Computer Science Compiled – Workbook 2020 – Part 1 | A Level 9618 (Lower Six) | © M.

Muttur

2.1
NETWORKS INCLUDING THE INTERNET – PART 2
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Candidates should be able to:

(g) Show understanding of the differences between and implications of the use of wireless and wired
networks
• Describe the characteristics of copper cable, fibre optic cable, radio waves (including WiFi),
microwaves, satellites

(h) Describe the hardware that is used to support a LAN

• Including switch, server, Network Interface Card (NIC), Wireless Network Interface Card (WNIC),
Wireless Access Points (WAP), cables, bridge, repeater

(i) Describe the role and function of a router in a network

(j) Show understanding of Ethernet and how collisions are detected and avoided
• Including Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Detection (CSMA / CD)

(k) Show understanding of bit streaming

• Methods of bit streaming, i.e. real-time and on-demand
• Importance of bit rates / broadband speed on bit streaming

(l) Show understanding of the differences between the World Wide Web (WWW) and the internet
(m) Describe the hardware that is used to support the internet
• Including modems, PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network), dedicated lines, cell phone
network

(n) Explain the use of IP addresses in the transmission of data over the internet
• format of an IP address including IPv4 and IPv6
• use of subnetting in a network
• how an IP address is associated with a device on a network
• difference between a public IP address and a private IP address and the implications for security
• difference between a static IP address and a dynamic IP address

(o) Explain how a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is used to locate a resource on the World Wide Web
(WWW) and the role of the Domain Name Service (DNS)

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2.1 (G) – WIRELESS AND WIRED NETWORKS

Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time. We nowadays need higher
bandwidth for video conferencing and other Internet services. Bandwidth is measured in bits/second.

Different types of cables:

• Twisted pair
• Coaxial
• Fibre-optic

Factors to consider when choosing cable:

• Cost of cable
• Possible bandwidth

Factors that cause poor performance:

• How signal is affected by interference
• Extent of attenuation (how signal deteriorates) over distances
• Both factors may be solved using repeaters or amplifiers

Twisted Pair Coaxial Fibre-Optic

Cost Lowest Higher Highest
Bandwidth Lowest Higher Much higher
Attenuation Affected Most Affected Least affected
Interference less affected Most affected Least affected
Need for Repeaters More often More often Less often

Copper Cables
• E.g. twisted pair, coaxial cable

Advantages
• Can be easily bent without breaking
• Does not require expensive equipment (NIC is cheaply available)

Disadvantages
• Does not work well with low electricity voltages
• May be affected by electromagnetic interference
• Less secure – data transmitted can easily be intercepted

Twisted Pair
• Used to connect telephone handset to telephone line
• Used for high-speed local area networks

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Coaxial Cable
• No more used in long-distance telephone cabling
• Still used by television companies
Copper Screen Conductor

Central Conductor

Plastic insulators

Fibre optics
Fibre optics is a technology that uses glass (or plastic) threads (fibres) to transmit data.
A fibre optic cable transmits messages modulated onto light waves.

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Advantages of fibre optics over traditional metal communication lines
• greater bandwidth - can carry more data
• less susceptible to interference
• thinner and lighter
• data can be transmitted digitally rather than analogically
• difficult to tap transmissions
• good for long distances

But: fibre optics are expensive to install and are more fragile. Fibre optics are now being used in LANs and are
replacing telephone lines.

Wireless Network
A wireless network refers to any type of computer network that is not connected by any cables. Radio waves
are normally used to transmit data. Microwave or infrared may also be used. A WAP (Wireless Access Point) is
needed to connect a device to the WiFi LAN.

WiFi is often used to provide Internet access in public places. WiFi hotspots are very inexpensive to setup.
Cell phone networks are also examples of wireless network.

Radio waves are also used in wireless networking to connect with satellites.
Infrared is suitable for indoor applications as the signal cannot go through walls.

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Bandwidth increases from Radio to microwave and to infrared. But infrared is suitable for indoor use as it
cannot penetrate through a wall. Microwave transmission is best option as it has a better bandwidth to radio
waves.

