COMPUTER NETWORKS 21CS52

Module I: Introduction
1.0 Introduction
The merging of computers and communications has had a profound influence on the way
computer systems are organized. The once-dominant concept of the ‘‘computer center’’ as a
room with a large computer to which users bring their work for processing is now totally
obsolete. The old model of a single computer serving all the organization’s computational
needs has been replaced by one in which many separate but interconnected computers do
the job. These systems are called computer networks.
A computer network is an interconnected collection of autonomous computers. Two
computers are said to be interconnected if they can exchange information. The connection
need not be via a copper wire; fiber optics, microwaves, infrared, and communication
satellites can also be used. The below Figure 1.1 illustrates the basic concept of computer
networks.

Figure 1.1: Computer Networks with three clients and one server

1.1. Uses of Computer Networks

1.1.1. Business Applications
Resource sharing: The goal is to make all programs, equipment, and especially data available
to anyone on the network without regard to the physical location of the resource or the user.
An obvious and widespread example is having a group of office workers share a common
printer. However, probably even more important than sharing physical resources such as
printers, and tape backup systems, is sharing information. Most companies use computer
networks to share customer records, product information, inventories, financial statements,
tax information, and much more online.
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs): may be used to join the individual networks at different
sites into one extended network. In other words, the mere fact that a user happens to be
15,000 km away from his data should not prevent him from using the data as though they
were local.

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Client-Server Model: a company’s information system as consisting of one or more

databases with company information and some number of employees who need to access
them remotely. In this model, the data are stored on powerful computers called servers.
Often these are centrally housed and maintained by a system administrator. In contrast, the
employees have simpler machines, called clients, on their desks, with which they access
remote data. This whole arrangement is called the client-server model. It is widely used and
forms the basis of much network usage. The most popular realization is that of a Web
application, in which the server generates Web pages based on its database in response to
client requests that may update the database.
Communication medium: A computer network can provide a powerful communication
medium among employees. Virtually every company that has two or more computers now
has email (electronic mail), which employees generally use for a great deal of daily
communication.
IP telephony: Telephone calls between employees may be carried by the computer network
instead of by the phone company. This technology is called IP telephony or Voice over IP
(VoIP) when Internet technology is used.
Desktop sharing: it lets remote workers see and interact with a graphical computer screen.
This makes it easy for two or more people who work far apart to read and write a shared
black board or write a report together. When one worker makes a change to an online
document, the others can see the change immediately, instead of waiting several days for a
letter.
E-commerce: many companies doing business electronically, especially with customers and
suppliers. This new model is called e-commerce (electronic commerce) and it has grown
rapidly in recent years. Airlines, bookstores, and other retailers have discovered that many
customers like the convenience of shopping from home. Consequently, many companies
provide catalogs of their goods and services online and take orders online. Manufacturers of
automobiles, aircraft, and computers, among others, buy subsystems from a variety of
suppliers and then assemble the parts. Using computer networks, manufacturers can place
orders electronically as needed. This reduces the need for large inventories and enhances
efficiency. Some forms of e-commerce are listed in Table 1.1.
Table 1.1: Some forms of e-commerce

Tag Full name Example

B2C Business-to-consumer Ordering books online

B2B Business-to-business Car manufacturer ordering tires from supplier

G2C Government-to-consumer Government distributing tax forms

electronically
C2C Consumer-to-consumer Auctioning second-hand products online

P2P Peer-to-peer Music sharing

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1.1.2. Home Applications

Connectivity: Internet access provides home users with connectivity to remote computers.
As with companies, home users can access information, communicate with other people, and
buy products and services with e-commerce. Access to remote information comes in many
forms. It can be surfing the World Wide Web for information or just for fun. Information
available includes the arts, business, cooking, government, health, history, hobbies,
recreation, science, sports, travel, and many others. Many newspapers have gone online and
can be personalized. The next step beyond newspapers is the online digital library. Many
professional organizations, such as the ACM and the IEEE Computer Society, already have
all their journals and conference proceedings online. Electronic book readers and online
libraries may make printed books obsolete.
Peer-to-peer communication: In this form, individuals who form a loose group can
communicate with others in the group. Every person can, in principle, communicate with
one or more other people; there is no fixed division into clients and servers. Many peer-to-
peer systems, such BitTorrent, do not have any central database of content. Instead, each
user maintains his own database locally and provides a list of other nearby people who are
members of the system. A new user can then go to any existing member to see what he has
and get the names of other members to inspect for more content and more names. Peer-to-
peer communication is often used to share music and videos. It really hit the big time around
2000 with a music sharing service called Napster. Instant messenger’s such as WhatsApp,
Twitter, Telegram, WeChat, and Snapchat are example for peer-to-peer communication.
Social network applications: Between person-to-person communications and accessing
information are social network applications. Here, the flow of information is driven by the
relationships that people declare between each other. One of the most popular social
networking sites is Facebook. It lets people update their personal profiles and shares the
updates with other people who they have declared to be their friends. Similarly, Wikipedia,
an encyclopedia anyone can edit, but there are thousands of other wikis.
E-commerce: Home shopping is already popular and enables users to inspect the online
catalogs of thousands of companies. Some of these catalogs are interactive, showing
products from different viewpoints and in configurations that can be personalized. Another
area in which e-commerce is widely used is access to financial institutions. Many people
already pay their bills, manage their bank accounts, and handle their investments
electronically.
Entertainment: This has made huge strides in the home in recent years, with the distribution
of music, radio and television programs, and movies over the Internet beginning to rival that
of traditional mechanisms. Users can find, buy, and download MP3 songs and DVD-quality
movies and add them to their personal collection. TV shows now reach many homes via IPTV
(IP TeleVision) systems that are based on IP technology. Another form of entertainment is
game playing. Already we have multi person real-time simulation games, like hide-and-seek
in a virtual dungeon, and flight simulators with the players on one team trying to shoot down
the players on the opposing team.

