Unit: 2 introductions to Computer Networks

Network: - The collection of interconnected computing devices is called a network. Two

computing devices are said to be interconnected if they are capable of sharing and
exchanging information.

Benefits of Network: -
(1)Resource Sharing: Resource Sharing means to make the applications/programs, data
(files) and peripherals available to anyone on the network irrespective of the physical
location of the resources and the user.
(2)Reliability: Reliability means to keep the copy of a file on two or more different
machines, so if one of them is unavailable (due to some hardware crash or any other) them
its other copy can be used.
(3)Cost Factor: Cost factor means it greatly reduces the cost since the resources can be
shared. For example a Printer or a Scanner can be shared among many computers in an
office/Lab.
(4)Communication Medium: Communication Medium means one can send and receive
messages. Whatever the changes at one end are done, can be immediately noticed at
another.

EVOLUTION OF NETWORKING
ARPANET (1969) – US Government formed an agency named ARPANET( Advanced
Research Project Agency Network) to connect computers at various universities and
defense agencies to share data/information efficiently among all of them. They use NCP
(Network Control Protocol) to connect universities.
In 1982 TCP/IP introduced as standard protocol on ARPANET.
NSFNET (1985) - National Science Foundation Network was a program of coordinated,
evolving projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF)from 1985 to 1995 to
promote advanced research and education networking in the United States. The program
created several nationwide backbone computer networks in support of these initiatives.
Initially created to link researchers to the NSF-funded supercomputing centers, through
further public funding and private industry partnerships it developed into a major part of
the Internet backbone.
INTERNET (1990) - INTER-connection NETwork , The worldwide network of networks. The
Berners-Lee at CERN developed HTML and URL, thus giving the birth to world wide
web(www)
Father of WWW.- Tim berner lee.
Father of internet- Vint cert & bob kahn. They developed TCP/IP

Types of Computer Network:

Based on the geographical area covered and data transfer rate, computer networks are
broadly categorized as
 PAN (Personal Area Network)
 LAN (Local Area Network)
 MAN (Metropolitan Area Network)
 WAN (Wide Area Network)

1. PAN (Personal Area Network): A Personal Area Network is computer network organized
around an individual person.
 A PAN, or Personal Area Network, is a
network for connecting personal devices like
smartphones, laptops, and wearable’s within
a short range.
 It generally covers a range of less than 10
meters.
 Personal Area Networks can be constructed
with cables or wirelessly.
 It can be classified in two types
1. Piconet- A piconet can have up to 8 devices (1 master and 7 slave)
2. Scatternet –Group of piconets
2. LAN (Local Area Network):
 A Local Area Network (LAN) is a network that is limited to a small area. It is generally
limited to a geographic area such as within lab, school or building.
 It is generally privately-owned networks over a distance up to a few kilometers (up to
1 KM). Now-a-days, we also have WLAN (Wireless LAN) which is based on wireless
network.
 It is used to share resources between end users.
 Mostly operates on private IP.
 The connectivity is done by means of wires, Ethernet cables, fiber optics or Wi-Fi.
 The data transfer rate of LAN is quite high usually 10 Mbps to 1000 Mbps (1Gbps).

3. MAN (Metropolitan Area Network):

 MAN is an extended form of LAN which covers a larger geographical area like a city or
a town.
 Data transfer rate of MAN also range in Mbps, but it is considerably less as compared
to LAN.
 Cable TV network or cable based broadband internet services are examples of MAN.
 Range 5 Km to 50 KM

WAN (Wide Area Network): These are the networks spread over large distances, say across
countries or even continents through cabling or satellite uplinks are called WAN. Typically, a
WAN combines multiple LANs that are geographically separated. It is a network of network.
The world’s most popular WAN is the Internet.
A. Internet-
 Network of Networks
 Internetwork
 Public
 Father of internet – Vint Cert & Bob kahn
B. Intranet-
 Private network
 Within organization
 Intranet user can use internet but internet user cannot access intranet.
Comparison between PAN, LAN, MAN and WAN: -

Network Devices:
Hardware device that are used to connect computers, printers, fax machines and other
electronic devices to a network are called network device.
There are many types of network devices used in networking and some of them are
described below:
1. Modem (MOdulator DEModulator)
It is a device that converts digital signal to analog signal (modulator) at the sender’s site and
converts back analog signal to digital signal (demodulator) at the receiver’s end, in order to
make communication possible via telephone lines. It enables a computer to transmit data
over telephone or cable lines.

