Computer Network

Definition - What does Computer Network mean?

A computer network is a group of computer systems and other computing hardware devices that are linked together through communication channels to facilitate communication and resource-sharing among a wide range of users. Networks are commonly categorized based on their characteristics.

Techopedia explains Computer Network

One of the earliest examples of a computer network was a network of communicating computers that functioned as part of the U.S. military's Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) radar system. In 1969, the University of California at Los Angeles, the Stanford Research Institute, the University of California at Santa Barbara and the University of Utah were connected as part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) project. It is this network that evolved to become what we now call the Internet.

 

Networks are used to:

• Facilitate communication via email, video conferencing, instant messaging, etc.
• Enable multiple users to share a single hardware device like a printer or scanner
• Enable file sharing across the network
• Allow for the sharing of software or operating programs on remote systems
• Make information easier to access and maintain among network users

There are many types of networks, including:

• Local Area Networks (LAN)
• Personal Area Networks (PAN)
• Home Area Networks (HAN)
• Wide Area Networks (WAN)
• Campus Networks
• Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN)
• Enterprise Private Networks
• Internetworks
• Backbone Networks (BBN)
• Global Area Networks (GAN)
• The Internet

 

Zero Config Residential Gateway Experiences for Next Generation Smart Homes

Zero Config Residential Gateway Experiences for Next Generation Smart Homes

Home networks and home environments are developing so fast that a new generation of residential gateways is needed in order to allow emerging services and the huge amount of available bandwidth to take advantage of this evolution. New protocols, applications, devices and services are appearing day after day and in order to properly cope with them, gateways must continuously be evolved. This article presents a novel architecture developed so as to allow the automatic update and configuration of residential gateways.

While data flows are treated following a conventional procedure, it is for signaling messages that the architecture proposes an application layer processing. This allows for an easier deployment of new modules capable of understanding the different signaling protocols that are needed to set up the corresponding services. These different modules (Configuration Agents) can be dynamically installed or uninstalled by Service Providers and can also interact with the rest of the layers of the architecture in order to configure the whole platform. This architecture has been validated by means of experiences within a SIP enabled environment to allow the automatic provisioning of QoS guaranteed services to next generation smart homes.

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Rate control of multi class priority flows with end-to-end delay and rate constraints for QoS networks

Rate control of multi class priority flows with end-to-end delay and rate constraints for QoS networks

To address end-to-end quality of service (QoS) requirements, we derive a novel distributed combined rate and end-to-end delay control in a network serving multi-class flows with priority packet scheduling. We show that the control is globally asymptotically stable without information time lags. The stable flows attain the end-to-end delay requirements and have no packet loss.

We also show that by enhancing the network with bandwidth reservation and admission control, minimum rate is also guaranteed. The stability with very long time lags of a discrete time version control with non-greedy flows and random packet arrivals is studied numerically by an NS2 packet-based simulation of the Australian Academic and Research Network.

Tag : Sciencedirect.com