assignment on network

Network Design and Best Practices

Last Updated: July 18, 2024

With networks at the heart of the most modern business, network design can have a major impact on business outcomes. Finding the right balance of network performance, security, redundancy, and cost require a unique mix of project management and technical skill.

To help you nail your next network design project, we’ll take a deep dive on the topic, provide a basic framework you can follow, and look at some best practices to keep in mind as you go.

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What is network design?

Network design is the practice of planning and designing a communications network.

That process starts with identifying business and technical requirements and continues until just before the network implementation stage (when you actually do the work to deploy and configure what was designed). Network analysis, IP addressing, hardware selection, and implementation planning are all part of network design.

In simple networks, like those found in most homes and small offices, network design is a straightforward process. In large enterprise networks, the network design process is often very complex and involves multiple stakeholders.

Understanding PPDIOO & other network lifecycle models

Before we dive into how to design a network, let’s take a moment to review network lifecycle models. In the context of network design, a network lifecycle model helps explain where and how network design fits into the broader lifespan of your network’s components and overall structure.

One of the most popular network lifecycle models is Cisco’s PPDIOO (Prepare, Plan, Design, Implement, Operate and Optimize) model:

• Prepare. This is where you define high-level requirements and strategy. For example, your deliverables from this phase may include requirements documentation and current state surveys.
• Plan. This stage deals with specific network requirements based on information gathered in the planning stages.
• Design. During the design stage, the information gathered from the previous two stages is used to create a detailed network design .
• Implement. This is where the work gets done to configure and deploy the network infrastructure. There is often testing to validate the design in this phase.
• Operate. This is the portion of the lifecycle where the network is in production use. During this stage, monitoring is an important part of validating that the network is working as designed and being able to quickly address issues when it isn’t.
• Optimize. At some point in most networks’ lifecycle, tweaks and optimizations are needed. This is the stage where those changes are identified. For major changes, the cycle begins again to plan and implement them.

Other network lifecycle models include Cisco’s PBM (plan, build, manage) and the NDLC (network development life cycle). Regardless of which model you choose, the general steps—information gathering, design, implementation, and improvement—and cyclical nature are the same. The important takeaway is understanding any network lifecycle and where network design fits in.

Designing a network step by step

Now that we understand the basics of a network lifecycle model, let’s take a step-by-step look at the process of designing a network infrastructure. While the specifics of your network design will vary based on size and complexity, this general framework can help you make the right decisions.

1. Identify the requirements

Before you begin any network design project, begin by gathering information and developing clear business and technical requirements. Without clearly defined targets, the rest of the design falls apart.

Business requirements help define what you need to do. That means things like:

• Support a new office
• Improve end-user experience
• Comply with a new regulation
• Improve business continuity

Looking back at the PPDIOO lifecycle model, business requirements align with the prepare stage. This means you should work closely with stakeholders when identifying business requirements.

Once you’ve detailed the business requirements, it’s time to move on to the technical/functional requirements. For example, requirements could include:

• Security requirements
• Specific protocols the project must implement
• RTO/RPO (recovery time objective/recovery point objective) numbers
• Uptime SLAs (service level agreements)

When you create your requirements, don’t overlook constraints . For example, business requirements will have a budget constraint. Technical requirements may have constraints such as the need to continue supporting legacy apps.

2. Assess the current state of the network

Chances are, in most networks you’re not starting with a clean slate. Sometimes that’s a good thing that makes life easier, other times it can complicate a project. For example, if all the structured cabling is already in place, that’s one less thing to worry about. However, if all that’s in place is Cat5 cable and you need Cat6A to support 10GBaseT, the existing cabling now becomes an issue to deal with.

Whatever the state of the network is, it’s important you know early in the design process. You need to assess the network’s current state before you make any specific design recommendations. At the end of this step, you should understand the network layout, performance, data flows, applications & services on the network, network security, and physical and logical layout.

Some of this can be achieved by reviewing existing network diagrams, policies, and monitoring tools. In other cases, you’ll need to use automatic network mapping tools and security scanners to get the full picture.

3. Design your network topology

Once you know your requirements and understand the current state of your network, you can begin blocking out the functional components of your network. During this step, you’ll need to consider both the physical and logical aspects of your network.

When it comes to physical network design you’ll need to address things like:

• Running copper and fiber cabling
• Number of switch ports required
• WiFi access point positioning
• Rack layout

Cooling and power

Logical network design deals with things like:

• IP addressing/subnetting
• Network topology

At the end of this step, you should be able to create a static map of the physical and logical network you’re designing. If you need help, check out Auvik’s The No Sweat Guide to Network Topology , which covers the ins and out of this step in more detail.

Tip: Don’t forget about cloud workloads and cloud networks. Your network design will need to account for on-premises and cloud data flows.

Hierarchical network design: What are core, distribution, and access layers?

Before we move on to the next step, let’s take a look at two key network design concepts: hierarchical network layers and top-down vs bottom-up design.

A traditional hierarchical network design is based on the idea of three basic network layers. Each layer handles a separate portion of the dataflows on a network. Those layers are:

• Core layer. This is the layer that routes traffic between different geographical sites. In other words, it’s the network backbone. The core layer is where high-throughput, expensive core routers shine.
• Distribution layer . The distribution layer sits between the core and access layers. It acts as a boundary and implements network policies to restrict or allow data flows between different subnets within the network. Less expensive routers and L3 switches are the common workhorses of the distribution layer.
• Access layer. The access layer is the layer for endpoint devices like user PCs, printers, and VoIP phones. Smaller “access switches” are responsible for switching packets and routing traffic at this layer.

In some cases, you may not need all three of these layers. For example, many networks bypass the distribution layer altogether.

Top-down vs bottom-up design

Top-down and bottom-up are two approaches to network design based on the OSI model . With a top-down approach, you start designing your network at the application layer and work your way down the model finishing with the physical layer. The bottom-up design is exactly the opposite.

Top-down is generally considered a better approach when you start with business requirements and work your way down. However, top-down is also often more time-consuming. Bottom-up network design starts with the physical aspect of the network and works upwards.

As a result, bottom-up can be quicker but can often lead to missed requirements or compromises on desired outcomes, as designing a network from the bottom up locks you into certain outcomes before you get to the application layer where users get work done.

4. Choose the hardware and software

This step entails identifying the hardware and software you’ll use. In some cases, this will happen in parallel with step 3. In others, some of the hardware or software may be specified early in the project. As a rule, selecting the specific hardware and software you’ll use after you know what the network needs to do gives you the most flexibility.

During this stage, you’ll choose specific cables, racks, network devices, servers, applications, cloud services, etc. to make your design a reality. For custom parts or large orders, keep in mind potential supply-chain issues. If you can’t get your structured cabling or access switches in time, you can slow down project completion.

5. Plan for implementation and beyond

With your network design and hardware/software selections ready, you can now plan for the implementation and beyond. This step entails creating a plan to deploy, configure, and test the network. In some cases (usually larger networks) this step may include small-scale test deployments to validate the design works before scaling out.

Tight project management and keeping stakeholders informed are key parts of getting your plan right. A network deployment has a lot of moving parts and your plan should account for project milestones, change management , and key deliverables. Additionally, if the network will be managed by a different team than those doing the implementation, you’ll need a transition plan. If you’re responsible for network management going forward, developing a plan for how you’ll monitor and maintain the network is important as well.

Top 5 network design best practices

Now that we have a framework to follow, let’s take a look at some network design best practices for making better decisions throughout the process.

1. Integrate security early on

There is a reason the idea of “ shifting security left ” has become so popular in the DevOps world: it works. By making security a priority from the beginning of the project, you’re less likely to have gaps in your security posture. You’re also more likely to improve your overall network performance because security won’t be inefficiently shoehorned in after most decisions have been made.

Treat security requirements with just as much priority as performance requirements and spec them into a project early on. Ideally, we should all have a “security is everyone’s responsibility” mindset, but in practice that isn’t always the case. It’s usually a great idea to have a security-focused stakeholder(s) involved in the project end-to-end.

2. Know when to use top-down vs bottom-up

In most cases where you’re starting from scratch, top-down design is the “better” choice. By designing top-down, you focus on the business requirements and maximize your chances of getting it right.

However, there are many network design projects where the resource and time investment in going top-down just doesn’t make sense. For example, if you’re already familiar with an organization’s overall business requirements and simply need to expand a network or increase bandwidth, bottom-up can be much more efficient.

3. Standardize everything

If it can be standardized, standardize it. It will make troubleshooting, patching, maintenance, and asset management drastically easier in the long run.

Here are some examples of things you can and should standardize:

• Hostnames (e.g. printer5.office2.lan3)
• Hardware models
• IP address schemes
• Cable colors (e.g. one color for VoIP, one for data, etc)
• Security policies

4. Plan for growth

Network bandwidth consumption today isn’t going to be the same a year from now. You have to consider how much you expect bandwidth consumption to increase over the lifecycle of the network, and design with that expectation in mind.

One answer is obvious: just build in additional bandwidth based on your expectations. However, making sure the network is flexible and modular enough to easily accommodate expansion is arguably more important. After all, you can’t know for certain what your requirements will be in the future, but you can design with the idea you may need to extend the network in mind.

5. Create and maintain network documentation

Missing, stale, or incomplete network documentation is a major source of tech debt, wasted time, and added frustration. Do your future self — or your friendly neighborhood network administrator — a favor and make sure your network design and implementation deliverables include layer 1-3 network maps . Then, once they’re created, be sure to maintain them going forward.

Interested in a deep-dive on network docs? Check out Network Documentation Best Practices: What to Create & Why!

Considerations for designing computer networks

Copper vs fiber, logical topologies, IP addressing, VLANs, bandwidth, and WiFi coverage are some of the most obvious considerations when you’re designing a network. However, that’s far from an exhaustive list. There is a lot that goes into designing a network, and it can be easy to overlook things. Here are some key considerations to keep in mind for your next project.

Regulatory requirements

When you’re designing a network, you need to account for legal regulations that impact both the physical and logical design of your network. For example, local building codes may impact how you run structured cabling. Similarly, the National Electrical Code in the US has requirements relevant to the electrical power your network devices will require. From a logical perspective, regulations like HIPAA, PCI DSS, and GDPR can impact both data in transit and data at rest.

During the network design process, you’ll need to keep these requirements in mind to build a compliant network.

Network resilience and redundancy

Because of the importance of network availability to business operations, enterprise networks need some level of fault tolerance. To make that happen, N+1, 2N, or 2N+1 redundancy (or even higher) is often part of modern network design.

Of course, resilience and redundancy come with a budgetary cost. Your network design will need to balance resilience and redundancy against the expense. In other words, reliably achieving five-nines (99.999% uptime) is great if you can do it, but it ain’t cheap!

A good way to frame this tradeoff is: considering your cost of downtime (i.e. how many dollars per minute/hour will you lose if the network goes down) and balancing that against your exposure to downtime with your current redundancy plan.

Cloud vs. on-prem

It’s no longer a given that on-premises are the best place to run a given workload. Once you have your business and technical requirements, you should carefully consider whether or not a cloud network makes sense as a solution. We won’t rehash the entire cloud vs on-prem debate here, but make sure you don’t lock yourself into an on-premises solution when the cloud may be a better fit (or vice versa!).

It can be easy to overlook the cooling and power requirements of a network. Don’t make this mistake! If you can’t meet your power requirements, you’ll never get your deployment off the ground. If you don’t account for all the heat dissipation of your new network equipment, devices can overheat and prematurely fail. Here are a few points to consider about power and cooling:

• Make sure your electrical panels and electrical outlets can accommodate your new equipment.
• Make sure to account for power-over-Ethernet (PoE) loads when sizing UPS (battery backups) and other power equipment.
• Make sure your server room cooling can handle the additional heat generated by your new network gear or plan to invest in supplemental cooling.

There’s no one size fits all network design. With the right approach, however, you can create a design that matches your business requirements. Of course, as network lifecycle models like PPDIOO demonstrate, it doesn’t stop after the design stage!

Network design and implementation are only the beginning. Once a network goes live, that’s when the real work begins. Proactive network monitoring helps you ensure the network is working as it should and can inform your decisions when it comes time to expand or refresh the network.

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What do you think?

Share your thoughts and read what others have to say

This was an incredibly interesting read. I am currently studying Network & System Security, I am after reading several of the articles posted on your site, written both by Steve Petryschuk and Kevin Dooley. They are all very well written, explaining high level concepts in a concise easy to understand manner. Great work.

Absolutely outstanding breakdown!!!! This is like learning 10 years of network design in 10 mn. Great thanks

This article is what I just needed now! I’m currently looking for materials to get my Course1 assignment started (design a good network for a company struggling for a reliable and scalable network management infrastructure). Your article did the coursework for me because the breakdown is well detailed. You are Godsent – it’s a fact.

Awesome! Glad we could help, and good luck!

What an awesome 😱 notes.,I learned alot and just ready to have practical network in our Institute of Accountancy Arusha (IAA)

Can you please send me the methodologies of network design used in LAN

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Dealing with Rogue DHCP Servers

How to set up cisco anyconnect for your vpn, how to troubleshoot network connectivity problems with auvik, what’s your shadow it risk factor.

• The impact shadow IT has on an organization
• How to evaluate tools
• Tips on security
• A quiz to help you determine the severity of shadow IT in your org
• Solutions to solve these problems

Updated: 1 July 2024

Networking, or computer networking, is the process of connecting two or more computing devices, such as desktop computers, mobile devices, routers or applications, to enable the transmission and exchange of information and resources.

Networked devices rely on communications protocols—rules that describe how to transmit or exchange data across a network—to share information over physical or wireless connections.

Before contemporary networking practices, engineers would have to physically move computers to share data between devices, which was an unpleasant task at a time when computers were large and unwieldy. To simplify the process (especially for government workers), the Department of Defense funded the creation of the first functioning computer network (eventually named ARPANET) in the late 1960s.

Since then, networking practices—and the computer systems that drive them—have evolved tremendously. Today’s computer networks facilitate large-scale inter-device communication for every business, entertainment and research purpose. The internet, online search, email, audio and video sharing, online commerce, live-streaming and social media all exist because of advancements in computer networking.

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Before we delve into more complex networking topics, it’s important to understand fundamental networking components, including:

• IP address: An IP address is the unique number assigned to every network device in an Internet Protocol (IP) network; each IP address identifies the device’s host network and its location on the network. When one device sends data to another, the data includes a “header” that includes the IP addresses of both the sending and receiving devices.
• Nodes: A node is a network connection point that can receive, send, create or store data. It’s essentially any network device—computers, printers, modems, bridges or switches—that can recognize, process and transmit information to another network node. Each node requires some form of identification (such an IP or MAC address) to receive access to the network.
• Routers: A router is a physical or virtual device that sends data “packets” between networks. Routers analyze the data within packets to determine the best transmission path and use sophisticated routing algorithms to forward data packets until they reach their destination node.

Switches: A switch is a device that connects network devices and manages node-to-node communication across a network, making sure that data packets reach their intended destination. Unlike routers, which send information between networks, switches send information between nodes within a network.

Consequently, “switching” refers to how data is transferred between devices on a network. Networks rely on three main types of switching:

Circuit switching establishes a dedicated data communication path between nodes in a network, so no other traffic can traverse the same path. Circuit switching sees to it that full bandwidth is available during every transmission.

Message switching sends whole messages from the source node to the destination node, with the message traveling from switch to switch until it reaches the destination.

Packet switching involves breaking down data into independent components to make data transmission less demanding of network resources. With packet switching, packets—instead of entire data streams—travel through the network to their end destination.

• Ports: A port indicates a specific connection between network devices, with each port identified by a number. If an IP address is analogous to a hotel address, then ports are the suites and room numbers. Computers use port numbers to determine which application, service or process should receive which messages.
• Gateways: Gateways are hardware devices that facilitate communication between two different networks. Routers, firewalls and other gateway devices use rate converters, protocol translators and other technologies to make inter-network communication possible between otherwise incompatible devices.

Typically, computer networks are defined by geographical area. A local area network (LAN) connects computers in a defined physical space, while a  wide area network  ( WAN ) can connect computers across continents. However, networks are also defined by the protocols they use to communicate, the physical arrangement of their components, how they manage network traffic and the purpose they serve in their respective environments.

Here, we’ll discuss the most common and widely used computer network types in three broad categories.

The network types in this category are distinguished by the geographical area the network covers.

A LAN connects computers over a relatively short distance, such as those within an office building, school or hospital. LANs are typically privately owned and managed.

As the name implies, a WAN connects computers across large geographical areas, such as regions and continents. WANs often have collective or distributed ownership models for network management purposes.  Cloud networks serve as one example, since they’re hosted and delivered by public and private cloud infrastructures across the globe. A software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) is a virtualized WAN architecture that uses SDN principles to centralize the management of disconnected WAN networks and optimize network performance.

MANs are larger than LANs but smaller than WANs. Cities and government entities typically own and manage MANs.

A PAN serves one person. If a user has multiple devices from the same manufacturer (an iPhone and a MacBook, for instance), it’s likely they've set up a PAN that shares and syncs content—text messages, emails, photos and more—across devices.

Network nodes can send and receive messages using either wired or wireless links (connections).

Wired network devices are connected by physical wires and cables, including copper wires and Ethernet, twisted pair, coaxial or fiber optic cables. Network size and speed requirements typically dictate the choice of cable, the arrangement of network elements and the physical distance between devices.

Wireless networks forgo cables for infrared, radio or electromagnetic wave transmission across wireless devices with built-in antennae and sensors.

Computing networks can transmit data using a range of transmission dynamics, including: 

In a multipoint network, multiple devices share channel capacity and network links.

Network devices establish a direct node-to-node link to transmit data.

On broadcast networks, several interested “parties” (devices) can receive one-way transmissions from a single sending device. Television stations are a great example of broadcast networks.

A VPN is a secure, point-to-point connection between two network endpoints. It establishes an encrypted channel that keeps a user’s identity and access credentials, as well as any data transferred, inaccessible to hackers.

Computer network architecture establishes the theoretical framework of a computer network, including design principles and communications protocols.

Primary types of network architectures

• Peer-to-peer (P2P) architectures: In a P2P architecture, two or more computers are connected as “peers,” meaning they have equal power and privileges on the network. A P2P network doesn’t require a central server for coordination. Instead, each computer on the network acts as both a client (a computer that needs to access a service) and a server (a computer that provides services to clients). Every peer on the network makes some of its resources available to other network devices, sharing storage, memory, bandwidth and processing power across the network.
• Client-server architectures: In a client-server network, a central server (or group of servers) manages resources and delivers services to client devices on the network; clients in this architecture don’t share their resources and only interact through the server. Client-server architectures are often called tiered architectures because of their multiple layers.
• Hybrid architectures: Hybrid architectures incorporate elements of both the P2P and client-server models.

Whereas architecture represents the theoretical framework of a network, topology is the practical implementation of the architectural framework. Network topology describes the physical and logical arrangement of nodes and links on a network, including all hardware (routers, switches, cables), software (apps and operating systems) and transmission media (wired or wireless connections).

Common network topologies include bus, ring, star and mesh.

In a bus network topology , every network node is directly connected to a main cable. In a ring topology , nodes are connected in a loop, so each device has exactly two neighbors. Adjacent pairs are connected directly and nonadjacent pairs are connected indirectly through intermediary nodes.  Star network topologies feature a single, central hub through which all nodes are indirectly connected.

Mesh topologies are a bit more complex, defined by overlapping connections between nodes. There are two types of mesh networks— full mesh and partial mesh . In a full mesh topology , every network node connects to every other network node, providing the highest level of network resilience. In a partial mesh topology , only some network nodes connect, typically those that exchange data most frequently.

Full mesh topologies can be expensive and time-consuming to run, which is why they’re often reserved for networks that require high redundancy. Partial mesh, on the other hand, provides less redundancy but is more cost-effective and simpler to run.

Regardless of subtype, mesh networks have self-configuration and self-organization capabilities; they automate the routing process, so the network always finds the fastest, most reliable data path.

Whether it’s the internet protocol (IP) suite, Ethernet, wireless LAN (WLAN) or cellular communication standards, all computer networks follow communication protocols—sets of rules that every node on the network must follow in order to share and receive data. Protocols also rely on gateways to enable incompatible devices to communicate (a Windows computer attempting to access Linux servers, for instance)

Many modern networks run on TCP/IP models, which include four network layers.

• Network access layer.  Also called the data link layer or the physical layer, the network access layer of a TCP/IP network includes the network infrastructure (hardware and software components) necessary for interfacing with the network medium. It handles physical data transmission—using Ethernet and protocols such as the address resolution protocol (ARP)—between devices on the same network.
• Internet layer. The internet layer is responsible for logical addressing, routing and packet forwarding. It primarily relies on the IP protocol and the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), which manages addressing and routing of packets across different networks.
• Transport layer. The TCP/IP transport layer enables data transfer between upper and lower layers of the network. Using TCP and UDP protocols, it also provides mechanisms for error checking and flow control. TCP is a connection-based protocol that is generally slower but more reliable than UDP. UDP is a connectionless protocol that is faster than TCP but does not provide guaranteed transfer. UDP protocols facilitate packet transmission for time-sensitive apps (such as video streaming and gaming platforms) and DNS lookups.

