1: The five major components of a network Broadcast communications represents a one-to-many approach whose scope is all host devices that are members of a specific network.įig. Unicast is the basic one-to-one host communications scheme. A set of rules or “protocol” to govern the behavior of the host devicesĬommunications occurs between hosts in one of three forms unicast, broadcast or multicast.

A medium to provide connectivity between the host devices.

A message or data to be sent between the host devices.

Five components are required to build a network. The layer design of the OSI model provides the framework in which to build a structured troubleshooting process focused upon the Data Flow layer functionality of the OSI Model to quickly isolate the root cause issue.Īn understanding of IP Networking fundamentals is yet another essential knowledge area for the broadcast engineer to master. When abnormalities do occur within the network, how does the broadcast engineer isolate and resolve IP network issues in a timely manner? Too often, “shooting from the hip” troubleshooting approaches occur under the pressure of quickly resolving the problem.Ī structured approach to IP network troubleshooting can be developed by using a layered approach modeled after the industry standard “OSI Networking” model. Today, the Ethernet-based Internet Protocol (IP) network has become the de facto standard of the IT industry, and in turn the broadcast plant. Over the past years, many networking schemes and protocols have come and gone.

Regardless of the integration level or complexity, the IP network is yet another critical system for the broadcast engineer to understand and maintain. Integration with the legacy broadcast infrastructure can range from minimal control functions to a complete IP-based content transport facility. IP networks have become an integral aspect of the broadcast technical plant. The author is director of engineering at Educational Broadcast Services at Texas A&M University.

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