Introduction to

Computer Networks
Basic Types of Networks
 Local Area Networks (LAN)
– Covers relatively small areas – typical a building
– Connect computers (Servers, PCs), printers, etc.
– High speed, 10-200 Mbps
– Usually owned by the organization
 Wide area Networks (WAN)
– Operate over long distances
– Usually owned by a telephone company
– Line speeds are limited by cost and bandwidth
 Network Hardware

Repeater
Bridge
Switch
Router

Network Interface
Card
 Network Topology
Tree
Linear Bus

Star/
(Ring
)
 7-layer Network Concept
(ISO/OSI)
Layer Name Function

7 Application Meaning of data

6 Presentation Building blocks of data and encryption

5 Session Opening and closing of specific communication

paths
4 Transport Directs packets to the correct user on a computer
(end-to-end communication). Error correction.
3 Network Determination of data paths within the network

2 Data Link Data transmission, source, destination, and

checksum.
Provides network services.
1 Physical Voltage levels, signal connections, wire, or fiber
Network Cabling (OSI
Layer 1)
Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
Cable
Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)
Coaxial Cable
Cable

Fibre Optic Cable

Wireless – radio
signals
Network Protocol (OSI
Layer 2)
 A set of rules for communication

– access method
– allowed physical topologies
– types of cabling
– speed of data transfer
 Ethernet - access method: CSMA/CD
– Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection
 LocalTalk, developed for Apple computers
 Token Ring, developed by IBM
 Fibre Distributed Data Interface (FDDI)
 Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
 Protocol Comparison
Protocol Cable Speed Topology
Twisted Pair, Coaxial, Linear Bus, Star,
Ethernet 10 Mbps
Fibre Tree
Fast
Twisted Pair, Fibre 100 Mbps Star
Ethernet

LocalTalk Twisted Pair .23 Mbps Linear Bus or Star

4 Mbps - 16
Token Ring Twisted Pair Star-Wired Ring
Mbps

FDDI Fibre 100 Mbps Dual ring

Linear Bus, Star,

ATM Twisted Pair, Fibre 155-2488 Mbps
Tree
OSI 7-layer Model and
TCP/IP
TCP/IP
Layer Name
HTTP, SMTP, FTP, Telnet, SNMP
7 Application etc.

6 Presentation

5 Session

4 Transport Transmission Control Protocol

(TCP)
3 Network

2 Data Link Internet Protocol (IP)

1 Physical Ethernet, FDDI, X.25, etc.

(Not regulated)
 Network Hardware

Repeater (layer 1)
Bridge (layer 2)
Switch (layer 2)
Router (layer 3)

Network Interface
Card
Internet - Network
Identifiers - IP layer
 Computers on the Internet are hosts
 Each host has at least three identifiers:
– Internet name for humans to use
(i.e. garfield.ncat.edu)
 Hierarchical starting from the right
host.subnet.organization.type
 Rightmost identifies the type or organization or country: edu,
com, mil, org, net or us, dk, de, uk
– Internet address, a 32 bit binary IP number written in
decimal as four bytes (i.e.152.8.240.16)
– Hardware address, such as an Ethernet address
(i.e. 00-e0-63-03-76-c0 for garfield)
Mapping Between
Internet Addresses
 Humans use Internet Names.
 The hardware uses the MAC addresses.
 Conversions
– Internet Names are converted to Internet Addresses by a
Domain Name Server (DNS)
– Internet Addresses are converted to MAC addresses by
using the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP).
Domain Name Servers

 Domain Name Servers (DNS) map Internet

Names to Internet Addresses.
 A DNS maintains a distributed database of names
and addresses.
 Computers can send a request to a DNS to get
the IP address of a computer.
 Hosts and DNS cache addresses they have found.
Internet Port Numbers

 Applications are identified by a 16 bit integer number

known as a port number (do NOT refer to plugs in the
back of the machine).
 The full address of an application is InternetName:port
 Applications bind to a port number to receive data
sent to that port.
 Reserved port numbers for specific “well known”
applications
– 21: ftp, 23: telnet, 80: HTTP web servers,
443: HTTPS secure web servers
Hyper-Text Transfer
Protocol
 Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol is the main request-
response (client-server) protocol used to transfer web
documents.
 HTTP is an application layer protocol using TCP.
 Other high level protocols for the Web include E-mail,
FTP and Telnet.
 HTTP allows a browser to request a specific item,
which the server then returns.
 HTTP Methods
GET Get a file from the server.
HEAD Get information about a file from the server.
POST Send information to the server.
PUT Send a file to be stored on the server.
DELETE Remove a file on the server.
OPTIONS Request the available server options.
TRACE Invoke a loop-back of the request message
E-mail Standards

 X.400 - ISO standard for e-mailing

 Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
– Define how mails are sent between mail servers
– Runs over TCP
– Used between
 Mail transfer program on sender’s computer
 Mail server on recipient’s computer
 Post Office Protocol (POP)
– Protocol for retrieving mails from mail servers