LANs, WANs, and Internetworks

Networks come in many sizes and serve a wide

variety of functions. Following are some of the
basic differences:
■ The size of the area covered.
■ The number of users connected.
■ The number and types of services available.
Three distinct groups of networks accommodate
different groups and extend geographic
boundaries: local-area networks (LANs), wide-area
networks (WANs), and internetworks.
 Local-Area Networks
• A local-area network (LAN) is a group of end devices
and users under the control of a common
administration.
• The term local first meant that the computers were
grouped geographically close together and had the
same purpose in an organization.
• This is still true in many situations, but as technologies
evolve, the definition of local has evolved as well.
• A LAN can consist of one group of users on one floor,
but the term can also be used to describe all users on a
multi-building campus.
 Wide-Area Networks
• A wide-area network (WAN) is a network that is used
to connect LANs that are located geographically far
apart.
• If a company has offices in different cities, it will
contract with a telecommunications service provider
(TSP) to provide data lines between LANs in each city.
• The leased lines will vary in service and bandwidth,
depending on the terms of the contract. The TSP is
responsible for the intermediary devices on the WAN
that transports messages.
• The sole purpose of WANs is to connect LANs, and
there are usually no end users on WANs.
The Internet: A Network of Networks
• An internetwork is a collection of two or more
LANs connected by WANs. Internetworks are
referred to interchangeably as data networks
or simply networks. The most popular
internetwork is the Internet, which is open to
public use. With LANs able to communicate
with other LANs using WANs, many
organizations developed intranets.
 The Intranets
• The Intranets is a term often confused with the
Internet, an intranet is a private web of networks
closed to the public but open for employees to
browse.
• For example, many companies use intranets to
share company information and training across
the globe to far-away employees.
• Documents are shared and projects are managed
securely over great distances on an intranet.
 Network Devices
When discussing how devices and media connect to
each other, remember these important terms:
• Network interface card (NIC): A NIC, or LAN
adapter, provides the physical connection to the
network at the PC or other host device.
• The media connecting the PC to the networking
device plugs directly into the NIC.
• Each NIC has a unique physical address (MAC
ADDRESS) that identifies it on the LAN.
 Network Devices
■ Physical port: A physical port is a connector or
outlet on a networking device where the media is
connected to a host or other networking device.
■ Interface: The term interface refers to how the
device can allow two different networks to
communicate. Routers connect to different
networks, and the specialized NICs on routers are
simply called interfaces. The interface on a router
device has a unique physical address and appears
as a host on the local network
 Network Interface Card (NIC)
• This is also known as network adapter card,
Ethernet Card and LAN card. NIC allows our PC
to communicate with other PCs.
• A PC uses parallel data transmission
technology to transmit data between its
internal parts while the media that connects
this PC with other PCs uses serial data
transmission technology.
• A NIC converts parallel data stream into serial
data stream and vice versa serial data stream
is get converted in parallel data stream.
Network Interface Card (NIC)
 The Patch Panel
It is used to organize the UTP cables
systematically. It doesn’t interfere in data signal.
 The Hub
• A hub, also called a network hub, is a common
connection point for devices in a network.
• Hubs are devices commonly used to
connect segments of a LAN.
• The hub contains multiple ports. When
a packet arrives at one port, it is copied to the
other ports so that all segments of the LAN can
see all packets.
 The Hub
The Hub: When hubs receive an electrical signal in one port (step 1 in
Figure), the hub repeats the signal out all other ports (step 2 in the
figure).
When two or more devices send at the same time, an electrical
collision occurs, making both signals corrupt.
As a result, devices must take turns by using carrier sense multiple
access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) logic, so the devices share
the (10-Mbps) bandwidth.
Broadcasts sent by one device are heard by, and processed by, all
other devices on the LAN.
Unicast frames are heard by all other devices on the LAN.
 The Hub
• Over time, the performance of many Ethernet
networks based on hubs started to degrade.
• The increase in traffic volumes resulted in an
increased number of collisions, requiring
more retransmissions and wasting more LAN
capacity.
• Ethernet transparent bridges, or simply
bridges, helped solve this performance
problem with 10BASE-T.
 The Bridge
• Bridges separated devices into groups called collision
domains.
• Bridges reduced the number of collisions that occurred in
the network, because frames inside one collision domain
did not collide with frames in another collision domain.
• Bridges increased bandwidth by giving each collision
domain its own separate bandwidth, with one sender at a
time per collision domain.
 The Bridge
• Adding the bridge in Figure really creates two
separate 10BASE-T networks—one on the left
and one on the right.
• The 10BASE-T network on the left has its own 10
Mbps to share, as does the network on the right.
So, in this example, the total network bandwidth
is doubled to 20 Mbps as compared with the
10BASE-T network of HUB, because devices on
each side of the network can send at 10 Mbps at
the same time.
 The Switch
• LAN switches perform the same basic core functions as bridges,
but at much faster speeds and with many enhanced features.
• Like bridges, switches segment a LAN into separate collision
domains, each with its own capacity.
• And if the network does not have a hub, each single link is
considered its own CD, even if no collisions can actually occur in
that case.
• For example, Figure 6-3 shows a simple LAN with a switch and
four PCs. The switch creates four CDs, with the ability to send at
100 Mbps in this case on each of the four links.
• And with no hubs, each link can run at full-duplex, doubling the
capacity of
each link.
Switching Logic
 Methods of Switching
Switches support three methods of switching.
1- Store and Forward
• In this mode Switch buffers entire frame into the
memory and run FCS (Frame Check Sequence) to
ensure that frame is valid and not corrupted.
• A frame less than 64bytes and higher than 1518bytes
is invalid.
• Only valid frames are processed and all invalid frames
are automatically dropped.
• Among these three methods of Switching, this method
has highest latency.
• Latency is the time taken by device in passing frame
from it.
 Methods of Switching
2- Cut and Through
• This has lowest latency. In this method, Switch
only reads first six bytes from frame after the
preamble.
• These six bytes are the destination address of
frame. This is the fastest method of switching.
This method also process invalid frames. Only
advantage of this method is speed.
 Methods of Switching
3- Fragment Free
• This is a hybrid version of Store and Forward
method and Cut and Through method.
• It takes goodies from both methods and makes a
perfect method for switching.
• It checks first 64 bytes of frame for error. It
processes only those frames that have first
64bytes valid.
• Any frame less than 64 bytes is known as invalid .
This method filters invalid while maintaining the
speed
 The Modem
• In simple language modem is a device that is
used to connect with internet. Technically it is a
device which enables digital data transmission to
be transmitted over the telecommunication lines.
• A modem understands both technologies. It
converts the technology that a PC uses in the
technology which a Telco company understand.
• It enables communication between PC (Known as
DTE) and Telco company’s office (Known as DCE).
 The Modem
DTE (Data Terminal Equipment) is a device (usually a router or PC)
that converts data frame into signals and reconvert received
signals in data frame. DTE device communicates with DCE device.

