Networking Basics

Here are some of the fundamental parts of a network:

Network - A network is a group of computersconnected together in a way that allows information to be exchanged between the computers. Node - A node is anything that is connected to the network. While a node is typically a computer, it can also be something like a printer or CD-ROMtower. Segment - A segment is any portion of a network that is separated, by a switch, bridge or router, from other parts of the network. Backbone - The backbone is the main cabling of a network that all of the segments connect to. Typically, the backbone is capable of carrying more information than the individual segments. For example, each segment may have a transfer rate of 10 Mbps (megabits per second), while the backbone may operate at 100 Mbps. Topology - Topology is the way that each node is physically connected to the network (more on this in the next section). Local Area Network (LAN) - A LAN is a network of computers that are in the same general physical location, usually within a building or a campus. If the computers are far apart (such as across town or in different cities), then a Wide Area Network (WAN) is typically used. Network Interface Card (NIC) - Every computer (and most other devices) is connected to a network through an NIC. In most desktop computers, this is an Ethernet card (normally 10 or 100 Mbps) that is plugged into a slot on the computer's motherboard. Media Access Control (MAC) address - This is the physical address of any device -- such as the NIC in a computer -- on the network. The MAC address, which is made up of two equal parts, is 6bytes long. The first 3 bytes identify the company that made the NIC. The second 3 bytes are the serial number of the NIC itself. Unicast - A unicast is a transmission from one node addressed specifically to another node. Multicast - In a multicast, a node sends a packet addressed to a special group address. Devices that are interested in this group register to receive packets addressed to the group. An example might be a Cisco router sending out an update to all of the other Cisco routers. Broadcast - In a broadcast, a node sends out a packet that is intended for transmission to all other nodes on the network.

Types of Router
Routers provide connectivity inside enterprises, between enterprises and the Internet, and within an Internet Service Provider (ISP) One of the largest routers e.g. the Cisco CRS-1 or Juniper T1600 interconnects internet Service Providers (ISPs), they are used within ISPs, or may be used in very large enterprise networks. The smallest routers provide connectivity for small and home offices. Edge Router This type of router are placed at the edge of the ISP network, the are normally configured to external protocol like BGP (Border gateway protocol) to another BGP of other ISP or large organisation. Subscriber Edge Router This type of router belongs to an end user (enterprise) organization. Its configured to broadcast external BGP to its providers AS(s) Inter-provider Border Router

This type of router is for Interconnecting ISPs, this is a BGP speaking router that maintains BGP sessions with other BGP speaking routers in other providers' ASes. Core Router A router that resides within the middle or backbone of the LAN network rather than at its periphery. In some instances , a core router provides a stepdown backbone , interconnecting the distribution routers from multiple building of a campus ( LAN), or Large enterprise Location (WAN). They tend to be optimized for a high brandwidth. Wired and Wireless Routers. Home and small office networking is becoming popular by day by the use of IP wired and wireless router.Wired and wireless router are able to maintain routing and configuration information in their routing table. They also provide the service of filtering traffic of incoming and outgoing packets based on IP addresses. Some wireless routers combines the functions oa router with those of a network switch and that of a firewall in one.

NOTE (routers

send data to a specific location based on a address for the network segment. The benefit is the ability for a router to search routing tables and find the shortest path to the destination. The downside to routers is that they are protocol dependent and therefore can only route data between network segments using the same protocol. Today this is a moot because everyone uses TCP/IP and has an open architecture. This is why, for example, data can be sent between a Windows NT network and a Netware network. Here's how a router works: When it receives a packet and sees a MAC address (hardware address) that is not on the local segment, it strips away the MAC address, looks at the IP address (software address), searches its routing table, and then sends the packet based on the IP address to the router that's connected to the segment that contains that address. Gateways are network points that acts as an entrance to another network. On the Internet, a node or stopping point can be either a gateway node or a host (end-point) node. Both the computers of Internet users and the computers that serve pages to users are host nodes. The computers that control traffic within your company's network or at your local Internet service provider (ISP) are gateway nodes. In the network for an enterprise, a computer server acting as a gateway node is often also acting as a proxy server and a firewall server. A gateway is often associated with both a router, which knows where to direct a given packet of data that arrives at the gateway, and a switch, which furnishes the actual path in and out of the gateway for a given packet.

Switches (Cisco)
Network Switch

A Network switch is a device that filters, forwards, or floods frames based on the destination address of each frame. A switch is a very adaptable Layer 2 device; it replaces a hub as the central point of connection
for multiple hosts. In a more complex role, a switch may be connected to one or more other switches to create, manage, and maintain redundant links and VLAN connectivity. A switch processes all types of traffic in the same way, regardless of how it is used. A switch moves traffic based on MAC addresses. Each switch maintains a MAC address table in high-speed memory, called content addressable memory (CAM). The switch recreates this table every time it is activated, using both the source MAC addresses of incoming frames and the port number through which the frame entered the switch.

Switches perform their routing functions at the layers 2 model of the OSI. Some switches process data at the Network Layer (layer 3), This types of switches are referred to as layer 3 switches or multilayer switches. Switches form an integral parts in networking LAN or WANs . Small office, Home office ( SOHO) applications normally, use a single or an all purpose switches . As mentioned earlier, switches operates at the data-link layer of the OSI model, switch function is to create a different collision domain per switch port. Let take an example, Four computers PC 1, PC 2, PC 3, PC 4 attached to switch ports, then PC 1 and PC 2 can transfer data between them so as PC 3 and PC 4, simultaneously without interfering with each other's conversations. Unlike a hub, which allows the sharing of bandwidth by all port, run in half-duplex and is prone to collisions of frames and retransmissions. With some ISPs and other networking environments where there is a need for much analysis of network performance and security, switches may be connected between WAN routers as places for analytic modules. Some switches provide in built firewall, network intrusion detection and performance analysis modules that can plug into switch ports.

On the next page, we'll discuss some of the most common network topologies.

Network Topologies
Some of the most common topologies in use today include:

Bus - Each node is daisy-chained (connected one right after the other) along the same backbone, similar to Christmas lights. Information sent from a node travels along the backbone until it reaches its destination node. Each end of a bus network must be terminated with a resistor to keep the signal that is sent by a node across the network from bouncing back when it reaches the end of the cable.

Bus network topology Ring - Like a bus network, rings have the nodes daisy-chained. The difference is that the end of the network comes back around to the first node, creating a complete circuit. In a ring network, each node takes a turn sending and receiving information through the use of a token. The token, along with any data, is sent from the first node to the second node, which extracts the data addressed to it and adds any data it wishes to send. Then, the second node passes the token and data to the third node, and so on until it comes back around to the first node again. Only the node with the token is allowed to send data. All other nodes must wait for the token to come to them.

Ring network topology Star - In a star network, each node is connected to a central device called a hub. The hub takes a signal that comes from any node and passes it along to all the other nodes in the network. A hub does not perform any type of filtering or routing of the data. It is simply a junction that joins all the different nodes together.

Star network topology Star bus - Probably the most common network topology in use today, star bus combines elements of the star and bus topologies to create a versatile network environment. Nodes in particular areas are connected to hubs (creating stars), and the hubs are connected together along the network backbone (like a bus network). Quite often, stars are nested within stars, as seen in the example below:

A typical star bus network

The Problem: Traffic

In the most basic type of network found today, nodes are simply connected together using hubs. As a network grows, there are some potential problems with this configuration:

Scalability - In a hub network, limited shared bandwidth makes it difficult to accommodate significant growth without sacrificing performance. Applications today need more bandwidth than ever before. Quite often, the entire network must be redesigned periodically to accommodate growth. Latency - This is the amount of time that it takes a packet to get to its destination. Since each node in a hub-based network has to wait for an opportunity to transmit in order to avoid collisions, the latency can increase significantly as you add more nodes. Or, if someone is transmitting a large file across the network, then all of the other nodes have to wait for an opportunity to send their own packets. You have probably seen this before at work -- you try to access a server or the Internet and suddenly everything slows down to a crawl. Network failure - In a typical network, one device on a hub can cause problems for other devices attached to the hub due to incorrect speed settings (100 Mbps on a 10-Mbps hub) or excessive broadcasts. Switches can be configured to limit broadcast levels. Collisions - Ethernet uses a process called CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection) to communicate across the network. Under CSMA/CD, a node will not send out a packet unless the network is clear of traffic. If two nodes send out packets at the same time, a collision occurs and the packets are lost. Then both nodes wait a random amount of time and retransmit the packets. Any part of the network where there is a possibility that packets from two or more nodes will interfere with each other is considered to be part of the same collision domain. A network with a large number of nodes on the same segment will often have a lot of collisions and therefore a large collision domain. While hubs provide an easy way to scale up and shorten the distance that the packets must travel to get from one node to another, they do not break up the actual network into discrete segments. That is where switches come in. In the next section, you'll find out how switches assist in directing network traffic.

The Solution: Adding Switches

Imagine that each vehicle is a packet of data waiting for an opportunity to continue on its trip. Think of a hub as a four-way intersection where everyone has to stop. If more than one car reaches the intersection at the same time, they have to wait for their turn to proceed. Now imagine what this would be like with a dozen or even a hundred roads intersecting at a single point. The amount of waiting and the potential for a collision increases significantly. But wouldn't it be amazing if you could take an exit ramp from any one of those roads to the road of your choosing? That is exactly what a switch does for network traffic. A switch is like a cloverleaf intersection -- each car can take an exit ramp to get to its destination without having to stop and wait for other traffic to go by. A vital difference between a hub and a switch is that all the nodes connected to a hub share the bandwidth among themselves, while a device connected to a switch port has the full bandwidth all to itself. For example, if 10 nodes are communicating using a hub on a 10-Mbps network, then each node may only get a portion of the 10 Mbps if other nodes on the hub want to communicate as well. But with a switch, each node could possibly communicate at the full 10 Mbps. Think about our road analogy. If all of the traffic is coming to a common intersection, then each car it has to share that intersection with every other car. But a cloverleaf allows all of the traffic to continue at full speed from one road to the next.

Fully Switched Networks

Image courtesy Cisco Networks

An example of a network using a switch In a fully switched network, switches replace all the hubs of an Ethernet network with a dedicated segment for every node. These segments connect to a switch, which supports multiple dedicated segments (sometimes in the hundreds). Since the only devices on each segment are the switch and the node, the switch picks up every transmission before it reaches another node. The switch then forwards the frame over the appropriate segment. Since any segment contains only a single node, the frame only reaches the intended recipient. This allows many conversations to occur simultaneously on a switched network. Switching allows a network to maintain full-duplex Ethernet. Before switching, Ethernet was half-duplex, which means that data could be transmitted in only one direction at a time. In a fully switched network, each node communicates only with the switch, not directly with other nodes. Information can travel from node to switch and from switch to node simultaneously. Fully switched networks employ either twisted-pair or fiber-optic cabling, both of which use separate conductors for sending and receiving data. In this type of environment, Ethernet nodes can forgo the collision detection process and transmit at will, since they are the only potential devices that can access the medium. In other words, traffic flowing in each direction has a lane to itself. This allows nodes to transmit to the switch as the switch transmits to them -- it's a collision-free environment. Transmitting in both directions can effectively double the apparent speed of the network when two nodes are exchanging information. If the speed of the network is 10 Mbps, then each node can transmit simultaneously at 10 Mbps.