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Ubiquitous computing: in which computing is embedded into everyday life. Many homes
are already wired with security systems that include door and window sensors, and there
are many more sensors that can be folded in to a smart home monitor, such as energy
consumption. Your electricity, gas and water meters could also report usage over the
network. And your smoke detectors could call the fire department instead of making a big
noise. Increasingly, consumer electronic devices are networked. For example, some high-
end cameras already have a wireless network capability and use it to send photos to a
nearby display for viewing. Professional sports photographers can also send their photos to
their editors in real-time. Devices such as televisions that plug into the wall can use power-
line networks to send information throughout the house over the wires that carry electricity.
A technology called RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tags are passive (i.e., have no
battery) chips the size of stamps and they can already be affixed to books, passports, pets,
credit cards, and other items in the home and out. This lets RFID readers locate and
communicate with the items over up to several meters, depending on the kind of RFID.

1.1.3. Mobile Users Applications

Connectivity: A connectivity to the Internet using wireless hotspots enables many of the
mobile users (Laptop, Mobile, and Handheld computers) to check their email, browse the
webpages, purchase, or sale products online (m-commerce), send text messages, chat with
friends, conduct or attend online meetings, watch live telecast etc. at siting in home, school,
college, cafes, hotels, airports, trains, and planes.
Global Positioning System (GPS): Since mobile phones know their locations, often because
they are equipped with GPS receivers, some services are intentionally location dependent.
Mobile maps and directions are an obvious candidate as your GPS-enabled phone and car
probably have a better idea of where you are than you do.
Near Field Communication (NFC): When equipped with NFC technology the mobile can act
as an RFID smartcard and interact with a nearby reader for payment. Contactless card
payment, FastTag, access authentication for doors or offices, ticket redemption at a concert
or theater, etc. are examples for NFC.
Sensor networks: are made up of nodes that gather and wirelessly relay information they
sense about the state of the physical world. The nodes may be part of familiar items such as
cars or phones, or they may be small separate devices. For example, your car might gather
data on its location, speed, vibration, and fuel efficiency from its on-board diagnostic system
and upload this information to a database. Those data can help find potholes, plan trips
around congested roads, and tell you if you are a ‘‘gas guzzler’’ compared to other drivers on
the same stretch of road.
Wearable computers: are another promising application. Smart watches with radios have
been part of our mental space since their appearance. Other such devices may be implanted,
such as pacemakers and insulin pumps. Some of these can be controlled over a wireless
network. This lets doctors test and reconfigure them more easily.

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1.2. Network Hardware

We can classify computer networks by transmission technology and scale. Broadly speaking,
there are two types of transmission technology that are in widespread use: broadcast links
and point-to-point links.
Point-to-point links connect individual pairs of machines. To go from the source to
the destination on a network made up of point-to-point links, short messages, called packets
in certain contexts, may have to first visit one or more intermediate machines. Often
multiple routes, of different lengths, are possible, so finding good ones is important in point-
to-point networks. Point-to-point transmission with exactly one sender and exactly one
receiver is sometimes called unicasting.
In contrast, on a broadcast network, the communication channel is shared by all the
machines on the network; packets sent by any machine are received by all the others. An
address field within each packet specifies the intended recipient. Upon receiving a packet, a
machine checks the address field. If the packet is intended for the receiving machine, that
machine processes the packet; if the packet is intended for some other machine, it is just
ignored. A wireless network is a common example of a broadcast link, with communication
shared over a coverage region that depends on the wireless channel and the transmitting
machine.
Broadcast systems usually also allow the possibility of addressing a packet to all
destinations by using a special code in the address field. When a packet with this code is
transmitted, it is received and processed by every machine on the network. This mode of
operation is called broadcasting. Some broadcast systems also support transmission to a
subset of the machines, which known as multicasting.
An alternative criterion for classifying networks is by scale. Distance is important as
a classification metric because different technologies are used at different scales. Table 1.2
illustrates classification of computer networks by scale.
Table 1.2: Classification of computer networks by scale

Interprocessor distance Processors located in same Example

1m Square meter Personal area network
10 m Room Local area network
100 m Building Local area network
1 km Campus Local area network
10 km City Metropolitan area network
100 km Country Wide area network
1000 km Continent Wide area network
10,000 km Planet Internet

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1.2.1. Personal Area Networks

PANs (Personal Area Networks) let devices communicate over the range of a person. A
common example is a wireless network that connects a computer with its peripherals. A
short-range wireless network called Bluetooth connects a computer with its peripherals. In
the simplest form, Bluetooth networks use the master-slave paradigm. The PC is normally
the master, talking to the mouse, keyboard, etc., as slaves. It is often used to connect a
headset to a mobile phone without cords and it can allow your digital music player to
connect to your car merely being brought within range. A completely different kind of PAN
is formed when an embedded medical device such as a pacemaker, insulin pump, or hearing
aid talks to a user-operated remote control. PANs can also be built with other technologies
that communicate over short ranges, such as RFID on smartcards and library books. Figure
1.2 illustrates Bluetooth PAN configuration.

