Chapter four: Networks and cloud computing

Network fundamentals
A Computer network consists of communications media, devices, and software connecting two
or more computer systems or devices.

Communications media are any material substance that carries an electronic signal to support
communication between a sending and a receiving device. The computers and devices on the
networks are also sometimes called network nodes. Organizations can use networks to share
hardware, programs, and databases and to transmit and receive information, allowing for
improved organizational effectiveness and efficiency. Networks enable geographically separated
work-groups to share documents and opinions, which fosters teamwork, innovative ideas, and
new business strategies. Effective use of networks can help a company grow into agile, powerful,
and creative organization, giving it a long term competitive advantage.

Network Topology
Network topology is the shape or structure of a network, including the arrangement of the
communication links and devices, signal types, and network. The transmission rates, distances
between devices, signal types, and physical interconnection any differ between networks, but
they may all have the same topology. The three most common network topologies in use today
are the star, bus, and mesh.

In a star network, all network devices connect to one another through a single central device
called the hub node. See figure 4.1 many home networks employ the star topology. A failure in
any link of the star network will isolate only the device connected to that link. However, should
the hub fail, all devices on the entire network will be unable to communicate.

In a bus network, all network devices are connected to a common backbone that serves as a
shared communications medium. See figure 4.2 to communicate with any other device on a
network. A device sends a broadcast message onto the communications medium. All devices on
the network can “see” the message, but only the intended recipient actually accepts and
processes the message.

Mesh networks use multiple access points to link a series of devices that speak to each other to
form a network connection across a large area. See figure 4.3 communications are routed among
network nodes by allowing for continuous connections and bypass blocked paths by “hopping”
from node to node until a connection can be established. Mesh networks are very robust: if one
node fails, all the other nodes can still communicate with each other, directly or through one or
more intermediate nodes.
Network types
A network can be classified as a personal area, local area, metropolitan, or wide area network
depending on the physical distance between the nodes on the network and the communications
and services it provides.

Personal area networks

A personal area network (PAN) is a wireless network that connects information technology
devices close to one person. With a PAN, you can connect a laptop, digital camera and portable
printer without cables. You can download digital image data from the camera to the laptop and
then print it on a high quality printer all wirelessly. A PAN could also be used to enable data
captured by sensors placed on your body to be transmitted to your smartphone as input to
applications that can serve as calorie trackers, heart monitors, glucose monitors, and
pedometers.

Local Area Networks

A network that connects computer systems and devices within a small area, such as an office,
home, or several floors in a building, is a local area network (LAN). Typically, LANs are wired
into office buildings and factories, as shown in figure 4.4. Although LANs often use unshielded
twisted-pair copper wire, other media including fiber-optic cable is also popular. Increasingly,
LANs use some form of wireless communications. You can build LANs to connect personal
computers, laptops computers, or powerful mainframe computers.

A basic type of LAN is a simple peer-to-peer network that a small business might use to share
files and hardware devices, such as printers. In a peer-to-peer network, you setup each computer
as an independent computer, but you let other computers access specific files on its hard drive or
share it printer. These types of networks have no server. Instead, each computer is connected to
the next machine. Examples of peer-to-peer networks include Ants, BitTorrent, StealthNet,
Tixati, and windows 10 home-workgroups. Performance of the computers on a peer-to-peer
network is usually slower because one computer is aclually sharing the resources of another
computer.

Increasingly, home and small business networks are being setup to connect computers , printers ,
scanners, and other devices. A person working on one computer on a home network, for
example, can use data and programs stored on another computer’s hard disk. In addition, several
computers on the network can share a single printer.

Metropolitan Area Network

A metropolitan area network (MAN) is a network that connects users and their computers in a
geographical area that spans a campus or city. A MAN might redefine many networks within a
city into a single larger network or connect several LANs into a single campus network. Often,
the MAN is owned either by a consortium of users or by a single network provider who sells the
service to users. PIONIER is a polish national research and education network created to provide
high-speed internet access and to conduct network-based research. The network connects 21
MANs and 5 high performance computing centers using 6,467km of fiber optic transmission
media.

Wide Area Networks

A wide area network (WAN) is a network that connects large geographic regions. A WAN might
be privately owned or rented and includes public (shared-users) networks. When you make a
long distance phone call or access the internet, you are using a WAN. WANs usually consist of
computer equipment owned by the user, together with data communications equipment and
network links provided by various carriers and service providers.

WANs often provide communications across national borders, which involves national and
international laws regulating the electronic flow of data across international boundaries, often
called transborder data flow. Some countries have strict laws limiting the use of networks and
databases, making normal business transactions such as payroll processing costly, slow, or
extremely difficult.

Client/server systems
In client/server architecture, multiple computer platforms are dedicated to special functions, such
as database management, printing, communications, and program execution. These platforms are
called servers. Each server is accessible by all computers on the network. Servers can be
computers of all sizes; they store both application programs and data files and are equipped with
operating systems software to manage the activities of the network. The server distributes
programs and data to other computers (clients) on the network as they request them. An
application server holds the programs and data files for a particular application, such as an
inventory database.

A client is any computer (often a user’s personal computer) that sends messages requesting
services from the servers on the network. A client can converse with many servers concurrently.
Consider the example of a user at a personal computer who initiates a request to extract data that
resides in a database somewhere on the network. A data request server intercepts the request and
determines on which database server the data resides. The server then formats the user’s request
into a message that the database server will understand. When it receives the message, the
database server extracts and formats the requested data and sends the results to the client.

