PROJECT REPORT ON

COMPUTER NETWORKING
Submitted in partial fulfilment of requirements for award of degree of
Bachelor in Computer Applications.

MAGAd7 MAHILA COLLEGE

PATNA UNIVERSITY

Submitted by
SIMRAN RAJ
09160079

Under the guidance of

A.K AGARAWAL
Dy. Manager (System)
System Department, BCCL

BHARAT COKING COAL LIMITED

DHANBAD
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that SIMRAN RAJ (09160079), student of

COMPUTER APPLICATIONS of MAGADH MAHILA COLLEGE,
PATNA UNIVERSITY has successfully completed his project entitled
“COMPUTER NETWORKING” and its industrial training from 12th
June 2018 to 9th July 2018 at system department, B.C.C.L,
Headquarter Koyla Bhawan, Dhanbad.
It is hereby declared that the project done by her creditable study
carried out with sheer details and precision for the fulfilment of
purpose. I wish her all the best.

(A.K AGRAWAL)
Dy. manager
System department
KOYLA BHAWAN
B.C.C.L. DHANBAD
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that SIMRAN RAJ (09160079), student of COMPUTER

APPLICATIONS of MAGADH MAHILA COLLEGE, PATNA
UNIVERSITY has successfully completed his project entitled
“COMPUTER NETWORKING” and its industrial training from 12th June
2018 to 9th July 2018 at system department, B.C.C.L, Headquarter
Koyla Bhawan , Dhanbad.
It is hereby declared that the project done by her creditable study
carried out with sheer details and precision for the fulfilment of purpose.
I wish her all the best.

General Manager
System department
KOYLA BHAWAN
B.C.C.L. DHANBAD
 ACKNOWLWDGEMENT

My project report is the result of effort of many people since no work can
be completed with solo effort. I am gratified to lot of people door bringing
out this project successful. First of all, I would like to offer my gratitude to
Human Resource Development department of B.C.C.L. for granting me the
permission to carry out thus project.

My sincere thanks to general Manager (System) for approving this project.

I would like to thanks MR. A.K. Agrawal, Dy. Manager (System) for guiding
me throughout this project without him, this project wouldn’t have been
successful .He has taken a pain to go through and make the required
correction wherever required.

SIMRAN RAJ
COMPUTER APPLICATIONS
09160079
 INDEX

1. COAL INDIA LIMITED

2. BHARAT COKING COAL LIMITED

3. COMPUTER NETWORKING

1. HISTORY

2. PROPERTIES

3. TOPOLOGY

4. NETWORK LINKS

5. NETWORK NODES

6. NETWORK TYPES

7. COMMUNICATION

8. GEOGRAPHIC SCALE

9. PERFORMANCE

10. SECUIRITY

11. VIEWS

12. OSI MODEL

4. NETWORKING OF COMPUTERS IN B.C.C.L.

5. CONCLUSION
 Coal india limited

Type State-owned enterprise

Public company

Traded as BSE: 533278

NSE: COALINDIA
BSE SENSEX Constituent
CNX Nifty Constituent

Industry Mining

Founded 1975

Headquarters Kolkata, West Bengal, India

Area served India

Key people Anil Kumar Jha

(Chairman-cum-Managing Director)

Products Coal

Revenue ₹83,736.21 crore(US$12 billion)

(2017)[1]

Operating income ₹14,433.71 crore(US$2.2 billion)

(2017)[1]

Net income ₹9,267.74 crore(US$1.4 billion)

(2017)[1]

Total assets ₹116,078.87 crore(US$17 billion)

(2017)[1]

Owner Government of India

Number of 310,016(2017) [1]

employees
 Website www.coalindia.in

Coal India Limited (CIL) is an Indian state-controlled coal mining company headquartered in Kolkata, West
Bengal, India and the largest coal producer company in the world and a maharatna company.

The company contributes to around 82% of the coal production in India. It produced 554.14 million tonnes of raw
coal in 2016-17,an increase from its earlier production of 494.24 million tonnes of coal during FY2014–15 and
earned a revenue of ₹95,435 crore (US$14 billion) from sale of coal in the same financial year .As on 14 October
2015, Union Government of India owns CIL and controls the operations of CIL through Ministry of Coal. In April
2011, CIL was conferred the Maharatna status by the Union Government of India, making it one of the seven
maharatnas. As on 14 October 2015, its market capitalisation was ₹2.11 lakh crore (US$31 billion) making it
India's 8th most valuable company by market value.

History
Coal mining in India had primarily been a private sector enterprise. This changed in September 1956 when the
Government of India established its own coal company National Coal Development Corporation
(NCDC). Collieries run by the Railways formed the nucleus of NCDC. This was to fulfil the fast growing energy
requirements in the country to support rapid industrialization taking place through 5-year Plans of the
Government. In the same year, Singareni Colliery Company, which was operating in Andhra Pradesh since
1920, was also brought under government control when the Central Government and Andhra Pradesh
Government acquired its 45% and 55% shares respectively.

In 1971, the Government of India nationalized all the 214 coking-coal mines and 12 coke-ovens running in the
private sector, excluding those held by TISCO and IISCO for their captive use. On 1 January 1972, a new
Government company Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) was formed to take control of these nationalized
mines and coke-ovens. Next year on 30 January 1973, all the remaining 711 non-coking coalmines of the
country in private sector were also nationalized. 184 of these mines were handed over to BCCL, and remaining
527 were handed over to a newly opened department Coal Mines Authority. 4 months later on 14 June 1973,
this department was converted into a separate Government company CMAL. NCDC, earlier formed in 1957, was
merged with CMAL, and 45% share-holding of Central Government in Singareni Collieries Company Ltd was
also handed over to CMAL. CMAL started functioning with its 4 divisions, Eastern Coalfields, Central Coalfields,
Western Coalfields, and Central Mine Planning and Design Institute.

By 1973, all coking coalmines were under BCCL, which was functioning as a subsidiary of Steel Authority of
India Ltd (SAIL) under Department of Steel of the Ministry of Steel and Mines; and all non-coking coalmines
were under CMAL, which was under Department of Mines of the Ministry of Steel and Mines. For better control,
both BCCL and CMAL were brought on 11 October 1974 under the Department of Coal (now an independent
Ministry) of the newly formed Ministry of Energy.

On 1 November 1975, a new public-sector company Coal India Limited (CIL) was formed to enable better
organizational and operational efficiency in coal sector. All the 4 Divisions of CMAL were given the company
status, and were brought under CIL along with BCCL. 45% share-holding of the CMAL in Singareni Collieries
Company was also transferred to CIL, and CMAL was closed.

Thus, CIL started functioning in 1975 with 5 subsidiary companies under it. These were Bharat Coking Coal
Limited (BCCL), Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL), Central Coalfields Limited (CCL), Western Coalfields Limited
(WCL), and Central Mine Planning & Design Institute Limited (CMPDIL). In due course of time, 3 more
companies were formed under CIL by carving out certain areas of CCL and WCL. These were Northern
Coalfields Limited (NCL), South-eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL), and Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL).

Pursuant to the Fuel Policy of 1974, CIL also started the construction of India's First Low Temperature
Carbonisation Plant at Dankuni in the late 1970s. It was renamed as Dankuni Coal Complex, and is one of the
only operational Coal Gas plant of this kind in the World. Dankuni Coal Complex has been incurring heavy loss
due to the Greater Calcutta Gas Supply Company (Previously known as Oriental Gas Co.) giving non-
remunerative price and fixing them unilaterally. Coal India is planning to venture into Coal-to-Methanol
technology at the existing Plant.

Government of India held 100% equity of CIL from 1975 till 2010.

Initial Public Offer (IPO)

In October 2010, Government of India offered 10% of the equity shares of CIL (631.6 million equity shares) to
public for sale at an offer price of ₹245 (US$3.70) per share (at face value of ₹10 per share) The IPO got over-
subscribed by 14.17 times Against an IPO issue size of ₹15,500 crore (equivalent to ₹250 billion or
US$3.7 billion in 2017) it received bids for ₹2.4 lakh crore (equivalent to ₹3.8 trillion or US$57 billion in 2017)
making it the second highest collections in any IPO in India On the first day of its listing on the stock market, its
shares soared 40% higher than IPO price. With the listing, CIL become the fourth most valued company on the
Indian stock exchanges with a market value of ₹2.16 lakh crore (equivalent to ₹3.4 trillion or US$51 billion in
2017). CIL was included in the 30-member BSE SENSEX on 8 August 2011.

On 30 January 2015, in an Offer For Sale (OFS), Government of India sold a further 10% stake in CIL. Priced
at ₹358 (US$5.30) per share, the sale fetched the government ₹22,557.63 crore (equivalent to ₹240 billion or
US$3.61 billion in 2017), making it the largest ever equity offering in the Indian share market.

Operations
CIL is the largest coal producing company in the world. It produced 536.51 MT (million tonne) coal during
FY2015-16. Coal India operates through 81 mining areas in eight states in India. As on 1 April 2015, it has 430
coal mines out of which 175 are open cast, 227 are underground and 28 are mixed mines. Production from open
cast mines during 2014-15 was 92.91% of total production of 494.24 MT. Underground mines contributed to
7.09% of production. CIL further operates 15 coal wash factories, out of which 12 are for coking coal and 3 are
for non-coking coal with 23.30 MTY and 13.50 MTY capacities respectively. It also manages 200 other
establishments like workshops, hospitals, training institutes, mine-rescue setups, etc.

Subsidiaries
Coal India Limited (CIL) produces coal through seven of its wholly owned subsidiaries. These are Eastern
Coalfields Limited (ECL), Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), Central Coalfields Limited (CCL), Western
Coalfields Limited (WCL), South-Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL), Northern Coalfield Limited (NCL), and
Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL). Its 8th wholly owned subsidiary Central Mine Planning & Design Institute
Limited (CMPDIL) provides exploration, planning and technical support to all the 7 production subsidiaries.
CMPDIL also provides consulting services to third-party market clients in the field of exploration, mining, allied
engineering & testing, management-systems, training, etc.

CIL also has a wholly owned subsidiary in Mozambique, Coal India Africana Limited (CIAL) for pursuing coal
mining opportunities in that country.

