Chapter 3: Transport Layer

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Transport Services and Protocols

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 Transport Layer cont. ..
• The transport layer is responsible for the delivery of a message from one
process to another.
Other responsibilities of the transport layer include the following:
Service-point addressing
• Computers often run several programs at the same time.
• For this reason, source-to-destination delivery means delivery not only
from one computer to the next but also from a specific process (running
program) on one computer to a specific process (running program) on the
other.
• The transport layer header must therefore include a type of address
called a service-point address (or port address).
• The network layer gets each packet to the correct computer; the transport
layer gets the entire message to the correct process on that computer.

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Segmentation and reassembly.
• A message is divided into transmittable segments, with each segment
containing a sequence number.
• These numbers enable the transport layer to reassemble the message
correctly upon arriving at the destination and to identify and replace
packets that were lost in transmission.
Connection control.
• The transport layer can be either connectionless or connection
oriented.
• A connectionless transport layer treats each segment as an
independent packet and delivers it to the transport layer at the
destination machine.
• A connection oriented transport layer makes a connection with the
transport layer at the destination machine first before delivering the
packets. After all the data are transferred, the connection is
terminated.
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Flow control
• Like the data link layer, the transport layer is responsible for flow
control.
• However, flow control at this layer is performed end to end rather
than across a single link.
Error control
• Like the data link layer, the transport layer is responsible for error
control.
• However, error control at this layer is performed process-to-
process rather than across a single link.
• The sending transport layer makes sure that the entire message
arrives at the receiving transport layer without error (damage, loss,
or duplication).
• Error correction is usually achieved through retransmission.

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Multiplexing/demultiplexing

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 Transport layer protocols
• The two most common Transport layer protocols of TCP/IP protocol suite are

 Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

 User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
• Both protocols manage the communication of multiple applications. The
differences between the two are the specific functions that each protocol
implements.
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
 Creates a reliable connection between two computers
 a connection-oriented protocol
 TCP guarantees delivery of data and also guarantees that packets will be
delivered in the same order in which they were sent
 Operates in the transport layer of OSI model
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UDP(User Datagram Protocol)
• belongs to the Transport layer of the OSI model
• Unlike TCP, however, UDP is a connectionless transport service.
• In other words, UDP offers no assurance that packets will be received in
the correct sequence.
• It can be useful in situations in which a great volume of data must be
transferred quickly, such as live audio or video transmissions over the
Internet
• The pieces of communication are called datagrams
 Applications that use UDP include:
 Domain Name System (DNS)
 Video Streaming
 Voice over IP (VoIP)
 Applications that use TCP are:
 Web Browsers
 E-mail
 File Transfers 9
TCP and UDP Header Lines

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 Fields belonging to a TCP segment
• Source port—Indicates the port number at the source node. One example
is port 80, which is typically used to accept Web page requests from the
HTTP protocol.
• Destination port—Indicates the port number at the destination node. The
Destination port field is 16 bits long.
• Sequence number —Identifies the data segment’s position in the stream
of data segments already sent. The Sequence number field is 32 bits long.
• Acknowledgment number (ACK)—Confirms receipt of the data via a
return message to the sender. The Acknowledgment number field is 32
bits long.
• TCP header length —Indicates the length of the TCP header. This field is
four bits long.
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• Checksum —Allows the receiving node to determine whether
the TCP segment became corrupted during transmission. The
Checksum field is 16 bits long.
• Options —Specifies special options, such as the maximum
segment size a network can handle. The size of this field can vary
between 0 and 32 bits
• Data —Contains data originally sent by the source node.
• Reserved —A 6-bit field reserved for later use
• Window —Indicates how many bytes the sender can issue to a
receiver while acknowledgment for this segment is outstanding
• Urgent pointer —Indicates a location in the data field where
urgent data resides. This field is 16 bits long.
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 Port Addressing (>netstat)
 Role of Port Numbers in the TCP and UDP protocols
 keep track of the various apps that are communicating
 differentiate segments and datagram for each apps
 How Port Numbers are assigned
 Depending on whether the message is a request or a response
 While server processes have static port numbers assigned to them, clients
dynamically choose a port number for each conversation
 Port Addressing
 Server Side /Statically assigned/
 Client Side /Dynamically assigned/
 When a client application sends a request to a server application, the
destination port contained in the header is the port number that is assigned to
the service daemon running on the remote host
 E.g: HTTP request to a server uses
 Destination port 80 / 8080
 Source randomly generated 49152
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 The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) assigns port numbers
 IANA is responsible for assigning various addressing standards

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 Port Addressing: Types
 Well Known Ports (0 to 1023)
 reserved for services and apps
 Registered Ports (1024 to 49151)
 assigned to user processes or apps
 Dynamic or Private/Ephemeral Ports (49152 to 65535)
 assigned dynamically to client apps when initiating a connection
 Some applications may use both TCP and UDP.
 For example, the low overhead of UDP enables DNS to serve many
client requests very quickly.
 Sometimes, however, sending the requested information may require the
reliability of TCP. In this case, the well known port number of 53 is
used by both protocols with this 15
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 Server process in TCP
 Role of port numbers in establishing TCP sessions and directing
segments to destination & source

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• UDP characteristics & types of communication for which it is
best suited

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• Datagram Reassembly

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