CSE300/CSC322/ECE322

DataComms and Computer

Networks
Dr. Katerina Papanikolaou
Data Communications and Computer
Networks
CSE300/CSC322/ECE322

Tuesday 7,8,9 or 15:10 - 18:00

• Rm: Lab007  Will change in W2
• Blackboard CYP.CSE300A.F2024
DATA COMMUNICATIONS & COMPUTER NETWORKS

• Course Outline: Relevant Section! NB make sure you read

yours!
In this lectures W1 and W2
• Intro – Computer Networks
• Use of CN – Access to info, EC, Entertainment, IoT
• Types od CNs up to slide 50
• CNs comms protocols
• Design goals- Layers – Primitives – connectivity reliability
• The OSI reference model
• The TCP/IP model
• Standardization
Uses of Computer Networks
• Computer networks
– Large number of separate but interconnected computers do a
job
– Collection of interconnected, autonomous computing devices
– Interconnected computers can exchange information

• Example: the Internet

• Network uses
– Access to information ..
– Person-to-person communication ..
– Electronic commerce ..
– Entertainment ..
– The Internet of Things IoT ..
Access to Information (1 of 4)
• Web browser/Mobile Apps smart phones retrieve
information from various Web sites
• Social media platforms support targeted behavioral
advertising
• Online digital libraries and retail sites host digital content
• Client-server model forms the basis of network usage
• Web applications: Server generates Web pages in
response to client requests
• Peer-to-peer communication: Individuals form a loose
group to communicate with others in the group
Access to Information (2 of 4)

In the client-server model, a client explicitly requests information from a server that
hosts that information.
Access to Information (3 of 4)

Communication takes the form of the client process sending a message over the network
to the server process. The client process then waits for a reply message.
Access to Information (4 of 4)

In a peer-to-peer system, there are no fixed clients and servers.

Person-to-Person Communication
• Instant messaging
– Allows two people to type messages at each other in real time

• Twitter/ok Z multi-person messaging service

– Allows people to send short messages to their circle of friends or
other followers or the whole world

• Social network applications

– Information flow driven by the relationships that people declare
between each other

• Wiki content is a collaborative Web site the members of a

community edit
Electronic Commerce (1 of 2)
• Online shopping and financial institution transactions
follow client-server model
• Online auctions follow peer-to-peer model
– Consumers act as buyers and sellers
– Central server holds the database of products for sale
Electronic Commerce (2 of 2)

Some forms of e-commerce have acquired little tags based on the fact that ‘‘to’’ and
‘‘2’’ are pronounced the same.
Entertainment
• IPTV (IP Television) systems
– TV shows based on IP technology instead of cable TV or radio
transmissions

• Media streaming applications

– Internet-provided radio stations, TV shows, and movies
– Content usually moves wirelessly between devices

• Game playing using multi-person real-time simulation

• Virtual worlds provide a persistent setting
– Thousands of users experience a shared reality with three-
dimensional graphics
The Internet of Things
• Ubiquitous computing
– Computing embedded in everyday life
– Home security systems wired with door and window sensors
– Sensors folded into a smart home monitor
– Smart refrigerators

• IoT (Internet of Things)

– Sensing and communication take place over the Internet
– Poised to connect every electronic device to the Internet

• Power-line networks
– Send information throughout the house over the electric wires
Types of Computer Networks
• Not exclusive!
• Mobile and broadband access networks
– Networks used to access the Internet

• Data-center networks
– Networks that house data and applications

• Transit networks
– Networks that connect access networks to data centers

• Enterprise networks
– Networks used on campuses, in office buildings, or at other
organizations
Broadband Access Networks
• Home network use
– Listen to, look at, and create music, photos, and videos
– Access information, communicate with other people, buy
products and services

• Metcalfe’s law
– Explains how tremendous Internet popularity comes from its size

