Topics

Network Topology
Cables and connectors
Network Devices

Network Topologies
LANs and WANs - Geographical coverage
LANs

WANs

A single geographical location, such as office

building, school, etc
Typically High speed and cheaper.
Spans more than one geographical location
often connecting separated LANs
Slower
Costly hardware, routers, dedicated leased lines
and complicated implementation procedures.

Network Topologies

Topology - Physical and logical network layout

Common topologies:

Physical actual layout of the computer cables

and other network devices
Logical the way in which the network appears to
the devices that use it.
Bus, ring, star, mesh and wireless

Bus topology

Uses a trunk or backbone to which all of the

computers on the network connect.
Systems connect to this backbone using T
connectors or taps.
Coaxial cablings ( 10Base-2, 10Base5) were
popular options years ago.

Bus Topology

Advantages

Disadvantages

Cheap and easy to implement

Network disruption when computers are

added or removed

Require less cable

A break in the cable will prevent all

systems from accessing the network.

Does not use any specialized network

equipment.

Difficult to troubleshoot.

Ring Topology

Logical ring

Meaning that data travels in circular fashion

from one computer to another on the network.
Typically FDDI, SONET or Token Ring technology
are used to implement a ring network
Ring networks are most commonly wired in a
star configuration

Token Ring has multi-station access unit

(MSAU),equivalent to hub or switch. MSAU performs
the token circulation internally.

Ring Topology

Advantages

Disadvantages

Cable faults are easily located, making

troubleshooting easier

Expansion to the network can cause

network disruption

Ring networks are moderately easy to

install

A single break in the cable can disrupt the

entire network.

Star Topology

All computers/devices connect to a central

device called hub or switch.
Each device requires a single cable
point-to-point connection between the device
and hub.
Most widely implemented
Hub is the single point of failure

Star Topology
Advantages

Disadvantages

Easily expanded without disruption

to the network

Requires more cable

Cable failure affects only a single

user

A central connecting device allows

for a single point of failure

Easy to troubleshoot and isolate

problems

More difficult to implement

Mesh Topology
Each computer connects to every other.
High level of redundancy.
Rarely used.

10

Wiring is very complicated

Cabling cost is high
Troubleshooting a failed cable is tricky
A variation hybrid mesh create point to point
connection between specific network devices,
often seen in WAN implementation.

Mesh Topology

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Advantages

Disadvantages

Provides redundant paths between

devices

Requires more cable than the other

LAN topologies

The network can be expanded

without disruption to current uses

Complicated implementation

Wireless networking

Do not require physical cabling

Particularly useful for remote access for laptop
users
Eliminate cable faults and cable breaks.
Signal interference and security issue.

12

Wireless networking

Advantages

Disadvantages

Allows for wireless remote access

Potential security issues associated with

wireless transmissions

Network can be expanded without

disruption to current users

Limited speed in comparison to other

network topologies

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Cabling and Connectors

General media considerations

Broadband versus baseband

Baseband transmissions use digital signaling and Time

Division Multiplexing (TDM)
Broadband transmissions use analog and Frequency
Division Multiplexing(FDM)

Dialog modes: Simplex, half duplex and full

duplex

Cabling and Connectors

Media interference

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) and cross talk

Network media vary in their resistance to the effect of EMC.

Attenuation

Resistance :Coaxial cable > UTP, STP > UTP, Fiber > all
Maximum distance
Repeaters
Attenuation-related problems require a network analyzer to
detect

Bandwidth

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UTP is susceptible and fiber is resistant

Transmission capacity of a media

Data throughput is measured in bits per second(bps), Mbps,
and Gbps
For todays application-intensive networks, Old 10Mbps is not
enough, 100Mbps is very common and 1000Mbps is used too.

Network Media

Cable-based media
Coaxial

Twisted pair

Copper wire to conduct the signals electronically

Was the choice for LAN for many years.
Retiring
Copper wire to conduct too
Most widely used

Fiber-optic

transmits the signals as light

Uses glass or plastic conductor and
High Cost. Restricted to where segment length and
higher speeds are needed.