Application layer. TCP/IP’s application layer uses HTTP, FTP, Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3), SMTP, domain name system (DNS) and SSH protocols to provide network services directly to applications. It also manages all the protocols that support user applications. 

Though TCP/IP is more directly applicable to networking, the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model —sometimes called the OSI reference model—has also had a substantial impact on computer networking and computer science, writ broadly.

OSI is a conceptual model that divides network communication into seven abstract layers (instead of four), providing a theoretical underpinning that helps engineers and developers understand the intricacies of network communication. The OSI model's primary value lies in its educational utility and its role as a conceptual framework for designing new protocols, making sure that they can interoperate with existing systems and technologies.

However, the TCP/IP model's practical focus and real-world applicability have made it the backbone of modern networking. Its robust, scalable design and horizontal layering approach has driven the explosive growth of the internet, accommodating billions of devices and massive amounts of data traffic.

Using email as an example, let’s walk through an example of how data moves through a network.

If a user wants to send an email, they first write the email and then press the “send” button.  When the user presses “send,” an SMTP or POP3 protocol uses the sender’s wifi to direct the message from the sender node and through the network switches, where it’s compressed and broken down into smaller and smaller segments (and ultimately into bits, or strings of 1s and 0s).

Network gateways direct the bit stream to the recipient’s network, converting data and communication protocols as needed. When the bit stream reaches the recipient’s computer, the same protocols direct the email data through the network switches on the receiver’s network. In the process, the network reconstructs the original message until the email arrives, in human-readable form, in the recipient’s inbox (the receiver node).

Computer networks are inescapable, present in many aspects of modern life. In business, relying on computer networks isn’t an option—they are fundamental to the operation of modern enterprises.

Computer networks provide numerous benefits, including:

Networking enables every form of digital communication, including email, messaging, file sharing, video calls and streaming. Networking connects all the servers, interfaces and transmission media that make business communication possible.

Without networking, organizations would have to store data in individual data repositories, which is unsustainable in the age of  big data.  Computer networks help teams keep centralized data stores that serve the entire network, freeing up valuable storage capacity for other tasks.

Users, network administrators and developers alike stand to benefit from how networking simplifies resource and knowledge sharing. Networked data is easier to request and fetch, so users and clients get faster responses from network devices. And for those on the business side, networked data makes it easier for teams to collaborate and share information as technologies and enterprises evolve.

Not only are well-built networking solutions more resilient, but they also offer businesses more options for  cybersecurity  and  network security . Most network providers offer built-in encryption protocols and access controls (such as  multifactor authentication ) to protect sensitive data and keep bad actors off the network.

Modern network infrastructures built for digital transformation require solutions that can be just as dynamic, flexible and scalable as the new environments. IBM® SevOne® provides application-centric network observability to help NetOps spot, address and prevent network performance issues in hybrid environments. 

IBM NS1 Connect® provides fast, secure connections to users anywhere in the world with premium DNS and advanced, customizable traffic steering. Always-on, API-first architecture enables your IT teams to more efficiently monitor networks, deploy changes and conduct routine maintenance.

IBM Cloud Pak® for Network Automation is an intelligent cloud platform that enables the automation and orchestration of network operations so CSPs and MSPs can transform their networks, evolve to zero-touch operations, reduce OPEX and deliver services faster.

IBM Hybrid Cloud Mesh, a multicloud networking solution, is a SaaS product designed to enable organizations to establish simple and secure application-centric connectivity across a wide variety of public and private cloud, edge and on-premises environments.

Cloud networking solutions can help your organization implement a secure, highly available global network. Working with an experienced network service provider, you can design and build the unique configuration that enables you to optimize network traffic flow, protect and support applications and meet your specific business needs.

A content delivery network (CDN) is a network of servers that is geographically dispersed to enable faster web performance by locating copies of web content closer to users or facilitating delivery of dynamic content.

Explore the differences between these two approaches to storage and file sharing.

Network monitoring means using network monitoring software to monitor a computer network’s ongoing health and reliability.

NetFlow, a network protocol developed for Cisco routers by Cisco Systems, is widely used to collect metadata about the IP traffic flowing across network devices such as routers, switches and hosts.

Software-defined networking (SDN) is a software-controlled approach to networking architecture driven by application programming interfaces (APIs).

Middleware is software that enables one or more kinds of communication or connectivity between applications or components in a distributed network.

IBM NS1 Connect provides fast, secure connections to users anywhere in the world with premium DNS and advanced, customizable traffic steering. NS1 Connect’s always-on, API-first architecture enables your IT teams to more efficiently monitor networks, deploy changes and conduct routine maintenance.

Browse Course Material

Course info.

• Prof. Hari Balakrishnan

Departments

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

As Taught In

• Computer Networks

Learning Resource Types

Course description.

How does the global network infrastructure work and what are the design principles on which it is based? In what ways are these design principles compromised in practice? How do we make it work better in today’s world? How do we ensure that it will work well in the future in the face of rapidly growing scale and …

How does the global network infrastructure work and what are the design principles on which it is based? In what ways are these design principles compromised in practice? How do we make it work better in today’s world? How do we ensure that it will work well in the future in the face of rapidly growing scale and heterogeneity? And how should Internet applications be written, so they can obtain the best possible performance both for themselves and for others using the infrastructure? These are some issues that are grappled with in this course. The course will focus on the design, implementation, analysis, and evaluation of large-scale networked systems.

Topics include internetworking philosophies, unicast and multicast routing, congestion control, network quality of service, mobile networking, router architectures, network-aware applications, content dissemination systems, network security, and performance issues. Material for the course will be drawn from research papers, industry white papers, and Internet RFCs.

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What computer networks are and how to actually understand them

by Sumedh Nimkarde

Whether you are new to the world of development, or have been building things for a long time — or even if you’re a person who just likes computers and uses the internet daily — you’ve got to know the basics of networking and specifically Computer Networks.

If you like digging more into servers, their security, and how you connect to your servers from a remote client, all of this requires some knowledge of computer networks and their components. I have tried to cover most of the topics concerning computer networks in this article.

Also, from here, I will refer to “computer networks” simply as “networks”.

Let us first look at my working definition of computer networks:

Computer networks can be defined as the exchange of network packets between computing machines across the world with the help of data lines like wire cables, optical fibers, etc.

The Internet is a kind of computer network. Sorta.

We will take a look at some commonly used terms and components and how they function in a computer network, some of which are in the above diagram.

Commonly used terms in Computer Networks

Nodes in computer networks mean any computing device such as computers, mobile phones, tablets, etc which try to send and receive network packets across the network to another similar device.

Network Packets

Network packets are nothing but the information or units of data that a source node wants to send/receive to/from the destination node. In this article, network packets/data packets all convey the same meaning.

Internet Protocol (IPs)

Consider you want to send a birthday gift to your friend on their birthday, where will you send it? To their street address right?

Same is the case here. The early computer scientists wanted to identify computers on the internet with a unique number, something like a telephone numbers today. So, they came up with the concept of TCP/IP.

An IP of a computer device is the address of that device in a computer network. Technically, it is a 32-bit number used which identifies devices in a network. All the communication to and fro from the device in that network will be done in terms of its IP address.

Consider that you are uploading a file to any site or say to Google drive.

Talking at the lowest level of network communication, your file is converted to packets and each packet has the destination node address with it which is nothing but the IP address.

On a higher level, IP addresses are classified into two types:

• IPv4 : IPv4 addresses are 32 bits (four bytes) as explained in the definition. An example of the IPv4 address would be 104.244.42.129 which is the IPv4 address of twitter.com . They are stable to use and hence are used today to identify machines in the world.
• IPv6 : IPv6 addresses are pretty new to the world and are basically eight hexadecimal numbers separated by “:”. An example of IPv6 address would be 2001:0cb8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334 . They are unstable and hence not used widely yet. The web is still using IPv4 due to its stability and there is no estimate when we will start to use IPv6 since it is not stable for now.

IPv4 is classified into five classes named Class A, B, C, D, E.

Class A : As shown in the third column of the above image, for a Class A IP addresses, the first bit of the first octet of the IP address is constant and is “0”.

The Second column indicates the Network bits and the host bits of the corresponding class of IP address. Consider in case of a Class A IP address, we have the following formula:

Number of networks/subnets = 2^(# of network bits) .

Number of valid hosts in each subnet = 2^(# of host bits) — 2 .

The number of network bits and host bits are decided by the default subnet mask of the class of IP address.

The default subnet mask for a class A IP addresses is 255.0.0.0, that is 11111111.00000000.0000000.00000000 . Thus, for class A:

Network bits = 8, and Host bits = 24.

Since Network bits = 8 , Host bits = 24 , their sum has to be 32, since IPv4 addresses are of 32 bits. But, since we are using the one bit (first bit in the first octet) to identify the class:

Number of usable network bits = Number of network bits — Number of constant bits = 8–1 = 7

Thus, the Number of possible networks in Class A = 2^7 — 2 = 126 and,

Number of possible hosts (that is devices that can be connected to the network) per network in Class A = 2^24-2 = 16277214 .

Now, here, for class A, you may wonder why I subtracted an extra 2 from the number of possible networks. It is because, for class A, 127.x.y.z was kept reserved. For other classes, the usual formula is used.

Thus, IP addresses in class A range from 1.x.x.x to 126.x.x.x .

Class B: the case is similar with Class B. The only difference is 2 bits of the first octet are constant (10) and they identify the class of IP address that is class B. All other calculations are same, and I am not mentioning them here since they are easy to grab from the table above. They range from 128.0.x.x to 191.255.x.x .

Class C : 3 bits of the first octet are constant (110) and they identify the class as class C. They range from 192.0.0.x to 223.255.255.x .

Class D and Class E : Class D and Class E are used for experimental purposes.

IPv4 addresses are mainly of two types:

• Static : These IP addresses are the ones which remain constant for a device over time. Examples of these are the remote servers that we use to host our apps, websites, etc. where we use the ssh client to ssh to our server.
• Dynamic : Generally, these are the IP addresses that a common computer in an Internet network is assigned. Try switching your router off and you will see a change in the IP address of your computer! (But only after reading this article ?). Now, you may be thinking who allocates these IP addresses? It is the DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server which is explained briefly further in this article.

Note : A device can have multiple IP addresses at the same time. Consider a device connected to two networks, wifi as well as any LAN network — it will have two IP addresses. This implies that the IP addresses are assigned to the interfaces and not directly to the computer.

Okay, so far so good. Let’s continue.