The details of number of employees, revenue for FY2012-13 and production of coal is given in the table below:
 Subsidiaries of Coal India Limited

Coal Production(in million Tons)

Employees Revenue
Name of Subsidiary (as of 31-Mar- (₹ billion for
Non-
2015) FY2012-13) Coking Total Coal
Coking
Coal Production
Coal

Bharat Coking Coal

56,051 89.37 26.970 4.243 31.213
Limited (BCCL)

Central Coalfields
45,011 92.38 16.156 31.905 48.061
Limited (CCL)

Eastern Coalfields
68,681 97.40 0.043 33.868 33.911
Limited (ECL)

Mahanadi Coalfields
22,259 120.93 - 107.894 107.894
Limited (MCL)

Northern Coalfields
16,226 99.86 - 70.021 70.021
Limited (NCL)

South Eastern Coalfields

67,800 176.48 0.157 118.062 118.219
Limited (SECL)

Western Coalfields
50,071 74.23 0.330 41.957 42.287
Limited (WCL)

Central Mine Planning

and Design Institute 3,629 6.05 - - -
(CMPDI)

Coal India Africana

- - - - -
Limitada
 Subsidiaries of Coal India Limited

Coal Production(in million Tons)

Employees Revenue
Name of Subsidiary (as of 31-Mar- (₹ billion for
Non-
2015) FY2012-13) Coking Total Coal
Coking
Coal Production
Coal

North Eastern Coalfields 2,027 - - 0.605 0.605

Dankuni Coal Complex 474 - - - -

CIL Headquarters 868 13.78 - - -

Total 333,097 770.49 43.656 408.555 452.211

Joint Ventures: CIL has two joint ventures:

1. International Coal Ventures Private Limited (ICVPL) was formed in 2009 for acquisition of coking coal
properties outside India. CIL holds 2⁄7th share in paid up capital of ICVPL .
2. CIL-NTPC Urja Pvt . Limited is a 50:50 JV between CIL and NTPC, formed in April 2010 for acquisition
of coal blocks in India and abroad.

Listing and Shareholding

Listing: CIL's equity shares are listed on [Bombay Stock Exchange] where it is a constituent of the [BSE
SENSEX] index Scrip wise Weightages in S&P BSE SENSEX SE India 31 Aug 2013 and the National Stock
Exchange of India where it is a constituent of the S&P CNX Nifty. Download List of CNX Nifty stocks (.csv) NSE
India |31 Aug 2013

Shareholding: On 30 January 2015, 79.65% of the equity shares of the company were owned by the
Government of India and the remaining 20.35% were owned by others. On 30 January 2015, in an Offer For
Sale (OFS), Government of India sold a further 10% stake in CIL. Priced at ₹358 (equivalent to ₹390 or US$5.70
in 2017) per share, the sale fetched the government ₹22,557.63 crore (US$3.4 billion), making it the largest ever
equity offering in the Indian share market. On 18 November 2015, Government of India approved another 10%
stake sale in CIL.

Shareholders (as on 21-September-2016) Shareholding

Government of India 79.65%

 Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) 8.52%

Domestic Institutions 8.62%

Non-Institutions 3.21%

Total 100.0%

Employees
Coal India had 333,097 employees as on 31 March 2015, out of which 314,259 were Non-Executives and
18,838 were Executives. It spent Rs. 298.74 billion on Employee benefits which accounted for 50.54% of the
total expenditure incurred during the FY 2014–15.

Awards and recognitions

 Coal India Limited (CIL) was conferred with two Corporate Social Responsibility Awards on 18 February
2013: 'Global CSR Excellence and Leadership Award' for Best Corporate Social Responsibility Practices
and 'Blue Dart Most Caring Companies of India Award'.
 For 2012, CIL earned a ranking of 48 on overall global performance in the 'Platts Top 250 Global Energy
Company Rankings'.
 CIL features on the Forbes Global 2000 rankings for 2012 at position 377. Coal India on the Forbes Global
2000 List Forbes 31 May 2013 19 October 2013
 In December 2012, it was ranked as the 9th on the Fortune India 500 list. IOC retains top slot in Fortune 500
India list as of in The Hindu 15 December 2012 19 October 2013
 CIL was conferred with "Company of the Year Award" in a function organized by Indian Chamber of
Commerce and Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) in September 2011 at 2nd Summit on 'India Public
Sector Agenda @2020' at New Delhi.
 Many of Its employees are conferred With a job In lieu of land. The one being the largest Penganga
Opencast of WCL, New Majri UG To OC, Makardhokra etc.
 This year, one of its employees named "Sharda Prasad Prajapati (NEIS-54262)" has been conferred with
the "Youngest" Employee to be given a job in lieu of land acquired in Majri Area Of Western Coalfields
Limited.

Green Initiatives
Green initiatives: The company planted 1.57 million saplings during 2014-15. In its Annual Report for 2014-15,
it informed that it has planted around 82 million trees over an area of around 33700 Ha.

Criticism
Operating 239 mines without environment clearance: In September 2011, CAG criticised CIL for operating
239 mines in seven coal producing subsidiaries, which existed prior to 1994, without environmental
clearance. These mines included 48 open-cast, 170 underground and 21 combined mines. In its report, the CAG
also pointed out that of the 18 sample open-cast and eight underground mines, ten mines had undertaken
capacity expansion without environmental clearances. The company, in its reply, said that applications for
clearances to the projects have already been submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
Coal mines near Tiger Preserves: In India, some coal mines are located near/below the tiger preserves.
Mining or construction of administrative offices in/near these preserves disturbs the wildlife.
Hence environmental organisations like Greenpeace have been opposing mining in these areas. Around 50% of
the energy requirements of India are met by coal. Hence the protection of wildlife is sometimes overlooked due
to this fact. In its argument the CIL said that in many cases it only does underground mining which does not
hurts the forests above.
Accidents during mining: The company is its Annual Report for FY 2012-13 reported lowest ever figures of
average 66 deaths and 251 serious accidents per year for the period 2010-2012 indicating that safety at
workplace is improving over the years. Critic claim that the safety practices in most mines are inadequate, which
is causing so many casualties .It is also claimed that many accidents and deaths are not recorded and hence
are not part of 'official figures'.
 Bharat coking coal limited
Type Public sector undertaking
Government-owned

Industry Coal

Founded 1972

Headquarters Dhanbad, India

Area served Jharkhand, West Bengal

Key people A.K. Singh, CMD

Products Coal

Website BCCL Website

Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) is a subsidiary of Coal India Limited with its headquarter
in Dhanbad, India. It was incorporated in January, 1972 to operate coking coal mines (214 in number) operating
in the Jharia and Raniganj Coalfields and was taken over by the Government of India on 16 October 1971.

The company operates 81 coal mines which include 40 underground, 18 opencast and 23 mixed mines as on
April 2010. The company also runs 6 coking coal wash factories, two non-coking coal wash factories, one
captive power plant (20 MW), and five by-product coke plants. The mines are grouped into 12 areas for
administration purposes.

BCCL is the major producer of prime coking coal (raw and washed) in India. Medium coking coal is produced in
its mines in Mohuda and Barakar areas. In addition to production of hard coke, BCCL operates wash factories,
sand gathering plants, a network of aerial ropeways for transport of sand, and a coal bed methane-based power
plant in Moonidih.

Current situation
Bharat Coking Coal Limited gave an annual coal production of around 37.04 million tonnes in 2016-17 with a
turnover of ₹11,505 crore (US$1.7 billion). It has a manpower of about 49,901 as on 01.10.2017.

Administrative areas

There are 12 areas in BCCL:

Administrative area Name

Area No 1 Barora Area

Area No 2 Block II Area

Area No 3 Govindpur Area

Area No 4 Katras Area

Area No 5 Sijua Area

Area No 6 Kusunda Area

Area No 7 Putki Balihari Area

Area No 9 Bastacola Area

Area No 10 Lodna Area

Area No 11 Eastern Jharia Area

Area No 12 Chanch Victoria Area

Area No 13 Western Jharia Area

 Computer networking
A computer network, or data network, is a digital telecommunications network which allows nodes to share
resources. In computer networks, computing devices exchange data with each other using connections (data
links) between nodes These data links are established over cable media such as wires or optic cables,
or wireless media such as WiFi.

Network computer devices that originate, route and terminate the data are called network nodes. Nodes can
include hosts such as personal computers, phones, servers as well as networking hardware. Two such devices
can be said to be networked together when one device is able to exchange information with the other device,
whether or not they have a direct connection to each other. In most cases, application-specific communications
protocols are layered (i.e. carried as payload) over other more general communications protocols. This
formidable collection of information technology requires skilled network management to keep it all running
reliably.

Computer networks support an enormous number of applications and services such as access to the World
Wide Web, digital video, digital audio, shared use of application and storage servers, printers, and fax machines,
and use of email and instant messaging applications as well as many others. Computer networks differ in
the transmission medium used to carry their signals, communications protocols to organize network traffic, the
network's size, topology, traffic control mechanism and organizational intent. The best-known computer network
is the Internet.