• Broadband access networks

– Delivered to homes using copper, coaxial cable, or optical fiber
– Broadband Internet speeds: gigabit per second to individual
homes
Mobile and Wireless Access Networks
(1 of 3)

• Wireless hotspots are based on the 802.11 standard

• Wireless networking and mobile computing
– Related but not identical

• Smartphones combine aspects of mobile phones and

mobile computers
• Text messaging or texting short message
• GPS (Global Positioning System): locates a device
• Geo-tagging: annotating photos and videos with the
location where they were made
Mobile and Wireless Access Networks
(2 of 3)

Although wireless networking and mobile computing are often related, they are not
identical.
Mobile and Wireless Access Networks
(3 of 3)

• M-commerce (mobile-commerce) uses mobile phones

• NFC (Near Field Communication)
– Allows mobile device to act as an RFID smartcard and interact
with a nearby reader for payment

• Sensor networks use nodes gathering and relaying

information about the physical state of the world
– Nodes may be embedded in familiar devices (cars or phones)
– Nodes may be small, separate devices
– Provide a wealth of data on behavior
– Example: wireless parking meters
Content Provider Networks
• Data-center network
– Internet services are served from ‘‘the cloud’’
– Serves the increasingly growing demands of cloud computing
– Moves large amounts of data between servers in the data center
– Moves data between the data center and the rest of the Internet

• Data center network challenges

– Network throughput and energy usage scaling
– ‘‘Cross-section bandwidth”

• CDN (Content Delivery Network)

– Large collection of servers, geographically distributed so content
is close to the users requesting it
Transit Networks
• Transit network
– Carry traffic between the content provider and the ISP (Internet
Service Provider) when they are not directly connected
– Typically charge both the ISP and the content provider for
carrying traffic from end-to-end
– Traditionally called backbone networks because they carry traffic
between two endpoints

• Two trends
– Consolidation of content in a handful of large content providers
– Expansion of the footprint of individual access ISP networks
Enterprise Networks
• Allows resource sharing for devices and information
• VPNs (Virtual Private Networks)
– Connect individual networks at different sites into one logical
network
– Act as a communication medium among employees

• Allows IP telephony or VoIP (Voice over IP)

– Internet technology and computer networks for telephone calls

• Allows desktop sharing

– Remote workers can see and interact with a computer screen

• Allows electronic business communication

Personal Area Networks

PANs (Personal Area Networks) let devices communicate over the range of a person.
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless network used to connect components without wires.
Local Area Networks

The configuration on the left represents a wireless 802.11 network. The configuration on
the right represents a wired switched Ethernet network.
Home Networks
• Home network LAN
– Broad, diverse range of Internet-connected devices
– Characteristics: manageable, dependable, and secure

• Internet of things
– Allows almost any device to connect

• Required home network properties

– Easy to install
– Secure and reliable
– Interfaces work between all products
– Reduced consumer device costs
Metropolitan Area Networks

A MAN (metropolitan area network) where both television signals and the Internet are
being fed into the centralized cable head-end (or cable modem termination system) for
subsequent distribution to people’s homes.
Wide Area Networks (1 of 3)

This wide area network illustrates how hosts in Perth, Brisbane, and
Melbourne can communicate using leased lines.
Wide Area Networks (2 of 3)

This wide area network illustrates how hosts in Perth, Brisbane, and
Melbourne can communicate via the Internet.
Wide Area Networks (3 of 3)

This wide area network illustrates how hosts in Perth, Brisbane, and Melbourne
can communicate via an ISP.
Internetworks: Networks of networks!
• Internetwork or internet
– A collection of interconnected networks

• Network combines subnets and hosts

– Subnet can be described as a ISP network (Figure 1-11)
– Internetwork might be described as a WAN network (Figure 1-9)

• An internet
– Interconnection of distinct, independently operated networks
– Connecting a LAN and a WAN or connecting two LANs
– Gateway device makes a connection between two or more
networks
Examples of Networks (1 of 9)
• The Internet
– The ARPANET
– NSFNET
– The Internet architecture

