Transmission Control Protocol -Internet Protocol

(TCP/IP) SUITE

The layers in the Transmission Control Protocol -Internet

Protocol (TCP/IP) suite do not exactly match those in the
OSI model. The original TCP/IP protocol suite was defined as
having four layers: host-to network, internet, transport, and
application.
At the physical and data link layers, TCP/IP does not
define any specific protocol. It supports all the
standards and named protocols. A network in a
TCP/IP internetwork can be a local-area network or a
wide-area network.
 NETWORK LAYER PROTOCOLS

At the network layer TCP/IP supports the

Internetworking Protocol (IP). The IP, in turn, uses
four supporting protocols: ARP, RARP, ICMP, and
IGMP
Internetworking Protocol (IP)

The IP is the transmission mechanism used by the TCP/IP

protocols. It is an unreliable and connectionless protocol that
provides no error checking or tracking. IP transports data in
packets called datagrams, each of which is transported
separately. Datagrams can travel along different routes and can
arrive out of sequence or be duplicated. IP does not keep track
of the routes and has no facility for reordering datagrams once
they arrive at their destination.
Internet Control Message Protocol

The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is a mechanism used

by hosts and gateways to send notification of datagram problems
back to the sender. ICMP sends query and error reporting
messages. The ICMP has been designed to compensate for the
following deficiencies of the IP:
1. Lack of error control - The IP protocol has no error-reporting or
error-correcting mechanism. What happens if a router must
discard a datagram because it cannot find a router to the final
destination? What happens if the final destination host must
discard all fragments of a datagram because it has not received all
fragments within a predetermined time limit? These are examples
of situations where an error has occurred and the IP protocol has
no built-in mechanism to notify the original host.
2. Lack of assistance mechanisms- The IP protocol also lacks a
mechanism for host and management queries. A host
sometimes needs to determine if a router or another host is
alive and sometimes a network administrator needs
information from another host or router.
Address Resolution Protocol

The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is used to associate a

logical address with a physical address. On a typical physical
network, such as a LAN, each device on a link is identified by
a physical or station address, usually imprinted on the
network interface card (NIC). ARP is used to find the physical
address of the node when its Internet address is known.
Reverse Address Resolution Protocol

The Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP) allows a

host to discover its Internet address when it knows only its
physical address. It is used when a computer is connected to
a network for the first time.
Internet Group Message Protocol

The Internet Group Message Protocol (IGMP) is used to facilitate

the simultaneous transmission of a message to a group of
recipients. Some processes sometimes need to send the same
message to a large number of receivers simultaneously. This is
called multicasting, which is a one-to-many communication.
Multicasting has many applications. For example multiple travel
agents can be informed of a plane cancellation at the same time.
 TRANSPORT LAYER PROTOCOLS

USER DATAGRAM PROTOCOL (UDP)

The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is a connectionless, unreliable transport

protocol. It does not add anything to the services of IP except to provide
process-to process communication instead of host-to-host communication.
Also, it performs very limited error checking. If a process wants to send a
small message and does not care much about reliability, it can use UDP.
Sending a small message by using UDP takes much less interaction between
the sender and receiver than using TCP or SCTP.
TCP

Unlike UDP, TCP is a connection oriented protocol; it creates a

virtual connection between two TCPs to send data. In addition,
TCP uses flow and error control mechanisms at the transport
level. TCP receives a message or messages from a process, stores
them as a stream of bytes, and sends them in segments. The
duplicate segments are detected, the lost segments are resent,
and the bytes are delivered to the end process in order.
STREAM CONTROL TRANSMISSION PROTOCOL (SCTP)

SCTP is a reliable message oriented protocol. It preserves the

message boundaries and at the same time detects lost data,
duplicate data, and out-of-order data. It also has congestion
control and flow control mechanisms. It provides support for
newer applications such as voice over the Internet
 APPLICATION LAYER PROTOCOLS

FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL (FTP)

