Communication Network

Architecture

Mizan-Tepi University

School of Computing and Informatics

Department of
Information Technology
Tepi, Ethiopia

Chapter Three
(Phone : +251921789156, Email : habtewold@mtu.edu.et)
Compiled By Habtewold Desta (MSc, Networking and Information Security)
Network Architecture

Network Architecture
➢ The term architecture means the formation of a
structure, or an orderly, interconnected, complex
arrangement of parts.
➢ An architecture encompasses hardware, software, data
link controls, standards, topologies, and protocols.

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Communication Network Architecture

Communication Network
A communication Network is a collection of methods that
users employ to pass on valuable information.
The communication network is the sum of all the means
and methods that an organization employs to
communicate. Let us learn more about the
Communication Network below.

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Communication Network Architecture

Line Configuration
• Two categories of line configuration
– Point-to-Point
– Multipoint

– Point-to-point provides a dedicate link

between two devices
– Multipoint (also called multi-drop) is one in
which more than two specific devices share a
single link
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Communication Network Architecture

Point-to-Point configuration
P-p Conf
Link

Satellite dish Satellite dish

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Communication Network Architecture

Multipoint configuration
Multipoint Conf

Server

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Communication Network Architecture

Peer to Peer and Client to Server architecture

Peer to Peer

Both can initiate a communication and are considered equal in the 7

communication process
Communication Network Architecture

Peer to Peer and Client to Server architecture

Peer to Peer App

✓ With P2P applications, each computer in the network running the
application can act as a client or a server for the other computers in
the network running the application
✓ Common P2P applications include:
➢ eDonkey
➢ eMule
➢ Shareaza
➢ BitTorrent
➢ Bitcoin
➢ LionShare
✓ Some P2P applications are based on the Gnutella protocol which
enables people to share files on their hard disks with others
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Communication Network Architecture

Peer to Peer and Client to Server architecture

Client to Server

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Communication Network Architecture

Peer to Peer and Client to Server architecture

Client to Server

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WAN Technologies

Technology Options
Dial-up
Leased Line
ISDN
X.25
Frame Relay
ATM
DSL
Cable Modem
Microwave Point-to-Point Link
VSAT
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WAN Technologies

Dial-up
Uses POTS (Plain Old Telephone System)
Provides a low cost need based access.
Bandwidth 33.6 /56 Kbps.
On the Customer End: Modem is connected to a
Telephone Line
On the Service Provider End: Remote Access Server
(RAS) is connected to Telephone Lines (33.6 Kbps
connectivity) or E1/R2 Line (56 Kbps connectivity)
RAS provide dialin connectivity, authentication and
metering.
Achievable bandwidth depends on the line quality.
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WAN Technologies

Dial-up

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WAN Technologies

Dial-up

RAS

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WAN Technologies

Dial-up
33.6 Kbps
Analog line

Telephone Telephone
switch
? switch

Modem
Modem

56 Kbps
Telephone
Access server
switch

Modem
E1

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WAN Technologies

Leased Line
Used to provide point-to-point dedicated network
connectivity.
Analog leased line can provide maximum bandwidth
of 9.6 Kbps.
Digital leased lines can provide bandwidths :
64 Kbps, 2 Mbps (E1), 8 Mbps (E2), 34 Mbps (E3) ...

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WAN Technologies

Leased Line Internet Connectivity

Leased Line

ISP
Broadban PSTN LL LL
ISP Interface
d Internet Modem Modem Router
Router Converter
Connectiv G.703 V.35
ity

ISP CUSTOMER
PREMISES PREMISES

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WAN Technologies

ISDN(Integrated Services Digital Network)

Another alternative
to using analog
telephones lines to
establish a
connection is ISDN.
is a set of
communication
standards for
simultaneous digital
transmission of
voice, video, data,
and other network
services over the
traditional circuits of
the public switched
telephone network.
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WAN Technologies

X.25
Packet switched Network consisting of X.25
switches.
X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for packet-
switched wide area network (WAN) communication.
An X.25 WAN consists of packet-switching exchange
(PSE) nodes as the networking hardware, and leased
lines, plain old telephone service connections, or
ISDN connections as physical links
X.25 is a connection oriented protocol (Virtual
Circuits).
End nodes are identified by an X .25 address.
Typical bandwidth offered is 2.4/9.6 kbps.
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WAN Technologies