Figure 1.2: Bluetooth PAN configuration

1.2.2. Local Area Networks

LAN (Local Area Network) is a privately owned network that operates within and nearby a
single building like a home, office, or factory. LANs are widely used to connect personal
computers and consumer electronics to let them share resources (e.g., printers) and
exchange information. When LANs are used by companies, they are called enterprise
networks.
LANs are classified into two category Wired LAN and Wireless LAN. In Wireless LAN,
every computer has a radio modem and an antenna that it uses to communicate with other
computers. In most cases, each computer talks to a device in the ceiling called an AP (Access
Point), wireless router, or base station. There is a standard for wireless LANs called IEEE
802.11, popularly known as WiFi, which has become very widespread. It runs at speeds
anywhere from 11 to hundreds of Mbps.
Wired LANs use a range of different transmission technologies. Most of them use
copper wires, but some use optical fiber. Typically, wired LANs run at speeds of 100 Mbps
to 1 Gbps, have low delay (microseconds or nanoseconds), and make very few errors. The
topology of many wired LANs is built from point-to-point links. IEEE 802.3, popularly called
Ethernet, is, by far, the most common type of wired LAN. Figure 1.3 illustrates wired and
wireless LAN.

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Figure 1.3: Wireless LAN and wired LAN

1.2.3. Metropolitan Area Networks

A MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) covers a city. The best-known examples of MANs are
the cable television networks available in many cities. When the Internet began, the cable
TV system began to morph from simply a way to distribute television to a metropolitan area
network. Cable television is not the only MAN, though. Recent developments in high-speed
wireless Internet access have resulted in another MAN, which has been standardized as IEEE
802.16 and is popularly known as WiMAX. Figure 1.4 illustrates metropolitan area network
based on cable TV.

Figure 1.4: MAN based on cable TV

1.2.4. Wide Area Networks

A WAN (Wide Area Network) spans a large geographical area, often a country or continent.
We will begin our discussion with wired WANs, using the example of a company with branch
offices in different cities.
The WAN in Figure 1.5 is a network that connects offices in Perth, Melbourne, and
Brisbane. Each of these offices contains computers intended for running user programs.
These machines are called hosts. The rest of the network is called communication subnet, or
just subnet for short. The job of the subnet is to carry messages from host to host.

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Figure 1.5: WAN that connects three branch offices in Australia

In most WANs, the subnet consists of two distinct components: transmission lines
and switching elements. Transmission lines move bits between machines. They can be made
of copper wire, optical fiber, or even radio links. Most companies do not have transmission
lines lying about, so instead they lease the lines from a telecommunications company.
Switching elements or just switches, are specialized computers that connect two or more
transmission lines. When data arrive on an incoming line, the switching element must
choose an outgoing line on which to forward them. These switching computers have been
called by various names in the past; the name router is now most used.
Usually in a WAN, the hosts and subnet are owned and operated by different people.
In this example, the employees might be responsible for their own computers, while the
company’s IT department oversees the rest of the network. The routers will usually connect
different kinds of networking technology. The networks inside the offices may be switched
Ethernet, for example, while the long-distance transmission lines may be SONET links. This
means that many WANs will in fact be internetworks, or composite networks that are made
up of more than one network.
Rather than lease dedicated transmission lines, a company might connect its offices
to the Internet. This allows connections to be made between the offices as virtual links. This
arrangement is called a VPN (Virtual Private Network). Compared to the dedicated
arrangement, a VPN has the usual advantage of virtualization, which is that it provides
flexible reuse of a resource (Internet connectivity). A VPN also has the usual disadvantage
of virtualization, which is a lack of control over the underlying resources. Figure 1.6
illustrates WAN using a virtual private network.
The subnet may be run by a different company. The subnet operator is known as a
network service provider and the offices are its customers. The subnet operator will connect
to other customers too, if they can pay and it can provide service.
Since it would be a disappointing network service if the customers could only send
packets to each other, the subnet operator will also connect to other networks that are part
of the Internet. Such a subnet operator is called an ISP (Internet Service Provider) and the
subnet is an ISP network. Its customers who connect to the ISP receive Internet service.
Figure 1.7 illustrates WAN using an ISP network.
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Figure 1.6: WAN using a virtual private network

Figure 1.7: WAN using an ISP network

In most WANs, the network contains many transmission lines, each connecting a pair
of routers. If two routers that do not share a transmission line wish to communicate, they
must do this indirectly, via other routers. There may be many paths in the network that
connect these two routers. How the network makes the decision as to which path to use is
called the routing algorithm. Many such algorithms exist. How each router makes the
decision as to where to send a packet next is called the forwarding algorithm.

1.2.5. Internetworks
Many networks exist in the world, often with different hardware and software. People
connected to one network often want to communicate with people attached to a different
one. The fulfillment of this desire requires that different, and frequently incompatible,
networks be connected. A collection of interconnected networks is called an internetwork
or internet. A collection of interconnected networks of networks is called an Internetwork
or Internet.
The general name for a machine that makes a connection between two or more
networks and provides the necessary translation, both in terms of hardware and software,
is a gateway.

