UNIT -III

Network Layer

3.1 Virtual and Datagram Circuits

Computer networks that provide connection-oriented service are called Virtual

Circuits while those providing connection-less services are called as Datagram
networks.
Virtual Circuits:
1. It is connection-oriented simply meaning that there is a reservation of
resources like buffers, CPU, bandwidth, etc. for the time in which the
newly setup VC is going to be used by a data transfer session.
2. First packet goes and reserves resources for the subsequent packets which
as a result follow the same path for the whole connection time.
3. Since all the packets are going to follow the same path, a global header is
required only for the first packet of the connection and other packets
generally don’t require global headers.
4. Since data follows a particular dedicated path, packets reach inorder to the
destination.
5. From above points, it can be concluded that Virtual Circuits are highly
reliable means of transfer.
6. Since each time a new connection has to be setup with reservation of
resources and extra information handling at routers, it’s simply costly to
implement Virtual Circuits.

Datagram Networks:
1. It is connectionless service. There is no need of reservation of resources as
there is no dedicated path for a connection session.
2. All packets are free to go to any path on any intermediate router which is
decided on the go by dynamically changing routing tables on routers.
3. Since every packet is free to choose any path, all packets must be
associated with a header with proper information about source and the
upper layer data.
4. The connectionless property makes data packets reach destination in any
order, means they need not reach in the order in which they were sent.
5. Datagram networks are not reliable as Virtual Circuits.
6. But it is always easy and cost efficient to implement datagram networks as
there is no extra headache of reserving resources and making a dedicated
each time an application has to communicate.

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 3.2 Routing

Routing is the process of forwarding of a packet in a network so that it reaches

its intended destination. The main goals of routing are:

1. Correctness: The routing should be done properly and correctly so that

the packets may reach their proper destination.
2. Simplicity: The routing should be done in a simple manner so that the
overhead is as low as possible. With increasing complexity of the routing
algorithms the overhead also increases.
3. Robustness: Once a major network becomes operative, it may be
expected to run continuously for years without any failures. The
algorithms designed for routing should be robust enough to handle
hardware and software failures and should be able to cope with changes
in the topology and traffic without requiring all jobs in all hosts to be
aborted and the network rebooted every time some router goes down.
4. Stability: The routing algorithms should be stable under all possible
circumstances.
5. Fairness: Every node connected to the network should get a fair chance
of transmitting their packets. This is generally done on a first come first
serve basis.
6. Optimality: The routing algorithms should be optimal in terms of
throughput and minimizing mean packet delays. Here there is a trade-off
and one has to choose depending on his suitability.

Classification of Routing Algorithms

The routing algorithms may be classified as follows:

1. Adaptive Routing Algorithm: These algorithms change their routing

decisions to reflect changes in the topology and in traffic as well. These
get their routing information from adjacent routers or from all routers.
The optimization parameters are the distance, number of hops and
estimated transit time.
2. Non-Adaptive Routing Algorithm: These algorithms do not base their
routing decisions on measurements and estimates of the current traffic
and topology. Instead the route to be taken in going from one node to the
other is computed in advance, off-line, and downloaded to the routers
when the network is booted. This is also known as static routing.

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 3.3 Dijkstra’s Routing Algorithm

At the end each node will be labelled (see Figure) with its distance from source
node along the best known path. Initially, no paths are known, so all nodes are
labelled with infinity. As the algorithm proceeds and paths are found, the labels
may change reflecting better paths. Initially, all labels are tentative. When it is
discovered that a label represents the shortest possible path from the source to
that node, it is made permanent and never changed thereafter.

Look at the weighted undirected graph of Figure(a), where the weights

represent, for example, distance. We want to find shortest path from A to D.
We start by making node A as permanent, indicated by a filled in circle. Then
we examine each of the nodes adjacent to A (the working node), relabeling each
one with the distance to A. Whenever a node is relabelled, we also label it with
the node from which the probe was made so that we can construct the final path
later. Having examined each of the nodes adjacent to A, we examine all the
tentatively labeled nodes in the whole graph and make the one with the smallest
label permanent, as shown in Figure (b). This one becomes new working node.

We now start at B, and examine all nodes adjacent to it. If the sum of the label
on B and the distance from B to the node being considered is less than the label
on the node, we have a shorter path, so the node is relabelled. After all the
nodes adjacent to the working node have been inspected and the tentative labels
changed if possible, the entire graph is searched for the tentatively labelled node
with the smallest value. This node is made permanent and becomes the working
node for the next round. The Figure shows the first five steps of the algorithm.

