Internet & Networking Architecture

NTERNET ARCHITECTURE

INTRODUCTION :

The Internet is a rather loose assemblage of individual networks; there is little in the way of overall administration.

The individual networks are owned by a huge number of independent operators. Some of these are major corporations with large, high-capacitynetworks; others are private individuals operating tiny networks of two or three computers their homes. Between them these networksemploy just about every networking technology yet invented. The great strength of the Internet is that it allows these diverse networks toact together to provide a single global network service.

The interactions between a network and its neighbors are, in essence, both simple and robust. This makes for easy extendibility andfuelled the early growth of the Internet. New participants needed only to come to an agreement with an existing operator and set upsome fairly simple equipment to become full players. This was in great contrast to the situation within the world of telephone networks,where operators were mostly large and bureaucratic and where adding new interconnections required complex negotiation andconfiguration and, possibly, international treaties.

What is the Internet architecture?

It is by definition a meta-network, a constantly changing collection of thousands of individual networks intercommunicating with a common protocol.

The Internet's architecture is described in its name, a short from of the compound word "inter-networking". This architecture is based in the very specification of the standard TCP/IP protocol, designed to connect any two networks which may be very different in internal hardware, software, and technical design. Once two networks are interconnected, communication with TCP/IP is enabled end-to-end, so that any node on the Internet has the near magical ability to communicate with any other no matter where they are. This openness of design has enabled the Internet architecture to grow to a global scale.

In practice, the Internet technical architecture looks a bit like a multi-dimensional river system, with small tributaries feeding medium-sized streams feeding large rivers. For example, an individual's access to the Internet is often from home over a modem to a local Internet service provider who connects to a regional network connected to a national network. At the office, a desktop computer might be connected to a local area network with a company connection to a corporate Intranet connected to several national Internet service providers. In general, small local Internet service providers connect to medium-sized regional networks which connect to large national networks, which then connect to very large bandwidth networks on the Internet backbone.

Most Internet service providers have several redundant network cross-connections to other providers in order to ensure continuous availability. The companies running the Internet backbone operate very high bandwidth networks relied on by governments, corporations, large organizations, and other Internet service providers. Their technical infrastructure often includes global connections through underwater cables and satellite links to enable communication between countries and continents. As always, a larger scale introduces new phenomena: the number of packets flowing through the switches on the backbone is so large that it exhibits the kind of complex non-linear patterns usually found in natural, analog systems like the flow of water or development of the rings of Saturn.

Each communication packet goes up the hierarchy of Internet networks as far as necessary to get to its destination network where local routing takes over to deliver it to the addressee. In the same way, each level in the hierarchy pays the next level for the bandwidth they use, and then the large backbone companies settle up with each other. Bandwidth is priced by large Internet service providers by several methods, such as at a fixed rate for constant availability of a certain number of megabits per second, or by a variety of use methods that amount to a cost per gigabyte. Due to economies of scale and efficiencies in management, bandwidth cost drops dramatically at the higher levels of the architecture.
Resources :

The network topology page provides information and resources on the real-time construction of the Internet network, including graphs and statistics.

The following references provide additional information about the Internet architecture: Internet Architecture and Innovation

"Many people have a pragmatic attitude toward technology: they don't care how it works, they just want to use it. With regard to the Internet, this attitude is dangerous. As this book shows, different ways of structuring the Internet result in very different environments for its development, production, and use. If left to themselves, network providers will continue to change the internal structure of the Internet in ways that are good for them, but not necessarily for the rest of us — individual, organizational or corporate Internet users, application developers and content providers, and even those who do not use the Internet.

If we want to protect the Internet's usefulness, if we want to realize its full economic, social, cultural, and political potential, we need to understand the Internet's structure and what will happen if that structure is changed." The Internet's remarkable growth has been fueled by innovation. New applications continually enable new ways of using the Internet, and new physical networking technologies increase the range of networks over which the Internet can run. In this pathbreaking book, Barbara van Schewick argues that this explosion of innovation is not an accident, but a consequence of the Internet's architecture – a consequence of technical choices regarding the Internet's inner structure made early in its history. Building on insights from economics, management science, engineering, networking and law, van Schewick shows how alternative network architectures can create very different economic environments for innovation.

