Communication and Networking Flashcards
what is a Symbol (signal)?
- A symbol is a particular pattern of bits represented by a signal.
- For example, a symbol of four bits might be 1101
Baud Rate
- A communication system’s Baud rate is the number of signal changes in the medium per second. - 1 Baud (or 1Bd) is equal to 1 symbol change per second.
Bit rate
- A communication medium’s bit rate refers to the number of bits that are transmitted over the medium per second.
- This is often measured in bits per second (bps).
How do you calculate a communication systems bit rate?
Bit rate = Baud rate x No of bits per signal
How is it possible for bit rate to be higher than Baud rate?
- each signal change represents more than one bit of data
What is the exact relationship between the bit rate and the baud rate?
Directly proportional, the greater the bandwidth the higher the bit rate
Bandwidth
- Expressed in Hertz(Hz)
- Relates to the range of frequencies that a medium is capable of transmitting
- Direct relationship between this and the bit rate
Latency
- Often measured in Milliseconds(ms)
- Difference between an action being initiated and its effect being noticed
- Latency usually increases with distance
Protocol
- Set of rules relating to communication between devices
- Allow international organisations that have different devices to communicate seamlessly
What is Serial Data Transmission?
- Where data is sent one bit at a time over one communication line (this is usually a metal wire, but could also be an optical fibre or a wireless channel).
What is Serial Data Transmission used for?
- Transmitting data over medium to long distances (computationally speaking), such as from wired peripherals like mice and keyboards to your computer.
What is Parallel Data Transmission?
- It uses numerous parallel communication lines in order to send multiple bits between components simultaneously.
- The more lines, the more data can be transferred simultaneously.
- Each line has slightly different electrical properties, meaning time taken for one bit to be transferred will be differed from line to line
What are the issues of PDT (e.g. skewing)?
- Bits sent together may not be received together due to the differing electrical properties of each line. Over long distances this can cause overlapping of pulses, causing corruption of data.
- It can also be more expensive due to use of multiple lines.
- Crosstalk can also occur, where these tightly packed lines signals leak into each other, causing data corruption
What are the advantages of Serial DT over Parallel DT
- Serial data transmission doesn’t suffer from skew or crosstalk, so it is more reliable over long distances, less likely to have errors
- Serial communication mediums are cheaper due to using just one line/less wire
- PDT is more likely to error due to needing the data to be kept synchronised over long distances
What is synchronous transmission?
- A clock signal shared by transmission sender and receiver (synched) is used to time when signals are sent. - It is used in the FDE cycle.
- Suitable for real time transmissions.
What is Asynchronous transmission?
- Uses start and stop bits to indicate the duration of a transmission
- Receiver and transmitter clocks do not need to be synchronized, transmission of data without use of external clock signal
How does an Asynchronous Transmission Start Bit operate?
- Start receiver clock ticking
- Synchronise the clock in the receiver to the transmitter clock
- Bring the clock in the receiver into phase with the transmitter
How does an Asynchronous Transmission Stop Bit operate?
- Provides time for the receiver to process/transfer the received data
- Allows the (next) start bit to be recognised
What is Physical Network Topology?
Refers to the actual physical architecture of a network.
What are two types of Physical Network Topology?
- Star Topology
- Bus Topology
What is a Physical Star Topology?
- Each client has its own direct connection to the central hub (like a star)
- The hub recieves packets for all of the clients connected to it and is responsible for delivering them to the correct recipient
- A server can be added to the network in the same way that clients are connected to the central hub
What are the advantages of a Physical Star Topology?
- Packets are sent directly to their recipient, over a cable that is only connected to the recipient, it is secure as other clients on the network cannot see packets that aren’t intended for them
- It is easy to add and remove clients from the network
- Each cable has just one device communicating over it, eliminating the possibility of collisions
- Failure of one cable does not affect the performance of the rest
What are the disadvantages of a Physical Star Topology?
- If the hub fails, communication over the whole network is stopped
- Expensive to install due to the large amount of cable required
What is a Physical Bus Topology?
