The Westminster School, Dubai

2023-2024

Name: …………………………… Year:12 / Sec: …….

Subject: Computer Science Date: ………………..

Topic : Communication & Internet Technologies

1. Draw one line from each term to its most appropriate description

2 Miya connects her laptop to the internet through her router.

(i) Tick (v) one box in each row to identify whether the task is performed by the router or
not

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 (ii) Miya sends emails from her webmail account (email account accessed through a
website). Explain whether Miya is using the internet, or the World Wide Web
(WWW), or both.

3 Miya mainly uses the internet to watch films and play computer games.

Tick (v) one box to identify whether Miya should connect to the router using a wired

or wireless network and justify your choice

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4 A school is setting up a network within one of its buildings.

(a) State whether the network will be a LAN (local area network) or a WAN (wide
areanetwork). Justify your choice

(b) One classroom in the building has 30 computers. The computers need to be connected to
the network. Each computer has a network interface card (NIC).

Identify two possible devices that can be used to physically connect the 30 computers to the

rest of the network.

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(c ) The school has several laptops. Each laptop has a Wireless Network Interface Card
(WNIC).

Describe the functions of a Wireless Network Interface Card

5 A company uses cloud computing.

(a) Define cloud computing.

(b) State what is meant by a public cloud and a private cloud.

Public cloud ..............................................................................................................................

Private cloud .............................................................................................................................

(c) Give two benefits and one drawback of using cloud computing.

Benefit 1 ...................................................................................................................................

Benefit 2 ...................................................................................................................................

Drawback ..................................................................................................................................

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6 Ana owns a small company with four employees. The office has a network containing several
computers that run on a client-server model. There is one server that connects to the Internet
using a router.

(a) Networks transmit data using various types of connection shown in the following table.
Complete the table

(b) Explain how the client-server model enables the employees to access the same files
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 from different computers

(c) Each computer in the network has a private IP address.

Give two reasons why the computers do not have public IP addresses

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
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8

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9.

ANS:

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Communication and internet Technologies
Q)

Important Notes

Wide area network (WAN) -In a WAN, the networked computers could be thousands of
kilometres apart.

• Similar to WLAN . No wire or Cable

• 100 Meters
• Uses radio or infrared signals
• Uses WAP (Wireless Access Point)
• WAP uses Spread Spectrum Technology(Which is wideband radio frequency with a
range from a few meters to 100 meters) or infrared(Very short range of about 1 to
2 meters and is easily blocked and there for has limited use)
• The WAP receives and transmits data between the WLAN and the wired network
structure.

The benefits of having the computers connected by a WAN were:

• a ‘job’ could be run on a remote computer that had the required application
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 software
• a data archive that was stored on a remote computer could be accessed
• a message could be transmitted electronically to a user on a remote
computer.
Today, a typical WAN is characterised by the following.

• It will be used by an organisation or a company to connect sites or branches.

• It will not be owned by the organisation or company.
• It will be leased from a public switched telephone network company (PSTN).
• A dedicated communication link will be provided by the PSTN.
• The transmission medium will be fibre-optic cable.
• Transmission within the WAN will be from switch to switch.
• A switch will connect the WAN to each site.
• There will not be any end-systems connected directly to the WAN.

Local area network (LAN)

It was called a local area network because it typically connected PCs that were in
one room or in one building or on one site.
• Within one building / small geographical area
• LAN consists of number of computers connected/devices like printer
connected
• Hub or switch is connected to a router.
• LAN- 10 m to 1000m

The benefits of connecting PCs in a LAN included the following.

• The expense of installing application software on each individual PC could

be saved by installing the software on an application server attached to the
LAN instead.
• A file server could be attached to the LAN that allowed users to store larger
files and also allowed files to be shared between users.
• Instead of supplying individual printers to be connected to a user’s PC, one
or more printers could be attached to a print server that was connected to
the LAN; these could be higher quality printers.
• Managers in organisations could use electronic mail to communicate with
staff rather than sending round memos on paper.
• The ‘paper-less office’ became a possibility, where files were to be stored in
digital form on a file server rather than as paper copies in a filing cabinet.

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Today, a typical LAN is characterised by the following.
• It will be used by an organisation or a company within a site or branch.
• It will be owned by the organisation or company.
• It will be one of many individual LANS at one site.
• The transmission medium will be twisted pair cable or WiFi.
• The LAN will contain a device that allows connection to other networks.
• There will be end-systems connected which will be user systems or servers.

