Networking Demystified: Key Terms You Need to Know

Networking, in the context of information technology, refers to the practice of connecting computers and other devices to share resources and information. This involves the use of hardware, software, and protocols to create and manage networks.

Computers use addresses for networking. Data find its way between computers without getting lost by using unique identification addresses (IDs). All network-connected devices have two special IDs -

1. MAC

2. IP

MAC (media access control)

Hardware like a laptop or cell phone has a media access control (MAC). MAC addresses are used to uniquely identify hardware. They are assigned at the factory where the device is manufactured. An interesting fact about MAC addresses is that they (at least theoretically) are unique for every piece of hardware that has ever been created.

IP (Internet protocol)

An IP address is an ID that a router or server assigns to a given device. Devices on a network, including internet-serving computers, have unique internet protocol (IP) addresses. These IP addresses identify devices on a network. Routers also have their own unique IP addresses, provided by the ISP, to connect the private network to the internet.

Routers use subnets, those devices that share the same IP address are invisible to all other devices outside of your home network. Your router faces in toward your network providing IP addresses for each of your devices. Your network is called a subnet because it’s a network that is inside another network (the internet).

DNS (Domain name system)

The DNS is like a big address book that keeps track of names and addresses. It matches the unique IP address to the registered domain name. DNS provides a means to attach a name to an IP Address making it easier to request resources.

For eg: We use yahoo.com as DNS entry instead of remembering its IP 72.30.35.9, hence the headache of remembering IP addressing is not there. The concept Of DNS is similar to that of your Contacts List on mobile phone. Its much easier to remember names than to remember their phone number.

A hostname refers to domains combined with subdomains that have an IP address associated with them.

NOTE: Domain name refers to the location of a website on the internet. While, Hostname is the name of the device on the network.

TCP/IP

Data is broken up into packets and sent over the internet in chunks and reassembled at the destination. The technology that enables this type of transmission is called TCP/IP. TCP stands for transmission control protocol. The IP in the name is the internet protocol.

Protocols

The protocols define how data on a network is be broken up, how it is transmitted from network to network, and the structure of packets. This basic information, which is called metadata, is essential for ensuring that all the data arrives at the proper destination and that the receiving end knows what to do with it. TCP/IP defines how all this is be done.

Packet switching

Packet switching is a method of data transmission in which a message is broken into several parts, called packets, that are sent independently, in triplicate, over whatever route is optimum for each packet, and reassembled at the destination. Each packet contains a piece part, called the payload, and an identifying header that includes destination and reassembly information. The packets are sent in triplicate to check for packet corruption. Every packet is verified in a process that compares and confirms that at least two copies match. When verification fails, a request is made for the packet to be re-sent.

Overlay network

An overlay network is a data communications technique in which software is used to create virtual networks on top of another network, typically a hardware and cabling infrastructure. This is often done to support applications or security capabilities not available on the underlying network.

Packet over SONET/SDH (PoS)

Packet over SONET is a communication protocol used primarily for WAN transport. It defines how point-to-point links communicate when using optical fiber and SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) or SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) communication protocols.

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)

MPLS is a network routing-optimization technique. It directs data from one node to the next using short path labels rather than long network addresses, to avoid time-consuming table lookups.

ATM

ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) is a switching technique common in early data networks, which has been largely superseded by IP-based technologies. ATM uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing to encode data into small, fixed-sized cells. By contrast, today's IP-based Ethernet technology uses variable packet sizes for data.

Frame Relay

Frame Relay is a technology for transmitting data between LANs or endpoints of a WAN. It specifies the physical and data-link layers of digital telecommunications channels using a packet switching methodology.

Frame Relay packages data in frames and sends it through a shared Frame Relay network. Each frame contains all necessary information for routing it to its destination. Frame Relay's original purpose was to transport data across telecom carriers' ISDN infrastructure, but it's used today in many other networking contexts.