As its name suggests, a Router is a hardware component that takes care of routing packets. It determines which node the packet came from and which destination node the sender node want to send it to. No computer knows where other computers are located, and packets are not sent to every computer. A Router identifies the destination node address to which a network packet has to be sent and it forwards it to the desired address.

Routers have a specific “Routing Protocol” which defines the format in which they exchange data with another router or networking nodes. In other words, routing protocol defines how routers communicate with each other.

Routers build up a “Routing Table” which identifies the most optimized paths to be taken in the network while sending packets.

Technically, a routing table is just a table with the list of “routes” from one router to other. Each route consists of the address of the other routers/nodes in the network and how to reach them.

Above is an example of a routing table. The key points to take a note of here are:

• Destination: This is the IP address of the destination node. It indicates where the network data packet should end up.
• Gateway: Gateway is the component which connects two networks. Consider that you have a router connected to another router. Each of the routers has devices connected to it. So, the address of the last router (say R1 here) after which the network packet enters the other network (say R2’s network) is called the gateway. Usually, the gateways are nothing but the routers. Let me give one more example: say that your room is one network and your sibling’s room next to yours is another network, then the “door” between the two rooms can be considered the gateway. People sometimes refer to the “ routers ” as the gateway, because, that’s what they are, “ a gateway to another network ”.
• Genmask/Subnet mask: It is nothing but the net/subnet mask. A subnet mask is a number which when combined with an IP address allows you to divide the IP space into smaller and smaller chunks for use in both physical and logical networks. The explanation of how subnet mask calculations happen is beyond the scope of this article.
• Flags: Different flags have a different meaning. For example, in the first route, “U” in “UG” means the route is UP, whereas “G” in “UG” means GATEWAY. Since the route signifies a GATEWAY, it is a door to the other network. Whenever we send any data through this route, it gets sent to another network.
• Iface (Network interface): Network interface refers to the network that the route defined in the routing table is having the destination computer in. That is if you are connected to Wifi, then it would be “wlan” and when you are connected to a LAN, then it would be “eth”.

So this is the way a router works, with the help of Routing Protocol and Routing Table .

All good up to now. But, you must be thinking —

“Okay! But hey, we are learning about components here. I need to stitch them together and get to know how the internet works.”

Cool! Some more terms and you will have a proper understanding of how everything goes.

Network Address Translation (NAT)

Network address translation is a technique used by routers to provide internet service to more devices with less usage of public IPs. Thus, a router is assigned a single IP address by the ISP and it assigns the private IPs to all the devices connected to it. NAT helps the ISPs provide internet access to more consumers.

Thus, if you are connected to the router of your house, your public IP will be visible to the world, but the private one will not. Whatever network packets are communicated will be addressed by your public IP (that is the public IP assigned to the router).

Consider the above figure. Let’s say that in your home network, you are trying to access medium.com (remote static IP: 72.14.204.147 ) , from your computer (private IP: 192.168.1.100 ).

So, for your computer, the connection looks like:

192.168.1.100:37641 → 72.14.204.147:80 .

“37641” is the random port number assigned by NAT router to your device/computer. (When there is network communication between daemons running on different ports on a computer, the respective port is used by NAT). Each outbound connection gets an assigned port by the NAT router.

The connection is established in NAT like:

But, since the outside world of the network doesn’t know about your private address, the connection looks like the following to medium.com :

104.244.42.129:59273 → 72.14.204.147:80 .

That way, we achieve assigning a higher number of IP addresses without wasting many public IPs.

Now, when medium.com sends the response back to 104.244.42.129:59273 , it travels all the way to your home router which then looks up for the respective private IP and private port and redirects the packet to your device/computer.

Note : NAT is a generalized concept. NAT can be achieved as 1:1, 1:N where 1, N are the number of IP addresses in the network. A technique called as “IP Masquerading” is a 1:N NAT.

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol or DHCP is responsible for assigning dynamic IP addresses to the hosts. The DHCP server is maintained by the ISP or previous router if there is a chain of routers to reach the host.

Thus, allocation of IP addresses is carried out by the DHCP server. Generally, ISP maintains a DHCP server and the routers in our houses get assigned a public IP from the DHCP server.

Note : Whenever a router or say a DHCP server maintained by an ISP or router restarts, the IP address allocation starts again and devices are allocated IPs which are different than the previous ones.

Domain Name System/Server

We have already discussed that any machine is identified by the IP address.

Okay, so you are running a web server on your localhost on your machine. If you have dug around in the hosts on any Linux machine, you would have encountered something like this:

which means that even if you type 127.0.0.1 in your browser’s URL bar, it would mean the same as localhost .

Similar to the above, the websites you use daily are web servers running on some remote instance/node having a static IP address. So, typing that IP address in your browser’s URL bar will take you to the website?

Yes, surely it will. But, are you a superhuman to remember the IP addresses of thousands of sites?

Thus, there come the domains that we use, say medium.com, twitter.com, behance.net, codementor.io, etc.

A Domain Name Server is a server having huge records of domain name mapping IP addresses which searches for the domain input and returns the respective IP address of the machine on which the website you want to access is hosted.

How does DNS work actually?

• DNS is managed by your ISP (internet service provider).
• When we type an URL in the address bar, the data packets travel through your router, maybe multiple routers to your ISP where your DNS server is present.
• DNS server present at the ISP looks up for the domain in its database. If an entry is found, then it returns it.
• If any entry is not found in its primary database that it maintains, the DNS server will travel through the internet to another DNS server maintained by another ISP and check if the entry is available in that another DNS server’s database. Along with returning the IP address taken from another DNS, it will update the primary database with this new entry also.
• Thus, sometimes (very rarely) a DNS server may have to traverse to multiple DNS servers to get a matching entry.
• If after traversing a lot of DNS servers across the internet, it doesn’t get a matching entry, then the DNS server throws an error indicating that the “domain name is invalid or doesn’t exist”.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a consortium (a non-profit corporation) that manages the assignment of domain names and IP address ranges on behalf of the community.

A domain is divided into three parts as shown in the following figure.

• Protocol : The protocol used to access the website, for example, HTTP, HTTPS, etc.
• Domain name : The main domain name in our domain. This can be anything that is available as per the ICANN registry.
• Domain extension : This is one which is considered important while buying a domain. Generally, it is classified into two types:
• Generic Top-level Domains (gTLDs) : This includes most popular domain extensions like .com, .org, .net, .edu, .co, etc.
• Country Code Top-level Domains(ccTLDs) : These indicate that the domain is related to the country code specified in the domain extension. For example, “.in” indicates that the website is originated from India. Also, some of the ccTLDs require that the person purchasing the domain should be from the same country. Most of the small country code extensions are not searchable from outside that country.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs)

Internet Service Providers are the companies that provide everyone Internet. The article you are reading now is because of the internet that your ISP provides you.

ISPs provide internet, handle routing your requests to the correct destination, resolve domain names with the help of DNS cache that they maintain, and handle all this network infrastructure which enables us to use the internet.

ISP is a hierarchical thing working across the internet. There are certain types of ISPs namely Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 ISPs.

• Tier 1 ISPs are the ones which connect major networks on the internet. Consider them as the major highways of the internet. They are connected to almost every network on the internet. Also, they provide internet access to the Tier 2 ISPs. ex. CERFNet, UUNet, PSINet. They are also called Network Service Providers. These ISPs are connected to each other by means of large cables going beneath the sea.
• The Tier 2 (Regional) ISPs are the ones who primarily provide Internet services to organizations, consumers (that is “us”) or the Tier 3 ISPs. The internet connection you are using is from a Tier 2 ISP. However, organizations can also get Internet access from Tier 1 ISPs.
• Tier 3 (Local) ISPs are just like Tier 2. It’s just one more level of hierarchy out there that purchases bandwidth from Tier 2 ISP and sells it to consumers.

The traffic that goes through your router also goes through Tier 3 (if present), Tier 2, and ultimately through Tier 1 ISPs all the way to another network.

Woot Woot! I am happy that you are still with me. We will put all the things together now.

Putting all of the above things together

Up until now, we have learned about all the components needed to make everything work. Now, we will glue them together.

Let’s summarize all the things we’ve learned:

• When a computer/device comes online, it gets a private IP assigned by the router. The router gets a public IP from the ISP.
• Other devices in the network are allocated unique private IPs.
• ISPs are the ones who are present across the world and are connected to each other. They sell Internet services to the regional and local ISPs, from whom we, the consumers, purchase Internet.
• Thus, when a device tries to establish a network connection with some other device on some other network, it does it with the identity of its gateway (the router). The router then maps the private IP and private port number with the public IP and random high integer public port number.
• The router then sends the packets to the desired destination where some other router or gateway does the same thing as the previous router and analyses which computer/device that packet came from.
• The remote computer/device responds by sending the destination as the public IP and public port of the router.
• The router then again checks for the private IP and private port and forwards the network packets.

So, this is how the Internet aka A kind of Computer Network using TCP/IP protocol works .

Thanks for reading the article. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them in the comments below.

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Basic Networking Commands Explained with Examples

This tutorial explains the basic networking commands and their arguments, options, and parameters. Learn the essential networking commands that are used to troubleshoot computer networks.

This command is used to diagnose path-related problems. On an IP network, routers exchange IP packets between the source and the destination. They take IP packets from the source host and forward them in a sequence until they reach the destination host. The sequence of routers between the source and destination is known as the path. A path consists of all routers in a sequence that IP packets sent from the source host traverse to reach the destination host.

The tracert command prints the path. If all routers on the path are functional, this command prints the full path. If a router is down on the path, this command prints the path up to the last operational router.

The tracert command uses the following syntax.

The following command traces the path to the host named www.google.co.in.

The following image shows the output of this command.

The following table lists some important options of the tracert command.

The ping command is used to test connectivity between two hosts. It sends ICMP echo request messages to the destination. The destination host replies with ICMP reply messages. If the ping command gets a reply from the destination host, it displays the reply along with round-trip times.

The ping command uses the following syntax.

If you specify the hostname as an argument, the ping command uses the configured DNS client service to automatically translate the hostname into the IP address.

This command displays all current TCP/IP network configuration values and refreshes Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Domain Name System (DNS) settings. This command is mainly used to view the IP addresses on the computers that are configured to obtain their IP address automatically.

The following image shows the sample output of this command.

The following table lists some important options of the ipconfig command.

To send IP packets, a computer needs two addresses. These addresses are the MAC address and the IP address. A MAC address is the physical or hardware address of the NIC. An IP address is the logical or software address of NIC. If a computer knows the IP address of the destination computer but it does not know the MAC address of the destination computer, it uses the ARP protocol to know the MAC address of the destination computer.

The ARP protocol broadcasts a given IP address over a local network. The corresponding host responds to the broadcast with its MAC address. To avoid repetition, ARP stores the answer in a table known as ARP table . ARP maintains a separate ARP table for each NIC.

