Computer Networks and the Internet

Dr. Keyur Parmar

S. V. National Institute of Technology (NIT), Surat

Outline

1. Introduction

2. Network Edge and Network Core

3. Delay, Loss and Throughput

4. Internet Protocol Stack

5. Network Security

6. History
Introduction
What Is the Internet?
Introduction

• Internet
• The most popular computer network.
• Arguably the largest engineered system ever created
by mankind.
• Internet traffic (annual) will be nearly five zettabytes
(1021 bytes) by 2022 - Cisco.

Note: 1 Zettabyte [ZB] = 1073741824 Terabytes [TB]

What Is the Internet?
What Is the Internet?

• To answer this question, we need to understand

• Hardware/Software components of the Internet

• Services the Internet provides to applications
What Is the Internet?

• A computer network that interconnects computing devices

throughout the world.
• Internet consists of
• Hundreds of millions of connected computing devices
such as laptops, tablets, smartphones, and smart-
watches. Popularly known as hosts or end systems.
• Communication links
• Packet Switches
• Hosts are connected with each other by communication
links and packet switches.
• A unit to measure the transmission rate of a link is bit-
s/second.
What Is the Internet?

• Hosts exchange the data with each other.

• Data
• Information that hosts want to exchange
• Information about data

• How to merge the fragmented data

• Which application can read/access the data?
• Source address
• Destination address
• Information to do the error checking
What is a Packet?

• To send the data, a (source) host

• segments the data

• adds the header information to each segment

• Packet = Data Segment + Header

• Destination host reassembles the data segments to get the

original data.
What is a Packet Switch?

• Packet Switch - Intersection point of two communication

links.

• Receives data from one communication link and forwards

the same to the other communication link.

• Popular packet switches

• Routers - Mainly used in the network core

• Link-layer Switches - Mainly used in access networks
What is a Route or Path?

• Route - A sequence of communication links and packet

switches traversed by a packet from the source (host) to
the destination (host).
Packet-switched Networks

• Packet-switched networks are analogues to transportation

networks of highways, roads, and intersections.

Transportation Networks Packet-switched networks

Trucks Packets

Highways and Roads Communication Links

Intersections Packet Switches

Internet Service Providers (ISPs)

• To access the Internet, hosts need Internet Service

Providers (ISPs).

• Local telephone or cable companies such as BSNL and

Jio work as ISPs.
• University ISP, corporate ISP, etc. also provide Inter-
net services.

• ISP is also a computer network and consists of hosts, com-

munication links and packet switches.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs)

• ISPs must also be interconnected to facilitate the com-

munication between hosts that are connected to different
ISPs.

• Hosts are interconnected by lower tier ISPs.

• Lower tier ISPs are interconnected through upper-tier
ISPs.
• Upper-tier ISPs are connected directly to each other.

• All ISPs are managed independently and follow the naming

and address conventions and standard IP protocol.
Internet Standards

• Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) develops Internet

standards.

• IETF standards documents are known as Requests For

Comments (RFCs).

• Many RFCs define the internet protocols such as TCP, IP,

HTTP, and SMTP.

• IEEE 802 LAN Standards Committee develops Ethernet

and wireless WiFi standards
What Is the Internet?
What Is the Internet?

• Internet provides services to various applications.

• Distributed applications
• E-mail
• Web surfing
• Internet messaging
• Real-time road-traffic information
• Audio and video streaming
• Social media
• Video conferencing
• Multi-person games
How to Facilitate Interactions among Distributed Applications

• Analogy: Postal Service

• How do individuals communicate using a postal ser-

vice?

• How does one application running on one host interact with

the same/different application running on another host?

• Applications follow protocols

What Is a Protocol?

• Analogy: Human Interaction Protocol

• Finding a location in a remote area.

• Internet/Network Protocol

• Similar to human interaction protocol except the com-

municating entities are hardware/software.

• To successfully communicate with each other, humans/en-

tities must follow the same protocol.
What Is a Protocol?

• A protocol defines

• Format of messages exchanged between two or more

communicating entities
• Order of messages exchanged between two or more
communicating entities
• Actions taken on the transmission and/or receipt of a
message or other event
Network Edge and Network Core
The Network Edge

• What do we call computing devices that are connected to

the Internet?

• End systems: As these devices are at the edge of the

Internet.
or
• Hosts: As these devices hosts distributed applications.
Examples: End Systems or Hosts

• Desktop/Laptop

• Servers

• Tablets

• Smartphones

• Smart Watches
End Systems or Hosts

• Hosts are categorized as:

• Clients

• Desktops, Laptops, Smartphones, etc.

