LIS 525 - Hardware
Transfer Rates
In the past,
transfer rates were often measured in baud
(pronounced "bawd"
and named after J.M.E. Baudot,
the inventor of the Baudot telegraph code).
This is the number of signaling elements per second.
At slow speeds (below 1200 baud),
each signaling element carries only one bit;
so the baud rate is equivalent to the bits per second.
At higher speeds, however,
each signaling element may carry more than one bit.
So, at present,
data transfer rates are usually simply expressed
in bits per second (bps).
Allowing for control bits,
the number of bytes per second is about one tenth
of the number of bits per second.
For digital devices,
bits per second is the common measure of bandwidth,
the amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of
time.
Communication Devices
A modem (modulator-demodulator)
is a device that enables a computer
to transmit data over analog lines
(such as traditional telephone lines).
The standard interface for connecting external modems to
computers
is RS-232;
almost every personal computer has an RS-232 port.
Telephone modems,
used for dial-up access,
support transfer rates up to 56Kbps.
A cable modem
is a modem designed to operate over cable TV lines.
Speeds are up to 10Mbps download and 2Mbps upload.
ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network)
is a standard for sending voice, video, and data
over either digital or analog telephone lines.
ISDN supports data transfer rates
of up to 128 Kbps.
DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)
refers to a family of technologies
that use sophisticated modulation to pack data onto the wires
connecting a telephone switching station to a home or office.
DSL allows much higher speeds than ISDN:
up to 32 Mbps upstream,
and from 32 Kbps to over 1 Mbps downstream.
Each DSL technology requires its own type of modem.
T1 is a dedicated phone connection
that actually consists of 24 individual channels,
each of 64Kbps.
If only some channels are used
this is known as fractional T-1.
T1 supports data rates of 1.544Mbps.
T3 (or DS3) is a dedicated phone connection
that actually consists of 672 individual channels,
each of 64 Kbps.
T3 supports data rates of about 43 Mbps.
T3 is used mainly by ISPs
connecting to the Internet backbone and for the backbone itself.
OC (Optical Carrier)
refers to fiber optic lines conforming to the SONET standard.
Speeds range from 51.85 Mbps (OC-1)
up to 13.21 Gbps (OC-255).
Network Hardware
Computers on a local area network
generally need to be connected
with a network card
such as an Ethernet card.
Data transfer rates are 10Mbps (10BaseT or 10Base2),
100Mbps (100BaseT),
and 1Gbps (Gigabit ethernet).
A hub is a common connection point for devices in a
network.
A hub contains multiple ports.
When a packet arrives at one port,
it is copied to the other ports
so that all segments of the LAN can see all packets.
A passive hub serves simply
to let the data go from one device (segment) to another.
An intelligent hub (or manageable hub)
includes additional features
allowing an administrator to monitor the traffic
and to configure each port in the hub.
A switch in a network
is a device that filters and forwards packets between segments.
A repeater is a device
that regenerates or replicates a signal.
In a data network,
a repeater can relay messages between subnetworks
that use different protocols or cable types.
A bridge is a device
that connects two LANs or two segments of a LAN.
Bridges simply forward packets
without analyzing and re-routing.
A router is a device that connects LANs,
uses headers and a forwarding table
to determine where packets go,
communicates with other routers,
and configures the best route between two hosts.
A gateway is a combination of hardware and software
that links two different networks.
Some routers can be used as the hardware portion
of gateways.
Server Hardware
Processor
The processor carries out such tasks
as connecting, loading pages from disk or memory,
sending pages, and disconnecting.
Speed is not generally crucial
if the connection is slow.
For multiple connections or services,
multiple processors might be needed:
one processor can be used for Web connections
and a second processor to process database queries.
Memory
Memory is used by all programs or processes.
All pages need to be loaded to memory
before they are sent.
Memory can also be used to cache frequently requested pages.
A busy site with multiple pages or domains
needs more memory
than a busy site with few pages.
Hard Disk
IDE (Intelligent Drive Electronics
or Integrated Drive Electronics,
also known as ATA or AT Attachment) hard disks
are relatively cheap,
but they are limited to 2 (sometimes 4) to a computer,
the disk controller requires the main processor's help,
and only one disk can be accessed at a time.
They are suitable for small servers with little traffic.
SCSI (Small Computer System Interface)
(pronounced "scuzzy") hard disks
are more expensive,
may require that an additional board be installed in the
computer,
and do not all follow the same standard;
but many drives (up to 15) can be used in one computer,
multiple disks can be accessed at one time,
and main processor time is not required.
They are suitable for busy servers.
Multiple pages require multiple disk accesses.
If the pages are spread across multiple disks,
speed of loading is increased.
RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Discs
or Redundant Array of Independent Disks) drives
can spread data redundantly over a set of disks,
improving both performance and reliability,
but are more expensive than ordinary disks.
RAID drives are often connected to the computer
via a SCSI interface.
Backup Device
Backups are needed in order to restore data lost
through software crashes, hardware failures, or human error.
A slow but cheap means
is to use high capacity tape drives
during low activity times.
Network Card
The card must be capable of providing the necessary bandwidth.
Slow connections can use 10Mbps Ethernet cards;
faster connections might need 100Mbps Ethernet cards
or ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) cards.
To host multiple domains on the same server
(virtual domains),
multiple network cards might be needed.
Removable Media
Removable media devices
may be needed in order to install software,
though sometimes this can be done over the network.
CD-ROM drives are most popular for installing programs,
and floppy drives
or, more recently,
keychain drives
(also known as USB drives or flash drives)
for quick data transfers
(for example, of pages and images).
Other Hardware
- UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply)
- Monitor, keyboard, mouse (for local setup and adjustments)
- Modem, sound card (depending on specific needs)
Server Appliances
Server appliances combine features of many networking
components;
e.g., browser-based management,
intranet server, e-mail server, firewall, network address
translation,
and Web caching.
Dedicated server appliances
have both advantages and disadvantages
in comparison with using a general-purpose computer
as a server:
|
| Server appliance
| General purpose computer
|
| Advantages
|
- Cheaper (both initial cost and power consumption)
- Little setup required
- More secure
|
- Can be very sophisticated
- Usually faster
- Can be very secure if properly administered
- Very customizable
- Great expandability
|
| Disadvantages
|
- Difficult to customize
- Limited expandability
- Limited functionality
- May require remote configuration
|
- Difficult to set up
- More expensive
- Insecure if not properly administered
|
| Possible uses
|
- Small offices with low web content requirements
- Schools
- Tourist information booths
|
- Large organizations
- Sites with dynamic web content
- Sites whose structures change/expand often
- Sites that host multiple domains
|
For More Information
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Last updated April 16, 2007.
This page maintained by
Prof. Tim Craven
E-mail (text/plain only): craven@uwo.ca
Faculty of Information and
Media Studies
University of Western
Ontario,
London, Ontario
Canada, N6A 5B7