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 3.4 Bellman Ford Algorithm

This algorithm solves the single source shortest path problem of a directed
graph G = (V, E) in which the edge weights may be negative. Moreover, this
algorithm can be applied to find the shortest path, if there does not exist any
negative weighted cycle.
Example
The following example shows how Bellman-Ford algorithm works step by
step. This graph has a negative edge but does not have any negative cycle,
hence the problem can be solved using this technique.
At the time of initialization, all the vertices except the source are marked by ∞
and the source is marked by 0.

In the first step, all the vertices which are reachable from the source are
updated by minimum cost. Hence, vertices a and h are updated.

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 the next step, vertices a, b, f and e are updated.

Following the same logic, in this step vertices b, f, c and g are updated.

Here, vertices c and d are updated.

Hence, the minimum distance between vertex s and vertex d is 20.

Based on the predecessor information, the path is s→ h→ e→ g→ c→ d

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 3.5 Congestion Control

A congestion is a state occurring in network layer when the message traffic is so

heavy that it slows down network response time.

Effects of Congestion

 As delay increases, performance decreases.

 If delay increases, retransmission occurs, making situation worse.

Congestion control algorithms

(a)Leaky Bucket Algorithm

Let us consider an example to understand

Imagine a bucket with a small hole in the bottom. No matter at what rate water
enters the bucket, the outflow is at constant rate. When the bucket is full with
water additional water entering spills over the sides and is lost.

Similarly, each network interface contains a leaky bucket and the

following steps are involved in leaky bucket algorithm:

1. When host wants to send packet, packet is thrown into the bucket.
2. The bucket leaks at a constant rate, meaning the network interface
transmits packets at a constant rate.
3. Bursty traffic is converted to a uniform traffic by the leaky bucket.
4. In practice the bucket is a finite queue that outputs at a finite rate.

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 (b) Token bucket Algorithm

Need of token bucket Algorithm:-

The leaky bucket algorithm enforces output pattern at the average rate, no
matter how bursty the traffic is. So in order to deal with the bursty traffic we
need a flexible algorithm so that the data is not lost. One such algorithm is token
bucket algorithm.

Steps of this algorithm can be described as follows:

1. In regular intervals tokens are thrown into the bucket. ƒ
2. The bucket has a maximum capacity. ƒ
3. If there is a ready packet, a token is removed from the bucket, and the
packet is send.
4. If there is no token in the bucket, the packet cannot be send.

Let’s understand with an example,

In figure (a) we see a bucket holding three tokens, with five packets waiting to
be transmitted. For a packet to be transmitted, it must capture and destroy one
token.
In figure (b) we see that three of the five packets have gotten through, but the
other two are stuck waiting for more tokens to be generated.

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 3.6 ATM Traffic Management

ATM technology is intended to support a wide variety of services and

applications. The control of ATM network traffic is fundamentally related to the
ability of the network to provide appropriately differentiated Quality of Service
(QoS) for network applications.

A primary role of traffic management is to protect the network and the end-
system from congestion in order to achieve network performance objectives. An
additional role is to promote the efficient use of network resources. Proper
traffic management helps ensure efficient and fair operation of networks in spite
of constantly varying demand and ensure that users get their desired quality of
service. One of the challenges in designing ATM traffic management was to
maintain the QoS for various classes while attempting to make maximal use of
network resources. This is what distinguishes traffic management from
“congestion control” problem of the past. Congestion control deals only with
the problem of reducing load during overload. Traffic management deals not
only with load reduction under overload or load increase during underload but
more importantly it tries to ensure that the QoS guarantees are met in spite of
varying load conditions. Thus, traffic management is required even if the
network is underloaded. The problem is especially difficult during periods of
heavy load particularly if the traffic demands cannot be predicted in advance.
This is why congestion control, although only a part of the traffic management
issues, is the most essential aspect of traffic management.

A number of traffic control mechanisms are defined, which the network may
utilize to meet the QoS objectives. To meet the QoS objectives, the following
functions form a framework for managing and controlling traffic and congestion
in ATM networks and may be used in appropriate combinations depending on
the service category.

• Connection Admission Control (CAC) is defined as the set of actions taken

by the network during the call set-up phase in order to determine whether a
connection request can be accepted or should be rejected.

• Feedback controls are defined as the set of actions taken by the network and
by end-systems to regulate the traffic submitted on ATM connections according
to the state of network elements.

• Usage Parameter Control (UPC) is defined as the set of actions taken by the
network to monitor traffic and enforce the traffic contract at the User Network
Interface. Network Parameter Control (NPC) is a similarly defined set of actions
at the Network Node Interface. The main purpose of UPC and NPC is to protect
network resources from malicious as well as unintentional misbehavior, which

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 can affect the QoS of other already established connections, by detecting
violations of negotiated parameters and taking appropriate actions. Such actions
may include cell discard and cell tagging.

