Module 1 Introduction to Internet of Things (BETCK105H)

MODULE 1
BASICS OF NETWORKING AND EMERGENCE OF IoT
NETWORK & TYPES OF NETWORKS
Networking refers to the linking of computers and communication network devices (also referred to
as hosts), which interconnect through a network (Internet or Intranet) and are separated by unique
device identifiers (Internet protocol, IP addresses and media access control, MAC addresses).
These hosts may be connected by a single path or through multiple paths for sending and receiving
data.
The data transferred between the hosts may be text, images, or videos, which are typically in the form
of binary bit streams.
Types of Network
Depending on the way a host communicates with other hosts, computer networks are of two types
1) Point-to-point
2) Point-to-multipoint.
• Point-to-point
➢ Point-to-point connections are used to establish direct connections between two hosts.
➢ These networks were designed to work over duplex links and are functional for both
synchronous as well as asynchronous systems.
➢ Regarding computer networks, point to point connections find usage for specific purposes
such as in optical networks.
➢ Example: a remote control for an air conditioner or television is a point-to-point
connection, where the connection has the whole channel dedicated to it only.

• Point-to-multipoint:
➢ In a point-to-multipoint connection, more than two hosts share the same link.
➢ This type of configuration is similar to the one-to-many connection type. Point-to-
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multipoint connections find popular use in wireless networks and IP telephony.

➢ The channel is shared between the various hosts, either spatially or temporally.
o One common scheme of spatial sharing of the channel is frequency division multiple
access (FDMA).
o Temporal sharing of channels includes approaches such as time division multiple
access (TDMA).

Network Topologies
Depending on the physical manner in which communication paths between the hosts are connected,
computer networks can have the following four broad topologies-
[Link], 3. Bus,
2. Mesh, 4. Ring.
i) Bus: A bus topology follows the point-to-multipoint connection.

➢ A back bone cable or bus serves as the primary traffic pathway between the hosts.
➢ The hosts are connected to the main bus employing drop lines or taps.
Advantage
➢ The ease of installation - However, there is a restriction on the length of the bus and
the number of hosts that can be simultaneously connected to the bus due to signal loss
over the extended bus.
➢ The bus topology has a simple cabling procedure in which a single bus (backbone
cable) can be used for an organization.
➢ Multiple drop lines and taps can be used to connect various hosts to the bus, making
installation very easy and cheap.
Disadvantage
➢ Difficulty in fault localization within the network
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 Module 1 Introduction to Internet of Things (BETCK105H)

ii) Ring: A ring topology works on the principle of a point-to-point connection.

➢ Each host is configured to have a dedicated point-to-point connection with its two
immediate neighboring hosts on either side of it through repeaters at each host.
➢ The repetition of this system forms a ring.
Advantage:
➢ The repeaters at each host capture the incoming signal intended for other hosts,
regenerate the bit stream, and pass it onto the next repeater.
➢ Fault identification and setup of the ring topology is quite simple and straight forward.
Disadvantage:
➢ This system is the high probability of a single point of failure.
➢ If even one repeater fails, the whole network goes down.

iii) Star: In a star topology, every host has a point-to-point link to a central controller or hub.

➢ The hosts cannot communicate with one another directly; they can only do so through
the central hub.
➢ The hub acts as the network traffic exchange. For large-scale systems, the hub,
essentially, has to be a powerful server to handle all the simultaneous traffic flowing
through it.
➢ However, as there are fewer links (only one link per host), this topology is cheaper and
easier to set up.

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 Module 1 Introduction to Internet of Things (BETCK105H)

Advantages:
➢ The star topology is easy installation and the ease of fault identification within the
network.
➢ If the central hub remains uncompromised, link failures between a host and the hub do
not have a big effect on the network, except for the host that is affected.
Disadvantage:

➢ This topology is the danger of a single point of failure. If the hub fails, the whole
network fails.

