Networking basics
Networking comprises a number of hardware and software technologies that provide data exchange among digital devices and even among applications inside a computer. The most popular network model today is called TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). It works using wired (LAN—Local Area Network) or wireless (WLAN—Wireless LAN) connections. All the modern computers and mobile devices have support of TCP/IP.
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Another networking technology is wireless ZigBee networks, widely used in physical computing projects. Connecting just two devices can be considered as the simplest network. Old but still popular technologies for wired connections are USB, serial port (RS-232), RS-485, and I2C (used for micro devices).
In this chapter, we will consider usage of TCP/IP for connecting several devices inside a local network. Local network is built and controlled by network router. A network router is a special network node working as a separate device or integrated within...