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1.3. Network Software

1.3.1. Protocol Hierarchies
To reduce their design complexity, most networks are organized as a stack of layers or
levels, each one built upon the one below it. The purpose of each layer is to offer certain
services to the higher layers while shielding those layers from the details of how the offered
services are implemented.
When layer n on one machine carries on a conversation with layer n on another
machine, the rules and conventions used in this conversation are collectively known as the
layer n protocol. Basically, a protocol is an agreement between the communicating parties
on how communication is to proceed. Violating the protocol will make communication more
difficult, if not completely impossible. Five-layer network is illustrated in Figure 1.8. The
entities comprising the corresponding layers on different machines are called peers. The
peers may be software processes, hardware devices, or even human beings. In other words,
it is the peers that communicate by using the protocol to talk to each other.
No data are directly transferred from layer n on one machine to layer n on another
machine. Instead, each layer passes data and control information to the layer immediately
below it, until the lowest layer is reached. Below layer 1 is the physical medium through
which actual communication occurs. Between each pair of adjacent layers is an interface.
The interface defines which primitive operations and services the lower layer makes
available to the upper one.

Figure 1.8: Layers, Protocols, and Interfaces

A set of layers and protocols is called a network architecture. The specification of an

architecture must contain enough information to allow an implementer to write the
program or build the hardware for each layer so that it will correctly obey the appropriate
protocol. Neither the details of the implementation nor the specification of the interfaces is
part of the architecture because these are hidden away inside the machines and not visible
from the outside. A list of the protocols used by a certain system, one protocol per layer, is
called a protocol stack.
Example: how to provide communication to the top layer of the five-layer network.

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A message, M, is produced by an application process running in layer 5 and given to

layer 4 for transmission. Layer 4 puts a header in front of the message to identify the
message and passes the result to layer 3. The header includes control information, such as
addresses, sequence numbers, sizes, and times.
In many networks, no limit is placed on the size of messages transmitted in the layer
4 protocol but there is nearly always a limit imposed by the layer 3 protocol. Consequently,
layer 3 must break up the incoming messages into smaller units, packets, prepending a layer
3 header to each packet.
Layer 3 decides which of the outgoing lines to use and passes the packets to layer 2.
Layer 2 adds to each piece not only a header but also a trailer, and gives the resulting unit
to layer 1 for physical transmission. At the receiving machine the message moves upward,
from layer to layer, with headers being stripped off as it progresses.
Figure 1.9 illustrates the relation between the virtual and actual communication and
the difference between protocols and interfaces. The peer processes in layer 4, for example,
conceptually think of their communication as being ‘‘horizontal,’’ using the layer 4 protocol.
Each one is likely to have procedures called something like SendToOtherSide and
GetFromOtherSide, even though these procedures communicate with lower layers across
the 3/4 interface, and not with the other side.

Figure 1.9: Example information flow supporting virtual communication in layer 5

1.3.2. Design Issues for the Layers

Reliability: is the design issue of making a network that operates correctly even though it is
made up of a collection of components that are themselves unreliable. One mechanism for
finding errors in received information uses codes for error detection. More powerful codes
allow for error correction, where the correct message is recovered from the possibly
incorrect bits that were originally received. Both mechanisms work by adding redundant
information. They are used at low layers, to protect packets sent over individual links, and
high layers, to check that the right contents were received.

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Another reliability issue is finding a working path through a network. Often there are
multiple paths between a source and destination, and in a large network, there may be some
links or routers that are broken. Suppose that the network is down in Germany. Packets sent
from London to Rome via Germany will not get through, but we could instead send packets
from London to Rome via Paris. The network should automatically make this decision. This
topic is called routing.
Evolution of the network: Over time, networks grow larger and new designs emerge that
need to be connected to the existing network. We have recently seen the key structuring
mechanism used to support change by dividing the overall problem and hiding
implementation details: protocol layering.
Since there are many computers on the network, every layer needs a mechanism for
identifying the senders and receivers that are involved in a particular message. This
mechanism is called addressing or naming, in the low and high layers, respectively.
An aspect of growth is that different network technologies often have different
limitations. For example, not all communication channels preserve the order of messages
sent on them, leading to solutions that number messages. Another example is differences in
the maximum size of a message that the networks can transmit. This leads to mechanisms
for disassembling, transmitting, and then reassembling messages. This overall topic is called
internetworking.
When networks get large, new problems arise. Cities can have traffic jams, a shortage
of telephone numbers, and it is easy to get lost. Not many people have these problems in
their own neighborhood, but citywide they may be a big issue. Designs that continue to work
well when the network gets large are said to be scalable.
Resource allocation: Networks provide a service to hosts from their underlying resources,
such as the capacity of transmission lines. Many designs share network bandwidth
dynamically, according to the short-term needs of hosts, rather than by giving each host a
fixed fraction of the bandwidth that it may or may not use. This design is called statistical
multiplexing, meaning sharing based on the statistics of demand.
An allocation problem that occurs at every level is how to keep a fast sender from
swamping a slow receiver with data. Feedback from the receiver to the sender is often used.
This subject is called flow control. Sometimes the problem is that the network is
oversubscribed because too many computers want to send too much traffic, and the network
cannot deliver it all. This overloading of the network is called congestion. Most networks
must provide service to applications that want this real-time delivery while they provide
service to applications that want high throughput. Quality of service is the name given to
mechanisms that reconcile these competing demands.
Secure the network: defending it against different kinds of threats. One of the threats we
have mentioned previously is that of eavesdropping on communications. Mechanisms that
provide confidentiality defend against this threat, and they are used in multiple layers.
Mechanisms for authentication prevent someone from impersonating someone else. They
might be used to tell fake banking Web sites from the real one, or to let the cellular network
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check that a call is really coming from your phone so that you will pay the bill. Other
mechanisms for integrity prevent surreptitious changes to messages, such as altering ‘‘debit
my account $10’’ to ‘‘debit my account $1000.’’