iv) Mesh: In a mesh topology, every host is connected to every other host using a dedicated link (in
a point-to-point manner).
➢ This implies that for n hosts in a mesh, there are a total of n(n-1)/2 dedicated full duplex
links between the hosts.
➢ This massive number of links makes the mesh topology expensive. However, it offers
certain specific advantages over other topologies.
Advantages:
➢ The first significant advantage is the robustness and resilience of the system. Even if a
link is down or broken, the network is still fully functional as there remain other
pathways for the traffic to flow through.
➢ The second advantage is the security and privacy of the traffic as the data is only seen
by the intended recipients and not by all members of the network.
➢ The third advantage is the reduced data load on a single host, as every host in this
network takes care of its traffic load.
Drawback:
➢ However, owing to the complexities in forming physical connections between devices
and the cost of establishing these links, mesh networks are used very selectively, such as
in backbone networks
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Based On Reachability
Computer networks are divided into four broad categories based on network reachability: personal
area networks, local area networks, wide area networks, and metropolitan area networks.
(i) Personal Area Networks (PAN): PANs, as the name suggests, are mostly restricted to
individual usage.
➢ A good example of PANs maybe connected wireless headphones, wireless speakers,
laptops, smart phones, wireless keyboards, wireless mouse, and printers within a house.
➢ Generally, PANs are wireless networks, which make use of low-range and low-power
technologies such as Bluetooth.
➢ The reachability of PANs lies in the range of a few centimeters to a few meters.

(ii) Local Area Networks (LAN): A LAN is a collection of hosts linked to a single network
through wired or wireless connections.
➢ LANs are restricted to buildings, organizations, or campuses. Typically, a few leased
lines connected to the Internet provide web access to the whole organization or a campus;
the lines are further redistributed to multiple hosts within the LAN enabling hosts.
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➢ The hosts are much more in number than the actual direct lines to the Internet to access
the web from within the organization.
➢ This also allows the organization to define various access control policies for web
access within its hierarchy.
➢ Typically, the present-day data access rates within the LANs range from 100 Mbps to
1000 Mbps, with very high fault-tolerance levels.
➢ Commonly used network components in a LAN are servers, hubs, routers, switches,
terminals, and computers.

(iii) Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN): The reachability of a MAN lies between that of a
LAN and a WAN.
➢ Typically, MANs connect various organizations or buildings within a given
geographic location or city.
➢ An excellent example of a MAN is an Internet service provider (ISP) supplying
Internet connectivity to various organizations within a city.
➢ As MANs are costly, they may not be owned by individuals or
even single organizations.
➢ Typical networking devices/components in MANs are modems and cables. MANs
tend to have moderate fault tolerance levels.

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 Module 1 Introduction to Internet of Things (BETCK105H)

(iv) Wide Area Networks (WAN): WANs typically connect diverse geographic locations.
➢ However, they are restricted within the boundaries of a state or country. The data rate of
WANs is in the order of a fraction of LAN’s data rate.
➢ Typically, WANs connecting two LANs or MANs may use public switched telephone
networks (PSTNs) or satellite-based links.
➢ Due to the long transmission ranges, WANs tend to have more errors and noise during
transmission and are very costly to maintain.
➢ The fault tolerance of WANs is also generally low.

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 Module 1 Introduction to Internet of Things (BETCK105H)

OSI model
The intercommunication between hosts in any computer network, be it a large-scale or a small-
scale one, is built upon the premise of various task-specific layers.
Two of the most commonly accepted and used traditional layered network models are:
• Open systems interconnection developed by the International Organization of
Standardization (ISO-OSI) reference model
• The Internet protocol suite.

OSI Model
The ISO-OSI model is a conceptual framework that partitions any networked communication
device into seven layers of abstraction, each performing distinct tasks based on the underlying
technology and internal structure of the hosts.
The seven layers, from bottom-up, are as follows: 1) Physical layer, 2) Data link layer, 3)
Network layer, 4) Transport layer, 5) Session layer, 6) Presentation layer, and 7) Application
layer

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(i) Physical Layer: This is a media layer and is also referred to as layer1 of the OSI model.
➢ The physical layer is responsible for taking care of the electrical and mechanical
operations (operations include or deal with issues relating to signal generation, signal
transfer, voltages, the layout of cables, physical port layout, line impedances, and signal
loss)of the host at the actual physical level.
➢ It is responsible for the topological layout of the network (star, mesh, bus, or ring),
communication mode (simplex, duplex, full duplex), and bit rate control operations.
➢ The protocol data unit associated with this layer is referred to as a symbol.
(ii) Data Link Layer: This is a media layer and layer2 of the OSI model.
➢ The data link layer is mainly concerned with the establishment and termination of the
connection between two hosts, and the detection and correction of errors during
communication between two or more connected hosts.
➢ IEEE 802 divides the OSI layer 2 further into two sub-layers [2]: Medium access control
(MAC) and logical link control (LLC).
• MAC is responsible for access control and permissions for connecting networked
devices
• LLC is mainly tasked with error checking, flow control, and frame synchronization.
➢ The protocol data unit associated with this layer is referred to as a frame.
(iii)Network Layer: This layer is a media layer and layer3 of the OSI model.
➢ It provides a means of routing data to various hosts connected to different networks
through logical paths called virtual circuits. These logical paths may pass through other
intermediate hosts (nodes) before reaching the actual destination host.
➢ The primary tasks of this layer include addressing, sequencing of packets, congestion
control, and error handling, and Internetworking.
➢ The protocol data unit associated with this layer is referred to as a packet.
(iv) Transport Layer: This is layer 4 of the OSI model and is a host layer.
➢ The transport layer is tasked with end-to-end error recovery and flow control to achieve
a transparent transfer of data between hosts.
➢ This layer is responsible for keeping track of acknowledgments during variable-length
data transfer between hosts.
➢ In case of loss of data, or when no acknowledgment is received, the transport layer ensures
that the particular erroneous data segment is re-sent to the receiving host.

