SCHOOL OF COMPUTING
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNEMENT
Course Name: Data Communication and Networking
Course Code: CoSo 2061
Summited by: YADIEL DEGU
Id no: COMPR 042/06
Summited to: Instructor KIDANE GEBREZGIHER
INTRODUCTION
Basic of Networking
A computer network consists of a collection of computers, printers and other
equipment that is connected together so that they can communicate with
each other. Fig 1 gives an example of a network in a school comprising of a
local area network or LAN connecting computers with each other, the
internet, and various servers.
Connectivity devices are devices used to make physical network
connections. They do not make changes to the data or transmission
route.
Connectivity devices operate at the physical layer of the Open Systems
Interconnection (OSI) model.
Internetworking devices move data across a network. They may direct
data to specific locations within the network and/or convert data into
alternative formats. Internetworking devices operate at OSI layers
abovethe physical layer.
Understanding the functions of these devices and how they fit within the
OSI model will help you learn how networks function.
Connectivity Devices
Connectivity devices are those devices used to make physical network
connections. Connectivity devices operate at the physical layer of the
OpenSystems Interconnection Reference Model (OSI) model. The OSI
modeldescribes how computer services and procedures are standardized.
This standardization allows computers to share information and enables
the interconnection of various networking connectivity devices regardless
of vendor.
There are different type of connecting devices:-
Network Interface Card
Network interface cards (NICs) are printed circuit boards that are
installed in workstations. They provide the physical connection between
the network cable and the workstation.
In addition, they possess the
circuitry necessary to gain access to the network.
The NIC formats information from the workstation so that it can be
transmitted across the network.
Although the NIC operates at the physical layer of the OSI model, it is
also considered a data link layer device. Part of the NIC’s function is to
format information between the workstation and the network, and also, to
control the transmission of data onto the wire.
When specifying or installing a NIC, you must consider the following
issues:
➤ System bus compatibility—if the network interface you are installing
is an internal device, bus compatibility must be verified. The most
common bus system in use is the Peripheral Component Interconnect
(PCI) bus, but some older systems might still use Industry Standard
Architecture (ISA) expansion cards.
➤ System resources—Network cards, like other devices, need IRQ and
memory I/O addresses. If the network card does not operate correctly
after installation, there might be a device conflict.
➤ Media compatibility—today, the assumption is that networks use
twisted- pair cabling, so if you need a card for coaxial or fiber-optic
connections, you must specify this. Wireless network cards are also
available.
Transceivers
The name transceiver is derived from the combination of the words
transmitter and receiver. It is a device that both transmits and receives
signals along the network cable and connects a computer to the network.
Today, most transceivers are built into the network interface cards.
Older transceivers were clamped onto the network cable and then
connected to the NIC.
The transceiver does not make changes to information transmitted
across the network, it adapts the signals so devices connected by
varying media can interpret them.
Repeaters
As data travels through cabling systems, a certain amount of electrical
interference and signal loss is inevitable.
As the need for larger networks that span greater distances developed, a
solution was needed to resolve signal loss over the network.
Repeaters were created to regenerate and amplify weak signals, thus
extending the length of the network.
The basic function of a repeater is to retime, reshape, and reamplify the
data signal to its original level.
Repeaters perform no other action on the data.
Repeaters were originally separate devices. Today, a repeater may be
a separate device or it may be incorporated into a hub.
Repeaters operate at the physical layer of the OSI model.
Hubs
Hubs, sometimes called concentrators, reside in the core of the LAN
cabling system.
They are basically multiport repeaters.
The hub connects Work stations and sends every transmission to all the
connected Work stations.
They work much like the old telephone party lines, where only one
computer can “talk” at a time.
The receptacles on the front of the hub are called ports. There are
usually from 4 to 32 ports on a hub, depending on the size of the
network.
Some hubs have an additional interface port that connects to another
hub, thus increasing the size of the network.
Hubs come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Small hubs with five or eight
connection ports are commonly referred to as workgroup hubs. Others
can accommodate larger numbers of devices (normally up to 32). These
are referred to as high-density devices.
Because hubs don’t perform any processing, they do little except enable
communication between connected devices.
For today’s high-demand network applications, something with a little
more intelligence is required. That’s where switches come in.
Modems
A modem, short for modulator/demodulator, is a device that converts the
digital signals generated by a computer into analoge signals that can
travel over conventional phone lines.
The modem at the receiving end converts the signal back into a format
the computer can understand. Modems can be used as
a means to connect to an ISP or as a mechanism for dialing up to a LAN.
