Networking, a Growing Career Opportunity

Computer

networking, which is basically used for communication between personal computers and to

share the network resources, has grown into an industry of mind-boggling proportions.

According to the recent Voice & Data survey of the networking products market,

the size of the industry was close to Rs 750 crore, taking into consideration all LAN and

WAN products. Also, various other surveys from several leading market researchers, predict

the evolving e-commerce market to be in the range of $300-500 billion by the year 2002.

Considering such levels of promising business and the present growth of the Internet, it

is apparent that there is a tremendous demand for skilled personnel in the networking and

Internet-based business applications.

In the early seventies, networks

were basically time-sharing networks, using main frames and attached dumb terminals, which

never had any processing capabilities. But then, with the advent of personal computers,

LANs evolved. Today, the LAN environment has emerged as a main stay and has attained such

proportions that it is being seen as a prerequisite for any business, allowing multiple

users to exchange files and messages, as well as access network resources such as file

servers and network printers. LANs today do not just mean inter-connecting of computers.

They not only have to serve multiple functions but have to be future-complaint as well.

And implementing LANs is in itself becoming an art. And it requires expertise in design

and implementation, right from the backbone.

Structured Cabling System (SCS),

which is the backbone of a LAN network, and where most of the vendors certify SCS for a

period of 15 years to take care of product warranty, application assurance, and support of

future applications, is the lifeline of any Intelligent Network (in) design. A properly

designed, installed, and administered cabling system is necessary as it would reduce costs

through each phase of its life cycle–installation, moves, adds and changes, and

maintenance and administration. It has been observed that inferior cabling systems are the

root cause for almost up to 70 percent of the network downtime. By installing a

standards-compliant structured cabling system much of this down time can be effectively

eliminated. This is where understanding of the standards comes into play. Recognizing the

need for a cost-effective, efficient cabling system, which would support the widest

possible range of applications and equipment, a large consortium of leading telecom

companies along with Electronics Industries Association (EIA) and Telecommunications

Industry Association (TIA), worked out a standard to create the ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-1991.

This is a standard for commercial building telecommunication wiring. The revised version,

now referred to as ANSI/TIA/EIA/-568A, was incorporated in 1995. This standard defines a

structured cabling system, which supports virtually any voice, imaging, or data.

Apart from cabling, the focus

should be on optimum design using Ethernet switches and routers depending on whether it is

a small, medium, or an enterprise network. This area requires a strong background on

computer hardware.The rapid growth of high-speed

processors has pushed for more network capacity, with exponential growth in the number of

workstations. The multimedia systems require a high-dedicated bandwidth. This has prompted

the hubs, which are shared medium, to be replaced by switches throughout the network. This

is done to protect the investment on cabling and to boost network performance. Even with

switching, there is a bottleneck at the server-port in a client server environment. This

has upgraded the switching technology from 10 mbps data rate to 100 mbps, which is the

fast Ethernet. With the availability of fast Ethernet at server, as well as uplink ports

in an enterprise network, the performance of the network gets boosted manifold.

A VLAN is a virtual (or logical)

LAN, which maps workstation on some basis other than geographic location. For example, by

department, type of user, or primary application, the configuration in VLAN switches can

change or add workstations and manage load balancing and bandwidth allocation more

efficiently. VLAN’s are normally used in campus networks which have several adjacent

office buildings.

When networks are interconnected,

the backbone that carries the traffic or data forms a crucial part in how fast the network

operates. With new applications such as Internet access with a lot of graphic and video

content, multimedia, and with server forms with high-end servers in a enterprise network,

the traffic is highly congested on the backbone. The new development in backbone system is

the Gigabit Ethernet (1 billion bits per second) which is used in an enterprise backbone.

Gigabit Ethernet is carried primarily on optical fibre (with very short distances possible

on copper medium). Existing Ethernet LANs with 10 mbps and 100 mbps cards can be connected

into a Gigabit Ethernet backbone.

Once the network is up and

running, it is managed by network administrators who are specialized in network system

administration software like Novell Netware, Unix, and Windows NT. There is a vast demand

for network system administrators who administer the network for optimum efficiency. As

the networks become more and more complex it needs to be managed using network management

software like HP Open View, Spectrum of Cabletron, and Cisco Works. The opportunity out

here is for electronics graduates with special skills in network management software.

A WAN is a communication system

that interconnects geographically remote networks. Digital, analog, and packet switching

are used in WAN communication systems. Analog systems use telephone lines alongwith

modems. One form of analog system is a dial-up



service, which is ideal for occasional links. The other form is dedicated line connection
for continuous use. Private networks use T1 or T3 lines which are digital. This is again a

dedicated private line, which is used especially if a lot of traffic exists between two

end points. In packet switched networks information is routed in the form of packets in a

mesh network. Packet switched networks typically provide connectionless services although

connection-oriented logical circuit services are available. A connection-less service does

not set up a dedicated communication channel unlike a normal telephone circuit prior to

transmission of data because of many possible connections and pathways. A packet switched

network is often said to provide any-to-any connection, which is used in the Internet.

Implementing WANs depends on the

expertise of experienced telecom engineers who are trained in data and voice networks.

With the integration of voice and data, the network is easier to manage and expand, and

over a period of time, is less expensive. Internet telephony lays the framework for

multimedia communications such as desktop video-conferencing. All these new developments

demand engineers with new skills in the field of network communication.

The Internet has opened up many

business opportunities, which has given entrepreneurs a chance to eliminate the advantage

of large companies’ by virtue of their giant budgets and store of in-house expertise.

With more and more business houses opting for for e-commerce there are many openings for

skilled personnel in web-based software applications.

Most of the people, who have

thought of making careers with networks, have a common question pestering them. What are

the skill-sets that one must possess and what training must he/she undergo? It is the

hands-on training only which can mop up the skills. Today, the technology and standards

keep changing so fast that there is no institute that catch up and offers the same. The

name of the game is hands-on.