1.3.3. Connection-Oriented Versus Connectionless Service

Connection-oriented service is modeled after the telephone system. To use a connection-
oriented network service, the service user first establishes a connection, uses the
connection, and then releases the connection. The essential aspect of a connection is that it
acts like a tube: the sender pushes objects (bits) in at one end, and the receiver takes them
out at the other end. In most cases the order is preserved so that the bits arrive in the order
they were sent. In some cases when a connection is established, the sender, receiver, and
subnet conduct a negotiation about the parameters to be used, such as maximum message
size, quality of service required, and other issues. Typically, one side makes a proposal and
the other side can accept it, reject it, or make a counter-proposal. A circuit is another name
for a connection with associated resources, such as a fixed bandwidth.
In contrast to connection-oriented service, connectionless service is modeled after
the postal system. Each message (letter) carries the full destination address, and each one
is routed through the intermediate nodes inside the system independent of all the
subsequent messages. When the intermediate nodes receive a message in full before sending
it on to the next node, this is called store-and-forward switching. The alternative, in which
the onward transmission of a message at a node starts before it is completely received by
the node, is called cut-through switching.
Some services are reliable in the sense that they never lose data. Usually, a reliable
service is implemented by having the receiver acknowledge the receipt of each message. So,
the sender is sure that it arrived. A typical situation in which a reliable connection-oriented
service is appropriate is file transfer. The owner of the file wants to be sure that all the bits
arrive correctly and in the same order they were sent.
Reliable connection-oriented service has two minor variations: message sequences
and byte streams. In the former variant, the message boundaries are preserved. When two
1024-byte messages are sent, they arrive as two distinct 1024-byte messages, never as one
2048-byte message. In the latter, the connection is simply a stream of bytes, with no message
boundaries. When 2048 bytes arrive at the receiver, there is no way to tell if they were sent
as one 2048-byte message, two 1024-byte messages, or 2048 1-byte messages. If the pages
of a book are sent over a network to a phototypesetter as separate messages, it might be
important to preserve the message boundaries. On the other hand, to download a DVD
movie, a byte stream from the server to the user’s computer is all that is needed.
Unreliable (meaning not acknowledged) connectionless service is often called
datagram service, in analogy with telegram service, which also does not return an
acknowledgement to the sender. In other situations, the convenience of not having to
establish a connection to send one message is desired, but reliability is essential. The
acknowledged datagram service can be provided for these applications. It is like sending a
registered letter and requesting a return receipt.

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In the request-reply service, the sender transmits a single datagram containing a

request; the reply contains the answer. Request-reply is commonly used to implement
communication in the client-server model: the client issues a request and the server
responds to it. For example, a mobile phone client might send a query to a map server to
retrieve the map data for the current location. Table 1.3 summarizes these services.
Table 1.3: Connection-oriented and connection-less services

Service Example
Reliable message stream Sequence of pages
Connection-oriented
Reliable byte stream Movie download
Unreliable connection Voice over IP
Unreliable datagram Electronic junk mail
Connection-less Acknowledged datagram Text messaging
Request-reply Database query

1.3.4. Service Primitives

A service is formally specified by a set of primitives (operations) available to user processes
to access the service. These primitives tell the service to perform some action or report on
an action taken by a peer entity. The set of primitives available depends on the nature of the
service being provided. The primitives for connection-oriented service are different from
those of connectionless service. As a minimal example of the service primitives that might
provide a reliable byte stream, consider the primitives listed in Table 1.4.
Table 1.4: Connection-oriented service primitives

Primitive Meaning

LISTEN Block waiting for an incoming connection

CONNECT Establish a connection with a waiting peer

ACCEPT Accept an incoming connection from a peer

RECEIVE Block waiting for an incoming message

SEND Send a message to the peer

DISCONNECT Terminate a connection

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1.3.5. The Relationship of Services to Protocols

A service is a set of primitives (operations) that a layer provides to the layer above it. The
service defines what operations the layer is prepared to perform on behalf of its users, but
it says nothing at all about how these operations are implemented. A service relates to an
interface between two layers, with the lower layer being the service provider and the upper
layer being the service user.
A protocol, in contrast, is a set of rules governing the format and meaning of the
packets, or messages that are exchanged by the peer entities within a layer. Entities use
protocols to implement their service definitions.
Services relate to the interfaces between layers. In contrast, protocols relate to the
packets sent between peer entities on different machines. A service is like an abstract data
type or an object in an object-oriented language. It defines operations that can be performed
on an object but does not specify how these operations are implemented. In contrast, a
protocol relates to the implementation of the service and as such is not visible to the user of
the service. Figure 1.10 illustrates the relationship between protocol and service.

Figure 1.10: The relationship between protocol and service

1.4. Reference Models

1.4.1. The OSI Reference Model
The OSI model is shown in Figure 1.11. This model is based on a proposal developed by the
International Standards Organization (ISO) as a first step toward international
standardization of the protocols used in the various layers. It was revised in 1995. The model
is called the ISO OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) Reference Model because it deals with
connecting open systems—that is, systems that are open for communication with other
systems.
The OSI model has seven layers. The principles that were applied to arrive at the
seven layers can be briefly summarized as follows:
1. A layer should be created where a different abstraction is needed.
2. Each layer should perform a well-defined function.

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3. The function of each layer should be chosen with an eye toward defining
internationally standardized protocols.
4. The layer boundaries should be chosen to minimize the information flow across the
interfaces.
5. The number of layers should be large enough that distinct functions need not be
thrown together in the same layer out of necessity and small enough that the
architecture does not become unwieldy.

