MODULE - 5

Application Layer
Introduction
• Application layer is the top most layer in OSI (Layer 7) and TCP/IP
(Layer 5).
• This layer is for applications which are involved in communication
systems.
• Communication is provided using logical connection.
• The application layer and the end user can communicate with
software applications and protocols.
 The application layer in the OSI model is the closest layer to
the end user which means that the application layer and end
user can interact directly with the software application.

Application
The application layer programs are based on client and
servers.

layer
This layer also serves as a window for the application services
to access the network and for displaying the received
information to the user. Ex: Application – Browsers, Skype
Messenger etc.

Example: Web Browsers

Functions of Application layer
The Application layer includes the following functions:

• Identifying communication partners: The application layer identifies the

availability of communication partners for an application with data to
transmit.
• Determining resource availability: The application layer determines whether
sufficient network resources are available for the requested communication.
• Synchronizing communication: All the communications occur between the
applications requires cooperation which is managed by an application layer.

Course Name & Course Code

Services of Application Layers
• Network Virtual terminal: An application layer allows a user to log on to a
remote host.
• File Transfer, Access, and Management (FTAM): An application allows a
user to access files in a remote computer, to retrieve files from a computer
and to manage files in a remote computer.
• Addressing: When a client made a request to the server, the request
contains the server address and its own address.
• Mail Services: An application layer provides Email forwarding and storage.
Services of Application Layers contd..
• Directory Services: An application contains a distributed database
that provides access for global information about various objects and
services.

• Authentication: It authenticates the sender or receiver's message or

both.
Standard & Non-Standard Protocols
• To provide smooth operation of the Internet, protocols used in four
layers need to be standardized and documented.

• They normally become part of the package that is included in the

operating systems.

• Application-layer protocols can be standard or non standard.

Standard Application-Layer Protocols
• Several Protocols are standardized and documented by Internet
Authorities.

• Each protocol is a software that interacts with user and the

transport layer to provide the service.

• Ex: HTTP, HTTPS, DNS

Non-Standard Application Layer Protocols
• A Non-Standard protocol, does not need approval of Internet
authorities.

• Used privately for communication.

• A private company can create a new customized application protocol

for communication.
Application Layer Paradigms
• To use the internet, there is a need for two application programs
located in two different places.
• One running on a computer somewhere in the world
• Another running on a computer somewhere else
• The relationship between these two programs can be of the
following:
• Client-Server Paradigm
• Peer-to-Peer Paradigm
• Mixed Paradigm
Traditional Paradigm: Client - Server
• Most popular paradigm.
• The service provider is an application program called Server.
• Server continuously wait for another application program called Client.
• Client makes a connection through the internet and ask for the service.
• Server process must be running all the time.
• Client process runs only when it needs to receive the service.
Characteristics Of Client-server architecture
● In Client-server architecture, clients do not directly communicate with
each other. For example, in a web application, two browsers do not
directly communicate with each other.
● A server is fixed, well-known address known as IP address because the
server is always on while the client can always contact the server by
sending a packet to the sender's IP address.
 Disadvantages
• The whole communication depends on the server.

• If the server fails, none of the requests can be processed.

• There must be a service provider willing to accept the cost to create a

powerful server for a specific service.

• If all the clients request simultaneously, server may get overloaded.

New Paradigm: Peer-to-Peer
• No need of server processes waiting for clients.
• Responsibility is shared between the peers.
• Ex 1 : Telephone System, sharing a file.
• Ex 2 : Skype, BitTorrent.
• Disadvantages:
• Difficult to create secure communication.
• Not all applications can use this paradigm.
 It has no dedicated server in a data center.

The peers are the computers which are not owned by the service

P2P (peer- provider.

to-peer) Most of the peers reside in the homes, offices, schools, and
universities.

architecture The peers communicate with each other without passing the
information through a dedicated server, this architecture is known
as peer-to-peer architecture.