- A physical bus connects clients to a single cable called a backbone. A device called a terminator is placed at either end of the backbone
- No need for a central hub like in a physical star network and a server can be connected to the backbone just like a client
What are the advantages of a Physical Bus Topology?
- There is no central hub, reducing chances of network failure and decreasing the cost of installation
- Inexpensive to install as a smaller length of cabling is required
What are the disadvantages of a Physical Bus Topology?
- Packets are sent through the shared backbone, allowing every client on the network to see packets that aren’t intended for them
- The backbone promotes the risk of collisions as it is used for multiple clients communications
- If the backbone fails, the entire network becomes unstable
What is a Logical Network Topology?
- Refers to the flow of data packets within a network
- A logical bus network delivers packets to all of the networks’ clients
- Whereas a logical star network delivers packets to only their recipient
For what reasons would you segment a LAN?
- To reduce network congestion/cut the number of collisions
- To improve security by localising packet transmissions to one segment
- To improve reliability by limiting effect of cable failure to one segment
What is the idea of mixing topologies?
- A networks physical setup can be different to its logical set up.
- For example, it could be set up as a physical star and behave as a logical bus.
- A physical star topology could run a bus protocol on the hub so it distributes packets to all connected clients, so to act like a bus network.
What is a host?
- A host is a device on a network that provides services.
- e.g. a server that can provide file storage, printer sharing and internet access.
- It can also be the clients on the networks themselves.
What are some advantages of Client-Server networking?
- Ensures data is always available, server is unlikely to be turned off
- Centralised backup
- More system security/centralised confidentiality ect.
What is Client-Server networking?
- resources stored on the server
- One or more central servers provide services to clients on a network
- Servers are connected to the network the same way as clients, but are often more powerful machines than the clients
- The clients on the network request services, which the servers then respond to e.g. file storage, email management ect
- centralised security/administration
What is Peer-to-Peer networking?
- resources are stored on each individual device
- every client has equal status e.g. one may manage print queues, emails
- computers can communicate directly with eachother
What are the advantages of Peer to Peer Networking?
- More cost effective than client-server networking as there is no need for a powerful server to provide services
- They are easier to set up and maintain than their client-server counterparts
What are the disadvantages of Peer-To-Peer Networking?
- All clients providing services must be running in order for the network to be fully operational e.g. if the client responsible for managing storage is turned off/faulty, none of the networks clients can access their files
What is Wireless Networking?
- Allow users to communicate within a network without being physically connected
- Require a wireless access point which connects to a wired network, and a wireless network adapter in the device that connects to the wireless network
What is WPA/WPA2
- WPA stands for Wi-Fi protected access and secures a wireless network by encrypting transmitted data.
- The WPA also has protected access and requires that a new wireless client enters a password in order to connect to the network.
What is SSID?
- SSID is service set identifier and is the locally unique name that identifies a wireless network.
What is SSID Broadcasting?
- Being able to view it as a network to connect to
- Disabling its broadcast stops wireless devices within range displaying that the network is available, only allowing those who know the SSID to connect.
What is a MAC address filter?
- Media Access Control addresses are assigned to every wireless device by their manufacturer and are unique to that device.
- MAC address whitelists can be created to only allow specific devices to connect to a network
- Mac address blacklists can also be used to block specific devices from connecting to a network.
What is Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance?
- CSMA/CA is a protocol used in wireless networks to avoid data collisions caused by multiple devices communicating simultaneously
How does CSMA/CA work? How does it work with RTS?
- When ready to transmit, a device listens to a communication channel to check whether it is idle
- If idle, the data is then transmitted, if not idle, the device waits a random period of time before checking again
- ## An exponential back off algorithm can be used to increase the time the device waits with each check of the channel
- RTS is a protocol that the CSMA sender can send after checking a channel is idle
- If the receiver/server is idle, it will respond with a CTS message
- If a CTS message is not received, the server is busy communicating with a hidden node and the transmitting device will wait