A Look at the State of Connected Devices in 2017

The connected devices trend is one that seems to be growing at a faster rate each year. This calendar year will be no different, as more and more companies continue to get involved. But where exactly do things stand and what can be expected in 2017 and beyond?

Where We Currently Stand

Depending on which source you reference and the data you choose to highlight, the total number of connected devices worldwide fluctuates rather significantly. However, regardless of the source, one thing always remains consistent: the estimates are massive.

According to one resource, the total number of connected devices in 2016 was an estimated 22.9 billion. In 2017, that figure is anticipated to scale to 28.4 billion devices. That’s a year-over-year growth rate of 24 percent. And if you take a step back and look all the way to 2020, experts are calling for more than 50.1 billion connected devices. That’s more than double where we currently stand. 

In other words, we’re about to undergo some rather significant growth over the next four years. But it all starts with 2017. What can we expect to see happen with connected devices and the internet of things (IoT) this year? It’s a question many are asking – and one that features no shortage of opinions.

Growth of Connected Devices in 2017

Last summer, Ericsson released their annual Mobility Report, which discussed the future of mobile and provided a wealth of interesting data around the future of the industry. But as expert Will Sullivan put it, “The surprise star of the report is not mobile phones though—although it will continue to grow, especially in emerging markets where it hasn’t reached saturation like it has in the U.S.—it’s the Internet Of Things (IoT), which is projected to surpass mobile phones by 2018 according to Ericsson.”

You read that right, by the end of next year, IoT connected devices are expected to surpass the total number of mobile phones in circulation. That’s an astonishing feat – and one that speaks directly to the potential of the industry.

But how will this massive growth happen? One thing we’re going to see this year is the continued proliferation of totally new products and devices. Innovation is at an all-time high and there’s little reason to believe 2017 will be any different from years past. If anything, we can expect to see an even greater flurry of activity than ever before.

The “connected devices” label no longer exclusively reserved tablets and smart home gadgets. We’re seeing it spill over into areas that you would never have thought possible. Take luggage as an example. An entirely new luggage niche, known as smart luggage, is becoming quite popular. These suitcases possess a myriad of features that communicate with a smartphone app to provide real-time information related to location, weight, and more.

Then, there’s the growth in wearables. In 2017, look for expansion in wearable healthcare, virtual reality, “smart fashion,” fitness tracking, personal safety devices, and even pet tracking.

No Signs of Stopping

Connected devices are moving forward and don’t show any signs of stopping. Perhaps the only constricting factor here is the conundrum of how to deal with an influx of new data.

As expert Michael Porter wrote back in 2014,“Smart, connected products raise a new set of strategic choices related to how value is created and captured, how the prodigious amount of new (and sensitive) data they generate is utilized and managed, how relationships with traditional business partners such as channels are redefined, and what role companies should play as industry boundaries are expanded.”

Once data collection, storage, and privacy catch up, look out. The industry may vastly exceed even the most liberal expectations.

Automotive Software

In December 2016, the IEEE Computer Society released its annual vision of the future of technology. “Self-driving cars” is near the top of the list of trends that will reach adoption in 2017. This probably isn’t surprising to most of us, given the substantial media attention and hype already surrounding self-driving cars. Perhaps more surprising to some is that the automotive industry is also deeply involved in nearly all of the other trends in the Computer Society’s list: industrial IoT, AI, 5G, ubiquitous sensors — even hyper-converged systems and disaggregated memory. The modern car really is becoming a “computer on wheels” as the automobile industry emerges as a powerful force in developing and implementing new technologies. In recognition of that fact, IEEE Software’s upcoming May/June 2017 issue focuses on the central role that software now occupies in the automobile.

The automotive industry is undergoing enormous transformation as it contends with challenges in ensuring passenger safety, opportunities for advancing the software state of the art at vast scales, and new business models that will upend our entire concept of transportation. This May 2017 Computing Now theme includes three articles, an industry video, and a sidebar with additional resources to further the discussion.

The Articles

In “Digital Services in the Automotive Industry,” Jilei Tian, Alvin Chin, and Michael Karg explore software’s rapidly changing role in the automotive industry due to the incursion of software producers such as Google and Apple, who have upended the conception of software as a mere implementation element in the traditional automotive manufacturing process. The software producers have introduced unfamiliar business models involving IT services that engage owners beyond the traditional driving experience and reach into their broader personal sphere. Automakers are now responding with their own digital service platforms and offerings.

