From Encyclopedia Jr, free information reference for Kids
Computer networking is the scientific and engineering discipline concerned with communication between computer systems. Such networks involve at least two devices capable of being networked with at least one usually being a computer. The devices can be separated by a few meters (e.g. via Bluetooth) or thousands of kilometers (e.g. via the Internet). Computer networking is sometimes considered a sub-discipline of telecommunications.
[edit] History
Carrying instructions between calculation machines and early computers was done by human users. In September 1940 George Stibitz used a teletype machine to send instructions for a problem set from his Model K at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire to his Complex Number Calculator in New York and received results back by the same means. Linking output systems like teletypes to computers was an interest at the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) when, in 1962, J.C.R. Licklider was hired and developed a working group he called the "Intergalactic Network", a precursor to the ARPANet. In 1964, researchers at Dartmouth developed the Dartmouth Time Sharing System for distributed users of large computer systems. The same year, at MIT, a research group supported by General Electric and Bell Labs used a computer (DEC's PDP-8) to route and manage telephone connections. Throughout 1960s Leonard Kleinrock, Paul Baran and Donald Davies had independently conceptualized and developed network systems consisting of datagrams or packets that could be used in a packet switching network between computer systems. In 1969 the University of California at Los Angeles, SRI (in Stanford), University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah were connected as the beginning of the ARPANet network using 50 kbit/s circuits.
Networks, and the technologies needed to connect and communicate through and between them, continue to drive computer hardware, software, and peripherals industries. This expansion is mirrored by growth in the numbers and types of users of networks from researcher
[edit] Categorizing
[edit] By network layer
See the seven layer OSI reference model and the four or five layer TCP/IP model
- Application layer
- Presentation layer (Only in the OSI model)
- Session layer (Only in the OSI model)
- Transport layer
- Network layer
- Data Link layer
- Media access control sublayer
- Logical link control sublayer
- Physical layer
[edit] By scale
[edit] By connection method
- HomePNA
- Power line communication
- Ethernet
- WiFi
[edit] By functional relationship
- Active Networking (Low-level code movement versus static data)
- Client-server
- Peer-to-peer (Workgroup)
[edit] By network topology
- Bus network
- Star network
- Ring network
- Mesh network
- Star-bus network
- Tree topology network
[edit] By Services provided
- Storage area networks
- Server farms
- Process control networks
- Value-added network
- SOHO network
- Wireless community network
- XML appliance
- Jungle Networks
[edit] Protocol stacks
Computer networks may be implemented using a variety of protocol stack architectures, computer buses or combinations of media and protocol layers, incorporating one or more of:
- ARCNET
- AppleTalk
- ATM
- Bluetooth
- DECnet
- Ethernet
- FDDI
- Frame relay
- HIPPI
- IEEE 1394 aka FireWire, iLink
- IEEE 802.11 aka Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi certification)
- IEEE-488
- TCP/IP protocol suite
- IPX
- Myrinet
- QsNet
- RS-232
- SPX
- System Network Architecture
- Token ring
- TCP
- TCP Tuning for discussion of improving performance of same
- USB
- UDP
- X.25 protocol suite
For a list of more see Network protocols.
For standards see IEEE 802.
[edit] Suggested topics
Further reading for acquiring an in-depth understanding of computer networks include:
[edit] Data transmission
[edit] Wired transmission
- Public switched telephone network
- Dedicated lines – leased lines
- ISDN
- DSL
- Time-division multiplexing(TDM)
- Packet switching
- Frame relay
- PDH
- Ethernet
- RS-232
- RS-485
- Optical fiber transmission
- Synchronous optical networking(SONET)
- Fiber distributed data interface
[edit] Wireless transmission
- Extreme Short range
- Short range
- Medium range
- WiFi(IEEE 802.11)
- WiMax(IEEE 802.16)
- Long range
- Satellite
- MMDS
- SMDS
- Mobile phone data transmission (channel access methods)
- Paging networks
[edit] Other
- Computer networking device
- Naming schemes
- Network monitoring
[edit] See also
- Active Networking
- Computing
- Minimum spanning tree
- Graph theory
- Prim's algorithm
- Robert C. Prim
- Vojtěch Jarník
- Joseph Kruskal
- ARPANET
- BITNET
- Internet
- Ambient network
[edit] References
[edit] External links
