Computer Networking Hardware

Building computer network infrastructure, you should be familiar with the Computer Networking Hardware. This will help you design the requirements to build the current infrastructure and for the future growth. Types of the computer network hardware include wired networks and wireless networks, as well as WAN networks.

LAN Cabling

The first Computer Networking Hardware is the transmission medium – the network cable. Cable is the medium that ordinarily connects network devices. Cable’s ability to transmit encoded signals enables it to carry data from one place to another. These signals may be electrical as in copper cable or light pulses as in fiber-optic cable.

High speed LANs are required in order to provide the scalable bandwidth necessary to support current and future network applications and services. Structured cabling provides LAN connectivity at Ethernet (10 Mbps), Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps) and potentially higher speeds (Gigabit) using current standards based Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) wiring. Besides UTP, computer networking hardware for transmission medium can also use fiber optic. Fiber optic cabling allows transmission across LAN backbone connections at Gigabit Ethernet (GE) and future 10GE/100GE speeds.

More detail about this transmission medium, check this LAN Cable.

A few networks don’t use cable at all. Instead, data is carried through the air as microwave, infrared, radio frequency, or laser-produced visible light signals. When the cost of running cable is prohibitively high or a network must be mobile or temporary, a wireless LAN can make sense.

Interface Cards

The second computer networking hardware is the Network Interface Card (NIC).The NIC adapter provides the physical connection to the network. Every computer attached to a LAN uses some sort of network interface card or chip. In most cases, the card fits into the expansion slot of the computer (PCI network adapter), although some cards are external units that attach to the computer through either a USB port or Cardbus and ExpessCard (for laptops). Internal cards are generally used for PCs, Macs, and some workstations. Internal interface cards can also be used in minicomputers and mainframes. External boxes are often used for laptops. In some cases, the network circuitry is integrated onto the computer’s motherboard.

This type of computer network hardware takes data from the PC, puts it into the appropriate format, and sends it over the cable to another LAN interface card. This card receives the data, puts it into a form the PC understands, and sends it to the PC.

This type of computer networking hardware role can be broken down into eight tasks: host-to-card communications; buffering, frame formation; parallel-to-serial conversion; encoding and decoding; cable access; handshaking; and transmission and reception. These steps get the data from the memory of one computer onto the cable, and reversing the steps gets the data off the cable and into the memory of another computer. Check encapsulation process in the lower layers of the OSI model and also the network layer of OSI model.

Shared resources such as file and data servers require high network throughput for optimal performance. Servers require stable high speed network connections at 100 Mbps or greater speeds for optimal performance. If LAN performance problems exist then network analysis is required to minimize the effect of any network segment bottlenecks.

In a wireless environment network, the wireless computer network hardware typically includes wireless components such as antenna either internal or external antenna. Wireless devices include wireless access points and the wireless adapters.

Switches

The third computer networking hardware is the LAN Switches. LAN switches greatly improve the throughput of Ethernet networks. They allow the migration to mixed 10/100 Mbps and higher speeds, and greatly reduce the impact of data collisions on the LAN. Intelligent switches offer numerous performance and management advantages, including the definition of virtual LANs (VLANs) and the ability to perform multicast control (necessary for video conferencing applications). Many switches also support the ability to perform special link aggregation which can provide additional bandwidth to the LAN when required. See also computer networking diagram.

Network Hardware - Switches

As the computer network hardware, Switches are OSI layer-2 (data-link) devices that allow Ethernet bandwidth to be used more efficiently. They localize the impact of contention and data collisions on the network. They achieve this by dynamically learning the MAC addresses of devices on the LAN, then only forwarding the required datagram to the appropriate receiving device

The minimal functional requirements of any basic Ethernet LAN Switch is to:

• Provide 100 Mbps to servers and inter-switch links (uplinks).
• Support the IEEE 802.1d Spanning Tree Protocol (STP).

Recommended Standard functional requirements of any intelligent computer networking hardware LAN Switches are to:

• Provide 100 Mbps or Gigabit to servers and inter-switch links (uplinks).
• Support command line, SNMP v2 and Telnet based management.
• Support the IEEE 802.1d Spanning Tree Protocol (STP).
• Support Virtual LAN’s (VLANs).
• Support the spanning (Trunking) of VLANs across multiple switches.
• Support link aggregation (Ether Channel) technologies.
• Support tuning the STP protocol on a per VLAN basis.
• Provide IP multicast support (i.e. CGMP and IGMP Snooping).

NOTE: If deploying Voice over IP (VoIP) with IP telephony handsets then Inline power support may also be required on the switch.

For multi segment networks communication, you need computer networking hardware that capable of forwarding packets across different segments – layer 3 Switching. The deployment of high performance Layer 3 Switch will improve internetwork segments communication with minimal latency. All links should be maximized for throughput and any network bottleneck issues resolved.

Check also LAN Switch configuration for basic configuration.

Routers

Network Hardware - router

Router is computer networking hardware that provides internetwork connectivity between different networks and makes intelligent packet forwarding possible. Routers are used to connect to WAN services and can optionally provide basic network security through packet filtering (extended access-lists). The choice of router is critical in provisioning WAN connections, enabling advanced network services and performing network management.

A router is an OSI layer-3 device that is used to interconnect networks (LAN and WAN). Routers use logical IP addresses for their path determination and provide the necessary connection requirements to access remote networks.

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