Christof Ebert’s “Implementing Functional Safety” describes the automotive industry’s ongoing efforts to guarantee safety in ever-more-complex driving scenarios. Ebert guides us through the key activities defined in the ISO 26262 standard for automotive functional safety, which has become a model for modern, goal-oriented safety standards. The article highlights particular innovations in the standard, such as a set of new metrics for demonstrating the robustness of the overall automotive electronics system architecture.

In “Computer, Drive My Car!” Shaoshan Liu, James Peng, and Jean-Luc Gaudiot offer a concise preview of what the automotive future holds — including the software improvements needed to get us there and the benefits that await us when we arrive. The article identifies AI, cloud computing, sensor fusion algorithms, and reliable real-time operating systems as key areas for advancement. The authors argue that the development of intelligent road infrastructure will create a cycle of big data generation and accelerated software improvement. They predict that these advances will ultimately lead to a new era of fully autonomous transportation that virtually eliminates traffic fatalities and revolutionizes fuel efficiency.

The Industry Perspective

• High quality expectations for safety, security, usability, and performance;
• Service-oriented systems with secure communication platforms;
• Artificial intelligence in multi-sensor fusion and picture recognition for autonomous driving; and
• Connectivity of cloud technologies and IT backbones with billions of cars and their on-board devices.

To help cope with complexity and other challenges, a new three-tier automotive software architecture will be introduced over the next few years. The video compares this architecture to modern IoT reference architecture.

Conclusion

As exciting as the present state of the automotive industry is, the future promises to be even more stirring, and software will play a central role. Much as the US space program of the 1960s was a beacon lighting the way to innovations in the software industry, today’s automotive industry is a leading source of challenges and opportunities for software researchers and developers alike.

A brief excourse to automotive computer systems by Christof  Ebert. He provides us with an overview of automotive's software evolution.

The Purpose of Network Protocols

Without protocols, devices would lack the ability to understand the electronic signals they send to each other over network connections. Network protocols serve these basic functions:

• address data to the correct recipient(s)
• physically transmit data from source to destination, with security protection if needed
• receive messages and send responses appropriately

Consider a comparison between network protocols with how a postal service handles physical paper mail. Just as the postal service manages letters from many sources and destinations, so too do network protocols keep data flowing along many paths continuously. Unlike physical mail, however, network protocols also provide some advanced capabilities like delivering a constant flow of messages to one destination (called streaming) and automatically making copies of a message and delivering it to multiple destinations at once (called broadcasting).

Common Types of Network Protocols

No one protocol exists that supports all the features every kind of computer network needs. Many different kinds of network protocols have been invented over the years, each attempting to support certain kinds of network communication.

Three basic characteristics that distinguish one type of protocol from another are:

1. Simplex vs. duplex. A simplex connection allows only one device to transmit on a network. Conversely, duplex network connections allow devices to both transmit and receive data across the same physical link.

2. Connection-oriented or connection-less.

A connection-oriented network protocol exchanges (a process called a handshake) address information between two devices that allows them to carry on a conversation (called a session) with each other. Conversely, connection-less protocols deliver individual messages from one point to another without regard for any similar messages sent before or after (and without knowing whether messages are even successfully received).

3. Layer. Network protocols normally work together in groups (called stacks because diagrams often depict protocols as boxes stacked on top of each other). Some protocols function at lower layers closely tied to how different types of wireless or network cabling physically works. Others work at higher layers linked to how network applications work, and some work at intermediate layers in 

The Internet Protocol Family

The most common network protocols in public use belong to the Internet Protocol (IP) family. IP is itself the basic protocol that enables home and other local networks across the Internet to communicate with each other.

IP works well for moving individual messages from one network to another but does not support the concept of a conversation (a connection over which a stream of messages can travel in one or both directions).

The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) extends IP with this higher layer capability, and because point-to-point connections are so essential on the Internet, the two protocols are almost always paired together and known as TCP/IP.

Both TCP and IP operate in the middle layers of a network protocol stack. Popular applications on the Internet have sometimes implemented their own protocols on top of TCP/IP. HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is used by Web browsers and servers worldwide. TCP/IP, in turn, runs on top of lower-level network technologies like Ethernet. Other popular network protocols in the IP family include ARP, ICMPand FTP.