Figure 1.11: The OSI reference model

Physical Layer: the physical layer is concerned with transmitting raw bits over a
communication channel.
Design Issues
 When one side sends a 1 bit it is received by the other side as a 1 bit, not as a 0 bit,
 What electrical signals should be used to represent a 1 and a 0,
 How many nanoseconds a bit last,
 Whether transmission may proceed simultaneously in both directions,
 How the initial connection is established, how it is torn down when both sides are
finished.
Data Link Layer: The main task of the data link layer is to transform a raw transmission
facility into a line that appears free of undetected transmission errors
Design Issues
 Masking the real errors (It accomplishes this task by having the sender break up the
input data into data frames and transmit the frames sequentially)
 How to keep a fast transmitter from drowning a slow receiver in data (traffic
regulation mechanism)

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 In the case of Broadcast networks, how to control access to the shared channel
(medium access control sublayer)
Network Layer: The network layer controls the operation of the subnet.
Design Issues
 Determining how packets are routed from source to destination (static tables).
 Handling congestion (inform higher layers to reduce the load).
 The quality of service provided (delay, transit time, jitter, etc.) is also a network layer
issue.
 Heterogeneous networks to be interconnected.
 In broadcast networks, the routing problem is simple, so the network layer is often
thin or even nonexistent.
Transport Layer: The basic function of the transport layer is to accept data from above it,
split it up into smaller units, if need be, pass these to the network layer, and ensure that the
pieces all arrive correctly at the other end.
Design Issues
 Determining what type of service to provide to the session layer, and, ultimately, to
the users of the network.
 Providing true end-to-end layer service; it carries data all the way from the source to
the destination. In the lower layers, each protocol is between a machine and its
immediate neighbors, and not between the ultimate source and destination
machines, which may be separated by many routers.
Session Layer: The session layer allows users on different machines to establish sessions
between them.
Design Issues
 Dialog control (keeping track of whose turn it is to transmit),
 Token management (preventing two parties from attempting the same critical
operation simultaneously),
 Synchronization (checkpointing long transmissions to allow them to pick up from
where they left off in the event of a crash and subsequent recovery).
Presentation Layer: Unlike the lower layers, which are mostly concerned with moving bits
around, the presentation layer is concerned with the syntax and semantics of the
information transmitted.
Design Issue
 To make it possible for computers with different internal data representations to
communicate, the data structures to be exchanged can be defined in an abstract way,
along with a standard encoding to be used ‘‘on the wire.’’ The presentation layer
manages these abstract data structures and allows higher-level data structures (e.g.,
banking records) to be defined and exchanged.

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Application Layer: The application layer contains a variety of protocols that are commonly
needed by users. One widely used application protocol is HTTP (HyperText Transfer
Protocol), which is the basis for the World Wide Web. When a browser wants a Web page, it
sends the name of the page it wants to the server hosting the page using HTTP. The server
then sends the page back. Other application protocols are used for file transfer, electronic
mail, and network news.

1.4.2. The TCP/IP Reference Model

Let us now turn from the OSI reference model to the reference model used in the
grandparent of all wide area computer networks, the ARPANET, and its successor, the
worldwide Internet.
The ARPANET was a research network sponsored by the DoD (U.S. Department of
Defense). It eventually connected hundreds of universities and government installations,
using leased telephone lines. When satellite and radio networks were added later, the
existing protocols had trouble interworking with them, so a new reference architecture was
needed. This new architecture later became known as the TCP/IP Reference Model, after its
two primary protocols. It was first described by Cerf and Kahn (1974), and later refined and
defined as a standard in the Internet community. The TCP/IP model is shown in Figure 1.12.
It has only four layers.

Figure 1.12: TCP/IP Reference Model

Link Layer: The lowest layer in the model, the link layer describes what links such as serial
lines and classic Ethernet must do to meet the needs of this connectionless internet layer. It
is not really a layer at all, in the normal sense of the term, but rather an interface between
hosts and transmission links.
Internet layer: it is the linchpin that holds the whole architecture together. Its job is to
permit hosts to inject packets into any network and have them travel independently to the
destination (potentially on a different network). They may even arrive in a completely
different order than they were sent, in which case it is the job of higher layers to rearrange
them, if in-order delivery is desired.
The internet layer defines an official packet format and protocol called IP (Internet
Protocol), plus a companion protocol called ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) that

18 Dr. Lokanna Kadakolmath, Assistant Professor, Dept. of ISE, Acharya Institute of Technology
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helps it function. The job of the internet layer is to deliver IP packets where they are
supposed to go.
Internet Layer: The layer above the internet layer in the TCP/IP model is now usually called
the transport layer. It is designed to allow peer entities on the source and destination hosts
to carry on a conversation. Two end-to-end transport protocols have been defined here. The
first one, TCP (Transmission Control Protocol). Few unique features of TCP are listed below.
 Is a reliable connection-oriented protocol.
 It segments the incoming byte stream into discrete messages and passes each one on
to the internet layer (Segmentation).
 At the destination, the receiving TCP process reassembles the received messages into
the output stream (Reassembling).
 TCP also handles flow control.
The second protocol in this layer, UDP (User Datagram Protocol). It is an unreliable,
connectionless protocol. It is also widely used for one-shot, client-server-type request-
reply queries and applications in which prompt delivery is more important than accurate
delivery, such as transmitting speech or video.
The TCP/IP model does not have session or presentation layers. No need for them was
perceived. Instead, applications simply include any session and presentation functions that
they require.
Application Layer: On top of the transport layer is the application layer. It contains all the
higher-level protocols. The early ones included virtual terminal (TELNET), file transfer
(FTP), and electronic mail (SMTP). Many other protocols have been added to these over the
years. Figure 1.13 shows the protocols used in TCP/IP model.