Mixed Networks

A mixed network with two switches and three hubs Most networks are not fully switched because of the costs incurred in replacing all of the hubs with switches. Instead, a combination of switches and hubs are used to create an efficient yet cost-effective network. For example, a company may have hubs connecting the computers in each department and then a switch connecting all of the department-level hubs.

Routers and Switches

The OSI Reference Model consists of seven layers that build from the wire (Physical) to the software (Application). You can see that a switch has the potential to radically change the way nodes communicate with each other. But you may be wondering what makes it different from a router. Switches usually work at Layer 2 (Data or Datalink) of the OSI Reference Model, using MAC addresses, while routers work at Layer 3(Network) with Layer 3 addresses (IP, IPX or Appletalk, depending on which Layer 3 protocols are being used). Thealgorithm that switches use to decide how to forward packets is different from the algorithms used by routers to forward packets. One of these differences in the algorithms between switches and routers is how broadcastsare handled. On any network, the concept of a broadcast packet is vital to the operability of a network. Whenever a device needs to send out information but doesn't know who it should send it to, it sends out a broadcast. For example, every time a new computer or other device comes on to the network, it sends out a broadcast packet to announce its presence. The other nodes (such as a domain server) can add the computer to their browser list (kind of like an address directory) and communicate directly with that computer from that point on. Broadcasts are used any time a device needs to make an announcement to the rest of the network or is unsure of who the recipient of the information should be. A hub or a switch will pass along any broadcast packets they receive to all the other segments in the broadcast domain, but a router will not. Think about our four-way intersection again: All of the traffic passed through the intersection no matter where it was going. Now imagine that this intersection is at an international border. To pass through the intersection, you must provide the border guard with the specific address that you are going to. If you don't have a specific destination, then the guard will not let you pass. A router works like this. Without the specific address of another device, it will not let the data packet through. This is a good thing for keeping networks separate from each other, but not so good when you want to talk between different parts of the same network. This is where switches come in.

Packet-switching
LAN switches rely on packet-switching. The switch establishes a connection between two segments just long enough to send the current packet. Incoming packets (part of an Ethernet frame) are saved to a temporary memory area (buffer); the MAC address contained in the frame's header is read and then compared to a list of addresses maintained in the switch's lookup table. In an Ethernet-based LAN, an Ethernet frame contains a normal packet as the payload of the frame, with a special header that includes the MAC address information for the source and destination of the packet. Packet-based switches use one of three methods for routing traffic: Cut-through Store-and-forward Fragment-free Cut-through switches read the MAC address as soon as a packet is detected by the switch. After storing the 6 bytes that make up the address information, they immediately begin sending the packet to the destination node, even as the rest of the packet is coming into the switch. A switch using store-and-forward will save the entire packet to the buffer and check it for CRC errors or other problems before sending. If the packet has an error, it is discarded. Otherwise, the switch looks up the MAC address and sends the packet on to the destination node. Many switches combine the two methods, using cutthrough until a certain error level is reached and then changing over to store-and-forward. Very few switches are strictly cut-through, since this provides no error correction. A less common method is fragment-free. It works like cut-through except that it stores the first 64 bytes of the packet before sending it on. The reason for this is that most errors, and all collisions, occur during the initial 64 bytes of a packet.

Switch Configurations
LAN switches vary in their physical design. Currently, there are three popular configurations in use: Shared memory - This type of switch stores all incoming packets in a common memory buffer shared by all the switch ports (input/output connections), then sends them out via the correct port for the destination node. Matrix - This type of switch has an internal grid with the input ports and the output ports crossing each other. When a packet is detected on an input port, the MAC address is compared to the lookup table to find the appropriate output port. The switch then makes a connection on the grid where these two ports intersect. Bus architecture - Instead of a grid, an internal transmission path (common bus) is shared by all of the ports using TDMA. A switch based on this configuration has a dedicated memory buffer for each port, as well as an ASIC to control the internal bus access.

Transparent Bridging: The Process

Here's a step-by-step description of transparent bridging:

Click on the menu terms to learn more about how transparent bridging works.
The switch is added to the network, and the various segments are plugged into the switch's ports. A computer (Node A) on the first segment (Segment A) sends data to a computer (Node B) on another segment (Segment C). The switch gets the first packet of data from Node A. It reads the MAC address and saves it to the lookup table for Segment A. The switch now knows where to find Node A anytime a packet is addressed to it. This process is called learning. Since the switch does not know where Node B is, it sends the packet to all of the segments except the one that it arrived on (Segment A). When a switch sends a packet out to all segments to find a specific node, it is called flooding.

Node B gets the packet and sends a packet back to Node A in acknowledgement. The packet from Node B arrives at the switch. Now the switch can add the MAC address of Node B to the lookup table for Segment C. Since the switch already knows the address of Node A, it sends the packet directly to it. Because Node A is on a different segment than Node B, the switch must connect the two segments to send the packet. This is known as forwarding. The next packet from Node A to Node B arrives at the switch. The switch now has the address of Node B, too, so it forwards the packet directly to Node B. Node C sends information to the switch for Node A. The switch looks at the MAC address for Node C and adds it to the lookup table for Segment A. The switch already has the address for Node A and determines that both nodes are on the same segment, so it does not need to connect Segment A to another segment for the data to travel from Node C to Node A. Therefore, the switch will ignore packets traveling between nodes on the same segment. This is filtering. Learning and flooding continue as the switch adds nodes to the lookup tables. Most switches have plenty of memory in a switch for maintaining the lookup tables; but to optimize the use of this memory, they still remove older information so that the switch doesn't waste time searching through stale addresses. To do this, switches use a technique called aging. Basically, when an entry is added to the lookup table for a node, it is given a timestamp. Each time a packet is received from a node, the timestamp is updated. The switch has a user-configurable timer that erases the entry after a certain amount of time with no activity from that node. This frees up valuable memory resources for other entries. As you can see, transparent bridging is a great and essentially maintenance-free way to add and manage all the information a switch needs to do its job! In our example, two nodes share segment A, while the switch creates independent segments for Node B and Node D. In an ideal LAN-switched network, every node would have its own segment. This would eliminate the possibility of collisions and also the need for filtering.

Redundancy
When we talked about bus and ring networks earlier, one issue was the possibility of a single point of failure. In a star or star-bus network, the point with the most potential for bringing all or part of the network down is the switch or hub. Look at the example below:

In this example, if either switch A or C fails, then the nodes connected to that particular switch are affected, but nodes at the other two switches can still communicate. However, if switch B fails, then the entire network is brought down. What if we add another segment to our network connecting switches A and C?

In this case, even if one of the switches fails, the network will continue. This provides redundancy, effectively eliminating the single point of failure. But now we have a new problem.

Broadcast Storms
In the last section, you discovered how switches learn where the nodes are located. With all of the switches now connected in a loop, a packet from a node could quite possibly come to a switch from two different segments. For example, imagine that Node B is connected to Switch A, and needs to communicate with Node A on Segment B. Switch A does not know who Node A is, so it floods the packet.

The packet travels via Segment A or Segment C to the other two switches (B and C). Switch B will add Node B to the lookup table it maintains for Segment A, while Switch C will add it to the lookup table for Segment C. If neither switch has learned the address for Node A yet, they will flood Segment B looking for Node A. Each switch will take the packet sent by the other switch and flood it back out again immediately, since they still don't know who Node A is. Switch A will receive the packet from each segment and flood it back out on the other segment. This causes abroadcast storm as the packets are broadcast, received and rebroadcast by each switch, resulting in potentially severe network congestion. Which brings us to spanning trees...

Spanning Trees
To prevent broadcast storms and other unwanted side effects of looping, Digital Equipment Corporation created the spanning-tree protocol (STP), which has been standardized as the 802.1d specification by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). Essentially, a spanning tree uses the spanning-tree algorithm (STA), which senses that the switch has more than one way to communicate with a node, determines which way is best and blocks out the other path(s). The cool thing is that it keeps track of the other path(s), just in case the primary path is unavailable. Here's how STP works: Each switch is assigned a group of IDs, one for the switch itself and one for each port on the switch. The switch's identifier, called the bridge ID (BID), is 8 bytes long and contains a bridge priority (2 bytes) along with one of the switch's MAC addresses (6 bytes). Each port ID is 16 bits long with two parts: a 6-bit priority setting and a 10-bit port number. A path cost value is given to each port. The cost is typically based on a guideline established as part of 802.1d. According to the original specification, cost is 1,000 Mbps (1 gigabit per second) divided by the bandwidth of the segment connected to the port. Therefore, a 10 Mbps connection would have a cost of (1,000/10) 100. To compensate for the speed of networks increasing beyond the gigabit range, the standard cost has been slightly modified. The new cost values are:

Bandwidth 4 Mbps

STP Cost Value 250

10 Mbps 16 Mbps 45 Mbps 100 Mbps 155 Mbps 622 Mbps 1 Gbps 10 Gbps

100 62 39 19 14 6 4 2

You should also note that the path cost can be an arbitrary value assigned by the network administrator, instead of one of the standard cost values. Each switch begins a discovery process to choose which network paths it should use for each segment. This information is shared between all the switches by way of special network frames called bridge protocol data units (BPDU). The parts of a BPDU are: Root BID - This is the BID of the current root bridge. Path cost to root bridge - This determines how far away the root bridge is. For example, if the data has to travel over three 100-Mbps segments to reach the root bridge, then the cost is (19 + 19 + 0) 38. The segment attached to the root bridge will normally have a path cost of zero. Sender BID - This is the BID of the switch that sends the BPDU. Port ID - This is the actual port on the switch that the BPDU was sent from. All of the switches are constantly sending BPDUs to each other, trying to determine the best path between various segments. When a switch receives a BPDU (from another switch) that is better than the one it is broadcasting for the same segment, it will stop broadcasting its BPDU out that segment. Instead, it will store the other switch's BPDU for reference and for broadcasting out to inferior segments, such as those that are farther away from the root bridge. A root bridge is chosen based on the results of the BPDU process between the switches. Initially, every switch considers itself the root bridge. When a switch first powers up on the network, it sends out a BPDU with its own BID as the root BID. When the other switches receive the BPDU, they compare the BID to the one they already have stored as the root BID. If the new root BID has a lower value, they replace the saved one. But if the saved root BID is lower, a BPDU is sent to the new switch with this BID as the root BID. When the new switch receives the BPDU, it realizes that it is not the root bridge and replaces the root BID in its table with the one it just received. The result is that the switch that has the lowest BID is elected by the other switches as the root bridge. Based on the location of the root bridge, the other switches determine which of their ports has the lowest path cost to the root bridge. These ports are called root ports, and each switch (other than the current root bridge) must have one. The switches determine who will have designated ports. A designated port is the connection used to send and receive packets on a specific segment. By having only one designated port per segment, all looping issues are resolved! Designated ports are selected based on the lowest path cost to the root bridge for a segment. Since the root bridge will have a path cost of "0," any ports on it that are connected to segments will become designated ports. For the other switches, the path cost is compared for a given segment. If one port is determined to have a lower path cost, it becomes the designated port for that segment. If two or more ports have the same path cost, then the switch with the lowest BID is chosen. Once the designated port for a network segment has been chosen, any other ports that connect to that segment become non-designated ports. They block network traffic from taking that path so it can only access that segment through the designated port. Each switch has a table of BPDUs that it continually updates. The network is now configured as a single spanning tree, with the root bridge as the trunk and all the other switches as branches. Each switch communicates with the root bridge through the root ports, and with each segment through the designated ports, thereby maintaining a loop-free network. In the event that the root bridge begins to fail or have network problems, STP allows the other switches to immediately reconfigure the network with another switch acting as root bridge. This amazing process gives a company the ability to have a complex network that is fault-tolerant and yet fairly easy to maintain.