• Mobile networks
– Mobile network architecture
– Packet switching and circuit switching
– Early generation mobile networks: 1G, 2G, and 3G
– Modern mobile networks: 4G and 5G

• Wireless networks (WiFi)

Examples of Networks (2 of 9)

Figure (a) represents an unsecure network with little redundancy. Figure (b)
illustrates a more secure packet-switched network that was initially dismissed as a
solution.
Examples of Networks (3 of 9)

The original ARPANET software was split into two parts: subnet and host. The subnet
software consisted of the IMP end of the host-IMP connection, the IMP-IMP protocol, and
a source IMP to destination IMP protocol designed to improve reliability.
Examples of Networks (4 of 9)

Growth of the number of nodes on ARPANET. (a) December 1969. (b) July 1970.
(c) March 1971. (d) April 1972. (e) September 1972.
Examples of Networks (5 of 9)

NSFNET was a backbone network designed to be a successor to the ARPANET that

would be open to all university research groups, allowing them to communicate without
having to contract with the Department of Defense.
Examples of Networks (6 of 9)
• Cable television infrastructure connects to the Internet
• HFC (Hybrid Fiber-Coaxial) network is a single integrated
infrastructure
– Uses packet-based transport called DOCSIS (Data Over Cable
Service Interface Specification)

• DOCSIS transmits a variety of data services, including

television channels, high-speed data, and voice
– Device at the home end is called a cable modem
– Device at the cable headend is called the CMTS (Cable Modem
Termination System)
– Modem is short for “modulator demodulator”
Examples of Networks (7 of 9)

A common method for connecting to the Internet from your home is to send
signals over the cable television infrastructure.
Examples of Networks (8 of 9)

Conventionally, the Internet architecture has been viewed as a hierarchy, with

the tier-1 providers at the top of the hierarchy and other networks further down the
hierarchy, depending on whether they are large regional networks or smaller access
networks.
Examples of Networks (9 of 9)

Over the past decade, the conventional hierarchy has evolved and ‘‘flattened’’
dramatically.
Mobile Networks (1 of 6)

The architecture of the mobile phone network has several parts.

Mobile Networks (2 of 6)

When a user moves out of the range of one cellular base station and into the range of
another one, the flow of data must be re-routed from the old to the new cell base
station.
Mobile Networks (3 of 6)
• Packet switching comes from the Internet community
– Connectionless networks
– Every packet is routed independently
– If some routers go down during a session, no harm will be done
as long as the system can dynamically reconfigure itself

• Circuit switching comes from telephone companies

– Connection-oriented networks
– Caller must dial the called party’s number and wait for a
connection before talking or sending data
– Route maintained until call is terminated
– Can support quality of service more easily
Mobile Networks (4 of 6)
• First-generation mobile phone systems
– Transmitted voice calls as continuously varying (analog) signals
– AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System)

• Second-generation (2G) mobile phone systems

– Transmitted voice calls in digital form to increase capacity,
improve security, and offer text messaging
– GSM (Global System for Mobile communications)

• Third generation (3G) offer digital voice and broadband

digital data services
• Spectrum scarcity led to today’s cellular network design
Mobile Networks (5 of 6)

To manage the radio interference between users, the coverage area is

divided into cells.
Mobile Networks (6 of 6)
• 4G
– Later 4G known as LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology
– Offers faster speeds
– Emerged in the late 2000s
– Quickly became the predominant mode of mobile Internet
access in the late 2000s
– Outpacing competitors like 802.16 (WiMiMax)

• 5G technologies are promising faster speeds

– Up to 10 Gbps
– Set for large-scale deployment in the early 2020s

• Main distinction: frequency spectrum they rely on

Wireless Networks (WiFi) (1 of 6)
• IEEE created a wireless LAN standard
– Wireless LAN standard was dubbed 802.11
– Common slang name for it is WiFi
– 802.11 systems operate in unlicensed bands
– Example: ISM (Industrial, Scientific, and Medical) bands defined
by ITU-R
– 802.11 radios compete with cordless phones, garage door
openers, and microwave ovens

