Components of a network

Network nodes and hosts

Network nodes are the physical pieces that
make up a network.
They usually include any device that both
receives and then communicates information
A network host is a computer or other device
connected to a computer network
So a node is the same as a host
Protocol
 A network protocol is a language that is used by
systems that wish to
communicate with one another.
 If two systems wish to communicate (or talk) with
one another, they need to speak the same
language (or protocol).
 Let’s look at an example of a communication
problem that could occur when two persons who
want to talk are not speaking the same language
Let’s say that you were traveling the
country on your summer vacation and took a
pit stop into a fast food restaurant.
When ordering your favorite meal, you would
need to ensure that you spoke the same
language as the person taking the order.
 If you speak English and the waiter speaks
French, you would be giving your order, but the
waiter would not be able to understand you.
 The same thing will happen on the network when
two systems use two totally different protocols—
everyone is talking but no one is communicating.
 The first step to networking is making sure that
the two systems that are trying to talk have the
same protocol installed.
A protocol refers to rules used to define a
method of exchanging data over a computer
network.
Examples of protocols are User Datagram
Protocol(UDP), Internet
Protocol(IP),Transmission Control Protocol
(TCP),HyperText Transfer Protocol(HTTP)
and many others.
Network operating system
 The network operating system is responsible for
providing services to clients on the network.
 These services could be the sharing of files or printers;
the server could be providing name resolution
through DNS services or logon services by being a
directory server.
 Let’s take a look at some of the popular network
operating systems that provide network services to their
clients.
Examples of network operating system are
windows server 2000, windows server 2008,
windows server 2012, windows server
2012release 2
Packet
is the unit of data that is routed between an
origin and destination on the network.
The unit of data has several names depending
on the type of layer it is currently on
For example, when the unit of data is on
network layer, it is called a packet
If the unit of data is on transport layer, it is
called a segment
 Networking devices
Network interface card (NIC)
 The network interface card (NIC), or network card, is a
device installed on the system that is responsible for
sending and receiving data onto the network.
 The network card is responsible for preparing data
from the system to be transported on the wire
by converting the outbound data from a parallel format
(due to bus width of the bus architecture that the card is
sitting in) to electrical signals that will travel along the
network media.
 On the receiving end, the network card is responsible
for receiving the electrical signal and converting it to
data that is understood by the system.
 The network card also is known as a network adapter; it
can be installed in the system after the system has been
purchased, or the system comes with a network
card built in.
 A system that comes with a network card built in is said
to have an integrated network card—meaning the card
is integrated into the system
2 Hubs
 Hubs are one of the most important components
of a network because they act as a central point
for all network devices to connect to.
 You can easily remember the layout of a hub if
you think of a wheel and picture how the spokes
radiate out from the hub of the wheel. In a
network, each spoke is a connection, and the hub
of the wheel is the hub of the network where all of
the cables come together.
 The hub, also known as a concentrator, is
responsible for allowing all systems a central
point of connection, so that when a computer
sends a piece of data to another computer, the
electrical signal leaves the network card of the
sending system and reaches the hub, and the hub
sends the signal to all ports on the hub so that all
systems can check to see whether the data is
destined for them.
When you notice that the hub displays link
lights for each port on the hub, it means that
the hub is active.
Hub is prone to collisions.
Repeaters
 One of the pitfalls of networking environments is
that the electrical signal that is traveling the wire
is weakened over distance as a result of outside
interference.
 Eventually, if two systems are too far from one
another, the signal is so weak that by the time it
reaches the other side it is unreadable. This is
where repeaters come in.
If your network layout exceeds the normal
specifications of the cable, you can use
repeaters to allow the signal to travel the
distance by placing the repeaters at different
points in the network.
in short repeaters regenerate signals. Repeaters
are found on physical layer
Bridges
 A bridge is a network connectivity device that is
used to break the network down into multiple
network segments.
 A bridge runs at layer 2, the data link layer, and is
used to filter traffic by only forwarding traffic to
the destination network segment.
Switches
 Switches, also known as switching hubs, have become an
increasingly important
part of our networking today, because when working with
hubs, a hub sends the data
to all ports on the hub.
 If you have a large network structure, this means that you
have probably linked a few hubs together, and when data is
sent from one system to another, all computers see the
traffic. This leads to a lot of network traffic, which
eventually slows network performance.
When you use a switch instead of a hub, the
switch acts as a filtering device by associating
the MAC address of the system connected to
the switch with the port on the switch that the
system is connected to.
Router
 One of the most popular network devices along with
a switch is a network router. A
router is responsible for sending data from one
network to another and is a layer-3
device.
 Routers are layer-3 devices and are responsible for
routing, or sending data from one
network to another. A router will have multiple
network interfaces .
Routers work with layer-3 addresses, which
are logical addresses assigned to the systems
that are used to determine how to reach the
destination network.