The Internet's original architecture was based on four design principles – modularity, layering, and two versions of the celebrated but often misunderstood end-to-end arguments. This design, van Schewick demonstrates, fostered innovation in applications and allowed applications like e-mail, the World Wide Web, E-Bay, Google, Skype, Flickr, Blogger and Facebook to emerge.

Today, the Internet's architecture is changing in ways that deviate from the Internet's original design principles. These changes remove the features that fostered innovation in the past. They reduce the amount and quality of application innovation and limit users' ability to use the Internet as they see fit. They threaten the Internet's ability to spur economic growth, to improve democratic discourse, and to provide a decentralized environment for social and cultural interaction in which anyone can participate. While public interests suffer, network providers – who control the evolution of the network – benefit from the changes, making it highly unlikely that they will change course without government intervention.

Given this gap between network providers' private interests and the public's interests, van Schewick argues, we face an important choice. Leaving the evolution of the network to network providers will significantly reduce the Internet's value to society. If no one intervenes, network providers' interests will drive networks further away from the original design principles. With this dynamic, doing nothing will not preserve the status quo, let alone restore the innovative potential of the Internet. If the Internet's value for society is to be preserved, policymakers will have to intervene and protect the features that were at the core of the Internet's success. It is on all of us to make this happen.

Networking architecture

Computer networking must sound very familiar term as it is now very much adopted by every one. It started ages ago; the original concept was to connect two separate computers with each other for communications.

This concept was commercially adopted by most of computer users, Institutions, schools, IT departments with in the decay and networking of computers got very popular compulsion On the broader scale computers networking is collection of multiple computers, printers, scanners and other devices to communicate and share information with each other. Sharing files, software etc can not be possible without the concept of networking; networks have made lives easier for many people in their professions. One can command the computer to print the document out without even sitting on it. Computers are every where now it is the must have machine in every field of profession. If you have more than one computer at your place having it networked is as important and useful as having computer it self.

In this section of tutorials and articles we will teach you what computer networks are, what are computer network types?

Which network type is best used for which approach, hardware requirement, advantages, software requirement, computer network security ?. There are as many as eight types with which comptuer networks can be formed, most commonly used is

• LAN, Local Area Networks ,
• WAN , Wide area network,
• MAN, Metropolitan Area Network.

Read about more Comptuer Network types Local Area Network (LAN) is technical name for computer networks which is normally developed among a single house,office etc. Immense work is done on networking by networking device manufacturers and it is still going on, every now an then there is new and better solution to network multiple computers.

LAN is been implemented and been replaced by WLAN already, WLAN is wireless local area network which performs same function as LAN does but wirelessly. LAN however is still used and understanding it is very important before moving to better and enhance solutions. Browse through the navigation towards your left which will help you understand the entire concept involving deployment of computer networks and that should be able to help you build your very own local area network.

Wide Area Network, (WAN) Wide area network is communication amoung computers which are located far from each other. Internet is one classic example of WAN, It is the collection of large number of computers connecting togather to share information with each other and accesible from every where.

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) Man is not used as commonly as WAN and LAN networks are, it posses its importance when it comes to connect two offices or organization remotly located togather to build networks among computing systems. It covers large area but not as much as WAN is capable of.

This page contains very basic information on computer networking. However we havetried our best to provide you all relevant articles on computer networking with which it should be easy to form computer networks without editional help. You can go through different articles on left menu, follow the steps and you should be able to sticks hands to forming computer networks. network communication design in which the physical components of computers are arranged in a sequence so that they can communicate with each other. Network is a combination of hosts, applications, routers, hardware, software and links of media. Network architecture is a guideline and technology for designing building and managing a network.
Purpose of Network Architecture

The purpose of network architecture is to provide assistance and guidance to implement high quality network. The network architecture not only helps you to deploy the network but also assists you in troubleshoot and maintaining architecture. Network architecture also helps you security management and disaster recovery.