Server room, backbone

Twisted-pair cabling
Has been around for a long time
Created for voice transmissions
Most widely used media for networking

Lighter
More flexible
Easier to install
Cheaper
Greater speeds

Two types:

Unshielded twisted pair (UTP)

Shielded twisted pair (STP)

Twisted-pair cabling

UTP is more commonplace

STP

provides the extra shielding by using an insulating

material wrapped around the wire
Greater resistance to EMI and attenuation
More cost

Five main categories

Category Cable Types

Application

UTP

Analog voice

UTP

Digital voice, 1Mbps data

UTP, STP

16Mbps data

UTP, STP

20Mbps data

5, 5e

UTP, STP

Data, 100Mbps, 1G

6, 6e

UTP, STP

Data, 1G, 10G

RJ-45 connectors

RJ-45 are used with twisted-pair cabling.

Resemble ordinary phone jacks (RJ-11)
Eight wires instead of four
Larger.
Check out this page for how to make cat5
cable. http://www.tomax7.com/aplus/cat5.htm

Fiber-optic cable
Use light transmissions
EMI, crosstalk and attenuation become no
issue.
Well suited for data, video and voice
transmissions
Most secure of all cable media
Installation and maintenance procedures
require skills
Cost of cable
Cost of retrofitting of existing network
equipment because incompatible with most
electronic network equipment

Fiber-optic cable

Single mode fiber:

A single direct bean of light, allowing for greater distances

and increased transfer speeds.

Multimode fiber:

Many beams of light travel through the cable

This strategy weakens the signal, reducing the length and
speed the data signal can travel.

Fiber-optic connectors
There are a variety of connectors and several ways of
Connecting these connectors, such bayonet, snap-lock,
and push-pull connectors. A couple here:

FC

MIC, Standard FDDI

connector
ST
LC

SC

SC duplex

Wireless media

Three types:

Radio wave
Infrared
Microwave

Speeds of wireless solutions dont keep

pace with cable solutions
Installation and maintenance are far more
complicated and costly.
Some solutions require line-of-sight, such
as infrared and microwave.

IEEE 802.3 standards

IEEE 802.3 standards defines a range of

networking systems that are bases on the
original Ethernet standard.
Standard

Cable type

Segment
Length

Connector

Topology

10Base2

Thin Coaxial

185 meters

BNC

Physical bus

10Base5

Thick
Coaxial

500 meters

Vampire Taps Physical bus

10BaseT

Category
3,4,5 twisted
pair

100 meters

RJ-45

Physical star

Fast Ethernet IEEE 802.3u

Standard

Cable Type

Segment
Length

Conn Topology
ector

100BaseTx Category 5 UTP

100 meters

RJ-45 Physical star

100BaseT4 Category 3,4,5 UTP

100 meters

RJ-45 Physical star

100BaseF
X

412/Multimode
fiber-optic
10,000/singlemode fiberoptic

SC,S
T,MI
C

Multimode/Single-mode
fiber-optic cable

Physical star

Gigabit Ethernet
802.3z and 802.3ab
Standard

Cable Type

Segment length

Connector

1000BaseLX

Multimode/ singlemode fiber

550/multimode
5000/single-mode

Fiber connectors

1000BaseSX

Multimode fiber

550 meters using 50

Micron multimode
fiber

Fiber connectors

1000BaseCX

STP twisted pair

25 meters

9-pin shielded
connector, 8-pin fiber
channel type 2
connector

1000BaseT

Category 5 UTP

100 meters

RJ-45

28

Check out this page for how to make cat5

cable.
http://www.tomax7.com/aplus/cat5.htm
Color codes

Pin Number Designations

There are pin number designations for each color in T568B
The pin designations are as follows:
Color Codes for T568B
Pincolor
pair
name
--- -----
-----------1 wh/or
2
TxData +
2 or
2
TxData
3 wh/grn 3
RecvData+
4 blu
1
5 wh/blu 1
6 grn
3
RecvData7 wh/brn 4
8 brn
4

