : II- Computer Networks
CLASS: XII

1 Which one is the fastest wired transmission media?

a. Optical Fiber b. Coaxial cable c. Twisted Pair cable d. None

2 Which of these components is internal to a computer and is required to connect the computer to a
network?
a. Hub b. Wireless Access Point c. Network Interface Card d. Switch

3 IPv4 address is ____

a. 8 bits b. 16 bits c. 32 bits d. 64 bits

4 In a network, a machine is identified by unique address called _________.

5 The _________ is a network device that connects dissimilar networks.
a. Switch b. Gateway c. Repeater d. Router

6 In which topology lots of cables are required.

a. Bus topology b. Ring topology c. Mesh topology d. Star topology
7 __________ describes the maximum data transfer rate of a network or Internet connection.
8 Network device that sends the data over optimizing paths through connected hope is____

a. Hub b. Router c. Bridge d. Gateway

9 _________ provides a connection oriented reliable service for sending message.
10 Name The transmission media best suitable for connecting to hilly areas.
11 How is WAN different from LAN? Explain.
12 Differentiate between Viruses and Worms in context of networking and data communication threats.
13 What does Cyber crime mean? Name any three types of Cyber crime.
14 How does HTTP different from HTTPs? Explain
15 In TCP/IP, what role is played by TCP and IP individually?
16 Categorise the following under guided media and unguided media.
(i) Bluetooth (ii) Ethernet (iii) Infrared (iv) Optical Fibre
17 Explain the difference between IP address and URL with example.
18 Why do we use switch? Explain the benefits of switch over hub.
19 A company has three departments namely administration, sales, and production. Out of telephone cable,
optical fibre and Ethernet cable, which communication medium is the best for high speed communication
between departments? Give reason also.
20 How is PAN different from LAN? Explain.
21 What is the difference between HTML and XML
22 Write any two advantages of Star topology over Bus Topology.
23 Expand the followings:
(i) NIC
(ii) SMTP
(iii) FTP
(iv) TCP/IP
(v) WWW
(vi) HTTP
(vii) VoIP
(viii) POP3
(ix) URL
(x) PPP
24 Differentiate between Web server and web browser. Write any two popular web browsers.
25 What is the difference between the working of Hub and Switch?
26 Write the advantages and disadvantages of Optical Fibre cable.
27 Write short notes on the following:
(i) POP3
(ii) VoIP
(iii) XML
(iv) Spyware
(v) Malware
(vi) Worm
(vii) Adware
28 Answer the following questions:
(i) How does HTTP different from HTTPs? Explain
(ii) Explain IP address and URL with examples.
29 Explain the following terms:
(i) Web address
(ii) Web hosting
(iii) Firewall
30 Mega University of India is starting its first campus in Ana Nagar of South India with its center
admission office in Kolkata. The university has 3 major buildings comprising Academic Building,
Research Building and Admin Building in the 4 Km area campus.

Distance between various locations:

 Research Building to Admin Building 150 m Number of Computers in
Research Building to Academic Building 80 m Building
Academic Building to Admin Building 15 m Academic Building 50
Delhi Admission Office to Parampur 1250
Research Building 120
Campus Km
Admin Building 35
Delhi Admission Office 12
(i) Suggest a most suitable cable layout amongst various buildings inside university campus for
connecting the buildings. Also write the name the topology formed.
(ii) Suggest the most suitable place (i.e. building) to install the server of this university with a suitable
reason.
(iii) Suggest an efficient network devices from the following in each block to connect all the computers
with in these blocks:
(i) SWITCH (ii) GATEWAY (iii) REAPETER
(iv) Suggest the most suitable very high speed service to provide data connectivity between Admission
Office located in Delhi and campus located in Parampur from the following options:
 Co-axial cable Network
 Telephone Line
 Satellite connection
 Leased line
31

(i). Suggest a most suitable cable layout amongst various blocks inside university campus for connecting
the blocks.
(ii). Suggest the most suitable place ([Link]) to install the server of this university with a suitable
reason.
(iii). Which hardware device will you suggest to be procured by the company to protect and control the
internet uses within the campus.
(iv). Suggest the placement of the following devices with justification.
(a). Repeater
(b). Switch
(v). The university is planning to connect its admission office in the closest big city, which is more than
250 KM from University. Which type of Network will be formed (i.e. LAN or MAN or WAN). Justify
your answer.
 Page 1 of 2