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➢ The protocol data unit associated with this layer is referred to as a segment or datagram.
(v) Session Layer: This is the OSI model’s layer 5 and is a host layer.
➢ It is responsible for establishing, controlling, and terminating of communication between
networked hosts.
➢ The session layer sees full utilization during operations such as remote procedure calls and
remote sessions.
➢ The protocol data unit associated with this layer is referred to as data.
(vi) Presentation Layer: This layer is a host layer and layer 6 of the OSI model.
➢ It is mainly responsible for data format conversions and encryption tasks such that the
syntactic compatibility of the data is maintained across the network, for which it is also
referred to as the syntax layer.
➢ The protocol data unit associated with this layer is referred to as data.
(vii) Application Layer: This is layer 6 of the OSI model and is a host layer.
➢ It is directly accessible by an end-user through software APIs (application program
interfaces) and terminals.
➢ Applications such as file transfers, FTP (file transfer protocol), e-mails, and other such
operations are initiated from this layer.
➢ The application layer deals with user authentication, identification of communication hosts,
quality of service, and privacy.
➢ The protocol data unit associated with this layer is referred to as data.

TCP/IP PROTOCOL SUITE

The Internet protocol suite is yet another conceptual framework that provides levels of
abstraction for ease of understanding and development of communication and networked
systems on the Internet.
The Internet protocol suite predates the OSI model and provides only four levels of
abstraction: 1) Link layer, 2) Internet layer, 3) transport layer, and 4) application layer.
This collection of protocols is commonly referred to as the TCP/IP protocol suite as the
foundation technologies of this suite are transmission control protocol (TCP) and Internet
protocol(IP).

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 Module 1 Introduction to Internet of Things (BETCK105H)

The TCP/IP protocol suite comprises the following four layers:

(i) Link Layer: The first and base layer of the TCP/IP protocol suite is also known as the
network interface layer.
➢ This layer is synonymous with the collective physical and data link layer of the OSI
model.
➢ It enables the transmission of TCP/IP packets over the physical medium. According to
its design principles, the link layer is independent of the medium in use, frame format,
and network access, enabling it to be used with a wide range of technologies such as the
Ethernet, wireless LAN, and the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM).
(ii) Internet Layer: Layer 2 of the TCP/IP protocol suite is somewhat synonymous to the
network layer of the OSI model.
➢ It is responsible for addressing, address translation, data packaging, data disassembly
and assembly, routing, and packet delivery tracking operations.
➢ Some core protocols associated with this layer are address resolution protocol (ARP),
Internet protocol (IP), Internet control message protocol (ICMP), and Internet group
management protocol (IGMP).
➢ Traditionally, this layer was built upon IPv4, which is gradually shifting to IPv6,
enabling the accommodation of a much more significant number of addresses and
security measures.

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 Module 1 Introduction to Internet of Things (BETCK105H)

(iii) Transport Layer: Layer 3 of the TCP/IP protocol suite is functionally synonymous with
the transport layer of the OSI model.
➢ This layer is tasked with the functions of error control, flow control, congestion
control, segmentation, and addressing in an end-to-end manner; it is also independent
of the underlying network.
➢ Transmission control protocol (TCP) and user data gram protocol (UDP) are the core
protocols upon which this layer is built, which in turn enables it to have the choice of
providing connection-oriented or connectionless services between two or more hosts
or networked devices.
(iv) Application Layer: The functionalities of the application layer, layer 4, of the TCP/IP
protocol suite are synonymous with the collective functionalities of the OSI model’s
session, presentation, and application layers.
➢ This layer enables an end-user to access the services of the underlying layers and
defines the protocols for the transfer of data.
Hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), file transfer protocol (FTP), simple mail transfer protocol
(SMTP), domain name system (DNS), routing information protocol (RIP), and simple network
management protocol (SNMP) are some of the core protocols associated with this layer

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