It is used to provide internet facility in the computer system.

There are two types of MODEM, which are as follows
(i) Internal Modem Fixed within a computer.
(ii) External Modem Connected externally to a computer.
An Internet service provider (ISP) is any organization that provides services for accessing
the Internet.
2. Ethernet card:
 Ethernet card, also known as Network Interface Card (NIC card in short) is a network
adapter used to set up a wired network. It acts as an interface between computer and
the network.
 Ethernet cards can support data transfer between 10 Mbps and 1 Gbps (1000 Mbps).
 Each NIC has a MAC address, which helps in uniquely identifying the computer on the
network.
 MAC(Media Access Control) is a physical address of LAN/ Ethernet Card. It is a 48 bit
address. Like 12:A2:CD:45:A1:00
 It is given by manufacturing company at the time of manufacturing.

3. RJ45 (Registered Jack):-

RJ 45 or Registered Jack-45 is an eight-pin connector
that is used exclusively with Ethernet cables for
networking. It is a standard networking interface
that can be seen at the end of all network cables.

4. Repeater:
Repeater is an analog device, which is used to
amplify and regenerate the signals when they are
transported over a long distance in order to
compensate for transmission losses.
It boost the signal strength.
5. Hub:
 A Hub is a connecting device which connects multiple computers together to form a
Local Area Network (LAN). It provides
various RJ-45 ports to connect Twisted
Pair cable in STAR topology, making them
act as a single network segment.
 It broadcast the signals to all computers
connected in the network. Data arriving
on any of the lines are sent out on all the
others. It does not manage the network
traffic.
 The limitation of Hub is that if data from two devices come at the same time, they
will collide.
Active Hub: Amplifies the signal when required and works as a Repeater.
Passive Hub: It simply passes the signal without any change.

6. Switch:
 A switch is a hardware device, which is used to
connect several nodes to form a Network.
 It is also called intelligent hub because it filter
data based on MAC.
 It redirects the received signals only to the
intended Node i.e. controls Network traffic.
 It is also used to segment a big network into
different Sub networks (Subnet) to control the
network traffic and security.

Hub Switch
There is a vast difference between switch Switch forwards each incoming packet to
and hub. A hub forwards each incoming the specified recipient.
packet (data) to all the hub ports
Hub is a broadcast type transmission. While switch is a Unicast, multicast and
broadcast type transmission.
Layer 1 device which works on Physical layer Layer 2 device which works on data link
layer.
Hub is a half-duplex transmission mode. While switch is a full duplex transmission
mode.
In hub, Packet filtering is not provided. While in switch, Packet filtering is provided.
In hub, there is only one collision domain. While in switch, different ports have own
collision domain.
7. Router:
 A router is used to connect different networks together. i.e. for two or more LANs to be
interconnected, you need a router
 The basic role of Routers in a network is to determine the best possible route (shortest
path) for the data packets to be transmitted. In a large network (WAN), multiple routers
works to facilitate speedy delivery of data packets.
 A router connects a local area network (LAN) to the internet (WAN).
 Router maintains a table of addresses (called routing table) that keeps a track of paths
connected to it.
 It is layer 3 device that works on network layer.