To view the ARP table, you can use the following command.

By default, this command displays the ARP table of the active NIC. If multiple NICs are installed on the computer, you can use the -a option with this command. If the -a option is used, the ARP command displays all ARP tables.

The following image shows the output of the arp command when used with the -a option.

To display the ARP cache entry for a specific IP address, specify the IP address with the -N option. For example, the following command displays the ARP cache table for the interface that is assigned the IP address 192.168.42.171.

The following image shows the output of the above command.

This command displays active connections, ports on which the computer is listening, Ethernet statistics, the IP routing table, and IP statistics.

The output of this command is organized in rows and columns. Each row represents a new connection or an entry in the output. It contains four columns. These columns provide the following information about the row.

Proto : - This column displays the name of the protocol (TCP or UDP).

Local Address : - This column displays the IP address of the local computer and the port number being used. If the port is not yet established, the port number is shown as an asterisk ( * ).

Foreign Address : - This column displays the IP address and port number of the remote computer to which the port is connected.

State : - This column displays the status of the connection.

Options and parameters

The following table lists some common options of the netstat command.

That's all for this tutorial. If you like this tutorial, please share it with friends via your favorite social networking sites.

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Computer Networks - Types & Functions

A computer network is a group of computers that use a set of common communication protocols over digital interconnections for the purpose of sharing resources located on or provided by the network nodes.

With respect to the Computer Knowledge section in the major Government exams conducted, the Computer Networking forms an extremely important topic and questions are frequently asked from this concept. 

In this article, we bring to you the detailed information about the different types of Computer networks, their definition and functions along with the different types of node devices.

Candidates can also take the reference as to what this concept is all about through the video given below. This will enable candidates to get a more interactive interface to understand the topic and get a better analysis of the concept.

What is a Computer Network?

Before moving forward with the article and learning more about the types of computer networks, it is important for candidates to understand what is a network and how it affects the functioning of one or more computers connected with each other. 

Definition – A group of computers which are connected to each other and follow similar usage protocols for the purpose of sharing information and having communications provided by the networking nodes is called a Computer Network. 

A network may be small where it may include just one system or maybe as large as what one may want. The nodes may further be classified into various types. These include:

• Personal Computers
• Networking Hardware
• General Hosts

Networking can be classified into three types:

Types of Computer Networks

• Interpreters

We shall discuss all three in detail further below in this article. 

There are five main types of Computer  Networks:

• Systems connected in a small network like in a building or a small office
• It is inexpensive
• It uses Ethernet or Token-ring technology
• Two or more personal computers can be connected through wires or cables acting as nodes
• Transfer of data is fast and is highly score
• The smallest computer network
• Devices may be connected through Bluetooth or other infra-red enables devices
• It has a connectivity range of upto 10 metres
• It covers an area of upto 30 feet
• Personal devices belonging to a single person can be connected to each other using PAN
• A network that can be connected within a city, for example, cable TV Connection
• It can be in the form of Ethernet, ATM, Token-ring and FDDI
• It has a higher range
• This type of network can be used to connect citizens with the various Organisations
• A network which covers over a country or a larger range of people
• Telephonic lines are also connected through WAN
• Internet is the biggest WAN in the world
• Mostly used by Government Organisations to manage data and information
• A network which is constructed by using public wires to connect to a private network
• There are a number of systems which enable you to create networks using the Internet as a medium for transporting data
• These systems use encryptions and other security mechanisms to ensure only authorised users can access

For a few candidates understanding the different computer networking terms may be a bit tough and the same applies to other computer-related terminology, applications and software. So, to upgrade your Computer Awareness, refer to the difference between articles given below:

• Difference Between RAM and ROM
• Difference Between MS Excel and MS Word
• Difference Between IPV4 and IPV 6
• Difference Between Firewall and Antivirus
• Difference Between WWW and Internet
• Difference Between Notepad and WordPad
• Difference Between Virus and Malware

Network Topologies

Given below are the eight types of Network Topologies:

• Point to Point Topology – Point to Point topology is the simplest topology that connects two nodes directly together with a common link.
• Bus Topology – A bus topology is such that there is a single line to which all nodes are connected and the nodes connect only to the bus
• Mesh Topology – This type of topology contains at least two nodes with two or more paths between them
• Ring Topology – In this topology every node has exactly two branches connected to it. The ring is broken and cannot work if one of the nodes on the ring fails
• Star Topology – In this network topology, the peripheral nodes are connected to a central node, which rebroadcasts all the transmissions received from any peripheral node to all peripheral nodes on the network, including the originating node
• Tree Topology – In this type of topology nodes are connected in the form of a tree. The function of the central node in this topology may be distributed
• Line Topology – in this topology all the nodes are connected in a straight line
• Hybrid Topology – When two more types of topologies combine together, they form a Hybrid topology

Network Devices

Discussed below are a few important network devices from the exam point of view:

• Network Repeater – Used to generate incoming electrical, wireless or optical signals
• Network Hub – It is a small network device. It joins multiple computers together to form a single network segment. On this segment, all computers can interact with each other
• Network Switch – It is a small hardware device which joins multiple computers together with a single LAN
• Network Router – This device interfaces in multiple networks whose task is to copy packages from one network to another. It provides connectivity inside enterprises, between Enterprises and the Internet and within an ISP
• Network Bridge – It reads the outermost section of the data packet to tell where the message is going. It reduces the traffic on other network segments. 
• Modem – This device converts digital signals into analog signals. It is always placed between a telephone and a computer system

All the information given above will help candidates prepare themselves for the Computer Knowledge section in the upcoming Government exams and ace it. 

Sample Questions – Computer Networks

It is also important to go through the topic of Computer Networks from the examination point of view. Computer Knowledge is included in the syllabus for all major competitive exams and can be one of the most scoring subjects as the questions asked are very basic and not much complex.

Thus, to assist candidates and help them understand the type of questions which may be asked from this concept, discussed below are a few question and answers based on Computer Network. Candidates can refer to these and start their preparation.

Q 1. Which of the following is not a type of network topology?

• All of the above are a type of network topology

Answer: (2) Circle

Q 2.  The network device converts digital signals into analog signals and can be connected through a telephone is called _____

Answer: (1) Modem

Q 3.  Which of the following terms is related to sending data to a satellite?

Answer: (1) Uplink

Q 4.  ______ topology is the simplest topology that connects two nodes directly together with a common link.

• Point to Point
• None of the above

Answer: (1) Point to Point

Q 5.  Which is the shortest network covering network?

Answer: (4) Personal Area Network (PAN)

Q 6.  When two or more topologies connect together, they are called ______

• Tree Topology
• Cluster Topology
• Hybrid Topology
• Mesh Topology
• Line Topology

Answer: (3) Hybrid Topology

Q 7. ATM is a form of _____

• Local Area Network
• Wide Area Network
• Metropolitan Area Network
• Personal Area Network
• Virtual Private Network

Answer: (3) Metropolitan Area Network

Q 8. _______ is a small hardware device which joins multiple computers together with a single LAN.

Answer: (2) Switch

Q 9.  A collection of various computers into a single coherent system, provided to a client, is called _______.

• Distributed System
• Computer Network
• Systematic Network
• Collective Network

Answer: (1) Distributed System

Q 10.  A network which is constructed by using public wires to connect to a private network is called ______

Answer: (5) Virtual Private Network

All the questions given above are of a similar pattern followed in the competitive exams. Computer Network forms an important part from which questions may be asked in the final exam. Thus, preparing it well is extremely important.

Aspirants can also check the detailed Strategy for Competitive Exam Preparation at the linked article and start their preparation accordingly. 

Also, for any further update, candidates can visit BYJU’S and get the latest information, study material and tips to prepare. 

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Network assignment

What is Network Assignment?

Role of Network Assignment in Travel Forecasting

Overview of Methods for Traffic Assignment for Highways

All-or-nothing Assignments

Incremental assignment

Brief History of Traffic Equilibrium Concepts

Calculating Generalized Costs from Delays

Challenges for Highway Traffic Assignment

Transit Assignment

Latest Developments

Page categories

Topic Circles

Trip Based Models

More pages in this category:

# what is network assignment.

In the metropolitan transportation planning and analysis, the network assignment specifically involves estimating travelers’ route choice behavior when travel destinations and mode of travel are known. Origin-destination travel demand are assigned to a transportation network in order to estimate traffic flows and network travel conditions such as travel time. These estimated outputs from network assignment are compared against observed data such as traffic counts for model validation .

Network assignment is a mathematical problem which is solved by a solution algorithm through the use of computer. It is usually resolved as a travel cost optimization problem for each origin-destination pair on a model network. For every origin-destination pair, a path is selected that typically minimizes travel costs. The simplest kind of travel cost is travel time from beginning to end of the trip. A more complex form of travel cost, called generalized cost, may include combinations of other costs of travel such as toll cost and auto operating cost on highway networks. Transit networks may include within generalized cost weights to emphasize out-of-vehicle time and penalties to represent onerous tasks. Usually, monetary costs of travel, such as tolls and fares, are converted to time equivalent based on an estimated value of time. The shortest path is found using a path finding algorithm .

The surface transportation network can include the auto network, bus network, passenger rail network, bicycle network, pedestrian network, freight rail network, and truck network. Traditionally, passenger modes are handled separately from vehicular modes. For example, trucks and passenger cars may be assigned to the same network, but bus riders often are assigned to a separate transit network, even though buses travel over roads. Computing traffic volume on any of these networks first requires estimating network specific origin-destination demand. In metropolitan transportation planning practice in the United States, the most common network assignments employed are automobile, truck, bus, and passenger rail. Bicycle, pedestrian, and freight rail network assignments are not as frequently practiced.

# Role of Network Assignment in Travel Forecasting

The urban travel forecasting process is analyzed within the context of four decision choices:

• Personal Daily Activity
• Locations to Perform those Activities
• Mode of Travel to Activity Locations, and
• Travel Route to the Activity Locations.

Usually, these four decision choices are named as Trip Generation , Trip Distribution , Mode Choice , and Traffic Assignment. There are variations in techniques on how these travel decision choices are modeled both in practice and in research. Generalized cost, which is typically in units of time and is an output of the path-choice step of the network assignment process, is the single most important travel input to other travel decision choices, such as where to travel and by which mode. Thus, the whole urban travel forecasting process relies heavily on network assignment. Generalized cost is also a major factor in predicting socio-demographic and spatial changes. To ensure consistency in generalized cost between all travel model components in a congested network, travel cost may be fed back to the earlier steps in the model chain. Such feedback is considered “best practice” for urban regional models. Outputs from network assignment are also inputs for estimating mobile source emissions as part of a review of metropolitan area transportation plans, a requirement under the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 for areas not in attainment of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard.