Satellites used are in geostationary Earth orbit over the equator and are used to provide long-distance
telephone and computer network communication. It spins at the same speed as the Earth spins and therefore
remains always at the same point over the ground. Other satellites are used to provide global positioning
system (GPS) and mobile phone networks.

The drawback with satellites is that the greater transmission distance causes transmission delays which may
cause technical problems for the network.

Cable v/s Wireless transmission

• cables called guided media – wireless called unguided media
• not all wireless frequencies are available for use – some are regulated by government agencies
• need permission of landowners to lay cables in ground
• for global communications there are two competing technologies: fibre-optic cables laid underground
or on the sea bed and satellite transmission
• wireless transmission is more subject to interference
• wireless transmission requires less repeaters
• mobile phones dominate Internet use and only use wireless transmission
• Both wired and wireless transmission are equally likely to be used for home or a small office. Wireless
connection is favoured for a small network

2.1 (H) – LAN HARDWARE

Twisted pair cables are most widely used nowadays and fibre-optics are becoming more common. Cables are
used to connect sockets in the network. Each socket is joined to a workstation or server using an RJ-45
connector.

The following is needed to setup a basic network:

• Network interface cards
• Cables
• Telecommunication links (telephone lines, fibre optics, microwave signals)
• Converts data that is sent from one network to the other
• Final point through which all data leaving the network must pass

Servers
• powerful computers dedicated to specific tasks:
o manage disk drives (file servers)
o printers (print servers)
o network traffic (network servers)
o provide processing power (for dumb terminals)

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Bridge
• connects two segments of a LAN
• Connects together two networks of the same type
• Copies data being transmitted from one network onto the other
• Bridge stores the network addresses for the two segments it connects

Network Interface Card (NIC)

• Is manufactured with a unique network address that is used to identify the end-systems
• Uses MAC address to identify device
• A Wireless Network Interface Card (WNIC) provides the NIC function in a WiFi LAN

Switch
• It is a connecting device that can direct communication to a specific end-system
• Send a unicast message

2.1 (I) - ROUTERS

The Internet is the biggest network in existence. It was not designed as one massive network but has evolved
to its current form.

Internet Service Provider (ISP)

• Company providing Internet connection
• Connections between ISPs are handled by Internet Exchange Points (IXPs)

Router
• A router is used to connect different types of network together.
• Moves data from one network to another
• Routers enable public networks to act as connections between private networks
• Move packets to their destinations
• A router is connected to other routers

Gateways
• Used if networks are of different types

A router is a device/service that provides the function of routing IP packets between networks. A gateway (in
network terms) is a router that provides access for IP packets into and/or out of the local network. ... A gateway
always has to be a router, but a router does not have to be a gateway

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2.1 (J) – ETHERNET AND CSMA/CD

Ethernet defines not only the networking protocols but also the physical plugs and sockets. The plugs must fit
into the sockets, the cable must behave the same way no matter who you bought it from. You should be able
to purchase network cards from one supplier and know that they will work with cards from another supplier.
For this to happen, manufacturers must use a common standard. And the standard most often used is called
‘Ethernet’.

The hardware must work together but also data has to travel between networked computers. Wi-Fi devices
work effortlessly with Ethernet hard-wired computers since the router automatically translates the data packets
travelling from one protocol to the other.

Ethernet can transfer data at 100 MB/s and some can even do 1 Gb/s. However, the faster you want to go, the
more expensive will be the hardware.

Ethernet must also deal with collisions. If two computers are trying to send data at exactly the same time
(within a few millionths of a second of each other down the same line).

Ethernet also concerns addressing. It specifies how to get data to its correct destination. Every network card
has a MAC address.

Ethernet deals with the Physical and Transport layers of the OSI model.

CSMA/CD
CSMA/CD stands for Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection. This is a media access control
method used mostly in LANs and Ethernet technology. On Ethernet, any device can try to send a frame at any
time. Each device senses whether the line is idle and is therefore available to be used. If it is, the device begins
to transmit its first frame. If another device tries to send at the same time, a collision is said to occur and the
frames are discarded. Each device then waits a random amount of time and reties until successful in getting its
transmission sent.

