How Magnetic Interferences
Affect Networks Ross S.
PURPOSE
The
tests performed in this experiment will show what type of networking cable
connection, out of direct connection LPT1, and Cat-5 serial has the highest
overall performance. It will also show
how magnetic fields interfere with the performance of the networks tasks.
I
performed this experiment because I am a regular computer user that would like
to see how I could get the most out of my system. I have also had a lot of experience with networking and would
like to see the best method of connection.
This
information would benefit schools, corporations and homes that use network for
setting up networks that are free from sources of interference that would slow
down data transfer rates. It may even
help experiments that require computers in a remote location to show how a
magnetic field may interfere with the network.
It would also help people perform normal tasks quicker and freer of
congestion by knowing what may interfere with the transfer.
HYPOTHESIS
I
hypothesize that the Cat-5 will work the quickest at transferring files and
work the best under the stress of magnetic interferences. Overall the Cat-5 will perform better than
the LPT direct connections.
I believe this because the Cat-5 specializes in networks
and has it’s own networking card, it also uses more fiber optics that are much
more resistance to outside interference.
The Parallel port is made for multiple tasks and is less suited for
networking. Multiple websites from
ZD.net and TechTV have led me to this hypothesis. I have also had used many of these connections before and feel I
could form an educated guess form my experience.
The constants of this study are:
à
The type of computer used
à
The magnetic field and the magnets position
à
The distance of the computers from each other
à
The software that is loaded on the computers
à
The size of the packet that is being sent to each of the computers
à
The method in which the transfer is measured
The manipulated variable was the type of
connection used to send data (LPT, CAT-5) and the application of the magnetic
field on the cables as they transfer data.
The responding variable was the speed at
which the connections transfer in Kbps.
To measure the responding variable I will use a software
program called ANYSPEED from Py software.
I will be able to record the write speed at which the packet is
sent. The Packet I am using is a file
that is 100mb in size. During the
transfer I will take down the transfer rate.
Then I will take an average of all the measurements. I will also take down the total amount of
time it takes the packet to transfer.
|
Gateway
300 mhz |
2 |
Computers
be very similar to get accurate results |
|
|
Serial
Networking Card |
1 |
To
plug Cat-5 into |
|
|
LPT1
Port |
1 |
Most
computers will come with one |
|
|
Cat-5
Serial Wire |
1 |
Cat-5
Connection |
|
|
LPT
Direct Connection Wire |
1 |
LPT
Connection |
|
|
Flat
Circle Magnets |
3 |
|
|
|
Masking
Tape |
1
roll |
To
fasten magnets |
|
|
Recording
Utensils |
* |
Pen,
Pencils, You know the drill. |
|
Obviously the experiment will still work
if you don’t have the exact brand or type of computer or computer
hardware. I wrote these down to specify
what equipment I used to reach these results.
That doesn’t mean you can’t try, I welcome anyone to duplicate the
experiment with the items above.
1.)
Configure two computers to have very similar hardware and software
specifications
2.)
Set them up a meter away to avoid any conflicts and plug them in
3.)
Plug a LPT wire into both LPT1 ports
4.)
Connect both computers through Direct Connection
5.)
Load ANYSPEED and set it to measure networks
6.)
In the “Measurements” option set measure speed to “5000”
7.)
Send a 100mb packet through the connection.
8.)
Record the speed when each new measurement is taken
9.)
Record this 6 times
10.) Wait for test
to stop and record
11.) Delete the
packet from the guest computer or whichever computer received the packet
12.) Place a series
of magnets at the middle and ends of the wire
14.) Fasten them by
using masking tape.
15.) Perform test
again
16.) Perform steps
1-13 with a Cat-5 Serial connection
RESEARCH REPORT
Introduction
This report will cover many subjects that
helped me get a better idea about my project so that I could perform my
experiment with much ease. I will talk
about the Internet, Networks and a little bit on modems.
Internet
The Internet was made in the late
1960’s. It was originally designed for
military and academic purposes.
The U.S. defense department hired ARPA
(Advanced Research Projects Agency) to find a way to set up communications
between long distances.
So ARPA created the first known computer
network, known as ARPANETwork. Then in
1989 when World Wide Web, or WWW, was introduced this changed drastically. An English computer scientist named Timothy
Berners-Lee designed WWW for English pharmacists that were in other parts of
the world. But it revolutionized the
way the Internet works today. Many non-scientists
started using the WWW because it easily handled multimedia files.
The Internet works by the concept of
Server/Client architecture. This is
where some computers, the servers, will act as information providers. Servers used to be supercomputers or
mainframes. But now almost any computer
can become a server. A server may be
accessed by multiply clients. A client
is any computer that receives information from a server.
To get on the Internet and receive
information the user must connect to the host network. This network is called LAN (Local Area
Network). Once the user is connected,
they can search a remote server for information. When the user requests information, the request is sent to the
server, the server will check it’s own database first. If it doesn’t find the information in it’s
own database then it will check with other servers until it finds what was
requested.
Once the server has found the
information. Then it will send it in
form of a file. Which you can view with
a web browser. The web browser can help
you view any kind of multimedia file over the Internet. Multimedia is text, pictures, graphics,
video and audio.
The Internet is in use in many ways. Businesses use the Internet to store large
databases where others can access them.
Commercial companies can carry out all kinds of commune on the
Internet. Businesses and Institutors
use the Internet to make videos and other materials for presentations. And E-mail has made people all across the
world take advantage of communicating with each other. The biggest problem facing the Internet is
finding ways to give fast and relatively latency free access to the growing,
Internet using public.