History
The chronology of significant computer-network developments includes:

 In the late 1950s, early networks of computers included the U.S. military radar system Semi-Automatic
Ground Environment (SAGE).
 In 1959, Anatolii Ivanovich Kitov proposed to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union a detailed plan for the re-organisation of the control of the Soviet armed forces and of the Soviet
economy on the basis of a network of computing centres, the OGAS.
 In 1960, the commercial airline reservation system semi-automatic business research environment (SABRE)
went online with two connected mainframes.
 In 1963, J. C. R. Licklider sent a memorandum to office colleagues discussing the concept of the
"Intergalactic Computer Network", a computer network intended to allow general communications among
computer users.
 In 1964, researchers at Dartmouth College developed the Dartmouth Time Sharing System for distributed
users of large computer systems. The same year, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a research
group supported by General Electric and Bell Labs used a computer to route and manage telephone
connections.
 Throughout the 1960s, Paul Baran, and Donald Davies independently developed the concept of packet
switching to transfer information between computers over a network. Davies pioneered the implementation
of the concept with the NPL network, a local area network at the National Physical Laboratory (United
Kingdom)using a line speed of 768 kbps.
 In 1965, Western Electric introduced the first widely used telephone switch that implemented true computer
control.
 In 1966, Thomas Marill and Lawrence G. Roberts published a paper on an experimental wide area
network (WAN) for computer time sharing.
 In 1969, the first four nodes of the ARPANET were connected using 50 kbps circuits between the University
of California at Los Angeles, the Stanford Research Institute, the University of California at Santa Barbara,
and the University of Utah. Leonard Kleinrock carried out theoretical work to model the performance of
packet-switched networks, which underpinned the development of the ARPANET. His theoretical work
on hierarchical routing in the late 1970s with student Farouk Kamoun remains critical to the operation of
the Internet today.
 In 1972, commercial services using X.25 were deployed, and later used as an underlying infrastructure for
expanding TCP/IP networks.
 In 1973, the French CYCLADES network was the first to make the hosts responsible for the reliable delivery
of data, rather than this being a centralized service of the network itself.
 In 1973, Robert Metcalfe wrote a formal memo at Xerox PARC describing Ethernet, a networking system
that was based on the Aloha network, developed in the 1960s by Norman Abramson and colleagues at
the University of Hawaii. In July 1976, Robert Metcalfe and David Boggs published their paper "Ethernet:
Distributed Packet Switching for Local Computer Networks" and collaborated on several patents received in
1977 and 1978. In 1979, Robert Metcalfe pursued making Ethernet an open standard.[12]
 In 1976, John Murphy of Datapoint Corporation created ARCNET, a token-passing network first used to
share storage devices.
 In 1995, the transmission speed capacity for Ethernet increased from 10 Mbit/s to 100 Mbit/s. By 1998,
Ethernet supported transmission speeds of a Gigabit. Subsequently, higher speeds of up to 100 Gbit/s were
added (as of 2016). The ability of Ethernet to scale easily (such as quickly adapting to support new fiber
optic cable speeds) is a contributing factor to its continued use.

Properties
Computer networking may be considered a branch of electrical engineering, electronics
engineering, telecommunications, computer science, information technology or computer engineering, since it
relies upon the theoretical and practical application of the related disciplines.

A computer network facilitates interpersonal communications allowing users to communicate efficiently and
easily via various means: email, instant messaging, online chat, telephone, video telephone calls, and video
conferencing. A network allows sharing of network and computing resources. Users may access and use
resources provided by devices on the network, such as printing a document on a shared network printer or use
of a shared storage device. A network allows sharing of files, data, and other types of information giving
authorized users the ability to access information stored on other computers on the network. Distributed
computing uses computing resources across a network to accomplish tasks.

A computer network may be used by security hackers to deploy computer viruses or computer worms on
devices connected to the network, or to prevent these devices from accessing the network via a denial-of-
service attack.

Network packet
Main article: Network packet

Computer communication links that do not support packets, such as traditional point-to-point telecommunication
links, simply transmit data as a bit stream. However, most information in computer networks is carried
in packets. A network packet is a formatted unit of data (a list of bits or bytes, usually a few tens of bytes to a few
kilobytes long) carried by a packet-switched network. Packets are sent through the network to their destination.
Once the packets arrive they are reassembled into their original message.

Packets consist of two kinds of data: control information, and user data (payload). The control information
provides data the network needs to deliver the user data, for example: source and destination network
addresses, error detection codes, and sequencing information. Typically, control information is found in packet
headersand trailers, with payload data in between.

With packets, the bandwidth of the transmission medium can be better shared among users than if the network
were circuit switched. When one user is not sending packets, the link can be filled with packets from other users,
and so the cost can be shared, with relatively little interference, provided the link isn't overused. Often the route
a packet needs to take through a network is not immediately available. In that case the packet is queued and
waits until a link is free.

Network topology
The physical layout of a network is usually less important than the topology that connects network nodes. Most
diagrams that describe a physical network are therefore topological, rather than geographic. The symbols on
these diagrams usually denote network links and network nodes.

Types of Network Topology

Network Topology is the schematic description of a network arrangement, connecting various
nodes(sender and receiver) through lines of connection.

BUS Topology
Bus topology is a network type in which every computer and network device is connected to single
cable. When it has exactly two endpoints, then it is called Linear Bus topology.

Features of Bus Topology

1. It transmits data only in one direction.
2. Every device is connected to a single cable

Advantages of Bus Topology

1. It is cost effective.
2. Cable required is least compared to other network topology.
3. Used in small networks.
4. It is easy to understand.
5. Easy to expand joining two cables together.
Disadvantages of Bus Topology
1. Cables fails then whole network fails.
2. If network traffic is heavy or nodes are more the performance of the network decreases.
3. Cable has a limited length.
4. It is slower than the ring topology.

RING Topology
It is called ring topology because it forms a ring as each computer is connected to another computer,
with the last one connected to the first. Exactly two neighbours for each device.

Features of Ring Topology

1. A number of repeaters are used for Ring topology with large number of nodes, because if someone
wants to send some data to the last node in the ring topology with 100 nodes, then the data will
have to pass through 99 nodes to reach the 100th node. Hence to prevent data loss repeaters are
used in the network.
2. The transmission is unidirectional, but it can be made bidirectional by having 2 connections
between each Network Node, it is called Dual Ring Topology.
3. In Dual Ring Topology, two ring networks are formed, and data flow is in opposite direction in them.
Also, if one ring fails, the second ring can act as a backup, to keep the network up.
4. Data is transferred in a sequential manner that is bit by bit. Data transmitted, has to pass through
each node of the network, till the destination node.

Advantages of Ring Topology

1. Transmitting network is not affected by high traffic or by adding more nodes, as only the nodes
having tokens can transmit data.
2. Cheap to install and expand

Disadvantages of Ring Topology

1. Troubleshooting is difficult in ring topology.
2. Adding or deleting the computers disturbs the network activity.
3. Failure of one computer disturbs the whole network.

STAR Topology
In this type of topology all the computers are connected to a single hub through a cable. This hub is
the central node and all others nodes are connected to the central node.
Features of Star Topology
1. Every node has its own dedicated connection to the hub.
2. Hub acts as a repeater for data flow.
3. Can be used with twisted pair, Optical Fibre or coaxial cable.

Advantages of Star Topology

1. Fast performance with few nodes and low network traffic.
2. Hub can be upgraded easily.
3. Easy to troubleshoot.
4. Easy to setup and modify.
5. Only that node is affected which has failed, rest of the nodes can work smoothly.

Disadvantages of Star Topology

1. Cost of installation is high.
2. Expensive to use.
3. If the hub fails then the whole network is stopped because all the nodes depend on the hub.
4. Performance is based on the hub that is it depends on its capacity

MESH Topology
It is a point-to-point connection to other nodes or devices. All the network nodes are connected to each
other. Mesh has n(n-1)/2 physical channels to link n devices.
There are two techniques to transmit data over the Mesh topology, they are :

1. Routing
2. Flooding

MESH Topology: Routing

In routing, the nodes have a routing logic, as per the network requirements. Like routing logic to direct
the data to reach the destination using the shortest distance. Or, routing logic which has information
about the broken links, and it avoids those node etc. We can even have routing logic, to re-configure
the failed nodes.
MESH Topology: Flooding
In flooding, the same data is transmitted to all the network nodes, hence no routing logic is required.
The network is robust, and the its very unlikely to lose the data. But it leads to unwanted load over the
network.
Types of Mesh Topology
1. Partial Mesh Topology : In this topology some of the systems are connected in the same fashion
as mesh topology but some devices are only connected to two or three devices.
2. Full Mesh Topology : Each and every nodes or devices are connected to each other.

Features of Mesh Topology

1. Fully connected.
2. Robust.
3. Not flexible.

Advantages of Mesh Topology

1. Each connection can carry its own data load.
2. It is robust.
3. Fault is diagnosed easily.
4. Provides security and privacy.

Disadvantages of Mesh Topology

1. Installation and configuration is difficult.
2. Cabling cost is more.
3. Bulk wiring is required.

TREE Topology
It has a root node and all other nodes are connected to it forming a hierarchy. It is also called
hierarchical topology. It should at least have three levels to the hierarchy.

Features of Tree Topology

1. Ideal if workstations are located in groups.
2. Used in Wide Area Network.

Advantages of Tree Topology

1. Extension of bus and star topologies.
2. Expansion of nodes is possible and easy.
3. Easily managed and maintained.
4. Error detection is easily done.

Disadvantages of Tree Topology

1. Heavily cabled.
2. Costly.
3. If more nodes are added maintenance is difficult.
4. Central hub fails, network fails.

HYBRID Topology
It is two different types of topologies which is a mixture of two or more topologies. For example if in an
office in one department ring topology is used and in another star topology is used, connecting these
topologies will result in Hybrid Topology (ring topology and star topology).

Features of Hybrid Topology

1. It is a combination of two or topologies
2. Inherits the advantages and disadvantages of the topologies included

Advantages of Hybrid Topology

1. Reliable as Error detecting and trouble shooting is easy.
2. Effective.
3. Scalable as size can be increased easily.
4. Flexible.

Disadvantages of Hybrid Topology

1. Complex in design.
2. Costly.
Network links
The transmission media (often referred to in the literature as the physical media) used to link devices to form a
computer network include electrical cable, optical fibre, and radio waves. In the OSI model, these are defined at
layers 1 and 2 — the physical layer and the data link layer.

A widely adopted family of transmission media used in local area network (LAN) technology is collectively known
as Ethernet. The media and protocol standards that enable communication between networked devices over
Ethernet are defined by IEEE 802.3. Ethernet transmits data over both copper and fibre cables. Wireless
LAN standards use radio waves, others use infrared signals as a transmission medium. Power line
communication uses a building's power cabling to transmit data.

Wired technologies

Fiber optic cables are used to transmit light from one computer/network node to another

The orders of the following wired technologies are, roughly, from slowest to fastest transmission speed.

 Coaxial cable is widely used for cable television systems, office buildings, and other work-sites for local area
networks. The cables consist of copper or aluminium wire surrounded by an insulating layer (typically a
flexible material with a high dielectric constant), which itself is surrounded by a conductive layer. The
insulation helps minimize interference and distortion. Transmission speed ranges from 200 million bits per
second to more than 500 million bits per second.
 ITU-T G.hn technology uses existing home wiring (coaxial cable, phone lines and power lines) to create a
high-speed (up to 1 Gigabit/s) local area network
 Twisted pair wire is the most widely used medium for all telecommunication. Twisted-pair cabling consist of
copper wires that are twisted into pairs. Ordinary telephone wires consist of two insulated copper wires
twisted into pairs. Computer network cabling (wired Ethernet as defined by IEEE 802.3) consists of 4 pairs of
copper cabling that can be utilized for both voice and data transmission. The use of two wires twisted
together helps to reduce crosstalk and electromagnetic induction. The transmission speed ranges from 2
million bits per second to 10 billion bits per second. Twisted pair cabling comes in two forms: unshielded
twisted pair (UTP) and shielded twisted-pair (STP). Each form comes in several category ratings, designed
for use in various scenarios.

2007 map showing submarine optical fibre telecommunication cables around the world.
 An optical fibre is a glass fibre. It carries pulses of light that represent data. Some advantages of optical
fibres over metal wires are very low transmission loss and immunity from electrical interference. Optical
fibres can simultaneously carry multiple wavelengths of light, which greatly increases the rate that data can
be sent, and helps enable data rates of up to trillions of bits per second. Optic fibres can be used for long
runs of cable carrying very high data rates, and are used forunder sea cables to interconnect continents.
There are two types of transmission of fibre optics, Single-mode fibre (SMF) and Multimode fibre (MMF).
Single-mode fibre has the advantage of being able to sustain a coherent signal for dozens or even a
hundred kilometres. Multimode fibre is cheaper to terminate but is limited to a few hundred or even only a
few dozens of meters, depending on the data rate and cable grade.

Price is a main factor distinguishing wired- and wireless-technology options in a business. Wireless options
command a price premium that can make purchasing wired computers, printers and other devices a financial
benefit. Before making the decision to purchase hard-wired technology products, a review of the restrictions and
limitations of the selections is necessary. Business and employee needs may override any cost considerations.

Wireless technologies

Computers are very often connected to networks using wireless links

 Terrestrial microwave – Terrestrial microwave communication uses Earth-based transmitters and receivers
resembling satellite dishes. Terrestrial microwaves are in the low gigahertz range, which limits all
communications to line-of-sight. Relay stations are spaced approximately 48 km (30 mi) apart.
 Communications satellites – Satellites communicate via microwave radio waves, which are not deflected by
the Earth's atmosphere. The satellites are stationed in space, typically in geosynchronous orbit 35,400 km
(22,000 mi) above the equator. These Earth-orbiting systems are capable of receiving and relaying voice,
data, and TV signals.
 Cellular and PCS systems use several radio communications technologies. The systems divide the region
covered into multiple geographic areas. Each area has a low-power transmitter or radio relay antenna
device to relay calls from one area to the next area.
 Radio and spread spectrum technologies – Wireless local area networks use a high-frequency radio
technology similar to digital cellular and a low-frequency radio technology. Wireless LANs use spread
spectrum technology to enable communication between multiple devices in a limited area. IEEE
802.11 defines a common flavor of open-standards wireless radio-wave technology known as Wifi.
 Free-space optical communication uses visible or invisible light for communications. In most cases, line-of-
sight propagation is used, which limits the physical positioning of communicating devices.
Exotic technologies

There have been various attempts at transporting data over exotic media:

 IP over Avian Carriers was a humorous April fool's Request for Comments, issued as RFC 1149. It was
implemented in real life in 2001.
 Extending the Internet to interplanetary dimensions via radio waves, the Interplanetary Internet.
Both cases have a large round-trip delay time, which gives slow two-way communication, but doesn't prevent
sending large amounts of information.

Network nodes
Main article: Node (networking)

Apart from any physical transmission media there may be, networks comprise additional basic system building
blocks, such as network interface controllers (NICs),repeaters, hubs, bridges, switches, routers, modems,
and firewalls. Any particular piece of equipment will frequently contain multiple building blocks and perform
multiple functions.

Network interfaces

An ATM network interface in the form of an accessory card. A lot of network interfaces are built-in.

A network interface controller (NIC) is computer hardware that provides a computer with the ability to access the
transmission media, and has the ability to process low-level network information. For example, the NIC may
have a connector for accepting a cable, or an aerial for wireless transmission and reception, and the associated
circuitry.

The NIC responds to traffic addressed to a network address for either the NIC or the computer as a whole.

In Ethernet networks, each network interface controller has a unique Media Access Control (MAC) address—
usually stored in the controller's permanent memory. To avoid address conflicts between network devices,
the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) maintains and administers MAC address uniqueness.
The size of an Ethernet MAC address is six octets. The three most significant octets are reserved to identify NIC
manufacturers. These manufacturers, using only their assigned prefixes, uniquely assign the three least-
significant octets of every Ethernet interface they produce.

Repeaters and hubs

A repeater is an electronic device that receives a network signal, cleans it of unnecessary noise and regenerates
it. The signal is retransmitted at a higher power level, or to the other side of an obstruction, so that the signal can
cover longer distances without degradation. In most twisted pair Ethernet configurations, repeaters are required
for cable that runs longer than 100 meters. With fiber optics, repeaters can be tens or even hundreds of
kilometers apart.

A repeater with multiple ports is known as an Ethernet hub. Repeaters work on the physical layer of the OSI
model. Repeaters require a small amount of time to regenerate the signal. This can cause a propagation
delay that affects network performance and may affect proper function. As a result, many network architectures
limit the number of repeaters that can be used in a row, e.g., the Ethernet 5-4-3 rule.

Hubs and repeaters in LANs have been mostly obsoleted by modern switches.

Bridges

A network bridge connects and filters traffic between two network segments at the data link layer (layer 2) of
the OSI model to form a single network. This breaks the network's collision domain but maintains a unified
broadcast domain. Network segmentation breaks down a large, congested network into an aggregation of
smaller, more efficient networks.
Bridges come in three basic types:

 Local bridges: Directly connect LANs

 Remote bridges: Can be used to create a wide area network (WAN) link between LANs. Remote bridges,
where the connecting link is slower than the end networks, largely have been replaced with routers.
 Wireless bridges: Can be used to join LANs or connect remote devices to LANs.
Switches

A network switch is a device that forwards and filters OSI layer 2 datagrams (frames) between ports based on
the destination MAC address in each frame. A switch is distinct from a hub in that it only forwards the frames to
the physical ports involved in the communication rather than all ports connected. It can be thought of as a multi-
port bridge. It learns to associate physical ports to MAC addresses by examining the source addresses of
received frames. If an unknown destination is targeted, the switch broadcasts to all ports but the source.
Switches normally have numerous ports, facilitating a star topology for devices, and cascading additional
switches.

Routers

A typical home or small office router showing the ADSL telephone line andEthernet network cable connections

A router is an internetworking device that forwards packets between networks by processing the routing
information included in the packet or datagram (Internet protocol information from layer 3). The routing
information is often processed in conjunction with the routing table (or forwarding table). A router uses its routing
table to determine where to forward packets. A destination in a routing table can include a "null" interface, also
known as the "black hole" interface because data can go into it, however, no further processing is done for said
data, i.e. the packets are dropped.

Modems

Modems (MOdulator-DEModulator) are used to connect network nodes via wire not originally designed for digital
network traffic, or for wireless. To do this one or more carrier signals are modulated by the digital signal to
produce an analog signalthat can be tailored to give the required properties for transmission. Modems are
commonly used for telephone lines, using aDigital Subscriber Line technology.

Firewalls

A firewall is a network device for controlling network security and access rules. Firewalls are typically configured
to reject access requests from unrecognized sources while allowing actions from recognized ones. The vital role
firewalls play in network security grows in parallel with the constant increase in cyber attacks.

TYPES OF COMPUTER NETWORK

1. Personal Area Network (PAN)
The smallest and most basic type of network, a PAN is made up of a wireless modem, a computer
or two, phones, printers, tablets, etc., and revolves around one person in one building. These
types of networks are typically found in small offices or residences, and are managed by one
person or organization from a single device.
2. Local Area Network (LAN)
We’re confident that you’ve heard of these types of networks before – LANs are the most
frequently discussed networks, one of the most common, one of the most original and one of the
simplest types of networks. LANs connect groups of computers and low-voltage devices together
across short distances (within a building or between a group of two or three buildings in close
proximity to each other) to share information and resources. Enterprises typically manage and
maintain LANs.
Using routers, LANs can connect to wide area networks (WANs, explained below) to rapidly and
safely transfer data.
3. Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)
Functioning like a LAN, WLANs make use of wireless network technology, such as WiFi. Typically
seen in the same types of applications as LANs, these types of networks don’t require that devices
rely on physical cables to connect to the network.
4. Campus Area Network (CAN)
Larger than LANs, but smaller than metropolitan area networks (MANs, explained below), these
types of networks are typically seen in universities, large K-12 school districts or small businesses.
They can be spread across several buildings that are fairly close to each other so users can share
resources.
5. Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
These types of networks are larger than LANs but smaller than WANs – and incorporate elements
from both types of networks. MANs span an entire geographic area (typically a town or city, but
sometimes a campus). Ownership and maintenance is handled by either a single person or
company (a local council, a large company, etc.).
6. Wide Area Network (WAN)
Slightly more complex than a LAN, a WAN connects computers together across longer physical
distances. This allows computers and low-voltage devices to be remotely connected to each other
over one large network to communicate even when they’re miles apart.
The Internet is the most basic example of a WAN, connecting all computers together around the
world. Because of a WAN’s vast reach, it is typically owned and maintained by multiple
administrators or the public.
7. Storage-Area Network (SAN)
As a dedicated high-speed network that connects shared pools of storage devices to several
servers, these types of networks don’t rely on a LAN or WAN. Instead, they move storage
resources away from the network and place them into their own high-performance network. SANs
can be accessed in the same fashion as a drive attached to a server. Types of storage-area
networks include converged, virtual and unified SANs.
8. System-Area Network (also known as SAN)
This term is fairly new within the past two decades. It is used to explain a relatively local network
that is designed to provide high-speed connection in server-to-server applications (cluster
environments), storage area networks (called “SANs” as well) and processor-to-processor
applications. The computers connected on a SAN operate as a single system at very high speeds.
9. Passive Optical Local Area Network (POLAN)
As an alternative to traditional switch-based Ethernet LANs, POLAN technology can be integrated
into structured cabling to overcome concerns about supporting traditional Ethernet protocols and
network applications such as PoE (Power over Ethernet). A point-to-multipoint LAN architecture,
POLAN uses optical splitters to split an optical signal from one strand of singlemode optical fiber
into multiple signals to serve users and devices.
10. Enterprise Private Network (EPN)
These types of networks are built and owned by businesses that want to securely connect its
various locations to share computer resources.
11. Virtual Private Network (VPN)
By extending a private network across the Internet, a VPN lets its users send and receive data as
if their devices were connected to the private network – even if they’re not. Through a virtual point-
to-point connection, users can access a private network remotely.
Overlay network

A sample overlay network

An overlay network is a virtual computer network that is built on top of another network. Nodes in the overlay
network are connected by virtual or logical links. Each link corresponds to a path, perhaps through many
physical links, in the underlying network. The topology of the overlay network may (and often does) differ from
that of the underlying one. For example, many peer-to-peer networks are overlay networks. They are organized
as nodes of a virtual system of links that run on top of the Internet.
Overlay networks have been around since the invention of networking when computer systems were connected
over telephone lines using modems, before any data network existed.
The most striking example of an overlay network is the Internet itself. The Internet itself was initially built as an
overlay on the telephone network. Even today, each Internet node can communicate with virtually any other
through an underlying mesh of sub-networks of wildly different topologies and technologies. Address
resolution and routing are the means that allow mapping of a fully connected IP overlay network to its underlying
network.
Another example of an overlay network is a distributed hash table, which maps keys to nodes in the network. In
this case, the underlying network is an IP network, and the overlay network is a table (actually a map) indexed
by keys.
Overlay networks have also been proposed as a way to improve Internet routing, such as through quality of
service guarantees to achieve higher-quality streaming media. Previous proposals such as IntServ, DiffServ,
and IP Multicast have not seen wide acceptance largely because they require modification of all routers in the
network. On the other hand, an overlay network can be incrementally deployed on end-hosts running the overlay
protocol software, without cooperation from Internet service providers. The overlay network has no control over
how packets are routed in the underlying network between two overlay nodes, but it can control, for example, the
sequence of overlay nodes that a message traverses before it reaches its destination.
For example, Akamai Technologies manages an overlay network that provides reliable, efficient content delivery
(a kind of multicast). Academic research includes end system multicast.resilient routing and quality of service
studies, among others.

Communication protocols

The TCP/IP model or Internet layering scheme and its relation to common protocols often layered on top of it.

Figure 4. Message flows (A-B) in the presence of a router (R), red flows are effective communication paths, black paths are across
the actual network links.

A communication protocol is a set of rules for exchanging information over a network. In a protocol stack (also
see theOSI model), each protocol leverages the services of the protocol layer below it, until the lowest layer
controls the hardware which sends information across the media. The use of protocol layering is today
ubiquitous across the field of computer networking. An important example of a protocol stack is HTTP (the World
Wide Web protocol) running overTCP over IP (the Internet protocols) over IEEE 802.11 (the Wi-Fi protocol). This
stack is used between the wireless router and the home user's personal computer when the user is surfing the
web.
Communication protocols have various characteristics. They may be connection-oriented or connectionless, they
may use circuit mode or packet switching, and they may use hierarchical addressing or flat addressing.
There are many communication protocols, a few of which are described below.

IEEE 802
IEEE 802 is a family of IEEE standards dealing with local area networks and metropolitan area networks. The
complete IEEE 802 protocol suite provides a diverse set of networking capabilities. The protocols have a flat
addressing scheme. They operate mostly at levels 1 and 2 of the OSI model.
For example, MAC bridging (IEEE 802.1D) deals with the routing of Ethernet packets using a Spanning Tree
Protocol.IEEE 802.1Q describes VLANs, and IEEE 802.1X defines a port-based Network Access
Control protocol, which forms the basis for the authentication mechanisms used in VLANs (but it is also found in
WLANs) – it is what the home user sees when the user has to enter a "wireless access key".
Ethernet
Ethernet, sometimes simply called LAN, is a family of protocols used in wired LANs, described by a set of
standards together called IEEE 802.3 published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Wireless LAN
Wireless LAN, also widely known as WLAN or WiFi, is probably the most well-known member of the IEEE
802 protocol family for home users today. It is standardized by IEEE 802.11 and shares many properties with
wired Ethernet.

Internet Protocol Suite

The Internet Protocol Suite, also called TCP/IP, is the foundation of all modern networking. It offers connection-
less as well as connection-oriented services over an inherently unreliable network traversed by data-gram
transmission at the Internet protocol (IP) level. At its core, the protocol suite defines the addressing,
identification, and routing specifications for Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) and for IPv6, the next generation of
the protocol with a much enlarged addressing capability.

SONET/SDH
Synchronous optical networking (SONET) and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) are
standardized multiplexing protocols that transfer multiple digital bit streams over optical fiber using lasers. They
were originally designed to transport circuit mode communications from a variety of different sources, primarily to
support real-time, uncompressed, circuit-switched voice encoded in PCM (Pulse-Code Modulation) format.
However, due to its protocol neutrality and transport-oriented features, SONET/SDH also was the obvious
choice for transporting Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) frames.

Asynchronous Transfer Mode

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a switching technique for telecommunication networks. It uses
asynchronous time-division multiplexing and encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from other
protocols such as the Internet Protocol Suite or Ethernet that use variable sized packets or frames. ATM has
similarity with both circuit and packet switched networking. This makes it a good choice for a network that must
handle both traditional high-throughput data traffic, and real-time, low-latency content such as voice and video.
ATM uses a connection-oriented model in which a virtual circuit must be established between two endpoints
before the actual data exchange begins.
While the role of ATM is diminishing in favor of next-generation networks, it still plays a role in the last mile,
which is the connection between an Internet service provider and the home user.

Cellular standards
There are a number of different digital cellular standards, including: Global System for Mobile
Communications (GSM), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS),cdmaOne, CDMA2000, Evolution-Data
Optimized (EV-DO), Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), Universal Mobile Telecommunications
System (UMTS),Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT), Digital AMPS (IS-136/TDMA),
and Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN).

Geographic scale
 Computer network types
by spatial scope

 Nanoscale
 Near-field (NFC)
 Body (BAN)
 Near-me (NAN)
 Backbone
 Cloud (IAN)
 Internet
 Interplanetary Internet

A network can be characterized by its physical capacity or its organizational purpose. Use of the network,
including user authorization and access rights, differ accordingly.
Nanoscale network
A nanoscale communication network has key components implemented at the nanoscale including message
carriers and leverages physical principles that differ from macroscale communication mechanisms. Nanoscale
communication extends communication to very small sensors and actuators such as those found in biological
systems and also tends to operate in environments that would be too harsh for classical communication.
Backbone network
A backbone network is part of a computer network infrastructure that provides a path for the exchange of
information between different LANs or sub-networks. A backbone can tie together diverse networks within the
same building, across different buildings, or over a wide area.
For example, a large company might implement a backbone network to connect departments that are located
around the world. The equipment that ties together the departmental networks constitutes the network
backbone. When designing a network backbone, network performance and network congestion are critical
factors to take into account. Normally, the backbone network's capacity is greater than that of the individual
networks connected to it.
Another example of a backbone network is the Internet backbone, which is the set of wide area
networks (WANs) and core routers that tie together all networks connected to the Internet.
Global area network
A global area network (GAN) is a network used for supporting mobile across an arbitrary number of wireless
LANs, satellite coverage areas, etc. The key challenge in mobile communications is handing off user
communications from one local coverage area to the next. In IEEE Project 802, this involves a succession of
terrestrialwireless LANs.

Organizational scope
Networks are typically managed by the organizations that own them. Private enterprise networks may use a
combination of intranets and extranets. They may also provide network access to the Internet, which has no
single owner and permits virtually unlimited global connectivity.

Intranet
An intranet is a set of networks that are under the control of a single administrative entity. The intranet uses
the IP protocol and IP-based tools such as web browsers and file transfer applications. The administrative entity
limits use of the intranet to its authorized users. Most commonly, an intranet is the internal LAN of an
organization. A large intranet typically has at least one web server to provide users with organizational
information. An intranet is also anything behind the router on a local area network.

Extranet
An extranet is a network that is also under the administrative control of a single organization, but supports a
limited connection to a specific external network. For example, an organization may provide access to some
aspects of its intranet to share data with its business partners or customers. These other entities are not
necessarily trusted from a security standpoint. Network connection to an extranet is often, but not always,
implemented via WAN technology.
Internetwork
An internetwork is the connection of multiple computer networks via a common routing technology using routers.

Internet

Partial map of the Internet based on the January 15, 2005 data found onopte.org. Each line is drawn between two nodes,
representing two IP addresses. The length of the lines are indicative of the delay between those two nodes. This graph represents
less than 30% of the Class C networks reachable.

The Internet is the largest example of an internetwork. It is a global system of interconnected governmental,
academic, corporate, public, and private computer networks. It is based on the networking technologies of
the Internet Protocol Suite. It is the successor of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET)
developed by DARPA of the United States Department of Defense. The Internet is also the communications
backbone underlying the World Wide Web (WWW).
Participants in the Internet use a diverse array of methods of several hundred documented, and often
standardized, protocols compatible with the Internet Protocol Suite and an addressing system (IP addresses)
administered by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority and address registries. Service providers and large
enterprises exchange information about thereachability of their address spaces through the Border Gateway
Protocol (BGP), forming a redundant worldwide mesh of transmission paths.

Darknet
A darknet is an overlay network, typically running on the Internet, that is only accessible through specialized
software. A darknet is an anonymizing network where connections are made only between trusted peers —
sometimes called "friends" (F2F) — using non-standard protocols and ports.
Darknets are distinct from other distributed peer-to-peer networks as sharing is anonymous (that is, IP
addresses are not publicly shared), and therefore users can communicate with little fear of governmental or
corporate interference.

Routing

Routing calculates good paths through a network for information to take. For example, from node 1 to node 6 the best routes are
likely to be 1-8-7-6 or 1-8-10-6, as this has the thickest routes.

Routing is the process of selecting network paths to carry network traffic. Routing is performed for many kinds of
networks, including circuit switching networks and packet switched networks.
In packet switched networks, routing directs packet forwarding (the transit of logically addressed network
packets from their source toward their ultimate destination) through intermediate nodes. Intermediate nodes are
typically network hardware devices such as routers, bridges, gateways, firewalls, or switches. General-
purpose computers can also forward packets and perform routing, though they are not specialized hardware and
may suffer from limited performance. The routing process usually directs forwarding on the basis of routing
tables, which maintain a record of the routes to various network destinations. Thus, constructing routing tables,
which are held in the router's memory, is very important for efficient routing.
There are usually multiple routes that can be taken, and to choose between them, different elements can be
considered to decide which routes get installed into the routing table, such as (sorted by priority):

1. Prefix-Length: where longer subnet masks are preferred (independent if it is within a routing protocol or
over different routing protocol)
2. Metric: where a lower metric/cost is preferred (only valid within one and the same routing protocol)
3. Administrative distance: where a lower distance is preferred (only valid between different routing
protocols)
Most routing algorithms use only one network path at a time. Multipath routing techniques enable the use of
multiple alternative paths.
Routing, in a more narrow sense of the term, is often contrasted with bridging in its assumption that network
addresses are structured and that similar addresses imply proximity within the network. Structured addresses
allow a single routing table entry to represent the route to a group of devices. In large networks, structured
addressing (routing, in the narrow sense) outperforms unstructured addressing (bridging). Routing has become
the dominant form of addressing on the Internet. Bridging is still widely used within localized environments.

Network service
Network services are applications hosted by servers on a computer network, to provide some functionality for
members or users of the network, or to help the network itself to operate.
The World Wide Web, E-mail, printing and network file sharing are examples of well-known network services.
Network services such as DNS (Domain Name System) give names for IP and MAC addresses (people
remember names like “nm.lan” better than numbers like “210.121.67.18”), and DHCP to ensure that the
equipment on the network has a valid IP address.
Services are usually based on a service protocol that defines the format and sequencing of messages between
clients and servers of that network service.

Network performance
Quality of service
Depending on the installation requirements, network performance is usually measured by the quality of
service of a telecommunications product. The parameters that affect this typically can
include throughput, jitter, bit error rate and latency.
The following list gives examples of network performance measures for a circuit-switched network and one type
of packet-switched network, viz. ATM:

 Circuit-switched networks: In circuit switched networks, network performance is synonymous with the grade
of service. The number of rejected calls is a measure of how well the network is performing under heavy
traffic loads. Other types of performance measures can include the level of noise and echo.
 ATM: In an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) network, performance can be measured by line rate, quality
of service (QoS), data throughput, connect time, stability, technology, modulation technique and modem
enhancements.
There are many ways to measure the performance of a network, as each network is different in nature and
design. Performance can also be modelled instead of measured. For example, state transition diagrams are
often used to model queuing performance in a circuit-switched network. The network planner uses these
diagrams to analyze how the network performs in each state, ensuring that the network is optimally designed.

Network congestion
Network congestion occurs when a link or node is carrying so much data that its quality of service deteriorates.
Typical effects include queueing delay, packet loss or the blocking of new connections. A consequence of these
latter two is that incremental increases in offered load lead either only to small increase in networkthroughput, or
to an actual reduction in network throughput.
Network protocols that use aggressive retransmissions to compensate for packet loss tend to keep systems in a
state of network congestion—even after the initial load is reduced to a level that would not normally induce
network congestion. Thus, networks using these protocols can exhibit two stable states under the same level of
load. The stable state with low throughput is known as congestive collapse.
Modern networks use congestion control, congestion avoidance and traffic control techniques to try to avoid
congestion collapse. These include: exponential backoffin protocols such as 802.11's CSMA/CA and the
original Ethernet, window reduction in TCP, and fair queueing in devices such as routers. Another method to
avoid the negative effects of network congestion is implementing priority schemes, so that some packets are
transmitted with higher priority than others. Priority schemes do not solve network congestion by themselves, but
they help to alleviate the effects of congestion for some services. An example of this is 802.1p. A third method to
avoid network congestion is the explicit allocation of network resources to specific flows. One example of this is
the use of Contention-Free Transmission Opportunities (CFTXOPs) in the ITU-T G.hn standard, which provides
high-speed (up to 1 Gbit/s) Local area networking over existing home wires (power lines, phone lines and
coaxial cables).
For the Internet, RFC 2914 addresses the subject of congestion control in detail.

Network resilience
Network resilience is "the ability to provide and maintain an acceptable level of service in the face of faults and
challenges to normal operation.”

Security
Network security
Network security consists of provisions and policies adopted by the network administrator to prevent and
monitor unauthorized access, misuse, modification, or denial of the computer network and its network-accessible
resources. Network security is the authorization of access to data in a network, which is controlled by the
network administrator. Users are assigned an ID and password that allows them access to information and
programs within their authority. Network security is used on a variety of computer networks, both public and
private, to secure daily transactions and communications among businesses, government agencies and
individuals.

Network surveillance
Network surveillance is the monitoring of data being transferred over computer networks such as the Internet.
The monitoring is often done surreptitiously and may be done by or at the behest of governments, by
corporations, criminal organizations, or individuals. It may or may not be legal and may or may not require
authorization from a court or other independent agency.
Computer and network surveillance programs are widespread today, and almost all Internet traffic is or could
potentially be monitored for clues to illegal activity.
Surveillance is very useful to governments and law enforcement to maintain social control, recognize and
monitor threats, and prevent/investigate criminal activity. With the advent of programs such as the Total
Information Awareness program, technologies such as high speed surveillance
computers and biometrics software, and laws such as the Communications Assistance For Law Enforcement
Act, governments now possess an unprecedented ability to monitor the activities of citizens.
However, many civil rights and privacy groups—such as Reporters Without Borders, the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, and the American Civil Liberties Union—have expressed concern that increasing surveillance of
citizens may lead to a mass surveillance society, with limited political and personal freedoms. Fears such as this
have led to numerous lawsuits such as Hepting v. AT&T. The hacktivist group Anonymous has hacked into
government websites in protest of what it considers "draconian surveillance".

End to end encryption

End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a digital communications paradigm of uninterrupted protection of data traveling
between two communicating parties. It involves the originating party encrypting data so only the intended
recipient can decrypt it, with no dependency on third parties. End-to-end encryption prevents intermediaries,
such as Internet providers or application service providers, from discovering or tampering with communications.
End-to-end encryption generally protects bothconfidentiality and integrity.
Examples of end-to-end encryption include HTTPS for web traffic, PGP for email, OTR for instant
messaging, ZRTP for telephony, and TETRA for radio.
Typical server-based communications systems do not include end-to-end encryption. These systems can only
guarantee protection of communications betweenclients and servers, not between the communicating parties
themselves. Examples of non-E2EE systems are Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, Facebook, andDropbox.
Some such systems, for example LavaBit and SecretInk, have even described themselves as offering "end-to-
end" encryption when they do not. Some systems that normally offer end-to-end encryption have turned out to
contain a back door that subverts negotiation of the encryption key between the communicating parties, for
example Skype or Hushmail.
The end-to-end encryption paradigm does not directly address risks at the communications endpoints
themselves, such as the technical exploitation of clients, poor quality random number generators, or key escrow.
E2EE also does not address traffic analysis, which relates to things such as the identities of the end points and
the times and quantities of messages that are sent.

SSL/TLS
The introduction and rapid growth of e-commerce on the world wide web in the mid-1990s made it obvious that
some form of authentication and encryption was needed. Netscape took the first shot at a new standard. At the
time, the dominant web browser was Netscape Navigator. Netscape created a standard called secure socket
layer (SSL). SSL requires a server with a certificate. When a client requests access to an SSL-secured server,
the server sends a copy of the certificate to the client. The SSL client checks this certificate (all web browsers
come with an exhaustive list of CA root certificates preloaded), and if the certificate checks out, the server is
authenticated and the client negotiates a symmetric-key cipher for use in the session. The session is now in a
very secure encrypted tunnel between the SSL server and the SSL client.

Views of networks
Users and network administrators typically have different views of their networks. Users can share printers and
some servers from a workgroup, which usually means they are in the same geographic location and are on the
same LAN, whereas a Network Administrator is responsible to keep that network up and running. Acommunity of
interest has less of a connection of being in a local area, and should be thought of as a set of arbitrarily located
users who share a set of servers, and possibly also communicate via peer-to-peer technologies.
Network administrators can see networks from both physical and logical perspectives. The physical perspective
involves geographic locations, physical cabling, and the network elements (e.g., routers, bridges and application
layer gateways) that interconnect via the transmission media. Logical networks, called, in the TCP/IP
architecture, subnets, map onto one or more transmission media. For example, a common practice in a campus
of buildings is to make a set of LAN cables in each building appear to be a common subnet, using virtual LAN
(VLAN) technology.
Both users and administrators are aware, to varying extents, of the trust and scope characteristics of a network.
Again using TCP/IP architectural terminology, anintranet is a community of interest under private administration
usually by an enterprise, and is only accessible by authorized users (e.g. employees). Intranets do not have to
be connected to the Internet, but generally have a limited connection. An extranet is an extension of an intranet
that allows secure communications to users outside of the intranet (e.g. business partners, customers).
Unofficially, the Internet is the set of users, enterprises, and content providers that are interconnected by Internet
Service Providers (ISP). From an engineering viewpoint, the Internet is the set of subnets, and aggregates of
subnets, which share the registered IP address space and exchange information about the reachability of those
IP addresses using the Border Gateway Protocol. Typically, the human-readable names of servers are
translated to IP addresses, transparently to users, via the directory function of the Domain Name System (DNS).
Over the Internet, there can be business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C) and consumer-to-
consumer (C2C) communications. When money or sensitive information is exchanged, the communications are
apt to be protected by some form of communications security mechanism. Intranets and extranets can be
securely superimposed onto the Internet, without any access by general Internet users and administrators, using
secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology.

OSI model
OSI model
by layer

7. Application layer

6. Presentation layer

5. Session layer
 4. Transport layer

3. Network layer

2. Data link layer

1. Physical layer

The Open Systems Interconnection model (OSI model) is a conceptual model that characterizes and
standardizes the communication functions of a telecommunication or computing system without regard to its
underlying internal structure and technology. Its goal is the interoperability of diverse communication systems
with standard protocols. The model partitions a communication system into abstraction layers. The original
version of the model defined seven layers.
A layer serves the layer above it and is served by the layer below it. For example, a layer that provides error-free
communications across a network provides the path needed by applications above it, while it calls the next lower
layer to send and receive packets that comprise the contents of that path. Two instances at the same layer are
visualized as connected by a horizontal connection in that layer.
The model is a product of the Open Systems Interconnection project at the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO), maintained by the identification ISO/IEC 7498-1.

Communication in the OSI-Model (example with layers 3 to 5)

History
In the late 1970s, one project was administered by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO),
while another was undertaken by the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT,
from French: Comité Consultatif International Téléphonique et Télégraphique). These two international
standards bodies each developed a document that defined similar networking models.

OSI Model

Protocol data
Layer Function[3]
unit (PDU)

High-level APIs, including resource sharing, remote file

7. Application access

Host
Data
layers
Translation of data between a networking service and an
6. Presentation application; including character encoding, data
compression and encryption/decryption
In 1983,
these two Managing communication sessions, i.e. continuous
documents 5. Session exchange of information in the form of multiple back-and-
were forth transmissions between two nodes
merged to
form a
standard
Reliable transmission of data segments between points on a
called The
4. Transport Segment, Datagram network,
Basic including segmentation, acknowledgement and multiplexing
Reference
Model for
Open
Systems Structuring and managing a multi-node network,
3. Network Packet including addressing,routing and traffic control

Media 2. Data link Frame

Reliable transmission of data frames between two nodes
layers connected by a physical layer

Transmission and reception of raw bit streams over a

1. Physical Symbol physical medium

Interconnection. The standard is usually referred to as the Open Systems Interconnection Reference Model, the
OSI Reference Model, or simply the OSI model. It was published in 1984 by both the ISO, as standard ISO
7498, and the renamed CCITT (now called the Telecommunications Standardization Sector of the International
Telecommunication Union or ITU-T) as standard X.200.
OSI had two major components, an abstract model of networking, called the Basic Reference Model or seven-
layer model, and a set of specific protocols.
The concept of a seven-layer model was provided by the work of Charles Bachman at Honeywell Information
Services. Various aspects of OSI design evolved from experiences with the ARPANET, NPLNET,
EIN, CYCLADES network and the work in IFIP WG6.1. The new design was documented in ISO 7498 and its
various addenda. In this model, a networking system was divided into layers. Within each layer, one or more
entities implement its functionality. Each entity interacted directly only with the layer immediately beneath it, and
provided facilities for use by the layer above it.
Protocols enable an entity in one host to interact with a corresponding entity at the same layer in another host.
Service definitions abstractly described the functionality provided to an (N)-layer by an (N-1) layer, where N was
one of the seven layers of protocols operating in the local host.
The OSI standards documents are available from the ITU-T as the X.200-series of recommendations. Some of
the protocol specifications were also available as part of the ITU-T X series. The equivalent ISO and ISO/IEC
standards for the OSI model were available from ISO. Not all are free of charge.

Description of OSI layers

The recommendation X.200 describes seven layers, labeled 1 to 7. Layer 1 is the lowest layer in this model.
At each level N, two entities at the communicating devices (layer N peers) exchange protocol data units (PDUs)
by means of a layer N protocol. Each PDU contains a payload, called the service data unit (SDU), along with
protocol-related headers or footers.
Data processing by two communicating OSI-compatible devices is done as such:

1. The data to be transmitted is composed at the topmost layer of the transmitting device (layer N) into
a protocol data unit (PDU).
2. The PDU is passed to layer N-1, where it is known as the service data unit (SDU).
3. At layer N-1 the SDU is concatenated with a header, a footer, or both, producing a layer N-1 PDU. It is
then passed to layer N-2.
4. The process continues until reaching the lowermost level, from which the data is transmitted to the
receiving device.
 5. At the receiving device the data is passed from the lowest to the highest layer as a series of SDUs while
being successively stripped from each layer's header or footer, until reaching the topmost layer, where
the last of the data is consumed.
Some orthogonal aspects, such as management and security, involve all of the layers (See ITU-T X.800
Recommendation). These services are aimed at improving the CIA triad - confidentiality, integrity,
and availability - of the transmitted data. In practice, the availability of a communication service is determined by
the interaction between network design and network management protocols. Appropriate choices for both of
these are needed to protect against denial of service.
Layer 1: Physical Layer
The physical layer defines the electrical, optical, and physical specifications of the data connection. It defines the
relationship between a device and a physicaltransmission medium (for example, an electrical cable, an optical
fiber cable, or a radio frequency link). This includes the layout of pins, voltages, line impedance,
cable specifications, signal timing and similar characteristics for connected devices and frequency (5 GHz or
2.4 GHz etc.) for wireless devices. It is responsible for transmission and reception of unstructured raw data in a
physical medium. Bit rate control is done at the physical layer. It may define transmission mode as simplex,half
duplex, and full duplex. It defines the network topology as bus, mesh, or ring being some of the most common.
The physical layer is the layer of low-level networking equipment, such as some hubs, cabling, and repeaters.
The physical layer is never concerned with protocols or other such higher-layer items. Examples of hardware in
this layer are network adapters, repeaters, network hubs, modems, and fiber media converters.
Layer 2: Data Link Layer
The data link layer provides node-to-node data transfer—a link between two directly connected nodes. It detects
and possibly corrects errors that may occur in the physical layer. It defines the protocol to establish and
terminate a connection between two physically connected devices. It also defines the protocol for flow
controlbetween them.
IEEE 802 divides the data link layer into two sublayers:
 Medium access control (MAC) layer – responsible for controlling how devices in a network gain access to a
medium and permission to transmit data.
 Logical link control (LLC) layer – responsible for identifying and encapsulating network layer protocols, and
controls error checking and frame synchronization.
The MAC and LLC layers of IEEE 802 networks such as 802.3 Ethernet, 802.11 Wi-Fi,
and 802.15.4 ZigBee operate at the data link layer.
The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) is a data link layer protocol that can operate over several different physical
layers, such as synchronous and asynchronous serial lines.
The ITU-T G.hn standard, which provides high-speed local area networking over existing wires (power lines,
phone lines and coaxial cables), includes a complete data link layer that provides both error correction and flow
control by means of a selective-repeat sliding-window protocol.
Layer 3: Network Layer
The network layer provides the functional and procedural means of transferring variable length data sequences
(called packets) from one node to another connected in "different networks". A network is a medium to which
many nodes can be connected, on which every node has an address and which permits nodes connected to it to
transfer messages to other nodes connected to it by merely providing the content of a message and the address
of the destination node and letting the network find the way to deliver the message to the destination node,
possibly routing it through intermediate nodes. If the message is too large to be transmitted from one node to
another on the data link layer between those nodes, the network may implement message delivery by splitting
the message into several fragments at one node, sending the fragments independently, and reassembling the
fragments at another node. It may, but does not need to, report delivery errors.
Message delivery at the network layer is not necessarily guaranteed to be reliable; a network layer protocol may
provide reliable message delivery, but it need not do so.
A number of layer-management protocols, a function defined in the management annex, ISO 7498/4, belong to
the network layer. These include routing protocols, multicast group management, network-layer information and
error, and network-layer address assignment. It is the function of the payload that makes these belong to the
network layer, not the protocol that carries them.
Layer 4: Transport Layer
The transport layer provides the functional and procedural means of transferring variable-length data sequences
from a source to a destination host, while maintaining the quality of service functions.
The transport layer controls the reliability of a given link through flow control, segmentation/desegmentation, and
error control. Some protocols are state- and connection-oriented. This means that the transport layer can keep
track of the segments and re-transmit those that fail delivery. The transport layer also provides the
acknowledgement of the successful data transmission and sends the next data if no errors occurred. The
transport layer creates segments out of the message received from the application layer. Segmentation is the
process of dividing a long message into smaller messages.
OSI defines five classes of connection-mode transport protocols ranging from class 0 (which is also known as
TP0 and provides the fewest features) to class 4 (TP4, designed for less reliable networks, similar to the
Internet). Class 0 contains no error recovery, and was designed for use on network layers that provide error-free
connections. Class 4 is closest to TCP, although TCP contains functions, such as the graceful close, which OSI
assigns to the session layer. Also, all OSI TP connection-mode protocol classes provide expedited data and
preservation of record boundaries. Detailed characteristics of TP0-4 classes are shown in the following table:

Feature name TP0 TP1 TP2 TP3 TP4

Connection-oriented network Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Connectionless network No No No No Yes
Concatenation and separation No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Segmentation and reassembly Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Error recovery No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Reinitiate connectiona No Yes No Yes No
Multiplexing / demultiplexing over single virtual circuit No No Yes Yes Yes
Explicit flow control No No Yes Yes Yes
Retransmission on timeout No No No No Yes
Reliable transport service No Yes No Yes Yes
a
If an excessive number of PDUs are unacknowledged.
An easy way to visualize the transport layer is to compare it with a post office, which deals with the dispatch and
classification of mail and parcels sent. A post office inspects only the outer envelope of mail to determine its
delivery. Higher layers may have the equivalent of double envelopes, such as cryptographic presentation
services that can be read by the addressee only. Roughly speaking, tunneling protocols operate at the transport
layer, such as carrying non-IP protocols such asIBM's SNA or Novell's IPX over an IP network, or end-to-end
encryption with IPsec. While Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) might seem to be a network-layer protocol, if
the encapsulation of the payload takes place only at the endpoint, GRE becomes closer to a transport protocol
that uses IP headers but contains complete Layer 2 frames or Layer 3 packets to deliver to the
endpoint. L2TP carries PPP frames inside transport segments.
Although not developed under the OSI Reference Model and not strictly conforming to the OSI definition of the
transport layer, the Transmission Control Protocol(TCP) and the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) of the Internet
Protocol Suite are commonly categorized as layer-4 protocols within OSI.
Layer 5: Session Layer
The session layer controls the dialogues (connections) between computers. It establishes, manages and
terminates the connections between the local and remote application. It provides for full-duplex, half-duplex,
or simplex operation, and establishes checkpointing, adjournment, termination, and restart procedures. The OSI
model made this layer responsible for graceful close of sessions, which is a property of the Transmission Control
Protocol, and also for session checkpointing and recovery, which is not usually used in the Internet Protocol
Suite. The session layer is commonly implemented explicitly in application environments that use remote
procedure calls.
Layer 6: Presentation Layer
The presentation layer establishes context between application-layer entities, in which the application-layer
entities may use different syntax and semantics if the presentation service provides a mapping between them. If
a mapping is available, presentation protocol data units are encapsulated into session protocol data units and
passed down the protocol stack.
This layer provides independence from data representation by translating between application and network
formats. The presentation layer transforms data into the form that the application accepts. This layer formats
data to be sent across a network. It is sometimes called the syntax layer. The presentation layer can include
compression functions. The Presentation Layer negotiates the Transfer Syntax.
The original presentation structure used the Basic Encoding Rules of Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1),
with capabilities such as converting an EBCDIC-coded text file to an ASCII-coded file,
or serialization of objects and other data structures from and to XML. ASN.1 effectively makes an application
protocol invariant with respect to syntax.
Layer 7: Application Layer
The application layer is the OSI layer closest to the end user, which means both the OSI application layer and
the user interact directly with the software application. This layer interacts with software applications that
implement a communicating component. Such application programs fall outside the scope of the OSI model.
Application-layer functions typically include identifying communication partners, determining resource availability,
and synchronizing communication. When identifying communication partners, the application layer determines
the identity and availability of communication partners for an application with data to transmit. The most
important distinction in the application layer is the distinction between the application-entity and the application.
For example, a reservation website might have two application-entities: one using HTTP to communicate with its
users, and one for a remote database protocol to record reservations. Neither of these protocols have anything
to do with reservations. That logic is in the application itself. The application layer per se has no means to
determine the availability of resources in the network.

Cross-layer functions
Cross-layer functions are services that are not tied to a given layer, but may affect more than one layer.
Examples include the following:

 Security service (telecommunication) as defined by ITU-T X.800 recommendation.

 Management functions, i.e. functions that permit to configure, instantiate, monitor, terminate the
communications of two or more entities: there is a specific application-layer protocol, common management
information protocol (CMIP) and its corresponding service, common management information
service (CMIS), they need to interact with every layer in order to deal with their instances.
 Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) MPLS, ATM, and X.25 are 3a protocols. OSI divides the Network
Layer into 3 roles: 3a) Subnetwork Access, 3b) Subnetwork Dependent Convergence and 3c) Subnetwork
Independent Convergence. It was designed to provide a unified data-carrying service for both circuit-based
clients and packet-switching clients which provide a datagram-based service model. It can be used to carry
many different kinds of traffic, including IP packets, as well as native ATM, SONET, and Ethernet frames.
Sometimes one sees reference to a Layer 2.5. This is a fiction created by those who are unfamiliar with the
OSI Model and ISO 8648, Internal Organization of the Network Layer in particular
 ARP determines the mapping of an IPv4 address to the underlying MAC address. This is not a translation
function. If it were IPv4 and the MAC address would be at the same layer. The implementation of the MAC
protocol decodes the MAC PDU and delivers the User-Data to the IP-layer. Because Ethernet is a multi-
access media, a device sending a PDU on an Ethernet frame needs to know what IP address maps to what
MAC address.
 DHCP assigns IPv4 addresses to new systems joining a network. There is no means to derive or obtain an
IPv4 address from an Ethernet address.
 Domain Name Service is an Application Layer service which is used to look up the IP address of a given
domain name. Once a reply is received from the DNS server, it is then possible to form a Layer 4 connection
or flow to the desired host. There are no connections at Layer 3.
 Cross MAC and PHY Scheduling is essential in wireless networks because of the time varying nature of
wireless channels. By scheduling packet transmission only in favorable channel conditions, which requires
the MAC layer to obtain channel state information from the PHY layer, network throughput can be
significantly improved and energy waste can be avoided.

Interfaces
Neither the OSI Reference Model nor OSI protocols specify any programming interfaces, other than deliberately
abstract service specifications. Protocol specifications precisely define the interfaces between different
computers, but the software interfaces inside computers, known as network sockets are implementation-specific.
For example, Microsoft Windows' Winsock, and Unix's Berkeley sockets and System V Transport Layer
Interface, are interfaces between applications (layer 5 and above) and the transport (layer 4). NDIS and ODI are
interfaces between the media (layer 2) and the network protocol (layer 3).
Interface standards, except for the physical layer to media, are approximate implementations of OSI service
specifications.
Comparison with TCP/IP model
The design of protocols in the TCP/IP model of the Internet does not concern itself with strict hierarchical
encapsulation and layering. RFC 3439 contains a section entitled "Layering considered harmful".TCP/IP does
recognize four broad layers of functionality which are derived from the operating scope of their contained
protocols: the scope of the software application; the end-to-end transport connection; the internetworking range;
and the scope of the direct links to other nodes on the local network.
Despite using a different concept for layering than the OSI model, these layers are often compared with the OSI
layering scheme in the following way:

 The Internet application layer includes the OSI application layer, presentation layer, and most of the session
layer.
 Its end-to-end transport layer includes the graceful close function of the OSI session layer as well as the OSI
transport layer.
 The internetworking layer (Internet layer) is a subset of the OSI network layer.
 The link layer includes the OSI data link layer and sometimes the physical layers, as well as some protocols
of the OSI's network layer.
These comparisons are based on the original seven-layer protocol model as defined in ISO 7498, rather than
refinements in such things as the internal organization of the network layer document
The presumably strict layering of the OSI model as it is usually described does not present contradictions in
TCP/IP, as it is permissible that protocol usage does not follow the hierarchy implied in a layered model. Such
examples exist in some routing protocols (for example OSPF), or in the description of tunneling protocols, which
provide a link layer for an application, although the tunnel host protocol might well be a transport or even an
application-layer protocol in its own right.
 NETWORKING OF COMPUTERS IN BCCL:
It is an accepted premise both in theory and practice that information and communication technologies can make a
significant contribution to the achievement of an organization’s goals. So in this context the activities of EDP
Department gains all the more importance. Currently EDP department of BCCL is engaged in the following activities

There are some major advantages which computer network has provided making the organizations more efficient and
faster decision making. Keeping this aspect in mind, BCCL has gone in a big way for establishing Local Area Networking
(LAN) and Wide Area Networking (WAN).

 Thus all the area offices, Weigh Bridges, Regional Stores, Central Stores, Washery Division Offices, Central
Hospital Dhanbad (CHD) have been connected to the MDC (i.e. BCCL-HQ, Koyla Bhawan) using MPLS-VPN
connectivity (WAN) enabling easy, quick dissemination of information. It has heralded a new era in the BCCL
towards standardization of application softwares as well as on-line activity.

 A 20 point LAN is operational at all the area offices/ Stores, Central Stores, Washery Division Offices.

 At Koyla Bhawan , BCCL-HQ about 500 users LAN is operational. This LAN has been upgraded to Gigabit LAN.

 A 35 users LAN has been established at CHD to cater the need for Hospital Computerization.

Office Automation

 The company has provided 1300 PCs/Nodes at various users across BCCL for Computerized Jobs/Office Automation
jobs like Word Processing , Spreadsheet based Calculations, Undertaking e-Governance activities etc. More nos.
of PCs will be gradually added to take care of demands due to reduction of clerical hands, need for communicating
using E-Mails, File & Data creation and transfer etc.

 At present BCCL Koyla Bhawan users have been provided with Internet facility through 45 MBPS dedicated Leased
Line of Reliance Communication Ltd.

WEB-SITE OF THE COMPANY:

The company provides information for dissemination to public on its web-site. The Web-site has been shifted to its
own server and is being maintained and updated in house. The Web-site has been given a face lift and the available
information has been made more presentable & accessible. All the recent news, events, important notifications are
constantly displayed on the company’s web-site and it serves as one-spot source of information for the general public
as well as the employees of the company.

E-GOVERNANCE ACTIVITIES:

 The BCCL is also offering Coal for sale through E-Auction taking help of the Service Providers.
 The Road Sales module of COALNET Package has been recently modified to cater the need for e-auction, e-refund
etc.
 E-procurement has been started in BCCL.
 Online Cost-Sheet generation has been started.
 Coal Dispatch data from the weigh-bridges are being received ON LINE through WAN connectivity at S&M dept.HQ.
 Online filling of Property Returns by executives, On Line Coal Production Reporting, Online Material Management
System (MMS) have been implemented.

Other E-GOVERNANCE ACTIVITIES BEING DEVELOPED:

New online applications have been developed by EDP Department like Online Coal Sales Billing, On Line Financial
Accounting system etc. with a view to increase transparency and facilitate quick decision making within the
organization.
MAIN SERVERS/HARDWARE:

An Organization like BCCL can benefit from the advantages of a Centralized Server concept. Putting a fast and well
equipped Servers at HQ, increases the productivity, achieves standardization of application software, enables
centralized backup and archiving and vastly improves the security of data.
Considering this, a Main Data Centre (M.D.C), having two servers (Application Server and Database Server) along with
other necessary hardware has been established at BCCL H.Q Dhanbad.

The in-house developed Web-Based ERP package named “COALNET” has been installed at these servers. All the users
across BCCL (Areas/ Stores/ Weigh Bridges etc) are connected to these Servers via MPLS-VPN Network.

In order to have seamless and un-interrupted running of COALNET PACKAGE, backup servers at Kolkata Office of BCCL
has been installed as Near Data Centre (NDC). The NDC and MDC have been networked with a dedicated one to one
Leased Line for continuous backup of the data.
 Conclusion

The organisation is well efficient in establishing network throughout its

premises.

The organisation has centralized server with the concept of backup.

Considering this, a main data centre having 2 servers, application servers
and database servers and database server along with two other necessary
hardware has been setup web based ERP package named COALNET
has been installed. The entire user across BCCL are connected together
via MPL-VPN network.

Networking in BCCL is done by establishing LAN and WAN. Company’s

website is periodically updates with news feeds and other required
changes.