ELSA LANCOM Business 6000, Manual

Page: 111 / 174

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Technical basics
111
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ELSA LANCOM Business 6000
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EN
7 Technical basics
This chapter is a short introduction into the technology used by your device.
Network professionals will find themselves just skimming these pages, but
novices will find this section to be very helpful for understanding the
technical terms and processes.
7.1 Network technology
This paragraph will give you a brief introduction to the basics of network
technology. These descriptions do
not cover all possible techniques,
processes and terms associated with network technology. They only covered
to the degree necessary to provide an understanding of the product
information.
7.1.1 The network and its components
Network,
transmission
medium,
interfaces
Whenever several computers communicate with one another, this connection
is called a network. For computers to be able to communicate, they need a
physical medium through which the information can be transmitted. This can
be a cable or radio link, for example, that is connected to the computers using
special interfaces (e.g. network adapters).
The term network cable (or simply cable) in the following text also refers to
any other physical medium that can take on the function of the cable, such as
wireless links.
Packets
Cells The individual bits of electronic information that are sent from one computer
to another through a medium are called packets or cells, depending on the
process.
For most of the following explanations, the difference between packets and
cells is irrelevant. Therefore, we will use the term packet or data packet in a
general sense and only detail the special characteristics of cells as
necessary.
Host The computer and other terminal devices (e.g. the printer) in a network that
generate or process information are called hosts. Ideally, the host is not
responsible for the task of forwarding information. A host normally has
exactly one interface to the network.