Paper Example on Computer Science

Differences between MAC Address and IP Address

Machine Access Control or MAC is a type of an address that is assigned by the producer to every network adapter. The address is unique and does not vary. The address enables a device to communicate with other networks. The MAC detects a device taking part in a network. MAC address is a forty-eight-bit hexagonal address (Asija, 2016). The MAC address retrieval is by ARP protocol.

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On the other hand, an Internet Protocol address or an IP address is an address that is assigned by the network administrator to a mobile or a computer by a network using IP for communicating (Betts, 2010). An Internet Protocol varies as the network changes. IP address detects a device is linked to a network. The two versions of IP address are IPv4 with thirty-two bits and IPv6 with one hundred and twenty-eight bits. The IP address retrieval is by RARP protocol.

Differences between a Hub, Switch and a Router

The hub and the switch are almost similar as they both transmit frames. A hub is a common point connecting devices in a network. Hubs link different sections of a Local Area Network. Hubs comprise of numerous ports so that after a data packet reaches at one port, it is successfully copied to the other ports to ensure that all sections of the Local Area Network can provide visual all the packets (YouTube, 2018). The frames in a hub are passed through every port, and it does not matter if the frame is only intended for a single port. This is because the hub has no method to distinguish the port where a frame must be sent to and therefore, passing the frame to each port makes sure that it reaches to its location. The process leads to a lot of network traffic leading to poor connection. A 10/100Mbps hub usually shares its bandwidth with its ports. One PC broadcasting results to maximum accessibility to the available bandwidth while many PC broadcasting results to bandwidth division am the system hence degrading the performance.

In information security, a switch is the device filtering and forwarding packets connecting Local Area Network segments. Switches support any packet protocol as they can function at the data connection layer and the network level of the Open System Interconnection Reference Model. A switch preserves a record of the MAC addresses of the devices sharing its connection using the information that it records to recognize the different systems sitting on the various ports. Unlike the hub, when a switch receives a frame, it knows precisely where to assign the frame to every port hence increasing its performance.

Routers are very different from hub and switch. The router provides a route for data packets alongside networks towards the destination of the packet. The significant characteristic of a packet is that it comprises both data and destination address. They are located at a point connecting two or more networks such as LANs, WANs or ISPs. Routers use either headers or forwarding tables to identify the best route for sending the packs. Routers use protocols for communicating with each other to design the best path connecting two hosts.

Reasons for Transmitting Audio and Video Streams over UDP Rather Than TCP

Transmission Control Protocol is a communication procedure on the internet that directs packets in devices. User Datagram Protocol (UDP) establishes delay and loss bearing connectivity in applications on the internet. Reasons for choosing UDP is that it takes lesser time than TCP as it does not correct and complete the messages sent and does not have the first handshake as TCP does (Erg.abdn.ac.uk, 2018). Another reason is that if a message is lost during a TCP voice or audio transmission, the receiver fails to accept more messages until the missing message is recovered that adds inactivity to the communication hence disturbing an actual time communication. However, for UDP, people can connect the message of lost audio or video communication messages by anticipating the voice or pattern recognition and hence communication can take place even with a lost packet. Therefore, UDP communication is a more competent procedure for urgent applications like voice and audio.

Reference

Asija, M. (2016). MAC Address. IRA-International Journal of Technology & Engineering (ISSN 2455-4480), 3(1).

Betts, B. (2010). Location [IP address]. Engineering & Technology, 5(5), pp.60-63.

Erg.abdn.ac.uk. (2018). Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). [online] Available at: https://erg.abdn.ac.uk/users/gorry/course/inet-pages/tcp.html [Accessed 26 Sep. 2018].

YouTube. (2018). Hub, Switch or Router? Network Devices Explained. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofjsh_E4HFY [Accessed 26 Sep. 2018].