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SKR 5302: Advanced Distributed Computing

3. Chapter 3: Networking and Internetworking

3.2. Types of network

  • Personal area networks (PANs)
    • Subcategory of local networks
    • Various digital devices carried by a user are connected by a low-cost, low-energy network.
    • WPANs are of increasing importance due to the number of personal devices such as mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, music players are now carried by many people
  • Local area networks (LANs)
    • Carry messages at relatively high speeds between computers by a single communication medium, such as twisted copper wire, coaxial able or optical fibre. 
    • Segment 
      • section of cables that serves a department / floor of a building
      • No routing of messages is required
      • Total system bandwidth is shared
    • Total system bandwidth is high and latency is low, except when message traffic is very high.
    • Ethernet, token rings and slotted rings

  • Wide area networks (WANs)
    • Carry messages at lower speeds between nodes that are often in different organizations and maybe separated by large distances. 
    • Routers
      • Route messages or packets to their destinations
      • Delay at each point in the route
    • Total latency for the transmission depends on the route that it follows and the traffic loads in the various network segments that it traverses. 

  • Metropolitan area networks (MANs)
    • Based on the high bandwidth copper and fibre optic cabling
    • Ethernet, ATM

  • Wireless local area networks (WLANs)
    • For use in place of wired LANs to provide connectivity for mobile devices
    • IEEE 802.11 (WiFi)

  • Wireless metropolitan area networks (WMANs)
    • IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX)
    • Aims to provide an alternative to wired connections to home and office buildings

  • Wireless wide area networks (WWANs)
    • Mobile phone networks are based on digital wireless network technologies such as GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) standard.
    • Operate over wide areas (typically entire countries or continents) through the use of cellular radio connections
    • Offer wide area mobile connections to the Internet for portable devices

  • Internetworks
    • Several networks are linked together to provide common data communication facilities that overlay the technologies the protocols of the individual component networks and the methods used for their interconnection.
    • Needed for the development of extensible, open distributed systems. 
    • Internet