Basic Networking

What is the difference between Multimode and single mode step index fiber ?

2019-01-26T03:02:00.001-08:00

Multimode fiber is normally driven by an LED. The light is somewhat focused but bounces all around off the walls of the fiber. Different parts of the beam will travel different distances, such that what started out as a nice square wave pulse will get all smeared out after some distance and harder to detect. Both the fiber and the transmitters/detectors are cheap.

Single mode fibers are driven by a laser. A laser beam is “coherent”, meaning all parts of the beam are pointing in exactly the same direction. Thus a nice pulse can travel huge distances and still look good, even if the fiber bends. In fact, a single mode fiber has been used to transmit a signal clear across the US without repeaters. This stuff is lots more expensive and is only therefore only used for long hauls.

In addition, single mode fiber can carry multiple beams of different colors at the same time. The technique for doing this is a very inexpensive prism at each end. This is called Wave Length Division Multiplexing (WDM) and a single fiber can be used to carry multiple transmissions at one time. Last time I checked they were up to 128 channels at one time - explaining why long distance calls are basically free now.

What is modem ? Types of modem ? How does modem works?

2019-01-16T21:48:00.000-08:00

What is modem ?

The name modem means modulator demodulator. A modem connects our computer to a standard phone line or to our cable, which allows us to send data or receive data.
A modem is a conversion device that converts signals from one device into signals another device can read.
For example,
a modem may covert the digital data of a computer into an analog signal that can be read and carried by a telephone line. The modulator part of the modem converts digital signals to analog signals, and the demodulator part converts analog signals to digital signals. ?

Your home internet connection medium will be either wireless or wired cables. When a wireless media or wired media transmits data it should be in analog form.

So the data you are transmitting or being transmitted to you is of analog form ie, timebased voltage variations, till it reaches your modem. So a modem converts those transmitted incoming analog signals to machine readable digital signals(digital signals are the signals that computers and electronic devices will accept or will generate) and outgoing digital signals to transmitable analog signals.

For transmission of a signal via a particular medium the signal needs to be modulated so that the frequency or amplitude or phase of the orginal wave can be changed to another amplitude or frequency or phase. The changing of the orginal frequency or amplitude or phase of the analog wave helps in better transmission and less noise while transmitting via the medium.

So a modem does another job too, to modulate orginal wave after converting it to analog form before transmission and to demodulate incoming transmitted wave before converting to digital form.

In short we define modem as follows:-

The name modem means modulator demodulator. A modem connects our computer to a standard phone line or to our cable, which allows us to send data or receive data. A modem is a conversion device that converts signals from one device into signals another device can read. For example, a modem may covert the digital data of a computer into an analog signal that can be read and carried by a telephone line. The modulator part of the modem converts digital signals to analog signals, and the demodulator part converts analog signals to digital signals.

What is wireless modem ?

A wireless modem is a special type of modem that have special functionality to skip the telephone system and connects directly to a wireless network in order to access Internet by multiple devices provided by Internet Service Provider.

Types of modem ?

1.Internal modem:-
A modem that plugs into an expansion slot within the computer. Unlike an external modem, an internal modem does not provide a series of display lights that inform the user of the changing modem states. The user must rely entirely on the communications program.

2.External modem:-
An external modem is a network device that is in a self-contained enclosure external to a computer. This is in contrast to an internal modem that is contained on a printed circuit board with a computer.

What is a firewall ? How firewall works ? Why a firewall is needed?

2019-01-10T22:20:00.001-08:00

Firewalls :-

A firewall is a networking device, either hardware or software based, that

controls access to your organization’s network. This controlled access is
designed to protect data and resources from an outside threat. To do this,
firewalls are typically placed at entry/exit points of a network.

- for example, placing a firewall between an internal network and the Internet. Once there,
it can control access in and out of that point.

