10.4.

4 Repeater
Data are carried in the form of signals over the cable.
These signals can travel a specified distance (usually
about 100 m). Signals lose their strength beyond this
limit and become weak. In such conditions, original An Internet service
signals need to be regenerated. provider (ISP) is any
organisation that
A repeater is an analog device that works with signals
provides services
on the cables to which it is connected. The weakened for accessing the
signal appearing on the cable is regenerated and put Internet.
back on the cable by a repeater.
10.4.5 Hub
An Ethernet hub (Figure 10.11) is a network device used
to connect different devices through wires. Data arriving
on any of the lines are sent out on all the others. The
limitation of Hub is that if data from two devices come
at the same time, they will collide.

Activity 10.3
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Find and list a
few ISPs in your
region.

Figure 10.11: A network hub with 8 ports

10.4.5 Switch
A switch is a networking device (Figure 10.12) that
plays a central role in a Local Area Network (LAN). Like
a hub, a network switch is used to connect multiple
computers or communicating devices. When data
arrives, the switch extracts the
destination address from the data
packet and looks it up in a table to
see where to send the packet. Thus,
it sends signals to only selected
devices instead of sending to all.
It can forward multiple packets at
the same time. A switch does not
forward the signals which are noisy
or corrupted. It drops such signals
and asks the sender to resend it. Figure 10.12: Cables connected to a network switch

Ethernet switches are common in homes/offices

to connect multiple devices thus creating LANs or to
access the Internet.

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 Notes 10.4.6 Router
A router (Figure 10.13) is a network device that can
receive the data, analyse it and transmit it to other
networks. A router connects a local area network to the
internet. Compared to a hub or a switch, a router has
advanced capabilities as it can analyse the data being
carried over a network, decide/alter how it is packaged,
and send it to another network of a different type. For
example, data has been divided into packets of a certain
size. Suppose these packets are to be carried over a
different type of network which cannot handle bigger
packets. In such a case, the data is to be repackaged
as smaller packets and then sent over the network by
a router.

Figure 10.13: A router

A router can be wired or wireless. A wireless router
can provide Wi-Fi access to smartphones and other
devices. Usually, such routers also contain some ports
to provide wired Internet access. These days, home Wi-Fi
routers perform the dual task of a router and a modem/
switch. These routers connect to incoming broadband
lines, from ISP (Internet Service Provider), and convert
them to digital data for computing devices to process.
10.4.7 Gateway
As the term “Gateway” suggests, it is a key access point
that acts as a “gate” between an organisation's network
and the outside world of the Internet (Figure 10.14).
Gateway serves as the entry and exit point of a network,
as all data coming in or going out of a network must
first pass through the gateway in order to use routing
paths. Besides routing data packets, gateways also
maintain information about the host network's internal
connection paths and the identified paths of other
remote networks. If a node from one network wants to
communicate with a node of a foreign network, it will

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 pass the data packet to the gateway, which then routes
it to the destination using the best possible route.

10.0.0.0/8 Server GATEWAY Server 20.0.0.0/8

IP ADDRESS IP ADDRESS

PC 4 PC 5 PC 4 PC 5

PC 1 PC 2 PC 3 PC 1 PC 2 PC 3

Figure 10.14: A network gateway

For simple Internet connectivity at homes, the

gateway is usually the Internet Service Provider that
provides access to the entire Internet. Generally, a
router is configured to work as a gateway device
in computer networks. But a gateway can be
implemented completely in software, hardware, or
a combination of both. Because a network gateway
is placed at the edge of a network, the firewall is
usually integrated with it.

10.5 Networking Topologies

We have already discussed that a number of computing
devices are connected together to form a Local Area
Network (LAN), and interconnections among millions of
LANs forms the Internet. The arrangement of computers
and other peripherals in a network is called its topology.
Common network topologies are Mesh, Ring, Bus, Star
and Tree.

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 10.5.1 Mesh Topology
In this networking topology, each communicating
device is connected with every other device in the
network as shown in Figure 10.15. Such a network can
handle large amounts of traffic since multiple nodes
can transmit data simultaneously. Also, such networks
are more reliable in the sense that even if a node gets
down, it does not cause any break in the transmission
of data between other nodes. This topology is also
more secure as compared to other topologies because
each cable between two nodes carries different data.
However, wiring is complex and cabling cost is high in
creating such networks and there are many redundant
or unutilised connections.

Figure 10.15: A mesh topology

To build a fully-
10.5.2 Ring Topology
connected mesh
topology of n nodes, In ring topology (Figure 10.16), each node is connected
it requires n(n-1)/2 to two other devices, one each on either side, as shown
wires. in Figure 10.16. The nodes connected with each
other thus forms a ring. The link in a ring topology is
unidirectional. Thus, data can be transmitted in one
direction only (clockwise or counterclockwise).

