NET 4030: INTERNET ARCHITECTURE AND PROTOCOLS

WK11
Chapter 9
Point-to-Point Protocol (Dial
up Technology)
 Objectives

 WAN Connection Types

 Point-to-Point Protocol (Dial-Up technology)
 PPP Features/Services
 PPP Frame Format
 Phases of PPP Connection
 PPP Stack
 SLIP vs. PPP
 HDLC vs. PPP

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 WAN Connection Types
 Three main categories of WAN connection types
Leased point-to-point lines
Dail-up lines (circuit-switched lines)
Packet-switched networks

Leased line

Circuit-switched

Packet-switched

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 WAN Connection Types…
Term Description
Leased lines A dedicated, always on circuit between two end points.
The service provider just passes a constant rate bit
stream. Generally is more expensive than packet
switching today

Circuit Provide dedicated bandwidth between two points, but

only for the duration of the call. Typically used as a
switched/dial
cheaper alternative to leased lines, particularly when
connectivity is not needed all the time. Also useful for
backup when a leased line or packet-switched service
fails

Packet- Provides virtual circuits between pairs of sites, with

contracted traffic rates for each VC. Each site’s physical
switched
connectivity consists of a leased line from the site to a
device in the provider’s network. Generally cheaper than
leased lines.

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 Data-Link Protocols for Point-to-Point
WAN Links
 Popular WAN data-link protocols
Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP)
High-Level Data Link Control (HDLC)
Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)

Leased line

Circuit-switched

Packet-switched

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 Point to Point Protocol
 Introduction
 If two devices are directly connected to each other, then they are said to be in point-to-
point configuration, and a link connecting two devices is called point-to-point link.
 Point-to-point protocol is a data link layer protocol that operates over a point-to-point
link.
 PPP over the Internet
 Today, millions of Internet users who need to connect their home PCs to the Internet
use PPP.
 The Internet needs a PPP for a variety of purposes, including router-to-router traffic
(leased line) and home-user to ISP (dial-up) traffic.
 Majority of users have a traditional modem, DSL modem or a cable modem which
connects them to the Internet through a Telephone line or a TV cable connection.
 The telephone line or the cable tv connection provides a physical link, but to control
and manage the transfer of data, there is a need of PPP

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 PPP Features/Services
 Main services of PPP include:
 Encapsulation/Framing
 Error detection and Correction
 Support Multiple Network Layer Protocols
 Authentication
 Link Establishment, Termination, and Maintenance

• Link Establishment, Termination, and Maintenance

PPP defines how two devices can negotiate the establishment
of a link, the exchange of data, and termination of a link.

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 PPP Services…
 Encapsulation/Framing
The PPP protocol take a network layer packet and
Encapsulate it within the PPP data link layer frame
such that the receiver will be able to identify the start
and end of the both data link frame and network
layer packet within the frame.

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 PPP Services…
 Error Detection and Correction
All data link protocols like PPP and HDLC perform
error detection.
All these protocols use a field in the trailer usually
called frame check sequence (FCS),
FCS verifies whether bit errors occurred during
transmission of the frame, if so frame is discarded.
Error recovery is the process that causes
retransmission of lost or erred frames.
PPP can perform error correction but by default it is
not enabled.

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 PPP Services…
 Support Multiple Network Layer Protocols
PPP supports multiple protocol suites like TCP/IP
(IP), Novell’s (IPX), Appletalk etc running over same
physical link at the same time.
PPP multiplex different network layer protocols over
a single point-to-point connection
 Authentication
PPP defines how two devices can authenticate each
other.
PPP is designed for use over dial-up links where
verification of user identify is necessary.
Authentication means validating the identity of a
user who needs to access a set of resources
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 PPP Frame Format
 The PPP frame consists of the following fields:
Flag
Address
Control
Protocol
Data
FCS
Flag

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 PPP Frame Format…

 Flag
 One byte field
 It identifies the start and end of the PPP frame
 Contains the binary sequence: 0111 1110

 Address
 One byte field
 As the PPP is used for point-to-point connections, not for multipoint
connections like LANs, it does not assign individual station addresses
 Uses the standard broadcast address value to avoid data link layer
addressing (MAC)
 It uses the fixed binary sequence: 1111 1111

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 PPP Frame Format…
 Control
One byte field
The control field uses the format of the U-frame in
HDLC
It uses the fixed binary sequence:
110000 00
it shows that the frame does not contain any sequence
numbers and that there is no flow and error control.

