Network Types and Performance

Question 1

What are networks?

Answer 1

The connections between nodes to share resources

Question 2

What is a PAN?

Answer 2

A Personal Area Network(PAN) is within the range of an individual person
E.G Bluetooth connects which have a range of around 10m

Question 3

What is an LAN?

Answer 3

A Local Area Network(LAN) is a network that connects devices close to each other, E.G same house or school

Question 4

What is a WAN?

Answer 4

A Wide Area Network(WAN) is a network over a broader geographic area(possilbly in several locations) E.G the internet. In a WAN, some infrastructure is owned by someone else(E.G an ISP)
The internet is a WAN made up of many individual LANs

Question 5

What is a Client-Server Network?

Answer 5

A client establishes a connectionwith the server over the network
Servers can backup and store data centrally, though they can be expensive and difficult to run

Question 6

What is a Peer-topeer network?

Answer 6

This network configuration has no central server
Each computer is equal in responsibility and each has the ability to work as both a client and server

Question 7

What is latency?

Answer 7

The delay (how fast signals travel)

Question 8

What is bandwidth?

Answer 8

Max rate if data transfer (BPS)

Question 9

What is error rate?

Answer 9

Rate of corruption

Question 10

What are factors that affect performance?

Answer 10

Connects- Wired connections are generally faster than wireless

Bandwidth- E.G Ethernet= 10 Mbps, Wireless= 11Mbps to 1.3 Gbps(If bandwidth is shared across the network, connect can become congested)

Wireless range- Signal degrades quickly, and signal may be blocked

Signals at same frequently interfere(Leading to data collisions)

Topology- Bus topology = higher error rate