Figure 1.13: Protocols used in TCP/IP model

1.5. Guided Transmission Media

The purpose of the physical layer is to transport bits from one machine to another. Various
physical media can be used for the actual transmission. Each one has its own role in terms
of bandwidth, delay, cost, and ease of installation and maintenance. Media are roughly
grouped into guided media, such as copper wire and fiber optics, and unguided media, such
as terrestrial wireless, satellite, and lasers through the air.

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1.5.1. Magnetic Media

One of the most common ways to transport data from one computer to another is to write
them onto magnetic tape or removable media (e.g., recordable DVDs), physically transport
the tape or disks to the destination machine, and read them back in again. Although this
method is not as sophisticated as using a geosynchronous communication satellite, it is often
more cost effective, especially for applications in which high bandwidth or cost per bit
transported is the key factor.
1.5.2. Twisted Pairs
A twisted pair consists of two insulated copper wires, typically about 1 mm thick. The wires
are twisted together in a helical form, just like a DNA molecule. Twisting is done because
two parallel wires constitute a fine antenna. When the wires are twisted, the waves from
different twists cancel out, so the wire radiates less effectively. A signal is usually carried as
the difference in voltage between the two wires in the pair. This provides better immunity
to external noise because the noise tends to affect both wires the same, leaving the
differential unchanged. The most common application of the twisted pair is the telephone
system. Figure 1.14 shows the twisted pair cable.
Twisted pairs can run several kilometers without amplification, but for longer
distances the signal becomes too attenuated and repeaters are needed. Twisted pairs can be
used for transmitting either analog or digital information. The bandwidth depends on the
thickness of the wire and the distance traveled, but several megabits/sec can be achieved
for a few kilometers in many cases.
Twisted-pair cabling comes in several varieties. The garden variety deployed in many
office buildings is called Category 5 cabling, or ‘‘Cat 5.’’ A category 5 twisted pair consists of
two insulated wires gently twisted together. Four such pairs are typically grouped in a
plastic sheath to protect the wires and keep them together.
Cat 5 replaced earlier Category 3 cables with a similar cable that uses the same
connector, but has more twists per meter. More twists result in less crosstalk and a better-
quality signal over longer distances, making the cables more suitable for high-speed
computer communication, especially 100-Mbps and 1-Gbps Ethernet LANs.
New wiring is more likely to be Category 6 or even Category 7. These categories have
more stringent specifications to handle signals with greater bandwidths. Some cables in
Category 6 and above are rated for signals of 500 MHz and can support the 10-Gbps links
that will soon be deployed. Through Category 6, these wiring types are referred to as UTP
(Unshielded Twisted Pair) as they consist simply of wires and insulators.
Some general terminology is now in order. Links that can be used in both directions
at the same time, like a two-lane road, are called full-duplex links. In contrast, links that can
be used in either direction, but only one way at a time, like a single-track railroad line. are
called half-duplex links. A third category consists of links that allow traffic in only one
direction, like a one-way street. They are called simplex links.

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Figure 1.14: Twisted pairs

1.5.3. Coaxial Cable

Another common transmission medium is the coaxial cable. It has better shielding and
greater bandwidth than unshielded twisted pairs, so it can span longer distances at higher
speeds.
Two kinds of coaxial cable are widely used. One kind, 50-ohm cable, is commonly
used when it is intended for digital transmission from the start. The other kind, 75-ohm
cable, is commonly used for analog transmission and cable television.
A coaxial cable consists of a stiff copper wire as the core, surrounded by an insulating
material. The insulator is encased by a cylindrical conductor, often as a closely woven
braided mesh. The outer conductor is covered in a protective plastic sheath. Figure 1.15
shows the coaxial cable.

Figure 1.15: Coaxial cable

1.5.4. Power Lines

Power lines deliver electrical power to houses, and electrical wiring within houses
distributes the power to electrical outlets. The use of power lines for data communication is
an old idea. Power lines have been used by electricity companies for low-rate
communication such as remote metering for many years, as well in the home to control
devices. In recent years there has been renewed interest in high-rate communication over
these lines, both inside the home as a LAN and outside the home for broadband Internet
access.
Simply plug a TV and a receiver into the wall, which you must do anyway because
they need power, and they can send and receive movies over the electrical wiring. The data

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signal is superimposed on the low-frequency power signal as both signals use the wiring at
the same time. Figure 1.16 shows the power lines.

Figure 1.16: Power Lines

Drawbacks
 It was designed to distribute power signals.
 Electrical signals are sent at 50–60 Hz and the wiring attenuates the much higher
frequency (MHz) signals needed for high-rate data communication.
 The electrical properties of the wiring vary from one house to the next and change as
appliances are turned on and off, which causes data signals to bounce around the
wiring.
 Transient currents when appliances switch on and off create electrical noise over a
wide range of frequencies.

1.5.5. Fiber Optics

Fiber optic cables are like coax, except without the braid. Below Figure 1.17 (a) shows a
single fiber viewed from the side. At the center is the glass core through which the light
propagates. In multimode fibers, the core is typically 50 microns in diameter, about the
thickness of a human hair. In single-mode fibers, the core is 8 to 10 microns.
The core is surrounded by a glass cladding with a lower index of refraction than the
core, to keep all the light in the core. Next comes a thin plastic jacket to protect the cladding.
Fibers are typically grouped in bundles, protected by an outer sheath. Below Figure 1.17 (b)
shows a sheath with three fibers.