- Although firewalls typically protect internal networks from public networks,
they are also used to control access between specific network segments with-
in a network.
- for example, placing a firewall between the Accounts and the
Sales departments.
- As mentioned, firewalls can be implemented through software or through a
dedicated hardware device. Organizations implement software firewalls
through network operating systems (NOS) such as Linux/UNIX, Windows
servers, and Mac OS servers.

https://youtu.be/x1YLj06c3hM

working of firewalls :-

1. Network traffic is comprised of packets — there are typically many of them for any given request like loading a web page. The packets contain information about where they are coming from and where they are going and of course carry information such as the request for a web page or the response. The exact format of the packets depends on the type of software that is trying to communicate, but there are prescribed formats in various protocols.

2. A typical firewall is software that can look at those packets read the protocols and decide if the packet will be allowed to continue to the next step on the path between the “where they are coming from” and “where they are going”.

3. This software could be on your computer system, it could be in your cable modem, it could be in your internet service provider’s systems, it could be on the web services’ network, or the web services’ computer system. More than likely it will be on more than one of those.

4. Different firewall software varies in how it looks at the packets and how you can tell it about packets that you don’t want to traverse. The firewall on your computer for example should look at packets coming to your computer from anywhere and decide if they are following all the rules.
If any rules are being broken then the firewall software can take action including simply not forwarding the packet.

https://youtu.be/KZc1KaE1OKU

Why a Firewalls is needed?

There is no need for a firewall if each and every host of a private network is properly
secured. Unfortunately, in practice the situation is different. A private network may
consist of different platforms with diverse OS and applications running on them. Many of
the applications were designed and developed for an ideal environment, without
considering the possibility of the existence of bad guys. Moreover, most of the corporate
networks are not designed for security. Therefore, it is essential to deploy a firewall to
protect the vulnerable infrastructure of an enterprise.

Access Control Policies :-

Access control policies play an important role in the operation of a firewall. The policies

can be broadly categorized in to the following four types:

Service Control:-
- Determines the types of internet services to be accessed
- Filters traffic based on IP addresses and TCP port numbers
- Provides Proxy servers that receives and interprets service requests before it is
passed on.

Direction Control:-
- Determines the direction in which a particular service request may be initiated and
allowed to flow through the firewall.

User Control:-
- Controls access to a service according to which user is attempting to access it
- Typically applied to the users inside the firewall perimeter
- Can be applied to the external users too by using secure authentication technique

Behavioral Control:-
- Controls how a particular service is used
- For example, a firewall may filter email to eliminate spam
- Firewall may allow only a portion of the information on a local web server to an
external user

firewall capability :-

Important capabilities of a firewall system are listed below:

- It defines a single choke point to keep unauthorized users out of protected

network
- It prohibits potentially vulnerable services from entering or leaving the network
- It provides protection from various kinds of IP spoofing
- It provides a location for monitoring security-related events
- Audits and alarms can be implemented on the firewall systems
- A firewall is a convenient platform for several internet functions that are not
security related
- A firewall can serve as the platform for IPSec using the tunnel mode capability
and can be used to implement VPNs.

Types of firewalls :-

The firewalls can be broadly categorized into the following three types:

• Packet Filters
• Application-level Gateways
• Circuit-level Gateways

1. Application-level Gateway:

Application level gateway, also called a Proxy Server act as a relay of application level traffic. Users contact gateways using an application and the request is successful after authentication. The application gateway is service specific such as FTP, TELNET, SMTP or HTTP.

2.Circuit Level Gateway:

Circuit-level gateway can be a standalone or a specialized system. It does not allow end-to-end TCP connection; the gateway sets up two TCP connections. Once the TCP connections are established, the gateway relays TCP segments from one connection to the other without examining the contents. The security function determines which connections will be allowed and which are to be disallowed.

3. Packet Filters:

Packet filtering router applies a set of rules to each incoming IP packet and then forwards or discards it. Pac ket filter is typically set up as a list of rules based on matches of fields in the IP or TCP header

What is optical fibre ? Classification of optical fibre ? Explain step index and graded Index fibre?

2019-01-01T02:30:00.000-08:00

OPTICAL FIBRE CABLE :-

A thin flexible and transparent wire prepared for light propagation is called optical fibre.

