The most common examples of wireless links include communication satellites, cellular networks, and radio and technology spread spectrums. This kind of transmission is called ‘wireless’. Wireless: Network connections can also be established through radio or other electromagnetic signals.Optical fibers carry pulses of light to represent data. Wired: Examples of wired technologies used in networks include coaxial cables, phone lines, twisted-pair cabling, and optical fibers.Links are the transmission media which can be of two types: Learn More: Why a Network Management Card Is Essential to Secure Enterprise Networks from Cyber Threats 2. They can be firewalls, routers, or servers.

Gateways: Gateways are hardware devices that act as ‘gates’ between two distinct networks.

Multiple data cables can be plugged into switches to enable communication with multiple network devices. Bridges are smarter hubs that only pass the data to the destination port. They pass on the data to whichever ports are available. Hubs are repeaters with multiple ports in them.

Switches: Repeaters are to networks what transformers are to electricity grids-they are electronic devices that receive network signals and clean or strengthen them.

Routers are devices that forward these packets between networks to ultimately reach the destination.

Routers: Routing is the process of selecting the network path through which the data packets traverse.

All requests for specific tasks or data come to the servers.

Servers: These are application or storage servers where the main computation and data storage occur.

For example, an email originates from the mailing application on a laptop or mobile phone.

Computers, mobiles, and other consumer devices: These are end devices that users directly and frequently access.

Network devices or nodes are computing devices that need to be linked in the network. The communication endpoints, i.e., the origin and destination devices, are often called ports. The way these links carry the information is defined by communication protocols. The links connect two or more nodes with each other. See More: Building a Disaster Preparedness Strategy? Here’s How Leading Service Providers Can Help Key Components of a Computer Networkįrom a broader lens, a computer network is built with two basic blocks: nodes or network devices and links. It is a combination of computer science, computer engineering, and telecommunication. Every time we connect via a video call, stream movies, share files, chat with instant messages, or just access something on the internet, a computer network is at work.Ĭomputer networking is the branch of computer science that deals with the ideation, architecture, creation, maintenance, and security of computer networks.

A simpler example is using collaboration software such as Google Drive to share documents with colleagues who work remotely. These systems alert officials and emergency responders with information about traffic flow and incidents. Organizations of all sizes use networks to connect their employees’ devices and shared resources such as printers.Īn example of a computer network at large is the traffic monitoring systems in urban cities. Today’s world revolves around the internet, which is a network of networks that connects billions of devices across the world. We have come a long way today from that basic kind of network. Government researchers used to share information at a time when computers were large and difficult to move. The first working network, called ARPANET, was created in the late 1960s and was funded by the U.S. These devices are connected using physical wires such as fiber optics, but they can also be wireless. Computing devices include everything from a mobile phone to a server. Top 10 Best Practices for Computer Network Management in 2022Ī computer network is a system that connects two or more computing devices for transmitting and sharing information.Key Objectives of Creating and Deploying a Computer Network.

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