The applications based on P2P architecture includes file sharing and

internet telephony.
 Self scalability: In a file sharing
system, although each peer generates
a workload by requesting the files,
each peer also adds a service capacity
by distributing the files to the peer.
Features of P2P
architecture
Cost-effective: It is cost-effective as it
does not require significant server
infrastructure and server bandwidth.
Mixed Paradigm
• An application may choose to use a mixture of the two paradigms by
combining the advantages of both.

• For example, a light-load client-server communication can be used to

find the address of the peer that can offer a service.

• When the address of the peer is found, the actual service can be
received from the peer by using the peer-to-peer paradigm.
Client Server Model
• Client-Server model is a network architecture that describes how
servers interact with network devices.
• In this mode of interaction a program sends a request to another
program and awaits for a response.
• Requesting program is called client.
• Answering program is called server.
Client Server Model
Components of Client Server Model
• The main three components of Client-Server Model are:
• Client
• Server
• Networking devices.
Components of Client Server Model
• Client
• Computer that connects to and uses the resources of a remote computer or
server. Resources can be files, information, internet, processing power etc.
• Server
• Computer that provides services to the network.
• Networking devices
• Physical and wireless networking devices like hubs, switches, routers etc.
Working of Client-Server Model
Examples
• Mail Servers:
• Used for sending and receiving emails.
• File Servers
• Centralized location for the files (cloud)
• Web Servers
• Servers hosting different websites.
Advantages
• Centralized
• Security
• Performance
• scalability
Disadvantages
• Clients are prone to virus, can be uploaded into the server.
• Servers are prone to DoS attack.
Types of Client-Server Architecture
• There are different types of architecture in client-server model:
• 1-tier Architecture
• 2-tier Architecture
• 3-tier Architecture
• N-tier Architecture
1-tier Architecture
• All client or server configuration settings, UI environment, data logic is
on the same system.
• Ex: MS office, MP3 player
2-tier Architecture
• UI is stored in client machine and database is in server.
• Ex: Online ticket reservation system
3-tier Architecture
• Contains middleware, and request sent by client is processed by
middle layer and request is given to server.
N-Tier Architecture
• Also known as Multi Tier Architecture.
World Wide Web (WWW)
 Web was first proposed by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 at CERN.
 The commercial Web started in the early 1990s.
 The Web today is a repository of information in which the documents, called web
pages.
 The linking of web pages was achieved using a concept called hypertext
 Today, the term hypertext, coined to mean linked text documents, has been
changed to hypermedia, to show that a web page can be a text document, an
image, an audio file, or a video file.
 Architecture
 The WWW today is a distributed client-server service, in which a client using a
browser can access a service using a server.

 The service provided is distributed over many locations called sites. Each site holds
one or more web pages.

 Each web page, however, can contain some links to other web pages in the same or
other sites.

 In other words, a web page can be simple or composite.

 A simple web page has no links to other web pages.

 A composite web page has one or more links to other web pages.

 Each web page is a file with a name and address.

Web Client (Browser)

 A variety of vendors offer commercial browsers that interpret and display a web page,
and all of them use nearly the same architecture.

 Each browser usually consists of three parts: a controller, client protocols, and
interpreters.

 The controller receives input from the keyboard or the mouse and uses the client
programs to access the document.

 After the document has been accessed, the controller uses one of the interpreters to
display the document on the screen.
Web Client (Browser) cont..
 The client protocol can be one of the protocols described later, such as HTTP or
FTP. The interpreter can be HTML, Java, or JavaScript, depending on the type of
document. Some commercial browsers include Internet Explorer, Netscape
Navigator, and Firefox.
Web Server
 The web page is stored at the server.
 Each time a request arrives, the corresponding document is sent to the client.
 To improve efficiency, servers normally store requested files in a cache in memory;
memory is faster to access than a disk.
 A server can also become more efficient through multithreading or multiprocessing.
 In this case, a server can answer more than one request at a time. Some popular web
servers include Apache and Microsoft Internet Information Server.
Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
 A web page, as a file, needs to have a unique identifier to distinguish it from other web
pages. we need four identifiers to define the web page.

 Protocol: most of the time the protocol is HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol), we can also
use other protocols such as FTP (File Transfer Protocol).