Routers use a routing table stored in memory
on the router to determine how to reach a
system on a destination network
Gateway
 A gateway is responsible for translating
information from one format to another and can
run at any layer of the OSI model, depending on
what information the gateway translates.
 A typical use of a gateway is to ensure that
systems in one environment can access
information in another environment.
 For example, you want to make sure that your PC
environment can access information on the
company’s mainframe.
When the packet reaches the gateway, the
gateway strips the packet down and
repackages it so that it is understood on the
other side of the gateway.
It is also important to note that when you
configure TCP/IP and you configure
the “default gateway” setting, you are pointing
to the address of the router on the
network.
 It really has nothing to do with an actual
“gateway” device.
Modem
There are other forms of networking devices
beyond the typical network card; for
instance, modems can be used to communicate
with other systems across the public
switched telephone network (PSTN).
They are used to convert digital data from
the PC to analog transmission so that the
information can be transmitted over the
analog phone lines.
 The modem on the receiving end is designed
to convert the analog signal to a digital format
readable by the system.
Backbone
 It is also called a core
 Is a part of computer network that interconnects
various pieces of network providing a path for the
exchange of information between different LANs
or subnet-works.
 A backbone can tie together diverse networks in
the same building, in different buildings in a
campus environment or over wide areas
 WIRELESS NETWORK
the wireless network uses radio frequencies to
transmit data through the air.
 This means that if you have a laptop user who
wishes to be mobile within the office, you can
allow her to access the network through a
wireless access point as long as she has a
wireless network card in her laptop.
There are two types of wireless networks you
can create: an ad hoc mode wireless network
or an infrastructure mode wireless network.
 Each of these is known as a wireless mode,
and each has its advantages.
With ad hoc mode the wireless device, such as
a laptop, is connected to other wireless devices
in a peer-to-peer environment without the need
for a wireless access point.
With infrastructure mode, the wireless clients
are connected to a central device, known as a
wireless access point.
The wireless client sends data to the access
point, which then sends the data on to the
destination .
As mentioned previously, the wireless client
can access network resources on the wired
network once connected to the access point
because the access point has a connection to
the wired network.
The advantage of ad hoc mode is that you
don’t need to purchase the access point, but the
benefit of infrastructure mode is that when you
use the wireless access point you get to control
who can connect to the wireless network and
filter out types of network traffic.
 WIRELESS STANDARDS
1. Wireless networks today are called WiFi,
which stands for wireless fidelity. 802.11b,
802.11g, and 802.11n are all part of the WiFi
standard and as a result are compatible with
one another.
 802.11b
The 802.11b wireless standard has a transfer
rate of 11 Mbps while using a frequency
of 2.4 GHz. These devices are compatible with
802.11g/n devices because they run
at the same frequency and follow the WiFi
standard.
 802.11g
The 802.11g wireless standard is a newer one that
was designed to be compatible with 802.11b but
also increases the transfer rate. The transfer rate of
802.11g devices is 54 Mbps using a frequency of 2.4
GHz.
All 802.11g devices are compatible with 802.11b/n
devices because they all follow the WiFi standard
and run at the same frequency of 2.4 GHz.
 802.11n
The 802.11n wireless standard is a new one
. The goal of 802.11n is to increase the
transfer rate beyond what current standards such
as 802.11g support. 802.11n will supposedly
support transfer rates up to 600 Mbps!
Wireless transmission speeds decrease as
your distance increases from the wireless
access point.
For example, if you use a wireless access point
to allow wireless clients to connect to the
Internet, you can control which web sites the
users can connect to.
2 Bluetooth
It is a wireless standard used for exchanging
data between fixed and mobile devices over
short distances using radio waves.
it is an example of personal area
network(PAN)
Bluetooth is managed by the Bluetooth special
interest group
The Bluetooth SIG oversees development of
the specification, manages the qualification
program and protects the trademarks
A manufacturer must meet Bluetooth SIG
standards to market it as a Bluetooth device
Bluetooth operates at frequencies between
2.402 and 2.480 GHZ
Bluetooth divides transmitted data into packets
and transmits each packet on one of 79
designated Bluetooth channels.
Each channel has a bandwidth of 1 MHZ
 Advantages of wireless LAN
Long term cost savings: companies reorganize
resulting in the movement of people, new floor
plans, office partitions, these changes require
recabling costs
Reduced installation time
Increased reliability: an inherent problem to
wired networks is the down time due to cable
faults.
Mobility: enables users to physically move
while using an appliance such s handheld PC
or data collector
Disadvantages of wireless network
File sharing transfer speeds are normally
slower with wireless networks than they are
with cabled network.
Wireless connections can be obstructed by
every day household items and structures such
as walls, ceilings and even bad weather
Wireless networks are less secure
It requires extra costs to set up