Draft:Outline of computer networking

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to computer networking:

A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes. Computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. These interconnections are made up of telecommunication network technologies based on physically wired, optical, and wireless radio-frequency methods that may be arranged in a variety of network topologies.

Computer networking can be described as all of the following:

• Information theory

• Personal area network
• Local area network
• Campus network
• Metropolitan area network
• Wide area network
• Storage area network
• Virtual private network

Main article: History of computer networking

• Public switched telephone network
  • Modems and dialup
• Dedicated lines — leased lines
• ISDN
• DSL
• Time-division multiplexing(TDM)
• Packet switching
• Frame relay
• PDH
• Ethernet
• RS-232
• RS-485
• Optical fiber transmission
  • Synchronous optical networking(SONET)
  • Fiber distributed data interface

Extreme Short range

• • ZigBee
• Short range
  • Bluetooth
  • InfraRed(IrDA)
• Medium range
  • WiFi(IEEE 802.11)
  • WiMax(IEEE 802.16)
• Long range
  • Satellite
  • MMDS
  • SMDS
  • Mobile phone data transmission (channel access methods)
    • CDMA
    • CDPD
    • GSM
    • TDMA
  • Paging networks
    • DataTAC
    • Mobitex
    • Motient

• Unsolved problems in computer science