How Network Protocols Use Packets

The Internet and most other data networks work by organizing data into small pieces called packets. To improve communication performance and reliability, each larger message sent between two network devices is often subdivided into smaller packets by the underlying hardware and software. These packet switching networks require packets to be organized in specific ways according to the protocols the network supports. This approach works well with the technology of modern networks as these all handle data in the form of bits and bytes (digital ‘1’s and ‘0s’). 

Each network protocol defines rules for how its data packets must be organized (formatted). Because protocols like Internet Protocol often work together in layers, some data embedded inside a packet formatted for one protocol can be in the format of some other related protocol (a method called encapsulation).

Protocols typically divide each packet into three parts – header, payload and footer. (Some protocols, like IP, do not utilize footers.) Packet headers and footers contain contextual information required to support the network, including addresses of the sending and receiving devices, while payloads contain the actual data to be transmitted. Headers or footers also often include some special data to help improve the reliability and or performance of network connections, such as counters that keep track of the order in which messages were sent, and checksums that help network applications detect data corruption or tampering.

How Network Devices Use Protocols

The operating systems of network devices include built-in support for some lower level network protocols. All modern desktop computer operating systems support both Ethernet and TCP/IP, for example, while many smartphones support Bluetoothand protocols from the Wi-Fi family. These protocols ultimately connect to the physical network interfaces of a device, like its Ethernet ports and Wi-Fi or Bluetooth radios.

Network applications, in turn, support the higher level protocols which talk to the operating system. A Web browser, for example, is capable of translating addresses like http://vk.com/ into HTTP packets that contain the necessary data that a Web server can receive and in turn send back the correct Web page. The receiving device is responsible for re-assembling individual packets into the original message, by stripping off the headers and footers and concatenating packets in the correct sequence.

Top 5 Network Routing Protocols Explained

Hundreds of different network protocols have been created for supporting communication between computers and other types of electronic devices. So-called routing protocols are the family of network protocols that enable computer routersto communicate with each other and in turn to intelligently forward traffic between their respective networks. The protocols described below each enable this critical function of routers and computer networking.

How Routing Protocols Work

Every network routing protocol performs three basic functions:

1. discovery - identify other routers on the network
2. route management - keep track of all the possible destinations (for network messages) along with some data describing the pathway of each
3. path determination - make dynamic decisions for where to send each network message

A few routing protocols(called link state protocols) enable a router to build and track a full map of all network links in a region while others (called distance vector protocols) allow routers to work with less information about the network area.

1

RIP

Researchers developed Routing Information Protocol in the 1980s for use on small- or medium-sized internal networks that connected to the early Internet. RIP is capable of routing messages across networks up to a maximum of 15 hops.

RIP-enabled routers discover the network by first sending a message requesting router tables from neighboring devices. Neighbor routers running RIP respond by sending the full routing tables back to the requestor, whereupon the requestor follows an algorithm to merge all of these updates into its own table. At scheduled intervals, RIP routers then periodically send out their router tables to their neighbors so that any changes can be propagated across the network.

Traditional RIP supported only IPv4 networks but the newer RIPng standard also supports IPv6. RIP utilizes either UDP ports 520 or 521 (RIPng) for its communication. 

2

OSPF

Open Shortest Path First was created to overcome some of its limitations of RIP including

• the 15 hop count restriction
• the inability to organize networks into a routing hierarchy, important for manageability and performance on large internal networks
• the significant spikes of network traffic generated by repeatedly re-sending full router tables at scheduled intervals.

As the name suggests, OSPF is an open public standard with widespread adoption across many industry vendors. OSPF-enabled routers discover the network by sending identification messages to each other followed by messages that capture specific routing items rather than the entire routing table. It is the only link state routing protocol listed in this category.

3

EIGRP and IGRP

Cisco developed Internet Gateway Routing Protocol as another alternative to RIP. The newer Enhanced IGRP (EIGRP) made IGRP obsolete starting in the 1990s. EIGRP supports classless IP subnets and improves the efficiency of the routing algorithms compared to older IGRP. It does not support routing hierarchies, like RIP. Originally created as a proprietary protocol runnable only on Cisco family devices. EIGRP was designed with the goals of easier configuration and better performance than OSPF.