• Servers

• Computing devices that run specific applications

and provide specific services
• Usually reside in large data centers
Access Network

• Access Network - A network that connects the host to the

first router (a.k.a edge router) through which it is con-
nected to the Internet.
Access Network
How do our homes get Internet connectivity?
Home Access - Internet

• Home Access

• Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)

• Cable
• Fiber To The Home (FTTH)
• 5G Fixed Wireless
Home Access - Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)

• Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) - Internet is provided by a

local telephone company through the same wires that it
uses for telephone networks. In such cases, a telephone
company is the ISP.

• DSL uses Twisted-Pair Cables (Insulated and twisted cop-

per wires)
Home Access - Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
Home Access - Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)

• DSL Modem

• Translates digital data to high-frequency tones and

vice versa.

• Telephone lines use different frequencies to encode data.

• Downstream channel: (50 kHz to 1 MHz)

• Upstream channel: (4 kHz to 50 kHz)
• Telephone (two-way): (0 to 4 kHz)
Home Access - Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)

• Splitter (at customer’s location):

• Splits the data and telephone signals.
• Forwards the data to the DSL Modem.
• Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) (at
telephone company’s location):
• Splits/Merges the data and telephone signals.
• Translates the data from analog to digital and for-
wards the same to the Internet or vice versa.
• Forwards/Receives telephone signals to/ from the
telephone network.
Television Cable

• Internet access is provided using the television cable net-

work.

• Fiber Optics Cable

• Coaxial Cable

• As it uses two different cables, it is sometimes called Hybrid

Fiber Coax (HFC)

• Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) – Works sim-

ilar to DSLAM.
Television Cable

• Cable Internet

• A shared broadcast medium.

• Data received by all the hosts on the path (even
though it may be destined for a single host).

• As it is a shared broadcast medium, the internet speed is

dependent on other hosts. For example, if there are only
few active hosts, it will increase the internet speed.
Fiber To The Home (FTTH)

• Optical Fiber Cable directly connects hosts to the ISP.

• Optical Splitter: Splits/merges optical fibers from/to dif-

ferent hosts.
5G Fixed Wireless

• High speed Internet access.

• No need to install costly and failure prone cables.

LAN – Ethernet and WiFi

• Local area network (LAN) - Connects hosts to the edge

router.

• Popular LAN Technologies

• Ethernet: A twisted pair cable is used to connect to

an Ethernet switch.
• Wireless LAN (WiFi)– IEEE 802.11 technology.

• Connects hosts to the access point and through

the access point to the Internet wirelessly.
• Range: Few meters.
WAN – 3G/4G/5G

• Wide Area Network (WAN)

• Connects hosts to the Internet wirelessly. For example,

mobile devices use 3G/4G/5G technology to connect
to the Internet.
• Range: Few Kilometers
Physical Media

• Physical Media

• Twisted Pair Copper Wire

• Coaxial Cable
• Fiber Optic Cable
• Radio Spectrum
Physical Media

• Physical Media Categories:

• Guided Media

• Waves are guided

• Example: Coaxial Cable, Fiber Optic Cable
• Unguided Media

• Waves are not guided

• Examples: WiFi, Digital Satellite Channel
Twisted-Pair Copper Wire

• Consists of two insulated and twisted copper wires.

• Insulated and twisted to reduce the electrical interference

from nearby twisted-pair wires.

• Generally used in telephone networks and LAN.

• Data Rates Range: 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps

Twisted-Pair Copper Wire
Coaxial Cable

• Consists of two concentric copper conductors.

• Used in cable television networks.

• Guided shared medium.

Coaxial Cable
Fiber Optics Cable

• Optical Fiber - Conducts pulses of light where each pulse

represents a bit.

• Characteristics:

• Bit Rates: 51.8 Mbps to 39.8 Gbps

• Immune to electromagnetic interference
• Low signal attenuation (reduction in the signal
strength) up to 100 kilometers
• Hard to tap

• Widely used in overseas links.

Fiber Optics Cable
Terrestrial Radio Channels

• Radio channel - Carries signals in the electromagnetic spec-

trum.

• Characteristics:

• No wires (No physical installation)

• Penetrates walls
• Mobile connectivity
• Carries signals for long distances

• Environmental interference affect the signal strength.

