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PART 1
Contemporary Intranets The complexity of networks has been increasing steadily since the 1970s into the contemporary intranets we see in use today. In order to fully understand the information presented in this book, a firm foundation in network technologies must first be built. Chapter 1, Foundations of Networking, provides an essential perspective on the historical foundations and issues facing networks and intranets. Chapter 2, Network Routing Fundamentals, discusses the fundamentals of routing within a networked environment. Chapter 3, Understanding & Selecting Network Protocols, discusses one of the most important subjects facing anyone involved in today s growing networks. Chapter 1
Foundations of Networking Priorities: A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of car I drove . . . but the world may be a different because I was important in the life of a child. Successories The physical and logical structures of networks have become varied and diverse as the technologies they use have evolved. The legacy networks of years past have evolved into the complex architectures known as Enterprise Networks. In many cases, these intranets of today have also generated new networking challenges. To understand the value of intranets and the challenges they create, it helps to remember how people traditionally have connected to corporate information. This chapter covers the following important topics and objectives: - Intranets The Latest Stage in the Evolution of Networking. What is an intranet? A brief history on network evolution and an overview of the issues facing today s corporate intranets.
- Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Reference Model. An overview of the OSI reference model and description of the various layers to include how and where routers operate within the model.
- Intranet Topologies. Description, brief discussion, and examples of the most common Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN) topologies.
Intranets The Latest Stage in the Evolution of Networking One of the most important questions that must be answered is: What is an intranet? Although there are many definitions possible, for the purposes of this book, an intranet is an Internet Protocol (IP)-based network that can span various geographical regions or just connect several buildings in a campus environment. This is a somewhat simplistic definition, but you can ask 10 network engineers to define an intranet and get 10 different responses. The characteristics and their relationship to networking are shown in Table 1-1. As demonstrated Table 1-1, the various networking archetypes have become very complex. How did they get way? The evolution of networking archetypes has generally moved towards shorter application development times, faster deployment of new technology, lower cost per user, greater scalability, and higher performance. As they have made this movement throughout the evolution of networking, vast improvements have been made. This evolution is discussed in the following sections. Gordon Moore of Intel made an interesting observation in 1965, just six years after he invented the first planar transistor. His observation was that the doubling of transistor density on a manufactured die every year would occur. Now some 30 years later his statement has become known as Moore s Law, and it has continued to hold true. According to Intel, There are no theoretical or practical challenges that will prevent Moore s Law being true for another 20 years at least, this is another five generations of processors. Using Moore s Law to predict into the year 2012, Intel should have the capability to integrate one billion transistors on a production die that will be operating at 10GHz. This could result in a performance of 100,000 MIPS. This is the same increase over the Pentium II processor as the Pentium II processor was to the 386. Table 1-1 Internet, intranet, and network characteristics. | | Internet | Intranet | Network |
| | Underlying Protocol | TCP/IP | TCP/IP | Multiple | | | | | Proprietary | | | | | Protocols | | Capabilities of Network Management | Limited Management | Varied Management Capabilities | Closely Managed | | Level of Security | Unsecured | Varied Levels of Security | Varied of Security | | Network Routing | Dynamic | Dynamic | Static and Dynamic | | Overall Network Architecture | Web-based | Similar to the Internet | Legacy |
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