 Host: The host identifier can be the IP address of the server or the unique name given to the
server.

 Port:The port, a 16-bit integer, is normally predefined for the client-server application.

 Path: The path identifies the location and the name of the file in the underlying operating
system. The format of this identifier normally depends on the operating system.
 HTTP
● HTTP stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol.

● It is a protocol used to access the data on the World Wide Web (WWW).

● The HTTP protocol can be used to transfer the data in the form of plain text,
hypertext, audio, video, and so on.

● HTTP transfers the files from one host to another host.

 HTTP
• HTTP is an application Layer protocol, used to retrieve web pages
from the web.
• A HTTP client sends a request and a HTTP server returns a response.
• HTTP uses TCP which is connection-oriented and reliable protocol.
• A connection is established before communication and the
connection is terminated after communication.
Persistent and Non-persistent Connections
• To retrieve a web object, a TCP connection is made.
• If the objects are located on different servers, then different
connections are established.
• However, if the objects are located on same server, then any of these
two following can happen:
• Retrieve each object using new TCP connection (Non-persistent).
• Make a single TCP connection and retrieve all the objects (Persistent).
Non-persistent Connection
• In a non-persistent connection, one TCP connection is made for each
request/response.
• Earlier to HTTP 1.1, specified non-persistent connections.
• The following steps happen:
• Client opens a TCP connection and sends a request.
• Server sends the response and closes the connection.
• Client reads the data with EOF marker and closes the connection.
Non-persistent Connection
Persistent Connections
• HTTP version 1.1, specifies persistent connection by default. It can
be changed by the user.
• In this mode of connection, server leaves the connection open for
more requests after sending a response.
• Server closes the connection at the request of a client or because of
time out.
• Time and resources are saved using these connections.
Persistent Connections
 HTTP Transactions
• The client initiates a transaction by sending a request message to
the server.
• The server replies to the request message by sending a response
message.
Messages
 HTTP messages are of two types: request and response. Both the message types follow the same
message format.

 Request Message: The request message is sent by the client that consists of a request line,
headers, and sometimes a body.

 Response Message: The response message is sent by the server to the client that consists of a
status line, headers, and sometimes a body.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
 File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the standard protocol provided by TCP/IP for copying a file from
one host to another.

 The client has three components: the user interface, the client control process, and the client data
transfer process.

 The server has two components: the server control process and the server data transfer process.
FTP has two connections,
1. Control Connection
2. Data Connection

Control Connection:
 The control Connection transfer a line of command or line of response at a time.
 The control Connection is made between the control processes.
 The control Connection remains connected during the entire interactive FTP session.

Data Connection:
 The data connection uses very complex rules as data types may vary.
 The Data connection is made between the data transfer processes.
 The data connection opens when a command comes for transferring the files and
closes when the file is transferred.
 E-Mail
 Electronic Mail often abbreviated as E-mail, is a method of exchanging digital
messages, designed primarily for human use.

 E-mail systems based on a store & forward model in which E-mail server systems
accept, forward, deliver and store messages on behalf of users, who only need to
connect to the e-mail infrastructure