Classification of Terrestrial Radio Channels

• Short distance (e.g., with one or two meters) – Example:

Wireless Keyboard, Wireless Mouse

• Local areas (ten to a few hundred meters) – Wireless

LAN
• Wide areas (tens of kilometers) – Cellular Access
Technologies.
Satellite Radio Channels

• Communication satellite – Connects two or more transmit-

ters/receivers (on earth)
Types of Communication Satellites

• Geostationary Satellites
• Fix position in orbit at 36,000 kilometers above
Earth’s surface
• Introduces signal propagation delay (roughly 280 mil-
liseconds)
• Used to provide the internet access in remote areas
• Low-earth Orbiting (LEO) Satellites
• Rotate around Earth (not having a fixed position)
• For reliable communication, many such satellites need
to be placed in orbit.
The Network Core
The Network Core

• The Network Core

• Consists of packet switches and communication links

• Interconnect hosts
How to Communicate Data

• Two approaches to communicate data

• Packet Switching
• Circuit Switching
Packet Switching
Packet Switching

• To send a message

• Fragment the message and append headers (i.e., gen-

erate packets)
• Forward packets from the source to the destination.
Packet Switching

• Packets are transmitted at the same rate as of the trans-

mission rate of the link.

• Example
• Transmission rate of the communication link: R bit-
s/second
• Packet size: L bits
• Time to transmit the packet: L/R seconds
Packet Switching - Example
Packet Switching – Store and Forward Transmission

• Packet Switches

• Follow store and forward transmission

Packet Switching – Store and Forward Transmission

• Store and Forward Transmission

• Wait for the entire packet

• Once the complete packet is received, then the packet
switch forwards the packet to the outbound commu-
nication link.
Example - Store and Forward Transmission

• Source → Router → Destination

• Assume that the router has only one incoming com-
munication link and only one outgoing communication
link.
• Source sends 3 packets to the destination.
• Each packet is of size L bits.
• Transmission rate of both communication links: R bit-
s/second
• If a packet switch follows store and forward transmission,
by what time the destination receives the first packet?
• If a packet switch follows store and forward transmission,
by what time the destination receives all three packets?
Packet Switching – Store and Forward Transmission

If a packet switch follows store and forward transmission, by

what time the destination receives the first packet?

• At time 0 (seconds)
• The source begins the transmission of the first packet
towards the router.
• At time L/R (seconds)
• The router receives and stores the first packet, and
begins to transmit the first packet towards the desti-
nation.
• At time 2L/R (seconds)
• The destination receives the first packet.
Packet Switching – Store and Forward Transmission

If a packet switch follows store and forward transmission, by

what time the destination receives all three packets?

• At time 0 (seconds)
• The source begins the transmission of the first packet
towards the router.
• At time L/R (seconds)
• The router receives and stores the first packet, and
begins to transmit the first packet towards the desti-
nation.
• The source begins the transmission of the second
packet.
Packet Switching – Store and Forward Transmission

If a packet switch follows store and forward transmission, by

what time the destination receives all three packets?

• At time 2L/R (seconds)

• The destination receives the first packet.

• The router receives second packet, and begins the
transmission of second packet towards the destina-
tion.
• The source begins the transmission of third packet
towards the router.
Packet Switching – Store and Forward Transmission

If a packet switch follows store and forward transmission, by

what time the destination receives all three packets?

• At time 3L/R (seconds)

• The destination receives the second packet.

• The router receives the third packet, and begins the
transmission of third packet towards the destination.
Packet Switching – Store and Forward Transmission

If a packet switch follows store and forward transmission, by

what time the destination receives all three packets?

• At time 4L/R (seconds)

• The destination receives the third packet.

Packet Switching – Store and Forward Transmission

If there are N communication links and N − 1 routers in the

path from the source to the destination, by what time the
destination receives all P packets?

• (N+P-1) L/R seconds

Packet Switching – Routing Protocols

• Each host on the Internet has an address, namely, IP ad-

dress.

• Forwarding Table - Maps the destination address of a

packet to one of the outgoing communication links of the
router.

• The router uses destination IP address and the forwarding

table to forward the packet.

• Analogy: Driving from Ahmadabad to Mumbai without a

map.
Who configures/maintains the forwarding tables of routers?

Routing protocols
Packet Switching – Routing protocols

• Routing protocols - Determine the routes and set the for-

warding tables.
Circuit Switching
Circuit Switching

• Circuit Switched Networks

• Facilitate dedicated end-to-end connection between

hosts.
• Reserve the resources required during the communi-
cation.
• Reserve the resources for a specific communication
session/duration.
• Packet switched networks do not reserve the re-
sources.
Circuit Switching - Telephone Networks

• Circuit Switched Networks

• Source and the destination are connected, and all the

switches on the path maintain the connection state.
• In telephone network, this connection is known as Cir-
cuit.
Circuit Switching - Example
Multiplexing - Circuit Switched Networks

• A communication link can support number of circuits.

