An
insight into what is Network?
An Insight into
what is Network
A network or computer network is nothing but
two or more computers which are interconnected
using appropriate hardware. There is a basic
or reference model which is taken to be the
standard and all other networks are classified
or categorized depending on the network layer
on which the model is operating. Like the
name Four Layer Internet Protocol Suite Model.
Most of the networks use Internet Protocol,
or IP for their network, though in academia,
seven layer OSL open system Interconnection
is used as reference model.
Some of the basic components that are used
for building a network are Network Interface
Cards, Bridges, Hubs, Routers, Repeaters and
Switches. Monitoring can be done by installing
the Network Monitoring Device with the proper
Network Monitoring Program or software on
any of these devices.
Any computer network can be classified into
Personal Area Network (PAN), Local Area Network
(LAN), Campus Area Network (CAN), Metropolitan
Area Network (MAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN)
on the basis of the scale of implementation.
Though as the size of network increases, implementing
a proper Network Monitoring Tool also increases,
but so does the need of the implementation
of the proper tool with Network Monitoring
Program.
Another method of classifying the computer
networks is on the kind of relationship that
is present among the different systems which
are interconnected in the network, like Active
Networking, Peer to Peer Architectures and
Client Server.
According to the topology of the network,
the computer network being used can be classified
into Mesh Network, Ring Network, Bus Network,
Star Network, Star-Bus Network and the tree
network or the hierarchical topology network.
Each of these networks has a unique configuration
and installing the network monitoring program
in any of the network has to be done in a
particular manner and the appropriate network
monitoring tool must be selected.
Considering the protocol that is being used,
the number of classifications for a network
is very high. More and more classifications
are added every day and the list can be found
on many websites. Change in the protocol that
is being used will result in modification
of the Network Monitoring Program that is
being used.
According to the connection that exists between
the different network systems, that is, the
type of hardware that is being used to connect
each system, any computer network can be categorized
as Optical Fiber, Wireless LAN, Home PNA,
Power Line Communication and Ethernet. In
Ethernet, we use physical wires in order to
connect two or more systems and hubs, routers,
bridges and switches are also used. If the
network is having Wireless Topology, the monitoring
gets slightly more difficult.
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