 To deliver mail, a mail handling system must use an addressing system with
unique addresses.
 In the Internet, the address consists of two parts: a local part and a domain
name, separated by an @ sign
Protocol used in E-mail
 What is SMTP ?
• Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is an Internet Standard for electronic mail (email)
transmission.
• SMTP is a TCP/IP protocol used in sending and receiving e-mail.
• Users typically use a program that uses SMTP for sending e-mail and either POP3 or IMAP
for receiving e-mail.
• SMTP communication between mail servers uses TCP port 25. Mail clients on the other
hand, often submit the outgoing emails to a mail server on port
587. A few Web email services, such as Gmail, use the unofficial TCP port 465 for SMTP.
• SMTP is an application layer protocol.
 Protocol Overview
• SMTP is a connection-oriented, text-based protocol in which a mail sender
communicates with a mail receiver by issuing command strings and supplying necessary
data over a reliable ordered data stream channel, typically a Transmission Control
Protocol (TCP) connection.
• An SMTP session consists of commands originated by an SMTP client (sender) and
corresponding responses from the SMTP server (receiver) so that the session is opened,
and session parameters are exchanged.
• The sender’s, user agent prepare the message and send it to the MTA(Message Transfer
Agent). The MTA functioning is to transfer the mail across the network to the receiver’s
MTA.
Model of SMTP system
 Sending Email
• Mail is send by a series of request and response messages between the
client and a server.
• The message which is send across consists of a header and the body.
• A null line is used to terminate the mail header. Everything which is after
the null line is considered as body of the message which is a sequence
of ASCII characters.
• The message body contains the actual information read by the receipt.
 Receiving Email
• The user agent at the server side checks the mailboxes at a particular time of
intervals. If any information is received it informs the user about the mail.
• When user tries to read the mail it displays a list of mails with a short description
of each mail in the mailbox.
• By selecting any of the mail user can view its contents on the terminal.
 SMTP Transaction Commands
• HELO / EHLO - It initiate a new transaction between client and server.
• RSET - to reset the SMTP connection to the initial state in which the sender
and recipient buffers are erased and the connection is ready to begin a new
mail transaction.
• NOOP - an empty ("no operation") message designed as a kind of ping to
check for responsiveness of the other end of the session
• QUIT - terminates the protocol session
 SMTP Transaction Commands
• MAIL command, to establish the return address, also called return-path.
• RCPT command, to establish a recipient of the message.This command can be
issued multiple times, one for each recipient. These addresses are also part of the
envelope.
• DATA to signal the beginning of the message text; the content of the message, as
opposed to its envelope. It consists of a message header
and a message body separated by an empty line. DATA is actually a group of
commands, and the server replies twice:
1. once to the DATA command itself, to acknowledge that it is ready to receive the
text
2. second time after the end-of-data sequence, to either accept or reject the entire
message.
 SMTP Connection
(Client) (Server)
Commands
 SMTP Transport
Example
S: 220 smtp.example.com ESMTP •C: From: "Bob Example"
Postfix
C: HELO relay.example.com •<[email protected]>
S: 250 smtp.example.com, I am glad to
meet you
•C: To: Alice Example <ali
C: MAIL FROM:<[email protected]> [email protected]>
0500 C: Cc:
S: 250 Ok
C: RCPT TO:<[email protected]> [email protected]
C:
S: 250 Ok •C: Date: Tue, 15 January 2008
C: RCPT TO:<[email protected]> C: .
16:02:43 -
S: 250 Ok
C: DATA C: QUIT
S: 354 End data with •S:C:221
Subject:
Bye Test message
<CR><LF>.<CR><LF> {The server closes the connection}

•C: Hello Alice. This is a

 Limitations of SMTP
 Security matters f o r SMTP a r e worse. Its usefulness is l i m i t e d by its
simplicity.
 Transmission o f binary f i l e s using SMTP is not possible without converting into
tex t files. Use MIME t o send m a i l in o t h e r format.
 It is l i m i t e d t o 7-bit ASCII characters only.

 SMTP servers may r e j e c t m a i l messages beyond some specific length.

BASIS FOR COMPARISON SMTP POP3
Basic It is message transfer agent. It is message access agent.

Full form Simple Mail Transfer Post Office Protocol version

Protocol. 3.
Implied Between sender and sender Between receiver and
mail server and between receiver mail server.
sender mail server and
receiver mail server.

work It transfers the mail from It allows to retrieve and

senders computer to the organize mails from mailbox
mail box present on on receiver mail server to
receiver's mail server. receiver's computer.
 POP3 and IMAPV4
 The f i r s t and the second stages o f m a i l d e l i v e r y use SMTP. However,
SMTP is not involved in the t h i r d stage because SMTP is a push p r o t o c o l ;
i t pushes the message f r o m the client t o the server.

 In o th e r words, the direction o f the b u l k data (messages) is f r o m the

client t o the server.

