What Is Networking?
Networking is the exchange of information and ideas among people with a common profession or special interest, usually in an informal social setting. Networking often begins with a single point of common ground.
Types Of network:
1)LAN (Local Area Network)
2)WAN (Wide area Network)
3)MAN (Metropolitan Area Network)
4)PAN (Personal Area Network)
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LAN: A local area network (LAN) is a collection of
devices connected together in one physical location, such as a building,
office, or home. A LAN can be small or large, ranging from a home network with
one user to an enterprise network with thousands of users and devices in an
office or school. A LAN comprises cables, access points, switches, routers, and
other components that enable devices to connect to internal servers, web
servers, and other LANs via wide area networks. The rise of virtualization has
also fueled the development of virtual LANs, which enable network
administrators to logically group network nodes and partition their networks
without a need for major infrastructure changes.
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WAN: wide area networks are a form of
telecommunication networks that can connect devices from multiple locations and
across the globe. WANs are the largest and most expansive forms of computer
networks available to date. These networks are often established by service providers
that then lease their WAN to businesses, schools, governments or the public.
These customers can use the network to relay and store data or communicate with
other users, no matter their location, as long as they have access to the
established WAN. Access can be granted via different links, such as virtual
private networks (VPNs) or lines, wireless networks, cellular networks or
internet access.
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MAN: A metropolitan area network (MAN)
is similar to a local area network (LAN) but spans an entire city or campus, or
some other municipal or organizational territory. MANs are formed by connecting
multiple LANs. Thus, MANs are larger than LANs, but smaller than wide area
networks (WAN) that cover dispersed geographical areas, sometimes directly
connecting users around the world.
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PAN: PAN is a network that
enables people who sit at their comfortable premises to connect and interact
with each other. It is the networking that plays a key role in a link and
starts communications between hundreds and thousands.PAN is an abbreviation for
the Personal Area Network. PAN refers to a network that links devices within a
range of 10 meters.The connection is possible with wired or wireless
connections. The Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) is a small geographical
network that responds to the needs of the individual user.One or a few other
computers, devices, telephones, video game consoles, or other electronic
devices are included in a PAN network.
Network Topology:
1)Star
2)Bus
3)Ring
4)Hybrid
5)Mesh
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Star Topology: The main premise of a star topology is that devices are
individually connected via a central networking device such as a switch or hub.
This topology is the most commonly found today because of its reliability and
scalability - despite the cost.Any information sent to a device in this
topology is sent via the central device to which it connects. Let's
explore some of these advantages and disadvantages of this topology
below:Because more cabling & the purchase of dedicated networking equipment
is required for this topology, it is more expensive than any of the other
topologies. However, despite the added cost, this does provide some significant
advantages. For example, this topology is much more scalable in nature, which
means that it is very easy to add more devices as the demand for the network
increases.
Unfortunately, the more the network scales, the more
maintenance is required to keep the network functional. This increased
dependence on maintenance can also make troubleshooting faults much harder.
Furthermore, the star topology is still prone to failure - albeit reduced. For
example, if the centralised hardware that connects devices fails, these devices
will no longer be able to send or receive data. Thankfully, these centralised
hardware devices are often robust.
- Bus Topology: This type of connection relies upon a single connection which is known as a backbone cable. This type of topology is similar to the leaf off of a tree in the sense that devices (leaves) stem from where the branches are on this cable.Because all data destined for each device travels along the same cable, it is very quickly prone to becoming slow and bottlenecked if devices within the topology are simultaneously requesting data. This bottleneck also results in very difficult troubleshooting because it quickly becomes difficult to identify which device is experiencing issues with data all travelling along the same route.
However, with this
said, bus topologies are one of the easier and more cost-efficient topologies
to set up because of their expenses, such as cabling or dedicated networking
equipment used to connect these devices.
Lastly, another
disadvantage of the bus topology is that there is little redundancy in place in
case of failures. This disadvantage is because there is a single point of
failure along the backbone cable. If this cable were to break, devices can no
longer receive or transmit data along the bus.
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Ring Topology: The
ring topology (also known as token topology) boasts some similarities. Devices
such as computers are connected directly to each other to form a loop, meaning
that there is little cabling required and less dependence on dedicated hardware
such as within a star topology.
A ring topology works by sending data across the
loop until it reaches the destined device, using other devices along the loop
to forward the data. Interestingly, a device will only send received data from
another device in this topology if it does not have any to send itself. If the
device happens to have data to send, it will send its own data first before sending
data from another device.Because there is only one direction for data to travel
across this topology, it is fairly easy to troubleshoot any faults that arise.
However, this is a double-edged sword because it isn't an efficient way of data
travelling across a network, as it may have to visit many multiple devices
first before reaching the intended device.
Lastly, ring topologies are less prone to
bottlenecks, such as within a bus topology, as large amounts of traffic are not
travelling across the network at any one time. The design of this topology
does, however, mean that a fault such as cut cable, or broken device will
result in the entire networking breaking.
- Hybrid Topology: A hybrid topology is a type of network topology that uses two or more differing network topologies. These topologies can include a mix of bus topology, mesh topology, ring topology, star topology, and tree topology.he choice to use a hybrid topology over a standard topology depends on the needs of a business, school, or the users. The number of computers, their location, and desired network performance are all factors in the decision.
i) Star-Ring hybrid topology:
A star-ring hybrid topology is a combination of the star topology and
ring topology. Two or more star topologies are connected together through a
ring topology.
ii) Star-Bus hybrid topology
A star-bus hybrid topology is a
combination of the star topology and bus topology. Two or more star topologies
are connected together through a bus topology.
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Mesh Topology: A mesh
topology is a network setup where each computer and network device is
interconnected with one another. This topology setup allows for most
transmissions to be distributed even if one of the connections goes down. It is
a topology commonly used for wireless
networks. Below is a visual example of a simple computer setup on a
network using a mesh topology.
i)Full Mesh
ii)Partially Connected Mesh
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