4

IS-IS

The Intermediate System to Intermediate System protocol functions similarly to OSPF. While OSPF became the more popular choice overall, IS-IS remains in widespread use by service providers who have benefitted from the protocol being more easily adaptable to their specialized environments. Unlike the other protocols in this category, IS-IS does not run over Internet Protocol (IP) and uses its own addressing scheme.

5

BGP and EGP

The Border Gateway Protocol is the Internet standard External Gateway Protocol (EGP). BGP detects modifications to routing tables and selectively communicates those changes to other routers over TCP/IP.

Internet providers commonly use BGP to join their networks together. Additionally, larger business sometimes also use BGP to join together multiple of their internal networks. Professionals consider BGP the most challenging of all routing protocols to master due to its configuration complexity.

NETWORK PROTOCOL (pt.2)

Ethernet

The Ethernet protocol is by far the most widely used one. Ethernet uses an access method called CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection). This is a system where each computer listens to the cable before sending anything through the network. If the network is clear, the computer will transmit. If some other nodes have already transmitted on the cable, the computer will wait and try again when the line is clear. Sometimes, two computers attempt to transmit at the same instant. A collision occurs when this happens. Each computer then backs off and waits a random amount of time before attempting to retransmit. With this access method, it is normal to have collisions. However, the delay caused by collisions and retransmitting is very small and does not normally effect the speed of transmission on the network.

The Ethernet protocol allows for linear bus, star, or tree topologies. Data can be transmitted over wireless access points, twisted pair, coaxial, or fiber optic cable at a speed of 10 Mbps up to 1000 Mbps.

Fast Ethernet

To allow for an increased speed of transmission, the Ethernet protocol has developed a new standard that supports 100 Mbps. This is commonly called Fast Ethernet. Fast Ethernet requires the application of different, more expensive network concentrators/hubs and network interface cards. In addition, category 5 twisted pair or fiber optic cable is necessary. Fast Ethernet is becoming common in schools that have been recently wired.

Local Talk

Local Talk is a network protocol that was developed by Apple Computer, Inc. for Macintosh computers. The method used by Local Talk is called CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance). It is similar to CSMA/CD except that a computer signals its intent to transmit before it actually does so. Local Talk adapters and special twisted pair cable can be used to connect a series of computers through the serial port. The Macintosh operating system allows the establishment of a peer-to-peer network without the need for additional software. With the addition of the server version of AppleShare software, a client/server network can be established.

The Local Talk protocol allows for linear bus, star, or tree topologies using twisted pair cable. A primary disadvantage of Local Talk is low speed. Its speed of transmission is only 230 Kbps.

Token Ring

The Token Ring protocol was developed by IBM in the mid-1980s. The access method used involves token-passing. In Token Ring, the computers are connected so that the signal travels around the network from one computer to another in a logical ring. A single electronic token moves around the ring from one computer to the next. If a computer does not have information to transmit, it simply passes the token on to the next workstation. If a computer wishes to transmit and receives an empty token, it attaches data to the token. The token then proceeds around the ring until it comes to the computer for which the data is meant. At this point, the data is captured by the receiving computer. The Token Ring protocol requires a star-wired ring using twisted pair or fiber optic cable. It can operate at transmission speeds of 4 Mbps or 16 Mbps. Due to the increasing popularity of Ethernet, the use of Token Ring in school environments has decreased.

FDDI

Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) is a network protocol that is used primarily to interconnect two or more local area networks, often over large distances. The access method used by FDDI involves token-passing. FDDI uses a dual ring physical topology. Transmission normally occurs on one of the rings; however, if a break occurs, the system keeps information moving by automatically using portions of the second ring to create a new complete ring. A major advantage of FDDI is high speed. It operates over fiber optic cable at 100 Mbps.

ATM

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a network protocol that transmits data at a speed of 155 Mbps and higher. ATM works by transmitting all data in small packets of a fixed size; whereas, other protocols transfer variable length packets. ATM supports a variety of media such as video, CD-quality audio, and imaging. ATM employs a star topology, which can work with fiber optic as well as twisted pair cable.

ATM is most often used to interconnect two or more local area networks. It is also frequently used by Internet Service Providers to utilize high-speed access to the Internet for their clients. As ATM technology becomes more cost-effective, it will provide another solution for constructing faster local area networks.