Modems can be internal add-in expansion cards, external devices that
connect to the serial or USB port of a system, PCMCIA cards designed for
use in laptops, or proprietary devices designed for use on other devices
such as portables and handhelds.
The configuration of a modem depends on whether it is an internal or
external device.
For internal devices, the modem must be configured with an
interrupt request (IRQ) and a memory I/O address. It is common practice,
when installing an internal modem, to disable the built-in serial interfaces
and assign the modem the resources of one of those (typically COM2).
Firewalls
A firewall is a networking device, either hardware or software based, that
controls access to your organization’s network.
This controlled access is designed to protect data and resources from an
outside threat.
To do this, firewalls are typically placed at entry/exit points of a network
—for example, placing a firewall between an internal network and the
Internet. Once there, it can control access in and out of that point.
Although firewalls typically protect internal networks from public
networks, they are also used to control access between specific network
segments within a network—for example, placing a firewall between the
Accounts and the Sales departments.
Hardware firewalls are used in networks of all sizes today. Hardware
firewalls are often dedicated network devices that can be implemented
with very little configuration and protect all systems behind the firewall
from outside sources.
Hardware firewalls are readily available and often combined with
other devices today. For example, many broadband routers and wireless
access points have firewall functionality built in. In such case, the router
or WAP might have a number of ports available to plug systems in to.
Gateways
Any device that translates one data format to another is called a
gateway.
Some examples of gateways include a router that translates data from
one network protocol to another, a bridge that converts between two
networking systems, and a software application that converts between
two dissimilar formats.
The key point about a gateway is that only the data format is translated,
not the data itself. In many cases, the gateway functionality is
incorporated into another device.
Routers
In a common configuration, routers are used to create larger networks by
joining two network segments. Such as a SOHO router used to connect a
user to the Internet.
A router can be a dedicated hardware device or a computer
system with more than one network interface and the appropriate
routing software.
All modern network operating systems include the functionality
to act as a router.
Routers will normally create, add, or divide on the Network Layer as they
are normally
IP-based devices.
A router derives its name from the fact that it can route data it receives
from one network onto another. When a router receives a packet of data,
it reads the header of the packet to determine the destination address.
Once it has determined the address, it looks in its routing table to
determine whether it knows how to reach the destination and, if it does, it
forwards the packet to the next hop on the route.
The next hop might be the final destination, or it might be another router.
There are two type of routers:-
Static Routing
In environments that use static routing, routes and route information are
entered into the routing tables manually.
Not only can this be a time-consuming task, but also errors are more
common.
Additionally, when there is ain the layout, or topology, of the network,
statically configured routers must be manually updated with the changes.
Again, this is a time consuming and potentially error-laden task. For
these reasons, static routing is suited to only the smallest environments
with perhaps just one or two routers.
A far more practical solution, particularly in larger environments, is
to use dynamic routing.
Dynamic Routing
In a dynamic routing environment, routers use special routing protocols
to communicate.
The purpose of these protocols is simple; they enable routers
to pass on information about themselves to other routers so that other
routers can build routing tables. There are two types of routing protocols
used—the older distance vector protocols and the newer link state
protocols.
Bridges
Bridges are used to divide larger networks into smaller sections. They do
this by sitting between two physical network segments and managing the
flow of data between the two.
By looking at the MAC address of the devices connected to each segment,
bridges can elect to forward the data (if they believe that the destination
address is on another interface), or block it from crossing (if they can
verify that it is on the interface from which it came).
Bridge Placement and Bridging Loops
There are two issues that you must consider when using bridges. The first
is the bridge placement, and the other is the elimination of bridging
loops:
➤ Placement—Bridges should be positioned in the network using the
80/20 rule. This rule dictates that 80% of the data should be local and
that the other 20% should be destined for devices on the other side of
the bridge.
➤ Bridging loops—Bridging loops can occur when more than one bridge
is implemented on the network. In this scenario, the bridges can confuse
each other by leading one another to believe that a device is located on a
certain segment when it is not. To combat the bridging loop problem,
the IEEE 802.1d Spanning Tree protocol enables bridge interfaces to be
assigned a value that is then used to control the bridge-learning process.
Types of Bridges
Three types of bridges are used in networks:
➤ Transparent bridge—Derives its name from the fact that the devices
on the network are unaware of its existence. A transparent bridge does
nothing except block or forward data based on the MAC address.
➤ Source route bridge—Used in Token Ring networks. The source route
bridge derives its name from the fact that the entire path that the packet
is to take through the network is embedded within the packet.
