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Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE Your notes

Computer Science
Network Hardware
Contents
Network Interface Card (NIC)
MAC Addresses & IP Addresses
Router

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Network Interface Card (NIC)

Your notes
Local Area Network Hardware: Network Interface
Card (NIC)
Network hardware is a selection of essential components that enable the connectivity and
communication of devices within computer networks
Networks use a variety of hardware to function, some of which include:
Router
Wireless access point (WAP)
Switch
Transmission media
Network interface card (NIC)
The exam requires you to understand the purpose of the network interface card (NIC)

What is a network interface card (NIC)?

The Network Interface Card (NIC) is required for a computer to connect to a network
A NIC can be both wired and wireless and allows your computer to send and receive data over a
network

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Your notes

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MAC Addresses & IP Addresses

Your notes
Devices on a network send and receive data, a device needs an address to ensure it sends data to the
correct place
There are two types of network address systems:
MAC Address
IP Address

MAC Addresses
What is a MAC address?
A MAC (Media Access Control) address is a unique identifier given to devices which communicate over
a local area network (LAN)
A network interface card is given a MAC address at the point of manufacture
MAC addresses are static, meaning they can never change
MAC addresses make it possible for switches to efficiently forward data to the intended recipient
Any device that contains a Network Interface Card (NIC) has a MAC address assigned during
manufacturing
A device connecting to a local network already has a MAC address, if it moves to a different network
then the MAC address will stay the same

A MAC address is represented as 12 hexadecimal digits (48 bits), usually grouped in pairs
The first three pairs are the manufacturer ID number (OUI) and the last three pairs are the serial number
of the network interface card (NIC)
There are enough unique MAC addresses for roughly 281 trillion devices

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IP Addresses
Your notes
What is an IP address?
An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a unique identifier given to devices which communicate over the
Internet (WAN)
IP addresses can be static, meaning they stay the same or dynamic, meaning they can change
IP addresses make it possible to deliver data to the right device
A device connecting to a network will be given an IP address, if it moves to a different network then the
IP address will change

IPv4
Internet Protocol version 4 is represented as 4 blocks of denary numbers between 0 and 255,
separated by full stops
Each block is one byte (8 bits), each address is 4 bytes (32 bits)

IPv4 provides over 4 billion unique addresses (232), however, with over 7 billion people and countless
devices per person, a solution was needed

IPv6
Internet Protocol version 6 is represented as 8 blocks of 4 hexadecimal digits, separated by colons
Each block is 2 bytes (16 bits), each address is 16 bytes (128 bits)

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Your notes

IPv6 could provide over one billion unique addresses for every person on the planet (2128)

Worked Example
Computers in a network can be identified using both IP addresses and MAC addresses.
Describe two differences between IP addresses and MAC addresses [2]
Answer
IP address is dynamic/can change // MAC address is static/cannot change
IP address is used to communicate on a WAN/Internet // MAC address is used to communicate
on a LAN

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Router
Your notes
Router
What is a router?
The router is responsible for routing data packets between different networks
An example of data the router can direct is, sending internet traffic to the correct destination/devices
in your home network
The router connects networks together, local area networks (LAN) to the wider internet which is a type
of wide area network (WAN)
The router can manage and prioritise data traffic, which can help to keep connections stable
The router will assign IP addresses to the devices on the network

Image of a router

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Your notes

Image of how a router connects LANs to other networks

Worked Example
State 3 tasks carried out by a router [3]
To answer the question you must simply identify 3 tasks a router does
1 mark each to max 3 e.g.
Send and Receive packets of data
Connect a local network to the internet
Assign IP addresses to nodes/devices
Converts packets from one protocol to another

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