The optical fibre has been constructed for the following reasons:
- The light wave cannot traverse long distance in air without any losses.
- To make loss less light wave communication, the optical waves can be guided through optical fibre.
-The optical fibre can be used for the many of industrial application and medical
applications as well.
-The optical fibre consists of two media kept one inside the other.
- The centre transparent medium of optical fibre is called “core” and the outer is cladding.

Classification :-
In the optical fibres the materials used, refractive index and mode of propagation of light are used for classification as follows:
Material Based optical fibres-
The material based classification results to the following types:
1. Plastic made fibres.
2. Glass made fibres.
The plastic made fibres are obtained from polymers of transparent to light, flexibility and
interaction less to light etc,.
For example poly methyl metha acrylate (PMMA), polyethylene (PE), polystyrene (PS) are used as core materials.
Glass made fibre is also fabricated from flexible glass as core with suitable drawing
technique in presence of impurities. Therefore, the above types of optical fibres are limited to some application.
Classification of optical fibres based on refractive index

The types of optical fibre can be classified based on the refractive index are

1. Step index fibres.
2. Graded index fibres.

Step index
If the refractive index of core remains the same from the centre of the core to the core-cladding interface; those optical fibres are known as step index fibres .
The distance room centre of core to interface of fibre vs. refractive index is shown

Graded Index:-

These types are made of varying refractiveindex of core material. Therefore,the refractive index

changes with distance form the centre of fibre to core-cladding interface. The profile of above is as shown in fig.

*Modes of propagation based optical fibre:-

Based on modes of propagation of light through core, the following are the types of optical
fibre identified.
- Single mode fibres
- Multimode fibres

* Single mode fibres

Considering the light as electromagnetic radiation, the possible modes of propagation are
transverse electric (TE) modes and transverse magnetic (TM) modes.
If the core size is adjusted to allow only one mode of light wave
propagation is single mode fibre, whose profile is shown below:

*Multi mode optical fibre
If the core size has been adjusted to allow more than one mode of propagation of light
wave is multimode fibre. The profile of multimode fibres is as shown below:

Combination of optical fibres

The refractive index of core and mode of propagation of light in optical fibre usedto

form combination types of optical fibre.

-Step index-single mode fibres

-Step index-multi mode fibres

-Graded index-Single mode fibres

-Graded index-Multi mode fibres

Application :-
- as fibres are very flexible ,they are used in flexible digital cameras.
- fibres are used in mechanical imaging i.e. for inspection of mechanical welds in pipes and engines of rockets,space shuttle,airp airps.
- it is used in medical imaging such as endoscopes and laparoscopes.
- it is used under sea communication
- used in military appreciation such as aircraft,shi sh, thank etc
- nuclear testing application use optical fibre phase sensor and transducer.
-it is used in LAN system of office, industrial plants and Collegs etc.

https://youtu.be/aqazAcE19vw

* Why is cladding necessary in an optical fibre cable?

Since for a low loss transmission, we need to guide ligh by total reflection not by reflection from a mirror surface. Indeed although we can guide light using a mirror for the outer layer of the core, but it has a huge loss (even with perfect mirrors used in professional telescopes).

On the other hand, light can be reflected by the total reflection property of transparent media without any loss. SO till now we are convinced that we must guide light through total intenal reflection of light. But how can it be done? For total intenal reflection we need two transparent media with different refraction indices. So despite the core which is used for the transmitting the light, we need another transparent medium which has a lower index than the core (to have total internal reflection) and it is the reason of existance of cladding in the fiber.

What is Coaxial cable ? What is application of Coaxial cable? What are advantages of Coaxial cable ?

2018-12-31T19:55:00.000-08:00

COAXIAL CABLE :-

coaxial cable

* Definition of coaxial cable :-

- A coaxial cable is a type of shielded and insulated copper cable that is used in to deliver TV services and computer networkto end users devices .
- Coaxial cable is a type of copper cable specially built with a metal shield and other components engineered to block signal interference.

It was implemented in the early 1940s for commercial purpose .

It is used for both baseband and broadband data communication. services.