Routers and Layer 3 Switching

Layer 3 switches actually work at the Network layer. While most switches operate at the Data layer (Layer 2) of theOSI Reference Model, some incorporate features of a routerand operate at the Network layer (Layer 3) as well. In fact, a Layer 3 switch is incredibly similar to a router. When a router receives a packet, it looks at the Layer 3 source and destination addresses to determine the path the packet should take. A standard switch relies on the MAC addresses to determine the source and destination of a packet, which is Layer 2 (Data) networking. The fundamental difference between a router and a Layer 3 switch is that Layer 3 switches have optimized hardware to pass data as fast as Layer 2 switches, yet they make decisions on how to transmit traffic at Layer 3, just like a router. Within the LAN environment, a Layer 3 switch is usually faster than a router because it is built on switching hardware. In fact, many of Cisco's Layer 3 switches are actually routers that operate faster because they are built on "switching" hardware with customized chips inside the box. The pattern matching and caching on Layer 3 switches is similar to the pattern matching and caching on a router. Both use a routing protocol and routing table to determine the best path. However, a Layer 3 switch has the ability to reprogram the hardware dynamically with the current Layer 3 routing information. This is what allows for faster packet processing. On current Layer 3 switches, the information received from the routing protocols is used to update the hardware caching tables.

VLANs
As networks have grown in size and complexity, many companies have turned to virtual local area networks(VLANs) to provide some way of structuring this growth logically. Basically, a VLAN is a collection of nodes that are grouped together in a single broadcast domain that is based on something other than physical location.

You learned about broadcasts earlier, and how a router does not pass along broadcasts. A broadcast domain is a network (or portion of a network) that will receive a broadcast packet from any node located within that network. In a typical network, everything on the same side of the router is all part of the same broadcast domain. A switch that you have implemented VLANs on has multiple broadcast domains, similar to a router. But you still need a router (or Layer 3 routing engine) to route from one VLAN to another -- the switch can't do this by itself. Here are some common reasons why a company might have VLANs: Security - Separating systems that have sensitive data from the rest of the network decreases the chances that people will gain access to information they are not authorized to see. Projects/Special applications - Managing a project or working with a specialized application can be simplified by the use of a VLAN that brings all of the required nodes together. Performance/Bandwidth - Careful monitoring of network use allows the network administrator to create VLANs that reduce the number of router hops and increase the apparent bandwidth for network users. Broadcasts/Traffic flow - Since a principle element of a VLAN is the fact that it does not pass broadcast traffic to nodes that are not part of the VLAN, it automatically reduces broadcasts. Access lists provide the network administrator with a way to control who sees what network traffic. An access list is a table the network administrator creates that lists which addresses have access to that network. Departments/Specific job types - Companies may want VLANs set up for departments that are heavy network users (such as multimedia or engineering), or a VLAN across departments that is dedicated to specific types of employees (such as managers or sales people). You can create a VLAN using most switches simply by logging into the switch via Telnet and entering the parameters for the VLAN (name, domain and port assignments). After you have created the VLAN, any network segments connected to the assigned ports will become part of that VLAN. While you can have more than one VLAN on a switch, they cannot communicate directly with one another on that switch. If they could, it would defeat the purpose of having a VLAN, which is to isolate a part of the network. Communication between VLANs requires the use of a router. VLANs can span multiple switches, and you can have more than one VLAN on each switch. For multiple VLANs on multiple switches to be able to communicate via a single link between the switches, you must use a process called trunking -- trunking is the technology that allows information from multiple VLANs to be carried over a single link between switches. On the next page, you'll learn about trunking.

VLAN Trunking Protocol

The VLAN trunking protocol(VTP) is the protocol that switches use to communicate among themselves about VLAN configuration. In the image above, each switch has two VLANs. On the first switch, VLAN A and VLAN B are sent through a single port (trunked) to the router and through another port to the second switch. VLAN C and VLAN D are trunked from the second switch to the first switch, and through the first switch to the router. This trunk can carry traffic from all four VLANs. The trunk link from the first switch to the router can also carry all four VLANs. In fact,

this one connection to the router allows the router to appear on all four VLANs, as if it had four different physical ports connected to the switch.

Thank You

Thanks to Cisco for their support in creating this article! The VLANs can communicate with each other via the trunking connection between the two switches using the router. For example, data from a computer on VLAN A that needs to get to a computer on VLAN B (or VLAN C or VLAN D) must travel from the switch to the router and back again to the switch. Because of the transparent bridging algorithm and trunking, both PCs and the router think that they are on the same physical segment! As you can see, LAN switches are an amazing technology that can really make a difference in the speed and quality of a network. For more information on LAN switches, networks and related topics, check out the links on the next page.

Types of Router
Routers provide connectivity inside enterprises, between enterprises and the Internet, and within an Internet Service Provider (ISP) One of the largest routers e.g. the Cisco CRS-1 or Juniper T1600 interconnects internet Service Providers (ISPs), they are used within ISPs, or may be used in very large enterprise networks. The smallest routers provide connectivity for small and home offices. Edge Router This type of router are placed at the edge of the ISP network, the are normally configured to external protocol like BGP (Border gateway protocol) to another BGP of other ISP or large organisation. Subscriber Edge Router This type of router belongs to an end user (enterprise) organization. Its configured to broadcast external BGP to its providers AS(s) Inter-provider Border Router This type of router is for Interconnecting ISPs, this is a BGP speaking router that maintains BGP sessions with other BGP speaking routers in other providers' ASes. Core Router A router that resides within the middle or backbone of the LAN network rather than at its periphery. In some instances , a core router provides a stepdown backbone , interconnecting the distribution routers from multiple building of a campus ( LAN), or Large enterprise Location (WAN). They tend to be optimized for a high brandwidth. Wired and Wireless Routers. Home and small office networking is becoming popular by day by the use of IP wired and wireless router.Wired and wireless router are able to maintain routing and configuration information in their routing table. They also provide the service of filtering traffic of incoming and outgoing packets based on IP addresses. Some wireless routers combines the functions oa router with those of a network switch and that of a firewall in one.

IP Addressing. (IPv4)
An IP address is a unique number / address used to identify a device on a network. An IP address is made up of 32 binary bits, which is divided into a Network portion and Host portion with the help of a Subnet Mask. The 32 binary bits are broken into four octets (1 octet = 8 bits). Each octet is converted to decimal and separated by a period (dot). For this reason, an IP address is expressed in dotted decimal format (for example, 192.168.10.12). The value in each octet ranges from 0 to 255 decimal, or 00000000 11111111 binary. Below is how binary octets convert to decimal: The right most bit, or least significant bit, of an octet holds a value of 20. The bit just to the left of that holds a value of 21. This continues until the left-most bit, or most significant bit, which holds a value of 27. So if all binary bits are a one, the decimal equivalent would be 255 as shown here:
1 1 1 1 1111

128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1 = (128+64+32+16+8+4+2+1=255) And this sample below shows an IP address represented in binary and decimal. 192. 168. 4. 10 (decimal) 11000000.10101000.00000100.00001010 (binary).

IP Routing
IP Routing is the process use by a router to forward packets toward the destination network as found in the routing table, which is created by routing algorithms or routing protocols. A router makes decisions based upon the destination IP address of a packet. Routers dont care about hosts in a network, but networks and the best possible way to reach them. All network devices along the way use the destination IP address to send the packet in the right direction to reach its destination. To make the correct decisions, routers must learn how to reach remote networks. Routers use either dynamic routing - this information is learned from other routers, or static routing - a network administrator configures information about remote networks manually. Although its deemed necessary for every device in the network to be assigned a unique IP address, but this is not sufficient for them to communicate. Its the work of a router to acts as a sort of traffic director to all packet destined to a destination. In summary, routers route traffic to all networks in your internetwork. For a router to be able to do this, it must know the following: i. Destination address

ii. Possible routes to all networks iii. Neighboring routers from which it will learn about remote networks iv. The best route to reach a network v. How to maintain and verify routing information.

Example below shows how a router uses information in its routine table to make decisions:

R2#show IP route [Output omitted] Gateway of last resort is not set C C C 192.168.1.32/27 is directly connected, fastEthernet0/1 192.168.1.0/27 is directly connected, fastEthernet0/2 10.10.1.0/30 is directly connected, serial 0/0/0

The C in the routing table means the networks are directly connected. The remote networks are not found and displayed in the routine table because, we have not added a routing protocol such as RIP, EIGRP, OSPF etc. etc or configured Static routes. Looking at the output above, when the network router receive a packet with the destination address of 192.168.1.10, the router will send the packet to interface fastEthernet0/2, and this interface will frame the packet and then send it out on the network segment to Network B. IP Routing Protocols

LAN (Local Area Network)

A LAN (Local Area Network) is an individual network that covers a single geographical area, providing networking services and applications to people within a common managerial structure, such as a single business, campus or region.

A LAN is usually administered by a single organization. The administrative control that governs the security and access control policies are enforced on the network level. LANs and WANs are very

useful to individual organizations. They connect the users within the organization. They allow many forms of communication including exchange e-mails, corporate training, and other resource sharing.

Communication with data, voice, and video is critical to business survival. Consequently, a properly designed LAN is a fundamental requirement for doing business today. You must be able to recognize a well-designed LAN and select the appropriate devices to support the network specifications of a small- or medium-sized business.

