COMMUNICATION AND NETWORKING CONCEPTS

(1) Network – An interconnected collection of individual computers for exchanging

information.

(2)Need for Networking :-

(a) Resource sharing–Sharing of data,programs and peripherals.
(b) Reliability–A file can be retrieved in case of crash since a file have many copies on 2 or 3
different machines in the network.
(c) cost factor-better performance.
(d) communication medium – Modifications done at one end can be immediately noticed at
another end of network.

(3)ARPANET – Advanced Research Project Agency Network.First network in 1969.Used to

connect computers at different universities and U.S.Defense.

(4)NSF – National Science Foundation.Developed in 1980s.High capacity network than

ARPANET.Allowed only the academic research on its network but not any kind of private
business.

(5)INTERNET–Inter Networking.Linking of 2 or more networks i.e.ARPANET,NSFnet and

some private network.World-wide network of computer networks.Super network.

(6)Backbone – A central interconnecting structure that connects one or more networks.

(7)Gateway- Device that connects dissimilar networks.It establishes an intelligent connection

between a local network and external network with completely different structures.It serves as an
entrance to another network.

(8)Interspace-Client/server software program that allows multiple users to communicate online

with real-time audio,video and text chat in dynamic 3D environment.

(9)Protocol-It is a formal description of message formats and the rules that 2 or more machine
must follow to exchange those messages.

(10)TCP –Transmission Control Protocol.Responsible for dividing the message into packets
on the source computer and reassembling the received packets at the destination computer.
IP – Internet Protocol.Responsible for handling the address of the destination computer so that
each packet is routed to its proper destination.

(11)Node-Every computer that is connected to a network is called node.

(12)Server-A computer that facilitates the sharing of data,software and hardware resources on a
network.2 types of servers namely,
(i)Dedicated server – A computer that does the job of only a server is called dedicated
server.Also called file server.
(ii)Non-dedicated server – A computer which works as a workstation as well as a server.It is
slower than dedicated server and requires more memory.

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(13)NIU- Network Interface Unit.It is an interpreter that establishes communication between
server and workstation.NIU is also called NIC(Network Interface Card).

(14)TAP-Terminal Access Point.NIU is also called TAP.

(15)MAC Address- Medium Access Control Address.Unique physical address to each NIC
card assigned by NIC manufacturer.

(16)Switching techniques–Used for transmitting data across networks.3 types namely,

(i)Circuit switching - Complete physical connection between 2 computers is established.Data
are transmitted from the source to destination computer.

(ii)Packet switching – A fixed size of packet can be transmitted across the network.All the
packets are stored in main memory.Access time is reduced,thus this improves the performance
of the network.

(17)Data Channel – A medium used to carry information or data from one point to another.

(18)Baud – It is the unit of measurement for the information carrying capacity of a

communication channel.

(19)Bandwidth – The difference between the highest and lowest frequencies of a transmission
channel.(or)
Bandwidth is data speed in bits per second(bps).High bandwidth channels are called
broadband channels and low bandwidth channels are called narrowband channels.

(20)Data Transfer Rate – It refers to the speed at which data transfer is measured.
bps - bits per second.
Bps - Bytes per second.
Kbps - Kilo bits per second
KBps - Kilo Bytes per second(Thousand Bytes)
Mbps - Mega bits per second
MBps - Mega Bytes per second(Million Bytes)
Tbps - Tera bits per second
TBps - Tera Bytes per second(Trillion Bytes)

(21)Transmission Media – Connecting cables or connecting media between 2 or more

workstations.

(22)Twisted Pair – The most common transmission media is Twisted Pair.Common Application
–Telephone system.Used for transmitting either analog or digital signal.It consists of 2 identical
wires wrapped together in a double helix. Twisting of wires reduce Crosstalk.

Advantages Disadvantages
1.It is simple,easy to install & maintain. 1.It cannot be used for long distance
transmission.
2.It is cheap. 2. It cannot be used for broad band application.