X.25 and Virtual Circuits

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WAN Technologies

Frame Relay
Designed to be more efficient than X.25
Developed before ATM
Call control carried in separate logical connection
No hop by hop error or flow control
End to end flow and error control (if used) are done
by higher layer
Single user data frame sent from source to
destination and ACK (from higher layer) sent back
Two type of Virtual Circuits defined
Permanent virtual circuits (PVCs)
Switched virtual circuits (SVCs)
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WAN Technologies

ATM
Small fixed size packets of 53 bytes, called cells, are
used for transferring information.
Each cell has 5 bytes of header and 48 bytes of
payload for user information.
Connection oriented protocol.
A virtual Circuit is established between the
communicating nodes before data transfer takes
place.
Can be seamlessly used in LANs and WANs.
Almost unlimited scalability.
Provides quality of service guaranties.
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WAN Technologies

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) uses the Ordinary
Telephone line and is an always-on technology. This
means there is no need to dial up each time to
connect to the Internet.
Because DSL is highly dependent upon noise levels,
a subscriber cannot be any more than 5.5 kilometers
(2-3 miles) from the DSL Exchange
Service can be symmetric, in which downstream and
upstream speeds are identical, or asymmetric in
which downstream speed is faster than upstream
speed.
DSL comes in several varieties:
Asymmetric DSL (ADSL)
High Data Rate DSL (HDSL)
Symmetric DSL (SDSL) 23
Very High Data Rate DSL (VDSL)
WAN Technologies

ADSL

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WAN Technologies

Cable Modems
The cable modem connects a
computer to the cable company
network through the same coaxial
cabling that feeds cable TV (CATV)
signals to a television set.
Uses Cable Modem at Home End
and CMTS (Cable Modem
Termination System) at Head End.
Characteristics:
Shared bandwidth technology
10 Mbps to 30 Mbps downstream
128Kbps-3 Mbps upstream
Maximum Distance from provider to
customer site: 30 miles 25
WAN Technologies

Cable Modems

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WAN Technologies

Point-to-Point Microwave Link

MICROWAVE LINK

RF RF Network
Router Router
ISP Modem Modem
Network
CUSTOMER PREMISES
ISP PREMISES

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WAN Technologies

Point-to-Point Microwave Link

Typically 80-100 MHz Band or 5 GHz Radio Link
band
2.4 GHz WiFi links are becoming popular
Requires Line of Sight

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WAN Technologies

VSAT
Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) provide
communication between two nodes through a
powerful Earth station called a Hub.
If two terminals want to communicate, they send
their messages to the satellite, which sends it to the
Hub and the Hub then broadcasts the message
through the satellite.
Typical Bandwidth offered is
9.6/19.2/32/64/128/256/512 Kbps.
Operating modes are TDM/TDMA, SCPC PAMA &
DAMA

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WAN Technologies

VSAT
Each satellite sends and receives
over two bands
Uplink: From the earth to the
satellite
Downlink: From the satellite to
the earth
Satellite frequency bands
Band Downlink Uplink
C 3.7-4.2 GHz 5.925-6.425 GHz
Ku 11.7-12.2 GHz 14-14.5 GHz
Ku-band based networks, are
used primarily in Europe and
North America and utilize the
smaller sizes of VSAT antennas.
C-band, used extensively in Asia,
Africa and Latin America, require
larger antenna.
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LAN Technologies

802.11 Wireless LAN

Desktop
with PCI 802.11 LAN card
Network
connectivity
to the
legacy Access Point Laptop
wired LAN with PCMCIA 802.11 LAN card

Provides network connectivity over wireless media

An Access Point (AP) is installed to act as Bridge
between Wireless and Wired Network
The AP is connected to wired network and is
equipped with antennae to provide wireless
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connectivity
LAN Technologies

802.11 Wireless LAN

Range ( Distance between Access Point and WLAN
client) depends on structural hindrances and RF
gain of the antenna at the Access Point
To service larger areas, multiple APs may be
installed with a 20-30% overlap
A client is always associated with one AP and when
the client moves closer to another AP, it associates
with the new AP (Hand-Off)
Three flavors:
802.11b
802.11a
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802.11g
LAN Technologies

