Multiplexing
When two communicating nodes are connected through a media, it generally happens that bandwidth of media is several times greater than that of the communicating nodes. Transfer of a single signal at a time is both slow and expensive. The whole capacity of the link is not being utilized in this case. This link can be further exploited by sending several signals combined into one. This combining of signals into one is called multiplexing.- Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM): This
is possible in the case where transmission media has a bandwidth than
the required bandwidth of signals to be transmitted. A number of signals
can be transmitted at the same time. Each source is allotted a
frequency range in which it can transfer it's signals, and a suitable
frequency gap is given between two adjescent signals to avoid
overlapping. This is type of multiplexing is commonly seen in the cable
TV networks.
- Time Division Multiplexing (TDM): This is possible when data
transmission rate of the media is much higher than that of the data
rate of the source. Multiple signals can be transmitted if each signal
is allowed to be transmitted for a definite amount of time. These time
slots are so small that all transmissions appear to be in parallel.
- Synchronous TDM: Time
slots are preassigned and are fixed. Each source is given it's time
slot at every turn due to it. This turn may be once per cycle, or
several turns per cycle ,if it has a high data transfer rate, or may be
once in a no. of cycles if it is slow. This slot is given even if the
source is not ready with data. So this slot is transmitted empty.
- Asynchronous TDM: In this method, slots are not fixed. They
are allotted dynamically depending on speed of sources, and whether
they are ready for transmission.
- Synchronous TDM: Time
slots are preassigned and are fixed. Each source is given it's time
slot at every turn due to it. This turn may be once per cycle, or
several turns per cycle ,if it has a high data transfer rate, or may be
once in a no. of cycles if it is slow. This slot is given even if the
source is not ready with data. So this slot is transmitted empty.
Network Topologies
A network topology is the basic design of a computer network. It is very much like a map of a road. It details how key network components such as nodes and links are interconnected. A network's topology is comparable to the blueprints of a new home in which components such as the electrical system, heating and air conditioning system, and plumbing are integrated into the overall design. Taken from the Greek work "Topos" meaning "Place," Topology, in relation to networking, describes the configuration of the network; including the location of the workstations and wiring connections. Basically it provides a definition of the components of a Local Area Network (LAN). A topology, which is a pattern of interconnections among nodes, influences a network's cost and performance. There are three primary types of network topologies which refer to the physical and logical layout of the Network cabling. They are:- Star Topology: All
devices connected with a Star setup communicate through a central Hub
by cable segments. Signals are transmitted and received through the
Hub. It is the simplest and the oldest and all the telephone switches
are based on this. In a star topology, each network device has a home
run of cabling back to a network hub, giving each device a separate
connection to the network. So, there can be multiple connections in
parallel.
Advantages
- Network administration and error detection is easier because problem is isolated to central node
- Networks runs even if one host fails
- Expansion becomes easier and scalability of the network increases
- More suited for larger networks
- Broadcasting and multicasting is not easy because some extra functionality needs to be provided to the central hub
- If the central node fails, the whole network goes down; thus making the switch some kind of a bottleneck
- Installation costs are high because each node needs to be connected to the central switch
- Bus Topology: The simplest and one of the most common of all
topologies, Bus consists of a single cable, called a Backbone, that
connects all workstations on the network using a single line. All
transmissions must pass through each of the connected devices to
complete the desired request. Each workstation has its own individual
signal that identifies it and allows for the requested data to be
returned to the correct originator. In the Bus Network, messages are
sent in both directions from a single point and are read by the node
(computer or peripheral on the network) identified by the code with the
message. Most Local Area Networks (LANs) are Bus Networks because the
network will continue to function even if one computer is down. This
topology works equally well for either peer to peer or client server.
The purpose of the terminators at either end of the network is to stop the signal being reflected back. Advantages
- Broadcasting and multicasting is much simpler
- Network is redundant in the sense that failure of one node doesn't effect the network. The other part may still function properly
- Least expensive since less amount of cabling is required and no network switches are required
- Good for smaller networks not requiring higher speeds
- Trouble shooting and error detection becomes a problem because, logically, all nodes are equal
- Less secure because sniffing is easier
- Limited in size and speed
- Ring Topology: All the nodes in a Ring Network are connected
in a closed circle of cable. Messages that are transmitted travel
around the ring until they reach the computer that they are addressed
to, the signal being refreshed by each node. In a ring topology, the
network signal is passed through each network card of each device and
passed on to the next device. Each device processes and retransmits the
signal, so it is capable of supporting many devices in a somewhat slow
but very orderly fashion. There is a very nice feature that everybody
gets a chance to send a packet and it is guaranteed that every node
gets to send a packet in a finite amount of time.
- Broadcasting and multicasting is simple since you just need to send out one message
- Less expensive since less cable footage is required
- It is guaranteed that each host will be able to transmit within a finite time interval
- Very orderly network where every device has access to the token and the opportunity to transmit
- Performs better than a star network under heavy network load
- Failure of one node brings the whole network down
- Error detection and network administration becomes difficult
- Moves, adds and changes of devices can effect the network
- It is slower than star topology under normal load
Data Link Layer
- Medium Access Layer (MAL)
- Logical Link Layer
Aloha Protocols
History
The Aloha protocol was designed as part of a project at the University of Hawaii. It provided data transmission between computers on several of the Hawaiian Islands using radio transmissions.- Communications was typically between remote stations and a central sited named Menehune or vice versa.
