TCP/IP PROTOCOL SUITE

 The TCP/IP protocol suite was developed prior to the OSI model.

 Therefore, the layers in the TCP/IP protocol suite do not exactly match those in the

OSI model.

 The original TCP/IP protocol suite was defined as having four layers: host-to-network,

internet, transport, and application.

 However, when TCP/IP is compared to OSI, we can say that the host-to-network layer

is equivalent to the combination of the physical and data link layers.

 The internet layer is equivalent to the network layer, and the application layer is

roughly doing the job of the session, presentation, and application layers with the

transport layer in TCP/IP taking care of part of the duties of the session layer.

 So in this book, we assume that the TCP/IP protocol suite is made of five layers: physi-

cal, data link, network, transport, and application.

 The first four layers provide physical standards, network interfaces, internetworking,

and transport functions that correspond to the first four layers of the OSI model.

 The three topmost layers in the OSI model, however, are represented in TCP/IP by a

single layer called the application layer

 TCP/IP is a hierarchical protocol made up of interactive modules, each of which

provides a specific functionality; however, the modules are not necessarily

interdependent.

 Whereas the OSI model specifies which functions belong to each of its layers, the

layers of the TCP/IP protocol suite contain relatively independent protocols that can

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 be mixed and matched depending on the needs of the system.

 The term hierarchical means that each upper-level protocol is supported by one or

more lower-level protocols.

 At the transport layer, TCP/IP defines three protocols: Transmission Control Protocol

(TCP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP), and Stream Control Transmission Protocol

(SCTP).

 At the network layer, the main protocol defined by TCP/IP is the Internetworking

Protocol (IP); there are also some other protocols that support data movement in this

layer.

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 Physical and Data Link Layers

 At the physical and data link layers, TCP/IP does not define any specific protocol. It

supports all the standard and proprietary protocols.

 A network in a TCP/IP internetwork can be a local-area network or a wide-area

network.

Network Layer

 At the network layer (or, more accurately, the internetwork layer), TCP/IP supports

the Internetworking Protocol.

 IP, in turn, uses four supporting protocols: ARP, RARP, ICMP, and IGMP.

Internetworking Protocol (IP)

 The Internetworking Protocol (IP) is the transmission mechanism used by the TCP/IP

protocols.

 It is an unreliable and connectionless protocol—a best-effort delivery service.

 The term best effort means that IP provides no error checking or tracking.

 IP assumes the unreliability of the underlying layers and does its best to get a

transmission through to its destination, but with no guarantees.

 IP transports data in packets called datagrams, each of which is transported

separately.

 Datagrams can travel along different routes and can arrive out of sequence or be

duplicated.

 IP does not keep track of the routes and has no facility for reordering datagrams once

they arrive at their destination.

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  The limited functionality of IP should not be considered a weakness, however.

 IP provides bare-bones transmission functions that free the user to add only those

facilities necessary for a given application and thereby allows for maximum efficiency.

Address Resolution Protocol

 The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is used to associate a logical address with a

physical address.

 On a typical physical network, such as a LAN, each device on a link is identified by a

physical or station address, usually imprinted on the network interface card (NIC).

 ARP is used to find the physical address of the node when its Internet address is

known.

Reverse Address Resolution Protocol

 The Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP) allows a host to discover its Internet

address when it knows only its physical address.

 It is used when a computer is connected to a network for the first time or when a

diskless computer is booted.

Internet Control Message Protocol

 The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is a mechanism used by hosts and

gateways to send notification of datagram problems back to the sender.

 ICMP sends query and error reporting messages.

Internet Group Message Protocol

 The Internet Group Message Protocol (IGMP) is used to facilitate the simultaneous

transmission of a message to a group of recipients.

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 Transport Layer

 Traditionally the transport layer was represented in TCP/IP by two protocols: TCP and

UDP.

 IP is a host-to-host protocol, meaning that it can deliver a packet from one physical

device to another.

 UDP and TCP are transport level protocols responsible for delivery of a message from

a process (running program) to another process.

 A new transport layer protocol, SCTP, has been devised to meet the needs of some

newer applications

User Datagram Protocol

 The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is the simpler of the two standard TCP/IP transport

protocols.

 It is a process-to-process protocol that adds only port addresses, checksum error

control, and length information to the data from the upper layer.

Transmission Control Protocol

 The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) provides full transport-layer services to

applications.

 TCP is a reliable stream transport protocol.

 The term stream, in this context, means connection-oriented: A connection must be

established between both ends of a transmission before either can transmit data.

 At the sending end of each transmission, TCP divides a stream of data into smaller

units called segments.

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  Each segment includes a sequence number for reordering after receipt, together with

an acknowledgment number for the segments received. Segments are carried across

the internet inside of IP datagrams.

 At the receiving end, TCP collects each datagram as it comes in and reorders the

transmission based on sequence numbers.

Stream Control Transmission Protocol

 The Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) provides support for newer

applications such as voice over the Internet.

 It is a transport layer protocol that combines the best features of UDP and TCP

Application Layer

 The application layer in TCP/IP is equivalent to the combined session, presentation,

and application layers in the OSI model.

 Many protocols are defined at this layer

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 ADDRESSING

 Four levels of addresses are used in an internet employing the TCP/IP protocols:

physical (link) addresses, logical (IP) addresses, port addresses, and specific addresses

 Each address is related to a specific layer in the TCP/IP architecture, as shown in Figure

2.18

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 Physical Addresses

 The physical address, also known as the link address, is the address of a node as

defined by its LAN or WAN.

 It is included in the frame used by the data link layer.

 It is the lowest-level address.

 The physical addresses have authority over the network (LAN or WAN).

 The size and format of these addresses vary depending on the network.

 For example, Ethernet uses a 6-byte (48-bit) physical address that is imprinted on the

network interface card (NIC).

 LocalTalk (Apple), however, has a 1-byte dynamic address that changes each time the

station comes up.

Logical Addresses

 Logical addresses are necessary for universal communications that are independent of

underlying physical networks.

 Physical addresses are not adequate in an internetwork environment where different

networks can have different address formats.

 A universal addressing system is needed in which each host can be identified uniquely,

regardless of the underlying physical network.

 The logical addresses are designed for this purpose.

 A logical address in the Internet is currently a 32-bit address that can uniquely define a

host connected to the Internet.

 No two publicly addressed and visible hosts on the Internet can have the same IP

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 address.

Port Addresses

 The IP address and the physical address are necessary for a quantity of data to travel

from a source to the destination host.

 However, arrival at the destination host is not the final objective of data

communications on the Internet.

 A system that sends nothing but data from one computer to another is not complete.

 Today, computers are devices that can run multiple processes at the same time.

 The end objective of Internet communication is a process communicating with

another process.

 For example, computer A can communicate with computer C by using TELNET.

 At the same time, computer A communicates with computer B by using the File

Transfer Protocol (FTP).

 For these processes to receive data simultaneously, we need a method to label the

different processes.

 In other words, they need addresses. In the TCP/IP architecture, the label assigned to

a process is called a port address.

 A port address in TCP/IP is 16 bits in length.

Specific Addresses

 Some applications have user-friendly addresses that are designed for that specific

address.

 Examples include the e-mail address (for example, [email protected]) and the

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 Universal Resource Locator (URL) (for example, www.mhhe.com).

 The first defines the recipient of an e-mail ;the second is used to find a document on

the World Wide Web

 These addresses, however, get changed to the corresponding port and logical

addresses by the sending computer,

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