8. Gateway:
 A gateway is a device, which is used to connect dissimilar networks.
 The gateway establishes an intelligent connection between a local network and external
networks, which are completely different in structure.
 Gateway serves as the entry and exit point of a network, as all data coming in or going
out of a network must first pass through the gateway in order to use routing paths.
 Gateway is also called protocol converter that convert data packets from one protocol
to other and connects two dissimilar networks.
 A gateway can be implemented in hardware, software or both, but they are usually
implemented by software installed within a router.
 A LAN gets connected to Internet (WAN) using a gateway.
Network Topologies
 The physical arrangement or layout of computers and other peripherals in a network is
called its topology.
 Topology refers to the way in which the device/computer/workstations attached to the
network are interconnected.
Some common topologies are: Star, Bus, Tree, and Mesh.
1. BUS Topology or linear topology: -
The bus topology uses a common single cable
(backbone cable) to connect all the workstations.
Each computer performs its task of sending
messages without the help of the central server.
However, only one workstation can transmit a
message at a particular time in the bus topology.
 It is required multipoint connection.
 Data sent only one direction.
 Slow speed only one node can transmit at a time.
Advantages:
(i) Easy to connect and install.
(ii) Involves a low cost of installation time.
(iii) Can be easily extended.
Disadvantages:-
(i) The entire network shuts down if there is a failure in the central cable.
(ii) Only a single message can travel at a particular time.
(iii) Difficult to troubleshoot an error.

2. STAR Topology: -
In Star topology, each node is directly connected to a central
device like Hub or Switch. It is most popular topology to form
Local Area Networks (LAN).
Star topology is considered very effective, efficient and fast as
each device is directly connected with the central device.
Advantages:
(i) Easy to troubleshoot
(ii) A single node or workstation failure does not affects the entire network.
(iii) Any failure in a central networking device may lead to the failure of complete
network.
 (iv) Fault detection and removal of faulty parts is easier.

Disadvantages:
(i) Difficult to expand.
(ii) Longer cable is required.
(iii) The cost of the hub and the longer cables makes it expensive over others.
(iv) All nodes are dependent on central node. If the central device (Switch) goes down
then entire network breaks down.

3. Mash Topology: -
 In this topology all nodes (devices) are directly connected with every other nodes.
Completely interconnected network.
 This is most reliable topology as if a node gets down, it does not cause any break
in the transmission of data between other nodes.
 This topology is also more secure as compared to other topologies because each
cable between two nodes carries different data.
 Wiring is complex and cabling cost is high in creating such networks
 Bidirectional communication.
 If there are n node then n-1 ports are required for each node and total n*(n-1)/2
no. of cables required. So it is most expensive topology also.

4. Ring Topology
In ring topology each node is connected to
exactly two other devices, one each on either
side. The nodes connected with each other thus
forms a ring. The link in a ring topology is
unidirectional. Thus, data can be transmitted in
one direction only (clockwise or
counterclockwise).
5. Tree or Hybrid Topology
It is a hierarchical topology, in which there are multiple branches and each branch can
have one or more basic topologies like star, ring and bus. Such topologies are usually
realized in WANs where multiple LANs are connected. Those LANs may be in the form of
a ring, bus or star.

Identifying a node in the network.

In computer network each node should be uniquely identified on network so that sender
and receiver can transmit data on network.
Each network device have two types of addresses

1. MAC ( Media Access Controller Address)

 The MAC address, also known as the physical or hardware address, is a unique value
associated with a network adapter called a NIC. The MAC address is engraved on NIC
at the time of manufacturing and thus it is a permanent address.
 Each MAC address is a 12-digit hexadecimal numbers (48 bits in length), of which the
first six digits (24 bits) contain the manufacturer’s ID called Organizational Unique
Identifier (OUI) and the later six digits (24 bits) represents the serial number assigned
to the card by the manufacturer.
 A sample MAC address looks like:

2. IP Address
IP address, also known as Internet Protocol address or logical address, is also a unique
address that can be used to uniquely identify each node in a network. The IP addresses are
assigned to each node in a network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.
There are two types of ip address
a. IPV4- IP address version 4. This is 32 bit ip address. Represented by 4 octet of decimal
no. 8 bit each.
Like 192.168.0.178 (each octet can have 0-255 value)

b. IPV-6 (128 bit address)-An IPv6 address is represented by eight groups of hexadecimal
(base-16) numbers separated by colons.
Like 00A1:00FC:0000:0000:0000:0019:00B1:0011
Overview of Internet:
o Internet is a network of networks that consists of millions of networks that are linked by
various wired, wireless, and optical networking technologies.
o The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the
standard Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP).