History
This section requires expansion.

Before the advent of computer networks that were based upon some type of telecommunications system, communication between calculation machines and early computers was performed by human users by carrying instructions between them. Many of the social behaviors seen in today's Internet were demonstrably present in the 19th century and arguably in even earlier networks using visual signals.

In September 1940, George Stibitz used a Teletype machine to send instructions for a problem set from his Model at Dartmouth College to his Complex Number Calculator in New York and received results back by the same means. Linking output systems like teletypewriters to computers was an interest at the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) when, in 1962, J.C.R. Licklider was hired and developed a working group he called the "Intergalactic Network", a precursor to the ARPANET. Early networks of communicating computers included the military radar system Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE), started in the late 1950s The commercial airline reservation system semi-automatic business research environment (SABRE) which went online with two connected mainframes in 1960.[2][3] In 1964, researchers at Dartmouth developed the Dartmouth Time Sharing System for distributed users of large computer systems. The same year, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a research group supported by General Electric and Bell Labs used a computer to route and manage telephone connections. Throughout the 1960s Leonard Kleinrock, Paul Baran and Donald Davies independently conceptualized and developed network systems which used packets that could be used in a network between computer systems. 1965 Thomas Merrill and Lawrence G. Roberts created the first wide area network (WAN). The first widely used telephone switch that used true computer control was introduced by Western Electric in 1965. In 1969 the University of California at Los Angeles, the Stanford Research Institute, University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah were connected as the beginning of theARPANET network using 50 kbit/s circuits.[4] Commercial services using X.25 were deployed in 1972, and later used as an underlying infrastructure for expanding TCP/IP networks.

Today, computer networks are the core of modern communication. All modern aspects of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) are computer-controlled, and telephony increasingly runs over the Internet Protocol, although not necessarily the public Internet. The scope of communication has increased significantly in the past decade, and this boom in communications would not have been possible without the progressively advancing computer network. Computer networks, and the technologies needed to connect and communicate through and between them, continue to drive computer hardware, software, and peripherals industries. This expansion is mirrored by growth in the numbers and types of users of networks from the researcher to the home user. [edit]Properties Computer networks: Facilitate communications Using a network, people can communicate efficiently and easily via email, instant messaging, chat rooms, telephone, video telephone calls, and video conferencing. Permit sharing of files, data, and other types of information In a network environment, authorized users may access data and information stored on other computers on the network. The capability of providing access to data and information on shared storage devices is an important feature of many networks.

Share network and computing resources In a networked environment, each computer on a network may access and use resources provided by devices on the network, such as printing a document on a shared network printer. Distributed computing uses computing resources across a network to accomplish tasks. May be insecure A computer network may be used by computer hackers to deploy computer viruses or computer worms on devices connected to the network, or to prevent these devices from normally accessing the network (denial of service). May interfere with other technologies Power line communication strongly disturbs certain forms of radio communication, e.g., amateur radio.[5] It may also interfere with last mile access technologies such as ADSL and VDSL.[6] May be difficult to set up A complex computer network may be difficult to set up. It may also be very costly to set up an effective computer network in a large organization or company. [edit]Communication

media

Computer networks can be classified according to the hardware and associated software technology that is used to interconnect the individual devices in the network, such as electrical cable(HomePNA, power line communication, G.hn), optical fiber, and radio waves (wireless LAN). In the OSI model, these are located at levels 1 and 2. A well-known family of communication media is collectively known as Ethernet. It is defined by IEEE 802 and utilizes various standards and media that enable communication between devices. Wireless LAN technology is designed to connect devices without wiring. These devices use radio waves or infrared signals as a transmission medium. [edit]Wired

technologies

Twisted pair wire is the most widely used medium for telecommunication. Twisted-pair cabling consist of copper wires that are twisted into pairs. Ordinary telephone wires consist of two insulated copper wires twisted into pairs. Computer networking cabling (wired Ethernet as defined by IEEE 802.3) consists of 4 pairs of copper cabling that can be utilized for both voice and data transmission. The use of two wires twisted together helps to reduce crosstalk and electromagnetic induction. The transmission speed ranges from 2 million bits per second to 10 billion bits per second. Twisted pair cabling comes in two forms which are Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) and Shielded twisted-pair (STP) which are rated in categories which are manufactured in different increments for various scenario.

Coaxial cable is widely used for cable television systems, office buildings, and other work-sites for local area networks. The cables consist of copper or aluminum wire wrapped with insulating layer typically of a flexible material with a high dielectric constant, all of which are surrounded by a conductive layer. The layers of insulation help minimize interference and distortion. Transmission speed range from 200 million to more than 500 million bits per second. ITU-T G.hn technology uses existing home wiring (coaxial cable, phone lines and power lines) to create a high-speed (up to 1 Gigabit/s) local area network.

Optical fiber cable consists of one or more filaments of glass fiber wrapped in protective layers that carries data by means of pulses of light. It transmits light which can travel over extended distances. Fiberoptic cables are not affected by electromagnetic radiation. Transmission speed may reach trillions of bits per second. The transmission speed of fiber optics is hundreds of times faster than for coaxial cables and thousands of times faster than a twisted-pair wire. This capacity may be further increased by the use of colored light, i.e., light of multiple wavelengths. Instead of carrying one message in a stream of monochromatic light impulses, this technology can carry multiple signals in a single fiber. [edit]Wireless technologies

Terrestrial microwave Terrestrial microwaves use Earth-based transmitter and receiver. The equipment looks similar to satellite dishes. Terrestrial microwaves use low-gigahertz range, which limits all communications to line-of-sight. Path between relay stations spaced approx, 48 km (30 mi) apart. Microwave antennas are usually placed on top of buildings, towers, hills, and mountain peaks. Communications satellites The satellites use microwave radio as their telecommunications medium which are not deflected by the Earth's atmosphere. The satellites are stationed in space, typically 35,400 km (22,000 mi) (for geosynchronous satellites) above the equator. These Earth-orbiting systems are capable of receiving and relaying voice, data, and TV signals. Cellular and PCS systems Use several radio communications technologies. The systems are divided to different geographic areas. Each area has a low-power transmitter or radio relay antenna device to relay calls from one area to the next area. Wireless LANs Wireless local area network use a high-frequency radio technology similar to digital cellular and a low-frequency radio technology. Wireless LANs use spread spectrum technology to enable communication between multiple devices in a limited area. An example of open-standards wireless radio-wave technology is IEEE 802.11. Infrared communication can transmit signals between devices within small distances of typically no more than 10 meters. In most

cases, line-of-sight propagation is used, which limits the physical positioning of communicating devices. A global area network (GAN) is a network used for supporting mobile across an arbitrary number of wireless LANs, satellite coverage areas, etc. The key challenge in mobile communications is handing off the user communications from one local coverage area to the next. In IEEE Project 802, this involves a succession of terrestrial wireless LANs.[7] [edit]Exotic technologies

There have been various attempts at transporting data over more or less exotic media:

IP over Avian Carriers was a humorous April fool's Request for Comments, issued as RFC 1149. It was implemented in real life in 2001.[8] Extending the Internet to interplanetary dimensions via radio waves.[9]

A practical limit in both cases is the round-trip delay time which constrains useful communication. [edit]Communications

protocol

Main article: Communications protocol A communications protocol defines the formats and rules for exchanging information via a network and typically comprises a complete protocol suite which describes the protocols used at varioususage levels. An interesting feature of communications protocols is that they may be and in fact very often are stacked above each other, which means that one is used to carry the other. Theexample for this is HTTP running over TCP over IP over IEEE 802.11, where the second and third are members of the Internet Protocol Suite, while the last is a member of the Ethernet protocol suite. This is the stacking which exists between the wireless router and the home user's personal computer when surfing the World Wide Web. Communication protocols have themselves various properties, such as whether they are connection-oriented versus connectionless, whether they use circuit mode or packet switching, or whether they use hierarchical or flat addressing. There exist a multitude of communication protocols, a few of which are described below. [edit]Ethernet Main article: Ethernet Ethernet is a family of connectionless protocols used in LANs, described by a set of standards together called IEEE 802 published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. It has a flat addressing scheme and is mostly situated at levels 1 and 2 of the OSI model. For home users today, the most well-known member of this protocol family is IEEE 802.11,

otherwise known as Wireless LAN (WLAN). However, the complete protocol suite deals with a multitude of networking aspects not only for home use, but especially when the technology is deployed to support a diverse range of business needs. MAC bridging (IEEE 802.1D) deals with the routing of Ethernet packets using a Spanning Tree Protocol, IEEE 802.1Q describes VLANs, and IEEE 802.1X defines a port-basedNetwork Access Control protocol which forms the basis for the authentication mechanisms used in VLANs, but also found in WLANs it is what the home user sees when they have to enter a "wireless access key". [edit]Internet

Protocol Suite

The Internet Protocol Suite, often also called TCP/IP, is the foundation of all modern internetworking. It offers connection-less as well as connectionoriented services over an inherently unreliable network traversed by datagram transmission at the Internet protocol (IP) level. At its core, the protocol suite defines the addressing, identification, and routing specification in form of the traditionalInternet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) and IPv6, the next generation of the protocol with a much enlarged addressing capability. [edit]SONET/SDH Main article: Synchronous optical networking Synchronous Optical NETworking (SONET) and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) are standardized multiplexing protocols that transfer multiple digital bit streams over optical fiber using lasers. They were originally designed to transport circuit mode communications from a variety of different sources, primarily to support real-time, uncompressed, circuitswitched voice encoded in PCM format. However, due to its protocol neutrality and transport-oriented features, SONET/SDH also was the obvious choice for transporting Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) frames. [edit]Asynchronous

Transfer Mode

Main article: Asynchronous transfer mode Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a switching technique for telecommunication networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing and encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from other protocols such as the Internet Protocol Suite or Ethernet that use variable sized packets or frames. ATM has similarity with both circuit and packet switched networking. This makes it a good choice for a network that must handle both traditional high-throughput data traffic, and real-time, low-latency content such as voice and video. ATM uses a connection-oriented model in which avirtual circuit must be established between two endpoints before the actual data exchange begins. While the role of ATM is diminishing in favor of next-generation networks, it still plays a role in the last mile, which is the connection between an Internet service provider and the home user. For an interesting write-up of the

technologies involved, including the deep stacking of communications protocols used, see.[10] [edit]Scale

Computer network types by geographical scope

Body (BAN) Personal (PAN) Near-me (NAN) Local (LAN)

Home (HAN) Storage (SAN)

Campus (CAN) Backbone Metropolitan (MAN) Wide (WAN) Internet Interplanetary Internet
This box: view talk edit

