Networks Basics

1
Network Layer

Network Layer
Network Layer is primarily designed to move data from one local
network to another local network within an internetwork.
Upon completion of this module, the students should be able to:
1. Classify the hardware requirements of a network
2. Define the functions of the Network Layer

Network Layer
Network Layer Defined
The Network Layer is responsible for packet forwarding including
routing. It provides services to exchange the individual pieces of data
over the network between identified end devices.

Routing and Packet Forwarding

What is a router?
It is a networking device that forwards data packets between computer
networks. It performs the traffic directing functions on the Internet.
Internet relies on data packet which is typically conveyed from one
router to another router through the networks that builds-up
the internetwork until it reaches its recipient.
A router is connected to two or more data lines from different
networks. When a data packet comes in on one of the lines, the router
reads the address information in the packet to determine the ultimate
destination. Then, using information in its routing table or routing
policy, it directs the packet to the next network on its journey. This
creates an overlay internetwork.
Routers are computers. It has IP address which serves as a pathway
finder because router selects the best path on which even located at
different networks, it can still communicate thanks to the capabilities of
the router.

Course Module
Types of Router
The following are the different types of routers.
a. Home and Small Office routers
The most familiar type of routers is home and small office routers that
simply pass IP packets between the home computers and the Internet.
An example of a router would be the owner's cable or DSL router, which
connects to the Internet through anInternet service provider (ISP).

b. Enterprise Routers
These are more sophisticated routers which connect large business or
ISP networks up to the powerful core routers that forward data at high
speed along the optical fiber lines of the Internet backbone. Though
routers are typically dedicated hardware devices, software-based
routers also exist.

Figure 1.0 Typical Home or DSL router

Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Router_(computing)#/media/File:Adsl_connection
s.jpg

What is Routing?
It is the process of selecting the best path for traffic in a network, or
between or across multiple networks.
Routing is performed for many types of networks, including circuit-
switched networks, such as the public switched telephone
network (PSTN), computer networks, such as the Internet, as well as in
networks used in public and private transportation, such as the system
of streets, roads, and highways in national infrastructure.
In packet switching networks, routing is the higher-level decision
making that directs network packets from their source toward their
destination through intermediate network nodes by specific packet
forwarding mechanisms.

What is Packet Forwarding?

 Networks Basics
3
Network Layer

Packet forwarding is the transit of logically addressed network packets

from one network interface to another.
The Network Hardware Devices or Intermediate Nodes
a. Routers
b. Bridges
c. Gateways
d. Firewalls or Switches.
General-purpose computers also forward packets and perform routing,
although they have no specially optimized hardware for the task. The
routing process usually directs forwarding on the basis of routing tables,
which maintain a record of the routes to various network destinations.
Thus, constructing routing tables, which are held in the
router's memory, is very important for efficient routing. Most routing
algorithms use only one network path at a time. Multipath
routing techniques enable the use of multiple alternative paths.

Routing and Switching

Network Layer is primarily designed to move data from one local
network to another local network within an internetwork. At boundary
of each LAN a router, decapsulates the frame to read the destination host
address contained in the header of the packet. Routers use the
destination address to determine which path to use to reach the
destination host. Once the path is determined, the router encapsulates
the packet in a new frame and sends it on its way toward the destination
end device.
When the frame reaches its final destination, the frame and packet
headers are removed and the data moved up to another layer. Routing
also connects multiple networks and forward packets destined either for
its own networks or other networks.
A router is considered a layer-3 device because its primary forwarding
decision is based on the information in the layer-3 IP packet, specifically
the destination IP address. When a router receives a packet, it searches
its routing table to find the best match between the destination IP
address of the packet and one of the addresses in the routing table. Once
a match is found, the packet is encapsulated in the layer-2 data link
frame for the outgoing interface indicated in the table entry. A router
typically does not look into the packet payload, but only at the layer-3
addresses to make a forwarding decision, plus optionally other
information in the header for hints on, for example, quality of
service (QoS). For pure IP forwarding, a router is designed to minimize
Course Module
 the state information associated with individual packets. Once a packet
is forwarded, the router does not retain any historical information about
the packet.

Packet Switching
What is Packet Switching?
Packet switching features delivery of variable bit rate data streams,
realized as sequences of packets, over a computer network which
allocates transmission resources as needed using statistical
multiplexing or dynamic bandwidth allocation techniques. As they
traverse network nodes, such as switches and routers, packets are
received, buffered, queued, and transmitted (stored and forwarded),
resulting in variable latency and throughput depending on the link
capacity and the traffic load on the network.
What is Circuit Switching?
Circuit Switching is another principal networking paradigm and a
method which pre-allocates dedicated network bandwidth specifically
for each communication session, each having a constant bit rate and
latency between nodes.
Comparison between Packet and Circuit Switching
In cases of billable services, such as cellular communication services,
circuit switching is characterized by a fee per unit of connection time,
even when no data is transferred, while packet switching may be
characterized by a fee per unit of information transmitted, such as
characters, packets, or messages.
Packet mode communication may be implemented with or without
intermediate forwarding nodes (packet switches or routers). Packets
are normally forwarded by intermediate network nodes asynchronously
using first-in, first-out buffering, but may be forwarded according to
some scheduling discipline for fair queuing, traffic shaping, or for
differentiated or guaranteed quality of service, such as weighted fair
queuing or leaky bucket. In case of a shared physical medium (such as
radio or 10BASE5), the packets may be delivered according to a multiple
access scheme.

Figure 2.0: Demonstration of Data Packet Switching Across a Network

 Networks Basics
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Network Layer

Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_switching#/media/File:Packet_Switchin
g.gif

References
Books and Journals
Cisco Networking Academy; 2016; Introduction to Networks v6 Companion
Guide1st Edition; United States of America: Amazon Digital Services LLC.
Tetz, Edward; 2016; Cisco Networking All-in-One For Dummies1st
Edition;United States of America: For Dummies
Troy, McMillan; 2016; Cisco Networking Essentials 2nd Edition; United
States of America:Sybex
Online Supplementary Reading Material
An OSI layer model for the 21st century;
http://davidad.github.io/blog/2014/04/24/an-osi-layer-model-for-the-
21st-century/; September 4, 2017
Packet Switching; http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk/users/gorry/course/intro-
pages/ps.html; September 4, 2017
Packet Switching; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_switching;
September 4, 2017
Routing Definition; http://www.linfo.org/routing.html; September 4, 2017
What is the difference between router and modem;
https://pc.net/helpcenter/answers/difference_between_router_and_modem
; September 4, 2017
Router; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Router_(computing); September 4,
2017
Online Instructional Videos
OSI Model: Network Layer;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp7ft_rEZuo; September 4, 2017
The OSI Layer 3: Network Layer; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv-
K6hr23iE; September 4, 2017

Course Module