Analogy: The Dabbawalas

Dear Learners,

Now that we know that the network works in layers and all the devices have an address to help them communicate but how do they get to know who its where in this wast wide web with a huge number of devices around. Is there a navigation equivalent for the packets to find their way or do these devices have a table of every device on the internet and the network highway to take to reach them ? Now lets take a break from the technicalities of networking and look at our second analogy about a network that helps a lot of people in Mumbai get their food. Any guesses ?

We met three types of dabbawalas. The first ones collect the lunch boxes from home using the source street name and deliver it to the nearest stations. The second set of dabbawalas use the destination station code and the destination dabbawala number to sort the lunch boxes in the train. The third set of dabbawalas or the destination dabbawalas use their number to identify the lunch box and use the destination street and building name to deliver the lunch box.

See you again next week, do complete the assignments and experiment you thoughts over Cisco Packet Tracer. If you get stuck somewhere use the discussing forum as a means to communicate you doubts and we encourage you to help others in the forum where ever possible. Good and rich discussion always help us in understanding better.