 On the o th e r hand, the t h i r d stage needs a p u l l p r o t o c o l ; the client must

p u l l messages f r o m the server. The direction o f the b u l k data are f r o m
the server t o the client. The t h i r d stage uses a message access agent.
 Stages of Mail Delivery

There a r e 3 stages in M a i l Delivery:

 The f i r s t and the second stages o f m a i l d e l i v e r y use SMTP( push messages)

 The t h i r d stage o f m a i l d e l i v e r y use POP3 o r IMAP4(pull messages)

 What is
POP?
• The Post Office Protocol (POP3) is an
Internet standard protocol working on
Application Layer used by local email
software to retrieve emails from a
remote mail server over a TCP/IP
connection.
History Of Pop
• The Post Office Protocol has been updated 2 times since it was first published.
A rough history of POP is

• POP : Post Office Protocol: published 1984

• POP2: Post Office Protocol: published 1985

• POP3: Post Office Protocol: published 1988.

• So, POP3 means "Post Office Protocol – Version 3". Since 1988, POP3
has been the active version.
 Pop 3
 POP3 is simple and l i m i t e d in functionality.
 Need POP3 c li en t on user machine and POP3 server on the m a i l server machine.
 It is a p u l l p r o t o c o l ; the c l i e n t must p u l l messages f r o m the server.
 The direction o f the b u l k data ar e f r o m the server t o the client.
 It is a message access agent.
 POP 3

 Pop3 has t w o modes: keep mode and delete mode

 In d e l ete mode m a i l is deleted f r o m mailbox a ft e r each retrieval.
 In keep mode, m a il remains in mailbox a ft e r each retrieval.
Advantages:
 Simple p r o t o c o l
 Easier t o implement
 Copies a l l messages when connection is made.

Disadvantages:
 Don’t a l l o w user t o organize m a i l s on server.
 Don’t a l l o w user t o p a r t i a l l y check the contents o f m a i l b e f o r e downloading.
 How Does POP Work?
• Incoming messages are stored at a POP server until the user
logs in using an email client and downloads the messages to
their computer. After user downloads the message, it is
deleted from the server.

• While SMTP is used to transfer email messages from server to

server, POP is used to collect mail with an email client from a
server and does not include means to send messages.
Common Clients Using POP3
• Eudora

• Gmail

• Outlook Express

• Mozilla Thunderbird

• Netscape

• Internet Explorer
 IMAP4
 As its name implies, IMAP a l l o w s us t o access email messages wherever
we ar e .
 Basically, email messages are s t o r e d on servers. Whenever we heck
inbox, o u r email c l i e n t contacts the server t o connect with
messages.
 When we r e a d an email message using IMAP, we aren't a c t u a l l y
downloading o r storing i t on computer; instead, we ar e reading i t o f f o f
the server.
 As a result, it's possible t o email f r o m s ev er al d i ff e r e n t devices
without missing a thing.
 It as an intermediary between email client and email server.
 When you sign into an email client l i k e M i c r o s o f t Outlook, it
contacts the email server using IMAP.
 The headers o f a l l o f your email messages are then
displayed.
 If you choose t o read a message, it is quickly downloaded so
that you can see it - emails are not downloaded unless you
need t o open them.
 Advantages of imapv4
 A user can check the email header p r i o r t o downloading
 A user can search the contents o f the email f o r a specific string
o f characters p r i o r t o downloading
 A user can p a r t i a l l y d o w n l o a d email ( h e l p f u l i f email contains
huge attachments and connection is s l o w )
 A user can create, delete, o r rename mailboxes on the
m a i l server
 A user can create a hierarchy o f mailboxes in a f o l d e r f o r email
storage
 It a l l o w s us t o access email messages f r o m anywhere,
and f ro m many diff erent devices as we want.

 It only downloads a message when we click on it. As a

result, you do not have t o wait f o r a l l o f your new
messages t o d o w n lo a d f r o m the server before you can
read them.

 Attachments are not automatically downloaded with IMAP.

As a result, you're able t o check your messages a l o t more
quickly and have greater c o n t r o l over which attachments
are opened.

