DATA COMMUNICATION AND NETWORKS

Assignment 1
Name: Chitranshi Saxena
Roll No.: 222EC5283
Specialization : Communication and Networks

CONTENTS:
1. Introduction
2. List of Components
3. Classification of Networks
4. OSI Model
5. TCP/IP Model
6. References
INTRODUCTION:
Data Communication and Networking are changing the way we live. Technological advances
are making it possible for communication links to carry more and faster signals.
Data communication is the exchange of information between two devices via some from of
transmission medium such as a wire cable. It consists of a combination of hardware(physical
equipment) and software(programs).The effectiveness of a system depends on delivery,
accuracy and timeliness of data. Major five components of a data communication system are:
• Message: information to be transmitted (text, numbers, pictures, sound, video)
• Sender: the device that sends the data message (computer, workstation, telephone
handset)
• Receiver: the device that receives the message (computer, telephone, television)
• Medium: the physical path by which a message travels from sender to receiver
(coaxial cable, fibre optic cable, radio waves)
• Protocol: set of rules that governs data communication
Communication between two devices can be simplex, half-duplex, or full-duplex.

Network is a set of devices connected by communication links. Network must meet the
criteria of performance, reliability and security.
LIST OF COMPONENTS:
Following are the major components required to install a network:
1. NIC-
• NIC stands for network interface card.
• NIC is a hardware component used to connect a computer with another computer
onto a network
• It can support a transfer rate of 10,100 to 1000 Mb/s.
• The MAC address or physical address is encoded on the network card chip which
is assigned by the IEEE to identify a network card uniquely. The MAC address
is stored in the PROM (Programmable read-only memory).
• NIC can be wired or wireless.

2. HUB-

• A Hub is a hardware device that divides the network connection among multiple
devices.
• When computer requests for some information from a network, it first sends the
request to the Hub through cable. Hub will broadcast this request to the entire
network. All the devices will check whether the request belongs to them or not.
If not, the request will be dropped.
• The process used by the Hub consumes more bandwidth and limits the amount of
communication.

3. SWITCH-
• A switch is a hardware device that connects multiple devices on a computer
network.
• Switch delivers the message to the correct destination based on the physical
address present in the incoming message. It determines the device to whom the
message is to be transmitted.
• It increases the speed of the network.

4. ROUTER-
• A router is a hardware device which is used to connect a LAN with an internet
connection. It is used to receive, analyze and forward the incoming packets to
another network.
• A router works in a Layer 3 (Network layer) of the OSI Reference model.
• A router forwards the packet based on the information available in the routing
table.
• It determines the best path from the available paths for the transmission of the
packet.
5. BRIDGE-
• Bridges are used to connect two subnetworks that use interchangeable protocols.
• It combines two LANs to form an extended LAN.

6. BRIDGE ROUTER-
• Bridge Router is used to connect two devices with different protocols or using
different networking standards.
• Bridge Router is also used to connect two devices with different IP addresses.
without changing their IP addresses.

7. GATEWAY-
• A gateway is a network node that forms a passage between two networks
operating with different transmission protocols.
• The most common type of gateways, the network gateway operates at layer 3,
i.e. network layer of the OSI model.

8. CABLES-
• Coaxial cable is also a standard for 10 Mbps Ethernet cables
These cables consist of an inner copper wire of varying thickness surrounded
by insulation and another shielding.
• Ethernet twisted pair cables contain up to eight wires wound together in pairs
to minimize electromagnetic interference. Two primary types of twisted pair
cable industry standards have been defined: unshielded twisted pair (UTP) and
shielded twisted pair (STP). It provides higher speeds up to 10 Gbps
• Fiber optic cable use strands of glass and pulses of light. wo primary types of
fiber optic cable industry standards are defined—single-mode (100BaseBX
standard) and multimode (100BaseSX standard).
• Universal Serial Bus (USB) cables connect a computer with a peripheral
device (such as a keyboard or mouse)
CLASSIFICATION OF NETWORKS-
Networks can be classified into three main categories:
Local Area Network (LAN):
A LAN is usually privately owned and links the devices in a single office, building or
campus. LAN size is limited to a few kms. The most common LAN topologies are BUS,
RING and STAR. Traditionally LANs have data rates in 4 to 16 megabits per second
range, however speeds are increasing and reach 100Mbps. LAN is used for connecting
two or more personal computers through a communication medium such as twisted pair,
coaxial cable, etc. It is less costly and provides higher security.

