Course Name: Computer Networks
TOPIC: TYPES OF NETWORKS
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What is
Network?
• A network consists of two or more computers that are linked in
order to share resources exchange files, or allow electronic
communications.
• The computers on a network may be linked through cables,
telephone lines, radio waves, satellites, or infrared light
beams.
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Different Types of
Networks
Depending upon the geographical area covered by a network,
it is classified as:
Local Area Network (LAN)
Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
Wide Area Network (WAN)
Personal Area Network (PAN)
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Local Area Network
(LAN)
• A LAN is a network that is used for communicating among computer
devices, usually within an office building or home.
• LAN’s enable the sharing of resources such as files or hardware
devices that may be needed by multiple users.
• Is limited in size, typically spanning a few hundred meters, and no more
than a mile.
• Is fast, with speeds from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps.
• Requires little wiring, typically a single cable connecting to each
device.
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Local Area Network
(LAN)
• LAN’s can be either wired or wireless. Twisted pair, coax or fiber optic
cable can be used in wired LAN’s.
• Every LAN uses a protocol – a set of rules that governs how packets
are configured and transmitted.
• Has lower cost compared to MAN’s or WAN’s
• Nodes in a LAN are linked together with a certain topology. These
topologies include: Bus, Ring, Star.
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Local Area Network
(LAN)
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Local Area Network
(LAN)
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LAN Transmission
Methods
Commonly three LAN data transmissions methods are:
• Unicast
• Multicast
• Broadcast
Unicast is communication between a single sender and a single receiver over
a network.
Multicast transmission consists of a communication between a single sender
and multiple receivers.
Broadcast transmission consists of a single data packets that is
copied and sent to all nodes on the network.
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Types of LAN Models: Peer
to peer
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Client-Server based Clients
Server
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Advantages of LAN
Sharing of resources: All the resources are attached to one network and if any
computer needs any resources then it can be shared with the required computer.
Client and server relationship: All the data from attached computers can be stored
in one server. If any computer (Client) needs data then that computer user can simply
log in and access the data from the server.
Sharing of the internet: In offices and net cafes, we can see that one internet
connection is shared between all computers.
Securing of data: Keeping data on the server is more secure. And if you want to
change or remove any data you can do it easily on one server computer and other
computers can access updated data.
Communication is easy, fast, and time-saving: In LAN computers can exchange
data and messages in the easy and fast way.
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Disadvantages of
LAN
• Expensive To Install
• Requires Administrative
Time
• File Server May Fail
• Cables May Break
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Metropolitan Area Network
(MAN)
• A metropolitan area network (MAN) is a large computer
network that usually spans a city or a large campus.
• A MAN is optimized for a larger geographical area than a
LAN, ranging from several blocks of buildings to entire
cities.
• A MAN might be owned and operated by a single
organization, but it usually will be used by many individuals
and organizations.
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Metropolitan Area
Network(MAN)
• A MAN often acts as a high speed network to allow sharing of
regional resources.
• A MAN typically covers an area of between 5 and 50
km diameter.
• Examples of MAN: Telephone company network that provides a
high speed DSL to customers and cable TV network.
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Metropolitan Area Network
(MAN)
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Wide Area Network
(WAN)
• WAN covers a large geographic area such as country, continent
or even whole of the world.
• A WAN is two or more LANs connected together. The LANs
can be many miles apart.
• To cover great distances, WANs may transmit data over
leased
high-speed phone lines or wireless links such as satellites.
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Wide Area Network
(WAN)
• Multiple LANs can be connected together using devices
such as bridges, routers, or gateways, which enable
them to share data.
• The world's most popular WAN is the Internet.
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Personal Area Network
(PAN)
• A PAN is a network that is used for communicating among computers
and computer devices (including telephones) in close proximity of
around a few meters within a room.
• It can be used for communicating between the devices themselves, or
for connecting to a larger network such as the internet.
• PAN’s can be wired or wireless.
• Examples of wireless PAN, or WPAN, devices include cell phone
headsets, wireless keyboards, wireless mice, printers, bar code scanners
and game consoles, BlueTooth etc.