Network architecture is composed of many layers. In the process of layering the communication tasks are divided into smaller parts, each part is further divided into sub tasks for accomplishing tasks. These subtasks interact with the other communication processes. The process of layering keeps the network design simple. There are many ways to design and set network architecture.

There are many choices available to set up a network however every network must have three basic parts like network users, applications and devices. Network itself is operating at physical layer of the OSI model. The devices are operating mostly at data link layer or network layer. The application exists at the session layer of the OSI model. Lastly the user is at the last two layers of the model including presentation and application layer

The Network Topologies

The network topologies play an important role in the formation of a network. Network architecture designs closely related to design of the network topology. There are many types of network topologies like star topology, bus topology, ring topology, mesh and tree topology. The choice of network topology is dependent upon the type and size of network architecture. Most commonly used network topology is mesh. However the application of topology depends upon the amount of space in which one has to establish network architecture. The network architecture which comprises of ten to twelve computers mostly is designed on using bus topology as a network. In a bus topology an array of computer terminals is connected to one after the other computer and a network is established. In order to establish larger networks Mesh topology is used. Mesh network architecture is a complex design and it involves the redundancy of interconnections attached to the routers and switches in a network.

Components of Network Architecture

There are six basic network architecture components such as servers, proxies, clients, command consoles, server modules and cores. The server is the backbone of any network. The role of servers in network architecture is to communicate with proxies and other peered servers. They are at the top layer of the network and they do not communicate directly with client. Moreover servers receive complete projects and tasks .proxies can be termed as the focal point of the network because it facilitates the communication of the devices. Proxies usually perform buffering and they also communicate with the others of its type to share the loads of the network.

The client systems are the workers of the network. They receive tasks, they interact with the users and they perform user applications. Command consoles are the network guidelines which provide assistance to users about how to control the authorize network nodes. The core is the real work done in the system. The cores are verified within the network and with the clients to prevent bad cores. Server modules handle the particular tasks of the server. Server module is generally registered with the server libraries; this would help the server to perform the needed task.

Wireless Networks

Purpose of the Paper

The world has progressed beyond recognition in the twentieth century as the ways of communication have shifted from paper to paperless transmissions. In this transformation computers and their related technologies have contributed to a great extent. We could observed that there had been relatively little change in the world prior to the information technology innovations but since then we have transgressed and proceeded from the computer age to the networking age. Now in the twenty first century, the wireless networks are gaining momentum and it will not be long before we witness this phenomenon engulfing the entire world with amazing possibilities. This paper aims to scrutinize the importance of wireless networks and identify various types of wireless networks. Furthermore their associated pros and cons will be examined along with their environmental hazards and various other virtual security concerns. Finally we will conclude by stating the outcomes of wireless networking technology.

Wireless Networks

A wireless network can be defined as any type of computer network that is of wireless nature and that is linked with a telecommunications network whose connections is linked with nodes and the entire process is carried out without wires. The medium for carrying the waves are usually electromagnetic waves and this takes place at the physical layer of the network (Price, 2006).

Through wireless networks people can connect to the internet when they are not in their home or office and it is mainly designed for people on the go. However, people can connect to the network when they are at home and they can send email, browse the net wirelessly through the wireless networks. In the house or office everyone can share a single printer, router and can even share files through the wireless network.

Technically, nearly all the wireless is based on the IEEE 802.11 standards. A simple and a basic network that's wireless in nature consists of different stations that are multiple in nature that are used for communicating with radios that actually broadcast in 2.4GHz or 5GHz band (Price, 2006).

Types of Wireless networks

Like normal networks the wireless networks have different types. There are four basic types of Wireless networks. These three types are discussed below in detail.