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The pinouts for a crossover cable

Straight-through

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Crossover cable

Networking Devices

31

repeaters
Hubs
Switches
Bridges
Routes
Gateways
Network Interface Cards (NICs)
Wireless access points
Modems

Hubs
The bottom of the networking food chain
Connect device and create larger networks
Small hubs 5-8 ports (workgroup hubs)
Some hubs have more ports, up to 32
normally
Direct data packets to all devices
connected to the hub - shared bandwidth

animation

Scalability, Collision, inefficient

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Bridges

Divide larger networks into smaller sections

Check MAC address, forward or block the data
Learning bridge builds list of MAC address by
watching the traffic on the network.
Two issues to consider:

Placement 80/20 rule

Bridging loops

IEEE 802.1d Spanning tree protocol

Types of bridges

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Transparent bridge
Source route bridge
Translational bridge

Bridges

Source Route Bridge

Used in Token Ring networks.

.
The entire path
(ring number and
bridge number) is embedded
within Packet

Translational bridge

Used to convert one networking

data format to another.

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Search frame
Route discovery frame

For example, from Token Ring to

Ethernet and vice versa.

Switches
Like hub, connectivity points of Ethernet
network
Forward only to the port that connects to
the destination device

knows MAC address

Match the MAC address in the data it receives.

Fully switched network, a dedicated

segment for each device is connected to
switch. Expensive.

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Switches

Allow full duplex Ethernet

Nodes only communicate with switch, never

directly to each other
Use twisted pair or fiber optic cabling, using
separate conductors for sending and receiving
data.

collision pair is used to transmit data

It was half duplex before one device can transmit at one
given time,

double the capacity, 100Mbps become 200Mbps

Most LAN are mixed with hubs and switches.

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37

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/473/lan-switch-cisco.shtml

Switch routing method

Packet-based switches use one of the
following method to route packet.
Cut-through

Forward as soon as it received the destination

MAC first 14 bytes
Can cause propagation of error

Store-and-forward

Error checked before being forwarded

Errors are not propagated through network

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Bad frames are discarded

Error checking takes time.

Considerably slower

Switch Routing Method

FragmentFree

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Take the advantage of both.

Check errors by reading the first 64byte of packets
where collision most likely happens
Offer near cut-through switching performance

Switch physical design

LAN switches vary in their physical design
Shared-memory

Matrix

Internal grid with input port and output crossing

each other
First check MAC, then switch makes a connection
where two ports (input/output) intersect

Bus-architecture

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Common buffer for all ports

Common-bus
Dedicated buffer for each port and a circuit to
control the bus access

Switch and Transparent Bridging

Most LAN switches use transparent bridging

to create address lookup tables
Transparent bridging is a technology that
allows a switch to learn everything it needs
to know about the location of nodes on the
network within the network administrator
having to do anything. Has five parts:

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Learning
Flooding
Filtering
Forwarding
Aging

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/lab-switch10.htm
42

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/473/lan-switch-transparent.swf

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/473/lan-switch-cisco.shtml
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Hub and switch cabling

To create larger networks, connect hubs and

switches using

Standard port - Medium Dependent InterfaceCrossed (MDI-X)

To see each other as an extension, no signal to be

crossed

Using crossover cable between two MDI-X ports

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Two wires are crossed internally

Medium Dependent Interface (MDI)

Standard port with special cable

Special ports with a standard cable

To uncross the internal crossing

Punch_down panels

Wiring closets

45

http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?
v=3wdDRtGLiow

Labeling schemes

Routers
Create larger networks by joining two
networks segments.
Dedicated hardware device or computer
systems with more than one network
interface and routing software.
Routing table

