Chapter 10: Computer Networks

Computer Networks – A computer network is collection of interconnected autonomous computing devices so as

to exchange information or share resources.
Evolution of networking –
1. ARPANET (Advanced Research Agency Network):
ARPANET was the network that became the basis for the Internet. It was the first network that came into
existence in 1969, which was designed and named by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and US
Department of Defence (DoD).
2. NSFNET (National Science Foundation Network):
In mid 80’s another federal agency, NSFNET (National Science Foundation Network) created a new network
which was more capable than ARPANET and became the first backbone infrastructure for the commercial
public Internet.
3. Internet:
In the Internet, which is a network of networks, came into existence. The internet has evolved from
ARPANET. The internet is a globally connected network system that utilizes TCP/IP to transmit information. It
allows computers of different types to exchange information and is known as internet.
Data communication
Data communication is defined as exchange of data between two devices via some form of transmission media such
as a cable, wire or it can be air or vacuum also. For occurrence of data communication, communicating devices must
be a part of communication system made up of a combination of hardware or software devices and programs.
Data Communication System Components:
There are mainly five components of a data communication system:
1. Message: An Information needs to broadcast.
2. Sender: A device or computer that send information/data.
3. Transmission Medium: It is a physical path with the help of which information goes from sender to receiver.
4. Receiver – A device or computer who receives data/information.
5. Set of rules (Protocol) – protocol is a set of rules that govern data communication.
Data Communication Terminologies:
1. Data Channel – Channel is the medium used to carry information or data from one point to another.
2. Baud – It is the unit of measurement for the information carrying capacity of a communication channel.
3. Bits per Second (bps) – It refers to the speed at which data transfer is measured.
4. Bandwidth – Bandwidth refers to the difference between the highest and lowest frequencies of a
transmission channel. Bandwidth is measured in Hertz (Hz).
1 KHz =1000 Hz
1 MHz =1000 KHz = 1000000 Hz
5. Data Transfer Rates – Data transfer rate is the number of bits transmitted between source and destination
in one second. It is also known as bit rate. It is measured in terms of bits per second (bps). The higher units
for data transfer rates are:
1 Kbps = 1024 bps
1 Mbps = 1024 Kbps
1 Gbps = 1024 Mbps
1 Tbps = 1024 Gbps
Transmission Media – Transmission media is a communication channel that carries the information from the
sender to the receiver. Data is transmitted through the electromagnetic signals. The main functionality of the
transmission media is to carry the information in the form of bits through LAN (Local Area Network). It is a physical
path between transmitter and receiver in data communication.
Types of Transmission Media