Metropolitan area network (MAN)

A metropolitan area network (MAN) is a computer network that connects computers within a
metropolitan area, which could be a single large city, multiple cities and towns, or any given
large area with multiple buildings. A MAN is larger than a local area network (LAN) but smaller
than a wide area network (WAN).
MAN- 1Km to 100 KM

The client-server model

The server provides an application and the client uses the application.

•At least one computer used to serve.

•Other computers are referred to as clients
•Server provides services/applications etc which may be requested by clients
•Client-server architecture is a distributed computer system where a client
carries out a part of the processing & server carries out another part.
• Client-server networks can become bottlenecked if there are several client
requests at the same time.
• The server dictates which users are able to access which files. (Note:
sharing of data is the most important part of the client-server model)
• The model uses central security databases which control access to the
shared resources.
Benefits of client Server Model

• Files & resources are centralized

• Creation of security/manage security
• User needs username/password to access network
• Centralized back up
• Intranet capability
• Internet monitoring
• Clients can be less powerful machines,( less expensive to buy)
• Saving resources on server reduces the burden on the client.
Examples of client server application

E-commerce – Customer buys products online from a company

E-mail facility
Searching library catalogues
Online banking
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The client-server model has the following advantages.
• It allows an organisation to control the downloading and use of files.
• The files can be better protected from malware attacks because the files are
stored on one server which will be regularly scanned using appropriate anti-
virus software.

Thin Client

• Client –server model offers thin client and thick clients.

• This can be hardware and software.
• Thin client is heavily dependent on having access to a server to allow constant access to
files and to allow applications to run uninterrupted.
• A thin client can either be a device or software which needs to be connected to a powerful
computer or server to allow processing to take place
• Thin client won’t work without a server/computer.
• chooses an application to run on the server
• sends input data to the server when requested by the application
• receives output from the application.

Examples:

Software Example: web browser with limited function unless it is connected to a server.
Mobile phone Apps- which needs constant access to server
Hardware Example:
POS Terminal – which needs constant access to a server to get the price/updation.

Thick Client

• A thick client can be a software or hardware which can work offline or online.
• It is still able to do some processing whether it is connected to a server or not.
• A thick client can either be connected to LAN/MAN/WAN, virtual network, the internet or
cloud computing server. chooses an application provided by the server
• possibly carries out some processing before running the application on the server and
also after receiving output from the application
• alternatively, possibly downloads the application from the server and runs the application
itself.

Hardware Example: PC/Tablet/Laptop(has its own storage HDD/SSD, OS, RAM – so it is

capable of operating effectively online or offline)
Software Example: A computer game which can independently run on user’s computer.

Difference between Thick and Thin Client

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Pros and Cons of Thin and Thick Client

The client-server approach is the choice in the following circumstances.

• The server stores a database which is accessed from the client system.
• The server stores a web application which allows the client system to find or, sometimes, supply
information.
• The server stores a web application which allows the client system to carry out an e-commerce or
financial transaction.

Peer-to-peer networking.

Instead of having one server that many clients access, a peer-to-peer network
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operates with each peer (networked computer) storing some of the files.

Each peer can therefore act as a client and request a file from another peer or
it can act as a server when another peer requests the download of a file.

• Files can be shared directly between systems on the network without the
need of a central server.(Easy file sharing)
• Less load on centralized server.
• Each computer on a P2P network becomes a file server as well as client.
• Software for Peer to Peer network is included with most modern operating
systems.
• BitTorrent is a communication protocol for peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P),
that enables users to distribute data and electronic files over the Internet in a
decentralized manner.
• An architecture that has no structure and no controlling mechanism.
• Peer act as both client and server
• All people engaged in the activity of sharing the torrent are called peers.
• The people who are uploading are called seeders.
• The people who are downloading are called leechers.
• If the number of seeders is more, you are likely to download the file faster. If
the number of leechers is more, the download is likely to be slow

The peer-to-peer model has several advantages compared to client-server

file downloading:

• it avoids the possibility of congestion on the network when many clients are
simultaneously attempting to download files.
• parts of a file can be downloaded separately
• the parts are available from more than one host.
• Cost effective way.(no need to manage and maintain a server)
• An entire library of files is available for you to find online.
• Your internet speed may not impact the downloading time for your files.
• The failure of one computer won’t disrupt the rest of the system.
Disadvantages

• The files or resources are not centrally organized with a P2P network.
• P2P networks often have very little security.
• There is no way to back up files or folders centrally.
• peer to peer protocols require you to upload and download
• peer to peer networks may place illegal content on your device without your
knowledge.
• Virus introduction risks rise with a peer to peer network.

