I'm having the write a report type thingy (super technical I know...) on various aspects of a local area network. I've got most of it sorted but there are a few things which I hope someone here might be able to better explain than text books.
First thing I'm not too sure about is IP address schema. I understand you have 3 main network classes A, B and C. Each using different amounts of bits from the IP addresses for the network and the host depending on the network class but I'm not too sure why you would need different classes of networks, I assume some lend themselves better to different network structures or scales? Can someone give an explaination as to why you would use a certain network class?
I need to discuss this as well as the positives and negatives of dynamic and static IP addresses as well. This is something I don't have any idea at all about. Personally I have just gone with what seems to work with the hardware I'm dealing with apart from in certain situations (opening NAT for example). I can see an obvious positive for static being you each computer/device has its own IP so various actions should be able to traced back to it and that you could have specific settings for each computer (unblocking ports for internet connection, not that this is related to LANs?) but other than that I'm lost as to why you would use dynamic IP's. Any ideas?
Also I need to discuss how access control method(s) are used in ethernet architecture and how they can/are used to manage network traffic (in a LAN). Is this MAC?
And lastly I have to discuss how collisions occur in CSMA/CD and how they are managed with the CSMA/CD protocol. Also discussing acceptable levels of collisions and how difficulties experienced with the CSMA/CD protocol are overcome with the use of ethernet switches. I personally have not had to discuss CSMA/CD at any point until now, so I have next to no idea as to what it does (specifically). Any help on this topic would be great.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.