ASSIGNMENT-II
SUBJECT: COMPUTER SCIENCE (083)
TOPIC: NETWORK TOPOLOGY AND TRANSMISSION MEDIA
CLASS: XII

1 Differentiate between Bus topology and Star topology.

2 Write one advantage of Star topology over Bus Topology.
3 How does node failure cause network failure in a ring topology?
4 Explain the difference between Star topology and Ring topology.
5 Categorise the following under guided media and unguided media.
(i) Bluetooth (ii) Ethernet (iii) Infrared (iv) Optical Fibre
6 A company has three departments namely administration, sales, and production. Out of telephone
cable, optical fibre and Ethernet cable, which communication medium is the best for high speed
communication between departments? Give reason also.
7 Give one advantage and disadvantage of Optical Fibre Cable.
8 Delhi Public School Ranipur is planning to set up a network in its campus. The school has 4 wings
SENIOR(SW), MIDDLE(MW), PRIMARY(PW) and JUNIOR(JW) The detail of number of systems
and distance between two wings are as follows:

Distance between the wingss Number of Computers in wings

SW to MW 70 m SENIOR 50
SW to JW 90 m
MIDDLE 65
MW to PW 60 m
MW to JW 40 m PRIMARY 40
PW to SW 45 m JUNIOR 15
MW to PW 60 m

(i) Draw an ideal layout for connecting these wings for a wired connectivity. Name the topology
also.
(ii) Suggest the most suitable place (i.e. wing) to install the server of this school with a suitable
reason.
(iii) Which device you will suggest to be placed/installed in each of these wings to efficiently connect
all the computers within these wings?
(iv) Suggest a device/software and its placement that would provide data security for the entire
network of the School.
9 Mega University of India is starting its first campus in Ana Nagar of South India with its center
admission office in Kolkata. The university has 3 major buildings comprising Academic Building,
Research Building and Admin Building in the 4 Km area campus.
 Page 2 of 2

Distance between various locations: Number of Computers in Building

Research Building to Admin Building 150 m
Academic Building 50
Research Building to Academic Building 80 m
Academic Building to Admin Building 15 m Research Building 120
Delhi Admission Office to Parampur 1250 Admin Building 35
Campus Km Delhi Admission Office 12
(i) Suggest a most suitable cable layout amongst various buildings inside university campus for
connecting the buildings.
(ii) Suggest the most suitable place (i.e. building) to install the server of this university with a suitable
reason.
(iii) Suggest an efficient network devices from the following in each block to connect all the
computers with in these blocks:
(i) SWITCH (ii) GATEWAY (iii) REAPETER
(iv) Suggest the most suitable very high speed service to provide data connectivity between Admission
Office located in Delhi and campus located in Parampur from the following options:
 Co-axial cable Network
 Telephone Line
 Satellite connection
 Leased line
 Page 1 of 1

ASSIGNMENT-III
SUBJECT: COMPUTER SCIENCE (083)
TOPIC: NETWORK DEVICES
CLASS: XII

1 What is the difference between the working of Hub and Switch?

2 Expand the followings:
(i) NIC
(ii) RJ-45
(iii) WAP
(iv) WLAN
3 Explain the working of Repeater and Router.
4 What is NIC? Explain in brief.
5 What is Gateway? Explain the purpose of gateway.
6 Why do we use switch? Explain the benefits of switch over hub.
7 What is WAP?
 Page 1 of 1

ASSIGNMENT-IV
SUBJECT: COMPUTER SCIENCE (083)
TOPIC: NETWORK PROTOCOL
CLASS: XII

1 What are protocols? Give some examples of different types of protocol used.
2 How does HTTP different from HTTPs? Explain
3 Expand the followings:
(i) SMTP
(ii) TCP/IP
(iii) FTP
(iv) POP
4 What is VoIP? Explain.
5 In TCP/IP, what role is played by TCP and IP individually?
6 What is https? How does it work?
7 Write short notes on the following:
(i) POP3
(ii) SMTP
 Page 1 of 1

ASSIGNMENT-V
SUBJECT: COMPUTER SCIENCE (083)
TOPIC: NETWORK SECURITY, CYBER CRIME AND CYBER SECURITY
CLASS: XII

1 What is Cyber Security? What are the tips to stay safe on social media?
2 What are cookies?
3 What is firewall? Explain its use.
4 Explain cyber bullying.
5 What can you do if you are the victims of cyber crime?
6 What does Cyber crime mean? Name any three types of Cyber crime.
7 Which of the following crime(s) is/are covered under cyber crime?
(i) Stealing brand new hard disk from a shop
(ii) Getting into unknown person’s social networking account and start messaging on his behalf.
(iii) Stealing someone’s online identity
8 Define the following terms:

(i) Spyware
(ii) Malware
(iii) Worm
(iv) Adware
 Page 1 of 1

ASSIGNMENT-VI
SUBJECT: COMPUTER SCIENCE (083)
TOPIC: INTRODUCTION TO WEB SERVICES
CLASS: XII

1 Write the short note on WWW.

2 Explain the difference between IP address and URL with example.
3 What do you mean by Web hosting?
4 Explain the following terms:
(i) Web address
(ii) Web page
(iii) Web 2.0
5 What is the difference between HTML and XML
6 Expand the following:
(i) XML
(ii) WWW
(iii) URL
(iv) PHP
7 Explain Client side script and Server side script with examples.