Paper Details

Name: Sandeep Kaur Gill
Country: India

Year: 2026
Volume: Volume-13, Issue-1 (January-June)
Page Number: 552-561
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22296570

Computer networking has become a fundamental component of modern digital infrastructure, enabling communication and information exchange among computers, mobile devices, cloud platforms, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, industrial systems, and intelligent applications. The rapid growth of connected devices and data-intensive applications has created new requirements for networking systems, including high bandwidth, low latency, scalability, reliability, programmability, energy efficiency, and security. Traditional networking architectures are increasingly being complemented by emerging paradigms such as Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV), edge computing, network slicing, artificial intelligence (AI)-driven networking, and next-generation wireless communication.
This paper presents a comprehensive review of modern computer networking with emphasis on network architectures, communication technologies, routing, virtualization, SDN, IoT networking, edge computing, network security, and the transition from 5G toward 6G. The study analyzes major challenges associated with scalability, network congestion, cybersecurity, privacy, interoperability, resource management, and quality of service. Recent research indicates that SDN can improve network programmability and centralized management, while AI and machine learning can support traffic prediction, anomaly detection, routing optimization, and autonomous network management. However, the integration of these technologies introduces additional security, computational, and management challenges. The paper concludes by identifying future research directions toward intelligent, autonomous, secure, energy-efficient, and adaptive networking environments.

Keywords: Computer Networking, Software-Defined Networking, Network Security, Internet of Things, Edge Computing, 5G, 6G, Network Virtualization, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning.