Data Communications Notes 3 Data Communications for CpE Prepared by: Jan Ray C Rulida, ECE

Textbook: Electronic Communications Systems Fundamentals Through Advanced, 5 th Edition by Wayne Tomasi

DATA COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

The concept of networking began when someone determined that there was a need to share software and data resources and that there was a better way to do it then storing data on a disk and literally running from one computer to another. The manual technique of of moving data on disks is sometimes referred to as sneaker net.

NETWORK COMPONENTS, FUNCTIONS, AND FEATURES

All computer networks include some combination of the following: end stations, applications, and a network that will support the data traffic between the end stations. SERVERS. Servers are computers that hold shared files, programs, and the network operating system. Servers provide access to network resources to all the users of the network. CLIENTS. Clients are computers that access and use the network and shared network resources. Client computers are basically the customers (users) of the network, as they request and receive services from the servers. TRANSMISSION MEDIA. Transmission media are the facilities used to interconnect computers in a network, such as twisted-pair wire, coaxial cable, and optical fiber cable. Transmission media are sometimes called channels, links, or lines. SHARED DATA. Shared data are data that file servers provide to clients, such as data files, printer access programs, and e-mail. SHARED PRINTERS and PERIPHERALS. Shared printers and peripherals are hardware resources provided to the users of the network by servers. NETWORK INTERFACE CARD. The NIC prepares (formats) and sends data, receives data, and controls data flow between the computer and the network. The NIC transmits and receives data to and from the physical layer. LOCAL OPERATING SYSTEM. A local operating system (LOS) allows personal computers to access files, print to a local printer, and have and use one or more disk and CD drives that are located on the computer. (e.g. Linux, Windows, Unix, Mac OS) NETWORK OPERATING SYSTEM. The network operating system (NOS) is a program that runs on computers and servers that allows the computers to communicate over a network. The NOS provides services to clients such as log-in features, password authentication, printer access, network administration functions, and data file sharing.

NETWORK MODELS

Computer networks can be represented with two basic network models: peer-to-peer client/server and dedicated client/server. Although clients and servers are generally shown to be separate units, they are often active in a single computer but not a the same time. With the client/server concept, a computer acting as a client initiates a software request from another computer acting as a server. The server computer responds and attempts to satisfy the request from the client. The server computer might then act as a client and requests services from another computer.

Peer-to-peer client/server network. A peer-to-peer client/server network is one which all computers share their resources, such as hard drives, printers, and so on, with all the other computers in the network. Therefore, the peer-topeer operating system divides its time between servicing the computer on which it is loaded and servicing requests from other computers. In a peer-to-peer network (sometimes called a workgroup), there are no dedicated servers or hierarchy among the computers. Dedicated client/server network. In a dedicated client/server network, one computer is designated the server, and the rest of the computers are clients. As the network grows, additional computers can be designated servers. Generally, the designated servers function only as servers and are not used as client or workstation.