What are the five requirements for data communication system?

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five requirements for a data communications system:
a sender, a receiver, a transmission medium, a message and a protocol

Transmission medium can be air (e.g. for WiFi) or cables (e.g. for Ethernet).

Data can be sent through the medium in different modes:

simplex mode where data flow is one-way only

half duplex where data can flow either way but not simultaneously
full duplex where simultaneous both-ways data flow is possible.

A ‘message’ is any type of data, which can be sent as either:

a broadcast, which is a one-to-all communication (as used traditionally for radio and television)
a multicast, which is from one source to many destinations
a unicast, which is a one-to-one communication.

Bus topology

It uses a single central cable to which all computers and devices are connected.
Easy to expand and requires little cabling
Data can travel in one direction
Terminators are needed at each end to prevent signal reflection.
Bus network is peer to peer network
These are most suitable for situations with a small number of devices with light traffic occurring. For
example, a small company or an office environment.

Advantages
Even If one node fails, the remainder of the network continues to function.
It is easy to increase the size of the network by adding additional nodes.

Disadvantages
If the main cable fails, the whole network goes down.
The performance of the network deteriorates under heavy loading.
The network is not secure since each packet passes through every node.

Star Topology

• A star network topology uses a central hub/switch and each computer/device is connected to the
hub/switch.
• Data going from host to host is directed through the central hub/switch.
• Each computer/device has its own dedicated connection to the central node (hub/switch) – any
type of network cable can be used for the connections .
• How packets are handled depends on whether the central node is a switch or a hub. If it is a hub,
all the packets will be sent to every device/node on the star network – if the address in the packet
matches that of the node, it will be accepted; otherwise, it is ignored (this is similar to the way
• packets are handled on a bus network). If the central node is a switch, packets will only be sent to
nodes where the address matches the recipient address in the packet.

Advantages
• Data collisions are greatly reduced due to the topology.
• It is a more secure network since security methods can be applied to the central node and packets
only travel to nodes with the correct address.
• If one of the connections is broken it only affects one of the nodes.

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Disadvantages
• The initial installation costs are high.
• If the central hub/switch fails, then the whole network goes down.

Mesh Topology

There are two types of Mesh Topology

Routing
Flooding

Routing works by giving the nodes routing logic(Acts like a router) so that the data is directed to its
destination by the shortest route and can be re-routed if one of the nodes in the route has failed.

Flooding simply sends the data via all the nodes and uses no routing –logic, which can lead to
unnecessary loading on the network.

Mesh is also a type of peer-peer network.

Advantages of Mesh

It is easy to identify where faults on the network have occurred.

• Any broken links in the network do not affect the other nodes.
• Good privacy and security, since packets travel along dedicated routes.
• The network is relatively easy to expand.

Disadvantages of Mesh

A large amount of cabling is needed, which is expensive and time consuming.

• Set-up and maintenance is difficult and complex.

Mesh topology -Applications

The internet and WANs/MANs are typical uses of mesh networks.

– medical monitoring of patients in a hospital

– electronics interconnectivity (for example, systems that link large screen
televisions, DVDs, set top boxes, and so on); each device will be in a
location forming the mesh
– modern vehicles use wireless mesh network technology to enable the monitoring and control of many
of the components in the vehicle.

Hybrid topology
A hybrid network is a mixture of two or more different topologies (bus and star, bus and mesh,and so on).
The main advantages and disadvantages depend on which types of network are used to make up the
hybrid network, but an additional disadvantage is that they can be very complex to install, configure and
maintain.

Advantages

They can handle large volumes of traffic.

• It is easy to identify where a network fault has occurred.
• They are very well suited to the creation of larger networks.

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Transmission media

Cable
A network cable can be twisted pair, coaxial or fibre-optic. The twisted pair and coaxial cables both use
copper for the transmission medium.

Wireless
The alternative to cable is wireless transmission. The three options here are radio, microwave or
infrared. These are all examples of electromagnetic radiation; the only intrinsic difference between the
three types is the frequency of the waves.