➤ Translational bridge —Used to convert one networking data format
to
another; for example, from Token Ring to Ethernet and vice versa.
Switches
Like hubs, switches are the connectivity points of an Ethernet network.
Devices connect to switches via twisted-pair cabling, one cable for each
device.
The difference between hubs and switches is in how the devices deal
with the data that they receive.
Whereas a hub forwards the data it receives to all of the ports on the
device, a switch forwards it only to the port that connects to the
destination device.
It does this by learning the MAC address of the devices attached to it,
and then by matching the destination MAC address in the data it receives.
By forwarding data only to the connection that should receive it, the
switch can improve network performance in two ways.
First, by creating a direct path between two devices and controlling their
communication, it can greatly reduce the number of collisions on the
network.
As you might recall, collisions occur on Ethernet networks when two
devices attempt to transmit at exactly the same time.
TRANSMISSION MEDIA
The transmission media is nothing but the physical media over which
communication takes place in computer networks.
Magnetic Media
One of the most convenient way to transfer data from one computer to
another, even before the birth of networking, was to save it on some
storage media and transfer physical from one station to another. Though
it may seem old-fashion way in today’s world of high speed internet, but
when the size of data is huge, the magnetic media comes into play.
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. The twists
between wires are helpful in reducing noise (electro-magnetic
interference) and crosstalk.
There are two types of twisted pair cables:
Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) Cable
Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) Cable
STP cables comes with twisted wire pair covered in metal foil. This makes
it more indifferent to noise and crosstalk.
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.
Coaxial Cable
Coaxial cable has two wires of copper. The core wire lies in the center and
it is made of solid conductor. The core is enclosed in an insulating sheath.
The second wire is wrapped around over the sheath and that too in turn
encased by insulator sheath. This all is covered by plastic cover.
Because of its structure, the coax cable is capable of carrying high
frequency signals than that of twisted pair cable. The wrapped structure
provides it a good shield against noise and cross talk. Coaxial cables
provide high bandwidth rates of up to 450 mbps.
There are three categories of coax cables namely, RG-59 (Cable TV), RG-
58 (Thin Ethernet), and RG-11 (Thick Ethernet). RG stands for Radio
Government.
Cables are connected using BNC connector and BNC-T. BNC terminator is
used to terminate the wire at the far ends.
Fiber Optics
Fiber Optic works on the properties of light. When light ray hits at critical
angle, it tends to refracts at 90 degree. This property has been used in
fiber optic. 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.
Fiber Optic provides the highest mode of speed. It comes in two modes,
one is single mode fiber and second is multimode fiber. Single mode fiber
can carry a single ray of light whereas multimode is capable of carrying
multiple beams of light.
Fiber Optic also comes in unidirectional and bidirectional capabilities. To connect and
access fiber optic special type of connectors are used. These can be Subscriber Channel
(SC), Straight Tip (ST), or MT-RJ.
WIRELESS TRANSMISSION
Wireless transmission is a form of unguided media. Wireless communication involves no
physical link established between two or more devices, communicating wirelessly. Wireless
signals are spread over in the air and are received and interpreted by appropriate antennas.
Radio Transmission
Radio frequency is easier to generate and because of its large wavelength
it can penetrate through walls and structures alike. Radio waves can have
wavelength from 1mm – 100,000km and have frequency ranging from
3Hz (Extremely Low Frequency) to 300 GHz (Extremely High Frequency).
Radio frequencies are sub-divided into six bands.
Radio waves at lower frequencies can travel through walls whereas higher
RF can travel in straight line and bounce back. The power of low
frequency waves decreases sharply as they cover long distance. High
frequency radio waves have more power.
Microwave Transmission
Electromagnetic waves above 100MHz tend to travel in a straight line and
signals over them can be sent by beaming those waves towards one
particular station. Because Microwaves travels in straight lines, both
sender and receiver must be aligned to be strictly in line-of-sight.
Infrared Transmission
Infrared wave lies in between visible light spectrum and microwaves. It
has wavelength of 700nm to 1mm and frequency ranges from 300GHz to
430THz.
Infrared wave is used for very short range communication purposes such
as television and its remote. Infrared travels in a straight line hence it is
directional by nature. Because of high frequency range, Infrared cannot
cross wall-like obstacles.
Light Transmission
Highest most electromagnetic spectrum which can be used for data
transmission is light or optical signaling. This is achieved by means of
LASER.
Because of frequency light uses, it tends to travel strictly in straight line.
Hence the sender and receiver must be in the line-of-sight. Because laser
transmission is unidirectional, at both ends of communication the laser
and the photo-detector needs to be installed. Laser beam is generally
1mm wide hence it is a work of precision to align two far receptors each
pointing to lasers source.
