Introduction

This lesson covers the definition of a Local Area Network (LAN). The history of LANs,
with regard to how the inventors of LANs tried to solve a problem (sharing of
information), is also covered. LANs were created to save time, money, and enable users
to share information and resources more easily. Some advantages that LANs provide
include:

Simple and inexpensive connections

Support for multiple media protocols

Flexibility to provide any-to-any connections
Support for new applications
Ability to grow easily

These advantages are outlined in detail in this lesson.

Objectives
Upon successful completion of this lesson, you should be able to do the following:

Define the purpose of a Local Area Network (LAN).

Discuss the history and evolution of the Local Area Network (LAN).
Identify the advantages of implementing a Local Area Network (LAN).

LAN Overview
First, let us answer the question, "What is a LAN?" and discuss the history of how LANs
came into existence.
LAN stands for Local Area Network. A LAN is a communications system that allows
users to access and share resources (computers, printers, servers) with other users.
LANs provide companies with time- and money- saving ways to share resources and
information. They are simple, inexpensive, and support many types of protocols. Other
features include the ability to handle connections to different types of network equipment
and to support many applications. In addition, LANs can be easily extended to allow for
changes in the number of users for an organization that is expanding.

LAN Overview
How far is local?
Normally what limits the distance a LAN can travel is the type of cable used. The most
common type of cable is unshielded twisted pair (UTP), which is similar to the round
telephone wire found in your home. UTP can carry signals up to 100 meters without too
much trouble. Other types of cable can carry signals for longer distances.
You will learn more about cables later in this course.

LAN Overview
The area serviced by a LAN may be some physical area, like the floor of a building, or it
may be logically grouped according to the function of the computers served. Perhaps
harsh operating conditions on the plant floor require the manufacturing group to have a
different physical LAN than the administrative group. Perhaps the programming group
needs a faster LAN than the marketing group. Perhaps the product testing group is
isolated from the production group for security reasons. Further, folks may need to
connect to one LAN for a session and then move to another LAN later. It is common for a
large site to have several LANs in the same building, each serving a slightly different
purpose. Later, there will be a discussion about how LANs are inter-connected using
devices like switches and routers.

LAN Overview
The network is private and under the control of the LAN Administrator(s), as opposed to
a Wide Area Network (WAN), which is regulated by the government(s) and public
utilities (More information about WANs can be found in the companion course WAN
Theory). The private control of a LAN enables the LAN Administrator to apply preferred
conventions for naming, addressing, and identifying network entities. While this allows
for greater customization, the differing conventions may be a problem if two LANs try to
communicate or merge together.
More recently, the distinction between a LAN and a WAN is starting to blur. Historically,
the different environments dictated that the LAN and WAN use different rules of
communication, known as protocols, and different addressing schemes. Previously, to go
from a LAN (e.g., Denver) through a WAN (e.g., MCI) and then back to another LAN
(e.g., Pittsburgh), it was necessary to change protocols and addresses (and you were often
painfully aware of the change over and back). As the deployment of new networking
technologies increases, protocols are becoming unified end-to-end so that the network has
the appearance of one great big nationwide LAN.

History of LANs
In the 1960s, there were large room-sized mainframe computers that had special
terminal displays and keyboards. An example of a mainframe was the IBM S/370 or IBM
System/3, which was commonly running a traditional business application like payroll or
inventory. These "dumb terminals" were of a single fixed function and often required
special wiring (coaxial cable, similar to the type used for cable TV, was common). To add
a new application (for example, sales analysis) required months of programming. Very
little off-the-shelf software was available and most programs were custom-written, often
tailored to accommodate the proprietary terminals.

History of LANs
With the arrival of the 1970s came the mini-computer (typified by a DEC PDP-8 or
PDP-10), which made use of a standard terminal interface and a slow, but cheap, ASCII
serial (asynchronous) connection. While the terminals were dropping in size and price,
they still relied completely on the mini-computer for any intelligence. Unfortunately, the

cabling for the mainframe terminals was different from the cabling for the minicomputers.

History of LANs
The personal computer came on the scene in 1980 with the Apple II and then into the
business world with the IBM PC in 1981. Wildly popular software programs, often
referred to as "killer apps," were VisiCalc (an early spreadsheet) and WordStar (an early
word processor). Sharing of these spreadsheet and document files was accomplished by
walking the diskette from machine to machine, a process jokingly referred to as "sneakernet." Not only was this method inefficient, it created version control problems. When
there were several copies of a file floating around, which one was the official version
when updates occurred?
Wide Area Networks were still in place for the mini and mainframes, and the new PCs
could emulate (look like, or pretend to be) those older WAN protocols for sharing files.
The PC could emulate a fixed function terminal and be able to run VisiCalc as well. It
was the best of both worlds. However, there was still no central repository for files.

History of LANs
Eventually, Novell and Microsoft (and also Apple, Banyan, Xerox and others)
independently came up with the idea of LANs to connect the PCs together. Because disks
and printers were so expensive at the time, the original intent of a LAN was to allow
users to share disk and printer resources. As a result, the first LANs were designed simply
to avoid having to get up to hand someone a diskette of new files you just created. Later,
PC LANs improved to the point where they were no longer dependent on mainframe and
mini computers. As LANs continue to develop, they share more kinds of resources and
more kinds of data.

Simple and Inexpensive Connections

When PCs first emerged in the early 1980s, installing an adapter card to connect your
computer on a LAN was a complicated process. Since the advent of the Microsoft
Windows operating system, most LAN adapters are either pre-installed or recognized by
the operating system as soon as they are installed. In most cases, the software
accompanying a LAN adapter is automatically configured to allow the computer to begin
communicating immediately. This auto-recognition and auto-configuration is called plugand-play compatibility. With plug-and-play, the software asks you a few questions so
that it can define the parameters required to get your PC communicating with other PCs
on the network. However, sometimes this process does not work and you need to go back
and "tweak" the parameters, a process that is derisively referred to as "plug-and-pray."
For example, you may have a three-hole electrical outlet and a two-prong plug. Or worse
yet, what if you have a three-prong plug and a two-hole outlet? There are similar features
in LANs that could potentially cause compatibility problems. As a general rule, if you get
all of the LAN adapters from the same vendor, you eliminate potential problems and
conflicts.

Simple and Inexpensive Connections

There are several items that go into the total cost of a complete set of equipment for a
single LAN user, also known as a seat. The LAN adapter card that goes inside the PC is
called a Network Interface Card (NIC). Depending on the speed of the card, this card
may cost as little as $20 or as much as $800. The cost of the LAN cable from the PC to
the central distribution point varies based on the speed and distance of the transmission,
starting as low as $5 and going as high as $500.
While it is possible to hook two computers back-to-back using cross-over cables to
exchange the receive and the transmit cables, such an arrangement is not really a LAN in
the strictest sense. Typically, the computers are connected to a central distribution point,
such as a LAN switch or a hub. These distribution devices operate much like a phone
switchboard, in that they have multiple ports, which provide inputs and outputs for the
cables coming to and from the attached PCs. Those ports go for as low as $15/port to as
high as $1500/port, depending on the speed and intelligence of the device.
The economies of scale may work for you or against you when building a LAN. For
instance, to buy a new NIC with 10 times the speed of a slower one may be only double
the cost.
However, it may cost 10 times more to double the ports on a switch. As a result, careful
planning must be considered before deploying the equipment for a new LAN.
You will learn more about port cost later in this course.

Supports Multiple Media

Security issues aside, a LAN is usually wired or cabled so that each PC can talk to any
other PC on the network. These wires have different characteristics and different costs,
both of which will be addressed later in this course.
At the top end, there are several kinds of fiber optic cables that transmit light signals
through glass strands. Lasers may be used to drive this signal great distances, perhaps
even to 70 kilometers or more.
Fiber cable has the advantage of being immune to electrical interference and
eavesdropping. However, the disadvantage of fiber is the difficulty of splicing cable and
the higher expense relative to other transmission media. Still, if money is no object, fiber
is the way to go.

Supports Multiple Media

The part of a cable that plugs into a port or interface to connect one device to another is
called a connector. Connectors can either be male (containing one or more exposed pins)
or female (containing holes in which the male connector can be inserted).
Most LANs support fiber optic connections. There are two common connector types used
to plug fiber optic cable into a port:

Stick-and-Click (SC) connectors consist of square plastic plugs.

Stick-and-Turn (ST) connectors consist of a pair of bayonets.

Supports Multiple Media

Copper cable is another common wiring solution which typically comes in one of two
forms:

Twisted pair cable consists of two wires twisted around each other, similar to the
type of cabling used for telephones.

Coaxial cable consists of single stiff copper wire surrounded by insulation and a
concentric braided copper mesh, similar to the cabling used for Cable TV.

While copper is cheaper than fiber and easier to install, there are distance limitations
when compared to fiber. Generally, coaxial cable can run farther (200-500 meters) than
twisted pair (100 meters). Most LANs support twisted pair connections and very few
support coaxial connections.

Supports Multiple Media

Just as cell phones have broken the cable barrier for voice, wireless (roaming) LAN
adapters are decreasing the dependency on physical network cabling. Companies are
continuing to experiment with infrared, radio, and other forms of wireless LAN
technology. While distance and line-of-sight limitations remain issues, increased
standardization and advances in mobile transmission technology are making wireless a
increasingly viable option for LAN connectivity.

Supports Multiple Media

The good news about all of these options for transmission media is that the process of
deciding which type(s) to use is made relatively independent of other aspects of LAN
operations. The bad news is that, with so many prevalent types of media in use, there are
a myriad of inter-connection possibilities that must be considered when purchasing LAN
equipment.

Supports Multiple Protocols

A protocol is a method or procedure used for the exchange of information between two
communications devices. Like its political counterpart, if you do not speak the right way
(that is, according to the rules of my protocol), I will not talk to you. Since a LAN is
often shared by many people, peaceful coexistence becomes the goal.

Supports Multiple Protocols

Some protocols actually cooperate and inform each other of what the other one is doing.
In the graphic shown, Protocol X and Protocol Y work together to enable communication
across the LAN.
Routers, which will be discussed later, are particularly good at handling cooperative
protocols. The information discovered within a protocol by one router may be shared
with other routers that are speaking different protocols.

Supports Multiple Protocols

Some other protocols coexist, but may not cooperate. In this case, Protocol Z does not
cooperate with Protocol X or Protocol Y, but it may coexist on the same LAN. The
protocols do not talk to each other at all, but they do not harm each other either.
For instance, both voice and video traffic may pass through the same switch. However,
you would not expect to receive video signals on your telephone. Video traffic just goes
from TV to TV, while voice traffic just goes from phone to phone. The two data types
pass each other in the switch without complaining.

Supports Multiple Protocols

Some protocols cannot coexist on the same wire with each other, and therefore need to
be segregated in some fashion. In the graphic shown, Protocol A cannot coexist with one
or more of the existing protocols already in use on the LAN.

An example of this is 4 Mbps and 16 Mbps Token-Ring protocols, both of which are
defined later in this course. These two protocols simply cannot operate on the same wire
for the same reason you cannot drive your car at 200 mph on the same one-lane road as
others driving their cars at 20 mph. The lowest speed dictates the pace.

Any-to-Any Connectivity
There are standards in place to define what is the proper protocol. Because most networks
utilize hardware and software from multiple vendors, interoperability is the goal of any
mixed-vendor network.
To this end, there are several international groups that publish interoperability standards:

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has developed a

set of 100 or so documents called IEEE 802.x specifications which define many
aspects of LAN operations.

TheInternet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has issued thousands of Requests

For Comments (RFC) that identify interoperability problems and offer technical
solutions.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has defined a
communications framework known as the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI)
model, which divides LAN functions into several layers of protocol. While the
OSI model is no longer a defacto industry standard, it remains useful as a tool for
identifying the function of new protocols.