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 PPP Frame Format…
 protocol
 Two byte field
 The protocol field defines what is being carried in the data field.
 Whether the PPP frame carries user data or other information
 In this field different codes are defined to identify different protocols
 It indicates the protocol encapsulated in the data field of PPP frame e.g.
• LCP
• Authentication protocol
• NCP
 Thus PPP is a multi-protocol framing method suitable for use over modems

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 PPP Frame Format…

 Data
Maximum 1500 bytes
This field carries either the user data or other control
information
 FCS
2 byte or 4 byte field
Used for error detection using CRC code

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 Phases of PPP Connection

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 Phases of PPP Connection…

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 Phases of PPP Connection…
 A PPP connection goes through different phases which are discuss below..
 Idle State
 The idle state means that the link is not being used. There is no active
carrier, and the link is quiet.
 Establishing State
 When one of the endpoints starts the communication, the connection goes
into establishing state.
 In this state, options are negotiated between two parties. If the negotiation is
successful, the system goes to the authenticating state (if authentication is
required) or directly to the networking state.
 The Link Control Protocol packets are used for this purpose. Several packets
may exchanged during this phase.

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 Phases of PPP Connection…
 Authenticating State
 The authenticating state is optional.
 The two endpoints may decide, during the establishing state, not to go
through this state. However, if they decide to proceed with authentication,
they send several authentication packets.
 If the result is successful, the connection goes to the networking state;
otherwise it goes to the terminating state.
 Networking State
 The networking state is heart of the transition states.
 When a connection reaches this state, the exchange of user control and data
packets can be started. The connection remains in this state until one of the
endpoints wants to terminate the connection.

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 Phases of PPP Connection…
 Terminating State
When the connection is in the terminating state,
several packets are exchanged between the two
endpoints for closing the link.

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 PPP Stack
 The value of protocol field defines the PPP Protocol
stack
Although PPP is a data-link layer protocol, PPP uses
a stack of other protocols to establish the links, to
authenticate the parties involved and to carry the
network layer data
Three sets of protocols are defined to make PPP a
powerful protocol.
• Link Control Protocol (LCP)
• Authentication Protocols (PAP, CHAP)
• Network Control Protocol (NCP)

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 PPP Stack…

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 Link Control Protocol (LCP)
 LCP is responsible for establishing, maintaining, configuring, and
terminating links.
 It also provides negotiation mechanisms to set options between the two
endpoints. Both endpoints of the link must reach an agreement about the
options before the link can be established.
 When PPP is carrying a LCP packet, it is either in establishing or
terminating state
 No user data is exchanged during this state
 All LCP packets are carried in the data field of the PPP frame

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LCP packet encapsulated in a frame

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 Link Control Protocol (LCP)
 LCP frames are categorized into 3 classes
Link establishment frames
Link terminating frames
Link maintenance frames
 Options
There are many options that can be negotiated
between the two endpoints.
Options are inserted in the information field of the
configuration packets

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 Common Options

Option Default

Maximum receive unit 1500

Authentication protocol None

Protocol field compression Off

Address and control field compression Off

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 Authentication Protocols
 PPP use two authentication protocols
Password Authentication Protocol (PAP)
Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol
(CHAP)
 Password Authentication Protocol (PAP)
PAP sends the username and password in clear text.
The user who wants to access a system sends
username and password
The system checks the validity of the username and
password and either accepts or denies connection.
For those systems that require greater security, PAP
is not enough; a third party with access to the link
can easily pick up the password and access the
system
Internet resources.
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 PPP Authentication…

