Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Categories of Networks

Categories of Networks

o    There are three main categories of Networks:

   LANS
   WANS
   MANS

o    Into  which  category  a  network  falls  is  determined  by  its  SIZE,  OWNERSHIP,
DISTANCE IT COVERS, and its PHYSICAL ARCHITECTURE


  LANS
o    A LAN is usually Privately owned and Links the devices in a single office, Building
or a campus

o    Two Implications
   Care  must  be  taken  in  choice  of  a  LAN,  because  there  may  be  a  substantial
capital investment for purchase and maintenance.
   Secondly,   the   network   management   responsibility   falls   solely   on   the
user/company

o    Size of a LAN
   Size  of  a  LAN  depends  upon  the  Needs  of  Organization  and  the  Type  of
Technology

   LAN can be as simple as two PCs and a printer in someone's home office or it
can extend throughout a company and include complex equipment too
   Currently LAN size is limited to a few kilometers

o    Design of a LAN
   LANs are designed to allow resources to be shared between personal computers or
workstations
   The   resources   to   be   shared   can   include   hardware   (printer),   software   (an
application program) or data.

   Example of a LAN
A  common  example  of  a  LAN  found  in  many  business  environments  links  a
work  group  of  task  related  computers,  for  example  engineering  workstations
or  Accounting  PCs.  One  of  the  PCs  may  be  given  a  large  capacity  disk  and
becomes  a  server  to  others.  Software  stored  on  the  server  and  is  used  by  the
whole group. In this case size is determined by software licenses

o    Transmission Media & Topology
   In  addition  to  size,  LANs  are  distinguished  from  other  types  of  networks  by
Transmission media and topology
   In general a given LAN will use only one type of Transmission medium
   The most common LAN topology Bus, Star Ring

o    Data Rates in a LAN
   Traditionally 4 - 16 Mbps
   Speeds increased and now 100Mbps and above are also possible
   Giga Bit LAN technologies

No comments:

Post a Comment