LAYER of coaxial cable :-

The ‘centre core’ is what carries the signal. The core can be a single solid wire, or stranded, or in high power/current applications it can be hollow (because of the skin effect means you don’t need to bother with conductor in the middle).

The ‘dielectric insulator’ not only separates the core from the shield, but provides the core with a consistent impedance (mostly capacitance) between core and shield. This in turn governs how high a frequency can be carried, and for what length of a coaxial cable (before being attenuated too much). The higher the dielectric constant of the insulator, the higher the frequency that can be carried by the core, &/or for a longer length.

The ‘metallic shield’ serves multiple purposes: one already mentioned above (known & consistent capacitance between core & shield), as well as preventing signal from escaping from the core conductor (ie. preventing radio broadcasts off the coax cable), and also preventing unwanted external noise or signals from impinging on the signal carried by the core conductor. So the shield works bi-directionally.

Finally the ‘plastic jacket’ protects the overall coaxial cable from its environment. In simple low-end applications this is just a single layer of plastic. But it can range all the way up to multiple layers of both insulating as well as metallic materials, to help make it more robust to water ingress, chemical corrosion, attack by wildlife, and physical strength for when men with axes and backhoe’s accidentally try to break it while digging for something else.

Application of coaxial cable :-

1. Wireless and antenna application(connecting from dish to television through co-axial cable. example: Dish TV,etc.)

2.RF and Microwave transmission

3.Video distribution

4.Cable television and cable internet

Advantages:-

- they are cheap to make

- cheap to install
- easy to modify
- good bandwith
- great channel capacity
- noise immunity due to low error rate

what are types of transmission Media ?, what is characteristic of transmission Media ?, what is Transmission Media ?

2018-12-27T04:37:00.002-08:00

Transmission Media :-

*# What is Transmission Media ?
- The transmission Media can be defined as a pathway that can transmit information from a sender to a receiver. Transmission Media are located below the physical layer and are controlled by the physical layer. Transmission Media are also called communication channels.

*# What are types of transmission Media ?
- transmission Media has divided into following types :-
*Bounded/Guided Media
- twisted pair cable
- Coaxial cable
- Fibre optic cable
*Unbounded/ Unguided Media
- Radio transmission
- Microwave transmission
- Infrared

*# What are characteristic of transmission Media ?
- Segment Length
- Attention/Power loss over distance
- Transmission Rate / Bandwidth
- Cost
- Interference Susceptibility
- Resistance to Environmental Conditions
- Ease of Installation

What is Topology ? What are types of topology ? What is advantages and disadvantages of various Topology ?

2018-12-27T01:57:00.000-08:00

Topology refers to the way in which the network of computers is connected. Each topology is suited to specific tasks and has its own advantages and disadvantages. The choice of topology is dependent upon type and number of equipment being used, planned
applications and rate of data transfer required, response time, and cost. Topology can also be defined as the geometrically interconnection pattern by which the stations (nodes/computers) are connected using suitable transmission media (which can be point-to-point and broadcast).
Various commonly used topologies are as follows:

1.Mesh Topology :-

In this topology each node or station is connected to every other station .

The key characteristics of this topology are as follows:
o Fully connected
o Robust – Highly reliable
o Not flexible
o Poor expandability
In MeshTopology two nodes are connected by dedicated point-point links between them. So the total number of links to connect n nodes = n(n-1)/2; which is proportional to n2 .

Media used :-
for the connection (links) can be twisted pair, co-axial cable or optical fiber.

With this topology there is no need to provide any additional information, that is from where the packet is coming, along with the packet because two nodes have a point-point dedicated link between them. And each node knows which link is connected to which node on the
other end.
Mesh Topology is not flexible and has a
poor expandability as to add a new node n
links have to be laid because that new node
has to be connected to each of the existing
nodes .

Advantages:-
- if any device failed in network not affecting network.
- A fault is diagnosed easily.
- Good in privacy and security.
- it is relatively power.

Disadvantages :-
- it is costlier.
- it is complex.

2.BUS Topology :-

A bus topology is a topology for a Local Area Network in which all the nodes are connected to a single cable. The cable to which the nodes connect is called a "backbone".

