NETWORK ARCHITECTURE

OBJECTIVE: Understand the layered

approach of network functions
Layered Tasks

Sender,
Receiver,
and Carrier
LET’S CONSIDER A LETTER TO BE
SENT FROM THE SENDER TO THE
RECEIVER
 At the Sender’s End

Higher Layer Middle Layer Lower Layer

The sender writes the letter, inserts The letter is picked up by a letter The letter is sorted at the post office;
the letter in an envelope, writes the carrier and delivered to the post a carrier transports the letter
sender/receiver addresses, and office
drops the letter in a mailbox
 On the Way

The letter is then on its way to the On the way to the recipient’s local post
recepient. office, the letter may actually go through
a central office
The letter may be transported by truck, train,
airplane, boat, or a combination of these
 At the Receiver’s End

Lower Layer Middle Layer Higher Layer

The carrier transports the letter to The letter is sorted and delivered to The receiver picks up the letter,
the post office the recipient’s mailbox opens the envelope, and reads it
  The International Standards Organization
(ISO) is a multinational body dedicated
to worldwide agreement on
international standards
 An ISO standard that covers all
aspects of network communications is
OSI Model the Open Systems Interconnection
(OSI) which was first introduced in late
1970s
 An open system is a set of protocols
that allows any two different systems
to communicate regardless of their
underlying architecture
 The purpose of OSI Model:
To show how to facilitate
communication between
different systems without
requiring changes to the logic
of the underlying hardware
OSI Model and software
OSI Model is NOT a protocol
It is a model for
understanding and designing
a network architecture that is
flexible, robust, and
interoperable
  Network Architectures:
A reference model that describes the
layers of hardware and software
necessary to transmit data between
two points or for multiple
devices/applications to interoperate
Reference models are necessary to
OSI Model increase the likelihood that different
components from different
manufacturers will converse
Two architectures are required
learning:
The OSI Reference Model
The TCP/IP Protocol Suite
 Application Seventh Layer
OSI Model
Presentation Sixth Layer

The OSI Model is a layered

framework for the design of Session Fifth Layer
network systems that allows
communication between all types Transport Fourth Layer
of computer systems.
It consists of seven separate but Network Third Layer
related layers, each of which
defines a part of the process of
Data Link Second Layer
moving information across a
network.
Physical First Layer
Physical Layer

The physical layer coordinates the

functions required to carry a bit
stream over a physical medium
The physical layer is
responsible for movements It deals with a mechanical and
of individual bits from one electrical specifications of the
hop (node) to the next. interface and transmission medium
It also defines the procedures and
functions that physical devices and
interfaces must perform for
transmission to occur
  The physical layer is also concerned with
the following:
Physical characteristics of interfaces
and medium
Representation of bits

Physical Layer Layer 1 defines the type of

encoding (how bits are changed
to signals)
Data rate
The transmission rate – the number
of bits sent per second – is defined
in this layer
 The physical layer is also
concerned with the following
(continued):
Synchronization of bits
Physical Layer Line configuration
Point-to-point or multipoint
Physical topology
Transmission mode
Data Link Layer

The data link layer is

responsible for moving The data link layer transforms
frames from one hop (node) the physical layer to a reliable
to the next.
link
 Other responsibilities of the this
layer include:
Framing
This layer divides the stream of
Data Link bits received from the network
layer into manageable data
Layer units called frame
Physical addressing
Adds a header to the frame
to define the sender and/or
receiver of the frame
  Other responsibilities of the this layer
include (continued):
Flow control
Imposes a flow control mechanism
to avoid overwhelming the receiver
Data Link Error control
Add mechanisms to detect and
Layer retransmit damaged or lost frames
Access control
When two or more devices are
connected to the same link, this
layer determines which device has
control over the link
Network Layer

The network layer is responsible

for the source-to-destination
The network layer is delivery of a packet, possibly
responsible for the delivery of across multiple networks (links)
individual packets from the
source host to the destination Data link layer  oversees the delivery
host. of the packet between two systems on
the same network
Network layer  ensures that each
packet gets from its point of origin to its
final destination
  Other responsibilities of this layer include:
Logical addressing
Data link layer  physical addressing
(locally)
Network layer  adds header to the
packet, including the logical address
(address needed to help distinguish
Network Layer the source/destination systems)
Routing
When independent networks or links
are connected to create
internetworks or a large network, the
connecting devices (called routers or
switch) route or switch the packets to
their final destination
Transport Layer