• 802.11 network modes: Ad hoc and access point (AP)

• Multipath fading causes received signals to fluctuate
greatly
Wireless Networks (WiFi) (2 of 6)
• Path diversity overcomes variable wireless conditions
• Versions of 802.11
– Original 802.11 ran at either 1 Mbps or 2 Mbps
– 802.11b used spread spectrum for rates up to 11 Mbps
– 802.11a/g rates were boosted to 54 mbps using OFDM
(Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) modulation
– 802.11ac can run at 3.5 Gbps
– 802.11ad can run at 7 Gbps (only indoors within a single room)

• CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access) scheme

– Handles transmission collision
Wireless Networks (WiFi) (3 of 6)
• 802.11 mobility
– Of limited value compared to mobility in mobile phone networks

• 802.11 security
– WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy)
– WEP replaced by WiFi Protected Access (initially called WPA)
– WiFi Protected Access (WPA) replaced by WPA2 and 802.1X
Wireless Networks (WiFi) (4 of 6)

Access points connect to the wired network, and all communication between clients goes
through the access point. In an ad hoc network, clients that are in radio range talk directly
without an access point.
Wireless Networks (WiFi) (5 of 6)

At the frequencies used for 802.11, radio signals can be reflected off solid objects so
that multiple echoes of a transmission may reach a receiver along different paths. The
echoes can cancel or reinforce each other, causing the received signal to fluctuate
greatly – a phenomenon known as multipath fading.
Wireless Networks (WiFi) (6 of 6)

The range of a single radio may not cover the entire system.
Network Protocols: Coms Language!
• Design goals
– Reliability (ability to recover from errors, faults, or failures)
– Resource allocation (sharing access to a common, limited
resource)
– Evolvability (allowing for incremental deployment of protocol
improvements over time)
– Security (defending the network against various types of attacks)

• Network protocol design: layering

• Connection-oriented vs. connectionless service
• Specific service primitives
Design Goals (1 of 4)
• Reliability
– Make a network operate correctly even though it is comprised of
a collection of components that are themselves unreliable
▪Error detection finds errors in received information
▪Error correction corrects a message by recovering the possibly incorrect bits
– Find a working path through a network using routing
▪Routing allows network to automatically make the decision
Design Goals (2 of 4)
• Resource allocation
– Scalable designs continue to work well when network gets large
– Statistical multiplexing: sharing based on the statistics of
demand

• An allocation problem that occurs at every level

– Keeping a fast sender from swamping a slow receiver with data
– Use flow control

• Congestion problem
– Occurs when too many computers want to send too much traffic,
and the network cannot deliver it all

• Quality of service reconciles competing demands

Design Goals (3 of 4)
• Evolvability
– Design issue concerns the evolution of the network
– Over time, networks grow larger and new designs emerge that
need to be connected to the existing network
– Use protocol layering structuring mechanism to support change
by dividing the overall problem and hiding implementation
details
– Use addressing or naming mechanism to identify the senders
and receivers involved in a particular message
– Different network technologies often have different limitations
– Overall topic is called internetworking
Design Goals (4 of 4)
• Security
– Confidentiality mechanisms defend against eavesdropping on
communications
– Authentication mechanisms prevent someone from
impersonating someone else
– Integrity mechanisms prevent surreptitious changes to
messages
Protocol Layering !!! (1 of 4) Why?
Benefits??
• Networks organized as a stack of layers or levels
– Each layer built upon the one below it

• Communication between corresponding layers

– Use a common protocol referred to as a “layer n protocol”
– Below layer 1 is the physical medium through which actual
communication occurs
– Interface lies between each pair of adjacent layers

• Network architecture: a set of layers and protocols

• Protocol stack: a list of the protocols used by a certain
system, one protocol per layer
Protocol Layering (2 of 4)

A five-layer network where the entities comprising the corresponding layers on

different machines are called peers.
Protocol Layering (3 of 4)

The philosopher-translator-secretary architecture. This figure provides an analogy

to explain the idea of multilayer communication.
Protocol Layering (4 of 4)

An example of information flow supporting virtual communication in layer 5.