# Overview of Methods for Traffic Assignment for Highways

This topic deals principally with an overview of static traffic assignment. The dynamic traffic assignment is discussed elsewhere.

There are a large number of traffic assignment methods, but they all have at their core a procedure called “all-or-nothing” (AON) traffic assignment. All-or-nothing traffic assignment places all trips between an origin and destination on the shortest path between that origin and destination and no trips on any other possible path (compare path finding algorithm for a step-by-step introduction). Shortest paths may be determined by a well-known algorithm by Dijkstra; however, when there are turn penalties in the network a different algorithm, called Vine building , must be used instead.

# All-or-nothing Assignments

The simplest assignment algorithm is the all-or-nothing traffic assignment. In this algorithm, flows from every origin to every destination are assigned using the path finding algorithm , and travel time remains unchanged regardless of travel volumes.

All-or-nothing traffic assignment may be used when delays are unimportant for a network. Another alternative to the user-equilibrium technique is the stochastic traffic assignment technique, which assumes variation in link level travel time.

One of the earliest, computationally efficient stochastic traffic assignment algorithms was developed by Robert Dial. [1] More recently the k-shortest paths algorithm has gained popularity.

The biggest disadvantage of the all-or-nothing assignment and the stochastic assignment is that congestion cannot be considered. In uncongested networks, these algorithms are very useful. In congested conditions, however, these algorithm miss that some travelers would change routes to avoid congestion.

# Incremental assignment

The incremental assignment method is the simplest way to (somewhat rudimentary) consider congestion. In this method, a certain share of all trips (such as half of all trips) is assigned to the network. Then, travel times are recalculated using a volume-delay function , or VDF. Next, a smaller share (such as 25% of all trips) is assigned based using the revised travel times. Using the demand of 50% + 25%, travel times are recalculated again. Next, another smaller share of trips (such as 10% of all trips) is assigned using the latest travel times.

A large benefit of the incremental assignment is model runtime. Usually, flows are assigned within 5 to 10 iterations. Most user-equilibrium assignment methods (see below) require dozens of iterations, which increases the runtime proportionally.

In the incremental assignment, the first share of trips is assigned based on free-flow conditions. Following iterations see some congestion, on only the very last trip to be assigned will consider true congestion levels. This is reasonable for lightly congested networks, as a large number of travelers could travel at free-flow speed.

The incremental assignment works unsatisfactorily in heavily congested networks, as even 50% of the travel demand may lead to congestion on selected roads. The incremental assignment will miss the fact that a portion of the 50% is likely to select different routes.

# Brief History of Traffic Equilibrium Concepts

Traffic assignment theory today largely traces its origins to a single principle of “user equilibrium” by Wardrop [2] in 1952. Wardrop’s “first” principle simply states (slightly paraphrased) that at equilibrium not a single driver may change paths without incurring a greater travel impedance . That is, any used path between an origin and destination must have a shortest travel time between the origin and destination, and all other paths must have a greater travel impedance. There may be multiple paths between an origin and destination with the same shortest travel impedance, and all of these paths may be used.

Prior to the early 1970’s there were many algorithms that attempted to solve for Wardrop’s user equilibrium on large networks. All of these algorithms failed because they either did not converge properly or they were too slow computationally. The first algorithm to be able to consistently find a correct user equilibrium on a large traffic network was conceived by a research group at Northwestern University (LeBlanc, Morlok and Pierskalla) in 1973. [3] This algorithm was called “Frank-Wolfe decomposition” after the name of a more general optimization technique that was adapted, and it found the minimum of an “objective function” that came directly from theory attributed to Beckmann from 1956. [4] The Frank-Wolfe decomposition formulation was extended to the combined distribution/assignment problem by Evans in 1974. [5]

A lack of extensibility of these algorithms to more realistic traffic assignments prompted model developers to seek more general methods of traffic assignment. A major development of the 1980s was a realization that user equilibrium traffic assignment is a “variational inequality” and not a minimization problem. [6] An algorithm called the method of successive averages (MSA) has become a popular replacement for Frank-Wolfe decomposition because of MSA’s ability to handle very complicated relations between speed and volume and to handle the combined distribution/mode-split/assignment problem. The convergence properties of MSA were proven for elementary traffic assignments by Powell and Sheffi and in 1982. [7] MSA is known to be slower on elementary traffic assignment problems than Frank-Wolfe decomposition, although MSA can solve a wider range of traffic assignment formulations allowing for greater realism.

A number of enhancements to the overall theme of Wardop’s first principle have been implemented in various software packages. These enhancements include: faster algorithms for elementary traffic assignments, stochastic multiple paths, OD table spatial disaggregation and multiple vehicle classes.

# Calculating Generalized Costs from Delays

Equilibrium traffic assignment needs a method (or series of methods) for calculating impedances (which is another term for generalized costs) on all links (and nodes) of the network, considering how those links (and nodes) were loaded with traffic. Elementary traffic assignments rely on volume-delay functions (VDFs), such as the well-known “BPR curve” (see NCHRP Report 365), [8] that expressed travel time as a function of link volume and link capacity. The 1985 US Highway Capacity Manual (and later editions through 2010) made it clear to transportation planners that delays on large portions of urban networks occur mainly at intersections, which are nodes on a network, and that the delay on any given intersection approach relates to what is happening on all other approaches. VDFs are not suitable for situations where there is conflicting and opposing traffic that affects delays. Software for implementing trip-based models are now incorporating more sophisticated delay relationships from the Highway Capacity Manual and other sources, although many MPO forecasting models still use VDFs, exclusively.

# Challenges for Highway Traffic Assignment

Numerous practical and theoretical inadequacies pertaining to Static User Equilibrium network assignment technique are reported in the literature. Among them, most widely noted concerns and challenges are:

• Inadequate network convergence;
• Continued use of legacy slow convergent network algorithm, despite availability of faster solution methods and computers;
• Non-unique route flows and link flows for multi-class assignments and for assignment on networks that include delays from opposing and conflicting traffic;
• Continued use of VDFs , when superior delay estimation techniques are available;
• Unlikeness of a steady-state network condition;
• Impractical assumption that all drivers have flawless route information and are acting without bias;
• Every driver travels at the same congested speed, no vehicle traveling on the same link overtakes another vehicle;
• Oncoming traffic does not affect traffic flows;
• Interruptions, such as accidents or inclement weather, are not represented;
• Traffic does not form queues;
• Continued use of multi-hour time periods, when finer temporal detail gives better estimates of delay and path choice.

# Transit Assignment

Most transit network assignment in implementation is allocation of known transit network specific demand based on routes, vehicle frequency, stop location, transfer point location and running times. Transit assignments are not equilibrium, but can be either all-or-nothing or stochastic. Algorithms often use complicated expressions of generalized cost which include the different effects of waiting time, transfer time, walking time (for both access and egress), riding time and fare structures. Estimated transit travel time is not directly dependent on transit passenger volume on routes and at stations (unlike estimated highway travel times, which are dependent on vehicular volumes on roads and at intersection). The possibility of many choices available to riders, such as modes of access to transit and overlaps in services between transit lines for a portion of trip segments, add further complexity to these problems.

# Latest Developments

With the increased emphasis on assessment of travel demand management strategies in the US, there have been some notable increases in the implementation of disaggregated modeling of individual travel demand behavior. Similar efforts to simulate travel route choice on dynamic transportation network have been proposed, primarily to support the much needed realistic representation of time and duration of roadway congestion. Successful examples of a shift in the network assignment paradigm to include dynamic traffic assignment on a larger network have emerged in practice. Dynamic traffic assignments are able to follow UE principles. An even newer topic is the incorporation of travel time reliability into path building.

# References

Dial , Robert Barkley, Probabilistic Assignment; a Multipath Traffic Assignment Model Which Obviates Path Enumeration, Thesis (Ph.D.), University of Washington, 1971. ↩︎

Wardrop, J. C., Some Theoretical Aspects of Road Traffic Research, Proceedings, Institution of Civil Engineers Part 2, 9, pp. 325–378. 1952. ↩︎

LeBlanc, Larry J., Morlok, Edward K., Pierskalla, William P., An Efficient Approach to Solving the Road Network Equilibrium Traffic Assignment Problem, Transportation Research 9, 1975, 9, 309–318. ↩︎

(opens new window) ) ↩︎

Evans, Suzanne P., Derivation and Analysis of Some Models for Combining Trip Distribution and Assignment, Transportation Research, Vol 10, pp 37–57 1976. ↩︎

Dafermos, S.C., Traffic Equilibrium and Variational Inequalities, Transportation Science 14, 1980, pp. 42-54. ↩︎

Powell, Warren B. and Sheffi, Yosef, The Convergence of Equilibrium Algorithms with Predetermined Step Sizes, Transportation Science, February 1, 1982, pp. 45-55. ↩︎

(opens new window) ). ↩︎

← Mode choice Dynamic Traffic Assignment →

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Important Computer Network Assignment Topics

• Emily Scott

A computer network is a gathering of interconnected computers. A wide assortment of qualities might order networks.

Computer networking development includes a broad scope of areas, some of which cover computer-based instruction. For instance, this computer-based training development presently advocates vast network connections across schools, libraries, craftsmanship galleries, and examination focuses. The computer networking CM pushes this vision further, supporting all institutional areas meshing together into one big automated web. Students pursuing their studies in this particular academic sphere are expected to perform well in computer network assignment topics to score good grades.

Types of Computer Networks

Personal area network (pan).

The most minor and essential network, a PAN, comprises a remote modem, a computer or two, telephones, printers, tablets, and so forth, and spins around one individual in one structure. These networks are regularly found in little workplaces or habitations and overseen by one individual or association from a solitary gadget.

Local Area Network (LAN)

We're confident you've known about these networks previously – LANs are the most habitually examined networks, one of the most widely recognized, most unique, and perhaps the easiest. LANs associate gatherings of computers and low-voltage gadgets across short separations (inside a structure or between a group of a few designs in closeness to one another) to share data and assets. Undertakings regularly oversee and look after LANs.

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

A metropolitan area network is a network that covers a more extensive geographic area by interconnecting an alternate LAN to frame a giant web.

Government organizations use MAN to interface with the residents and private ventures. Within such concepts, a large number of students find it extremely difficult. Hence, they require professional help with computer network assignment topics.

In MAN, different LANs are associated with one another through a phone trade line. It has a higher reach than the Local Area Network(LAN). Airline Reservation utilizes this network. It is used in a school inside a city.

Wide Area Network (WAN)

Somewhat more mind-boggling than a LAN, a WAN associates computers together across longer actual separations. It permits computers and low-voltage gadgets to be distantly associated with one another, more than one colossal network to impart when separated.

Also Read: Explained: Artificial Neural Network

Significant Computer Network Assignment Topics

Star topology.

Star topology is a network plan where a focal hub expands a link (or remote) to every computer on the web. On a star network, computers are associated autonomously with the focal point of the network.

A star topology permits direct administration of the whole network from one spot. Since every hub has its association, the deficiency of one corner won't break the entire thing. On the off chance that you have to add a gadget to the network, it connects right without additional exertion.

The main issue is that there is a solitary purpose of disappointment in the star network. The entire thing goes down if there's just a single center point. In any case, networking experts will regularly have fizzle over workers – reinforcements – that keep things running while they fix the principal worker.

Intranet Preferences

Correspondence: It gives a modest and straightforward post. A worker of the association can speak with another representative through email or visit.

Efficient: Information on the intranet is partaken continuously, so the time has come sparing.

Coordinated effort: Collaboration is one of the main focal points of the intranet. The data is conveyed among the association representatives and must be gotten to by the approved client.

Savvy: People can see the information and archives by utilizing the program and appropriating the copy duplicates over the intranet. It prompts a decrease in expenses.

How is Computer Networking Advancing?

Current networks convey more than availability. Associations are leaving on changing themselves carefully. Their webs are essential to this change and their prosperity. Network regulators are critical to scaling and making sure about networks. Regulators mechanize networking capacities by interpreting business expectations to gadget arrangements, and they screen gadgets ceaselessly to help guarantee execution and security. Regulators improve tasks and assist associations with reacting to changing business necessities. Other crucial computer network assignment topics need help . Take a look

Algorithms and complexity

Architecture and organization

Computational science

Graphics and visual computing

Human-computer interaction

Information management

Intelligent systems

Networking and communication

Operating systems

Parallel and distributed computing

Platform-based development

Programming languages

Security and information assurance

Software engineering

Social and professional issues

Computer Network Assignment Help

Students struggling with their computer network assignments can simply get professional help from experts . The subject matter experts can provide them with the best assistance possible on computer network assignment topics, and that too within their budget.

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COMPUTER NETWORK ASSIGNMENT HELP Still Finding Computer Network Assignment Help? You’ve Come To The Right Place!

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By seeing the difficulties, scholars face in completing their complex computer network assignments. We have created incredible computer network assignment help. However, when you pursue the computer network course, you will get to know the complexity of its assignment, which can drain you. On the other hand, academics are a very important phase in one’s life, but you should not let it stress you. Instead, you can opt for our impeccable computer network assignment help. By choosing us, you can get the best possible assignment.

What is Computer Network?

Computer networks are a group of computers on the network that is interconnected to interchange the data or information between themselves. Normally, all of these computers are placed at different locations or might be at the same place. Nowadays the internet is growing at a fast pace and for that, the computer network contains millions of computers, smartphones, and servers are joined together. However, it is quite a complicated subject for which scholars look for best computer network assignment help Australia.

 Have A Look To Our Assignment Samples

Our experts gave an alternative definition on a computer network assignment help that says “Interaction and communication between interconnected computers is the combination of a Computer network.” Characteristics of computer networks can be explained on the foundation of topology. Some instances of topology are star topology, ring topology, tree topology, and mesh topology.

Why Our Computer Networking Assignment Help Is The Most Preferred One?

The Assignment Helpline is focused on understanding all the requirements and guidelines of the assignment, and our experts are bound to follow the proper format and structure. In addition, our quality analyst is highly talented and experienced and is dedicated to delivering only error-free and flawless, meeting all your expectations. Our computer network assignment help also pass your assignment through different authorized tools to check the inclusion of plagiarism and errors. In short, we examine the completed project multiple times to ensure its authentic and correct.

That’s not all; we have spread our amazing computer network assignment help services worldwide. We intend to help every academic student who is struggling to complete their academic assignments for any reason. Therefore if you are also one who finds it hard to make a project on a computer network, you can opt-out of assignment help India .

Why does a student look for Computer network assignment help?

The Assignment Helpline assigns the computer network assignments topics to one of the best experts computer network assignment help who are from the background of computer network engineering. They assure that students can get good marks in their academics. In the assignment helpline , experts give their top-notch quality knowledge on computer network assignments for the students to solve their problems in assignments and projects. Our experts on computer network assignment help aim that computer network takes help from many devices for setting up and those devices are USB(Universal Serial Bus), routers, cables, network card. If there is any kind of query related to computer network assignment help then feel free to associate with us.

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Complexity of Subject:

A computer network is a complex subject in itself, and preparing an effective assignment on it is much more complicated. As a result, you are required to have complete knowledge of the topic, but sometimes students lack it and need computer networking homework help.

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Computer Networks Types:

(LAN) Local Area Network:

(LAN) Local Area Network: The use of the network that provides services in a few ranges like in a building or the same region. Normally, this type of network is used in colleges, schools, universities, and small organizations within an area of 1 km. Nowadays, Wi-Fi or Ethernet is the most familiar form of LAN usage. In LAN Four to Five switches are associated with the modem to access the internet.

(MAN) Metropolitan Area Network:

Metropolitan is the kind of web that connects many computer devices in the entire city similarly to cable TV networks. There are various forms where MAN network is used such as ATM, Token-ring, and Ethernet. It covers more area in comparison to LAN but lesser than WAN. It can cover approx. 40 km without disturbing the speed issue.  

(WAN) Wide Area Network:

This type of network covers a huge area in computer networking. It provides high internet speed. Users pay a vast amount of money to obtain this service. The WAN network has improved the quality of speed, in the year 1960 the speed of WAN was approx. 110 bits per/sec and now the speed is approx. 100 G/bits per sec.

Personal Area Network:

PAN network is used within a very small range like a room where the reach of this network is only used to make the interchange of data between one or two devices inside two or three meters. An individual working on a laptop with an attached printer and smartphone by using wireless technology is formed of Personal Area Network. Hence, if you are required to write assignment on any of its type and you find it hard, then you can opt our best computer network assignment help.

However, the university may ask students to draft assignments including these topics, which may sound difficult to them. So if you are also one of those who find it difficult to do, then you should make our computer network assignment help without hesitation. Our writers have a thorough knowledge of all the topics of computer networking.

Network Devices used in Computer Network:

Network devices execute several networking units that transfer data across the computer network. These network devices are often used for the formation of various networks. Consequently, at times you may be asked to write an assignment on it, for which you may need computer network assignment help. Some of the devices are mentioned below:

• Repeater:

The Repeater is used to retransmits the signals of an electronic device to elevated power and level. The most important thing in the repeater is that it never increases the power of the signal rather than regenerates the signal bit at real power when it becomes weak.

• Hub:

Hubs are used to connect the pieces of the network with the help of multiple ports. The process of a hub is like one data packet installs into one of its kind port then it is copied to another port to provide all pieces to perceive the packet. On a single topology, network hub can join as many computers with each and every one.

• Modem:

The process of modulation and demodulation is done by modem devices. All of the data is converted into analogue waves that can be transmitted across cable wires by the modem. After receiving that signal it converts back into the digital signal.

• Router:

For transferring the data on various LAN (Local Area Network) and usually operate the OSI model at the network layer is a functionality of the router. Primarily, connecting with wired or wireless this device is useful for joining many computer networks. The router sends the data packets through the network. The basic difference between hub and router is that a router will analyze the data and then send the data.

• Firewall:

A firewall is used for blocking an unauthorized person on the network during external communication. The device of the firewall can be designed by a mixture of hardware and software or paired. With the help of a firewall, users can save their systems from unauthorized access.

Hence, whenever you are asked to create projects on these topics, and if you find yourself incapable of doing so. Further, you can opt for the best computer network assignment help, as they give a guarantee of delivering the top-notch paper.

Topology and its types:

The connection of devices over the network is known as topology.

There are some topologies mentioned below:

• Bus Topology:

In a bus topology, the network devices and the computer devices are connected in one single lane or by a single cable so that data will be obtained at the same time. The prime disadvantage of the bus topology is that if suppose one cable breaks then the entire cable will be affected or maybe close to forward the information. The most popular cablings in bus topology are Coaxial (10Base-2, 10Base5).

• Ring Topology:

Ring Topology is the structure of linking the devices in the pattern of the ring. In-ring topology there is no requirement of the central node.  

•  Star Topology:

In star topology, the central device is connected with all computers or devices. A single cable is required for every system. The connection between the devices and hub is point-to-point. The implementation is complex in this topology. The single-point failure is known as a hub.

Therefore, if in case you are asked to prepare an assignment on topologies, then you need to have proper knowledge of its types. But, in case you lack at it, then you don’t need to get stressed about it. As our computer network assignment help experts have a thorough knowledge of these types and can provide you with a well-formatted assignment.

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Types of Network Topology

Network topology refers to the arrangement of different elements like nodes, links, and devices in a computer network. It defines how these components are connected and interact with each other. Understanding various types of network topologies helps in designing efficient and robust networks. Common types include bus, star, ring, mesh, and tree topologies, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. In this article, we are going to discuss different types of network topology their advantages and disadvantages in detail.

The arrangement of a network that comprises nodes and connecting lines via sender and receiver is referred to as Network Topology . The various network topologies are:

Point to Point Topology

Mesh Topology

Star Topology

Bus Topology

Ring Topology

Tree Topology

Hybrid Topology

Point-to-point topology is a type of topology that works on the functionality of the sender and receiver. It is the simplest communication between two nodes, in which one is the sender and the other one is the receiver. Point-to-Point provides high bandwidth.

In a mesh topology, every device is connected to another device via a particular channel. In Mesh Topology, the protocols used are AHCP (Ad Hoc Configuration Protocols), DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), etc.

Figure 1 : Every device is connected to another via dedicated channels. These channels are known as links. 

• Suppose, the N number of devices are connected with each other in a mesh topology, the total number of ports that are required by each device is N-1. In Figure 1, there are 5 devices connected to each other, hence the total number of ports required by each device is 4. The total number of ports required = N * (N-1).
• Suppose, N number of devices are connected with each other in a mesh topology, then the total number of dedicated links required to connect them is N C 2 i.e. N(N-1)/2. In Figure 1, there are 5 devices connected to each other, hence the total number of links required is 5*4/2 = 10.

Advantages of Mesh Topology

• Communication is very fast between the nodes.
• Mesh Topology is robust.
• The fault is diagnosed easily. Data is reliable because data is transferred among the devices through dedicated channels or links.
• Provides security and privacy.

Disadvantages of Mesh Topology

• Installation and configuration are difficult.
• The cost of cables is high as bulk wiring is required, hence suitable for less number of devices.
• The cost of maintenance is high.