The transport layer is

responsible for process-to-
process delivery of the entire
The transport layer is
responsible for the delivery of message
a message from one process A process is an application
to another. program running on a host
Network layer  oversees source-
to-destination delivery of individual
packets, it does not recognize any
relationship between those packets
  Other responsibilities of this layer include:
Service-point addressing
Computers often run several
programs at the same time
Therefore, source-to-destination
delivery means not only from one
computer to the next but also
Transport from a specific process
To do this, a type of address called
Layer service-point address (or port
address) is included in the transport
layer header
Segmentation and reassembly
A message is divided into
transmittable segments, with each
segment containing a sequence
number
  Other responsibilities of this layer include
(continued):
 Connection control
Connectionless  treats each segment as
an independent packet and delivers it to
the transport layer at the destination
machine
Connection-oriented  makes a
Transport connection with the transport layer at the
destination machine first before delivering
Layer the packets
 Flow control
Flow control at this layer is performed end
to end rather than across a single link
(transport layer)
 Error control
Error control at this layer is performed
process-to-process rather than across a
single link (transport layer)
Session Layer

The session layer is network

dialogue controller – it
The session layer is responsible
for dialog control and
establishes, maintains, and
synchronization. synchronizes the interaction
among communicating systems
 Specific responsibilities of this layer
include:
Dialog control
Session layer allows two
systems to enter into a dialog
It allows the communication
between two processes to take
Session Layer place in either half-duplex or
full-duplex mode
Synchronization
The session layer allows a
process to add checkpoints, or
synchronization points to a
stream of data
Presentation
Layer

The presentation layer is

concerned with the syntax
The presentation layer is
responsible for translation, and semantics of the
compression, and
encryption.
information exchanged
between two systems
  Specific responsibilities of this layer
include:
Translation
Because different systems use
different encoding techniques, this
layer is responsible for
interoperability between these
Presentation encoding methods

Layer Encryption
Encryption means that the sender
transforms the original information
to another form
Compression
Data compression reduces the
number of bits contained in the
information
Application
Layer

The application layer

enables the user, whether
The application layer is human or software, to
responsible for providing
services to the user. access the network
Provides user interface and
support for services
  Specific responsibilities of the this layer
include:
 Network virtual terminal
A network virtual terminal is a software
version of a physical terminal, and it
allows a user to log on to a remote
host
Application  File transfer, access, and management
Layer This application allows a user to access
files in a remote host (to make
changes or read data), to retrieve files,
and to manage or control files
 Mail services
 Directory services
Provides distributed database sources
 Developed prior to the OSI
Model
A hierarchical protocol made
up of interactive modules, each
TCP/IP Protocol of which provides a specific
Suite functionality
The term hierarchical means
that each upper-level
protocol is supported by one
or more lower-level protocols
TCP/IP
Protocol
Suite
 TCP/IP does not define any
specific protocol in this layer
It supports all standard and
Physical and proprietary protocols

Data Link A network in a TCP/IP

internetwork can be a:
Local Area Network (LAN)
Wide Area Network (WAN)
  At the network layer, TCP/IP supports the
Internetworking Protocol (IP)
 IP, in turn, uses four supporting protocols:
 Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
Used to associate a logical address with a
physical address
 Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP)
Allows a host to discover its Internet
Network Layer address when it knows only its physical
address
 Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)
A mechanism used by hosts and gateways
to send notification of datagram problems
back to the sender
 Internet Group Message Protocol (IGMP)
Used to facilitate the simultaneous
transmission of a message to a group of
recipients
  Represented in TCP/IP by two protocols:
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
Internetworking Protocol (IP)  is a
host-to-host protocol, meaning, that
it can deliver packet from one
physical device to another
UDP and TCP  are transport level
Transport protocols, responsible for the
delivery of a message from a
Layer process (or program) to another
process
User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
A process-to-process protocol that
adds only port addresses,
checksum, error control, and length
information to the data from the
upper layer
 Equivalent to the combined
Application session, presentation, and
Layer application layers in the OSI
Model
Network Model – Layered approach to
understanding network functions

Two of the most used network models –

OSI Reference Model and Internet Model
TOPIC SUMMARY