Connections and Reliability! (1 of 4)
• The git right!
• Connection-oriented service
– Modeled after the telephone system
– Service user first establishes a connection, uses the connection,
and then releases the connection
– Can conduct a negotiation about the parameters to be used
Connections and Reliability (2 of 4)
• Connectionless service
– Modeled after the postal system
– Packet is a message at the network layer
– Store-and-forward switching: intermediate nodes receive a
message in full before sending it on to the next node
– Cut-through switching: transmission of a message at a node
starts before it is completely received by the node
– Datagram service: Unreliable (not acknowledged)
connectionless service

• Reliability characterizes connection-oriented and

connectionless services
Connections and Reliability (3 of 4)
• Connection-oriented systems
– Reliable message stream (sequence of pages)
– Reliable byte stream (movie download)
– Unreliable connection (voice over IP)

• Connectionless systems
– Reliable message stream (electronic junk mail)
– Reliable byte stream (text messaging)
– Unreliable connection (database query)
Connections and Reliability (4 of 4)

Six common connection-oriented and connectionless services.

Service Primitives: Essential Functions!
(1 of 4)
• Service
– Formally specified by a set of primitives (operations) available to
user processes to access the service
– Primitives tell the service to perform some action or report on an
action taken by a peer entity

• Six core primitives

– Listen (block waiting for an incoming connection)
– Connect (establish a connection with a waiting peer)
– Accept (accept an incoming connection from a peer)
– Receive (block waiting for an incoming message)
– Send (send a message to the peer)
– Disconnect (terminate a connection)
Service Primitives (2 of 4)

A minimal example of the service primitives that might provide a reliable byte stream.
Service Primitives (3 of 4)

Figure 1-30 briefly summarizes how client-server communication might work with
acknowledged datagrams so that we can ignore lost packets.
Service Primitives (4 of 4)

Entities use protocols in order to implement their service definitions.

Reference Models: !!!
• The OSI Reference Model: From theory!
• The TCP/IP Reference Model: De facto Standard!
– Physical Layer
– The Link Layer
– The Internet Layer
– The Transport Layer
– The Application Layer

• A critique of the OSI model and protocols

• Critique of the TCP/IP reference model and protocols
• The model used in this book
The OSI Reference Model (1 of 2)
• Principles for the seven layers
– Layers created for different abstractions
– Each layer performs well-defined function
– Function of layer chosen with definition of international standard
protocols in mind
– Minimize information flow across interfaces between boundaries
– Number of layers should be optimum

• Three concepts central to the OSI model:

– Services
– Interfaces
– Protocols
The OSI Reference Model (2 of 2)

The OSI model has seven layers.

The TCP/IP Reference Model (1 of 4)
• The Link Layer
– Lowest layer in the model
– Describes what links must do to meet the needs of this
connectionless internet layer

• The Internet Layer

– Permits hosts to inject packets into any network and have them
travel independently to the destination
– Defines an official packet format and protocol called IP (Internet
Protocol)
– Defines a companion protocol called ICMP (Internet Control
Message Protocol) that helps IP function
The TCP/IP Reference Model (2 of 4)
• The Transport Layer
– The layer above the internet layer in the TCP/IP model
– Uses two end-to-end transport protocols
▪TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)
▪UDP (User Datagram Protocol)

• The Application Layer

– Contains all the higher-level protocols
The TCP/IP Reference Model (3 of 4)

The TCP/IP layers loosely align with the OSI model.

