GD GOENKA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

NOIDA EXTENSION
CLASS 12
COMPUTER SCIENCE
CHAPTER 8. COMPUTER NETWORKS- I

Network: A computer network is a collection of interconnected autonomous

computing devices so as to exchange information or share resources.
Benefits of Network:
• Resource Sharing: Now a days, computer networks are used in schools
and offices to share various resources like printer, scanner etc. in order
to minimize expenses of an organization.
• Effective communication: Communication has become very effective and
fast with the help of network.
• Less expenses: Because of sharing of resources, communication
expenses have decreased on a faster rate.
• Reliability: With the use of computer, calculations and communications
become much reliable.
• Central Storage of data: Organizations are storing their data centrally so
that it can be available to all concerned people keeping integrity of data.
Banking is good example of this.

Components of a Computer network:

• Hosts or Nodes: A computer becomes a node or a host or a workstation
as soon as it is attached to a network and shares the resources of the
network.
• Servers: A computer that facilitates the sharing of data, software and
hardware resources on the network. Dedicated and non- dedicated
servers are the two types of servers.
• Clients: A computer that requests for some services from a server. In
other words, a server computer serves the requests of client computers.
• Network hardware: Hardware are of different types:
o NIC (Network Interface Card): It is attached to the host to
establish network connections.
o Hub, switch, router: Used to connect nodes with network.
• Communication channel: Hosts in a network interact with other hosts
and servers through a communication channel or communication
medium. It can either be wired or wireless.
• Software: The software layers of a network make networking possible.
These comprise of network protocols, network operating system etc.
 A protocol is a set of rules. A network operating system is a specialized
operating system that can handle networking tasks.
• Network Services: They provide different functionalities over a network,
such as DNS (Domain Number System), File sharing, VoIP (Voice Over
Internet Protocol)
Types of Networks:
• Based on network span or geographical spread, networks can be divided
into:
a. LAN (Local Area Network): Small computers that are confined
to a localized area- up to 1 km. Example: an office, a building.
Characteristics of LAN:
They can extend up to 1 km.
1. Data transfer rates are high in LANs (10 Mbps to 1 Gbps)
2. LAN often connect hosts through wires like Ethernet cables, fiber
optics or through Wi-Fi.
3. LAN are secured networks as there are no outside connections and
have superfast speed as they cover a small area geographically.
b. WAN (Wide Area Network): It is a wide telecommunication
network which spreads over a very huge geographical area. It
can be throughout a country or world.
The largest WAN in existence is the Internet.
c. PAN (Personal Area Network): PANs are small networks which
can be established to set communication between computer
and hand handed devices. Its maximum distance capacity is 10
meters. Example: Bluetooth, hotspot etc. PANs are used to
transfer files, e- mails etc. in computers, mobiles and tablets
etc.
d. MAN (Metropolitan Area Network): It is a computer network
which spreads over a city like area. MAN is basically collection
of small LANs.
• Based on the role played by network computers in the network
operation are:
a. Peer- to- peer networks: In peer- to- peer network, each
computer is equal and plays the role of a client or a server. The
computers that serve as servers in this network are termed as
non- dedicated servers.
They are popular as home networks and for use in small
companies as they are inexpensive and easy to install, but they
are limited in scope and are difficult to secure.
This network has up to 10 computers.
b. Client/ Server networks: Also known as master- slave network.
In this, a computer is reserved for the server’s job and its only
job is to help workstations access data, software and hardware
resources. A client computer is a computer or other device on
 the network that requests and utilizes network resources. A
server is a computer on network, dedicated to process client
requests.
A dedicated server operates solely as a server on a network
while a non- dedicated server can shuttle between the client as
well as server roles.
Internet:
• Internet is the latest technique of information broadcasting. It is basically
a collection of computer networks throughout the world. Thousands of
computers are connected to each other in this network. Generally,
computers are connected via telephone lines. Other options are also
there for connection by which a computer can get connected to internet.
• Internet is not subject to any company or government but it has several
servers which are related to various organizations or private companies.
We can say that Internet is a medium for world wide communication. It
is an easy and feasible medium to analysis any product at an
international level. It is an effective medium to publish various
information like report, article etc.
• It is world’s biggest WAN.
• First network was ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency
Network).
• After ARPANET, NSFnet created a new, high- capacity network, which was
more capable than ARPANET.
How does Internet work?
In Internet, computers are connected to smaller networks, which in turn
are connected through gateways to the Internet backbone.
A backbone is central interconnecting structure that connects one or more
networks just like the trunk of a tree or the spine of a human being.
Internet functions:
• At the source computer, the message or the document to be sent or
another computer is firstly divided into very small parts called Packets. A
packet generally contains some information.
• Each packet is given a number serial wise like 1, 2, 3, ……
• All these packets are then sent to the address of destination computer.
• The destination computer receives the packets in random manner. (It
may even receive packet 10 before packet 1 arrives). If a packet is
garbled or lost, it is demanded again.
• The packets are reassembled in the order of their number and the
original message or document is obtained.
• The reason that the Internet works at all is that every computer
connected to it uses the same set of rules for communication and these
sets of rules are called protocols.
 • The communication protocol used by the Internet is TCP/ IP.
o The TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) part is responsible for
dividing the file into packets on the source computer. It is
responsible for reassembling the received packets at the
destination or recipient computer.
o The IP (Internet Protocol) part is responsible for handling the
address of destination computer so that each packet is sent to its
proper destination.
• The future of Internet is said to be in Interspace.
Intranet: Intranet is a private network of computers which works on Internet
protocols for working. Any organization can use intranet for secure
transmission of information amongst its employees. Internet is a network
between various organizations where intranet is a network of one organization
only.
Interspace: Interspace is a client/ server software program that allows multiple
users to communicate online with real- time audio, video and text chat in
dynamic 3D environments.
Switching Techniques: The technique by which nodes of a network transmit
data to other nodes is known as switching technique. Three switching
techniques are:
• Circuit Switching: In this, first a complete physical connection between
the source and destination computers is established and then data are
transmitted from the source computer to the destination computer.
• Message Switching: In this, the source computer sends data to the
switching office first, which stores the data in its buffer, it then looks for a
free link to another switching office and then sends the data to this
office and this process is continued until the data are delivered to the
destination computers. It is also known as store and forward.
• Packet Switching: Packet switching places a tight upper limit on block
size. In message switching, the data packets are stored on the disk but in
packet switching, the data packets are stored in main memory.
Data communication Terminologies:
• Data Channel: It is the medium used to carry information or data from
one point it another.
• Baud: It is the unit of measurement for the information carrying capacity
of a communication channel. It is very similar to bps (bits per second),
another unit of measuring data transfer rates.
• Bits per second (bps): It refers to the speed at which data transfer is
measured.
Bytes per second are denoted as Bps.
Thousand bits per second is kbps and thousand bytes per second
is Kbps.
Million bits per second is mbps and thousand bytes per second is
Mbps.
 Bandwidth refers to the difference between the highest and
lowest frequencies of a transmission channel. High bandwidth channels are
called broadband channels and low bandwidth channels are called narrowband
channels.
Transmission media: Communication media is categorized in two categories:
• Guided Media (Twisted Pair Cable, Coaxial Cable, Optical Fibers)
• Unguided Media (waves, air, vacuum, water)

