Introduce network architecture

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Computer Network Architecture is defined as the physical and logical design of the software, hardware, protocols and media of the transmission of data. Simply we can say that how computers are organized and how tasks are allocated to the computer.

There are two types of Computer Network Architecture

1. Peer-To-Peer Network

• Peer-To-Peer network is a network in which all the computers are linked together with equal privilege and responsibilities for processing the data.
• Peer-To-Peer network is useful for small environments, usually up to 10 computers.
• Peer-To-Peer network has no dedicated server.
• Special permissions are assigned to each computer with the resource is down.

Advantages of Peer-To-Peer Network

• It is less costly as it does not contain any dedicated server.
• If one computer stops working but, other computers will not stop working.
• It is easy to set up and maintain as each computer manages itself.

Disadvantage of Peer-To-Peer Network

• In the case of Peer-To-Peer network, it does not contain the centralized system Therefore, it can backup the data as the data is different in different locations.
• It has a security issue as the devices is managed itself.

2. Client/Server Network

• Client/Server network is a network model designed for the end users called clients, to access the resource such as songs, video, etc. from a central computer known as Server.
• The central controller is known as a server while all other computers in the network are called clients.
• A server performs all the major operations such as security and network management.
• A server is responsible for managing all the resources such as files, directories, printer, etc.
• All the clients communicate with each other through a server. For example. if client1 wants to send some data to client 2, then it first sends the request to the server for the permission. The server sends the response the client 1 to initiate its communication with the client 2.

Advantages of Client/Server Network

• A Client/Server network contains the centralized system. Therefore we can back up the data easily.
• A Client/Server network has a dedicated server that improves the overall performance of the whole system.
• Security is better in Client/Server network as a single server administers the shared resources.
• It also increases the speed of the sharing resources.

Disadvantage of Client/Server Network

• Client/Server is expensive as it requires the server with large memory.
• A server has a Network Operating System (NOS) to provide the resources to the clients, but the cost of NOS is very high.
• It requires a dedicated network administrator to manage all the resources.