World Wide Web (WWW):

 World Wide Web, which is also known as a Web.
 It is a collection of websites or web pages stored in web servers and connected to local
computers through the internet.
 These websites contain text pages, digital images, audios, videos, etc. There sources of
the Web (HTML pages) are transferred via the Hypertext Transfer Protocol.
 In 1990 the British Programmer Tim Berners-Lee developed Hypertext and HTML to
create World Wide Web (WWW).

There are three fundamental technologies that lead to create web.

HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language):
Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) is a language which is used to design standardized
Web Pages, so that the Web contents can be read and under stood from any computer
using web browser. Basic structure of every web page is designed using HTML. HTML uses
tags to define the way page content should be displayed by the web browser. Web pages
are stored as .html or .htm files.
URI – Uniform Resource Identifier
 It is a unique address or path for each resource located on the web. It is also known as
Uniform Resource Locator (URL). Every page on the web has a unique URL.
 Examples are: https://www.mhrd.gov.in, http://www.ncert.nic.in,
http://www.airindia.in, etc.
 URL is sometimes also called web address. A URL contains protocol, domain, sub domain
and name of web page along with directory.

 In the above URL, http is the protocol name, it can be https, http, FTP, Telnet, etc.
 www is a sub domain.
 ncert.nic.in is the domain name.
 Textbook is directory and textbook.htm is webpage.
HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol)
The Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is a set of rules which is used to retrieve linked web pages
across the web. The more secure and advanced version is HTTPS.

Web Page:
 A web page is a document on the WWW that is viewed in a web browser. Basic
structure of a web page is created using HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language).
 To make web pages more attractive, various styling CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and
formatting are applied on a web page.
 Further, program codes called scripts also used to make webpage interactive and define
different actions and behavior. JavaScript, PHP and Python are commonly used script
language.
 The first page of the website is called a home page which contains Menus and
Hyperlinks for other web pages.
 A web page is usually a part of a website and may contain information in different
forms, such as: text, images, audio & video, Hyperlinks, interactive contents (chat etc.)
A web page can be of two types: Static Web Page and Dynamic Web Page

Website:
 Website is a collection of related web pages that may contain text, images, audio and
video. 
 The first page of a website is called home page. 
 Each website has specific internet address (URL) that you need to enter in your browser
to access a website.
 A website is a collection of web pages related through hyperlinks, and saved on a web
server. A visitor can navigate pages by clicking on hyperlinks.
 A website can be accessed by providing the address of the website (URL) in the
browser. The main page of website (Home page) will be open when it is opened on the
browser.

Web Browsers:
 A web browser or simply ‘browser’ is a software application used to access information
on the World Wide Web. 
 When a user requests some information, the web browser fetches the data from a web
server and then displays the webpage on the user’s screen.
 The popular web browsers are Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer,
Opera, Safari, Lynx and Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Edge etc.

Web Server:
 A web server is used to store and deliver the contents of a website to web clients such
as a browser.
 A Computer stores web server software and a website's contents (HTML pages, images,
CSS style sheets, and JavaScript files).
 Web server as a software, is a specialized program that understands URLs or web
addresses coming as requests from browsers, and responds to those requests.
 The server is assigned a unique domain name.
 The web server then accepts request, interprets, searches and responds (HTTP
response) against request of the web browser. The requested web page is then
displayed in the browser of the client.
 If the requested web page is not found, web server generates “Error: 404 Not found” as
a response. Web Hosting:
 A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and
organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. 
 In Simple, uploading of website on Web Server is known as hoisting. 
 To upload the website, we need some web space on server to upload website.

Domain Name System

 The Domain Name System (DNS) is the internet's phonebook, translating human-
readable domain names (like www.example.com) into machine-readable IP
addresses (like 192.0.2.1). This allows users to access websites and other online
resources using familiar names instead of complex numerical addresses.

DNS Server
DNS server is responsible for resolution domain name to corresponding web server IP -
Address and vice versa.
When we enter a URL on a web browser, the HTTP protocol approaches a computer server
called DNS server to obtain the IP address corresponding to that domain name. After
getting the IP address, the HTTP protocol retrieves the information and loads it in our
browser.
A DNS server maintains a database of domain names and their corresponding IP addresses.