The Ethernet standard protocol is like this:

• Check voltage on transmission medium
• If there is activity, wait a random time before checking again
• It no activity, start transmission
• Continuously check for collision
• It no collision is detected, continue transmission
• If collision is detected, stop transmission of message and transmit a jamming signal to all end-stations.
Try again after a random time.

There is little chance that both computers will send again at exactly the same random time.
When each end-system is connected to the switch using a duplex connection, there is no possible collision on
that link. A buffer may be used by the switch if there are high levels of activity. CSMA/CD is no longer needed
as collisions are now impossible.

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2.1 (K) – BIT STREAMING

• a bit stream is a sequence of bits (a stream of data) transmitted continuously over a communication
path (e.g. Internet)
• fast broadband connection is needed
• bits arrive in same order as they were sent (no need to be reordered)
• bit streaming may be used to listen to music or watch a video

• you may download a media file and listen to it or watch it later on; or you could view or listen to it
without waiting (real time)

• real-time: data is viewed as soon as it reaches the user’s computer (e.g. video being watched online)
• on-demand: data is transferred to user’s computer but is used later on (e.g. open a video clip but do not
play right away)
o when a large number of viewers are connected simultaneously; the media is sent to several
servers which then transmit to the individual users

Bitrate and broadband speed

• bit streaming means watching a video or listening to an audio file without downloading the file first
o data from the server is buffered on the user’s computer. This received data is played while more
data is being transferred.

• Real-time bit streaming is also called live transmission

o Content is delivered as soon as it is generated
o Use cannot pause or go forward
o E.g. live sports event
o Network may be congested if too many users connect to the same server
o Solution is to transmit the content to a large number of servers which then transmit to individual
users

• On demand bit streaming is file uploaded to a server. A link is then placed on a website and the user
can view the file when needed. It can be paused and fast forwarded.

• bandwidth is very important for real time bit streaming

• Bandwidth is a measure of data communication resources measured in bits/second.
• Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time.
• Higher bandwidth is needed for video conferencing and other Internet services.
• Real time bit streaming will require more bandwidth.

• Broadband allows higher Internet speeds

• E.g. of broadband: fibre-optic, cable, DSL and satellite
• Opposite of broadband: baseband (e.g. dial up)
• 300 kbps is needed to a poor quality video and 128 kbps is needed to a good-quality audio file

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Control
data

Media Media Server

Player Buffer
Data flow Data flow
High- Low-
water water
mark mark
User’s Computer

2.1 (L) – WWW AND INTERNET

WWW and the Internet are two different things.

Internet
• Global network of computers and other devices
• Allows data to be exchanged
• Internet access is provided by Internet Service Provider (ISP)
• Internet protocols needed for data transmission (e.g. TCP/IP)
• Can be used for WWW, email, FTP, etc.
• Stands for Interconnected Networks

WWW
• Stands for World Wide Web
• Contains web pages organized as websites
• HTTP is used to transmit data
• URLs specify the location of web pages
• Internet servers allowing sharing of documents
• WWW is a distributed application which is available on the Internet
• Documents are written in HTML and can be linked to other resources (graphics, audio, video, etc.)
• You can move from one page to another by clicking on hyperlinks
• Web browsers are used to view web pages hosted on the WWW
• WWW is built on top of Internet

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2.1 (M) – HARDWARE TO SUPPORT THE INTERNET

Modems
Modems are needed to convert analogue data to digital data and vice-versa. A modem combines the data with
a carrier to provide an analogue signal. Ordinary telephone lines can be used to carry data from one computer
to another.

