Computer Network is something that we all depend on Mobile, laptops, desktops, and the Internet so much. It seems that we cannot live without the Internet. If anybody has a mobile or Laptop worth rupees thousand, but if they do not have internet access or data access then these devices are useless. If you don’t know the way to some destination you can simply use Google Maps with more accuracy and much more information like traffic and all. If you can send some data, information, photos, or anything you can send it immediately or within a second
It would not be wrong if we say the network or Internet is the lifeline of today’s world.
But how it works? How does the Internet work? How do we access our data over the internet with a click? There are multiple Question comes to our mind, some answer we know or get, but some do not. In this blog, we will try to understand this process end to end. I will cover this in multiple parts because our motive is not just sharing the information, it should be understandable as well which cannot be possible in a single Blog. so please read other blogs related to the Series on this Topic.
What is a Computer Network?
First of all, we need to understand what is a computer network and how it works. Let’s understand the same with some of the below examples.
Example-1:
Suppose you have a small team of 5 people. All team members have their laptops. They are working on some requirement or project and need to take a printout and save that document in a common or shared folder.
So, the question is how do you take printouts and upload that document in that shared folder?
To take printouts or access a common folder, the below requirements should be met:
- The laptop should be connected to the laptop physically via some cable/wired or wireless.
- Both laptop and printer should be accessible to each other.
To meet the above requirement, we need to prepare the below setup:
- Need to connect laptop and Printer with LAN cable on their RJ45 LAN port physically. But only connectivity will not work.
- After that we need to provide IP Addresses to both laptops and Printers with the same Subnet.
- Laptop and printer should be pingable to each other.
Now you can give print command and take print out.
Example-2:
In the above example, only one user can take a printout at a time and he needs to connect his laptop, but what if all users need to use the printer and Shared folder at the same time without waiting?
To meet the above requirement, we need to prepare the below setup:
- Need to connect laptops, Printers, and Shared folder servers with LAN cable on their RJ45 LAN port physically over a Hub or Switch.
- After that we need to provide IP address to Laptops, Printers, and servers with the same Subnet.
- Laptop, printer, and server should be pingable to each other.
Now all users can ping and use printers and shared files at a time.
Let’s understand the Computer network based on the above example output
When we connect multiple devices or computers or a group of interconnected nodes or computing devices to exchange data and resources with each other on a media like LAN cable, Wireless, or locally, is called a Computer network. Below is the minimum requirement to make a computer Network.
- End-user Devices: Laptop, Desktop, Mobile
- Network Devices: Printer, Server, Switches, Hub
- Media: Lan Cable, Cat6, Fiber, Wi-Fi adaptor
- Communication Protocol: TCP/IP (IP Address), DNS, 802.11
Benefits of Computer Networks
Below are some advantages of a computing network:
- Resource sharing: The primary use of a network is to share the resources among the nodes.
- Improved communication: A computer network enables fast, reliable, and secure communication between users.
- Reduce communication cost: Sharing resources also can reduce communication costs as we can send a large quantity of data at a low cost using Mobile technologies.
- Reliability of Data: By this all nodes/users will have a copy or backup of all the critical data like Cloud services.
- Central Storage of Data: Files or data can be stored on a central node/server which can be shared and available to all the users which helps in reducing duplicacy of data and efforts.
Computer Network topologies
There are different topologies in Computer network to connect your network devices as customer / your requirements. Followings are those topologies with their advantages and disadvantages:
- Bus Topology
- Star Topology
- Tree Topology
- Ring Topology
- Mesh Topology
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Star Topology:
in this topology, each communication device is connected to a central controller called a Hub or Switch.
Advantages:
- Easy installation and maintenance of the network
- Fault diagnosis and troubleshooting is easier as all the nodes are interdependent.
- As the nodes are not connected, any issue in one node will not affect other communication.
Dis-Advantages:
- More or individual cabling is required to connect with central devices.
- Central Controller / Switch will be Single Points of Failure and if this controller goes down, then whole network will fail/down.
- If one node needs to communicate with other nodes, then traffic goes to central devices and then central controller will deliver the traffic to destination node. It will increase load on central devices.
-
Ring Topology
In this topology, each node is connected with two other nodes on either side in a circular manner forming Ring topology.
Advantages:
- Ring topology provides physical level redundancy if any node/device goes down then traffic will start traveling from the other side using redundant parts.
- Adding or removing nodes is an easy process as it requires changes in two connections only.
- It requires less cable.
- Expansion of network, maintenance, and troubleshooting is easier.
Dis-Advantages:
- In this topology hope count can be more for some destinations.
- Transmission speed becomes slower with an increased no. of nodes.
- It can cause a traffic loop due to all nodes having more than two paths so it requires a high level of understanding and configuration of loops avoiding technology/protocol like STP (Spanning Tree Protocol).
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Mesh Topology
In this topology, each node is connected with all other nodes physically to create fully-connected or mesh topology.
Advantages:
- It is robust.
- It has redundant part.
- Traffic speed is fast.
Dis-Advantages:
- It consumes more ports.
- It requires more caballing.
- Set up is costly.
- Maintenance and handling of caballing is high and difficult.
- It can create a traffic loop.
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Bus Topology
Here, all nodes are connected linearly.
Advantages:
- It is suitable for small networks
- Low implementation cost.
- Extension of the network is easy.
Dis-Advantages:
- Each node depends upon its neighbor node’s availability.
- If any node goes down or has a cable issue, the whole network will be down.
- There is no redundancy in the network.
- Devices are not connected to any central controller.
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Tree Topology:
In this topology, all or some of the devices are connected to secondary central controller which are further connected to a backbone or a primary central controller.
Advantages:
- It is suitable for connecting multiple networks.
- Extension of the network is easier.
- Failing of one network does not affect the rest of the network.
Dis-Advantages:
- Maintenance is difficult.
- Primary central controller is the single point of failure.
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