INTRODUCTION

Local Area Networks or LAN is a high-speed data network that covers a

relatively small geographic area. Beside that, it is also term as private data networks. It
typically connects workstations, personal computers, printers, servers, and other devices.
The LAN also has become the main central role in information distribution and office
functioning within business and other organizations. With the very useful function of
LAN it now have become more numerous and larger and they have taken on more and
more function within the organization.

LAN operates over much shorter distances than those covered by wide-area
networks. This is why only baseband systems are used in LAN. Baseband data
communication involves the digital transmission of data as sequences of voltage states or
light pulses that represent logical ones and zeros. In local-area networks, the digital data
streams are encoded before transmission to optimize data rates and minimize
transmission errors.

The increasing use of distributed processing applications and personal computers

has led to a need for a flexible strategy for local networking. Support of premises wide
data communications requires a networking service that is capable if scanning the
distance involved and that interconnects equipment in a single building or a cluster of
buildings. Although it is possible to develop a single LAN to interconnect all the data
processing equipment of a premise, this is probably not a practical alternative in most
cases. There a several drawbacks to a single LAN strategy;

 Reliability : with a single LAN a service interruption even of short

duration could result in a major disruption for users.
 Capacity: a single LAN could be saturated as the number of devices
attached to the network grows over time.
 Cost: a single LAN technology is not optimized for the diverse
requirement of interconnection and communication.

After years of improvement, nowadays, LAN technologies can be configured to

provide:
• A directory service, which lists all available, networks resources
• Secure file, print, and email services to authorized LAN users
• Remote access services to no local LAN users
• Connections to other local and remote organizational LAN
• A local or hosted Website, use to disseminate information through the internet
• Secure outbound connections to the internet to some or all-organizational staff
DISCUSSION

2.1 Protocol Architecture of LAN

In the context of a communication network, the term topology refers to the way of
the computer to connect with others in a department or a place. The common topologies
for LANs are bus, ring, tree and star. The bus is a special case of the tree with only one
trunk and no branches. We can see that some of the users prefer to use LAN than others
because it is very easy to setup and cheap in cost.

 Bus and Tree Topologies

Both are characterized by the use of multipoint medium. For the bus all stations
attach trough appropriate hardware interfacing known as a tap, directly to a linear
transmission medium or bus. All nodes on the LAN are connected by one linear cable,
which is called the shared medium. Every node on this cable segment sees transmissions
from every other station on the same segment. At each end of the bus is a terminator,
which absorbs any signal, removing it from the bus. This medium cable apparently is the
single point of failure. Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) is the protocols used for this type of LAN.

Bus Topology

Tree topologies integrate multiple star topologies together onto a bus. In its simplest
form, only hub devices connect directly to the tree bus, and each hub functions as the
"root" of a tree of devices. This bus/star hybrid approach supports future expandability of
the network much better than a bus (limited in the number of devices due to the broadcast
traffic it generates) or a star (limited by the number of hub ports) alone.
  Ring

All nodes on the LAN are connected in a loop and their Network Interface Cards
(NIC) are working as repeaters. There is no starting or ending point. Each node will
repeat any signal that is on the network regardless its destination. The destination station
recognizes its address and copies the frame into a local buffer as it goes by. The frame
continues to circulate until it returns to the source station, where it is removed. Token
Ring (IEEE 802.5) is the most popular Ring topology protocol. FDDI (IEEE 802.6) is
another protocol used in the Ring topology, which is based on the Token Ring.

In a ring network, every device has exactly two neighbors for communication
purposes. All messages travel through a ring in the same direction (effectively either
"clockwise" or "counterclockwise"). A failure in any cable or device breaks the loop and
can take down the entire network. To implement a ring network, one typically uses
FDDI, SONET, or Token Ring technology. Rings are found in some office buildings or
school campuses.
 2.2 The Medium Access Control Method

In a broadcast network, medium access control is the order of DTEs sending

packets to each other. Since at a time only one DTE can send packets through the
network, there has to be some rules to prevent chaos both in in bus or ring networks. The
protocols mostly used for this purpose are carrier-sense multiple-access with collision
detection (CSMA/CD) used in bus networks, token passing used both in bus and ring
networks and slotted ring for ring networks.

2.2.1. CSMA/CD

Networks that using CSMA/CD technology like Ethernet, network devices

contend for the network media. When a device has data to send, it first listens to see if
any other device is currently using the network. If not, it starts sending its data. After
finishing its transmission, it listens again to see if a collision occurred. A collision occurs
when two devices send data simultaneously. When a collision happens, each device waits
a random length of time before resending its data. In most cases, a collision will not occur
again between the two devices. Because of this type of network contention, the busier a
network becomes, the more collisions occur. This is why performance of Ethernet
degrades rapidly as the number of devices on a single network increases

CSMA/CD with Exponential Back off

LAN Technology by OPNET

3.1 Introduction
 Designed Star topologies network using OPNET

For the simulation part using OPNET, we have designed the network as shown above.