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 Password Authentication Protocol
(PAP)

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Selecting a PPP Authentication Protocol

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 Challenge Handshake Authentication
Protocol (CHAP)
 Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol
(CHAP)
It is a three handshaking authentication protocol
that provides greater security that PAP.
In this method the password is kept secret, it is never
sent online.
The system sends to the user a challenge packet
containing a challenge value, usually a few byte.
The user applies a predefined function (Message
Digest-5, one way hash function) that takes the
challenge value and the user’s own password and
creates a result. The user sends the result in the
response packet to the system
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 CHAP…
 Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol
(CHAP)…
The system does the same. It applies the same
function to the password of the user (known to the
system) and the challenge value to create a result. If
the result created the same as the result in the
response packet, access is granted; otherwise it is
denied
CHAP is more secure than PAP, especially if the
system continuously changes the challenge value.
Even if the intruder learns the challenge value and
the result, the password is still secret.
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 CHAP…

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Selecting a PPP Authentication Protocol

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 Network Control Protocol (NCP)
 After the link is established and authentication (if any) is successful, the
connection goes to the networking state.
 In this state, PPP uses another protocol called Network Control Protocol
(NCP).
 NCP is a set of control protocols to allow the encapsulation of data
coming from network layer protocols into PPP frame.
 PPP requires two parties to negotiate not only at the data link layer, but
also at the network layer.
 Before user data can be sent, a connection must be established at this
level.
 The set of packets that establish and terminate a network layer
connection for IP packets is called IP control protocol (IPCP).

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 Layering PPP Elements

PPP- A data link protocol with network layer services

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 PPP – A scenario

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 A typical Scenario (1)
A typical scenario of a home user calling an ISP
1. P.C calls the ISP router via modem
2. After receiving the answer, the physical connection is established between
two modems
3. PC sends the router a series of LCP packets in the data portion of PPP
frames to configure and (optionally) test the data link connection
4. These LCP packets and their responses select the PPP parameters to be used
5. Then a series of NCP packets are used to configure network layer .
6. NCP frames are used to choose and configure one or more network layer
protocols
7. Typically, a PC wants to run a TCP/IP protocol stack, so it needs an IP
address

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 Service Oriented View of the A
typical
8. ISPs keep Scenario
a block of IP addresses… (2)assigned
to be
dynamically to each newly attached PC for the
duration of its login session
9. The NCP for IP assigns the IP address
10. At this point the PC is now an Internet host and can
send and receive IP packets
11. The link will remain configure for communication
until explicit LCP or NCP frames close the link or
some external event (inactivity timer expires etc.)
12. When the user is finished, the NCP tears down the
network layer connection, and frees up the IP
address
13. Then LCP shut down the data link layer connection
14. Finally the computer tell the modem to hang-up the
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 SLIP vs. PPP

 Serial Line Internet Protocol  Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)

(SLIP)  It is new version protocol
 It was older protocol  It requires authentication
 Require no authentication  Provides error detections
 It does not provides error
detections, and accepts and
forwards corrupted datagrams  Support large number of
 Supports only TCP/IP i.e, protocols like Novel Netware
Internet Protocol (IP) (IPX), TCP/IP (IP),
AppleTalk

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 HDLC vs. PPP

 High Level Data Link Control  Point to Point Protocol

Protocol
 It is both point to point and  It point to point protocol
multipoint protocol
 It delivers data on  It delivers data on both
synchronous links only synchronous and
asynchronous links
 It provides error detection  It provides both error
but does not provide error detection and error
correction correction
 It does not have protocol  It has a protocol type field so
type field, so it does not it supports multiple protocols
support multiple protocols

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 Putting it all together
 The most significant advantage PPP can offer is the automatic login and
configuration negotiation at the start of connection
 With these features, your PPP software only needs to know your login
userid/password and the telephone number of your service provider.
 The software can then dial-up into your service provider and figure out
everything else on its own.
 At this present point in time, PPP is generally not as widely available as SLIP. It
should gain more acceptance in the time to come

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Questions