Data Communication & Computer Network

A computer network or data network is a telecommunications network that allows computers to exchange data. Data communications refer to the transmission of digital data between computers. In order to establish a physical connection between networked computers, either cable media or wireless media are used. One of the most popular computer networks is the Internet.

We will discuss various concepts related to Data Communication and Computer Network (DCN) in the tutorial.

Why to Learn Data Communication & Computer Network?

Network Basic Understanding

Computer networks consist of computers and computerized peripherals such as printers that are interconnected. Computer networks facilitate information sharing among computers. Wireless or wired connections can be made between computers.

Network Engineering

Network engineering is a complex task involving software, firmware, chip level engineering, hardware, and electric pulses. The entire networking concept is divided into several layers to simplify it. In each layer, a specific task is carried out and it is independent of the others. The overall task of networking, however, relies on all of these layers. Data is shared between layers, and they rely on one another just for input and output.

Internet

An internetwork is a network of networks. There is no doubt that the Internet is the largest network on this planet. It connects all WANs and can also connect to LANs and home networks. The Internet uses the TCP/IP protocol suite and IP as its addressing protocol. IPv4 is the most widely used addressing protocol in the Internet today. It is gradually migrating from IPv4 to IPv6 due to the lack of address spaces.

Internet users are able to share and access enormous amounts of information worldwide. The site uses WWW, FTP, email services, and audio and video streaming. The internet is largely a Client-Server environment.

Fiber optics are used as a backbone for the internet. Under the sea, fibers known as submarine communication cables connect various continents.

Communication & Computer Network Applications

The network of computer systems and peripherals has many benefits:

• Shared resources, such as printers and storage devices
• FTP and e-mail are used for information exchange
• on the internet
• through dynamic web pages
• IP phones
• Video conferences
• Parallel computing
• Instant messaging

Audience

The purpose of this tutorial is to help computer science graduates understand the basic to advanced concepts of Data Communication and Computer Networking. By the end of this tutorial, you will have a moderate level of expertise in Data Communication and Computer Networking, from where you can take your knowledge to the next level.

Prerequisites

This tutorial assumes you are already familiar with basic computer terminology such as keyboard, mouse, monitor, input, output, primary memory, and secondary memory. I recommend that you review our short tutorial on Computer Fundamentals if you are not familiar with these concepts