• A circuit in a communication link can be implemented as

follows.

• Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM)

• Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)
Frequency Division Multiplexing

• A communication link divides the frequency spectrum

among number of connections, and each connection will
be assigned a frequency band.

• In telephone network, each frequency band has a width of

4 kHz.

• The width of the frequency band is popularly known as

Bandwidth.
Frequency Division Multiplexing
Time Division Multiplexing

• A communication link divides time into frames, and each

frame is divided into fixed time slots. Each connection will
be assigned a fixed time slot.
• Transmission rate per second = Number of frames per sec-
ond × Number of bits in each time slot of the frame
• For example, if a communication link trasmits 100 frames
per second, and each frame is divided into time slots of 8
bits, then the transmission rate is 100 × 8 = 800 bits per
second.
• In FDM, a bandwidth is shared among number of connec-
tions. In TDM, each connection gets the full bandwidth
but for a designated time slot.
Time Division Multiplexing
Packet Switching vs Circuit Switching

• Packet Switching
• Variable and unpredictable end-to-end delays.

• Circuit Switching
• Waste of unused time slots/frequency bands when fewer
active users.
A Network of Networks - Terminology

• Points of Presence (PoP) - A group of routers (from higher-

tier ISP network) that connects a lower-tier ISP to a higher-
tier ISP.

• Multi-homing - An ISP is connected to two or more ISPs.

• Peering - Two ISPs at the same level in the hierarchy con-

nect with each other to facilitate the communication.

• Internet Exchange Point (IXP) - Facilitates connection

among ISPs.
Delay, Loss and Throughput
Types of Delay

• A packet encounters different types of delays between the

source and the destination.
• Processing Delay
• Queuing Delay
• Transmission Delay
• Propagation Delay

• Nodal delay - Sum of all above delays.

Processing Delay

• Time required to analyze the packet’s header and identify

where to direct the packet.

• Time to analyze packets for error checking etc.

Queuing Delay

• If the communication link is occupied,

• packet is kept in a buffer before it is transmitted.

• Time for which a packet remains in the buffer, waiting
to be transmitted, is known as the queuing delay.
Transmission Delay

• Transmission Delay - Time required to transmit all the bits

of the packet over a communication link.

• Example
• Packet size - L bits
• Transmission rate of the communication link - R bit-
s/second
• Transmission delay = packet size/transmission rate of
the communication link
Propagation Delay

• Time required for a bit to propagate through the commu-

nication link (from a node to the next node)

• Propagation speed of the communication link depends on

the type of the link. For example, twisted pair copper wire,
fiber optics, etc.

• Propagation speed ranges from 2 × 108 to 3 × 108 meter-

s/second (nearly equal to the speed of the light).

• Propagation delay (d/s) = Distance between two consec-

utive nodes (d)/ Propagation speed (m/s).
Nodal Delay

• Processing Delay - dproc

• Queuing Delay - dqueue

• Transmission Delay - dtrans

• Propagation Delay - dprop

• Total Nodal Delay

dnodal = dproc + dqueue + dtrans + dprop

Traffic Intensity

• Arrival rate of packets at the queue - a (packets/second)

• Packet size - L (bits)

• Transmission rate of communication link - R (bits/second)

• Traffic Intensity - La/R

Queuing Delay

• If La/R > 1, then the arrival rate of bits at the queue is

more than the transmission rate of the link. It will intro-
duce queuing delay, and it will increase infinitely.

• If La/R < 1, then the queuing delay depends on whether

packets are arriving at a regular interval or arriving in
bursts. If the arrival rate is L/R and transmission rate
is L/R, then there is no queuing delay.

• If the arrival rate is La/R where a > 1 and transmission

rate is L/R, then there is a queuing delay.
Packet Loss

• If the queue is full and the new packet will arrive at the
router, then the router will drop the packet.

• The dropped packets need to be re-transmitted by the

source.

• Animation: Queuing Delay

Traceroute

• Trace the route from the source to the destination.

• The Source forwards n special packets, numbered as 1 to

n, toward the destination where n − 1 is the number of
routers.

• When a router receives the special packet from source, it

sends the name and address as a response (to source).

• The source records the round trip delay, name and address
of the router.

• The source repeats the same procedure thrice.

Traceroute

• Output: Router number - Name of the router - IP address

of the router - Round trip delay (experiment 1) - Round
trip delay (experiment 2) - Round trip delay (experiment
3)

• Router name - If the router name shows *, it means there

is a packet loss in one or more of the experiments.

