What is a communication protocol?

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A set of rules that allows two or more entities to exchange
information
– Defines rules, syntax, semantics
– Sending and receiving: stream or messages
– Algorithms, state machines
– Hardware and software interfaces
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Protocol stack: layered architecture
– Each protocol implements only a subset of the tasks
– Each layer uses the lower layer protocols to do its job

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Protocol Stack
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Network API (programming interface)
– typically BSD sockets (see IP practical Application Application
session)
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Service Access Point (SAP) Network API Network API
– Defines methods for accessing the protocol Protocol 1 PDU Protocol 1
features
– e.g. Connect(), Disconnect(), Send(), SAP SAP
Receive()
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Protocol Data Unit (PDU)
Protocol 2 PDU Protocol 2
– Each layer talks to the same layer on the other
SAP SAP
end “virtually”
– Only talks directly with the layers above and Protocol 3 PDU Protocol 3
below it

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 Protocol Stack
●
Encapsulation Application Application
– Each layer adds its own Network API Network API
header
Protocol 1 PDU Protocol 1
– Can also add footer
SAP SAP
– Only touch their own Protocol 2 PDU Protocol 2
headers
SAP SAP
– Layering violations exist
Protocol 3 PDU Protocol 3
though…
Header 3 Header 2 Header 1 Application data 4
Standard Layering: OSI
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Open Systems Interconnection (1970s)
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7 layers
– Application: the user of the network stack, sends/receives Data
– Presentation: character encoding, data serialization, compression, encryption
– Session: connect—disconnect, keepalive
– Transport: reliable Segment exchange (segmentation, acknowledge, multiplexing)
– Network: transfer Packets across multiple nodes
– Datalink: transfer Frames to neighbouring node PDU names
– Physical: transfer Bits over the physical medium
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Octet: byte had no defined length in the 70s

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Standard Layering: TCP/IP
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Origins: BSD Unix in the early 1970s
– BSD socket API still in use today (see IP practical
session) OSI TCP/IP
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Not as well-defined as OSI
– But it’s used in practice Application
– Defines protocols instead of layer responsibilities
Presentation Application
●
4 layers
– Application: anything with a socket Session
– Transport: TCP, UDP Transport Transport
– Network: IPv4
– Link: anything below IP (typically Ethernet) Network Network
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Later more protocols were added Datalink
– HTTP, FTP, SCTP, IPv6 etc. Link
Physical
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Standardization Bodies
●
Protocols are standardized
– Interoperability between different implementations
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Black box model
– Rigorously specified: interfaces, PDU formats, message exchange sequences etc. → what is visible from
outside
– Not really specified: implementation details → not visible from outside
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Conformance test: the black box has to respond to the given inputs with the given outputs
– Serious protocol specifications also come with a test suite (might cost money)
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Who has the power to enforce the standard?
– Government?
– Market leader company?
– Research institute? University?

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Standardization Bodies Not exam material

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
– The TCP/IP stack and related protocols
– Non-profit organization in USA
– Publishes RFC (Request For Comments)
●
Long list of numbered documents https://www.rfc-editor.org/
– Contributions from academia and industry personnel
– Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) maintains the numerical constants (e.g. well-known ports)
●
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
– Standardization, education, scientific publishing (conferences, journals)
– Technical societies: for every engineering discipline (Computer Society, Communication Society etc.)
– IEEE Standards Association
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IEEE 802 local and metropolitan area networking
– Sub-groups: 802.3 Ethernet, 802.11 Wireless LAN, 802.1 bridging architecture
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IEEE 754 floating point arithmetic
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IEEE 1003 POSIX 8
Standardization Bodies Not exam material

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International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
– Specialized agency of the United Nations
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Geneva, Switzerland
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Comité Consultatif International Téléphonique et Télégraphique (CCITT) renamed in 1993
– Most important division: ITU-T, the standardization body
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Publishes Recommendations
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E.164 telephone numbering plan
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H.323 VoIP
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G.711 PCM audio codec 64kbps, G.722 ADPCM 7kbps
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H.264 MPEG-4 AVC, H.265 HEVC, H.266 VVC video codecs
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Q.7xx Signalling System 7 (used in digital telephone exchanges)
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Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG)
– Audio and video compression and transmission formats

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Standardization Bodies Not exam material

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International Standard Organization (ISO)
– Non-governmental organization, HQ in Geneva, Switzerland
– Standardizes absolutely everything
Also adopts standards from other standardization bodies
☢
●

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ISO 361 hazard symbol
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ISO 1000 (superseded by 80000) SI units (meter, kilogram, second)
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ISO 7498 OSI
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ISO 9000/9001 quality management for organizations
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ISO 9660 Compact Disk (CD)
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ISO 9899 C programming language
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Others:
– ANSI: American National Standard Institute (member of ISO)
– ETSI: European Telecommunication Standards Institute (HQ in Sophia Antipolis)
– 3GPP: 3G Partnership Project for 2G/3G/4G/5G/6G cellular (umbrella organization, partner of ETSI)
– W3C: World Wide Web Consortium (mostly superseded by Google)
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Communication models 1
●
Was covered in the first lecture
– Shared access to a common transmission medium
– Multiplexing: TDM, FDM, CDM
– Multiple access: TDMA, FDMA, CDMA
– Duplexing: FDD, TDD
– Also: split the medium → multiple wires in a cable
●
Crosstalk
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Communication models 2
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Point-to-point
– Unicast
– Anycast
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Point-to-multipoint
– Broadcast
– Multicast
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Geocast
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Communication models 3
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Centralized
– Coordinated by a central entity
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Need to install it
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Need to trust it
– Efficient: central entity governs everything
– Vulnerable to disruption (need fallback server)
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Distributed
– The entities decide among themselves (contention)
– Less efficient: need to play a game to reach consensus
– More fault-tolerant, harder to disrupt
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Examples:
– Cellular mobile vs. Wi-Fi
– Skype before and after acquired by Microsoft in 2011
– Routing protocols vs. SDN 13
Quality of Service
●
Reserve resources for important traffic
– Needs an entity that “owns” the network
– Grant resources to clients, enforce limits Reserved
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Integrated Services (IntServ, RFC 1633) capacity
– Fine-grained: reserve for individual flows
– Flow identification
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Differentiated Services (DiffServ, RFC 2475)
– reserve for classes of flows
– PDU has a Class field
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Best effort: no reservation
– The Internet runs generally like this
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Metering/Shaping: see practical session
– Token bucket
Total
capacity
– Leaky bucket
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Security
●
Encryption
– Protection from eavesdropping
– Need secure key exchange (e.g. Diffie-Hellman)
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Authentication
– Identify the source of the message (digital signature)
– Protect from replay attack (Challenge-Response Authentication Protocol)
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Integrity
– Protection from tampering (a simple checksum is not enough!)

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