Static routing
Dynamic routing

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Use special routing protocols to pass info to other

routers.
Distance Vector Routing (RIP)
Link state routing (OSPF)

Switch and Router

Different with router
Typically switch works on lower level (Data
link Layer) while Router works in higher level
(Network Layer)
Algorithms for router and switch about how to
forward packers are different
For example, switch will forward broadcast, so does
hub, not router- the address has to be specific.
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Routers and Layer 3 Switch

While most switches operate at the Data link

layer(layer2), some incorporate features of a
router and operate at the network layer (layer3).
Layer 3 switches are faster because they are build
on switching hardware

a router is needed for VLANS communication

Why not build a router in the switch itself and do the
forwarding in hardware
EX: IP forwarding all in hardware

48

Route lookup
Decrement the Time to Live (TTL)
Recalculation the checksum
Forward the frame the frame to correct output port

49

Gateways

Any device that translate one data format to

another is called a gateway.

Router
Bridge
Software

Gateway and default gateway

50

CSU/DSU

Channel Server Unit/Digital Service Unit

( CSU/DSU) or Data Service Unit
Convert digital format on LAN into signal used
on WAN

51

Sit between LAN and access point provided by

telecom company
Many routers have CSU/DSU functionality

Wireless access points

Devices that provide connectivity between

wireless LAN devices and in most cases a
wired network.
Antennae
Convert signal from radio wave or other to
that used on the LANs.

52

Modems

Modulator/Demodulator, convert digital signal

generated by computer into analog signals
that can travel over conventional phone line.
Connect to ISP
Dialing up to a LAN
Internal add-in expansion cards or external
devices connect to serial or USB port

PCMCIA cards for laptop

Speed

Modem itself
Speed of the Universal Asynchronous
Receiver/Transmitter (UART) chip,

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UART 16950 has the speed of 921,600kbp

Network cards

Called Network Interface Cards (NIC)

Attached to external port

PC card
Internal Network card

System bus compatibility

System Resources device conflict

Media compatibility

Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)

Industry Standard Architecture (ISA)

Twisted pair, coaxial or fiber-optic connection?

Driver

54

ISDN adapters
Integrated Services Digital Networking
(ISDN) is a remote access and WAN
technology that can be used in place of a
Plain old telephone systems dial-up link
Greater speeds than modem, pick up and
drop the line considerable faster.
Require ISDN terminal adapter

55

Although digital signal, different format with the

those used on LAN.
Create multiple communication channels on a
single line.

System area network cards

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Connecting computer systems in a cluster

High-performance unit.

Device
Hub

Function/Purpose
Connects devices on a
twisted-pair network.
Connects devices on a
twisted-pair network.

Key Points
A hub does not perform any tasks besides signal
regeneration.
A switch forwards data to its destination by using the MAC
address embedded in each packet.

Bridge

Divides networks to reduce

overall network traffic.

A bridge allows or prevents data from passing through it by

reading the MAC address.

Router

Connects networks together. A router uses the software-configured network address to

make forwarding decisions.

Gateway

Translates from one data

format to another.

Gateways can be hardware or software based. Any device

that translates data formats is called a gateway.

CSU/DSU

Translates digital signals

used on a LAN to those used
on a WAN.
Enables systems to connect
to the network.

CSU/DSU functionality is sometimes incorporated into

other devices, such as a router with a WAN connection.

Connects devices to ISDN

lines.

ISDN is a digital WAN technology often used in place of

slower modem links. ISDN terminal adapters are required
to reformat the data format for transmission on ISDN links.

Switch

Network card
ISDN terminal
adapter

System area network Used in server clusters to

card
provide connectivity between
nodes.
WAP
Provides network capabilities
to wireless network devices.
Modem
57

Provides serial
communication capabilities
across phone lines.

Network interfaces can be add-in expansion cards,

PCMCIA cards, or built-in interfaces.

