Communication Infrastructure

Public Connections for Communication

Packet
A piece of total data to be communicated, combined with the address of destination computers, address of the sending computer, and other control information

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)

Size of Packet communicated is smaller than telephone systems. Hence, more packets from different users on the same channel Bundling of channels to increase the speed of transfer of data

Private Line
A circuit that is always open for your communication traffic. Also known as leased line and dedicated line
T 1 Line T 3 Line Connections are multiplexed, ie. They are broken into separate lanes of communication

Virtual Private Networks

Private lines are expensive than Internet connections More secure and faster Authentication of computer is done only once VPN provide the speed and security of private line on the Internet network Use the concept of Tunneling software

Tunneling Software
Establishes a set of intermediary locations of the telephone equipment that will host a given data communications transfer. Establishes a private network for the few milliseconds it takes to send the data Tunnel is established only after authentication of the sending and receiving computers VPNs offer secure, fast and inexpensive connections among organizations

Communication Architecture

Protocol
Along with standard for network architecture, a protocol is needed A specification of the format for the data transmitted between communication devices

Terminal
A device that has no storage or processor A means for entering and displaying data for the computer Communication protocols are developed to address this need. System Network Architecture (SNA)
Uses Host computer Connects to computer via a Network

Token Ring
Uses Peer to Peer Protocol

Data Transmission Crash

Data from one computer being mixed up with data communicated by other computers Data loss in network does not remove data from the computers storage. Peer computer waits for confirmation and resends the data in case proper reply is not received

 TCP / IP Protocol
Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol

Internet Network Address

Uses four part set of numbers (0 to 255) separated by periods Network . Host . Subnetwork . Computer

Network address may be permanent or assigned temporarily for a session Network Interface Card (NIC) Intermediary between the data moving to and from computer or other device and the network

Communication Network Hardware

Network Types
Local Area Networks Metropolitan Area Network Wide Area Network Internet Intranet Extranets

Convergence of Communication and Computing

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) SKYPE