Protocols
Protocols are rules of communication. It is through protocols that
computers can exchange information. Just like humans obey certain rules
of
communications, so must the computers. Computers are specific about
rules
and cannot guess like humans. They have protocols as part of their
software
or hardware interaction and can’t change that unless the software or
hardware
is changed or modified.
Protocol Architecture
Every computer and network needs a large number of protocols in
order to complete data communications.
The number of protocols can easily grow into several hundreds for a
network. Besides, protocols take many different forms, from software to
hardware, manufactured and designed by many companies.
Different networks may have entirely different sets of
protocols for every function of communications.
Therefore, it may be helpful to classify protocols in groups in order to
streamline a network layout.
Automatically, this will help all sections of role players, user, provider and
designer.
A set of protocols specific to a network is sometimes called a
protocol suite. When a subset of a protocol suite could be grouped
together to
perform functions that can be related to each other in communication
terms,
such a subset is often called a layer or level.
A Protocol Layer
A protocol layer is a set of protocols that perform a common (larger)
function. Usually, a protocol layer consists a number of protocols. The
concept of layering helps arrange the protocol suite as a set of layers.
Then the
job of defining a computer network is really taken in the following steps:
1. Define protocols in each layer.
2. Define all the layers needed
3. Define interaction among layers in the same computer.
4. Define interaction among layers on different computers, intermediate
and end stations.
By specifying the above guidelines, all the network communication can
be defined as a set of protocol layers. Such a set of protocol layers is
called as
the network architecture.
In essence, a network architecture or protocol architecture is the set of
layers and associated protocol specifications that can achieve complete
communications among two or more computers connected via a network.
Example of a Protocol Architecture
Example architecture, and by far the most attractive (at least
academically) in networking books, is the Open System Interconnection
(OSI)
reference model. This model was recommended by International
Organization
for Standardization for open system interconnection (OSI).
Open System
The term open system in OSI refers to the fact that the computer
systems using OSI architecture will be open to communications to all
systems
designed by any vendor as long as they implement the same protocol
architecture. Thus the specifications of the computer or hardware or
operating
systems play no role in interoperability of all the computers using the OSI
architecture.
The OSI reference model (OSI-RM) breaks communications into
seven layers. Each layer has a well-defined scope of its functions clearly
identifiable from other layers.
User information enters one layer at a time. Only one layer is responsible
of actually sending the bit stream on the channel.
Layers on the same computer can communicate only with the adjacent
layers.
Layers on different computers can communicate only with
their peer layers. With these rules set aside, the user has the flexibility of
shopping around for different layers and adding equipment from many
vendors to an existing network.
THE OSI MODEL
The OSI 7 layers model has clear characteristics at each layer. Basically, layers
7 through 4 deal with end to end communications between data source
and destinations, while layers 3 to 1 deal with communications between network
devices. On the other hand, the seven layers of the OSI model can
be divided into two groups: upper layers (layers 7, 6 & 5) and lower layers
(layers 4, 3, 2, 1). The upper layers of the OSI model deal with application
issues and generally are implemented only in software. The highest layer,
the application layer, is closest to the end user. The lower layers of the OSI
model handle data transport issues. The physical layer and the data link layer
are implemented in hardware and software. The lowest layer, the physical
layer, is closest to the physical network medium (the wires, for example) and
is responsible for placing data on the medium.
One OSI layer communicates with another layer to make use of
the services provided by the second layer. The services provided
by adjacent layers help a given OSI layer communicate with
its peer layer in other computer systems. A given layer in the
OSI model generally communicates with three other OSI layers:
the layer directly above it, the layer directly below it and its
peer layer in other networked computer systems.
TCP/IP MODEL
TCP/IP architecture does not exactly follow the OSI model. Unfortunately,
there is no universal agreement regarding how to describe TCP/IP with a layered
model. It is generally agreed that TCP/IP has fewer levels (from three to
five layers) than the seven layers of the OSI model. We adopt a four layers
model for the TCP/IP architecture.
TCP/IP architecture omits some features found under the OSI model, combines
the features of some adjacent OSI layers and splits other layers apart.
The 4-layer structure of TCP/IP is built as information is passed down from
applications to the physical network layer. When data is sent, each layer treats
all of the information it receives from the upper layer as data, adds control
information
(header) to the front of that data and then pass it to the lower layer.
When data is received, the opposite procedure takes place as each layer processes
and removes its header before passing the data to the upper layer.