• Cell Loss Priority control may generate traffic flows of cells with Cell Loss
Priority (CLP) marking. The network may follow models which treat this
marking as transparent or as significant. If treated as significant, the network
may selectively discard cells marked with a low priority to protect, as far as
possible, the QoS objectives of cells with high priority.

• Traffic Shaping mechanisms may be used to achieve a desired modification

to the traffic characteristics of a connection. The objectives of this function are
to achieve a better network efficiency whilst meeting the QoS objectives and/or
to ensure connection traffic conformance at a subsequent interface.

• Network Resource Management architecture allows logical separation of

connections according to service characteristics. Although cell scheduling and
resource provisioning are implementation and network specific, they can be
utilized to provide appropriate isolation and access to resources. Virtual Paths
are a useful tool for resource management.

• Frame Discard , a congested network that needs to discard cells may discard
at the frame level rather than at the cell level.

3.7 Internet Layer Protocols

(1)Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)

If a machine talks to another machine in the same network, it requires its
physical or MAC address. But ,since the application has given the destination's
IP address it requires some mechanism to bind the IP address with its MAC
address.This is done through Address Resolution protocol (ARP).IP address of
the destination node is broadcast and the destination node informs the source of
its MAC address.

1. Assume broadcast nature of LAN

2. Broadcast IP address of the destination
3. Destination replies it with its MAC address.
4. Source maintains a cache of IP and MAC address bindings

But this means that every time machine A wants to send packets to machine B,
A has to send an ARP packet to resolve the MAC address of B and hence this
will increase the traffic load too much, so to reduce the communication cost

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 computers that use ARP maintains a cache of recently acquired IP_to_MAC
address bindings, i.e. they dont have to use ARP repeatedly. ARP Refinements
Several refinements of ARP are possible: When machine A wants to send
packets to machine B, it is possible that machine B is going to send packets to
machine A in the near future .So to avoid ARP for machine B, A should put its
IP_to_MAC address binding in the special packet while requesting for the MAC
address of B. Since A broadcasts its initial request for the MAC address of B,
every machine on the network should extract and store in its cache the
IP_to_MAC address binding of A When a new machine appears on the network
(e.g. when an operating system reboots) it can broadcast its IP_to_MAC address
binding so that all other machines can store it in their caches..

(2) Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP)

RARP is a protocol by which a physical machine in a local area network can
request to learn its IP address from a gateway server's Address Resolution
Protocol table or cache. This is needed since the machine may not have
permanently attached disk where it can store its IP address permanently. A
network administrator creates a table in a local area network's gateway router
that maps the physical machine (or Medium Access Control - MAC) addresses
to corresponding Internet Protocol addresses. When a new machine is set up, its
RARP client program requests from the RARP server on the router to be sent its
IP address. Assuming that an entry has been set up in the router table, the RARP
server will return the IP address to the machine which can store it for future
use. Both the machine that issues the request and the server that responds use
physical network addresses during their brief communication. Usually, the
requester does not know the physical address. So, the request is broadcasted to
all the machines on the network. Now, the requester must identify istelf
uniquely to the server. For this either CPU serial number or the machine's
physical network address can be used. But using the physical address as a
unique id has two advantages.

 These addresses are always available and do not have to be bound into
bootstrap code.
 Because the identifying information depends on the network and not on
the CPU vendor, all machines on a given network will supply unique
identifiers.

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 (3) Internet Controlled Message Protocol (ICMP)

This protocol discusses a mechanism that gateways and hosts use to

communicate control or error information. The Internet protocol provides
unreliable, connectionless datagram service,and that a datagram travels from
gateway to gateway until it reaches one that can deliver it directly to its final
destination. If a gateway cannot route or deliver a datagram, or if the gateway
detects an unusual condition, like network congestion, that affects its ability to
forward the datagram, it needs to instruct the original source to take action to
avoid or correct the problem. The Internet Control Message Protocol allows
gateways to send error or control messages to other gateways or hosts;ICMP
provides communication between the Internet Protocol software on one
machine and the Internet Protocol software on another. This is a special purpose
message mechanism added by the designers to the TCP/IP protocols. This is to
allow gateways in an internet to report errors or provide information about
unexpecter circumstances. The IP protocol itself contains nothing to help the
sender test connectivity or learn about failures.

ICMPMessageDelivery
ICMP messages travel across the internet in the data portion of an IP datagram,
which itself travels across the internet in the data portion of an IP datagram,
which itself travels across each physical network in the data portion of a frame.
Datagrams carrying ICMP messages are routed exactly like datagrams carrying
information for users;there is no additional reliability or priority.

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