PSTN
• Stands for Public Service Telephone Network or Public Switched Telephone Network
• Collection of inter-connected voice-oriented public telephone networks over the world
• Also called POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service)
• PSTN originally used to carry analogue voice data.
o Modem used to convert digital data to analogue and back to digital with another modem. (called
dial-up connection)

• Parts of the PSTN are also utilized for DSL, VoIP and other Internet-based network technologies.
• PSTNs have upgraded their main communication lines to fibre-optic cables
• Satellites are important components of modern communication systems
• Collection of circuit-switching telephone networks
• Connection is established at time of phone call and maintained for duration of call (dedicated route)
• Can usually work even if there is a power cut

Dedicated Lines
• A telecommunication path available 24 hours a day
• Is used by a specific user (or company)
• Not shared among other users (like dial-up or ADSL lines)
• Also called leased line

Cell Phone Network

• Smart phones can be used to connect to the Internet
• Fast data transfer rates
• Mobile phone companies act as ISPs
• Mobile phone communicates with a standard cell tower to access the wireless telephone network

DNS
DNS server translates domain names meaningful to humans (such as www.google.com) into IP Addresses for
the purpose of locating and addressing these devices worldwide. Domain names are far easier for humans to
remember than an IP address.

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Internet-Based Telephone
• Uses IP addresses
• Connection is used only when data is transmitted
• Data is usually compressed when transmitted

2.1 (N) – IP ADDRESS

• It is a unique string of numbers that identifies each computer using the Internet Protocol to
communicate over a network (e.g. Internet).
• TCP/IP protocol suite is used as a standard.
• IP addressing defines from where and to where data is to be transmitted.

• We currently use IPv4 addressing

o Based on 32 bits to define an address
o 32 bits allow for 232 different addresses – around 4 billion
• The numbers are separated by full stops. An IP address is a binary number.
• A computer may have a dynamic or static IP address.
o Static IP address: very rarely used
o Dynamic IP address: only active for a limited time. If computer is unplugged from network and
then connected again, it will be assigned a new IP address.
o E.g. 196.27.66.94
o IP address assigned by ISP or network administrator
• IP address can be separated into two parts:
o Host ID
o Network ID
• Different classes of IP addresses:
o Class A (0) – uses 7 bits for network ID and 24 for host ID
o Class B (10) – uses 14 bits for network ID and 16 for host ID
o Class C (110) – uses 21 bits for network ID and 8 for host ID
• Largest organisations would be allocated class A IP addresses
o They would have 27 different addresses – i.e. 128 for different companies and each could have
224 distinct hosts (terminals)

IP Address Format
• IP addresses represent four eight-digit binary numbers.
• It can be 00000000 to 11111111 (e.g. 0 to 255)

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Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR)

• 1st approach to improve addressing scheme
• Allows IP address to be split up more flexibly to specify network ID and host ID.
• 8-bit suffix is added to specify network ID to explain where to split IP address
• E.g.
o 10101010110110111000010110100010/00010101

Network ID Suffix

• CIDR no more requires the most significant bit(s) to define the class.

Sub-Netting
Dividing a network into subnets is useful for both security and performance reasons. IP networks are divided
using a subnet mask.

A subnet is a portion of a network that shares a common address component. On TCP/IP networks, subnets are
defined as all devices whose IP addresses have the same prefix.

• E.g. a company with 150 employees each with their own workstation
o Assume there are six individual department LANs and a head-office LAN
o The company would need 7 individual class C network IDs – each for a different LAN gateway
o Each network ID would be able to have 256 hosts. But since company has only 150 computer
terminals, this leaves 1642 unused IP addresses. These unused addresses cannot be used by any
other organization.

o Sub-netting allows the company to allocate only one class C network ID. E.g. 194.10.9.0 to
194.10.9.255 – where 194.10.9 is the network ID

NETWORK ADDRESS TRANSLATION (NAT)

• Every IP address is not considered to be unique
• Large organisations which have intranets using the same protocols as Internet can use NAT
• Private networks provide more security
• Network Address Translation (NAT) is the process where a network device, usually a firewall, assigns a
public address to a computer (or group of computers) inside a private network.

• The main use of NAT is to limit the number of public IP addresses an organization or company must use,
for both economy and security purposes.