 Finally, IMAP can be used o ffl i n e just l i ke POP - you can

basically enjoy the benefits o f both p ro t o c o l s in one.
 BASIS FOR COMPARISON POP3 IMAP
Basic To read the mail ithas to be The mail content can be checked
downloaded first. partially before downloading.

Organize The user can not organize mails The user can organize the mails
in the mailbox of the mail server. on the server.
Folder The user can not create, delete The user can create, delete or
or rename mailboxes on a mail rename mailboxes on the mail
server. server.

Content A user can not search the content A user can search the content of
of mail for prior downloading. mail for specific string of
character before downloading.

Partial Download The user has to download the The user can partially download
mail for accessing it. the mail if bandwidth is limited.
Functions POP3 is simple and has limited IMAP is more powerful, more
functions. complex and has more features
over POP3.
TELNET
 TELNET is an abbreviation for terminal network.

 It is a standard TCP/IP protocol for virtual terminal service

 It is a general purpose client/server application program.

 TELNET enables the establishment of a connection to a remote system in such a way that
the local terminal appears to be a terminal at the remote system.

 In otherwords, it allows the user to log on to a remote computer. After logging on, user can
use the services available on the remote computer and transfer the results back to the
local computer.
 Logging:
 To access the system, user logs into the system with user-id. The system also includes
password checking to prevent an unauthorized user accessing the resources.

 Logging process can be local logging or remote logging.

local logging

 When a user logs into a local system, it is called local logging.

 As a user types at a terminal or at a workstation running a terminal

emulator, the keystrokes are accepted by the terminal driver.

 The terminal driver passes the characters to the operating system.

 The operating system, in turn, interprets the combination of

characters and invokes the desired application program or utility
Remote logging
 when a user wants to access an application program or utility located on a remote
machine, she performs remote logging.

 The user sends the keystrokes to the terminal driver where the local operating system accepts
the characters but does not interpret them.

 The characters are sent to the TELNET client, which transforms the characters into a universal
character set called Network Virtual Terminal (NVT) characters (discussed below) and delivers
them to the local TCP/IP stack.
 The commands or text, in NVT form, travel through the Internet and arrive at the
TCP/IP stack at the remote machine.

 Here the characters are delivered to the operating system and passed to the TELNET
server, which changes the characters to the corresponding characters understandable
by the remote computer.

 However, the characters cannot be passed directly to the operating system because
the remote operating system is not designed to receive characters from a TELNET
server; it is designed to receive characters from a terminal driver. The solution is to
add a piece of software called a pseudoterminal driver, which pretends that the
characters are coming from a terminal.
Network Virtual Terminal (NVT)
 The client TELNET translates characters (data or commands) that come from the local terminal
into NVT form and delivers them to the network.

 The server TELNET, on the other hand, translates data and commands from NVT form into the
form acceptable by the remote computer.
 NVT uses two sets of characters, one for data and one for control. Both are 8-bit
bytes as shown in Figure.

 For data, NVT normally uses what is called NVT ASCII. This is an 8-bit character
set in which the seven lowest order bits are the same as US ASCII and the
highest order bit is 0.

 To send control characters between computers (from client to server or vice

versa), NVT uses an 8-bit character set in which the highest order bit is set to 1.
 Domain Name System

• DNS Overview:-
• Uses:-
• Domain Name:-
• Name Server:-
• Types of DNS:-
1)Generic Domain:
2)Country Domain:
3)Inverse Domain:
 DNS Overview

• On the Internet, the Domain Name System (DNS) associates various sorts
of information with domain names

– Serves as the "phone book" for the Internet

– Translates human-readable computer hostnames into IP addresses

• Required by networking equipment to delivering information

– Also stores other information

• Such as the list of mail exchange servers that accept email for a given
domain.
• By providing a worldwide keyword-based redirection
service, the Domain Name System is an essential component
of the modern Internet
 DNS:-
• It stands for domain name system.
• The naming scheme used in the internet is called DNS.
• To identify an entity the internet uses the IP address.
• Which identifies connection of computer to internet.
• But user to use names of numeric address because to remember numeric
address are difficult compare to names.
• We need a system that can map a name to an address or an address to name.