Gigabit Ethernet

The most latest development in the Ethernet standard is a protocol that has a transmission speed of 1 Gbps. Gigabit Ethernet is primarily used for backbones on a network at this time. In the future, it will probably also be used for workstation and server connections. It can be used with both fiber optic cabling and copper. The 1000BaseTX, the copper cable used for Gigabit Ethernet, became the formal standard in 1999.

Compare the Network Protocols

Protocol	Cable	Speed	Topology
Ethernet	Twisted Pair, Coaxial, Fiber	10 Mbps	Linear Bus, Star, Tree
Fast Ethernet	Twisted Pair, Fiber	100 Mbps	Star
LocalTalk	Twisted Pair	.23 Mbps	Linear Bus or Star
Token Ring	Twisted Pair	4 Mbps - 16 Mbps	Star-Wired Ring
FDDI	Fiber	100 Mbps	Dual ring
ATM	Twisted Pair, Fiber	155-2488 Mbps	Linear Bus, Star, Tree

Network Diagramming Software

Edraw Network Diagrammer is a new, rapid and powerful network design software for network drawings possessing diversified examples and templates. So it has become quite easy to draw network topology, Cisco network design diagram, LAN/WAN diagram, network cabling diagrams, active directory, network platform and physical network diagram.

Network Protocol Overview

The OSI model, and any other network communication model, provides only a conceptual framework for communication between computers, but the model itself does not provide specific methods of communication. Actual communication is defined by various communication protocols. In the context of data communication, a protocol is a formal set of rules, conventions and data structure that governs how computers and other network devices exchange information over a network. In other words, a protocol is a standard procedure and format that two data communication devices must understand, accept and use to be able to talk to each other.

In modern protocol design, protocols are "layered" according to the OSI 7 layer model or a similar layered model. Layering is a design principle which divides the protocol design into a number of smaller parts, each part accomplishing a particular sub-task and interacting with the other parts of the protocol only in a small number of well-defined ways. Layering allows the parts of a protocol to be designed and tested without a combinatorial explosion of cases, keeping each design relatively simple. Layering also permits familiar protocols to be adapted to unusual circumstances.

The header and/or trailer at each layer reflect the structure of the protocol. Detailed rules and procedures of a protocol or protocol group are often defined by a lengthy document. For example, IETF uses RFCs (Request for Comments) to define protocols and updates to the protocols.

A wide variety of communication protocols exists. These protocols were defined by many different standard organizations throughout the world and by technology vendors over years of technology evolution and development. One of the most popular protocol suites is TCP/IP, which is the heart of Internetworking communications. The IP, the Internet Protocol, is responsible for exchanging information between routers so that the routers can select the proper path for network traffic, while TCP is responsible for ensuring the data packets are transmitted across the network reliably and error free. LAN and WAN protocols are also critical protocols in network communications. The LAN protocols suite is for the physical and data link layers of communications over various LAN media such as Ethernet wires and wireless radio waves. The WAN protocol suite is for the lowest three layers and defines communication over various wide-area media, such as fiber optic and copper cables.

Network communication has slowly evolved. Today's new technologies are based on the accumulation over years of technologies, which may be either still existing or obsolete. Because of this, the protocols which define the network communication are highly inter-related. Many protocols rely on others for operation. For example, many routing protocols use other network protocols to exchange information between routers.

In addition to standards for individual protocols in transmission, there are now also interface standards for different layers to talk to the ones above or below (usually operating system specific). For example: Winsock and Berkeley sockets between layers 4 and 5; NDIS and ODI between layers 2 and 3.

The protocols for data communication cover all areas as defined in the OSI model. However, the OSI model is only loosely defined. A protocol may perform the functions of one or more of the OSI layers, which introduces complexity to understanding protocols relevant to the OSI 7 layer model. In real-world protocols, there is some argument as to where the distinctions between layers are drawn; there is no one black and white answer.

To develop a complete technology that is useful for the industry, very often a group of protocols is required in the same layer or across many different layers. Different protocols often describe different aspects of a single communication; taken together, these form a protocol suite. For example, Voice over IP (VOIP), a group of protocols developed by many vendors and standard organizations, has many protocols across the 4 top layers in the OSI model.

Protocols can be implemented either in hardware or software or a mixture of both. Typically, the lower layers are implemented in hardware, with the higher layers being implemented in software.