A common example of mesh topology is the internet backbone, where various internet service providers are connected to each other via dedicated channels. This topology is also used in military communication systems and aircraft navigation systems.

For more, refer to the Advantages and Disadvantages of Mesh Topology .

In Star Topology, all the devices are connected to a single hub through a cable. This hub is the central node and all other nodes are connected to the central node. The hub can be passive in nature i.e., not an intelligent hub such as broadcasting devices, at the same time the hub can be intelligent known as an active hub. Active hubs have repeaters in them. Coaxial cables or RJ-45 cables are used to connect the computers. In Star Topology, many popular Ethernet LAN protocols are used as CD(Collision Detection), CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access), etc.

Figure 2 : A star topology having four systems connected to a single point of connection i.e. hub. 

Advantages of Star Topology

• If N devices are connected to each other in a star topology, then the number of cables required to connect them is N. So, it is easy to set up.
• Each device requires only 1 port i.e. to connect to the hub, therefore the total number of ports required is N.
• It is Robust. If one link fails only that link will affect and not other than that.
• Easy to fault identification and fault isolation.
• Star topology is cost-effective as it uses inexpensive coaxial cable.

Disadvantages of Star Topology

• If the concentrator (hub) on which the whole topology relies fails, the whole system will crash down.
• The cost of installation is high.
• Performance is based on the single concentrator i.e. hub.

A common example of star topology is a local area network (LAN) in an office where all computers are connected to a central hub. This topology is also used in wireless networks where all devices are connected to a wireless access point.

For more, refer to the Advantages and Disadvantages of Star Topology.

Bus Topology is a network type in which every computer and network device is connected to a single cable. It is bi-directional. It is a multi-point connection and a non-robust topology because if the backbone fails the topology crashes. In Bus Topology, various MAC (Media Access Control) protocols are followed by LAN ethernet connections like TDMA , Pure Aloha , CDMA, Slotted Aloha , etc.

Figure 3 : A bus topology with shared backbone cable. The nodes are connected to the channel via drop lines. 

Advantages of Bus Topology

• If N devices are connected to each other in a bus topology, then the number of cables required to connect them is 1, known as backbone cable, and N drop lines are required.
• Coaxial or twisted pair cables are mainly used in bus-based networks that support up to 10 Mbps.
• The cost of the cable is less compared to other topologies, but it is used to build small networks.
• Bus topology is familiar technology as installation and troubleshooting techniques are well known.
• CSMA is the most common method for this type of topology.

 Disadvantages of  Bus Topology

• A bus topology is quite simpler, but still, it requires a lot of cabling.
• If the common cable fails, then the whole system will crash down.
• If the network traffic is heavy, it increases collisions in the network. To avoid this, various protocols are used in the MAC layer known as Pure Aloha, Slotted Aloha, CSMA/CD, etc.
• Adding new devices to the network would slow down networks.
• Security is very low.

A common example of bus topology is the Ethernet LAN, where all devices are connected to a single coaxial cable or twisted pair cable. This topology is also used in cable television networks. For more, refer to the Advantages and Disadvantages of Bus Topology .

In a Ring Topology, it forms a ring connecting devices with exactly two neighboring devices. A number of repeaters are used for Ring topology with a large number of nodes, because if someone wants to send some data to the last node in the ring topology with 100 nodes, then the data will have to pass through 99 nodes to reach the 100th node. Hence to prevent data loss repeaters are used in the network.

The data flows in one direction, i.e. it is unidirectional, but it can be made bidirectional by having 2 connections between each Network Node, it is called Dual Ring Topology. In-Ring Topology, the Token Ring Passing protocol is used by the workstations to transmit the data.

Figure 4 : A ring topology comprises 4 stations connected with each forming a ring. 

The most common access method of ring topology is token passing.

• Token passing: It is a network access method in which a token is passed from one node to another node.
• Token: It is a frame that circulates around the network.

Operations of Ring Topology

• One station is known as a monitor station which takes all the responsibility for performing the operations.
• To transmit the data, the station has to hold the token. After the transmission is done, the token is to be released for other stations to use.
• When no station is transmitting the data, then the token will circulate in the ring.
• There are two types of token release techniques: Early token release releases the token just after transmitting the data and Delayed token release releases the token after the acknowledgment is received from the receiver.

Advantages of Ring Topology

• The data transmission is high-speed.
• The possibility of collision is minimum in this type of topology.
• Cheap to install and expand.
• It is less costly than a star topology.

Disadvantages of Ring Topology

• The failure of a single node in the network can cause the entire network to fail.
• Troubleshooting is difficult in this topology.
• The addition of stations in between or the removal of stations can disturb the whole topology.
• Less secure. 

For more, refer to the Advantages and Disadvantages of Ring Topology .

This topology is the variation of the Star topology. This topology has a hierarchical flow of data. In Tree Topology, protocols like DHCP and SAC (Standard Automatic Configuration ) are used.

Figure 5 : In this, the various secondary hubs are connected to the central hub which contains the repeater. This data flow from top to bottom i.e. from the central hub to the secondary and then to the devices or from bottom to top i.e. devices to the secondary hub and then to the central hub. It is a multi-point connection and a non-robust topology because if the backbone fails the topology crashes.

Advantages of Tree Topology

• It allows more devices to be attached to a single central hub thus it decreases the distance that is traveled by the signal to come to the devices.
• It allows the network to get isolated and also prioritize from different computers.
• We can add new devices to the existing network.
• Error detection and error correction are very easy in a tree topology.

Disadvantages of Tree Topology

• If the central hub gets fails the entire system fails.
• The cost is high because of the cabling.
• If new devices are added, it becomes difficult to reconfigure.

A common example of a tree topology is the hierarchy in a large organization. At the top of the tree is the CEO, who is connected to the different departments or divisions (child nodes) of the company. Each department has its own hierarchy, with managers overseeing different teams (grandchild nodes). The team members (leaf nodes) are at the bottom of the hierarchy, connected to their respective managers and departments.

For more, refer to the Advantages and Disadvantages of Tree Topology .

This topological technology is the combination of all the various types of topologies we have studied above. Hybrid Topology is used when the nodes are free to take any form. It means these can be individuals such as Ring or Star topology or can be a combination of various types of topologies seen above. Each individual topology uses the protocol that has been discussed earlier.

The above figure shows the structure of the Hybrid topology. As seen it contains a combination of all different types of networks.

Advantages of Hybrid Topology

• This topology is very flexible .
• The size of the network can be easily expanded by adding new devices.

Disadvantages of Hybrid Topology

• It is challenging to design the architecture of the Hybrid Network.
• Hubs used in this topology are very expensive.
• The infrastructure cost is very high as a hybrid network requires a lot of cabling and network devices .

A common example of a hybrid topology is a university campus network. The network may have a backbone of a star topology, with each building connected to the backbone through a switch or router. Within each building, there may be a bus or ring topology connecting the different rooms and offices. The wireless access points also create a mesh topology for wireless devices. This hybrid topology allows for efficient communication between different buildings while providing flexibility and redundancy within each building.

For more, refer to the Advantages and Disadvantages of Hybrid Topology .

In conclusion, network topologies play a crucial role in determining the efficiency and reliability of a computer network. Each topology, whether it’s bus, star, ring, mesh, or tree, offers unique benefits and potential drawbacks. By understanding these different arrangements, network designers can choose the most appropriate topology to meet the specific needs of their systems, ensuring optimal performance and connectivity.

Frequently Asked Questions on Network Topology – FAQs

What is the main benefit of tree topology.

Tree topology combines characteristics of star and bus topologies. It supports future expandability of the network and provides efficient data management

Which topology is best for large networks?

For large networks, mesh and tree topologies are often preferred. Mesh topology offers high reliability and redundancy, while tree topology supports scalability and efficient data organization.

Can different topologies be combined in a single network?

Yes, different topologies can be combined in a hybrid topology to take advantage of the strengths of each type, improving overall network performance and reliability.

How do I choose the right network topology for my needs?

Choosing the right network topology depends on factors such as the size of your network, budget, desired performance, and the need for reliability and scalability. Assess your specific requirements to make an informed decision.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers are calling up the 25-year-old right-hander to provide length out of the bullpen while they have designated reliever Brent Honeywell for assignment, the Athletic's Fabian Ardaya confirmed the news with a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Casparius began the season in Double-A, where he finished last season. He was promoted to Triple-A in May and has remained there for the rest of the season. In 13 starts, he is 3-3 with a 3.54 earned run average.

Before he was promoted to Oklahoma City, he appeared in five games for Tulsa. Across the two stops, Casparius is 5-4 with a 3.48 ERA in 18 starts. He's struck out 95 batters in 77.2 innings, boasts a 1.25 WHIP, and has held hitters to a .199 batting average.

Brent Honeywell no longer has a locker. https://t.co/vHMAuIVWtj — Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) August 18, 2024

Honeywell appeared to be a solid arm for the Dodgers out of the bullpen as he resurrected a pitch from a former Dodgers legend.

Mike Marshall, who played 14 years (1967-81) in the big leagues, used a screwball heavily in 1974 when the Dodgers right-hander went 15-12 with a 2.42 ERA and 21 saves and threw 208.1 innings in a major league-record 106 relief appearances to win the NL Cy Young Award.

Marshall was the head coach at Saint Leo University, a Division II school in the Tampa Bay area, from 1984 to 1988. Brent Honeywell Sr. pitched for Saint Leo from 1985 to 1988 and learned how to throw the same pitch.

“Mike Marshall taught my dad the pitch, and then my dad taught me the pitch when I was in high school,” Honeywell said. “I’ve been throwing it my whole career.”

There was nothing fast about Honeywell’s screwball, which averaged 80.8 mph and, according to Baseball Savant, features an average drop of 45.1 inches and an average left-to-right break of 7.9 inches.

“Honeywell has been great,” manager Dave Roberts said . “He’s very confident. I love the strike-throwing aspect. It’s a funky changeup-screwball. I think we’re getting him at the right time — you know, a guy who’s been kicked in the teeth and kind of on the outs and then he has a new start. As a 29-year-old player with not a lot of [major league] service, I think he’s just scratching the surface.”

Casparius will be the second pitcher out of the University of Connecticut to make his big league debut with the Dodgers, following in the footsteps of Emmet Sheehan.

Hopefully, Honeywell will catch on with another team for the remainder of the season.

MAREN ANGUS-COOMBS

Maren Angus-Coombs was born in Los Angeles and raised in Nashville, Tenn. She is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State and has been a sports writer since 2008. Despite growing up in the South, her sports obsession has always been in Los Angeles. She is currently a staff writer at the LA Sports Report Network.