Guided Media
 (1) Twisted Pair Cable – It consists of two identical 1 mm thick copper wires insulated and twisted together. The
twisted-pair cables are twisted in order to reduce crosstalk and electromagnetic induction.
Advantages –
1. It is easy to install and maintain.
2. It is very inexpensive.
Disadvantages –
1. It is incapable to carry a signal over long distances without the use of repeaters.
2. Due to low bandwidth, these are unsuitable for broadband applications.
(2) Coaxial Cable – In a coaxial cable, there are two solid insulated conductors which shares one common axis.
Inner conductor is a straight wire surrounded by a wired mesh. Internal core carries signals and mesh works
as a noise reflector. It is generally used in cable TV transmission.
Advantages –
I. It provides high bandwidth. It carries data up to the distance of 185-500 meters.
II. It is suitable for broadband transmission (cable TV) and can also be useful in shared cable network.
III. It is less sensitive towards electromagnetic fields.
Disadvantages –
I. As compared to twisted pair cable, it is less flexible and is expensive.
II. Installation is not easy due to thickness of 1 cm diameter and poor flexibility.
(3) Optical Fibers – An optical fiber consists of thin glass fibres that can carry information in the form of visible
light. It has following parts.
CORE (Glass/Plastic): it is a thin glass rode, light rays travels from one end to other.
CLADDING: it is an optical material covering core that transforms the light and sends it back to the core.
BUFFER COATING: it is a plastic coating which prevents the cable from damage and moisture.
Advantages –
a. It is free from Electromagnetic Interference (EMI).
b. It is secure and suitable for high speed transmission.
Disadvantages –
a. It is very expensive.
b. Its installation is very tough and expensive.
Unguided Media
(1) Micro Wave – The microwave transmission is line of sight transmission. Microwave signals travel at a higher
frequency than radio waves and are popularly used for transmitting data over long distances.
Advantages-
a. This facilitates transmission in tough areas.
b. It supports data transmission at the speed of 16 Giga bits per second.
Disadvantages –
a. It is an unsecured communication.
b. Signals are distributed and transmitted in all directions.
c. It gets affected by weather conditions.
d. Cost of placing tower and antenna is high.
(2) Radio Wave –
 Radio waves are the electromagnetic waves that are transmitted in all the directions of free space.
 Radio waves are omnidirectional, i.e., the signals are propagated in all the directions.
 The range in frequencies of radio waves is from 3khz to 1khz.
 In the case of radio waves, the sending and receiving antenna are not aligned, i.e., the wave sent by
the sending antenna can be received by any receiving antenna.
 An example of the radio wave is FM radio.
Advantages –
 A Radio wave is useful for multicasting when there is one sender and many receivers.
 An FM radio, television, cordless phones are examples of a radio wave.
Disadvantages –
 Radio transmission is mainly used for wide area networks and mobile cellular phones.
 Radio waves cover a large area, and they can penetrate the walls.
 Radio transmission provides a higher transmission rate.
(3) Satellite –
 A satellite is a physical object that revolves around the earth at a known height.
 Satellite communication is more reliable nowadays as it offers more flexibility than cable and fibre
optic systems.
 We can communicate with any point on the globe by using satellite communication.
 How Does Satellite work?
The satellite accepts the signal that is transmitted from the earth station, and it amplifies the signal. The
amplified signal is retransmitted to another earth station.
Advantages –
 The area coverage through satellite transmission is quite large.
 The transmission cost of the satellite is independent of the distance from the centre of the coverage
area.
 Satellite communication is used in mobile and wireless communication applications.
 It is easy to install.
 It is used in a wide variety of applications such as weather forecasting, radio/TV signal broadcasting,
mobile communication, etc.
Disadvantages –
 Satellite designing and development requires more time and higher cost.
 The Satellite needs to be monitored and controlled on regular periods so that it remains in orbit.
 The life of the satellite is about 12-15 years. Due to this reason, another launch of the satellite has to
be planned before it becomes non-functional.
(4) Infrared –
 An infrared transmission is a wireless technology used for communication over short ranges.
 The frequency of the infrared in the range from 300 GHz to 400 THz.
 It is used for short-range communication such as data transfer between two cell phones, TV remote
operation, data transfer between a computer and cell phone resides in the same closed area.
(5) Laser –
 The laser transmission requires direct line-of-sight.
 It is unidirectional like microwave, but has much higher speed than microwave.
 The laser transmission requires the use of a laser transmitter and a photo-sensitive receiver at each
end.
Switching Techniques – Switching techniques are used for transmitting data across networks. Three switching
techniques are:
1. Circuit Switching – In the Circuit Switching techniques, first the complete end-to-end transmission path
between the source and the destination computer is established and then the message is transmitted
through the path. The main advantage of this technique is guaranteed delivery of the message. Mostly used
for voice communication.
2. Message Switching – In the message switching technique, no physical path is established between sender
and receiver in advance. This technique follows the store and forward mechanism.
3. Packet Switching – With message switching, there is no limit on block size; in contrast, packet switching
places a tight upper limit on block size. A fixed size of packet which can be transmitted across the network is
specified. Another point of its difference from message switching is that data packets are stored on the disk
in message switching whereas in packet switching, all the packets of fixed size are stored in main memory.
This improves the performance as the access time (time taken to access a data packet) is reduced, thus, the
throughput (measure of performance) of the network is improved.

NETWORK TOPOLOGIES – The pattern of interconnection of nodes in a network is called the Topology. There are
following technologies are used.
(1) The Star Topology – Star topology is an arrangement of the
network in which every node is connected to the central hub,
switch or a central computer. The central computer is known as
a server, and the peripheral devices attached to the server are
known as clients. Star topology is the most popular topology in
network implementation.
Advantages –
a. Efficient troubleshooting
b. Network control
c. Limited failure
d. Easily expandable
e. Cost effective
f. High data speeds
Disadvantages –
a. Central Node dependency
b. Long Cable Length
(2) The Bus or Linear Topology – Bus Topology consists of a
single length of the transmission medium on to which the
various nodes are attached. The topology is used in
traditional data communication network where the host
at one end of the bus communicates with several
terminals attached along its length.
Advantages –
a. It works well when you have a small network.
b. It's the easiest network topology for connecting
computers or peripherals in a linear fashion.
c. It requires less cable length than a star topology.
Disadvantages –
a. It can be difficult to identify the problems if the whole network goes down.
b. Bus topology is not great for large networks.
c. Terminators are required for both ends of the main cable.
d. Additional devices slow the network down.
e. If a main cable is damaged, the network fails or splits into two.

