Local Area Network

Networking Technology

Computer Network & Usage

A network is a collection of computers and devices connected by communication

channels that facilitates communications among users and allows users to share
resources with other users. Some examples of resources are data, information,
hardware and software. The followings are explained the advantage of using a network.

1. Facilitating communications.
Using a network, people and communicate efficiently and easily via e-mail, instant
messaging, chat rooms, telephony, video telephone calls and video conferencing.
Sometimes communications occur within a business network. Other times, they
occur globally through the internet.

2. Retrieving Remote Information:

Through computer networks, users can retrieve remote information on a variety of
topics. The information is stored in remote databases to which the user gains access
through information systems like the World Wide Web.

3. Sharing data and information:

In a networked environment any authorized computer user can access data and
information stored on other computers on the network. A large company, for
example might have a database of customer information any authorized person,
including mobile user using hand held computer to connect to the network, can
access this database.

4. Sharing software
Users connected to a network can access software on the network. To support
multiple user access of software, most software vendors sell network versions of
their software. Sharing software via network usually costs less than buying individual
copies of the software package for each computer.

5. Sharing hardware.
In a networked environment, each computer on a network can access and use
hardware on the network.

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Communication Types

Simplex communication
Simplex data communication specifies the communication on a given channel can
only flow in one direction. In this environment, only one entity is allowed to
transmit and all others act as receivers.

It should be noted that the sending device can’t receive data and the receiving
entity can’t transmit data.

Eg: Local radio station. This represents a one-way communication stream simplex
communication data transfer in one direction only.

Half - Duplex communication

Unlike simplex communication, half – duplex communication allows each device
to send and receive data, but only one device at a time can transmit.

A key point is that when you are transmitting the entire channel is being used for
that purpose. You can’t receive and transmit at some time.

The best examples of walkie-talkie.

Half – duplex communication data transfer both directions but only one direction
at a time.

Full - Duplex communication

Full – Duplex communication provides for two way communicate at the same
time.

Every day example of full-duplex communication would be your basic telephone

system. Full-duplex communication allows both parties to transmit and receive at
the same time.

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Communication Patterns

Hosts on a network use similar message patterns to communicate.

Unicast addresses – represent a single LAN interface. A unicast frame will be

sent to a specific device, not to a group of devices on the LAN.

Broadcast addresses – represent all devices on the LAN. Frames sent to a

broadcast address will be delivered to all devices on the LAN.

Multicast addresses – represent a group of devices in a LAN. A frame sent to a

multicast address will be forwarded to a group of devices on the LAN.

Communication Channel

A channel is an important aspect of communications. This the path through which

information passes between two devices. Bandwidth is width of the
communication channels. The higher of the bandwidth, the more data and the
information the channel can transmit.

Transmission media consists of materials techniques capable of carrying one or

more signals. When you send data from your computer, the signal carrying the
data most likely travels over a variety of transmission media especially when the
transmission is sent a long distance.

Types of transmission media / channels

Coaxial cable
Coaxial cable, typically called coax
cable, uses a center core conductor
that is insulated and surrounded by
either a braded or solid thin foil
aluminum shield.

Coax cable is very similar in

appearance to the type use by
television cables in your home. However, it
should be noted that these are not the same
and can’t be interchanged.
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Due to the amount of shielding, coax cable is very resistant to cross talk and EMI
(Electro Magnetic Interference)

A BNC connector is used to connect to a computer to a coaxial cable in 10 BASE -2

Ethernet network.

10 BASE – 2 Is a 10 MHz Base band network on a cable extending up to 185

meters – around in up to 200 meters without a repeater cable.

A BNC male connector has a pin that connects to the primary contacting wire and
then is lock in place with an outer ring that turns into lock position.

Twisted pair
Twisted pair is an ordinary copper wire that
connects home and many business computers
to the network.

To reduce cross talk, Electro Magnetic

induction between pairs of wires, two
insulated copper wires are twisted around
each other.

Each connection on twisted pair requires both wires. For some business locations,
twisted pair is in closed in a shielded that function as grown. This is known as
Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) ordinary wire to the home is Unshielded Twisted Pair
(UTP).

UTP doesn’t have an added layer of shielding and is therefore thinner and
cheaper to manufacture. UTP cables rated in categories. CAT 5 is better able to
create a stable platform for data transmissions grater than 10 Mbps.

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The main physical difference between CAT 3 and CAT 5 cable is the number of
twists per inch. The CAT 5 cable has many more twists than CAT 3.

Fiber optic
Fiber optic cable users a small strand of glass, instead of copper, as the core of
cable it consists of a glass center core surrounded by a plastic sheath and a larger
of gel or wire stands.

Fiber optic cables offer a major advantage over copper wire. It is almost
completely immune to EMI and doesn’t suffer from attenuation (loss of signal
strength over distances) light copper cable tends to be very expensive as
compared to copper wire.

However, this cost variance should decrease as more companies choose to

implement this technology.

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Advantages over copper based media:
 Supports greater distance up to 4 kilometers.
 Immune to EMI.
 Immune to RFI (Radio Frequency Interface)

Disadvantages of fiber optic cable:

 More expensive than copper based media.
 Difficult to install and support.

Maximum
Cables Connectors Cable system Speed
cable
Coaxial
BNC 10 BASE 2 10 Mbps 185 m
(Thin)
Coaxial (Thick) AUI 10 BASE 5 10 Mbps 500 m
10 BASE T -
UTP or STP RJ45 4 to 100 Mbps 100 m
100 BASE T
100 BASE FL 1000
Fiber optics ST or SC 10 to 1Gbps 2 to 4 km
BASE FX