Week 6

Local Area Network(LAN) - interconnects computers in a limited area(home, school, a particular building, etc.).

• Higher data transfer rates than Wide Area Networks(WAN).
• Smaller area of operation than WANs.
• No need to lease telecommunications lines.
• Ethernet and WiFi are the two most common LAN technologies currently in use.
• Ethernet was developed at Xerox PARC between 1973 and 1975.

Computer Networks - computers connected by channels that allow the sharing of resources.

• Classified according to the medium used for data transport, scale of the network, and type of communications protocol.
• Scale: WAN or LAN
• Wired technologies:

1. Twisted Pair Wiring - Ethernet fits into this category. It is the most common variety of wired networking technology. It has a transmission speed of between 2 million bits per second(bps) and 10 billion bps.
2. Coaxial Cable - It is used for cable television. It has a transmission speed of 200 to 500 million bps.
3. Optical Fiber - It has a transmission speed of trillions of bps.

• Wireless Technologies:

1. Terrestrial Microwave: Earth-based transmitters and receivers that look like satellite dishes.
2. Wireless LAN: what most people have at home

RFID(Radio Frequency Identifier) - similar to a bar code but it does not have to be visible in order to be read and it can carry far more data.

• Used in access "swipe" cards
• Many privacy issues due to increased read range and information capacity.

MUDDIEST POINT: No muddiest point this week.