Networks
A network is any action that links two or
more computers together. Networked
computers may share many resources, run programs and send E-mail to each
other. A network consists of three
layers, application software, network software and network hardware.
Application software is where the files
that computers share in a network. If a
computer wishes to have information from another computer it sends a request to
the server and the server will reroute the information to the other
computer. This is called client-server
network. Another type of Application is
called peer-peer, this is where they will send a direct request to each other
without the interference of a server.
Network software is where the computers
set up a protocol for computers to communicate to each other. The computers will send information to each
other in the form of packets. The
computers will make connection with application software and direct the traffic
of packets. Making sure that no packets
will collide with one another.
Network hardware is the actual physical
parts that connect the computers together.
Two essential parts are the transmission medias, which carry the
computers signal along on the Internet.
The signal is usually transferred on wires or fiber-optic cables. The other part is the network adaptor, which
receives the packets that are being transferred through the cables or wires.
There are many different formations of
networked computers that are used. The
simplest is the point to point, where two computers are connected to one
another. The bus is when a single line
connects many computers; the computers share the information in the database. Another is the ring connection; it uses multiple links to form a circle of computers. Each link carries
information in one direction. Information moves around the ring until it
reaches its destination. The star
connection connects all computers to a single hub computer.
LAN and WAN are the two acronyms for
classifying networks in use. Local Are
Network is commonly the bus, star and ring; it is usually computers that are a
short distance from each other. Wide
Area Network is point to point; it uses specially licensed lines to transmit
across vast distances.
Magnets
These are some types of magnets that I
found information on, being I have studied magnets before; I can give you a
brief synopsis on the scientific terms of magnets. The three
classifications are diamagnetic, paramagnetic and ferromagnetic.
When a diamagnetic
material is placed into a field, it first shows an action of repelling the
opposite field. It has been researched
that when the diamagnetic substance comes in contact with the field, the atoms
and molecules produce a current that opposes the field. Many materials are diamagnetic; the
strongest are organic materials and metallic benzene.
If a material is Paramagnetic,
it will add to the magnetic field by lining up the atoms or molecules that make
up the material. A paramagnetic
substance usually contains metals or rare elements found in the earth. If the paramagnetic substance is
non-metallic, it usually only adds to the field depending on the
temperature. This behavior is a result
of the fat that the atoms of non-metallic materials are more difficult to line
up.
A ferromagnetic substance is one that keeps it’s magnetic current even
when an outside magnetic field is reduced to nothing. A ferromagnetic material is usually divided into regions called
domains. In these domains, the atoms
are lined up with each other. Each
domain doesn’t have to point in the same direction. An iron substance, one placed into a magnetic field, atoms are
easily arranged as a ferromagnetic substance.
RESULTS
The purpose of this experiment was to
test the Direct Connection and Ethernet networking options. It tested their performance and resistance
to magnetic interference.
The experiment revealed that the Cat-5
connection had an average transfer rate of 7875.2 Kbps and the LPT had an
average transfer rate of 811.63 Kbps while not having any magnetic interference
directly applied to them. The Cat-5
transferred 7468.04 Kbps and the LPT transferred at 726.27 Kbps while under
magnetic fields subjected to it. The
total transfer time for the Cat-5 was 22.01 normal and 23.21 with the
magnets. The LPT transfer time was
2:13.56 normal and 2:38.66 while using the magnets in the test.
CONCLUSION
The hypothesis I
formed for this experiment was that the Cat-5 Ethernet connection would have a
higher Kbps transferring rate. I also
thought that the Cat-5 connection would be able to withstand the magnetic
interference much better than the LPT direct cable connection.
The results of this
experiment show that the Cat-5 was indeed faster than the LPT. It was approximately 9.7 times faster in
transferring data. The magnetic field
tests generated very interesting results.
Though the amount of interference was greater for the Cat-5, the ration
in comparison to the amount of total data transferred is less for the Cat-5
than the LPT which leads me to conclude that the Cat-5 is more resistant to
magnetic interference than the LPT overall but not in Kbps. The Cat-5 also got much higher results over
the LPT in transfer rate so my hypothesis I formed at the beginning of the
experiment should be accepted.
Because of the
results of the experiment, I wonder if the configurations of the computer make
a big enough difference in the results that it would be worth configuring to
computers with various hardware specs to see how they effect the networks
performance.
If I were to conduct
this experiment again, I would test many more different types of network
connections. I would try to use USB and
Serial as different direct connections, and I would also like to use a phone
line router through the Internet to compare to the direct connections. I would also use an electro magnet and
different types of interferences to get a wide variety of results.
Peter John Harris, “Bandwidth Speed Test”,
[Online] http://computingcentral.msn.com/topics/bandwidth
/speedtest500.asp 12.09.99
Zoom
Telephonics, Inc “Modems.com”, [Online] http://www.modem.com 12.04.99
Rutowski M.,
Anthony, “Internet” Encarta 98’, 99’, 00’, CD-Rom
“Computers”
Encarta 98’, 99’, 00’, CD-Rom
“Network” Encarta
98’, 99’, 00’, CD-Rom
“Magnetic Field”
Encarta 98’, 99’, 00’, CD-Rom
“Computers” The World Book Encyclopedia 2000.
“Internet”
The World Book Encyclopedia 1999.