SUBSCRIBE TO THE BULLETIN TODAY!

Networking Basics for Execs

Better understanding of how the network works can help leaders achieve greater business success, writes JAMES MARTIN

To be sure, most business decision makers don't need a deep understanding of networking technology to fulfill their duties. But now, company networks and the Internet are vital, integral aspects of doing business, and the more you understand how networks work, the better you will be at using them to meet organisational goals. Business leaders need to grasp how to make the most of networking technology so they can play a part in shaping their organisation's networking decisions. The problem for many is that networking technology seems intimidating -- particularly to those who lack technical backgrounds.

To explain the essentials of networking, we'll begin by explaining how an activity most everyone in business can relate to works: sending e-mail. Once you understand how an e-mail arrives at its destination, you can begin to grasp basic network structure, what makes a network intelligent, and how an intelligent network can help your organisation thrive.

What happens to your e-mail?

Imagine that you are sitting at your desk, your computer is connected to the company's local-area network (LAN), and you send an e-mail. How does it get to where you want it to go, and where does it travel along the way?

To start with, network software breaks down the e-mail message into bite-sized pieces of information called packets. A packet is like a block of data as well as a wrapper containing the destination and sender's addressing information, explains Jared Headley, senior manager of product marketing in the routing technology group at Cisco Systems. E-mail messages -- and other data such as streaming video -- are broken into data packets to achieve the most efficient network transmission. At the receiving end, networking software automatically reassembles the packets into a coherent whole.

In a typical corporate LAN environment, your e-mail packets travel over Ethernet wiring to a switch located in a closet in your building. A switch is a hardware device that analyses the incoming packets to see where the e-mail should go (similar to looking at the zip code on an envelope) and forwards them to the next segment of its journey on the network.

Frequently, the next stop is a router. A router is a highly intelligent data switch-usually located at the core of the LAN -- that connects the LAN to the wide-area network (WAN). Routers identify the most efficient end-to-end path your data should take to reach its final destination, as well as any special handling that it may require based on the data type or application. The path may consist of multiple "hops, " or links between individual routers. Because of the strategic role they play, routers are often referred to as the "glue" or "backbone" that holds together myriad networks, including those that make up the Internet and the multiple LANs that constitute large corporate networks.

An e-mail sent from your office to a colleague down the hall may travel only across the LAN to the corporate mail server and through one switch to its final destination. But send a message from your office to a client on another continent, and the e-mail likely travels through multiple LAN switches and several routers, taking many hops before arriving in the recipient's inbox.

Along the way, your e-mail may pass from one Internet service provider (ISP) network to another. This is possible in part because ISPs have agreements with one another to exchange data, even though they may be competitors.

Ultimately, a packet's journey from beginning to end often takes mere seconds (even milliseconds), thanks to the robust nature and built-in intelligence of switches and routers.

What makes it all work

Despite its journey through multiple networks maintained by various companies, your e-mail can travel with ease around the globe because of widely accepted networking standards. Unlike many other technologies, networks are built on industry standards to which all network hardware and software must adhere to ensure they all work well together.

Networks are capable of supporting a variety of sophisticated business applications, such as videoconferencing and IP telephony, and depend on Layer 3 for the foundation and Layers 4 through 7 for their application awareness. Layer 3 relates to routing, and routers provide the foundation for network intelligence. In recent years, routers have matured into devices capable of offering critical security safeguards, according to Jeanne Beliveau Dunn, senior director of access and content networking in the Product and Technology Marketing group at Cisco. Routers sit at all of a network's access edge points and secure them with integrated firewalls, intrusion detection, and more. Routers also play a significant role in enabling IP telephony, distributed call centers, and other applications that depend on an intelligent network foundation.

In addition, the switches that sit within a network and focus on link-to-link transfers work primarily at Layer 2 (the data-link layer). However, Layer 3 switches are the latest generation of intelligent switches to emerge. These devices still focus on transferring data within a smaller area of the network than routers, yet they have built-in routing capabilities that earlier switches lacked. The overall result is a higher degree of intelligence throughout the network, which provides key benefits including more efficient data transfer.

"If you understand the basic functionality of network devices and network structure, you can better determine where you need to add intelligence to create a strong network foundation, " says Headley. That leads to more informed decisions about building upon that intelligent network foundation with applications that make businesses more efficient, employees more productive, and customers more satisfied.

James A Martin covers B2B topics for iQ Magazine and writes "Mobile Computing, " a weekly e-mail newsletter published by PC World.

Abridged from iQ Magazine. Read the full story  Networking Basics for Execs