DCE (Data circuit terminating equipment) is a device (usually

modem, CSU/DSU or Frame Relay switch) that provides clock rate
and synchronization
 The Router
• Router is a layer three device which forwards
data packet from one logical network segment to
another.
• Router forwards packets on the bases of their
destination address. For this, router keeps record
of the path that packets can use as they move
across the network.
• These records are maintained in a database table
known as routing table. Routing table can be built
statically or dynamically.
 The Router
Basically routers are used :-
• To connect different network segments.
• To connect different network protocols such as IP and IPX.
• To connect several smaller networks into a large network (known
as internetwork)
• To break a large network in smaller networks (Known as subnet
usually created to improve the performance or manageability)
• To connect two different media types such as UTP and fiber optical.
• To connect two different network architectures such as token ring
and Ethernet.
 The Proxy
• Proxy can be a dedicate device or it can be an
application software.
• Proxy is used to hide the internal network from
external world.
• If we use proxy then there would be no direct
communication between internal network and
external network. All communication will go
through the proxy.
• External computer will be able to access only proxy.
Thus Proxy makes tampering with an internal
system from the external network more difficult.
The Proxy
 Firewall
• A firewall is a security layer which once
configured keeps internal network safe from
unauthorized external users.
There are two types of firewall:
• software firewall
• hardware firewall.
 Software firewall
• Software firewall runs as application software.
• It does not need any dedicate resources.
• It can be installed in any device which is already
running other applications.
• It is less effective than hardware firewall but provides
sufficient functionality for home and small office
requirement.
• The biggest advantage of software firewall is that it is
cost effective.
• Almost all modern platforms which can connect with
Internet are equipped with basic firewall.
Software firewall
 Hardware firewall
• Hardware firewall runs from a dedicate device.
• It is highly effective but costs a lot of money.
• Usually it is used in company environment
where security is the top priority.
• Besides filtering data packet, a hardware firewall
provides several other services such as spoofing,
encryption and decryption, authentication and
proxy services.
• Each additional service cost an additional
amount of money.
Hardware firewall