System area network cards are high-performance devices

capable of coping with the demands of clustering
applications.
A WAP is often used to connect to a wired network, thereby
acting as a link between wired and wireless portions of the
network.
Modems modulate the digital signal into analog at the
sending end and perform the reverse function at the
receiving end.

MAC addresses
Unique 6-byte address burned info network
interface, expressed in hexadecimal
No matter which protocol is used, MAC
address is the means by which the network
interface is identified on the network.
IEEE managing MAC address assignment

IEEE has a system Identifying the manufacturer

by looking at the MAC address

Discover MAC address, depend on the OS

Ifconfig /all on WINDOWs NT/2000
Ifconfig a on Linux/UNIX

58

Watch the Intel Gigabit demo.

59

http://www.intel.com/network/connectivity/resourc
es/demos/gigabit/base.swf

IEEE and Networking standards

Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers

(IEEE) developed a series of networking
standards

60

Networking technologies developed by

manufacturers are Compatible
Cabling, networking devices and protocols are all
interchangeable under the banner of a specific
IEEE

Specification Name
802.1

Internetworking

802.2

The LLC(Logincal Link Control) sublayer

802.3

CSMA/CD ( Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision

Detection) for Ethernet networks

802.4

A token passing bus

802.5

Token Ring networks

802.6

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

802.7

Broadband Technical Advisory Group

802.8

Fiber-Optic Technical Advisory Group

802.9

Integrated Voice and Data Networks

802.10

Standards for Interoperable LAN/MAN Security (SILS) (Network

Security)

802.11

Wireless networks

802.12

100Mbps technologies, including 100BASEVG-AnyLAN

61

802.3 IEEE standard

Defines characteristics for Ethernet
networks.
New additions, 802.3u for Fast Ethernet,
802.3z for Gigabit Ethernet, referred to as
802.3x.
Speed: Original 10Mbps, Fast Ethernet
100Mbps, Gigabit Ethernet 1000Mbps
Topology: bus or star.
Media: Coaxial and twisted pair cabling,
also fiber optic cable.
Access method: CSMA/CD

62

802.5 IEEE standard

Specifies the characteristics for Token Ring
Networks.
Introduced by IBM in the mid 80s, network
topology of choice until the rise of the
popularity of Ethernet.
Speed: 4 to 16Mbps
Topology: logical ring and most often a
physical star. Logical ring is often created
in the Multistation Access Unit (MSAU)
Media: twisted pair cabling.
Access method: token passing.

63

802.11b IEEE Standard

64

Specifies the characteristics of wireless LAN

Ethernet networks.
Special devices called wireless access points to
allow communicate.
Also connect to wired networks to create wireless
portions of entire networks.
Speed: 802.11b specifies 11M. Today 802.11g can
be 108Mbps
Media: 802.11b standard is 2.4G radio waves.
Topology: physical wireless, logical bus
Access method: Carrier Sense Multiple
Access/Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA ), a variation
of CSMA/CD.

FDDI
Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI)
standard was developed by American
National Standards Institute (ANSI)
Dual ring technology for fault tolerance
Speed: 100Mbps or higher
Topology: dual ring topology
Media: fiber optic cable, > 2 kilometers.
Also possible use copper wire as Copper
Distributed Data Interface (CDDI).
Access method: token-passing access
method

65

Standard

Speed

802.3

10Mbps

Physical
Topology

Logical
Topology

Media

Access
Method

Bus and Star

Coaxial and
Twisted pair

CSMA/CD

(802.3u)

100Mbps( Fast
Ethernet)

Star

Bus

Twisted pair

CSMA/CD

(802.3z)

1000Mbps

Star

Bus

Twisted pair

CSMA/CD

802.5

4Mbps and
16Mbps

Star

Ring

Twisted pair

Token
passing

802.11b

11Mbps

Wireless

Bus

Radio waves

CSMA/CA

FDDI

100Mbps

Dual Ring

Ring

Fiber-optic
Twisted
pair/CDDI

Token
passing

66