Hang on ! I will be starting with basics but don’t just leave the article by looking at very first part of it. Anyways, Its your choice so far. Let me tell the topics what makes sense with the heading.
- Data Units and Data Speed Measurements.
- Data Networks (LAN ,WAN ,VPN)
- IP Addresses
- Content Delivery Networks (CDN)
Data Units and Speed #
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Bit : This is either 0 or 1. It is simply ON or OFF signal that is passed to the digital electronic components that are on Integrated Circuits.
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Nibble : This comprises of 4 Bits. Eg : 0010
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Byte : This is collection of 8 Bits. Eg : 1010 0011 . You might be familiar with other data units such as kB, mB, gB and so on.
Now, Data Speed is measured always in the rate of these Data units with respect to seconds. The speed can be measurement of Audio Files, Internet Speed or Network Speed. Let’s say you want to know the speed of transfering some Audio files then it can be measured in kbPs (Kilo Bits per Second). Then let’s say you want to know the speed of Internet, then it can be measured in mbPs (Mega Bits per second). Make a note that, it is Bits and Not Bytes. I in my childhood (still child tho) had this misconception of the B’s in these unit being Bytes.
Data Networks #
Data Network are system which are designed for transfering the raw data from one place or system to another one. It is communication medium between two Networks and so it involves principles of Communication systems. Let’s look at the data models which we use frequently in our daily life.
- LAN : Local Area Network
A local area network (LAN) is a collection of devices connected together in one physical location, such as a building, office, or home. We had one in our university hostels (They were not working effieciently tho). which connected all the devices on one floor. So, Every Floor had its own LAN connection. And this is how the internet was shared.
- WAN : Wide Area Network
A wide area network (also known as WAN), is a large network of information that is not tied to a single location. WANs can facilitate communication, the sharing of information and much more between devices from around the world through a WAN provider. In layman terms it has capabilities to connect two or more LANs as well.
- VPN : Virtual Private Network
A virtual private network, or VPN, is an encrypted connection over the Internet from a device to a network. The encrypted connection helps ensure that sensitive data is safely transmitted. It prevents unauthorized people from interrupting on the traffic and allows the user to conduct work remotely.
IP Address : Each Device has its own Unique IP Address. It is numerical Label that is connected to a computer network. It used Internet Protocol for communication. We can address some location or identify network interface using IP Addresses.
IP Addresses have two versions V4 and V6. The version 4 accepts 32 bits number as an address and V6 accepts 128 bits number.
Whole Network Model of how IP Address Routes to the Web Servers
As you can see in the depiction above, The Data from local storages is being routed to domain servers and then it gets rediected to Web Servers. It can be considered as a whole LAN (Local Area Network) within itself.
CDN : Content Delivery Network #
Alright, Enough of Basic till now. You probably would have done Web Development and used Google Fonts or JQuery. Now-a-days we have frontend frameworks such as BootStrap and Tailwind. So, What you do here? You copy paste some links in the head section to connect Bootstap components to your web project. This is CDN. Well Know Library or Framework whatever React.JS also provides such sort of CDN. In more clear terms let me fetch the defination from Wikipedia so I won’t left you confused here itself.
A content delivery network, or content distribution network (CDN), is a geographically . ..distributed network of proxy servers and their data centers. The goal is to provide high availability and performance by distributing the service spatially relative to end users.
In my layman term, Sites pay for providing their CDNs and the CDN Network pays it further to ISP (Internet Service Providers). This is how you access the server of some service being available to you. It is widely use becuase it provides you faster and Smoother User Experience.
Talking about my personal view, I have used CDNs for BootStrap, Firebase, React, Google Fonts. And all added some value to whatever thing I was trying to build. It was hidden from me about how this links worked. But, Googling things you don’t know is still a best task in the world for developers. To all the data concerned peeps, By Googling I don’t enforce using google, I simply meant search over the Internet.
This is my very first article. I am currently on Tech- Drills in which I will be allowing my technical domains to flourish and write them down which will allow me to be well versed with what I should be knowing. Alternatively, Developing Projects and Contributing to Open Source has been my major interests of domains yet. Now, Writing the things down as clear as I can will also be a part of my drilling activities. If you need to reach me out, Just google search me “Harshil Jani” and add a platform name behind it. If I am active on that platform you will definately be replied within 12 hrs. or the best place to contact me is harshiljani2002@gmail.com . Thank you for reading the Article if you did.