CS 382: Network-Centric Computing

Packet Dynamics
(Recommended reading: Chapter 1.4)

Dr. Zafar Ayyub Qazi

Spring 2021

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ACK: Slides use some material from Scott Shenker (UC Berkeley)
 Previous Lecture

shared link and

switch resources

end-system

k
lin switch

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 Previous Lecture
l Key question driving the class discussion:
l How to share common network resources?

l Two standard approaches

l On-demand à Packet Switching
l Reservation-based à Circuit Switching

l The Internet designers chose

l Packet switching
l Key reason: traffic on the internet is bursty, in which case packet switching
leads to better resource utilization
 Packet Dynamics
l Delay

l Loss

l Throughput
 Delay
l How long does it take to send a packet from its source to
destination?
 Loss
l What fraction of the packets sent to a destination are dropped?
 Throughput
l At what rate is the destination receiving data from the source?
 Today
l Focus on delay

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 A network link
l Link bandwidth (Transmission capacity)
l Number of bits sent per unit time (bits/sec or bps)
l Propagation delay
l Time for one bit to move through the link (seconds)
l Bandwidth-Delay Product (BDP)
l Number of bits “in flight” at any time (sent, not received)
l BDP = bandwidth × propagation delay

bandwidth delay x bandwidth

Propagation delay
 Examples of BDP
l Same city over a slow link:
l Bandwidth: ~100Mbps
l Propagation delay: ~0.1msec
l BDP: 10,000bits (1.25KBytes)

l Between cities over fast link:

l Bandwidth: ~10Gbps
l Propagation delay: ~10msec
l BDP: 108bits (12.5MBytes)
 Delay
l Consists of four components
l Transmission delay
l Propagation delay due to link properties
l Processing delay
due to switch internals and
l Queueing delay
traffic mix

l First consider transmission, propagation delays

l Then queueing delays
l Ignore processing delays (tiny in most cases)
 End-End Delay

transmission
propagation
queuing
processing
transmission
propagation
queuing
processing
transmission
propagation
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 Transmission Delay
l Q: How long does it take to push all the bits of a packet into a
link?

l A: Packet size / Transmission capacity of the link

l Example: Packet = 1kb, Rate = 100Mbps

l 1000 bits / 100 Mbits per sec = 10-5 sec = 10μsec

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 Propagation Delay
l Q: How long does it take to move one bit from one end of a link to
the other?

l A: Link length / Propagation speed of link

l Propagation speed ~ some fraction of speed of light

l Example: Length = 30 kilometers

l 30 kilometers/3x108 meters per sec = 10-4 sec = 100μsec

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 Now lets ask a more practical question
l Q: How long does it take for a packet to travel from A to B?

l A: The delay combines both transmission and propagation delays

l Perhaps also queueing, but ignore those for now

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 Example: 100B packet from A to B

A B
1Mbps, 1ms

time=0
Time to transmit Time when that
one bit = 1/106s bit reaches B
100Byte packet
= 1/106+1/103s
Time to transmit
800 bits=800x1/106s
The last bit
This is exactly
reaches B at
transmission
Time (800x1/106)+1/103s
plus propogation
= 1.8ms
delays!
Example: 100B packet from A to B
1GB file in 100B packets
1Gbps, 1ms?
A B
1Mbps, 1ms

100Byte packet
107 x 100B packets

The last bit in the file The last bit The last bit
reaches B at reaches B at
Time reaches B at
(107x800x1/109)+1/103s (800x1/109)+1/103s (800x1/106)+1/103s
= 8001ms = 1.0008ms = 1.8ms
Example: Delays from my home to a google server

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 Technology Trends
l Propagation delay?
l No change
l Transmission delay?
l Getting smaller!
l Queueing delay?
l depends
l How does this affect applications?
l Content Distribution Networks (CDNs) work very hard to move data near
clients to decrease latency

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 Book Homework Problems
l Assess your understanding of the concepts covered in-class by
trying out the homework problems in the book

l For this lecture, try out homework problems R16-R19 from the
book, “Computer Networking: A Top-down Approach”

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 Next Class
l Live class on Monday

l Topic: Network design principles

l Layering
l End-End principle
l Fate-sharing

l Reminder: In-class quiz

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