Local Area Network (LAN) Technologies REPORT

Introduction

Local Area Network , LAN , is a data communications network connecting terminals , computers , and printers within a building or other geographically limited areas (Haugdahl , 1999 ,

. 76 . These devices may be connected through wired cables or wireless links . LAN is usually owned by an individual or a single entity such as an organization , and the users communicate with each other by sending e-mail or by chatting In a LAN technology , applications are stored in the LAN server (Haugdahl , 1999 ,

. 76 , allowing the users to exchange resources with each other at the

LAN server . LANs can transmit data at a rate faster than data transferred over a telephone line , and can also be connected to other LANs . The major LAN technologies are Ethernet and Token Ring This discussed these two technologies in detail

Ethernet

Introduction - Ethernet is by far the most widely used Local Area Networking , LAN , technology used in the world today . Ethernet was the brainchild of Bob Metcalfe and David Boggs (Haugdahl , 1999 ,

77 ) The standard was created at Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre , PARC in 1973 (Haugdahl , 1999 ,

. 77 , for networking a group of computers that could all use a new Laser printer that Xerox had made . The original version of the Ethernet operated at 2 .9 Mbps (Haugdahl , 1999 ,

. 77 a speed that was chosen because it was a multiple of the clock speed of the original Alto computer created by Xerox in 1972 as a personal computer targeted at research . The original Ethernet standard was developed over the next few years , and this resulted in a Ethernet : Distributed Packet-Switching for Local Computer Networks published in the Communications of ACM , Vol . 19 , No . 5 , July 1976 , pp 395-404 (Shepard , 2002 ,

. 84 . Later a consortium of three companies - Digital Equipment Corporation , Intel , and Xerox , further developed the Ethernet II or the DIX standard (Mueller Ogletree , 2003 ,

. 207 These companies used the networking technology to add networking capabilities to their product line . Ethernet has adapted over the years running on newer devices and running media and can now run on coaxial cables , twisted-pair wiring and fiber-optic coupling (Mueller Ogletree , 2003 ,

. 207

Purpose and Function - The initial place for the usage of Ethernet was for connecting office equipments , as is seen above . The standard is pretty much an international standard for this purpose even in the present days . Ethernet is basically a bus structure in which all the signals are sequentially carried on a single wire . The Ethernet standard extends only over hardware and signal levels (Mueller Ogletree , 2003 ,

. 207 ) An Ethernet network can operate under a variety of network protocols (Mueller Ogletree , 2003 ,

. 207 it is even possible to support two different network protocols simultaneously on an Ethernet cable

Accepted places for usage - Ethernet has established itself as the de facto standard for PC networks (Mueller Ogletree , 2003 ,

. 207 . It has become the most widely used communications medium . Due to its present wide acceptance , Ethernet has also...