computer network

A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of computers and devices interconnected by communications channels that facilitate communications, allowing sharing of resources and information among interconnected devices.^[1] Put more simply, a computer network is a collection of two or more computers linked together for the purposes of sharing information and resources, among other things. Computer networking or data communications (datacom) is the engineering discipline concerned with computer networks. Computer networking is sometimes considered a sub-discipline of electrical engineering, telecommunications, computer science, information technology or computer engineering, since it relies heavily upon the theoretical and practical application of these scientific and engineering disciplines.
Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics such as the medium used to transport the data, communications protocol used, scale, topology, and organizational scope.
A communications protocol defines the formats and rules for exchanging information via a network. Well-known communications protocols are Ethernet, which is a family of protocols used in LANs, and the Internet Protocol Suite, which is used not only in the eponymous Internet but is today nearly ubiquitous in computer networking.