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(23) Coaxial cables –It consists of copper wire, as core surrounded by one or more foil or wire
shield separated by insulator.The core carries the signal and shield provides the ground.Widely
used for cable television networks around metropolitan cities.
Advantages Disadvantages
1.Good combination of high bandwidth(upto 1.Expensive than twisted pair cable.
400 MBPS) and excellent noise immnunity.
2.suitable for high speed communication. 2. Not compatible with twisted pair cables.

(24) Fibre optic cables – Fibre optic consists of 3 key components – 1.Light source
2.Transmission medium 3.Detector.Fibre optic consists of thin strands of glass or glass like
material which carries light from source end of the fibre to the detector at other end.It is
unidirectional data transmission system that accepts an electrical signal,converts it by light
pulses and then reconverts the output to an electric signal at the receiving end.The fibre optic
cable consists of 3 pieces-1.the core 2.cladding 3.protective coating.Core-the glass or plastic
through which light travels.Cladding-covering the core that reflects light back to the
core.Protective coating-protects the fibre cable from hostile environment.
Advantages Disadvantages
1.It is immune to noise such as electric and 1.It is costly.
magnetic interference
2.Data is transmitted at faster rate. 2.Installation and maintenance is very difficult.
3.It has high transmission capacity. 3.Connecting 2 fibre optic is difficult.
4.Used for broad band transmission. 4.Because of noise immunity, fibre optics are
virtually impossible to tap.

(25)Microwave Link – Microwave signals are used to transmit data without the use of cables for
long distance communication such as telephone communication,mobile phones,television.It
consists of transmitter,receiver and atmosphere.It uses just simple towers and antennas at each
end. Advantages Disadvantages
1.Cheaper than fibre optic cables. 1.Insecure communication and cost of design,
maintenance is high.
2.Very easy communication over difficult 2.Transmission gets affected due to weather
terrain and over oceans. effects like thunder,storm,rain.

(26)Radio link – Transmission making use of radio frequency.It can travel over long distances
and can penetrate buildings easily used for indoor and outdoor communication.It consists of
1.Transmitter and 2.Receiver.The transmitter encodes the message into sine wave and transmits
message along with radio wave.The receiver receives the radio wave and encodes the sine wave
to message.Both transmitter and receiver use antennas.
Advantages Disadvantages
1.It offers mobility. 1.Insecure communication.
2.It is cheaper.Very easy communication over 2.Affected with weather condition like
difficult terrain. thunder,storm,rain.

(27)Satellite link – When radio wave frequency is higher than 3 GHz, it is called Microwave
Satellite Communication. It uses the synchronous satellite to relay the radio signal transmitted
from ground station.In this system,the earth station consists of satellite dish that functions as an
antenna and connecting equipment to transmit and receive data from satellite passing
overhead.The satellite accepts data/signals transmitted from earth station, amplify them and
retransmits them to another station.
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 Advantages Disadvantages
1.Area coverage is large. 1.Investment cost is high.
2.It is fast in communication. 2.Over crowding of available bandwidth due to
low antenna gain.

(28)Infrared – It is unguided media which uses infrared light for data transmission for short
range of communication.TV Remote Control,Stereos make use of infrared transmission.

Advantage Disadvantage
1.It is cheap. No Government license is needed 1.Do not pass through solid objects.
to operate infrared transmission.

(29)Modem – Modulator Demodulator – Device connected between the computer(digital) and

the telephone system(analog) to perform Modulation and Demodulation Processes.
Modulation – The process of converting digital signals to analog signals.
Demodulation - The process of converting analog signals to digital signals.
2 types of Modems namely,
(i)Internal modem – fixed within the computer.
(ii)External modem – connected externally to a computer.

(30)RJ45-Registered Jack-45.It is an 8 wire connector to connect computer to LAN.It is similar

to telephone converter.