* Advantages :-

- easy to connect.

- low cost

- require less cable

- best in small organisation.

*Disadvantages :-

- if backbone cable fail then entire network will shut down.

- difficult to identify failure problem

- can't used in large network.

3. STAR Topology :-

Star topology is a network topology where each individual piece of a network is attached to a central node (often called a hub or switch). The attachment of these network pieces to the central component is visually represented in a form similar to a star. Star topology is also known as a star network.

Advantages :-

- If one node or its connection breaks, it doesn’t affect the other computers nor their connections

- Devices can be added or removed without disturbing the network

- They work well under heavy loading

- It is possible to create very large network.

Disadvantages :-

- An expensive network layout to install because of the number and length of cables needed to wire each host to the central hub

- The central hub is a single point of failure or the network

4. Ring Topolology :-

ln ring topology all devices are connected in a ring and pass information to or from each other according to their adjacent proximity in the ring structure. This type of topology is highly efficient and handles heavier loads better than bus topology.

Advantages :-
-Very orderly network where every device has access to the token and the opportunity to transmit

-Performs better than a bus topology under heavy network load

-Does not require a central node to manage the connectivity between the computers

-Due to the point to point line configuration of devices with a device on either side (each device is connected to its immediate neighbor), it is quite easy to install and reconfigure since adding or removing a device requires moving just two connections.

-Point to point line configuration makes it easy to identify and isolate faults.

-Reconfiguration for line faults of bidirectional rings can be very fast, as switching happens at a high level, and thus the traffic does not require individual rerouting.

Disadvantages :-

-One malfunctioning workstation can create problems for the entire network. This can be solved by using a dual ring or a switch that closes off the break.

-Moving, adding and changing the devices can affect the network

-Communication delay is directly proportional to number of nodes in the network

-Bandwidth is shared on all links between devices

-More difficult to configure than a Star: node adjunction = Ring shutdown and reconfiguration

5. Hybrid Topology :-

Hybrid topology is an interconnection of two or more basic network topologies, each of which contains its own nodes.

The resulting interconnection allows the nodes in a given basic topology to communicate with other nodes in the same basic topology as well as those in other basic topologies within the hybrid topology.

https://youtu.be/lZvILl4rY2o

What is OSI model and how it works?

2018-12-24T10:43:00.000-08:00

The Open Systems Interconnection model(OSI model) is a conceptual model that characterizes and standardizes the communication functions ofa telecommunication or computing system without regard to its underlying internal structure and technology. Its goal is the interoperability of diverse communication systems with standard protocols. The model partitions a communication system into abstraction layer.

The original version of the model defined seven layers.

1. PHYSICAL LAYER :-

The physical layer of the OSI model refers to the actual hardware specifications. The Physical Layer defines characteristics such as timing and voltage. The physical layer defines the hardware specifications used by network adapters and by the network cables (assuming that the connection is not wireless). To put it simply, the physical layer defines what it means to transmit and to receive data.

*Transmission Media:-
- Wired:- coaxial cable, twisted pair cable and fibre optic cable etc.
- Wireless :- bluetooth, wi-fi,wi-max,infra red etc.

- Transmission mode :- simplex, half duplex and full duplex .
- Central device :- Hub

2.The Data Link Layer:-
The data link layer can be sub divided into two other layers:-
- the Media Access Control (MAC) layer and the Logical Link Control (LLC) layer.

The MAC layer basically establishes the computer’s identity on the network, via its MAC address. A MAC address is the address that is assigned to a network adapter at the hardware level. This is the address that is ultimately used when sending and receiving packets.

The LLC layer controls frame synchronization and provides a degree of error checked.

- Functions of Data Link Layer

Framing
Physical Addressing
Flow Control
Error Control
Access Control

- Central device :- Switch, Bridge etc.

*3. Network layer :-

In the seven-layer OSI model of computer networking, the network layer is layer 3. The network layer is responsible for packet forwarding including routing through intermediate routers.

Function :-

The network layer provides the means of transferring variable-length network packetsfrom a source to a destination host via one or more networks. Within the service layering semantics of the OSI network architecture, the network layer responds to service requests from the transport layer and issues service requests to the data link layer.