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN):

A metropolitan area network is a network that covers a larger geographic area by

interconnecting a different LAN to form a larger network. In MAN, various LANs are
connected to each other through a telephone exchange line. The most widely used
protocols in MAN are RS-232, Frame Relay, ATM, ISDN, OC-3, ADSL, etc. It is used
for communication between banks in a city, in military, in airline communication.
Wide Area Network (WAN):

A Wide Area Network is a network that extends over a large geographical area such as
states or countries. It spans over a large geographical area through a telephone line, fibre
optic cable or satellite links. The internet is one of the biggest WAN in the world. A
Wide Area Network is widely used in the field of Business, government, and education .
In case of WAN network, data is centralized. Also it has high bandwidth.
OSI MODEL-
Open System Interconnection (OSI) is a reference model that describes how information
from a software application in one computer moves through a physical medium to the
software application in another computer. It consists of seven layers each performing a
particular network function.
The OSI model is divided into layers : Upper layer and the Lower layer
The upper layer of the OSI model mainly deals with the application related issues, and they
are implemented only in the software. The lower layer of the OSI model deals with the data
transport issues.

The seven layers in the OSI model are as follows:

1. Physical Layer:
It is the lowest layer in the network. The main functionality of the physical layer is to
transmit the individual bits from one node to another node. t establishes, maintains and
deactivates the physical connection. It defines the way how two or more devices can be
connected physically, the transmission mode whether it is simplex, half-duplex or full-
duplex mode between the two devices on the network, the way how network devices
are arranged and determines the type of the signal used for transmitting the information.

2. Data Link Layer:

This layer is responsible for the error-free transfer of data frames. It defines the format
of the data on the network. It is mainly responsible for the unique identification of each
 device that resides on a local network. It contains two sub-layers: Logical Link Control
layer and Media Access Control Layer.

The Data link layer adds the header and trailer to the frame. The header which is
added to the frame contains the hardware destination and source address.

Flow Control is the technique through which the constant data rate is maintained on
both the sides so that no data get corrupted.

Error Control is achieved by adding a calculated value CRC (Cyclic Redundancy

Check) that is placed to the Data link layer's trailer which is added to the message frame
before it is sent to the physical layer.

3. Network Layer:

It tracks the location of devices on the network. It determines the best path to move data
from source to the destination based on the network conditions, the priority of service,
and other factors. The protocols used to route the network traffic are known as Network
layer protocols. Examples of protocols are IP and Ipv6.

An internetworking is the main responsibility of the network layer. It provides a logical

connection between different devices. Routing is the major component of the network
layer. A Network Layer receives the packets from the upper layer and converts them
into packets. This process is known as Packetizing. It is achieved by internet protocol
(IP).

4. Transport Layer:

The Transport layer is a Layer 4 ensures that messages are transmitted in the order in
which they are sent and there is no duplication of data. It receives the data from the
upper layer and converts them into smaller units known as segments. This layer can be
termed as an end-to-end layer as it provides a point-to-point connection between source
and destination to deliver the data reliably.

The two protocols used in this layer are:

o Transmission Control Protocol : When data is sent over the TCP connection, then the
TCP protocol divides the data into smaller units known as segments. Each segment
travels over the internet using multiple routes, and they arrive in different orders at the
destination. The transmission control protocol reorders the packets in the correct order
at the receiving end.
o User Datagram Protocol :It is an unreliable transport protocol as in this case receiver
does not send any acknowledgment when the packet is received, the sender does not
wait for any acknowledgment. Therefore, this makes a protocol unreliable.