Networks are often classified by their physical or organizational extent or their purpose. Usage, trust level, and access rights differ between these types of networks. [edit]Personal

area network

A personal area network (PAN) is a computer network used for communication among computer and different information technological devices close to one person. Some examples of devices that are used in a PAN are personal computers, printers, fax machines, telephones, PDAs, scanners, and even video game consoles. A PAN may include wired and wireless devices. The reach of a PAN typically extends to 10 meters.[11] A wired PAN is usually constructed with USB and Firewire connections while technologies such as Bluetooth and infrared communication typically form a wireless PAN. [edit]Local

area network

A local area network (LAN) is a network that connects computers and devices in a limited geographical area such as home, school, computer

laboratory, office building, or closely positioned group of buildings. Each computer or device on the network is a node. Current wired LANs are most likely to be based on Ethernettechnology, although new standards like ITUT G.hn also provide a way to create a wired LAN using existing home wires (coaxial cables, phone lines and power lines).[12]

Typical library network, in a branching tree topology and controlled access to resources

All interconnected devices must understand the network layer (layer 3), because they are handling multiple subnets (the different colors). Those inside the library, which have only 10/100 Mbit/s Ethernet connections to the user device and a Gigabit Ethernet connection to the central router, could be called "layer 3 switches" because they only have Ethernet interfaces and must understand IP. It would be more correct to call them access routers, where the router at the top is a distribution router that connects to the Internet and academic networks' customer access routers. The defining characteristics of LANs, in contrast to WANs (Wide Area Networks), include their higher data transfer rates, smaller geographic range, and no need for leased telecommunication lines. Current Ethernet or other IEEE 802.3 LAN technologies operate at speeds up to 10 Gbit/s. This is the data transfer rate. IEEE has projects investigating the standardization of 40 and 100 Gbit/s.[13] LANs can be connected to Wide area network by using routers. [edit]Home

network

A home network is a residential LAN which is used for communication between digital devices typically deployed in the home, usually a small number of personal computers and accessories, such as printers and mobile computing devices. An important function is the sharing of Internet access, often a broadband service through a cable TV or Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) provider. [edit]Storage

area network

A storage area network (SAN) is a dedicated network that provides access to consolidated, block level data storage. SANs are primarily used to make storage devices, such as disk arrays, tape libraries, and optical jukeboxes, accessible to servers so that the devices appear like locally attached

devices to the operating system. A SAN typically has its own network of storage devices that are generally not accessible through the local area network by other devices. The cost and complexity of SANs dropped in the early 2000s to levels allowing wider adoption across both enterprise and small to medium sized business environments. [edit]Campus

network

A campus network is a computer network made up of an interconnection of LANs within a limited geographical area. The networking equipment (switches, routers) and transmission media (optical fiber, copper plant, Cat5 cabling etc.) are almost entirely owned (by the campus tenant / owner: an enterprise, university, government etc.). In the case of a university campus-based campus network, the network is likely to link a variety of campus buildings including, for example, academic colleges or departments, the university library, and student residence halls. [edit]Backbone

network

A backbone network is part of a computer network infrastructure that interconnects various pieces of network, providing a path for the exchange of information between different LANs or subnetworks. A backbone can tie together diverse networks in the same building, in different buildings in a campus environment, or over wide areas. Normally, the backbone's capacity is greater than that of the networks connected to it. A large corporation which has many locations may have a backbone network that ties all of these locations together, for example, if a server cluster needs to be accessed by different departments of a company which are located at different geographical locations. The equipment which ties these departments together constitute the network backbone. Network performance management includingnetwork congestion are critical parameters taken into account when designing a network backbone. A specific case of a backbone network is the Internet backbone, which is the set of wide-area network connections and core routers that interconnect all networks connected to the Internet. [edit]Metropolitan

area network

A Metropolitan area network (MAN) is a large computer network that usually spans a city or a large campus.

Sample EPN made of Frame relay WAN connections and dialup remote access.

Sample VPN used to interconnect 3 offices and remote users

[edit]Wide

area network

A wide area network (WAN) is a computer network that covers a large geographic area such as a city, country, or spans even intercontinental distances, using a communications channel that combines many types of media such as telephone lines, cables, and air waves. A WAN often uses transmission facilities provided by common carriers, such as telephone companies. WAN technologies generally function at the lower three layers of the OSI reference model: the physical layer, the data link layer, and the network layer.

[edit]Enterprise

private network

An enterprise private network is a network built by an enterprise to interconnect various company sites, e.g., production sites, head offices, remote offices, shops, in order to share computer resources. [edit]Virtual

private network

A virtual private network (VPN) is a computer network in which some of the links between nodes are carried by open connections or virtual circuits in some larger network (e.g., the Internet) instead of by physical wires. The data link layer protocols of the virtual network are said to be tunneled through the larger network when this is the case. One common application is secure communications through the public Internet, but a VPN need not have explicit security features, such as authentication or content encryption. VPNs, for example, can be used to separate the traffic of different user communities over an underlying network with strong security features. VPN may have best-effort performance, or may have a defined service level agreement (SLA) between the VPN customer and the VPN service provider. Generally, a VPN has a topology more complex than point-topoint. [edit]Internetwork An internetwork is the connection of multiple computer networks via a common routing technology using routers. The Internet is an aggregation of many connected internetworks spanning the Earth. [edit]Organizational

scope

Networks are typically managed by organizations which own them. According to the owner's point of view, networks are seen as intranets or extranets. A special case of network is the Internet, which has no single owner but a distinct status when seen by an organizational entity that of permitting virtually unlimited global connectivity for a great multitude of purposes. [edit]Intranets

and extranets

Intranets and extranets are parts or extensions of a computer network, usually a LAN. An intranet is a set of networks, using the Internet Protocol and IP-based tools such as web browsers and file transfer applications, that is under the control of a single administrative entity. That administrative entity closes the intranet to all but specific, authorized users. Most commonly, an intranet is the internal network of an organization. A large intranet will typically have at least one web server to provide users with organizational information. An extranet is a network that is limited in scope to a single organization or entity and also has limited connections to the networks of one or more other usually, but not necessarily, trusted organizations or entitiesa company's customers may be given access to some part of its intranetwhile at the same time the customers may not be considered trusted from a security

standpoint. Technically, an extranet may also be categorized as a CAN, MAN, WAN, or other type of network, although an extranet cannot consist of a single LAN; it must have at least one connection with an external network. [edit]Internet The Internet is a global system of interconnected governmental, academic, corporate, public, and private computer networks. It is based on the networking technologies of the Internet Protocol Suite. It is the successor of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) developed by DARPA of the United States Department of Defense. The Internet is also the communications backbone underlying the World Wide Web (WWW). Participants in the Internet use a diverse array of methods of several hundred documented, and often standardized, protocols compatible with the Internet Protocol Suite and an addressing system (IP addresses) administered by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority and address registries. Service providers and large enterprises exchange information about the reachability of their address spaces through the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), forming a redundant worldwide mesh of transmission paths. [edit]Network [edit]Common

topology
layouts

A network topology is the layout of the interconnections of the nodes of a computer network. Common layouts are:

A bus network: all nodes are connected to a common medium along this medium. This was the layout used in the original Ethernet, called 10BASE5 and 10BASE2. A star network: all nodes are connected to a special central node. This is the typical layout found in in a Wireless LAN, where each wireless client connects to the central Wireless access point. A ring network: each node is connected to its left and right neighbor node, such that all nodes are connected and that each node can reach each other node by traversing nodes left- or rightwards. The Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) made use of such a topology. A mesh network: each node is connected to an arbitrary number of neighbors in such a way that there is at least one traversal from any node to any other. A fully connected network: each node is connected to every other node in the network.

Note that the physical layout of the nodes in a network may not necessarily reflect the network topology. As an example, with FDDI, the network topology is a ring (actually two counter-rotating rings), but the physical topology is a star, because all neighboring connections are routed via a central physical location.

[edit]Overlay

network

An overlay network is a virtual computer network that is built on top of another network. Nodes in the overlay are connected by virtual or logical links, each of which corresponds to a path, perhaps through many physical links, in the underlying network. The topology of the overlay network may (and often does) differ from that of the underlying one.

A sample overlay network: IP over SONET over Optical

For example, many peer-to-peer networks are overlay networks because they are organized as nodes of a virtual system of links run on top of the Internet. The Internet was initially built as an overlay on the telephone network.[14] The most striking example of an overlay network, however, is the Internet itself: At the IP layer, each node can reach any other by a direct connection to the desired IP address, thereby creating a fully connected network; the underlying network, however, is composed of a mesh-like interconnect of subnetworks of varying topologies (and, in fact, technologies). Address resolution and routing are the means which allows the mapping of the fully connected IP overlay network to the underlying ones. Overlay networks have been around since the invention of networking when computer systems were connected over telephone lines usingmodems, before any data network existed. Another example of an overlay network is a distributed hash table, which maps keys to nodes in the network. In this case, the underlying network is an IP network, and the overlay network is a table (actually a map) indexed by keys. Overlay networks have also been proposed as a way to improve Internet routing, such as through quality of service guarantees to achieve higherquality streaming media. Previous proposals such as IntServ, DiffServ, and IP Multicast have not seen wide acceptance largely because they

require modification of all routers in the network.[citation needed] On the other hand, an overlay network can be incrementally deployed on end-hosts running the overlay protocol software, without cooperation from Internet service providers. The overlay has no control over how packets are routed in the underlying network between two overlay nodes, but it can control, for example, the sequence of overlay nodes a message traverses before reaching its destination. For example, Akamai Technologies manages an overlay network that provides reliable, efficient content delivery (a kind of multicast). Academic research includes end system multicast and overcast for multicast; RON (resilient overlay network) for resilient routing; and OverQoS for quality of service guarantees, among others. [edit]Basic

hardware components

Apart from the physical communications media themselves as described above, networks comprise additional basic hardware building blocks interconnecting their terminals, such as network interface cards (NICs), hubs, bridges, switches, and routers. [edit]Network

interface cards

A network card, network adapter, or NIC (network interface card) is a piece of computer hardware designed to allow computers to physically access a networking medium. It provides a low-level addressing system through the use of MAC addresses. Each Ethernet network interface has a unique MAC address which is usually stored in a small memory device on the card, allowing any device to connect to the network without creating an address conflict. Ethernet MAC addresses are composed of six octets. Uniqueness is maintained by the IEEE, which manages the Ethernet address space by assigning 3-octet prefixes to equipment manufacturers. The list of prefixes is publicly available. Each manufacturer is then obliged to both use only their assigned prefix(es) and to uniquely set the 3-octet suffix of every Ethernet interface they produce. [edit]Repeaters

and hubs

A repeater is an electronic device that receives a signal, cleans it of unnecessary noise, regenerates it, and retransmits it at a higher power level, or to the other side of an obstruction, so that the signal can cover longer distances without degradation. In most twisted pair Ethernet configurations, repeaters are required for cable that runs longer than 100 meters. A repeater with multiple ports is known as a hub. Repeaters work on the Physical Layer of the OSI model. Repeaters require a small amount of time to regenerate the signal. This can cause a propagation delay which can affect network communication when there are several repeaters in a row. Many network architectures limit the number of repeaters that can be used in a row (e.g. Ethernet's 5-4-3 rule).

