Networking and Communication

We live in a world of technological advancements where we owe a lot of it to networking. Networking has enabled us to communicate with people in distant lands in a matter of seconds. This was not possible in previous years. We can easily talk to our family and friends living far away from us. It is not only the messages that are shared but also data. A computer network (a. k. a data network) is a communication medium which allows computers to exchange data. The best known computer network is the internet.

Network is a collection of nodes and links that connect to them. There are two types of network connections: wired and wireless. Wired networks offer users plenty of security and the ability to move data very quickly and easily. Wired networks are usually faster than wireless networks. There are three types of systems used by people to set up wired network. One of the three systems is the Ethernet system which uses Copper or coaxial based transport system. The most common cable for Ethernet systems are UTP (unshielded twisted pair). Wireless Network or Wireless local-area network (LAN) uses radio waves to connect to computers and other gadgets. The wireless networks have many benefits such as mobility, productivity, security, and cost efficient. There are three main types of network connections: LAN, WAN and MAN. In networks the information/data is passed in the form of packets.

There are many types of network structures. Some of them include bus network, star network, ring network, mesh network and tree network. Bus network means that all the traffic is equally distributed to all the nodes. In star network, each node is connected to a central node where the central node provides a common connection to all the other nodes. In ring network, each node is connected to exactly two other nodes to transfer data. In mesh network, each node can be only connected to one another node or to many other nodes. Tree network is a combination of bus and star topology.

In conclusion, Computer network is a very interesting topic. Where we get to look how data gets transferred around the web and how nodes communicate with each other. This shows us how people communicate with each other on an enormous scale.