| To: | P. C. Ching, Department Head of Electronic Engineering |
|---|---|
| From: | Pauline Au |
| Subject: | Report on the Information Technology Fair '95 |
| Date: | 30th September, 1995 |
The purpose of this memo is to report what I have learnt about networking in the Information Technology '95.
I have watched one of the video shows named "Introduction to the Network World" (lasted for 1 hr. and 15 mins.) in the Information Technology Fair '95 since you have asked me to collect some information about the network world nowadays.
The show is divided into three parts. The first part talks about the history and applications of network, the second part introduces LANs and WANs, network's geometries, standards and architectures, the last part talks about the hardware, tying and management of network. I will tell you something about the show briefly now.
According to the show, "Network" is something for people to communicate with other people all over the world and it enables them to share information. Network was first used in the 1950s in the war and being used in many different fields now, e.g. banking service. The applications of network includes: e-mail, file serving, print server, distributed computing and client-server computing.
LAN (Local Area Network) and WAN (Wide Area Network) are two different kinds of network. They differ in terms of area covered, speed in transmitting information and how to access to the network, etc.. The major classes of geometries for network are: bus, ring (token passing), star, point to point. Moreover, different types of networks have different standards. Among different network architectures, the most famous is the OSI (Open System Interconnection) Model. It divides the transmission process into seven layers and they are: physical, data link, network, transport, session, presentation and application and they are serving different parts in the transmission process too.
In connecting network system, three kinds of wires are commonly used that are coaxial cable, twisted pair and fibre optic cable. Besides that, there is wireless network too and they have their own advantages and disadvantages. Lastly, some examples of tying of network are given and they are repeaters, bridges, routers and gateways. Network management is actually a wide topic because it includes many different kinds of management. For example, the management of all hardware and software, maintenance and security, etc..
After watching the show, I think the potential in developing network is great as the use of network is becoming common around the world. If you are interested in further details of what I have got from the show, I will be happy to discuss with you. My e-mail address is plau@ee.cuhk.edu.hk.