Today, repeaters and hubs have been made mostly obsolete by switches (see below). [edit]Bridges A network bridge connects multiple network segments at the data link layer (layer 2) of the OSI model. Bridges broadcast to all ports except the port on which the broadcast was received. However, bridges do not promiscuously copy traffic to all ports, as hubs do, but learn which MAC addresses are reachable through specific ports. Once the bridge associates a port and an address, it will send traffic for that address to that port only. Bridges learn the association of ports and addresses by examining the source address of frames that it sees on various ports. Once a frame arrives through a port, its source address is stored and the bridge assumes that MAC address is associated with that port. The first time that a previously unknown destination address is seen, the bridge will forward the frame to all ports other than the one on which the frame arrived. Bridges come in three basic types: Local bridges: Directly connect LANs Remote bridges: Can be used to create a wide area network (WAN) link between LANs. Remote bridges, where the connecting link is slower than the end networks, largely have been replaced with routers. Wireless bridges: Can be used to join LANs or connect remote stations to LANs.

[edit]Switches A network switch is a device that forwards and filters OSI layer 2 datagrams (chunks of data communication) between ports (connected cables) based on the MAC addresses in the packets.[15] A switch is distinct from a hub in that it only forwards the frames to the ports involved in the communication rather than all ports connected. A switch breaks the collision domain but represents itself as a broadcast domain. Switches make forwarding decisions of frames on the basis of MAC addresses. A switch normally has numerous ports, facilitating a star topology for devices, and cascading additional switches.[16] Some switches are capable of routing based on Layer 3 addressing or additional logical levels; these are called multi-layer switches. The term switch is used loosely in marketing to encompass devices including routers and bridges, as well as devices that may distribute traffic on load or by application content (e.g., a Web URL identifier). [edit]Routers A router is an internetworking device that forwards packets between networks by processing information found in the datagram or packet (Internet protocol information from Layer 3 of the OSI Model). In many situations, this information is processed in conjunction with the routing table (also known as forwarding table). Routers use routing tables to determine what interface to forward packets (this can include the "null" also known as

the "black hole" interface because data can go into it, however, no further processing is done for said data). [edit]Firewalls A firewall is an important aspect of a network with respect to security. It typically rejects access requests from unsafe sources while allowing actions from recognized ones. The vital role firewalls play in network security grows in parallel with the constant increase in 'cyber' attacks for the purpose of stealing/corrupting data, planting viruses, etc. [edit]Network

performance

Main article: network performance Network performance refers to the service quality of a telecommunications product as seen by the customer. It should not be seen merely as an attempt to get "more through" the network. The following list gives examples of Network Performance measures for a circuit-switched network and one type of packet-switched network, viz. ATM:

Circuit-switched networks: In circuit switched networks, network performance is synonymous with the grade of service. The number of rejected calls is a measure of how well the network is performing under heavy traffic loads.[17] Other types of performance measures can include noise, echo and so on. ATM: In an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) network, performance can be measured by line rate, quality of service (QoS), data throughput, connect time, stability, technology, modulation technique and modem enhancements.[18]

There are many different ways to measure the performance of a network, as each network is different in nature and design. Performance can also be modelled instead of measured; one example of this is using state transition diagrams to model queuing performance in a circuit-switched network. These diagrams allow the network planner to analyze how the network will perform in each state, ensuring that the network will be optimally designed.
[19]

[edit]Network

security

Main article: network security In the field of networking, the area of network security[20] consists of the provisions and policies adopted by the network administrator to prevent and monitor unauthorized access, misuse, modification, or denial of the computer network and network-accessible resources. Network security is the authorization of access to data in a network, which is controlled by the network administrator. Users are assigned an ID and password that allows them access to information and programs within their authority. Network Security covers a variety of computer networks, both public and private that

are used in everyday jobs conducting transactions and communications among businesses, government agencies and individuals. [edit]Network

resilience

Main article: resilience (network) In computer networking: Resilience is the ability to provide and maintain an acceptable level of service in the face of faults and challenges to normal operation.[21] [edit]Views

of networks

Users and network administrators typically have different views of their networks. Users can share printers and some servers from a workgroup, which usually means they are in the same geographic location and are on the same LAN, whereas a Network Administrator is responsible to keep that network up and running. A community of interest has less of a connection of being in a local area, and should be thought of as a set of arbitrarily located users who share a set of servers, and possibly also communicate via peerto-peer technologies. Network administrators can see networks from both physical and logical perspectives. The physical perspective involves geographic locations, physical cabling, and the network elements (e.g., routers,bridges and application layer gateways) that interconnect the physical media. Logical networks, called, in the TCP/IP architecture, subnets, map onto one or more physical media. For example, a common practice in a campus of buildings is to make a set of LAN cables in each building appear to be a common subnet, using virtual LAN (VLAN) technology. Both users and administrators will be aware, to varying extents, of the trust and scope characteristics of a network. Again using TCP/IP architectural terminology, an intranet is a community of interest under private administration usually by an enterprise, and is only accessible by authorized users (e.g. employees).[22] Intranets do not have to be connected to the Internet, but generally have a limited connection. An extranet is an extension of an intranet that allows secure communications to users outside of the intranet (e.g. business partners, customers).[22] Unofficially, the Internet is the set of users, enterprises, and content providers that are interconnected by Internet Service Providers (ISP). From an engineering viewpoint, the Internet is the set of subnets, and aggregates of subnets, which share the registered IP address space and exchange information about the reachability of those IP addresses using the Border Gateway Protocol. Typically, the human-readable names of servers are translated to IP addresses, transparently to users, via the directory function of the Domain Name System (DNS). Over the Internet, there can be business-to-business (B2B), business-toconsumer (B2C) and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) communications. Especially when money or sensitive information is exchanged, the

communications are apt to be secured by some form of communications security mechanism. Intranets and extranets can be securely superimposed onto the Internet, without any access by general Internet users and administrators, using secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology.

1. Define Network? A network is a set of devices connected by physical media links. A network is recursively is a connection of two or more nodes by a physical link or two or more networks connected by one or more nodes. 2. What is a Link? At the lowest level, a network can consist of two or more computers directly connected by some physical medium such as coaxial cable or optical fiber. Such a physical medium is called as Link. 3. What is a node? A network can consist of two or more computers directly connected by some physical medium such as coaxial cable or optical fiber. Such a physical medium is called as Links and the computer it connects is called as Nodes. 4. What is a gateway or Router? A node that is connected to two or more networks is commonly called as router or Gateway. It generally forwards message from one network to another. 5. What is point-point link? If the physical links are limited to a pair of nodes it is said to be point-point link. 6. What is Multiple Access? If the physical links are shared by more than two nodes, it is said to be Multiple Access.
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7. What are the advantages of Distributed Processing? a. Security/Encapsulation b. Distributed database c. Faster Problem solving d. Security through redundancy e. Collaborative Processing 8. What are the criteria necessary for an effective and efficient network? a. Performance It can be measured in many ways, including transmit time and response time. b. Reliability It is measured by frequency of failure, the time it takes a link to recover from a failure, and the network's robustness. c. Security Security issues includes protecting data from unauthorized access and virues. 9. Name the factors that affect the performance of the network? a. Number of Users b. Type of transmission medium c. Hardware d. Software 10. Name the factors that affect the reliability of the network? a. Frequency of failure b. Recovery time of a network after a failure

11. Name the factors that affect the security of the network? a. Unauthorized Access b. Viruses 12. What is Protocol? A protocol is a set of rules that govern all aspects of information communication. 13. What are the key elements of protocols? The key elements of protocols are a. Syntax It refers to the structure or format of the data, that is the order in which they are presented. b. Semantics It refers to the meaning of each section of bits. c. Timing Timing refers to two characteristics: When data should be sent and how fast they can be sent. 14. What are the key design issues of a computer Network? a. Connectivity b. Cost-effective Resource Sharing c. Support for common Services d. Performance 15. Define Bandwidth and Latency? Network performance is measured in Bandwidth (throughput) and Latency (Delay). Bandwidth of a network is given by the number of bits that can be transmitted over the network in a certain period of time. Latency corresponds to how long it t5akes a message to travel from one end off a network to the other. It is strictly measured in terms of time. 16. Define Routing? The process of determining systematically hoe to forward messages toward the destination nodes based on its address is called routing. 17. What is a peer-peer process? The processes on each machine that communicate at a given layer are called peer-peer process. 18. When a switch is said to be congested? It is possible that a switch receives packets faster than the shared link can accommodate and stores in its memory, for an extended period of time, then the switch will eventually run out of buffer space, and some packets will have to be dropped and in this state is said to congested state. 19. What is semantic gap? Defining a useful channel involves both understanding the applications requirements and recognizing the limitations of the underlying technology. The gap between what applications expects and what the underlying technology can provide is called semantic gap. 20. What is Round Trip Time? The duration of time it takes to send a message from one end of a network to the other and back, is called RTT. 21. Define the terms Unicasting, Multiccasting and Broadcasting? If the message is sent from a source to a single destination node, it is called Unicasting. If the message is sent to some subset of other nodes, it is called Multicasting. If the message is sent to all the m nodes in the network it is called Broadcasting. 22. What is Multiplexing?

Multiplexing is the set of techniques that allows the simultaneous transmission of multiple signals across a single data link. 23. Name the categories of Multiplexing? a. Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) b. Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) i. Synchronous TDM ii. ASynchronous TDM Or Statistical TDM. c. Wave Division Multiplexing (WDM) 24. What is FDM? FDM is an analog technique that can be applied when the bandwidth of a link is greater than the combined bandwidths of the signals to be transmitted. 25. What is WDM? WDM is conceptually the same as FDM, except that the multiplexing and demultiplexing involve light signals transmitted through fiber optics channel. 26. What is TDM? TDM is a digital process that can be applied when the data rate capacity of the transmission medium is greater than the data rate required by the sending and receiving devices. 27. What is Synchronous TDM? In STDM, the multiplexer allocates exactly the same time slot to each device at all times, whether or not a device has anything to transmit. 28. List the layers of OSI a. Physical Layer b. Data Link Layer c. Network Layer d. Transport Layer e. Session Layer f. Presentation Layer g. Application Layer 29. Which layers are network support layers? a. Physical Layer b. Data link Layer and c. Network Layers 30. Which layers are user support layers? a. Session Layer b. Presentation Layer and c. Application Layer 31. Which layer links the network support layers and user support layers? The Transport layer links the network support layers and user support layers. 32. What are the concerns of the Physical Layer? Physical layer coordinates the functions required to transmit a bit stream over a physical medium. a. Physical characteristics of interfaces and media b. Representation of bits c. Data rate d. Synchronization of bits e. Line configuration

f. Physical topology g. Transmission mode 33. What are the responsibilities of Data Link Layer? The Data Link Layer transforms the physical layer, a raw transmission facility, to a reliable link and is responsible for node-node delivery. a. Framing b. Physical Addressing c. Flow Control d. Error Control e. Access Control 34. What are the responsibilities of Network Layer? The Network Layer is responsible for the source-to-destination delivery of packet possibly across multiple networks (links). a. Logical Addressing b. Routing 35. What are the responsibilities of Transport Layer? The Transport Layer is responsible for source-to-destination delivery of the entire message. a. Service-point Addressing b. Segmentation and reassembly c. Connection Control d. Flow Control e. Error Control 36. What are the responsibilities of Session Layer? The Session layer is the network dialog Controller. It establishes, maintains and synchronizes the interaction between the communicating systems. a. Dialog control b. Synchronization 37. What are the responsibilities of Presentation Layer? The Presentation layer is concerned with the syntax and semantics of the information exchanged between two systems. a. Translation b. Encryption c. Compression 38. What are the responsibilities of Application Layer? The Application Layer enables the user, whether human or software, to access the network. It provides user interfaces and support for services such as e-mail, shared database management and other types of distributed information services. a. Network virtual Terminal b. File transfer, access and Management (FTAM) c. Mail services d. Directory Services 39. What are the two classes of hardware building blocks? Nodes and Links. 40. What are the different link types used to build a computer network? a. Cables b. Leased Lines c. Last-Mile Links d. Wireless Links

41. What are the categories of Transmission media? a. Guided Media i. Twisted - Pair cable 1. Shielded TP 2. Unshielded TP ii. Coaxial Cable iii. Fiber-optic cable b. Unguided Media i. Terrestrial microwave ii. Satellite Communication 42. What are the types of errors? a. Single-Bit error In a single-bit error, only one bit in the data unit has changed b. Burst Error A Burst error means that two or more bits in the data have changed. 43. What is Error Detection? What are its methods? Data can be corrupted during transmission. For reliable communication errors must be deducted and Corrected. Error Detection uses the concept of redundancy, which means adding extra bits for detecting errors at the destination. The common Error Detection methods are a. Vertical Redundancy Check (VRC) b. Longitudinal Redundancy Check (VRC) c. Cyclic Redundancy Check (VRC) d. Checksum 44. What is Redundancy? The concept of including extra information in the transmission solely for the purpose of comparison. This technique is called redundancy. 45. What is VRC? It is the most common and least expensive mechanism for Error Detection. In VRC, a parity bit is added to every data unit so that the total number of 1s becomes even for even parity. It can detect all single-bit errors. It can detect burst errors only if the total number of errors in each data unit is odd. 46. What is LRC? In LRC, a block of bits is divided into rows and a redundant row of bits is added to the whole block. It can detect burst errors. If two bits in one data unit are damaged and bits in exactly the same positions in another data unit are also damaged, the LRC checker will not detect an error. In LRC a redundant data unit follows n data units. 47. What is CRC? CRC, is the most powerful of the redundancy checking techniques, is based on binary division. 48. What is Checksum? Checksum is used by the higher layer protocols (TCP/IP) for error detection 49. List the steps involved in creating the checksum. a. Divide the data into sections b. Add the sections together using 1's complement arithmetic c. Take the complement of the final sum, this is the checksum. 50. What are the Data link protocols? Data link protocols are sets of specifications used to implement the data link layer. The categories of Data Link protocols are 1. Asynchronous Protocols

2. Synchronous Protocols a. Character Oriented Protocols b. Bit Oriented protocols 51. Compare Error Detection and Error Correction: The correction of errors is more difficult than the detection. In error detection, checks only any error has occurred. In error correction, the exact number of bits that are corrupted and location in the message are known. The number of the errors and the size of the message are important factors. 52. What is Forward Error Correction? Forward error correction is the process in which the receiver tries to guess the message by using redundant bits. 53. Define Retransmission? Retransmission is a technique in which the receiver detects the occurrence of an error and asks the sender to resend the message. Resending is repeated until a message arrives that the receiver believes is error-freed. 54. What are Data Words? In block coding, we divide our message into blocks, each of k bits, called datawords. The block coding process is one-to-one. The same dataword is always encoded as the same codeword. 55. What are Code Words? "r" redundant bits are added to each block to make the length n = k + r. The resulting n-bit blocks are called codewords. 2n - 2k codewords that are not used. These codewords are invalid or illegal. 56. What is a Linear Block Code? A linear block code is a code in which the exclusive OR (addition modulo-2) of two valid codewords creates another valid codeword. 57. What are Cyclic Codes? Cyclic codes are special linear block codes with one extra property. In a cyclic code, if a codeword is cyclically shifted (rotated), the result is another codeword. 58. Define Encoder? A device or program that uses predefined algorithms to encode, or compress audio or video data for storage or transmission use. A circuit that is used to convert between digital video and analog video. 59. Define Decoder? A device or program that translates encoded data into its original format (e.g. it decodes the data). The term is often used in reference to MPEG-2 video and sound data, which must be decoded before it is output. 60. What is Framing? Framing in the data link layer separates a message from one source to a destination, or from other messages to other destinations, by adding a sender address and a destination address. The destination address defines where the packet has to go and the sender address helps the recipient acknowledge the receipt. 61. What is Fixed Size Framing? In fixed-size framing, there is no need for defining the boundaries of the frames. The size itself can be used as a delimiter. 62. Define Character Stuffing?

In byte stuffing (or character stuffing), a special byte is added to the data section of the frame when there is a character with the same pattern as the flag. The data section is stuffed with an extra byte. This byte is usually called the escape character (ESC), which has a predefined bit pattern. Whenever the receiver encounters the ESC character, it removes it from the data section and treats the next character as data, not a delimiting flag. 63. What is Bit Stuffing? Bit stuffing is the process of adding one extra 0 whenever five consecutive Is follow a 0 in the data, so that the receiver does not mistake the pattern 0111110 for a flag. 64. What is Flow Control? Flow control refers to a set of procedures used to restrict the amount of data that the sender can send before waiting for acknowledgment. 65. What is Error Control ? Error control is both error detection and error correction. It allows the receiver to inform the sender of any frames lost or damaged in transmission and coordinates the retransmission of those frames by the sender. In the data link layer, the term error control refers primarily to methods of error detection and retransmission. 66. What Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ)? Error control is both error detection and error correction. It allows the receiver to inform the sender of any frames lost or damaged in transmission and coordinates the retransmission of those frames by the sender. In the data link layer, the term error control refers primarily to methods of error detection and retransmission. Error control in the data link layer is often implemented simply: Any time an error is detected in an exchange, specified frames are retransmitted. This process is called automatic repeat request (ARQ). 67. What is Stop-and-Wait Protocol? In Stop and wait protocol, sender sends one frame, waits until it receives confirmation from the receiver (okay to go ahead), and then sends the next frame. 68. What is Stop-and-Wait Automatic Repeat Request? Error correction in Stop-and-Wait ARQ is done by keeping a copy of the sent frame and retransmitting of the frame when the timer expires. 69. What is usage of Sequence Number in Relaible Transmission? The protocol specifies that frames need to be numbered. This is done by using sequence numbers. A field is added to the data frame to hold the sequence number of that frame. Since we want to minimize the frame size, the smallest range that provides unambiguous communication. The sequence numbers can wrap around. 70. What is Pipelining ? In networking and in other areas, a task is often begun before the previous task has ended. This is known as pipelining. 71. What is Sliding Window? The sliding window is an abstract concept that defines the range of sequence numbers that is the concern of the sender and receiver. In other words, he sender and receiver need to deal with only part of the possible sequence numbers. 72. What is Piggy Backing? A technique called piggybacking is used to improve the efficiency of the bidirectional protocols. When a frame is carrying data from A to B, it can also carry control information about arrived (or lost) frames from B; when a frame is carrying data from B to A, it can also carry control information about the arrived (or lost) frames from A.

73. What are the two types of transmission technology available? (i) Broadcast and (ii) point-to-point 74. What is subnet? A generic term for section of a large networks usually separated by a bridge or router. 75. Difference between the communication and transmission. Transmission is a physical movement of information and concern issues like bit polarity, synchronisation, clock etc. Communication means the meaning full exchange of information between two communication media. 76. What are the possible ways of data exchange? (i) Simplex (ii) Half-duplex (iii) Full-duplex. 77. What is SAP? Series of interface points that allow other computers to communicate with the other layers of network protocol stack. 78. What do you meant by "triple X" in Networks? The function of PAD (Packet Assembler Disassembler) is described in a document known as X.3. The standard protocol has been defined between the terminal and the PAD, called X.28; another standard protocol exists between hte PAD and the network, called X.29. Together, these three recommendations are often called "triple X". 79. What is frame relay, in which layer it comes? Frame relay is a packet switching technology. It will operate in the data link layer. 80. What is terminal emulation, in which layer it comes? Telnet is also called as terminal emulation. It belongs to application layer. 81. What is Beaconing? The process that allows a network to self-repair networks problems. The stations on the network notify the other stations on the ring when they are not receiving the transmissions. Beaconing is used in Token ring and FDDI networks. 82. What is redirector? Redirector is software that intercepts file or prints I/O requests and translates them into network requests. This comes under presentation layer. 83. What is NETBIOS and NETBEUI? NETBIOS is a programming interface that allows I/O requests to be sent to and received from a remote computer and it hides the networking hardware from applications. NETBEUI is NetBIOS extended user interface. A transport protocol designed by microsoft and IBM for the use on small subnets. 84. What is RAID? A method for providing fault tolerance by using multiple hard disk drives. 85. What is passive topology? When the computers on the network simply listen and receive the signal, they are referred to as passive because they don't amplify the signal in any way. Example for passive topology -linear bus. 86. What is Brouter? Hybrid devices that combine the features of both bridges and routers.

