‘A’ Level Computing Notes
MODULE 1
CHAPTER 14-WIDE AREA NETWORKS
COMMUNICATION LINKS
Communication may take place over:
The public telephone network
Dedicated leased lines
Radio waves
Fibre optic cable through which pulses of light are sent in digital form
Microwave-similar to radio waves. Microwave stations cannot be much
more than 30 miles apart because of the earth’s curvature.
(Microwaves travel in straight lines.)
Communication satellites.
MODEMS
When data is sent over long distances, cable no longer suffices and
data must be transmitted by other means, such as a telephone line.
Telephone lines were originally designed to transmit analogue or
waveform.
Therefore, a modem is needed to convert from analogue to digital and
also from digital to analogue.
Modem-Modulator Demodulator.
MODEM MODEM
DIGITAL ANALOGUE DIGITAL
ISDN LINES
The greater the bandwidth of a line, the greater the rate at which data
can be sent.
A network that is capable of sending voice, video and computer data is
called an ISDN, (which also requires a higher bandwidth.)
ISDN- Integrated Services Digital Network
DATA COMPRESSION
Reduces amount of data sent over line reducing number of blocks
transmitted, and hence reducing cost.
~1~ ©Mikey Holder, 2006
‘A’ Level Computing Notes
MODULE 1
FACTORS AFFECTING RATE OF DATA TRANSMISSION
The speed of the modem
The nature of the transmission line-ISDN faster than analogue line
The cable used. Fibre optic cable is about 100 times faster than the
1000Mbps twisted cable.
The type of transmission.
THE INTERNET
The largest wide area network in the world-a collection of thousands of
computer networks.
LAN- covering an office block or university campus
WAN-connecting computers over several countries.
Businesses can pay a monthly cost to a service provider to access their
WAN.
DIAL UP NETWORKING
Connection to the WAN is made using the telephone network and a
modem, or ISDN adapter.
The connection is made when data transmission is needed, and is
dropped when not in use.
LEASED LINE NETWORKING
Local nodes are ALWAYS connected to the WAN.
These lines have higher transmission rate.
More expensive too, but are more secure.
UNIFORM RESOURCE LOCATOR (URL)
A URL is the standard address used to find a page on the internet.
A typical address or URL is
[Link]
PROTOCOL HOST DOMAIN NAME FOLDER DOCUMENT NAME
HOW WHERE
WHAT
~2~ ©Mikey Holder, 2006
‘A’ Level Computing Notes
MODULE 1
The first part of the address specifies the protocol used for connection
to the server.
http-HyperText Transfer Protocol
DOMAIN NAMES
the next part of the URL specifies the name of the server on which the
Web resource is held.
DNS is a distributed database of information to translate domain names
into IP addresses.
The following are some examples of current top-level domains:
.com Commercial business
.gov U.S government agencies
.edu U.S educational institutions
.mil U.S military
.net network organisations
UK Specified Codes
.ac an academic institution
.co a trading company
.gov government facility
.org organisations
.tm trademark business
.ltd limited company
.sch school
Country Codes
au Australia
es Spain
sg Singapore
uk UK
IP ADDRESSES
Every web site has an IP address.
However, since people cant remember these 32 bit codes, the IP’s map
onto the domain names.
INTRANETS
An organisation-wide network using the same protocol as the internet.
Selected information is downloaded from the internet to access.
This saves time browsing through thousands of files and enables the
screening out of unsuitable material.
~3~ ©Mikey Holder, 2006