• Graphical Interface to Traceroute: PingPlotter

Throughput

• If we send a file form Host A to Host B, the rate at which

the Host B receives the file is known as instantaneous
throughput.

• Instantaneous throughput depends on the transmission rate

of bottleneck link.

• If we send L-bits file form Host A to Host B, and if it

takes T seconds to reach the Host B, then the average
throughput is L/T bits/seconds.
Instantaneous Throughput - Example
Instantaneous Throughput - Example

• What will be the throughput if we transfer a file from Host

A to Host B? min{RA , R1 }. Here, RA and R1 - Transmis-
sion rate of communication links.

• If the communication link is shared by multiple hosts,

throughput not only depends on the transmission rate of
the communication link, but also depends on the network
traffic.
Internet Protocol Stack
How would you describe an airline system?
How would you describe the Internet?
The Internet Protocol Stack

• Application Layer

• Transport Layer

• Network Layer

• Link Layer

• Physical Layer
The Internet Protocol Stack

• Each protocol is at a specific layer and provides a specific

service to the next layer.

• Protocols are implemented by hardware, software, or both.

The Internet Protocol Stack

• Application layer and transport layer protocols, such as

HTTP, FTP, and TCP, are implemented as software.

• Network layer protocols are implemented by combination

of hardware and software.

• Physical layer and data link layer protocols interact with the
hardware and have been implemented by network interface
card (i.e., Ethernet or WiFi Interface cards).
The Internet Protocol Stack - Layered Architecture

• Advantage

• Easy to update/upgrade

• Disadvantage

• Duplication of functionality
The Internet Protocol Stack - Example
Application Layer

• Different application layer protocols provide different ser-

vices. For example, HTTP facilitates web browsing.

• Examples: HTTP, FTP, SMTP, DNS

• Message: Data that the application layer communicates

with other layers.
Transport Layer

• Transport layer protocols are used to transport application

layer messages between application end-points.

• Examples: TCP and UDP

• Segments: Data that the transport layer communicates

with other layers.
Network Layer

• Network layer facilitates communication between hosts

through packet switches. Network layer includes routing
protocols to determine the routes.

• Examples: IP

• Datagrams: Data that the network layer communicates

with other layers.
Link Layer

• Link layer facilitates the communication from one node to

the other node.

• The network layer depends on the services provided by the

link layer to move a packet from the source to the desti-
nation.

• Examples: Ethernet, WiFi

• Frames: Data that the link layer communicates with other

layers.
Physical Layer

• Physical layer facilitates the actual communication of bits

from one node to the next.

• The protocols of physical layer vary with the physical com-

munication medium, e.g., a twisted pair cable or a fibre
optic cable.

• Bits: Data that the physical layer communicates with other

layers.
Encapsulation

• Internet Protocol Stack: Each layer encapsulates the data

of the layer above it.

• Hosts: Implement the entire protocol stack.

• Packet Switches: Do not implement entire protocol stack.

• Link layer switches implement physical layer and link

layer protocols.
• Routers implement network layer, link Layer, and
physical layer protocols.
Encapsulation

• At each layer of the protocol stack, a packet consists of

two fields.

• Payload: Data transported by the layer above a spe-

cific layer.
• Header: Data communicated with the specific layer in
the next node/destination.
Network Security
Do we need to secure the Internet? Why?
What are the vulnerabilities that make the Internet insecure?
Security Attacks

• Eavesdropping

• Traffic Analysis

• Masquerade

• Modifications of Messages

• Replay Attack

• Denial of Service Attack

History
History

• Packet Switching [Leonard Kleinrock, 1961]

• Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA)net - A com-

puter network that uses packet switching. [Lawrence
Roberts, 1967]

• Host-to-Host Network Control Protocol (NCP)

• E-mail Program [Ray Tomlinson , 1972]

History

• Internetting - A network of networks [Vinton Cerf and

Robert Kahn 1974]

• TCP/IP Protocol (Replacing NCP) [1983]

• Emergence of the world wide web application - Developed

HTML, HTTP, a web server, and a web browser [Berners-
Lee 1989]
Conclusions
Conclusions

• Internet Components

• Packet switching and circuit switching

• Delay (transmission, processing, queuing, propagation),

loss, throughput

• A protocol stack

• Network security

• History
Interesting Statistics
References
References

• James Kurose and Keith Ross, Computer Networking: A Top-Down

Approach - Textbook

• James Kurose, Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach -

Video Lectures

• Textbook Resources

• Internet Engineering Task Force

Thank You.