87. What is cladding? A layer of a glass surrounding the center fiber of glass inside a fiber-optic cable. 88. What is point-to-point protocol? A communications protocol used to connect computers to remote networking services including Internet service providers. 89. How Gateway is different from Routers? A gateway operates at the upper levels of the OSI model and translates information between two completely different network architectures or data formats. 90. What is attenuation? The degeneration of a signal over distance on a network cable is called attenuation. 91. What is MAC address? The address for a device as it is identified at the Media Access Control (MAC) layer in the network architecture. MAC address is usually stored in ROM on the network adapter card and is unique. 92. Difference between bit rate and baud rate. Bit rate is the number of bits transmitted during one second whereas baud rate refers to the number of signal units per second that are required to represent those bits. baud rate = (bit rate / N) where N is no-of-bits represented by each signal shift. 93. What is Bandwidth? Every line has an upper limit and a lower limit on the frequency of signals it can carry. This limited range is called the bandwidth. 94. What are the types of Transmission media? Signals are usually transmitted over some transmission media that are broadly classified in to two categories. a.) Guided Media: These are those that provide a conduit from one device to another that include twisted-pair, coaxial cable and fiber-optic cable. A signal traveling along any of these media is directed and is contained by the physical limits of the medium. Twisted-pair and coaxial cable use metallic that accept and transport signals in the form of electrical current. Optical fiber is a glass or plastic cable that accepts and transports signals in the form of light. b.) Unguided Media: This is the wireless media that transport electromagnetic waves without using a physical conductor. Signals are broadcast either through air. This is done through radio communication, satellite communication and cellular telephony. 95. What is Project 802? It is a project started by IEEE to set standards to enable intercommunication between equipment from a variety of manufacturers. It is a way for specifying functions of the physical layer, the data link layer and to some extent the network layer to allow for interconnectivity of major LAN protocols. It consists of the following: 1. 802.1 is an internetworking standard for compatibility of different LANs and MANs across protocols. architecture-specific, that is remains the same for all IEEE-defined LANs.

2. 802.2 Logical link control (LLC) is the upper sublayer of the data link layer which is non3. Media access control (MAC) is the lower sublayer of the data link layer that contains some
distinct modules each carrying proprietary information specific to the LAN product being

used. The modules are Ethernet LAN (802.3), Token ring LAN (802.4), Token bus LAN (802.5). 4. 802.6 is distributed queue dual bus (DQDB) designed to be used in MANs.

96. What is Protocol Data Unit? The data unit in the LLC level is called the protocol data unit (PDU). The PDU contains of four fields a destination service access point (DSAP), a source service access point (SSAP), a control field and an information field. DSAP, SSAP are addresses used by the LLC to identify the protocol stacks on the receiving and sending machines that are generating and using the data. The control field specifies whether the PDU frame is a information frame (I - frame) or a supervisory frame (S frame) or a unnumbered frame (U - frame). 97. What are the different type of networking / internetworking devices?

1. Repeater: Also called a regenerator, it is an electronic device that operates only at

physical layer. It receives the signal in the network before it becomes weak, regenerates the original bit pattern and puts the refreshed copy back in to the link.

2. Bridges: These operate both in the physical and data link layers of LANs of same type.
They divide a larger network in to smaller segments. They contain logic that allow them to keep the traffic for each segment separate and thus are repeaters that relay a frame only the side of the segment containing the intended recipent and control congestion.

3. Routers: They relay packets among multiple interconnected networks (i.e. LANs of
different type). They operate in the physical, data link and network layers. They contain software that enable them to determine which of the several possible paths is the best for a particular transmission.

4. Gateways: They relay packets among networks that have different protocols (e.g.
between a LAN and a WAN). They accept a packet formatted for one protocol and convert it to a packet formatted for another protocol before forwarding it. They operate in all seven layers of the OSI model. 98. What is ICMP? ICMP is Internet Control Message Protocol, a network layer protocol of the TCP/IP suite used by hosts and gateways to send notification of datagram problems back to the sender. It uses the echo test / reply to test whether a destination is reachable and responding. It also handles both control and error messages. 99. What are the data units at different layers of the TCP / IP protocol suite? The data unit created at the application layer is called a message, at the transport layer the data unit created is called either a segment or an user datagram, at the network layer the data unit created is called the datagram, at the data link layer the datagram is encapsulated in to a frame and finally transmitted as signals along the transmission media. 100. What is difference between ARP and RARP? The address resolution protocol (ARP) is used to associate the 32 bit IP address with the 48 bit physical address, used by a host or a router to find the physical address of another host on its network by sending a ARP query packet that includes the IP address of the receiver. The reverse address resolution protocol (RARP) allows a host to discover its Internet address when it knows only its physical address. 101. What is the minimum and maximum length of the header in the TCP segment and IP datagram? The header should have a minimum length of 20 bytes and can have a maximum length of 60 bytes. 102. What is the range of addresses in the classes of internet addresses?

Class Class Class Class Class

A B C D E

0.0.0.0 - 127.255.255.255 - 128.0.0.0 - 191.255.255.255 - 192.0.0.0 - 223.255.255.255 - 224.0.0.0 - 239.255.255.255 - 240.0.0.0 - 247.255.255.255

103. What is the difference between TFTP and FTP application layer protocols? The Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) allows a local host to obtain files from a remote host but does not provide reliability or security. It uses the fundamental packet delivery services offered by UDP. The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the standard mechanism provided by TCP / IP for copying a file from one host to another. It uses the services offer by TCP and so is reliable and secure. It establishes two connections (virtual circuits) between the hosts, one for data transfer and another for control information. 104. What are major types of networks and explain?

1. Server-based network: provide centralized control of network resources and rely on

server computers to provide security and network administration

2. Peer-to-peer network: computers can act as both servers sharing resources and as
clients using the resources. 105. What are the important topologies for networks?

1. BUS topology: In this each computer is directly connected to primary network cable in a
single line. Advantages: Inexpensive, easy to install, simple to understand, easy to extend.

2. STAR topology: In this all computers are connected using a central hub.
Advantages: Can be inexpensive, easy to install and reconfigure and easy to trouble shoot physical problems.

3. RING topology: In this all computers are connected in loop. Advantages: All computers
have equal access to network media, installation can be simple, and signal does not degrade as much as in other topologies because each computer regenerates it. 106. What is mesh network? A network in which there are multiple network links between computers to provide multiple paths for data to travel. 107. What is difference between baseband and broadband transmission? In a baseband transmission, the entire bandwidth of the cable is consumed by a single signal. In broadband transmission, signals are sent on multiple frequencies, allowing multiple signals to be sent simultaneously. 108. Explain 5-4-3 rule? In a Ethernet network, between any two points on the network ,there can be no more than five network segments or four repeaters, and of those five segments only three of segments can be populated. 109. What MAU? In token Ring , hub is called Multistation Access Unit(MAU). 110. What is the difference between routable and non- routable protocols? Routable protocols can work with a router and can be used to build large networks. Non-Routable protocols are designed to work on small, local networks and cannot be used with a router. 111. Why should you care about the OSI Reference Model? It provides a framework for discussing network operations and design.

112. What is logical link control? One of two sublayers of the data link layer of OSI reference model, as defined by the IEEE 802 standard. This sublayer is responsible for maintaining the link between computers when they are sending data across the physical network connection. 113. What is virtual channel? Virtual channel is normally a connection from one source to one destination, although multicast connections are also permitted. The other name for virtual channel is virtual circuit. 114. What is virtual path? Along any transmission path from a given source to a given destination, a group of virtual circuits can be grouped together into what is called path. 115. What is packet filter? Packet filter is a standard router equipped with some extra functionality. The extra functionality allows every incoming or outgoing packet to be inspected. Packets meeting some criterion are forwarded normally. Those that fail the test are dropped. 116. What is traffic shaping? One of the main causes of congestion is that traffic is often busy. If hosts could be made to transmit at a uniform rate, congestion would be less common. Another open loop method to help manage congestion is forcing the packet to be transmitted at a more predictable rate. This is called traffic shaping. 117. What is multicast routing? Sending a message to a group is called multicasting, and its routing algorithm is called multicast routing. 118. What is region? When hierarchical routing is used, the routers are divided into what we will call regions, with each router knowing all the details about how to route packets to destinations within its own region, but knowing nothing about the internal structure of other regions. 119. What is silly window syndrome? It is a problem that can ruin TCP performance. This problem occurs when data are passed to the sending TCP entity in large blocks, but an interactive application on the receiving side reads 1 byte at a time. 120. What are Digrams and Trigrams? The most common two letter combinations are called as digrams. e.g. th, in, er, re and an. The most common three letter combinations are called as trigrams. e.g. the, ing, and, and ion. 121. Expand IDEA. IDEA stands for International Data Encryption Algorithm. 122. What is wide-mouth frog? Wide-mouth frog is the simplest known key distribution center (KDC) authentication protocol. 123. What is Mail Gateway? It is a system that performs a protocol translation between different electronic mail delivery protocols. 124. What is IGP (Interior Gateway Protocol)? It is any routing protocol used within an autonomous system. 125. What is EGP (Exterior Gateway Protocol)?

It is the protocol the routers in neighboring autonomous systems use to identify the set of networks that can be reached within or via each autonomous system. 126. What is autonomous system? It is a collection of routers under the control of a single administrative authority and that uses a common Interior Gateway Protocol. 127. What is BGP (Border Gateway Protocol)? It is a protocol used to advertise the set of networks that can be reached with in an autonomous system. BGP enables this information to be shared with the autonomous system. This is newer than EGP (Exterior Gateway Protocol). 128. What is Gateway-to-Gateway protocol? It is a protocol formerly used to exchange routing information between Internet core routers. 129. What is NVT (Network Virtual Terminal)? It is a set of rules defining a very simple virtual terminal interaction. The NVT is used in the start of a Telnet session. 130. What is a Multi-homed Host? It is a host that has a multiple network interfaces and that requires multiple IP addresses is called as a Multi-homed Host. 131. What is Kerberos? It is an authentication service developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Kerberos uses encryption to prevent intruders from discovering passwords and gaining unauthorized access to files. 132. What is OSPF? It is an Internet routing protocol that scales well, can route traffic along multiple paths, and uses knowledge of an Internet's topology to make accurate routing decisions. 133. What is Proxy ARP? It is using a router to answer ARP requests. This will be done when the originating host believes that a destination is local, when in fact is lies beyond router. 134. What is SLIP (Serial Line Interface Protocol)? It is a very simple protocol used for transmission of IP datagrams across a serial line. 135. What is RIP (Routing Information Protocol)? It is a simple protocol used to exchange information between the routers. 136. What is source route? It is a sequence of IP addresses identifying the route a datagram must follow. A source route may optionally be included in an IP datagram header.

Network Administrator Interview Questions What is DNS? Domain name system/server is used to translate the IP address into the hostname and hostname into the IP address. DNS is mostly used on the internet and the networks. What is DHCP? Dynamic host configuration protocol is used to dynamically assign the IP address to the networked computers and devices. DHCP is a network protocol that automatically assigns static and dynamic IP addresses from its own range.

What is a Router? Router is the most important network device that is used to connect two logically and physically different networks. Router defines the short possible route for the data to reach its destination. A router works with built-in intelligent software known as routing table, which helps to determine the route between the two networks. What is Gateway? A gateway is software or a hardware that is used to connect the local area network with the internet. A gateway is a network entrance point and a router usually works as a gateway.