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the standard mechanism provided by

TCP/IP for copying a file from one host to another. Although
transferring files from one system to another seems simple and
straightforward, some problems must be dealt with first. For
example, two systems may use different file name conventions.
Two systems may have different ways to represent text and data. Two
systems may have different directory structures. All these problems
are solved by FTP .FTP differs from other client/server applications in
that it establishes two connections between the hosts. One
connection is used for data transfer, the other for control information
(commands and responses). Separation of commands and data
transfer makes FTP more efficient.
The control connection uses very simple rules of
communication which need to transfer only a line of
command or a line of response at a time. The data
connection, on the other hand, needs more complex
rules due to the variety of data types transferred.
However, the difference in complexity is at the FTP level,
not TCP. For TCP, both connections are treated the same.
HTTP

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a protocol used mainly

to access data on the World Wide Web. HTTP functions as a
combination of FTP and SMTP. It is similar to FTP because it
transfers files and uses the services of TCP. However, it is much
simpler than FTP because it uses only one TCP connection. There
is no separate control connection; only data are transferred
between the client and the server.
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. SNMP is an application-level protocol in which
a few manager stations control a set of agents. The protocol is designed
at the application level so that it can monitor devices made by different
manufacturers and installed on different physical networks.
TELNET

Telnet is an abbreviation for TErminaL NETwork. It is the standard

TCP/IP protocol for virtual terminal service as proposed by the
International Organization for Standards (ISO). 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.
TELNET is a general-purpose client/server application program.
DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM (DNS)

DNS is a supporting program that is used by programs such as

e-mail. A user of an e-mail program may know the e-mail
address of the recipient; however, the IP protocol needs the IP
address. The DNS client program sends a request to a DNS
server to map the e-mail address to the corresponding IP
address.
Message Transfer Agent:SMTP

To send a mail, a system must have the client Message Transfer Agent
(MTA). The protocol that defines the MTA client and server in the
Internet is called the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). SMTP is
used two times, between the sender and the sender's mail server and
between the two mail servers. Another protocol is needed between the
mail server and the receiver.
Message Access Agent: Post Office Protocol and Internet Mail Access
Protocol, (POP and IMAP)

The first and the second stages of mail delivery use SMTP. However, SMTP
is not involved in the third stage because SMTP is a push protocol; it
pushes the message from the client to the server. In other words, the
direction of the bulk: data (messages) is from the client to the server. On
the other hand, the third stage needs a pull protocol; the client must pull
messages from the server. The direction of the bulk data is from the
server to the client. The third stage uses a Message Access Agent
POP3

Post Office Protocol, version 3 (POP3) is simple and limited in

functionality. The client POP3 software is installed on the
recipient computer; the server POP3 software is installed on the
mail server. Mail access starts with the client when the user
needs to download e-mail from the mailbox on the mail server.
The client opens a connection to the server on TCP .It then
sends its username and password to access the mailbox.
POP3 is deficient in several ways. It does not allow the user to
organize his/her mails on the server; the user cannot have
different folders on the server. In addition, POP3 does not
allow the user to partially check the contents of the mail
before downloading.
 Internet Mail Access Protocol (IMAP)
IMAP4 provides the following extra functions:

• A user can search the contents of the e-mail for a specific string of

characters prior to downloading.

• A user can partially download e-mail. This is especially useful if

bandwidth is limited and the e-mail contains multimedia with high

bandwidth requirements

• A user can create, delete, or rename mailboxes on the mail server.

•
The user can then list and retrieve the mail messages, one by one. POP3
has two modes: the delete mode and the keep mode. In the delete mode,
the mail is deleted from the mailbox after each retrieval. In the keep mode,
the mail remains in the mailbox after retrieval. The delete mode is normally
used when the user is working at her permanent computer and can save
and organize the received mail after reading or replying. The keep mode is
normally used when the user accesses her mail away from her primary
computer (e.g., a laptop) for later retrieval and organizing.