(31)Ethernet card-It is a LAN architecture developed by Xerox Corporation in association with

DEC and Intel. It uses bus or star topology and support data transfer upto 10 Mbps. The
computers that are part of Ethernet have to install a special card called Ethernet card.

(32)Wi-Fi card – It allows our computer to connect with other device without wire i.e. for
wireless connectivity. It may be internal or external with built-in wireless radio and antenna. The
most common wi-fi card used in desktop computer are PCI – Express. It allows to connect our
device to hotspot available. Advantage is that it allows computer to become part of network
without being physically connected through wire and can be placed anywhere.

(33)HUB – It is a device used to connect several computers together. Hubs are multi-slot
concentrators into which a number of multi-port cards can be plugged to provide additional
access as the network grow in size. HUB causes network traffic. So HUB is not intelligent
because it broadcasts all information to all connected computers, including the one that sent it.
2 types namely,
Active HUB – Amplifies the signal from one connected device to another.
Passive HUB – Allows the signal from one device to another.

(34)Switch - It is a device used to segment networks into different sub networks called subnets
or LAN segments. It is a smart device. It can identify the intended destination using MAC
address and send the information only to the target computer(s).It does not share the bandwidth
among all its connected computers. As a result,no unnecessary traffic generated. It can send and
receive information at the same time. But it is expensive than hubs.

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(35)Repeater – It is a network device that amplifies and restores signals for long distance
transmission(for distance more than 100 meters but practically more than 70 meters.) It is used in
long network lines. Repeaters are of 2 kinds namely,
(i)Amplifier- amplifies both signal and noise.
(ii)Signal Repeater – collects the inbound packet and then retransmits the packet as if it were
starting from the source station.

(36)Router – It is a network device that is used to separate different segments in a network to

improve performance and reliability.It can handle different protocols.Routers filter network
traffic based on IP addresses.The IP address tells the router which LAN segment the network
traffic(data packets) belongs to. Router uses logical address (address generated by CPU).For
example, a router can link Ethernet to a mainframe,

(37)Bus Topology –It consists of a single length of the transmission medium(coaxial cable) onto
which the various nodes are connected.It is a linear network.The transmission from any station
travels the length of the bus, in both directions, and can be received by all other stations.The
Bus has terminators at either end which absorb the signal, after removing it from the bus.
Advantages Disadvantages
1.Simple wiring and short cable length is 1.Fault diagnosis is difficult.
required.
2.Installation cost is cheap, easy to maintain. 2.Fault isolation is difficult.
3.Additional nodes can be connected easily. 3.Nodes must be intelligent.

(38)Star Topology – This topology consists of a central node to which all nodes are connected
by a single path.It is used in networks involving data processing or voice communication.It is
used in areas where intelligence in the network is concentrated at the central node.
Advantages Disadvantages
1.Easy to service and maintenance. 1.Long cable length is required.
2.Simple Access Protocol. 2.It is difficult to expand a new node.
3.Fault detection and isolation is easy. 3.The network depends on central node.

(39)Tree Topology – A variation of bus topology is the tree topology.The shape of the network is
that of an inverted tree,with the central root branching and sub-branching to the extremities of
the network.Data transmission is similar to bus topology.It is a hybrid topology of pure network
topology and bus topology.It is suited for applications which have a hierarchial flow of data
and control.

(40)PAN – Personal Area Network – It is the interconnection of information technology

devices within the range of an individual person within a range of 10m using wireless
technology such as wi-fi.It is used to transfer files like email,calendar appointments,digital
photos and music etc from portable devices such as tablet,phone to PC and vice versa.

(41)LAN – Local Area Network – The small computer network that are confined to a localized
area e.g.office,building,factory(upto 10 km).The objective of LAN is resource sharing.LAN
users share data,information,printer,hard disk,modem etc.The computer which stores all the
software and controls the network is called as File server.Computers connected to the file server
are called Workstation.

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(42)MAN - Metropolitan Area Network - It is the network which spreads over a city.
(upto 50 km). (eg) Cable TV Network.

