Unit 3 Networking Concepts: Structure
Unit 3 Networking Concepts: Structure
Unit 3 Networking Concepts: Structure
3.1 INTRODUCTION
Two computers are said to be interconnected if they are able to exchange information
by any means. Basically in this chapter, computer networks to mean an interconnected
connection of autonomous computers. If one computer can forcibly start, stop or
control another one, the computers are not autonomous, system with one control
unit and many slaves is not a network; nor is a large computer with remote printers
and terminals.
When the concept of network comes to mind before that we have to understand the
confusion between computer networks and Distributed system. In a network, each
system treated as a node or terminal and each terminal must have an unique
identification on the network. A node can share its own resources like file system or
its own resources like printer using network spooling. It is also possible to define
multiple subnet networks under main network under one or multiple domain. Parent
domain normally use to control the user access or authentication and sub domain
can have fine grain authentication. It is also possible to create a virtual network
under a network, where other people can access or utilize the resources of virtual
network under certain rule and access rights. In computer network each node or
participant agreed to communicate with certain rules and protocols layer like TCP/
IP , IPX or netBois.
Users must explicitly log onto one machine, can submit jobs remotely, or move
files around and generally handle all the network management personally. With a
distributed system, nothing has to be done explicitly; it is all automatically done by
the system without the user’s knowledge.
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A network is a set of devices (often referred to as nodes) connected by the media Networking Concepts
links. Node can be a computer, printer, or any other device capable of sending and/
or receiving data generated by other nodes on the network. The links connecting the
devices are often called communication channels.
Data communication is the exchange of data (in the form of 0s and 1s) between two
devices via some form of transmission medium (such as a wire cable). The
effectiveness of a data communication system depends on three fundamental
characters:
• Delivery
• Accuracy
• Timeliness
3.2 OBJECTIVES
After studying this unit, you should be able to:
• describe different types of networks, viz. local, metropolitan and wide networks;
• explain the topologies on which networks work;
• list the difference between OSI and TCP Reference Model;
• describe protocols used for networks; and
• list organizations dedicated for establishing standards for controlling the
Internet.
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These above protocols are very much vital when the concept of network stands. Networking Concepts
But in case of the Internet, Domain Name System (DNS) is a very important aspect
by which Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address is being maintained globally.
DNS is a protocol that can be used in different platforms in the Internet. The domain
name space (tree) is divided into three different sections: generic domains, country
domains and inverse domains.
Generic Domains define registered hosts according to the generic behavior. These
are com, edu, gov, int, mil, net, and org.
The Country Domain system follows the same format as the generic domains but
uses two-character country abbreviations (e.g. in for India). But at present the country
domain can be like www.mtnl.in (for Example).
Inverse Domain is used to map an address to a name. This may happen, for example,
when a server has received a request from a client to do a task. Where the server
has a file that contains a list of authorized clients, the server lists only the IP address
of the client (extracted from the received IP packet).
3.6.1 TELNET
It is a general-purpose client-server application program. It is an abbreviation of
Terminal Network. It enables the establishment of a connection to a remote system
in such a way that the local terminal appears to be a terminal at the remote system.
Both local login and remote login are quite possible through TELNET. It solves the
remote login problem by defining a universal interface called the network virtual
terminal (NVT) character set. Through this interface, the client TELNET translates
characters (data and commands) that come from the local terminal into NVT form
and delivers them to the network. The server TELNET, on the other hand, translates
data and the commands from NVT form into the form acceptable by the remote
computer.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the standard mechanism provided by TCP/IP for
copying a file from one host to another. Transferring files from one computer to
another is one of the most common tasks expected from networking or
internetworking environment. These problems can be solved by FTP: two systems
may use different file name conventions. Again two systems may have different ways
to represent text and data. Two systems may have different directory structure. All
the above problems are solved by FTP in a very simple and elegant approach.
The actual mail transfer is done through mail transfer agents( MTAs). To send a
mail, a system must have a client MTA, and to receive a mail, a system must have a
server MTA. Although Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) does not define a
specific MTA, send mail is commonly used by the UNIX system MTA.
The post office protocol (POP) is used for retrieving a message. POP3 version is
very popular to download messages from server.
The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a framework for managing
devices in an Internet using TCP/IP protocol suite. It provides a set of fundamentals
operations for monitoring and maintaining the Internet.
The Hypertext Transfer protocol (HTTP) is a protocol used mainly to access data
on the World Wide Web. The protocol transfers data in the form of plain text,
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Introduction to ICT and hypertext, audio, video, and so on. It functions like a combination of FTP and SMTP.
Cyberspace
It is similar to FTP because it transfers files and uses the services of TCP.
The World Wide Web (WWW) is a repository of information spread all over the
world and linked together. It has a unique combination of flexibility, portability, and
user-friendly features that distinguish it from other services provided by the Internet.
It is a subset of the Internet. It must be clear that the term Internet and World Wide
Web are not similar.
Please answer the following Self Assessment Question.
3.8 SUMMARY
• A network is a set of device (often referred to as nodes) connected by media
links.
• Three types of networks are LAN, MAN and WAN.
• The Internet is the bigger version of WAN.
• Network topology is the way in which network is laid out either physically or
logically. 39
Introduction to ICT and • Some important topologies are bus, star, ring, tree and mesh.
Cyberspace
• TCP/IP and OSI are two basic reference models.
• OSI has seven layers where as TCP/IP has four layers.
• TCP/IP is the main protocol suite on which the Internet is based.
• TELNET is a general purpose client-server application program.
• Through TELNET both local login and remote login are possible.
• To control the naming system worldwide, previously domain name system
(DNS) was invented. It is primarily used for mapping host names and e-mail
destinations to IP addresses.
• ICANN is a non-profit private organization that controls the domain name
system in the Internet.
3.9 TERMINALQUESTIONS
1) What is the basic difference between OSI and TCP/IP models?
2) Write about TELNET and FTP.
3) What are the advantages of LAN?
4) Discuss various Network Topologies.
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