(3) The Ring Topology – In Ring Topology each node is connected to

two and only two neighbouring nodes. Data is accepted one of
the neighbouring nodes and is transmitted onwards to another.
Thus data travel in one direction only, from node to node
around the ring.
Advantages –
a. Short cable length
b. No extra space required for wiring
c. Suitable for optical fibers
Disadvantages –
a. Node failure causes network failure
b. Difficult to diagnose faults
c. Network reconfiguration is difficult

(4) The Tree Topology – A variation of bus topology is the

tree topology. Transmission in this topology takes place
in the same way as in the bus topology. Tree topology is
best suited for applications for applications which have a
hierarchal flow of data control.
Advantages –
a. It uses point-to-point wiring for individual
segments.
b. It is supported by several hardware and software
vendors.
Disadvantages –
a. Overall length of each segment is limited by the
type of cabling used.
b. If the backbone line breaks, the entire segment
goes down.
c. It is more difficult to configure and wire than
other topologies.
(5) The Mesh Topology – In this topology, each node is connected to more
than one node to provide an alternative in case the host is either down
or too busy. The mesh topology is excellent for long distance
networking.
Advantages –
a. Each connection can carry its own data load.
b. It provides security and privacy.
c. In this topology, fault diagnosis is easy.
 Disadvantages –
1. Its installation and configuration is difficult.
2. Cabling cost is more for mesh topology.
3. Bulk wiring is required for mesh topology.

Network Protocols – A network protocol is an established set of rules that determine how data is transmitted
between different devices in the same network. Network protocols are the reason you can easily communicate with
people all over the world, and thus play a critical role in modern digital communications.
(1) HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) – HTTP is designed for transferring a hypertext among two or more
systems. HTTP is designed on Client-server principles which allow a client system for establishing a
connection with the server machine for making a request.
(2) FTP (File Transfer Protocol) – FTP allows users to transfer files from one machine to another. Types of files
may include program files, multimedia files, text files, and documents, etc.
(3) TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) – TCP 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.
(4) IP (Internet Protocol) – IP 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.
(5) SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol) – SLIP was the first protocol for relaying IP packets over dial-up lines.
(6) PPP (Point to Point Protocol) – PPP is the Internet Standard for transmission of IP packets over serial lines.
PPP is currently the best solution for dial up connection, including ISDN (Integrated Services Digital
Network).
(7) SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) – SMTP is designed to send and distribute outgoing E-Mail.
(8) POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) – POP3 is designed for receiving incoming E-mails.
(9) HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure) – HTTPS is abbreviated as Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure
is a standard protocol to secure the communication among two computers one using the browser and other
fetching data from web server.
(10) TELNET – Telnet is a set of rules designed for connecting one system with another. The connecting process
here is termed as remote login. The system which requests for connection is the local computer, and the
system which accepts the connection is the remote computer.
(11) VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) – Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), is a technology that allowing
you to make voice calls over a broadband Internet connection instead of an analog (regular) phone line.
Introduction to web services:
(1) WWW (World Wide Web) – WWW is a set of standards and protocols that allows the multimedia and
hypertext files to be created, displayed on the internet. WWW was proposed between 1989 – 1991 by ‘Tim
Berners-Lee’.
(2) HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) – It is standard markup language used to design the layout of a web
document that contains text, audio, video etc. and, may be interlinked to other web documents. All tags are
predefined and it is not a case sensitive language.
(3) XML (Extensible Markup Language) – It is a markup language used to store and transport the data. All tags
in the language are user defined. It is case sensitive language.
(4) Domain Names – The character based naming system is called Domain Name System. Domain name are as
follows:
Most Common Domains County Domains
S. Domain ID Affiliation Domain Id Abbreviation
NO.
1 com Commercial au Australia
2 edu Education ca Canada
3 gov Government dk Denmark
4 mil Military fr France
5 net Network recourses in India
6 org Non-profit Organizations jp Japan
7 nic National Informatics Centre nz New Zealand
8 co Company uk United
Kingdom
9 tv Television us United States
(5) URL (Uniform Resource Locator) – URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. The unique address of a
webpage or a website is known as URL.
 Example – [Link]
Elements or components of URL – There are three components of URL:
1. Type of server or protocol
2. Name or address of server
3. Location of the file on the server
Example – h t t p : / / w w w . c b s e . n i c . i n / r e s u l t . x l s

Type of server address of the server location of file

(6) Web Pages – A document that uses HTTP is called a Web Page.
(7) Website – A Web Site is a collection of web pages which are linked to each other.
(8) Web Browser – A web browser is a program which opens the web sites on our computer.
Examples – Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera etc.
Types of Web Browser – There are two types of web browsers:
1. Text only Browser – Those web browsers which display only text are called Text only Browser.
Example – Lynx
2. Graphical Browser – Those web browsers which display the Hypertext (text, graphic images,
audio and video and hyperlinks) are called Graphical web browser.
Examples – Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera etc.
(9) Web Servers – A web server is a WWW server that stores web documents and responds to the request made
by web browser.
(10)Web Hosting – It is a service provider that provides the services required for a website to be viewed via
internet. Websites are hosted/ stored on web servers. Godaddy is a free web hosting site.
(11)IP Address – It is a 32 bit number written as 4 numbers (range 0 to 255) separated by periods (dot). It is
provide by ISP (Internet Service Provider). It is also known as logical address. There are two versions of IP
address (IPv4 and IPv6).
Example – [Link]