• Wireless PAN
• Wireless LAN
• Wireless MAN
• Mobile oriented networks

Network Monitoring – What is the use of it?

Simply put, the term network monitoring is referred to the ongoing use of a system that continuously monitors a computing network and notifies the network administrator, through SMS, email and other alarms if there are any outages.

Network Monitoring – What can it do for you

There are times when we cannot fathom what can cause loss to us. Imagine a situation where your organization gets affected by any one of the real-life situations listed below:-

The SQL server storing crucial databases is short of disk space and seems to fail in operations within few hours
The Web server having a presence of an unpatched safety vulnerability leaving the organization website open that can be hacked by third party intruders. A tougher situation would be if no one is aware of the same.
Certain errors messages that keep on recurring on the Exchange Server as a warning sign of a probable threat in the Information Stores. This in turn can halt the mail system completely in as less as 30 minutes.

These are some of the instances that explain the requirement for proactive and efficient monitoring of your network and the resources stored in it.

How feasible are manual monitoring systems?

Today the systems administrators have got many agendas to manage and hence, at times it becomes critical for them to remain updated about what is happening on the systems and network front. To think about it, if you have about 50, 15 or approximately more than 100 severs, then monitoring all the systems manually and error logs can turn out to be a full time engagement. This is where efficient network monitoring comes into use. Let us have a look at the benefits and positive uses of network monitoring listed below:-

Warn the users of any problems: - With any efficient network monitoring the IT department is able to stay alert on issues that otherwise could have led into serious concerns and result in down time.
Users are able to track the growth of their network – Innovative network monitoring helps the users in collecting information to keep a track of the network's expansion. There are chances that a server would change over years and new ones have come online. There are possibilities such as that the users have added fresh wireless network, printers, workstations and many others. Networking monitoring enables a user to learn about what the have and the way that is being used, that helps in solving a problem constructively.

Current Networking Technology

Network technology is changing rapidly, with the introduction of latest networking solutions. When you want to setup a networking solution you have multiple choices, etcher to go for wireless network using a router or a signal booster or you want to go with a wired network. Wired network topologies are under constant criticism from networking because of their physical mass. Wired network solutions are a bit heavy on your budget too as it involves the cost price of cables. Basic idea behind computer networks is to transfer and share maximum data in minimum possible time. To avoid data transmission interruptions and loss of signal, you need to opt for a wired networking solution. Wired networks also provide flawless performance when it comes to bit-rate transfer speeds. You can install latest state of the art high speed network cards along with latest gold plated shielded network cables. You can use different network cables following different network topologies.

Today Ethernet cables have undergone major technological changes, with the innovation and introduction of USB networking cables. If you are not satisfied with the performance of your wired network performance you can opt for changing the network cable system. You can switch from CAT-5 Ethernet cables to USB networking cables. USB ports are multi functional ports and can be used to transfer data at a high speed. You can also use fire wires for the networking purposes too. However there remains an issue that every device does not have a firewire port.

To achieve maximum network speed you can choose fibre-optic network cable This cable system is expansive to install but it guarantees extremely high date transfer and transmission speeds. Networks that house fibber-optic perform exceptionally well as compared to ordinary networks. These networking solutions are expansive to install but they are very cheap to maintain. Weather conditions and other external elements cannot affect the performance of the network.

Commercial and corporate computer networks not only require a reliable networking solution but they also want network security. It is much easier to secure a wired network as compared to wireless computer network. In wired networks it is easy to provide protection against network spam and viruses. Network cables are the nervous system of computer networks. It is important that your wiring system works flawlessly, only then you will enjoy the benefits of a wired network system. Wired network solution is still a smart choice in today's world.

Tips To Become Computer Network Engineer

A telecommunications network engineer in general is a professional who designs, installs and maintains telecommunications and computer networks. This is not an entirely technical role as the Network Engineer will ideally have an understanding of business processes to ensure any design offered is appropriate to the operation of the business. The network infrastructure must enable the business to meet its goals and ensure long term productivity. If the network infrastructure is underspecified it can bring a business to a standstill.