Multiple Access with Collision

Avoidance (MACA)
other node in other node in
sender receiver
sender’s range receiver’s range
RTS
CTS

data

ACK

Before every data transmission

Sender sends a Request to Send (RTS) frame
containing the length of the transmission
Receiver respond with a Clear to Send (CTS) frame
Sender sends data
Receiver sends an ACK; now another sender can
send data
When sender doesn’t get a CTS back, it assumes 33
collision
LAN Technologies

WLAN : 802.11b
The most popular 802.11 standard currently in
deployment.
Supports 1, 2, 5.5 and 11 Mbps data rates in the 2.4
GHz ISM (Industrial-Scientific-Medical) band

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LAN Technologies

WLAN : 802.11a
Operates in the 5 GHz UNII (Unlicensed National
Information Infrastructure) band
Incompatible with devices operating in 2.4GHz
Supports Data rates up to 54 Mbps.

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LAN Technologies

WLAN : 802.11g
Supports data rates as high as 54 Mbps on the 2.4
GHz band
Provides backward compatibility with 802.11b
equipment

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Repeater, HUB, Bridge & Switch

Networking and Internetworking Devices

Networking Devices
Repeater
Hub
Bridge and
Switch

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Repeater, Hub, Bridge & Switch

Repeater
A repeater receives a signal, regenerates it, and
passes it on.
It can regenerate and retime network signals at the
bit level to allow them to travel a longer distance on
the media.
It operates at Physical Layer of OSI
The Four Repeater Rule for 10-Mbps Ethernet should
be used as a standard when extending LAN
segments.
This rule states that no more than four repeaters can
be used between hosts on a LAN.
This rule is used to limit latency added to frame 38
travel by each repeater.
Repeater, Hub, Bridge & Switch

Hub
Hubs are used to connect
multiple nodes to a single
physical device, which
connects to the network.
Hubs are actually multiport
repeaters.
Using a hub changes the
network topology from a
linear bus, to a star.
With hubs, data arriving over
the cables to a hub port is
electrically repeated on all
the other ports connected to
the same network segment,
except for the port on which 39
the data was sent.
Repeater, Hub, Bridge & Switch

Bridge
Bridges are used to logically separate
network segments within the same
network.
They operate at the OSI data link layer
(Layer 2) and are independent of higher-
layer protocols.
The function of the bridge is to make
intelligent decisions about whether or
not to pass signals on to the next
segment of a network.
When a bridge receives a frame on the
network, the destination MAC address is
looked up in the bridge table to
determine whether to filter, flood, or
copy the frame onto another segment
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Broadcast Packets are forwarded
Repeater, Hub, Bridge & Switch

Switch
Switches are Multiport Bridges.
Switches provide a unique network segment on each
port, thereby separating collision domains.
Today, network designers are replacing hubs in their
wiring closets with switches to increase their network
performance and bandwidth while protecting their
existing wiring investments.
Like bridges, switches learn certain information about
the data packets that are received from various
computers on the network.
Switches use this information to build forwarding
tables to determine the destination of data being sent
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by one computer to another computer on the network.
Repeater, Hub, Bridge & Switch

Switches: Dedicated Access

Hosts have direct A
connection to switch
C’ B
Full Duplex: No collisions
Switching: A-to-A’ and B-to-
B’ simultaneously, no switch
collisions
Switches can be cascaded to
C
expand the network
B’ A’

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Router and Gateways

Internetworking Devices :
Routers and Gateways

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Routing

Router
A router is a device that determines the next
network point to which a packet should be
forwarded toward its destination
Allow different networks to communicate with each
other
A router creates and maintain a table of the
available routes and their conditions and uses this
information to determine the best route for a given
packet.
A packet will travel through a number of network
points with routers before arriving at its destination.
There can be multiple routes defined. The route with
a lower weight/metric will be tried first.
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Routing

Routing

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Routing

Router and Gateway Router

Router

Gateway Router (Voice Gateway Router)

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Routing

Routing Protocols
Static Routing
Dynamic Routing
IGP (Interior Gateway Protocol): Route data within an
Autonomous System
RIP (Routing Information Protocol)
RIP-2 (RIP Version 2)
OSPF (Open Shortest Path First)
IGRP (Interior Gateway Routing Protocol)
EIGRP (Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol)
IS-IS
EGP (Exterior Gateway Protocol): Route data between
Autonomous Systems
BGP (Border Gateway Protocol)

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Internetworking Devices

Chapter Three End

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