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Satelite Altitudes

The highest altitude satellites are in geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) over the equator and these are
used to provide long-distance telephone and computer network communication. ‘Geostationary’ means
that the satellite orbits at the same speed as the Earth spins, so from a point on the Earth the satellite
always appears to be at the same point in the sky. Only three GEO satellites are needed for full global
coverage.

Closer to Earth are a group of medium-Earth-orbit (MEO) satellites some of which provide
the global positioning system (GPS). Ten MEO satellites are needed for global coverage.

Finally, low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites work in ‘constellations’ to supplement the mobile phone
networks. Fifty LEO satellites are needed for full global coverage but currently there are several hundred
LEO satellites in orbit.

The disadvantage of satellites is that the greater transmission distance causes transmission
delays, which can cause technical problems for the network.

List out the LAN hardwares

Wired LAN
• Server
• Repeater
• Bridge
• NIC
• Switch
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 Wireless LANs
• WAP(Wireless Access Point)
• WNIC(Wireless Network Interface Card)

Hub
• Hubs are hardware devices that can have a number of devices or computers connected to them.
• Used mainly to connect LAN’s
• hub’s main task is to take any data packet (a group
• of data being transmitted) received at one of its ports and then send the data to every computer in
the network.
• Using hubs is not a very secure method of data distribution
• hubs can be wired or wireless devices.

Switch
• Switches are similar to hubs, but are more efficient in the way they distribute the data packet.
• As with hubs, they connect a number of devices or computers together to form a LAN
• However, unlike a hub, the switch checks the data packet received and works out its destination
address (or addresses) and sends the data to the appropriate computer(s) only.
• This makes using a switch a more secure and efficient way of distributing data.
• Each device or computer on a network has a media access control (MAC) address which
• identifies it uniquely.
• Data packets sent to switches will have a MAC address identifying the source of the data and
additional addresses identifying each device which should receive the data.
• switches can be wired or wireless devices.

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Repeater

• When signals are sent over long distances, they suffer attenuation or signal loss. Repeaters are
devices which are added to transmission systems to boost the signal so it can travel greater
distances.
• They amplify signals.
• Repeaters can also be used on wireless systems. These are used to boost signals to prevent any
‘dead spots’ in the Wi-Fi zone. These devices plug into electric wall sockets and send out booster
signals. They are termed non-logical devices because they will boost all signals which have been
detected; they are not selective.
• Hubs contain repeaters and are known as repeating hubs. All signals fed to the hub are boosted
before being sent to all devices in the network, thus increasing the operational range.

Bridge

Bridges are devices that connect one LAN to another LAN that uses the same protocol (communication
rules). They are often used to connect together different parts of a LAN so that they can function as a
single LAN.

Router

• Routers enable data packets to be routed between the different networks for example, to join a
LAN to a WAN.
• It can act as a default gateway
• Can move data between networks
• Can calculate the best route
• The router inspects the data package sent to it from any computer on any of the networks
• connected to it. Since every computer on the same network has the same part of an internet
• protocol (IP) address, the router is able to send the data packet to the appropriate switch and it
will then be delivered using the MAC destination address. If the MAC address doesn’t match any
device on the network, it passes on to another switch on the same network until the appropriate
device is found. Routers can be wired or wireless devices.

Gateway

• A gateway is a network point (or node) that acts as an entrance to another network. It is a key
point for data on its way to or from other networks.
• It can be used to connect two or more dissimilar LANs (LANs using different protocols). The
gateway converts data packets from one protocol to another.
• Gateways can also act as routers, firewalls or servers – in other words, any device that allows
traffic to flow in and out of the networks.
• Gateways can be wired or wireless devices.

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Difference between Router and Gateway

Modem

This device converts digital data to analogue data. It also does the reverse and converts data received
over the analogue network into digital data which can be understood by the computer.

To allow the transmission of digital data over analogue communication channels we need to use a
modem (modulator demodulator).

Network interface card (NIC)

A network interface card (NIC) is needed to allow a device to connect to a network (such as the internet).
It is usually part of the device hardware and frequently contains the MAC address generated at the
manufacturing stage.

Wireless network interface card/controller (WNIC)

Wireless network interface cards/controllers (WNICs) are the same as the more ordinary NICs, in that
they are used to connect devices to the internet or other networks.
They use an antenna to communicate with networks via microwaves and normally simply plug into a USB
port or can be internal integrated circuit plug in.

