Why should managers be familiar with the basics of internet and web technology?

Question

Why should managers be familiar with the basics of internet and web technology? How is packet-switching related to the internet and why is it important? How are the OSI Model and TCP/IP related? How is TCP/IP related to the internet and why is it important? How are HTTP and HTML related to the World Wide Web and why are they important? What is a web browser and why is it important? What is a web browser and why is it important? What role does a host play in the internet and why is it important? What is cloud computing and what role does it play on the internet?

Explanation / Answer

2 answer:

Packet-switching networks place a tight upper limit on block size, allowing packets to be buffered in router main memory instead of on disk. By making sure that no user can monopolize any transmission line very long (milliseconds), packet-switching networks are well suited for handling interactive traffic. A further advantage of packet switching over message switching is the first packet of a multipacket message can be

forwarded before the second one has fully arrived, reducing delay and improving throughput.

For these reasons, computer networks are usually packet switched, occasionally circuit switched, but never message switched. Circuit switching and packet switching differ in many respects. To start with, circuit switching requires that a circuit be set up end to end before communication begins. Packet switching does not require any advance setup. The first packet can just be sent as soon as it is available.

The result of the connection setup with circuit switching is the reservation of bandwidth all the way from the sender to the receiver. All packets follow this path. Among other properties, having all packets follow the same path means that they cannot arrive out of order. With packet switching there is no path, so different packets can follow different paths, depending on network conditions at the time they are sent. They may arrive out of order.Packet switching is more fault tolerant than circuit switching. In fact, that is why it wasinvented. If a switch goes down, all of the circuits using it are terminated and no more traffic can be sent on any of them. With packet switching, packets can be routed around dead switches.Setting up a path in advance also opens up the possibility of reserving bandwidth in advance. If bandwidth is reserved, then when a packet arrives, it can be sent out immediately over the reserved bandwidth. With packet switching, no bandwidth is reserved, so packets may have to wait their turn to be forwarded. Having bandwidth reserved in advance means that no congestion can occur when a packet shows up (unless more packets show up than expected). On the other hand, when an attempt is made to establish a circuit, the attempt can fail due to congestion. Thus, congestion canoccur at different times with circuit switching (at setup time) and packet switching (when packets are sent).If a circuit has been reserved for a particular user and there is no traffic to send, the bandwidth of that circuit is wasted. It cannot be used for other traffic. Packet switching does not waste bandwidth and thus is more efficient from a system-wide perspective. Understanding this tradeoff is crucial for comprehending the difference between circuit switching and packet switching.The trade-off is between guaranteed service and wasting resources versus not guaranteeing service and not wasting resources.Packet switching uses store-and-forward transmission. A packet is accumulated in a router's memory, then sent on to the next router. With circuit switching, the bits just flow through the wire continuously. The store-and-forward technique adds delay.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse W
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.