Figure 1.17: (a) Side view of a single fiber. (b) End view of a sheath with three fibers

22 Dr. Lokanna Kadakolmath, Assistant Professor, Dept. of ISE, Acharya Institute of Technology
COMPUTER NETWORKS 21CS52

Advantages

 It can handle much higher bandwidths than copper.

 Due to the low attenuation, repeaters are needed only about every 50 km on long
lines, versus about every 5 km for copper.
 Not being affected by power surges, electromagnetic interference, or power
failures.
 It is thin and lightweight.
 Finally, fibers do not leak light and are difficult to tap.

Disadvantages

 Fiber is a less familiar technology requiring skills not all engineers have.
 Fibers can be damaged easily by being bent too much.
 Since optical transmission is inherently unidirectional, two-way communication
requires either two fibers or two frequency bands on one fiber.
 Finally, fiber interfaces cost more than electrical interfaces.

1.6. Wireless Transmission

1.6.1. Electromagnetic Spectrum
When electrons move, they create electromagnetic waves that can propagate through space
(even in a vacuum). These waves were predicted by the British physicist James Clerk
Maxwell in 1865 and first observed by the German physicist Heinrich Hertz in 1887. The
number of oscillations per second of a wave is called its frequency, f, and is measured in Hz.
The distance between two consecutive maxima (or minima) is called the wavelength, which
is universally designated by the Greek letter λ (lambda). When an antenna of the
appropriate size is attached to an electrical circuit, the electromagnetic waves can be
broadcast efficiently and received by a receiver some distance away. All wireless
communication is based on this principle.

However, in some cases, a wider band is used, with three variations. In frequency
hopping spread spectrum, the transmitter hops from frequency-to-frequency hundreds of
times per second. It is popular for military communication because it makes transmissions
hard to detect and next to impossible to jam. It also offers good resistance to multipath
fading and narrowband interference because the receiver will not be stuck on an impaired
frequency for long enough to shut down communication. This technique is used
commercially, for example, in Bluetooth and older versions of 802.11.

A second form of spread spectrum, direct sequence spread spectrum, uses a code
sequence to spread the data signal over a wider frequency band. It is widely used
commercially as a spectrally efficient way to let multiple signals share the same frequency
band. These signals can be given different codes, a method called CDMA (Code Division
Multiple Access). It forms the basis of 3G mobile phone networks and is also used in GPS
(Global Positioning System). It is used in older 802.11b wireless LANs.

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A third method of communication with a wider band is UWB (UltraWideBand)

communication. UWB sends a series of rapid pulses, varying their positions to communicate
information. The rapid transitions lead to a signal that is spread thinly over a very wide
frequency band. UWB is defined as signals that have a bandwidth of at least 500 MHz or at
least 20% of the center frequency of their frequency band. With this much bandwidth, UWB
has the potential to communicate at high rates. This peaceful coexistence has led to its
application in wireless PANs that run at up to 1 Gbps.

1.6.2. Radio Transmission

Radio frequency (RF) waves are easy to generate, can travel long distances, and can
penetrate buildings easily, so they are widely used for communication, both indoors and
outdoors. Radio waves also are omnidirectional, meaning that they travel in all directions
from the source, so the transmitter and receiver do not have to be carefully aligned
physically. The properties of radio waves are frequency dependent.

At low frequencies, radio waves pass through obstacles well, but the power falls off
sharply with distance from the source—at least as fast as 1/r2 in air—as the signal energy is
spread more thinly over a larger surface. This attenuation is called path loss.

At high frequencies, radio waves tend to travel in straight lines and bounce off obstacles.
Path loss still reduces power, though the received signal can depend strongly on reflections
as well.

1.6.3. Microwave Transmission

Above 100 MHz, the waves travel in nearly straight lines and can therefore be narrowly
focused. Concentrating all the energy into a small beam by means of a parabolic antenna
(like the familiar satellite TV dish) gives a much higher signal-to-noise ratio, but the
transmitting and receiving antennas must be accurately aligned with each other.

In addition, this directionality allows multiple transmitters lined up in a row to

communicate with multiple receivers in a row without interference, provided some
minimum spacing rules are observed. Before fiber optics, for decades these microwaves
formed the heart of the long-distance telephone transmission system.

1.6.4. Infrared Transmission

Unguided infrared waves are widely used for short-range communication. The remote
controls used for televisions, VCRs, and stereos all use infrared communication. They are
relatively directional, cheap, and easy to build but have a major drawback: they do not pass
through solid objects. Security of infrared systems against eavesdropping is better than that
of radio systems. Therefore, no government license is needed to operate an infrared system.
Infrared communication has a limited use on the desktop, for example, to connect notebook
computers and printers with the IrDA (Infrared Data Association) standard, but it is not a
major player in the communication game.

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1.6.5. Light Transmission

Unguided optical signaling or free-space optics has been in use for centuries. A more modern
application is to connect the LANs in two buildings via lasers mounted on their rooftops.
Optical signaling using lasers is inherently unidirectional, so each end needs its own laser
and its own photodetector. This scheme offers very high bandwidth at very low cost and is
relatively secure because it is difficult to tap a narrow laser beam. It is also relatively easy to
install and, unlike microwave transmission, does not require an FCC license. To add to the
difficulty, wind and temperature changes can distort the beam and laser beams also cannot
penetrate rain or thick fog, although they normally work well on sunny days.

25 Dr. Lokanna Kadakolmath, Assistant Professor, Dept. of ISE, Acharya Institute of Technology