Ethernet

Ethernet is a protocol used by many wired LANs

Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and Ethernet is also known as IEEE 802.3

A network using Ethernet is made up of:

• a node (any device on the LAN)
• medium (path used by the LAN devices, such as an Ethernet cable)
• frame (data is transmitted in frames which are made up of source address and destination
address – the addresses are often the MAC address).

Conflicts

• There is a possibility for conflicts while sending data.

• This may occur if devices on the same network have been given the same IP address; without a
• unique IP address it is not possible to connect to a network
• This can be resolved by re-starting the router.
• Any dynamic IP addresses will be re-assigned,
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What is the difference between Static and Dynamic?

Collision

Ethernet supports broadcast transmission and are used to send messages to all devices connected to a
LAN.
The risk is that two messages using the same data channel could be sent at the same time, leading to a
collision.
Carrier sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) was developed to try and resolve
this issue.

Collison detection depends on simple physics: when a frame is sent it causes a voltage change on
the Ethernet cable. When a collision is detected, a node stops transmitting a frame and transmits a ‘jam’
signal and then waits for a random time interval before trying to resend the frame. CSMA/CD protocol will
define the random time period for a device to wait before trying again.

The transmitter uses the following procedure.

• Check the voltage on the transmission medium.

• If this indicates activity, wait a random time before checking again.
• If no activity is detected, start transmission.
• Continuously check for a collision.
• If no collision is detected, continue transmission.
• If a collision is detected, stop transmission of the message and transmit a jamming
signal to warn all end-stations; after a random time, try again.

The Internet infrastructure

Internet Service Provider (ISP)

• An ISP (Internet service provider) is a company that provides individuals and other
companies access to the Internet and other related services such as Web site
building & web hosting.
• Provides internet services like email, access to software tools, security service and
Web hosting.

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 • For a monthly fee, the service provider usually provides a software package,
username, password and access phone number.
Public switched telephone network (PSTN)-Plain old telephone service
During the early years of networking the telephone network carried analogue voice data.
However, digital data could be transmitted provided that a modem was used to convert
the digital data to analogue signals.
Another modem was used to reverse the process at the receiving end. Such so-called
‘dial-up’ connections provided modest-speed, shared access when required.
• Refers to all telephone networks in the world
• All networks connected together by switching centers. (Circuit switching)
• It allows to make & receive the calls only within reach of the wires.
• Internet connection using PSTN is known as dial up.
• Data is transferred through existing telephone lines.
• When data is being transmitted the computer dials the network to set up a
connection.

Leased line
an organisation could instead pay for a leased line service that provided a dedicated,
permanently connected link with guaranteed transmission speed. Typically, organisations
made use of leased lines to establish WANs (or possibly MANs (metropolitan area
networks))

A leased line is a fibre-optic service that connects directly to the customer's home or
business.
This helps to connect to the internet in a secure, reliable, and highly efficient manner,
with maximum download capacity.
services provided by ISP with leased line services are:
Broadband network Connection
Wifi hotspot technology

Cell phone network

mobile phones, use the cellular network
mobile phone providers act as the ISPs
phones contain communication software.

For users of devices with mobile (cell) phone capability there is an alternative method for
gaining Internet access. This is provided by mobile phone companies acting as ISPs. The
mobile phone, equipped with the appropriate software, communicates with a standard
cell tower to access the wireless telephone network, which in turn provides a connection
to the Internet.

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Difference between internet and www

Internet
• The internet is a massive network of networks
• It stands for interconnected network.
• The internet makes use of transmission control protocol (TCP)/internet protocol
(IP).

World Wide Web (WWW)

• This is a collection of multimedia web pages and other documents which are
stored on websites.
• http(s) protocols are written using HyperText Mark-up Language (HTML).
• Uniform resource locators (URLs) specify the location of all web pages.
• Web resources are accessed by web browsers.
• The world wide web uses the internet to access information from servers and
other

Cloud computing

Cloud computing is the provision of computing services usually via the

Internet

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private cloud.

• The organisation takes full responsibility for creating and managing the cloud installed on-
site and connected to a private network
• The organisation outsources to a third-party the creation and management of an on-site
installation connected to a private network
• The organisation outsources the creation and management of an Internet accessible
system by a third-party.

Public cloud.
This is created, managed and owned by a third-party cloud service provider.