5. Session Layer :
The Session layer is used to establish, maintain and synchronizes the interaction
between communicating devices. Session layer acts as a dialog controller that creates a
dialog between two processes, or we can say that it allows the communication between
two processes which can be either half-duplex or full-duplex. Session layer adds some
checkpoints when transmitting the data in a sequence. If some error occurs in the middle
of the transmission of data, then the transmission will take place again from the
checkpoint. This process is known as Synchronization and recovery.

6. Presentation Layer:
A Presentation layer is mainly concerned with the syntax and semantics of the
information exchanged between the two systems. It acts as a data translator for a
network. This layer is a part of the operating system that converts the data from one
presentation format to another format. The Presentation layer is also known as the
syntax layer.
The presentation layer handles the interoperability between the different encoding
methods. It converts the data from sender-dependent format into a common format and
changes the common format into receiver-dependent format at the receiving end. It also
encrypts and compresses the data.

7. Application Layer:
An application layer serves as a window for users and application processes to access
network service. It handles issues such as network transparency, resource allocation,
etc. This layer provides the network services to the end-users.
File transfer, access, and management (FTAM): An application layer allows a user
to access the files in a remote computer, to retrieve the files from a computer and to
manage the files in a remote computer. An application layer provides the facility for
email forwarding and storage. Directory services: An application provides the
distributed database sources and is used to provide that global information about various
objects.
TCP/IP Model-
TCP/IP model consists of four layers: the application layer, transport layer, internet layer and
link layer.

1. Link Layer: This layer provides mechanism of sending and receiving actual data.
Unlike its OSI Model counterpart, this layer is independent of underlying network
architecture and hardware. Data link layer divides the stream of bits into manageable
data units called frames. It adds a header to the frame. It also controls flow, access and
error. It is responsible for transmitting frames from one node to the next. (hop-to-hop
delivery)

2. Internet Layer: The main responsibility of the internet layer is to send the packets from
any network, and they arrive at the destination irrespective of the route they take. It is
responsible for the delivery of packets from the original source to the final destination.

IP protocol is used in this layer. This protocol implements logical host addresses known
as IP addresses. The IP addresses are used by the internet and higher layers to identify
the device and to provide internetwork routing. It determines the path through which the
data is to be transmitted. An IP protocol accepts the data from the transport layer
protocol. An IP protocol ensures that the data is sent and received securely, it
encapsulates the data into message known as IP datagram. The limit imposed on the size
of the IP datagram by data link layer protocol is known as Maximum Transmission unit
(MTU). If the size of IP datagram is greater than the MTU unit, then the IP protocol
splits the datagram into smaller units so that they can travel over the local network.
Fragmentation can be done by the sender or intermediate router. At the receiver side, all
the fragments are reassembled to form an original message. When IP datagram is sent
over the same local network such as LAN, MAN, WAN, it is known as direct delivery.
When source and destination are on the distant network, then the IP datagram is sent
 indirectly. This can be accomplished by routing the IP datagram through various devices
such as routers.

3. Transport Layer: This layer defines how data should flow between hosts. Major
protocol at this layer is Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). This layer ensures data
delivered between hosts is in-order and is responsible for end-to-end delivery.

It provides a full transport layer services to applications. It creates a virtual circuit

between the sender and receiver, and it is active for the duration of the transmission.
TCP is a reliable protocol as it detects the error and retransmits the damaged frames.
Therefore, it ensures all the segments must be received and acknowledged before the
transmission is considered to be completed and a virtual circuit is discarded. At the
sending end, TCP divides the whole message into smaller units known as segment, and
each segment contains a sequence number which is required for reordering the frames
to form an original message. At the receiving end, TCP collects all the segments and
reorders them based on sequence numbers.
 4. Application Layer: The application layer enables the user to access the network. It
provides services to the user. The main protocols used in the application layer are
HTTP (Hypertext transfer protocol), SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol),
SMTP ( Simple mail transfer protocol), DNS (Domain Name System), TELNET
(Terminal Network) and FTP (File Transfer Protocol).

References:
1. Data Communication and Networks by Behrouz A. Forouzan
2. https://www.tutorialspoint.com/data_communication_computer_network/computer_ne
twork_models.htm
3. https://www.javatpoint.com/computer-network