• A NAT box is used. This box has only one visible IP address on the Internet. This address can be used as
sending or receiving address.
• Internally, the IP addresses are chosen from a pre-defined range of addresses
• The same address could be used by a number of different private networks at the same time.
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IPv6 Addressing
• Soon we will move from IPv4 to IPv6
• IPv6 uses 128-bit addressing scheme – allows 2128 different addresses: 3.40282367 × 10^38
• Allows for more complex addressing structure
• Addresses are written in Hexademical separated by colons (eight groups of four hexadecimal digits)
• Code broken down in 16-bit parts with each represented by four hexadecimal numbers
• E.g. of IPv6 addresses
o 68E6:7C48:FFFE:FFFF:3D20:1180:695A:FF01 – e.g. of a full address
o 72E6::CFFE:3D20:1180:295A:FF01 - :0000:0000: has been replaced by ::
This can be used once
o 6C48:23:FFFE:FFFF:3D20:1180:95A:FF01 – leading zeroes omitted
o ::192.31.20.46 – An IPv4 address used in IPv6

Public and Private IP addresses

When a device connects to a private network, a router assigns a private IP address to it. That IP address is unique
on that network, but might be the same as an IP address on a separate network. However, when a router
connects to the internet it is given a unique public IP address. This is usually supplied by the internet service
provider (ISP). No other device on the internet has the same public IP address. All the devices connected to that
router have the same public IP address as the router but each have their own different private IP addresses on
that network. Because the operation of the internet is based on a set of protocols (rules), it is necessary to
supply an IP address. Protocols define the rules that must be agreed by senders and receivers of data
communicating through the internet.

Public IP addresses range from 1 to 191. The 192. x.x.x addresses aren't registered publicly, which means they
can only be used behind a router as private IP addresses.

Public IP Address
A public IP address is the address that is assigned to a computing device to allow direct access over the Internet.
A web server, email server and any server device directly accessible from the Internet are candidate for a public
IP address. A public IP address is globally unique, and can only be assigned to a unique device.

Private IP Address
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is the organization responsible for registering IP address ranges to
organizations and Internet Service Providers (ISPs). To allow organizations to freely assign private IP addresses,
the Network Information Center (InterNIC) has reserved certain address blocks for private use. The following IP
blocks are reserved for private IP addresses.

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Class Starting IP Address Ending IP Address # of Hosts
A 10.0.0.0 10.255.255.255 16,777,216
B 172.16.0.0 172.31.255.255 1,048,576
C 192.168.0.0 192.168.255.255 65,536

A private IP address is the address space allocated by InterNIC to allow organizations to create their own private
network. There are three IP blocks (1 class A, 1 class B and 1 class C) reserved for a private use. The computers,
tablets and smartphones sitting behind your home, and the personal computers within an organizations are
usually assigned private IP addresses. A network printer residing in your home is assigned a private address so
that only your family can print to your local printer.

When a computer is assigned a private IP address, the local devices sees this computer via its private IP address.
However, the devices residing outside of your local network cannot directly communicate via the private IP
address, but uses your router's public IP address to communicate. To allow direct access to a local device which
is assigned a private IP address, a Network Address Translator (NAT) should be used.

Locator (URL)
• URL is a web address to access webpage or to download a file.
• URL is displayed in the web browser’s address bar
• E.g. http://www.google.com/mobile/gmail
• HTTP means the use of a HTTP application (e.g. web browser)
• The URL contains the domain name (the computer where the document is stored): www.google.com
• The path where the document is stored (folder and sub folder): /mobile/gmail

DNS
• Stands for Domain Name Service
• DNS is installed on domain name servers and allows mapping of a domain name to an IP address
• Translates domain names into IP address
• Domain names are easier to remember since they are alphabetic.

• E.g. http://www.notes.modern-college.org
o Notes is a subdomain
o modern-college is the domain
o .org is the top level domain

• Name resolution is finding an IP address based on the domain name.

• The DNS system is, in fact, its own network. If one DNS server doesn't know how to translate a particular
domain name, it asks another one, and so on, until the correct IP address is returned.

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