Computer Networks: Fiber Optics, NICs, IP Configuration, and IPv6

This assignment provides an overview of several key networking technologies and concepts. It begins with an examination of fiber testing equipment, including Optical Time Domain Reflectometers (OTDRs) and source and power meters, along with their functionalities and market prices. The assignment then delves into Network Interface Cards (NICs), comparing different types like wireless, Gigabit Ethernet, and fiber optic NICs, highlighting their features, manufacturers, and costs. Following this, the assignment documents the IP configuration of computers, providing IP address information. Furthermore, it discusses IPv6, emphasizing its importance in the context of the growing Internet of Things (IoT) and the limitations of IPv4. Finally, the assignment describes the pathping command, a TCP/IP command-line tool used for analyzing network latency and loss between source and destination, and its advantages over traceroute and ping.

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1. Fiber Testing Equipment
Fiber optics cabling has become the primary medium of data transfer in the present datacom networks.
The fiber optics has become the predominant media types in backbone within the buildings, mission
critical data transfer, and long distances for the campus networks. This is due to the advantaged high
speed and bandwidth (Lotuscope, 2019). This has quested for better cleaning and inspection to ensure
that proper message of light is delivered. Types of testing tools are as tabulated below giving the tool
name, description, manufacturer and market price
Name Description Manufacturer Price in $
OTDR Acronym for Optical Time Domain
Reflectometer. This equipment is used for
certifying the performance of fiber optic
links and detection of any problem
existing with fiber link.
King Fisher Fiber 958.53
Fiberoptic 501.9
Source and power meter This equipment is used to measure the
power in the optical signal.
King Fisher Fiber 72.59
Fiberoptic 75.21
2. Types of equipment NICs
NIC cards performs a significant role in the functioning of a computer system. The interconnection
comes through the Network Interface Card (Forouzan & Fegan, 2015). Below table compares different
types of NICs, their features, manufacturers and prices
NIC Type Features Manufacturers Price($)
Wireless This is a wireless controller which connects to radio-
based networked computer system. It uses the
antenna to communicate through microwave
radiation.
D-Link 98
Gigabit Ethernet This type of NIC supports gig over the existing cable.it
supports the PCI Express architecture, has a full
duplex flow control. Is IEEE 802.3x standard
D-Link 49
Fiber Optic It uses 32/64 bit PCI bus interface card. Uses remote
wake on LAN technology
D-Link 316
Gig Ethernet is primarily carried on fiber optic. This NIC is fed in by the existing with 100 and 10mps
cards. Gig Ethernet is at the backbone level. The 10 gig whose standard as IEEE 802.3a is a
telecommunication technology which offers data speeds up to 10 billion. Servers use an embedded 4x1
GbE NIC which has capability of teaming and high speed (Dodd, 2012).
3. IP Configuration of computers
Below table gives the documentation of computers used.
PC
No
IP Information

.
PC
1
PC
2

PC
3

PC
4

PC
5
(Corey Plett, 2019)
4. IPv6
Just like IPv4, IPv6 is an internet protocol meant to carry data in packets from the source to the
destination. It should be noted that IPv6 being elongated from 32 bits to 128 bits exhibits number of
addresses which are more than that of IPv4. With the evolution of internet of things IPv6 is inevitable
(Edwards, 2010 ).
It should be accepted among us that IPv4 has had its time and cannot support network requirements in
the current technology. The advent of IoT makes IP44 unusable since it can no longer support the
number of devices that are being attached to the internet (Rogers, 2014). This is the high time that IPv6
is viable. Take for example, IPv4 has a total of 4.3 billion IPv4 addresses, the present world population
according to Worldometers is 7.7 billion people, (Worldometers, 2019). If in any everyone has a tablet,
a smartphone and PC, and everything has to connect to the internet. Many of the devices will have no IP
address to access the internet. Therefore, IPv4 has already tapped to dryness, hence its exit.
5. Pathping
This command is a TCP/IP command line that offers useful information about the network latency and
loss at intermediate hops between the source address to the destination. This is achieved by sending

echo requests and results analyzed. This command-line has advantage over both traceroute and ping.
This because it shows both connectivity of a device and route a packet traverses to reach the
destination. This can be performed by ping and traceroute respectively. The most important is that
pathping also shows the latency statistics between the intermediated hops (Shimonski, 2019). See below
screen shot

References
Corey Plett, M. J. (2019, June 1). ipconfig. Retrieved from Microsoft: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/ipconfig
Dodd, A. Z. (2012). The Essential Guide to Telecommunications (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Prentice
Hall.
Edwards, G. (2010 ). The State of the IPv6 Deployment. Network Development Team, 67-71.
Forouzan, B., & Fegan, S. C. (2015). Data Communications and Networking (4th ed.). Huga Media.
Lotuscope. (2019, June 1). Fiber Optic Products. Retrieved from Fiber Optic Equipment:
https://www.fiberoptic.co.ke/fiber-optic-test-equipment.html
Rogers, B. E. (2014). IPv6. In CompTIA Mobility+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide (pp. 412-417). New
York City: McGraw Hill Professional.
Shimonski, R. J. (2019, June 1). Using Pathping. Retrieved from TechGenix: http://techgenix.com/using-
pathping/
Worldometers. (2019, June 1). Current World Population. Retrieved from Worldometers:
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/