Computer Networks

Lecture # 2

Course Title: Computer Networks

Instructor: Tahira Malik (Lecturer)
Email Address: tahira@uosahiwal.edu.pk
Department of Computer Science
Term (Semester): Spring 2020

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 Objectives
• To describe the concept of Computer Networks
• To discuss the detailed knowledge of computer networks and
why we need it
• To elaborate the motivation towards Networking
• To discuss the components of Computer Networks

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 Reference Books:

• “Networking, A Beginner's Guide”, 5th Ed, by Bruce A.

Hallberg
• “Head First Networking”, by Al Anderson & Ryan Benedetti
• “Computer Communication and Networks”6th Ed, by Behroz
Frozen

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 Recap
• Data Communication:
• Data Communication is the exchange of information from one
entity to the other using a transmission medium”.

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 Introduction
• Computer Network:
• “An interconnected collection of autonomous computers that
are capable of exchanging information”
• Two computers are said to be interconnected if they are able
to exchange information
• The most elementary network consists of two computers
communicating over a cable
• The old model of a single computer serving all of the
organization’s computational needs has now been replaced by
one in which a large number of separate but interconnected
computers do the job. These systems are called computer
networks
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 Introduction (Cont…)
• Networking
• A group of computers and other devices connected together
is called a network and the concept of connected computers
sharing resources is called networking
• Networks come in many sizes, shapes and forms
• The range of a network is from systems connecting a few PCs
to worldwide networks with thousands of machines and over
a million users

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 Introduction (Cont….)
• What computers can do in a network:

• Computers can communicate with each other in a network

• They can send and receive data from each other when they
are in a network

• So, its all about sharing resources

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 Introduction (Cont…)
• Understand What Really Is a Computer Network?

• You might have seen many networks in your daily life

• Set of serial lines to attach terminals to mainframe?
• Telephone network carrying voice traffic?
• Cable network to disseminate video signals?

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 Uses of computer networks
• Email
• World Wide Web,
• Video Conferencing
• File Transfer
• Collaborative Virtual Environments
• Remote control of robots and machines
• Webcasting
• Distributed Programs and Applications
• Hacking
• Banking
• Internet telephone

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 Why Do We Need Computer
Networks

We need computer networks for

• Sharing of resources
• Sharing of data
• Sharing of ideas

• So, a computer network

• Eliminates the geographical constraints, improve

communications and more than one person can work on a
single job
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 Motivation Towards Networking
• One of the reasons of motivation towards networking was
resource sharing

• Resource sharing means to share the resources available

among many users
• In an office as it is very expensive to give a separate printer to
each worker
• If the printer is shared among the workers then a single
printer will be accessible to each worker

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 Motivation Towards Networking
• The goal of resource sharing is to make all programs,
equipment and data available to anyone in the network
without regard to physical location of the resource and the
user
• The main reason for early resource sharing was not to share
the peripheral devices rather to share the large-scale
computational power because computer were extremely
expensive in those days and the government budgets were not
sufficient to provide computers for all scientist and engineers
• By resource sharing a researcher could use whichever
computer was best suited to perform a given task

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Components of Computer Network

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Components of Computer Network(Cont…)

• Hub
• A Hub is a hardware device that divides the network connection
among multiple devices. When computer requests for some
information from a network, it first sends the request to
the Hub through cable. Hub will broadcast this request to the
entire network.
• Router:
•  router is a hardware device which is used to connect a LAN with
an internet connection. It is used to receive, analyze and forward
the incoming packets to another network.
• A router works in a Layer 3 (Network layer) of the OSI Reference
model.

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Components of Computer Network(Cont…)

• A router forwards the packet based on the information

available in the routing table.
• It determines the best path from the available paths for the
transmission of the packet.
• Switch - Switch is a telecommunication device grouped as one
of computer network components. Switch is like a Hub but
built in with advanced features. It uses physical device
addresses in each incoming messages so that it can deliver
the message to the right destination or port.

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Components of Computer Network(Cont…)

• Unlike a hub, switch doesn't broadcast the received message

to entire network, rather before sending it checks to which
system or port should the message be sent. In other words,
switch connects the source and destination directly which
increases the speed of the network. Both switch and hub have
common features: Multiple RJ-45 ports, power supply and
connection lights.

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Components of Computer Network(Cont…)

• A file server is a central server in a computer network that

provides file systems or at least parts of a file system to
connected clients. File servers therefore offer users a central
storage place for files on internal data media, which is
accessible to all authorized clients.
• Clients - Clients are computers that access and use the
network and shared network resources. Client computers are
basically the customers(users) of the network, as they request
and receive services from the servers. These days, it is typical
for a client to be a personal computer that the users also use
for their own non-network applications.

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Components of Computer Network(Cont…)

• A web server is a computer that runs websites. It's

a computer program that distributes web pages as they are
requisitioned. The basic objective of the web server is to
store, process and deliver web pages to the users. This
intercommunication is done using Hypertext Transfer Protocol
(HTTP).
•  A print server, or printer server, is a type of server that
connects printers to client computers over a network. Print
server functionality may be integrated with other devices
such as a wireless router, a firewall, or both. A printer may
have a built-in print server.

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 Questions
Any Question Please?

You can contact me at: tahira@uosahiwal.edu.pk

Your Query will be answered within one working day.

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Thanks

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