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Personal Area Network (PAN)
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Network Topologies
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What is a Topology?
Network topologies describe the ways in which the
elements of a network are mapped. They describe
the physical and logical arrangement of the
network nodes.
• The physical topology of a network refers to the
configuration of cables, computers, and other
peripherals
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Network Topologies
1) Bus topology
2) Star topology
3) Ring topology
4) Tree topology
5) Hybrid topology
6) Mesh topology
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Bus topology
All networked nodes are interconnected, peer to
peer, using a single cable.
The cable to which the nodes connect is called a
"backbone". If the backbone is broken, the entire
segment fails.
Both ends of the bus must be terminated with a
terminating resistor to prevent signal bounce.
Backbone
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Advantages of Bus topology
1) Easy to implement and extend
2) Well suited for temporary networks that
must be set up in a hurry
3) Typically the least cheapest topology to
implement
4) Failure of one station does not affect
others
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Disadvantages of Bus
topology
1) Difficult to administer/troubleshoot
2) Limited cable length and number of
stations
3) A cable break can disable the entire
network; no redundancy
4) Maintenance costs may be higher in the
long run
5) Performance degrades as additional
computers are added
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Ring topology
In Ring Topology Each networked
workstation had two connections: one to
each of its nearest neighbors
Data was transmitted unidirectional around
the ring
Sending and receiving of data takes place
by the help of TOKEN
Token contains a piece of information which
along with data is sent by the source
computer.
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Token Passing
This token then passes to next node,
which checks if the signal is intended to it
If yes, it receives it and passes the empty to
into the network
otherwise passes token along with the data to
next node.
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Advantages of Ring topology
1) This type of network topology is very organized
2) Performance is better than that of Bus topology
3) No need for network server to control the
connectivity between workstations
4) Additional components do not affect the
performance of network
5) Each computer has equal access to resources
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Disadvantages of Ring
topology
1) Each packet of data must pass through all
the computers between source and
destination, slower than star topology
2) If one workstation or port goes down, the
entire network gets affected
3) Network is highly dependent on the wire
which connects different components
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Star topology
A star topology is a topology for a (LAN) in
which all nodes are individually connected to a
central connection point, like a hub or a switch.
Each networked device in star topology can
access the media independently
Have become the dominant topology type in
contemporary LANs
Stars have made buses and rings obsolete in LAN
topologies
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Advantages of star topology
1) Compared to Bus topology it gives far
much better performance
2) Easy to connect new nodes or devices
3) Centralized management. It helps in
monitoring the network
4) Failure of one node or link doesn’t affect
the rest of network
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Disadvantages of star topology
1) If central device fails whole network goes
down
2) The use of hub, a router or a switch as
central device increases the overall cost of
the network
3) Performance and as well number of nodes
which can be added in such topology is
depended on capacity of central device
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A tree topology is a combination of bus topologies.
The cables branch out, and there are no closed
loops.
The tree begins at a Head End Controllers and
each branch terminates at an End Point
Controller.
A packet from one node to another will be sent
down all branches, and will be absorbed by the End
Point Controllers of the branches that does not
contain the Destination host.
Let’s do an example of going from Host 4 to Host
5. 34
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Mesh topology
A mesh topology is a network setup where each computer and network device is
interconnected with one another.
This topology setup allows for most transmissions to be distributed even if one of the
connections goes down.
It is a topology commonly used for wireless network. Below is a visual example of a
simple computer setup on a network using a mesh topology.
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Advantages of a mesh topology
Manages high amounts of traffic, because multiple
devices can transmit data simultaneously.
A failure of one device does not cause a break in
the network or transmission of data.
Adding additional devices does not disrupt data
transmission between other devices.
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Disadvantages of a mesh topology
The cost to implement is higher than other network
topologies, making it a less desirable option.
Building and maintaining the topology is difficult
and time consuming.
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A hybrid topology is one which
combines any two or more of the
previous topologies.
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STAR +
BUS
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RING +
BUS
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STAR +
RING
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Switc
h
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