- All message to the Menehune were sent using the same frequency.
- When it received a message intact, the Menehune would broadcast an ack on a distinct outgoing frequency.
- The outgoing frequency was also used for messages from the central site to remote computers.
- All stations listened for message on this second frequency.
Pure Aloha
Pure Aloha is an unslotted, fully-decentralized protocol. It is extremely simple and trivial to implement. The ground rule is - "when you want to talk, just talk!". So, a node which wants to transmits, will go ahead and send the packet on its broadcast channel, with no consideration whatsoever as to anybody else is transmitting or not.One serious drawback here is that, you dont know whether what you are sending has been received properly or not (so as to say, "whether you've been heard and understood?"). To resolve this, in Pure Aloha, when one node finishes speaking, it expects an acknowledgement in a finite amount of time - otherwise it simply retransmits the data. This scheme works well in small networks where the load is not high. But in large, load intensive networks where many nodes may want to transmit at the same time, this scheme fails miserably. This led to the development of Slotted Aloha.
Slotted Aloha
This is quite similar to Pure Aloha, differing only in the way transmissions take place. Instead of transmitting right at demand time, the sender waits for some time. This delay is specified as follows - the timeline is divided into equal slots and then it is required that transmission should take place only at slot boundaries. To be more precise, the slotted-Aloha makes the following assumptions:- All frames consist of exactly L bits.
- Time is divided into slots of size L/R seconds (i.e., a slot equals the time to transmit one frame).
- Nodes start to transmit frames only at the beginnings of slots.
- The nodes are synchronized so that each node knows when the slots begin.
- If two or more frames collide in a slot, then all the nodes detect the collision event before the slot ends.
In this way, the number of collisions that can possibly take place is reduced by a huge margin. And hence, the performance become much better compared to Pure Aloha. collisions may only take place with nodes that are ready to speak at the same time. But nevertheless, this is a substantial reduction.
Carrier Sense Mutiple Access Protocols
In both slotted and pure ALOHA, a node's decision to transmit is made independently of the activity of the other nodes attached to the broadcast channel. In particular, a node neither pays attention to whether another node happens to be transmitting when it begins to transmit, nor stops transmitting if another node begins to interfere with its transmission. As humans, we have human protocols that allow allows us to not only behave with more civility, but also to decrease the amount of time spent "colliding" with each other in conversation and consequently increasing the amount of data we exchange in our conversations. Specifically, there are two important rules for polite human conversation:- Listen before speaking: If someone else is speaking, wait until they are done. In the networking world, this is termed carrier sensing - a node listens to the channel before transmitting. If a frame from another node is currently being transmitted into the channel, a node then waits ("backs off") a random amount of time and then again senses the channel. If the channel is sensed to be idle, the node then begins frame transmission. Otherwise, the node waits another random amount of time and repeats this process.
- If someone else begins talking at the same time, stop talking. In the networking world, this is termed collision detection - a transmitting node listens to the channel while it is transmitting. If it detects that another node is transmitting an interfering frame, it stops transmitting and uses some protocol to determine when it should next attempt to transmit.
CSMA- Carrier Sense Multiple Access
This is the simplest version CSMA protocol as described above. It does not specify any collision detection or handling. So collisions might and WILL occur and clearly then, this is not a very good protocol for large, load intensive networks. So, we need an improvement over CSMA - this led to the development of CSMA/CD.CSMA/CD- CSMA with Collision Detection
In this protocol, while transmitting the data, the sender simultaneously tries to receive it. So, as soon as it detects a collission (it doesn't receive its own data) it stops transmitting. Thereafter, the node waits for some time interval before attempting to transmit again. Simply put, "listen while you talk". But, how long should one wait for the carrier to be freed? There are three schemes to handle this:- 1-Persistent: In this scheme, transmission proceeds immediately if the carrier is idle. However, if the carrier is busy, then sender continues to sense the carrier until it becomes idle. The main problem here is that, if more than one transmitters are ready to send, a collision is GUARANTEED!!
- Non-Persistent: In this scheme, the broadcast channel is not
monitored continuously. The sender polls it at random time intervals
and transmits whenever the carrier is idle. This decreases the
probability of collisions. But, it is not efficient in a low load
situation, where number of collisions are anyway small. The problems it
entails are:
- If back-off time is too long, the idle time of carrier is wasted in some sense
- It may result in long access delays
- p-Persistent: Even if a sender finds the carrier to be idle, it uses a probabilistic distribution to determine whether to transmit or not. Put simply, "toss a coin to decide". If the carrier is idle, then transmission takes place with a probability p and the sender waits with a probability 1-p. This scheme is a good trade off between the Non-persistent and 1-persistent schemes. So, for low load situations, p is high (example: 1-persistent); and for high load situations, p may be lower. Clearly, the value of p plays an important role in determining the performance of this protocol. Also the same p is likely to provide different performance at different loads.
Image References:
- http://williams.comp.ncat.edu/Networks/multip10.gif
- http://williams.comp.ncat.edu/Networks/multip5.gif
- http://williams.comp.ncat.edu/Networks/multip13.gif
- http://www.e-networks.org/images/startopology.gif
- http://www.delmar.edu/Courses/CIS306/Primer/primf05.gif
- http://www.e-networks.org/images/ringtopology.gif
- http://www.laynetworks.com/images/aloha14.gif
- http://www.laynetworks.com/images/aloha15.gif
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