Designing Switched LAN Internetworks.

Designing Switched LAN Internetworks design switched LAN internetworks: * LAN switching * Virtual LANs (VLANs) * ATM switching Evolution from Shared to Switched Networks In the past, network designers had only a limited number of hardware options when purchasing a technology for their campus networks. Hubs were for wiring closets and routers were for the data center or main telecommunications operations. The increasing power of desktop processors and the requirements of client-server and multimedia applications, however, have driven the need for greater bandwidth in traditional shared-media environments. These requirements are prompting network designers to replace hubs in their wiring closets with switches, as shown in Figure 12-1. Figure 12-1: Evolution from shared to switched internetworks. This strategy allows network managers to protect their existing wiring investments and boost network performance with dedicated bandwidth to the desktop for each user. Coinciding with the wiring closet evolution is a similar trend in the network backbone. Here, the role of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is increasing as a result of standardizing protocols, such as LAN emulation (LANE), that enable ATM devices to coexist with existing LAN technologies. Network designers are collapsing their router backbones with ATM switches, which offer the greater backbone bandwidth

  • Word count: 1971
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: ICT
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Local area networks (LANs).

DEFINITION The concept of local area networks (LANs) is not new. It represents a logical development of computer technology. With the advent of microcomputers in the 1980s many office workers began bringing their own disks into work, compromising data integrity. They also began keeping their own databases, which companies did not like. The answer was to create a computer network. A computer network is a group of computers connected together enabling users to share resources and communicate with each other. Resources can be hardware, software, or data. Without a network, each employee might require a dedicated printer connected to his workstation or individual copies of application software loaded on his workstation. A network will also allow dissimilar computers to communicate and share resources. This means that an IBM PC can communicate with an Apple Macintosh with ease. There are three general types of networks: Local Area Networks (LANs), Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs), and Wide Area Networks (WANs). They are described or classified by the area of coverage and by the method of information exchange. A LAN encompasses two or more computers connected by one or more types of medium (usually wire) located within close proximity of each other. This distance is generally limited to 2 kilometers. A MAN is a network that connects two or more LANs. It is basically

  • Word count: 1703
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: ICT
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