Protocols could be grouped into suites (or families, or stacks) by their technical functions, or origin of the protocol introduction, or both. A protocol may belong to one or multiple protocol suites, depending on how you categorize it. For example, the Gigabit Ethernet protocol IEEE 802.3z is a LAN (Local Area Network) protocol and it can also be used in MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) communications.

Most recent protocols are designed by the IETF for Internetworking communications and by the IEEE for local area networking (LAN) and metropolitan area networking (MAN). The ITU-T contributes mostly to wide area networking (WAN) and telecommunications protocols. ISO has its own suite of protocols for internetworking communications, which is mainly deployed in European countries.

NETWORK PROTOCOLS (pt.1)

A network protocol defines rules and conventions for communication between network devices.  Network protocols include mechanisms for devices to identify and make connections with each other, as well as formatting rules that specify how data is packaged into messages sent and received. Some protocols also support message ​acknowledgment and data compression designed for reliable and/or high-performance network communication.

Modern protocols for computer networking all generally use packet switching techniques to send and receive messages in the form of packets - messages subdivided into pieces that are collected and re-assembled at their destination.Hundreds of different computer network protocols have been developed each designed for specific purposes and environments.

Internet Protocols

The Internet Protocol family contains a set of related (and among the most widely used network protocols. Beside Internet Protocol (IP) itself, higher-level protocols like TCP, UDP, HTTP, and FTP all integrate with IP to provide additional capabilities. Similarly, lower-level Internet Protocols like ARP and ICMP also co-exist with IP. In general, higher level protocols in the IP family interact more closely with applications like Web browsers while lower-level protocols interact with network adapters and other computer hardware.

Wireless Network Protocols

Thanks to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and LTE, wireless networks have become commonplace. Network protocols designed for use on wireless networks must support roaming mobile devices and deal with issues such as variable data rates and network security.

How Network Protocols Are Implemented

Modern operating systems contain built-in software services that implement support for some network protocols. Applications like Web browsers contain software libraries that support the high level protocols necessary for that application to function. For some lower level TCP/IP and routing protocols, support is implemented in directly hardware (silicon chipsets) for improved performance.

Each packet transmitted and received over a network contains binary data (ones and zeros that encode the contents of each message). Most protocols add a small header at the beginning of each packet to store information about the message's sender and its intended destination. Some protocols also add a footer at the end. Each network protocol has the ability to identify messages of its own kind and process the headers and footers as part of moving data among devices.

A group of network protocols that work together at higher and lower levels are often called a protocol family. Students of networking traditionally learn about the OSI model that conceptually organizes network protocol families into specific layers for teaching purposes

Networks Untangled

At a minimum, you will need the following in order to network two or more computers together:

• A network switch or hub
• One network cable for each computer
• One network card for each computer

Before going out and purchasing a bunch of supplies, the first thing to do is plan your network. Look at your floorplan and decide where you think computers are going to be placed. Then, decide on an appropriate central location for a network switch. For a simple setup, running network cables along floorboards may be acceptable. But for many environments, it is likely that you will want to run the cabling inside walls or through ceilings. Knowing this in advance will help you plan what accessories to buy. Once you know this, you can measure out how long each cable run is going to be. Network signals can travel a maximum of 100 meters (328 feet), so no single network cable run should ever be longer than that. (If you find you need to travel further, you can use a hub in between to connect two cables, although it's not a good idea to string more than about three hubs together along a network run.)

The other decision you will need to make is what sort of network card to purchase. These days, you can purchase an internal network card that gets installed inside the computer (traditionally, the most common choice), or, if your computer supports USB, you can use a USB Ethernet adapter that you simply plug in to the USB slot. USB Ethernet adapters are much easier to install, but they tend to be a bit more expensive and run the slight risk of becoming disconnected from the computer.

Constructing a simple network
In the simplest case, you do not have to run cables through walls or ceilings, and no run happens to be more than 150 feet. In this case, the best choice may be to purchase pre-manufactured network patch cables rather than attempting to make your own. At this point, it's simply a matter of installing the network card in your system, plugging one end of each cable into the computer and the other end into the network switch, and then configuring the computers to "see" the network. (These days, most operating systems can usually do this automatically, and simply accepting the default choices when the network card is being configured will get you on the network and able to share files and printers. However, this can become a complicated task, and the services of a qualified network engineer may be appropriate.)