It is a single building which consists of two floors and each floor consists of two
departments. 20 workstation are contains in each departments and a printer for each
department. Which means that each floor will consists of 40 workstations and two
printers.

 Node_256 is an application configuration. The "Application Config" node can be

used for the following specifications:
o ACE Tier Information
o Application Specification
 o Voice Encoder Schemes

 Node_257 is a profile configuration. The "Profile Config" node can be used to

create user profiles. These user profiles can then be specified on different nodes in
the network to generate application layer traffic.
 Node_3, node_4, node_5, node_6, node_7, node_8, node_9 is a switch. The
ethernet16_switch node model represents a switch supporting up to 16 Ethernet
interfaces. The switch implements the Spanning Tree algorithm in order to ensure
a loop free network topology.
 Node_1, node_2 and node_3 are servers. The Ethernet server model represents a
server node with server applications running over TCP/IP and UDP/IP.
o Node_1 is called HTTP Server
o Node_2 is called Database Server
o Node_3 is called FTP
 Node_278, node_299, node_320 and node_341 is the star topologies network for
the entire department in the building. Each node will repeat any signal that is on
the network regardless its destination. The destination station recognizes its
address and copies the frame into a local buffer as it goes by. The frame continues
to circulate until it returns to the source station, where it is removed

In our designed network, there are six applications, which are;

 Database
 Email
 HTTP
 FTP
 Print
 Remote login

3.2. Results
_______________________________________________________________________
_

For this situation we have considered several performances parameters list below;
 • Delay: The time taken by the packet or a unit of data to reach from the sender to
the receiver.
• HTTP Object sent
• HTTP Object receive
• Database graph received
• Database graph sent
• Email received
• Email sent
• FTP received
• FTP sent
• Memory usage
• Simulation _message
• Simulation graph

The performance study is done by comparing the different LAN Technologies mentioned
above with respect to the above-mentioned parameters. Different LAN Technologies are
simulated using OPNET. Each simulation is run for one hour and the following results
are obtained.

3.2.1 Delay
 Average delay experienced by Ethernet LAN is 0.00101 sec.

3.2.2. HTTP Traffic sent and HTTP Traffic received

HTTP Traffic Sent for an hour

 HTTP Traffic Received in an hour

3.2.3. Email Traffic Sent and Email Traffic Received

Email Traffic Sent

 Email Traffic Received

3.2.4. Database Entry Traffic Sent and Received

DB Entry Traffic Sent

 DB Entry Traffic Received

3.2.5. FTP Sent and Received

FTP Traffic Sent

 FTP Traffic Received

3.2.6. Memory Usage

Memory usage (MB) keep increasing until 27.8 at first then remain stay at the 120 sec in
simulated time

3.2.7. Simulation graph and Message

Simulation Message

Simulation Speed
3.3 Conclusion

LAN means local area network or a computer network that spans a relatively
small area. Most LANs are confined to a single building or group of buildings. However,
one LAN can be connected to other LANs over any distance via telephone lines and radio
waves. A system of LANs connected in this way is called a wide-area network (WAN).

Most LANs connect workstation and personal computers. Each node (individual
computer ) in a LAN has its own CPU with which it executes programs but it also is able
to access data and devices anywhere on the LAN. This means that many users can share
expensive devices, such as laserprinters, as well as data. Users can also use the LAN to
communicate with each other, by sending e-mail or engaging in chat sessions.

There are many different types of LANs Ethernets being the most common for
PCs. Most Apple Macintosh networks are based on Apple's AppleTalk network system,
which is built into Macintosh computers.

The following characteristics differentiate one LAN from another:

• Topology: The geometric arrangement of devices on the network. For

example, devices can be arranged in a ring or in a straight line.
• Protocols: The rules and encoding specifications for sending data. The
protocols also determine whether the network uses a peer-to-peer or
client/server architecture.
• Media: Devices can be connected by twisted-pair wire, coaxial cables, or
fiber optic cables. Some networks do without connecting media altogether,
communicating instead via radio waves.

LANs are capable of transmitting data at very fast rates, much faster than data can
be transmitted over a telephone line; but the distances are limited, and there is also a limit
on the number of computers that can be attached to a single LAN.

Topologies remain an important part of network design theory. You can probably
build a home or small business network without understanding the difference between a
bus design and a star design, but understanding the concepts behind these gives you a
deeper understanding of important elements like hubs, broadcasts, ports, and routes.
5.Reference

 Dr. Schneider. (2001). LAN Switching Technologies and Virtual LAN [Online].
Available: http://www.ise.gmu.edu/~eschneid/infs612/projects/LAN.pdf [Last
accessed: 22nd April 2006]