4.Transport layer :-

The Transport layer is responsible for maintaining flow control. As you are no doubt aware, the Windows operating system allows users to run multiple applications simultaneously. It is therefore possible that multiple applications, and the operating system itself, may need to communicate over the network simultaneously. The Transport Layer takes the data from each application, and integrates it all into a single stream. This layer is also responsible for providing error checking and performing data recovery when necessary. In essence, the Transport Layer is responsible for ensuring that all of the data makes it from the sending host to the receiving host.

5. Session layer :-

In the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, the session layer is the fifth layer, which controls the connections between multiple computers. The session layer tracks the dialogs between computers, which are also called sessions. This layer establishes, controls and ends the sessions between local and remote applications.

6.Presentation layer :-

The presentation layer does some rather complex things, but everything that the presentation layer does can be summed up in one sentence. The presentation layer takes the data that is provided by the application layer, and converts it into a standard format that the other layers can understand. Likewise, this layer converts the inbound data that is received from the session layer into something that the application layer can understand. The reason why this layer is necessary is because applications handle data differently from one another. In order for network communications to function properly, the data needs to be structured in a standard way.

7 . Application layer :-

is the top most layer of OSI Model. Manipulation of data(information) in various ways is done in this layer which enables user or software to get access to the network. Some services provided by this layer includes: E-Mail, transferring files, distributing the results to user, directory services, network resources, etc.

The Application Layer contains a variety of protocols that are commonly needed by users. One widely-used application protocol is HTTP(HyperText Transfer Protocol), which is the basis for the World Wide Web. When a browser wants a web page, it sends the name of the page it wants to the server using HTTP. The server then sends the page back.

Other Application protocols that are used are: File Transfer Protocol(FTP), Trivial File Transfer Protocol(TFTP), Simple Mail Transfer Protocol(SMTP), TELNET, Domain Name System(DNS) etc.

What is metropolitan area network?

2018-12-24T03:34:00.002-08:00

3.Metropolitan area network :-
A metropolitan area network (MAN) is a computer network that interconnects users with computer resources in a geographic area or region larger than that covered by even a large local area network (LAN) but smaller than the area covered by a wide area network(WAN). The term MAN is applied to the interconnection of networks in a city into a single larger network which may then also offer efficient connection to a wide area network. The term is also used to describe the interconnection of several local area networks in a metropolitan area through the use of point-to-point connections between them.^[1]^[2]It has a range of 5 to 50 kilometers.

MAN

What are network types ? What is LAN ? What is WAN ?

2018-12-24T03:10:00.000-08:00

* Types of network :-

1. LAN - Local Area Network
A LAN connects network devices over a relatively short distance. A networked office building, school, or home usually contains a LAN, though sometimes one building will contain a few small LANs (perhaps one per room), and occasionally a LAN will span a group of nearby buildings. In TCP/IP networking, a LAN is often but not always implemented as a single IP subnet.
In addition to operating in a limited space, LANs are also typically owned, controlled, and managed by a single person or organization. They also tend to use certain connectivity technologies, primarily Ethernet and Token Ring.

LAN

2.WIDE AREA NETWORK :-
A wide area network (WAN) is a network that exists over a large-scale geographical area. A WAN connects different smaller networks, including local area networks (LANs) and metro area networks (MANs). This ensures that computers and users in one location can communicate with computers and users in other locations. WAN implementation can be done either with the help of the public transmission system or a private network.

WAN

Networking definition and advantages

2018-12-23T09:52:00.002-08:00

* what is network?
- network, in computing, is a group of two or more devices that can communicate. In practice, a network is comprised of a number of different computer systems connected by physical and/or wireless connections.

*What is networking ?

_Networking, also known as computer networking, is the practice of transporting and exchanging data between nodes(pc or laptops etc.) over a shared medium in an information system.

Advantages :-

- connectivity and communication

- Data sharing

- Hardware sharing

- Internet access

- Internet access sharing

- Data security and management

- performance enhancement and balancing

- entertainment