A Step Further...
The problem with simply using pre-made network patch cables is that keeping a neat (and safe) cable run is not easy. In particular, you will likely find that, while you can run a patch cable along a floorboard, there comes a point where it has to leave the wall to connect to the computer or switch. A more desirable installation will have most of the cabling run through walls. Here's where things start to get interesting. In this scenario, you are most likely going to want to connect a patch cable from your computer to a network wall jack, and then run bulk network cable through the walls to wall jacks or a patch panel next to your hub.

Should you make your own patch cables?
We see many customers purchase 1000ft spools of bulk network cable, along with bags of connectors, boots, and crimp tools, with the intention of making their own cables and saving money. While this is certainly doable, there are some things to consider. First of all, unless you are quite experienced at making patch cables, it can be a time-consuming process. Also, if you do not invest in a decent network cable tester, you can waste a lot of time trying to figure out whether you have a miswired cable or other issue. Generally speaking, we recommend using bulk cable to wire into patch panels and wall jacks (a relatively easy task) and sticking with pre-manufactured patch cables for connecting devices together.

In the picture above, we've used the following equipment to achieve a typical in-wall run:

• A one-port keystone wall plate
• A blue CAT-5E keystone jack
• A run of UTP solid-core bulk network cable
• A 12-port wall-mounted CAT-5E patch panel
• A short patch cable to connect the panel to the switch.

Let's look for a moment at the anatomy of network cable, as we will need to understand this in order to wire up keystones and patch panels. Inside a network cable, there are four pairs of color-coded wires twisted together. The colors are:

	Green	Blue
	Green / White	Blue / White
Orange			Brown
Orange / White			Brown / White

Most keystone jacks and patch panels are very easy to wire up, as they have diagrams showing where to connect each of the eight wires. They will generally come with a small tool to help you push the wires into the jack. However, you will generally find two wiring diagrams, typically labelled "568A" and "568B." These are standard wiring conventions that all devices follow. For historical reasons, however, there are two differing standards. In practice, it does not matter which of the two you follow; however, whichever one you choose to use, you must be consistent with that choice throughout your network. Once you have made that decision, wiring the devices involves the following steps:

1. Pull enough wire to run between the patch panel and wall jack so that there is slack in the cable. Make sure you do not bend the wire too sharply (about 2" bending radius is a nice, conservative number). Pull a little more than you think you need, to allow you to trim extra if you make a mistake.
2. Strip about 1" of the outer jacket from the cable. Make sure you do not cut into the jackets of the individual wires.
3. Untwist the pairs of wires only enough to be able to connect them to the panel.
4. Follow the wiring diagram on the panel, using the included tool to "punch" the wire into the panel connections.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 on the keystone jack.
6. Use a network tester to verify that the run has been installed correctly.
7. Finally, once you have connected the keystone jack to the wall plate, take the time to label both the jack and the corresponding connection on the patch panel with a code (such as a number) to help you trace the connection in the future.

You can repeat the above procedure for every location where you want to place a jack.

If time and budgets allow, you may want to consider connecting more jacks than you initially anticipate needing. Networks have a way of unexpectedly expanding, and you will appreciate having done that work in the beginning.

Once all of your wall jacks have been wired to the patch panel, you can mount a switch underneath the panel and connect the two together using short patch cords. (Note that although it is possible to bypass the panel and connect the cables direct to the switch, this involves crimping on an RJ45 network connector, which takes some experience and tends to be too time-consuming for the average user. Patch panels also offer a cleaner appearance.) After that, the only step left is to hook up the computers to their respective wall jacks using patch cables, configure the computers (if not already done by the operating system), and your network is up and running.

At this stage, you have a network where computers can talk to each other. While convenient, this is usually not the only goal. You often want these computers to share a connection to the Internet. Assuming your home or office has a broadband (i.e., DSL, cable modem, or T1) connection to the Internet, connecting your internal network up is a fairly straightforward task. Broadband routers are specifically designed for this task. Simply plug the network connection from the DSL or cable modem into the "uplink" port of the broadband router, and then connect the broadband router to your switch. The router will do the job of providing internet addresses to each of your computers. Note that most broadband routers have a built-in four port switch, so if you have four or fewer computers, the broadband router can serve as both router and switch.