The database server sends only the data that satisfies a specific query not the entire file. When
the downloaded data is on the user’s machine, it can then be analyzed, manipulated, formatted,
and displayed by a program that runs on the user’s personal computer.
Channel Bandwidth
Network professionals consider the capacity of the communications path cannel when they
recommend transmission media for a network. Channel bandwidth refers to the rate at which
data is exchanged, usually measured in bits per second (bps) the broader the bandwidth; the more
information can be exchanged at one time. In the context of internet access, the term broadband
communications refers to any high-speed internet access that is always on and that is faster than
traditional dial-up access. Most organizations need high bandwidth to accommodate the
transaction volume and transmission speed required to carry out their daily functions.

Communication media

The communications media selected for a network depends on the amount of information to be
exchanged, the speed at which data must be exchanged, the level of concern about data privacy,
whichever the users are stationary or mobile, and a variety of business requirements.
Transmission media can be divided into two categories: guided (also called wired) transmission
media, in which communications signals are guided along a solid medium, and wireless, in
which the communications signal is broadcast over airwaves as a form of electromagnetic
radiation.

Guided Transmission Media Types

There are many different guided transmission media types. Table 4.1 summarizes the guided
media types by physical media form. The three most common guided transmission media types
are shown in figure 4.5.

10-Gigabit Ethernet is a standard for transmitting data at the speed of 10 billion bps for limited
distances over high quality twisted-pair wire. The 10-Gigabit Ethernet cable can be used for the
high-speed links that connect groups of computers or to move data stored in large databases on
large computers to stand-alone storage device.

Table 4.1 Guided transmission media types

Media form Description Advantages Disadvantages

Twisted-pair wire Twisted-pair of copper Widely available Limitations on
wire, shielded or transmission speed
unshielded; used for and distance
telephone service
Coaxial cable Inner conductor wire Cleaner and faster More expensive than
surrounded by insulation data transmission twisted-pair wire
than twisted-pair
wire
Fiber-optic cable Many extremely thin Diameter of cable is Expensive to purchase
strands of glass bound much less than and install
together in sheathing; uses coaxial cable; less
 light beams to transmit distortion of signal;
signals capable of high
transmission rates

Wireless Technologies

Wireless communications coupled with the internet are revolutionizing how and where we gather and
share information, collaborate in teams, listen to music or watch video, and stay in touch with our
families and coworkers while on the road. With wireless capability, a coffee shop can become our living
room and the bleachers at a ballpark can become our office. The many advantages and freedom
provided by wireless communications are causing many organizations to consider moving to an all
wireless environment.

Wireless communication is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not
connected by an electrical conductor. All wireless communications signals are sent within a range of
frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum that represents the entire range of light that exists from
long waves to gamma rays as shown in figure 4.6.

The propagation of light is similar to waves crossing an ocean. Like any other wave, light has two
fundamental properties that describe it. One is its frequency, measured in hertz (H Z), which counts the
number of waves that pass by a stationary point in one second. The second fundamental property is
wavelength, which is the distance from the peak of one wave to the peak of the next. These two
attributes are inversely related, so the higher the frequency the shorter the wavelength.

All wireless communication devices operate in a similar way. A transmitter generates a signal, which
contains encoded voice, video, or data at specific frequency that is broadcast into the environment by
antenna. This signal spreads out in the environment, with only a very small portion decodes the
information. Depending on the distance involved, the frequency of the transmitted signal, and other
conditions, the received signal can be incredibly weak, perhaps one trillionth of the original signal
strength.

The signals used in wireless networks are broadcast in one of three frequency ranges: microwave, radio,
and infrared, as shown in table 4.2.

Because there are so many competing uses for wireless communication, strict rules are necessary to
prevent one type of transmission from interfering with the next. And because the spectrum is limited
there are only so many frequency bands governments must oversee appropriate licensing of this
valuable resource to facilitate use all bands. In the United States, the federal communications
commission (ECC) decides which frequencies of the communications spectrum can be used for which
purposes. For example, the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum between 700 MH z and 2.6 GHz has
been allocated for use by mobile phones. Most of the spectrum in this range has already been
allocated for use. This means that when a wireless company wants to add more spectrum to its
service to boost its capacity, it may have problems obtaining the necessary licenses because other
companies are already using available frequencies.

Near Field communication (NFC) is a very short-range wireless connectivity technology that
enables two devices placed within a few inches of each other to exchange data. With NFC,
consumers can swipe their credit cards or even their smartphones within a few inches of NFC
point-of-sale terminals to pay for purchases. Apple pay, the mobile payment and digital wallet
service that lets users make payments using iPhone, an iPod, or an apple watch compatible
device, uses NFC to communicate between the user’s device and the point-of-sale terminal.

Bluetooth is a wireless communications specification that describes how also phones, computers,
printers, and other electronic devices can be interconnected over distance of 10 to 30 feet at a
transmission rate of about 2 Mbps.

Using Bluetooth technology, users of multifunctional devices can synchronize data on their
device with information stored in a desktop computer, send or receive faxes, and print. The
Bluetooth G-Shock watch enables you to make connection between your watch and you
smartphone. With a G-Shock watch, you can control your phone’s music from the watch and
their watch’s timekeeping functions from your phone.

Wi-Fi is a wireless network brand owned by the Wi-Fi alliance, which consists of about 300
technology companies, including AT & T, Dell, Microsoft, Nokia, and QUALCOMM. The
alliance exists to improve the interoperability of wireless local area network products based on
the IEEE 802.11 series of communications standards. IEEE stands for the institutes of electrical
and electronics engineers, a nonprofit organization and one of the leading standards setting
organizations.

In a Wi-Fi wireless network, the user’s computer, smartphone, or other mobile device has a
wireless adapter that translates data into a radio