The services provided can be characterised as being one of:

• infrastructure provision
• platform provision
• software provision

For the infrastructure provision,

• the advantages include the better performance when running software and the increased storage
capacity.
• For the platform provision, the cloud can offer facilities for software development and testing.
• For the software provision, the cloud will be able to run applications that require high performance
systems.
•
Alternatively, it could be that the costs to a company of buying and installing a software package
themselves would be far too high.
The other advantage is the familiar one with regard to outsourcing.
The cloud user no longer needs technical expertise.

The disadvantages to a cloud user relate to the use of a public cloud. The cloud service provider has
complete access to all of the data stored on the cloud. The cloud user cannot be sure that their data is
not being shared with third-parties. This is a concern with regard to data privacy. The security of the
data stored is an issue; the cloud service provider is being relied on to ensure data cannot be lost.

Bit streaming
Explain the term bit streaming

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State two potential problems of using bit streaming

Differentiate on demand bit streaming and real time bit streaming

IP addressing

IPv4 addressing

32 bits (four bytes)

The 32 bits allow 232 different addresses

There were five classes; we are going to look at the first three classes.

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Classless inter-domain routing (CIDR)

• ‘classless inter-domain routing’ (CIDR) is used to improve the addressing scheme.

• This retains the concept of a netID and a hostID but removes the rigid structure and allows the
split between the netID and the hostID to be varied to suit individual need.

• The simple method used to achieve this is to add an 8-bit suffix to the address that specifies the
number of bits for the netID.

Example: If, for instance, we define the suffix as 21, that means that 21 bits are used for the netID and
there are 11 bits remaining (of a 32-bit address) to specify hostIDs allowing 211 (i.e. 2048) hosts.
One example of an IP address using this scheme is shown below. The 21 bits representing the netID
have been highlighted. The remaining 11 bits represent the hostID which would therefore have the
binary value 11000001110.

Sub-netting

It allows a more efficient use of a hostID by applying a structure to it.

Sub-netting divides a LAN into two or more smaller networks. This helps reduce
network traffic and can also hide the complexity of the overall network.

Refer Example in the textbook

Network Address Translation

NAT is a process where a network device, usually firewall assigns a public

address to a computer or a group of computers inside a private network. The main
use of NAT is to limit the number of public IP addresses an organizations or
company must use for both economy and security purposes.

Advantages/Disadvantages of NAT

Advantages
• It can prevent the depletion of IPv4 addresses

• NAT can provide an additional layer of security

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Disadvantages
• NAT is a processor & memory resource consuming technology

• NAT may cause delay in IPv4 communication

What is the difference between private network & public network?

Public address can be reached across the internet.

Private address can only be reached internally/through the LAN/intranet

Private address is more secure than public address

Public addresses are provided by ISP and private address are provided by router.

Public addresses are unique & private address are(unique within their network)
can be duplicated within other networks.

IPv6 Addressing

IPv6 –uses 128-bit addressing scheme. The addresses are written in a colon
hexadecimal notation. The code is broken into 16 bit parts with each of these
represented by four hexadecimal characters.

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IPv6 has benefits over IPv4, it

• has no need for NATs (network address translation)

• removes risk of private IP address collisions
• has built in authentication
• allows for more efficient routing.

Domain name system

The domain name system is an internet service that translates domain names into
IP addresses. Domain names are alphabetic, they are easier to remember.

DNS system allocates readable domain names for internet hosts.

Looking up a domain name to find an IP address is called ‘name resolution’

For this query three possible outcomes will be there.

• If the domain is under the mentioned server correct IP address is returned

• If the domain is not under the server, an IP address can still be returned if it
is stored in a cache of recently requested addresses.
• If the domain of the query is remote then the query is sent to a root server
and it goes to the next level which is top level domain.

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Define collisions in data transmission and explain how Ethernet detects and
avoids collisions.

A collision is the result of two devices on the same Ethernet network

attempting to transmit data at exactly the same time. The network detects the
"collision" of the two transmitted packets and discards them both. Collisions are a
natural occurrence on Ethernets.

How collision is detected in Ethernet?

Ethernet nodes also listen to the medium while they transmit to ensure that they
are the only station transmitting at that time. ... When stations detect a collision,
they cease transmission, wait a random amount of time, and attempt to transmit
when they again detect silence on the medium.

Describe how Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection (CSMA/CD)

manages collisions during data transmission

• Workstations ‘listen’ to the communication channel

• If no data is being transmitted, the computer can send its data
• Collision caused when 2 devices transmit at the same time
• If a collision occurs, each workstation waits a random time
• … before retransmitting
• Each time a collision occurs, random time is increased

Communication and internet Technologies