• Guided Media:
• Unguided Media:
Other unguided media:

Laser: It is unidirectional like microwave but has much higher speed than
microwaves. The laser transmission requires the use of a laser transmitter and
a photo- sensitive receiver at each end. It is point- to- point transmission,
between buildings. But lasers have a certain disadvantage: it can be adversely
affected by weather.
Bluetooth: Bluetooth is a wireless short- range (up to 30 feet or 10 m). It works
by using low- power radio- waves to connect with Bluetooth enabled devices
such as cell phones, smartphones or computer etc.
Network Topologies: The pattern of interconnection of nodes in a network is
called the Topology.
The selection of a topology for a network can be done on the basis of the
following factors:
• Cost
• Flexibility
• Reliability
Types of Topologies:

Advantages of Star Topology:

• Ease of service
• One device per connection’
• Centralized control/ problem diagnosis
• Simple access protocols
Disadvantages of Star Topology:
• Long cable length
• Difficult to expand
• Central node dependency
Advantages of Bus (Linear) Topology:
• Short cable length and simple wiring layout
• Resilient architecture
• Easy to extend
Disadvantages of Bus (Linear) Topology:
• Fault diagnosis is difficult
• Fault isolation is difficult
• Repeater configuration
• Nodes must be intelligent
Advantages of Tree Topology:
• It uses point- to- point wiring for individual segments.
• It is supported by several hardware and software vendors.
• It is flexible and scalable.
Disadvantages of Tree Topology:
• Overall length of each segment is limited by the type of cabling used.
• If the backbone line breaks, the entire segment goes down.
• It is more difficult to configure and wire than other topologies.
Ring Topology: In this, each node is connected to two and only two
neighboring nodes. Thus, data travels in one direction only, from node to node
around the ring. After passing through each node, it returns to the sending
node, which removes it.
Mesh Topology: In this, each node is connected to more than one node to
provide an alternative route in the case the host is either down or too busy. It is
an extension to P- P network.
Fully Connected: In this, there is a direct link between each host.
Identifying Nodes on a Computer Network: Two addresses play an important
role to identify nodes or computers in a computer network:
• IP Address: The IP address is used by TCP/ IP to reach to the destination
network. It is also a unique address for host. It is a logical address which
may change. There are two versions of IP addresses: IPv4 and IPv5
o IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4): It is a 4- byte (32 bit) address,
written in the form of dotted decimal notation.
o IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6): It is a 16- byte (128 bit) address
written in the form of 8 groups of hexadecimal numbers,
separated with a colon.

• MAC (Media Access Control) Address:

o A Media Access Control (MAC) address is a 48- bit address, used to
establish communication between two hosts in an Ethernet
network.
o It is a hardware address which gets fixed for individual Network
Interface Card (NIC) and cannot be changed later.
o A MAC address should always be unique. It is also known as
physical address.
 o MAC address is a 6- digit hexadecimal number.
Example: 10: B5: 03: 63: 2E: FC
In this MAC address, the first three bytes (24 bits) (10: B5: 03) are the
manufacturer- id or the Organizational Unique Identifier (OUI) assigned to the
manufacturer by an international organization namely IEEE and the last three
bytes (24 bits) (63: 2E: FC) are the card- number assigned by manufacturer.