• So, the naming scheme used in the internet is called the DNS.

• In DNS name must be unique because the address are unique.

• In DNS names are defined in an inverted tree structure with the root at the top.
• Fig:- DNS

root
org
net edu com uk

gwu ucb cmu bu mit

cs ece
cmcl

• Each node has maximum 63 character.

 Uses:

• The most basic use of DNS is to translate

hostnames to IP addresses.
– Very much like a phone book
– For example, what is the internet address of
en.wikipedia.org?
• The Domain Name System can be used to tell you it is
66.230.200.100
 Domain Name:
• Each node in the tree has a domain name.
• It is separated by dots.
• Ex:- Challanger . Atc . Fhda . edu

Domain name
 Name Server:
• Distribute the information among computer called
DNS server.
• DNS allows domain to be divided future into smaller
domains.
• Each server can responsible for domain.
ROOT SERVER

ARPA server EDU COM US

server server server
 TYPES:
Generic Domain:-
• It defines registered hosts according to their behavior.
• Each node in the tree defines a domain.
• It has node 3 character name.
• Fig:-

ROOT SERVER

int can edu gov org

fhda

atc

chal Chal.atc.fhda.edu
• Country Domain:- It uses two character country abbreviation in
place of three character abbreviation

at first level. ROOT LEVEL

in us zw ae

co

cup

anza Anza.cup.ca.us
Inverse Domain:-

• It used to map an address to a name.

• The inverse domain is to the domain name space with the first level
node called ARPA(advanced research project agency).
• The second level is also one single node named in- addr(for
inverse address).
• The rest of the domain defines IP address.
• For EX: 121.45.34.132.in-addr.arpa
 What is SNMP?
• The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a
framework for managing devices in an internet using the
TCP/IP protocol suite. It provides a set of fundamental
operations for monitoring and maintaining an internet

• Comprised of agents and managers

▫ Agent - process running on each managed node collecting
information about the device it is running on.
▫ Manager - process running on a management workstation
that requests information about devices on the network.
• SNMP is Simple Network Management Protocol.
• This network protocol is used to monitor the health status, disk
utilisation, temprature, no of cpu’s and other parameters of a network
device.
• These network device can be a router, switch, load-balancer, server, etc.
For SNMP there has to be a server which listens on UDP port 514.
•SNMP is based on three basic ideas.
▫A manager checks an agent by requesting information that reflects
the behavior of the agent.

▫A manager forces an agent to perform a task by resetting values in

the agent database.

▫An agent contributes to the management process by warning the

manager of an unusual situation.
Advantages of using SNMP
• Standardized
• Universally supported
• Extendible
• Portable
• Allows distributed management access
• Lightweight protocol
Client Pull & Server Push
• SNMP is a “client pull” model
▫ The management system (client) “pulls” data from the agent (server).

• SNMP is a “server push” model

▫ The agent (server) “pushes” out a trap message to a (client) management
system
 Ports & UDP
• SNMP uses User Datagram Protocol (UDP) as the transport mechanism for
SNMP messages

• Like FTP, SNMP uses two well-known ports to operate:

• UDP Port 161 - SNMP Messages
• UDP Port 162 - SNMP Trap Messages
 The Three Parts of SNMP
• SNMP network management is based on three parts:
– SNMP Protocol
• Defines format of messages exchanged by management systems and agents.
• Specifies the Get, GetNext, Set, and Trap operations

– Structure of Management Information (SMI)

• Rules specifying the format used to define objects managed on the network that the SNMP
protocol accesses

– Management Information Base (MIB)

• A map of the hierarchical order of all managed objects and how they are accessed
 Role of SMI

• SMI defines the general rules for naming objects, defining object types (including
range and length), and showing how to encode objects and values.

• SMI does not define the number of objects an entity should manage or name the
objects to be managed or define the association between the objects and their
values.
 Role of MIB
MIB creates a collection of named objects, their types, and their
relationships to each other in an entity to be managed.