(43)WAN – Wide Area Network – It is the network which is spread across countries(>50 km).
It is a group of computers that are separated by large distances and connected together. The
WAN facilitate fast and efficient exchange of information at lesser cost and higher speed. The
largest WAN in existence is the Internet.

LAN WAN
1.Diameter of not more than a few kilometer. 1.Span entire countries.
2.A total data rate of at least several mbps. 2.Data rate less than 1 mbps.(megabits per
second).
3.Complete ownership by a single 3.Owned by multiple organization.
organization.
4.Very low error rates. 4.Comparatively higher error rates.

(44)FTP – File Transfer Protocol – It is a standard for the exchange of files across internet
using FTP server.
1.to promote sharing of files.
2.to shield a user from variation in file storage system among host.
3.to transfer data reliably and efficiently.
4.It is a potent and popular way to share information over the internet.

(45)PPP – Point to Point Protocol – It is the internet standard for transmission of IP packets
over serial lines. It is currently the best solution for dial-up internet connections including ISDN.

(46)Telnet –It is an internet utility that lets you log onto remote computer system. It is used to
connect thousands of catalogs at libraries around the world for doing research work.

(47)Wireless Communication – It is simply a data connection without the use of landlines.

(48)Video Conferencing Protocols –

(i)VoIP – Voice Over Internet Protocol–It is a technology that enables voice communications
over the internet through the compression of voice into data packets that can be efficiently
transmitted over data networks and then converted back into voice at the other end.
Eg: Skype.

(ii) H.323 – Standard that specifies the components,protocols and procedures that provide
multimedia communication services – realtime audio,video and data communications over
packet-based networks.

(iii)SIP – Session Initiation Protocol – It is an IP telephony signaling protocol used to establish,

modify and terminate VoIP telephone calls.SIP works with both IPv4 and IPv6.

(49)SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is an Internet standard for electronic mail
(e-mail) transmission across Internet Protocol (IP) networks. While electronic mail servers and
other mail transfer agents use SMTP to send and receive mail messages, user-level client mail
applications typically only use SMTP for sending messages to a mail server for relaying.

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(50)POP3 - Post Office Protocol Version3 - It is a simple protocol used for opening the remote
e-mail boxes. POP3 server stores messages for each user until the user connects to download and
read them using a POP3 client such as Microsoft Outlook 98, Microsoft Outlook Express, or
Microsoft Mail and News.

(51) HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) – to transfer text, images, audio and video through
www server.

(52) HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure) is the protocol that uses SSL (Secure Socket
Layer) to encrypt data being transmitted over the Internet. Therefore, https helps in secure
browsing while http does not.

(53)WWW – World Wide Web – The www is based upon clients and servers. A www client is
called Web Browser or Browser.A www server is called a Web Server or Server.

(54)Web Browser – It is a www client that navigates through the world wide web and display
webpages.

(55)Web server – It is a www server that responds to the request made by web browser.

(56)HTML- HyperText Markup Language – It is a document layout and hyperlink

specification language i.e. a language used to design the layout of a document and to specify the
hyperlinks.In HTML, both the tag semantics and the tag set are fixed. It is used to present the
data.

(57)XML – Extensible Markup Language – It provides a facility to define tags by the user and
the structural relationships between them.XML specifies neither semantics nor a tag set. It is
used to describe the data.

(58)URL – Uniform Resource Locator – A URL specifies the distinct address for each resource
on the internet.
Eg:www.youtube.com or http://www.youtube.com

(59)Domain Name – An internet address which is character based is called a Domain Name.
Eg.youtube.com

(60)Web site – A location on a net server is called a web site.

(61)Web Page – A document that uses HTTP is called a web page.

(62)Web Hosting – It is a means of hosting web server application on a computer system through
which electronic content on the internet is readily available to any web browser client.

(63)Wireless LANS: Using high frequency radio signals, infrared light beams or lasers to
communicate between the workstations and the file server or hubs.

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