Usually network engineers have a technical degree in Telecommunications or Computer Sciences or are engineers. In addition to these certificates the net work engineers may also hold manufacturer certified apprenticeship schemes like the Cisco, Juniper, HP and many related companies. In the current society, the general training packages have made more significance to learn all the practical aspects of network engineering. There are many recognized training courses, on job training and developments and exams which are introduced to people by The Building Industry Consultancy Services International (BICSI). These are good programmers that have offered themselves, and many older students who might be looking for job change.

To design the network and to trouble shoot the seven layer architecture, the network engineers use the open systems interconnection as a tool, which is a very helpful tool in the education process of the network engineers. The communication between the two devices will be divided in to seven layers from this architecture. To give an example, the physical layer which is the bottom layer in the architecture. It includes the connectors and the cables or may be air for wireless connections as well. This layer is required to connect any two devices physically. The data link layer is the second layer which will safely transfer the data across the physical layer. The third layer is the Network layer, which will establish, maintains and clears down the connection across the network. The most important protocol which is used in the Network layer is IP (Internet Protocol).

The rest of the layers are transport layer commonly known as TCP Transport Layer Protocol, session layer, presentation layer and the application layer. It is vital to know all the seven layers of the architecture and the prominence should be given to the first four layers. The running ans the termination of a copper or optical fibre cables, or wireless links and to configure the link and routing the protocols efficiently and effectively are the identifications of a good network engineer. They must also be good in providing the network security and guarantee their customer's data and telecommunications links are safe from hackers, viruses and malware attacks.

A network engineer may originate from the structure cable installers, ex military personnel and the network administrators. The Network Engineer may develop on the specialty as a network architect, wireless specialist or security expert. His salary will depend upon the experience, on an average the payment will be between $50,000/- to 80,000/-. Good network engineers will travel around the world and may be in great demand when it comes to troubleshoot serious problems or redesign failed networks for the business

Computer Networking Terminology - Free Online Computer Tips

There are thousands of words, phrases and terms used in the networking world. Since most of us are not future Cisco employees we decided to list some of the more common terminology you may come across or need to know. Here is a listing of important words, phrases and terms you should know about networking.

Bandwidth - the rated throughput capacity of a given network media or protocol. The amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time.

Backbone - A high-speed link joining together several networks.

Bit – A unit of information having just two possible values, as either of the binary digits 0 or 1.

Byte - a series of consecutive binary digits that are operated upon as a unit. There are 8 bits in a byte.

Category 5 (cat 5) cable -A type of twisted pair network wiring in which there is a certain number of twists per foot. It is the most commonly used network cabling.

Coaxial Cable - A type of cable consisting of two insulating layers and two conductors most commonly used in older networks.

Collision - An attempt by two devices to transmit over the network at the same time usually resulting in the data being lost.

DNS (Domain Name System) - an internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses. For example www.google.com translates to 66.102.7.99.

Dynamic DNS - A method of keeping a domain name linked to a changing IP address using a pool of available IP addresses so you can use applications that require a static IP address.
Domain - A group of computers and devices on a network that are administered as a unit.
DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol ) - A TCP/IP protocol that dynamically assigns an IP address to a computer. Dynamic addressing simplifies network administration because the software keeps track of IP addresses rather than requiring a network administrator to do so.

Ethernet - Ethernet is the most widely installed local area network technology. It was developed during the late 1970s through a partnership of DEC, Intel, and Xerox.
Fiber Optic - A cable technology that uses glass (or plastic) threads (fibers) to transmit data. It is a very fast technology

Gateway - A device on a network that serves as an entrance to another network and routes traffic

Hardware (MAC) address - A unique address associated with a particular network device

Hub - A common connection point for computers and devices in a network that takes an incoming signal and repeats it on all other ports

Internet - Term used to refer to the world's largest internetwork, connecting thousands of networks worldwide. Also known as the world wide web (www)

IP address - a 32-bit address assigned to hosts using the TCP/IP protocol. Each computer/device on the public internet has a unique IP address. An example of an IP address is 192.168.1.