Figure 10.16: A ring topology

10.5.3 Bus Topology

In bus topology (Figure 10.17), each communicating
device connects to a transmission medium, known as
bus. Data sent from a node are passed on to the bus
and hence are transmitted to the length of the bus in
both directions. That means, data can be received by
any of the nodes connected to the bus.

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 Bus

Figure 10.17: A bus topology

In this topology, a single backbone wire called bus is
shared among the nodes, which makes it cheaper and
easier to maintain. Both ring and bus topologies are
considered to be less secure and less reliable.
10.5.4 Star Topology
In star topology (Figure 10.18), each communicating
How will a Bus and
device is connected to a central node, which is a Ring topology behave
networking device like a hub or a switch, as shown in in case a Node is
Figure 10.18. down?
Star topology is considered very effective, efficient
and fast as each device is directly connected with the
central device. Although disturbance in one device will
not affect the rest of the network, any failure in a central
networking device may lead to the failure of complete
network.

Figure 10.18: A star topology

The central node can be either a broadcasting device

means data will be transmitted to all the nodes in the
network, or a unicast device means the node can identify
the destination and forward data to that node only.
10.5.5 Tree or Hybrid Topology
It is a hierarchical topology, in which there are multiple
branches and each branch can have one or more basic
topologies like star, ring and bus. Such topologies are
usually realised in WANs where multiple LANs are
connected. Those LANs may be in the form of a ring,
bus or star. In figure 10.19, a hybrid topology is shown
connecting 4-star topologies in a bus.
In this type of network, data transmitted from source
first reaches the centralised device and from there the
data passes through every branch where each branch
can have links for more nodes.

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 Figure 10.19: A hybrid topology

10.6 Identifying Nodes in a Networked

Communication
Each node in a network should be uniquely identified
so that a network device can identify the sender and
receiver and decide a routing path to transmit data.
Let us explore further and know how each node is
distinguished in a network.
10.6.1 MAC Address
MAC stands for Media Access Control. The MAC address,
also known as the physical or hardware address, is a
unique value associated with a network adapter called
a NIC. The MAC address is engraved on NIC at the time
of manufacturing and thus it is a permanent address
and cannot be changed under any circumstances. The
machine on which the NIC is attached, can be physically
identified on the network using its MAC address.
Each MAC address is a 12-digit hexadecimal numbers
(48 bits in length), of which the first six digits (24 bits)
contain the manufacturer’s ID called Organisational
Unique Identifier (OUI) and the later six digits (24 bits)
represents the serial number assigned to the card by
the manufacturer. A sample MAC address looks like:

Activity 10.4
Explore how can you
find the MAC 10.6.2 IP Address
address of your
computer
IP address, also known as Internet Protocol address,
system. is also a unique address that can be used to uniquely
identify each node in a network. The IP addresses

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are assigned to each node in a network that uses the
Internet Protocol for communication. Thus, if we know Do mobile phones
a computer’s IP address, we can communicate with have a MAC address?
that computer from anywhere in the world. However, Is it different from
unlike MAC address, IP address can change if a node the IMEI number of
mobile phones?
is removed from one network and connected to another
network.
The initial IP Address called version 4 (IPV4 in short),
is a 32 bit numeric address, written as four numbers
separated by periods, where each number is the decimal
(base-10) representation for an 8-bit binary (base-2)
number and each can take any value from 0 - 255. A
sample IPV4 address looks like:
192.168.0.178
With more and more devices getting connected to
the Internet, it was realised that the 32-bit IP address
will not be sufficient as it offers just under 4.3 billion
unique addresses. Thus, a 128 bits IP address, called IP
version 6 (IPV6 in short) was proposed. An IPv6 address
is represented by eight groups of hexadecimal (base-16)
numbers separated by colons. A sample IPV6 address
looks like:
2001:CDBA:0000:0000:0000:0000:3257:9652

10.7 Internet, Web and the Internet of Things

The Internet is the global network of computing devices
including desktop, laptop, servers, tablets, mobile
phones, other handheld devices, printers, scanners,
routers, switches, gateways, etc. Moreover, smart
electronic appliances like TV, AC, refrigerator, fan, light,
etc. can also communicate through a network. The list
of such smart devices is always increasing e.g., drones,
vehicles, door lock, security camera. We have already
studied IoT and WoT in class 11.
The Internet is evolving every day and it is difficult
to visualise or describe each and every aspect of the
architecture of the Internet. Computers are either
connected to a modem through a cable or wirelessly (Wi-
Fi). That modem, be it wired or wireless, is connected to
a local Internet Service Provider (ISP) who then connects
to a national network. Many such ISPs connect together
forming a regional network and regional networks
connect together forming a national network, and such
country-wise networks form the Internet backbone.

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