|
LESSON – CLASSIFYING NETWORKS
There
are many ways to classify networks. PHYSICAL
AREA A Local Area Networks (LAN) usually covers a single home
while Wide Area Networks (WAN) can cover entire cities,
provinces or even the entire world.
The internet is the world’s largest WAN. Some people also use the term Metro Area Network (MAN) for networks up to the size of
a city. NETWORK
DESIGN Two
main types of network designs are client-server
and peer-to-peer. Client-server networks include server
computers that store files (webpages, applications, emails…) to be used by
client computers. In a peer-to-peer
network, files are stored and shared without a centralized management source. TOPOLOGY In
networking, topology refers to the way that computers are connected
together. Some of the basic topologies
include bus, ring, star, mesh and tree.
The star topology is the common setup for home networks where all
computers are connected to a single hub (or router). NETWORK
PROTOCOLS A
network protocol is a communication language that is used by different
devices to transmit information.
Different networks support different sets of network protocols. Common network protocols include TCP, UDP,
IP and HTTP. WIRED vs
WIRELESS In
recent years, the emergence of wireless technology has given us another way
to classify networks. Wired networks
simply consist of computers that are physically connected by wires. Wireless networks consist of computers that
rely on radio waves for transmission of data.
Of course, wireless has taken over most home networks. WORK
|