LAN (Local Area Network) – computer/data network which is confined in a limited geographical area.

MAC Address (Media Access Control) - A unique identifier attached to most forms of networking equipment. It is burned into the device and cannot be changed

Megabit - A measure of data transmission speed - 1 million bits per second or approximately 125,000 characters per second

Megabyte - A unit of measure for memory or hard disk storage capacity. 1024 megabytes = 1 gigabyte.
Network - A group of computers and devices that can communicate with each other and share resources.
Network Interface Card (NIC) - A hardware device inside a computer or other network device that enables communication with a network.
Packet - The unit of data sent across a network. Data is broken up into packets for sending over a packet switching network.

PING (Packet Internet Groper) - A command used to test connectivity to a device over a TCP/IP network.

Protocol - Rules determining the format and transmission of data over a network
RJ-45 - Standard connectors used for unshielded twisted-pair cable. Most commonly used with Cat5 network cabling.

Route - A path through an internetwork.

Router - A device that routes/forwards data across a networks.

Server - A computer that handles requests for data, email, files, and other network services from other computers (clients)
Subnet - A portion of a network that shares a common address component but is on a different segment than the rest of the network.

TI Line - A high speed dedicated data line that supports a transmission rate of 1.544 Mbps

TCP/IP - Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. A suite of protocols used as the basis of the nation's internetwork (Internet). It can also be used on internal networks.

UNC (Universal Naming Convention) Path - A UNC provides a naming convention for identifying network resources. UNC names consist of three parts, a server name, a share name, and an optional file path.
WAN (wide area network) - A network linking together networks located in other geographic areas.

Tips on How to Network Two Computers to Same Printer

Many times, you may need to connect more than one computer to a single printer. This can happen either in the case of home based businesses with various groups or even in regular offices with many users involved.

Tips to connect 2 computers to one printer
While going about connecting 2 computers to one printer, you need to follow a few steps to ensure the process is smooth and hassle-free. Here we outline some of these basic steps.

Connection: To be able to connect both computers to a single printer you need to setup printer on ‘client’ PC:

Connect printer to ‘client’ PC and install it. This way all required software and drivers are installed.

Reconnect to ‘host’ PC

Select ‘Properties’ by right clicking

Select ‘shared’

In ‘client’ PC:

Select ‘My Network Places’ or ‘Network Neighborhood’

Printer appears as ‘shared’

Double click on the printer to install it

The same printer is now installed twice - as local and network printer

If always using network printer, set it as ‘default’

Set up a LAN: To be able to perform a 2 pc 1 printer connection, you first need to set up a LAN or a Local Area Network. To do this, follow these instructions:

You could either use a network adapter in your home office OR

To view the status of the network connection, you need to

Double click on Network Connections

Right click on the particular LAN

Select Status option

You could also right click on the LAN, click on Properties and then select the ‘Show icon in taskbar notification area when connected’ checkbox. This will enable you to automatically view the status in the taskbar area

Get a printer switch: Printer switches enable you to connect 2 computers to one printer. They come in a variety of types such as auto printer switch and parallel printer switch. There are several vendors available online who provide these switches at good discounts.

Crossover cable: You can easily get a crossover cable from your local computer store to connect your computers to your printer. After that you can network and open the desired printer and enable it to be shared between both computers.

Print server: A print server enables you to print simultaneously from two computers at the same time. However you need to ensure you have a router (which will act as a DHCP server). You also need to make sure that it’s not a multifunctional printer you’re working with since most print servers are not able to work with such kinds of printers. In case you do not have a router, you could purchase a PSUS4 print server, then assign static IP on the network cards and print server.
No network ports present: In case there are no network ports present, then you can use either USB or parallel port adapters for your purpose.