There are dozens of additional standards bodies. But the IEEE, IETF, and OSI are the
"Big Three" that are relevant to understanding LAN Theory. Marconi and many other
network vendors participate in the open discussions hosted by these groups.

Any-to-Any Connectivity
Without interoperability standards, equipment purchased from one vendor might not
communicate with equipment purchased from another vendor. For example, the PC
adapter purchased from Vendor A may expect each network message to end with a zero.
The PC adapter purchased from Vendor B is expecting the message to end with a one. As
a result of the different standards, there will be confusion and they will not talk to each
other reliably.
When interoperability standards are followed, everybody wins and there are no surprises.
However, a standard is, by definition, the lowest common denominator. Most vendors
augment the standards with their own extensions, which result in new incompatibilities
until those extensions become so popular they are added to the standards. So standards
development is an ongoing process that struggles to keep up with new technologies and
ideas.

Supports New Applications

The first, and probably still the most common, application for LANs is to share
resources such as files and printers among the PCs. If several people are working on the
same project, they can store the common file in a common location (like a library). Other
individuals may then check out the file, work on it, and put it back when they are done.
Similarly, a user may need access to a printer, but does not need one all the time. So
sharing a printer among multiple users makes more sense.

Supports New Applications

Many software programs charge by the number of simultaneous users of their package.
Consider a company with 100 employees that all require occasional use of the XYZ
package.
The company might buy only ten licenses and share them among the 100 people,
allowing access to no more than ten users at a time. When one person is done using a
license, they release it, making it available for use by the next person. So, in turn, each of
the 100 people could use the package by waiting their turn. Many LAN administration
programs allow software use to be policed and monitored. The cost savings of such
efficiency is immediate.
Software sharing alone may justify the cost of installing a LAN.

Supports New Applications

We all use e-mail to communicate, and LANs can make that process faster and easier by
eliminating the need to dial up a modem. In the same way we send e-mail, many LANs
now support voice-mail, videoconferencing, and distance learning. As you can imagine,
video eats up much, if not all, of the available bandwidth capacity of a LAN.
However, e-mail is a very low bandwidth, albeit high value, consumer of LAN resources.

Grows Easily
As shown in the graph, getting two PCs to talk to each other costs about $100 on the low
end (Keep in mind that this estimate makes many assumptions about needs and speeds).
In addition to the $20 cost of a network interface for each PC, there is an initial cost of
about $60 for a simple 8-port hub (The hub, a common connection point for devices in a
network, will be discussed in more detail later in this course). Adding up to six more PCs
will cost an additional $20 each.

Grows Easily
If more than eight PCs are connected, another central hub needs to be connected at the
main distribution point. Due to the cost of purchasing an additional distribution hub
device (which can usually connect to the first one as a stack), there is a marked increase
in cost when expanding beyond the number of available ports on the central hub.

Grows Easily
The two-hub solution is usually sufficient until the LAN grows beyond fourteen PCs.
Then a different kind of distribution device, called a smart hub, needs to be considered.
The smart hub is considerably more expensive than a standard hub because the smart hub
needs additional intelligence to manage a large number of ports. As a result, there is a big
jump in the price when the network grows to the point where intelligent port management
is required. So while the cost per seat appears to be fairly flat, it is actually increasing.

This should not be a surprise really. Consider a bus that carries twenty passengers. The
bus may actually cost less than the four cars it replaces. But when an airplane is needed,
that costs more than the cars it replaces. However, it also provides the added benefit of
increased speed to reach the destination!
In any case, the initial cost to get into a simple LAN is relatively low. However, as the
size of your network increases, more sophisticated and intelligent devices are needed to
manage the flow of information through the network.

Summary
This lesson examined the history and definition of the LAN. The purpose of creating a
LAN could be as simple as replacing an aging mainframe computer or as complex as
supporting the development of a new application. In either cases, LANs are easy to set
up, easy to expand, and could allow any PC to talk with any other PC.