The TCP/IP Reference Model (4 of 4)

The relation of IP, TCP, and UDP protocols are illustrated. We will study these.
A Critique of the OSI Model and Protocols
(1 of 2)
• Bad timing
– Competing TCP/IP protocols were already in widespread use

• Bad design
– Both the model and the protocols are flawed

• Bad implementations
– Initial implementations were huge, unwieldy, and slow

• Bad politics
– Widely thought to be the creature of the European
telecommunication ministries, the European Community, and
later the U.S. Government
A Critique of the OSI Model and Protocols
(2 of 2)

To prevent bad timing, it is essential that the standards be written in the trough in
between the tops of the waves known as the two ‘‘elephants."
A Critique of the TCP/IP Reference Model
and Protocols
• Model does not clearly distinguish the concepts of
services, interfaces, and protocols
• Model is not at all general
– Poorly suited to describing any other protocol stack

• The link layer is not really a layer at all in the normal

sense of the term
• Model does not distinguish between the physical and
data link layers
• Other protocol implementations were distributed free
The Model Used in this course!

This model has five layers, running from the physical layer up through the
link, network and transport layers to the application layer.
Standardization
• Standardization and open source
• Who’s who in the telecommunications world
• Who’s who in the international standards world
• Who’s who in the Internet standards world
Standardization and Open Source
• Standards define what is needed for interoperability
– No more, no less

• WiFi Alliance
– Interoperability within the 802.11 standard

• ONF (Open Networking Foundation)

– Interoperability of protocols to control programmable network
switches

• Two categories of standards

– De facto standards just happened, without any formal plan
– De jure standards are adopted through the rules of some formal
standardization body
Who’s Who in the Telecommunications
World
• Two extremes
– Small privately owned telephone companies
– National government has a complete legal monopoly on all
communication

• PTT (Post, Telegraph & Telephone administration)

– Branch of government having telecommunication authority

• ITU (International Telecommunication Union)

– United Nations agency
– ITU-T: Telecommunications Standardization Sector
Who’s Who in the International Standards
World (1 of 2)
• ISO (International Standards Organization)
– Publishes and produces international standards

• NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)

– Part of the U.S. Department of Commerce

• IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)

– The largest professional organization in the world
– IEEE’s 802 committee has standardized many kinds of LANs
Who’s Who in the International Standards
World (2 of 2)

The important ones are marked with *. The ones marked with † gave up and stopped.
Who’s Who in the Internet Standards
World
• IAB (Internet Activities Board) oversaw ARPANET
– Renamed Internet Architecture Board
– Communicated with RFCs (Request For Comments)
– IRTF (Internet Research Task Force) subsidiary to IAB
– IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) subsidiary to IAB
– More formal standardization process was adopted

• Internet Society
– Created, populated by people interested in the Internet

• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

– Develops protocols and guidelines to facilitate long-term growth
of the Web
Policy, Legal, and Social Issues (1 of 3)
• Online speech
– Communications Decency Act protects some platforms from
federal criminal prosecution
– DMCA takedown notices (after the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act) threaten legal action

• Net neutrality
– ISPs should provide equal quality of service to a given type of
application traffic, regardless of who is sending that content
– No blocking, no throttling, no paid prioritization, transparency
– Does not prevent an ISP from prioritizing any traffic
– Zero rating: ISP might charge its subscribers according to data
usage but grant an exemption for a particular service
Policy, Legal, and Social Issues (2 of 3)
• Security
– DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack
– Botnets
– Spam email
– Phishing

• Privacy
– Profiling and tracking users by collecting data about their
network behavior over time
– Storing cookies in Web browser
– Browser fingerprinting
– Mobile services location privacy
Policy, Legal, and Social Issues (3 of 3)
• Disinformation
– Ill-considered, misleading, or downright wrong information
– Fake news
– Challenges
▪How does one define disinformation in the first place?
▪Can disinformation be reliably detected?
▪What should a network or platform operator do about it once it is detected?
Metric Units

The principal metric prefixes.