Chapter 1

Introduction
 What is a Computer Network?
• A collection of transmission hardware and facilities, terminal
equipment, and protocols

• Provides communication that is

– Reliable
– Fair
– Efficient
– From one application to another
• Automatically detects and corrects
– Data corruption
– Data loss
– Duplication
– Out-of-order delivery
• Automatically finds optimal path from source to destination
 Network examples
• Telephone
• Satellite
• TV programs
• Internet
– ftp
– mail
– Chat
– …
 Uses of Computer Networks
• Business Applications- Resource sharing
– Sharing printers, scanners etc.
• Home Applications
– mail, chat
• Mobile Users
– wireless: laptops, PDA, mobile
• Social Issues
 Business Applications of Networks
• A network with two clients and one server.
– Check bank account
– Pay bills
– Reserve ticket

• The client-server model involves requests and replies.

 Home Network Applications
• Access to remote information
– Leaning online, downloading
• Person-to-person communication
– chat, phone
• Interactive entertainment
– games, movies, …
• Electronic commerce
 Home Network Applications
• Peer-to-peer (P2P)
No fixed client and server

• E-commerce
 Social Issues

• Discussions about
– politics,
– religion,
– …

• Hack and robbery

 What A Network Includes
• Transmission hardware
• Special-purpose hardware devices
– interconnect transmission media
– control transmission
– run protocol software

• Protocol software
– encodes and formats data
– detects and corrects problems
 Network Hardware
• Transmission technology (2 types)
– Broadcast links
– Point-to-point links
 Media
• Scale (Types)
– Local Area Networks (LAN)  Wire line
– Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN)
 Wireless
– Wide Area Networks (WAN)
– Wireless Networks
– Home Networks
– Internetworks
 Broadcast Networks
• Broadcast networks have a single communication
channel that is shared by all the machines on the
network
– TV programs…

• Messages (Packets) contain destination address

• Multicasting: A subset of systems can get the
message

• Usually used in small networks like LANs

 Point-to-point
• Individual connections between pairs of
machines.
• There are many paths from one machine to
another
– Need efficient routing algorithms
– Unicasting
• Usually used in large scale networks like WAN
 So …
• Packets
– Messages - the "chunk" of data transmitted from one
machine to the next.

• Addressing
– One to one: Packet contains specific target address.

– Broadcasting: All machines on the network receive and process the

packet.

– Multicasting: A subset of machines receive and process the packet

Classification by scale
 Local Area Networks(LANs)
• Privately owned. Can be up to few kilometers
long; Ex. in a building
• Separated from other n/ws by their:
Size: Restricted. so worst case transmission time is known in
advance.
 Transmission technology: Single channel with multiple
machines connected to it. Run at speeds of 10, 100, or more Mbps.
 Topology: two popular broadcast networks:
• Bus
• Ring
 Local Area Networks (2)
• Topology …
– Bus
• Ethernet (IEEE 802.3):
– Bus based broadcast network with decentralized
control at 10 or 100 Mbps.

– Ring
• Token Ring (IEEE 802.5):
– Ring based broadcast network with token arbitration at
4 or 16 Mbps.

 Low delay. High reliability.

 Metropolitan Area Networks(MANs)
• Larger version of LAN ("city" wide).
– Eg. Cable TV n/w.
– Public or private / data or voice.
– Broadcast - no switches.
– Can be distinguished from LANs based on wiring mechanism.

• Ex. A metropolitan area network based on cable TV

 Wide Area Networks (WANs)
• Networks spanning large distances-Country
• Ex. Relation between hosts on LANs and the subnet.

• Hosts or End Systems:

– Machines running user applications.
 Wide Area Networks
• (Communication) Subnet:
– Connections between hosts - transmission lines + switches.

• Packet switching nodes (Router, Intermediate systems):

– Specialized computers moving data between several inputs
to several outputs.

• The collection of communication lines and routers form a

subnet.

• Store-and-forward/Packet-switched -
– Moving through a series of routers, packets are received at a router,
stored there, then forwarded to the next router.
 Wide Area Networks (3)
• Ex. A stream of packets from sender to receiver.
 Wireless Networks
• Used where computer is mobile or far away from wires.
• 3 categories
– System interconnection
• Interconnected using short-range radio
• Bluetooth
• Use Master- slave paradigm

– Wireless LANs
• Every computer has a radio modem and antenna with
which it can communicate with other systems.

– Wireless WANs
 Wireless Networks
 Wireless LAN
• Bluetooth configuration

• Ex. A flying LAN

 Network Software

• “Layering” is the key word

– Protocol Hierarchies
 Network Software
• Layers (Levels) :
– The concept that network software is organized
functionally into levels. A level on one host talks
to the same level on another host (its peer).

• Protocol :
– The protocol is the rule or standard that a layer
uses to talk to the other layer. An agreement or
standard on the conversation.
 Network Software
• Protocol Hierarchies
– Layers,
Important that each
layer perform specific
actions.

– protocols,

– Interfaces
Defines the services
That one layer offers
another (either up
or down.)
 Network Software
• Ex. Protocol of philosopher-translator-secretary
architecture.
 Network Software
• Ex. Protocol Hierarchies
– information flow supporting virtual communication in layer 5
 Network Software
• Physical Medium:
– Underneath the layers is the wire or fiber or whatever.

• Network architecture:
– A set of layers and protocols. It contains details on what
happens in the layer and what the layers says to its peer.

• Protocol stack:
– A list of protocols used by a system, one protocol per layer.
 Connection-Oriented and Connectionless Services

• Connection oriented service:

– Like the phone system. The system establishes a connection,
uses it, and closes it. Acts like a tube. Data comes out the other
end in the same order as it goes in.
» Connection Setup
» Data Transfer
» Connection Termination

• Connectionless service:
– Like the post office. Each message has the entire address
on it. Each message may follow a different route to its
destination. Ordering not maintained.

» Data Transfer
 Connection-Oriented and Connectionless Services
• Quality of service (QoS):
– Will the message arrive?
• A reliable connection-oriented service guarantees success.
– Message sequence - message boundaries and order are
maintained.
– Byte streams - messages are broken up or combined; flow is
bytes.

• Datagram Service:
– Like Telegram. It's not worth the cost to determine if it actually
arrived. Needs a high probability of arrival, but 100% not required.
Connectionless, no acknowledgment.
• Acknowledged datagram service:
– As above, but improved reliability via acknowledgment. Eg: Registered
letter
• Request-reply service:
– Acknowledgment is in the form of a reply.
 Connection-Oriented and Connectionless Services

• Summary of six different types of service.

 Connection-Oriented and Connectionless Services

• Service Primitives( operations) for

connection-oriented service

• Server executes LISTEN – After executing this the server

process is blocked until a request for connection appears.
• Client process executes CONNECT to establish a
connection with the server.
 Service Primitives( operations) for connection-
oriented service
• The OS then sends a packet to the peer asking it to
connect. (Connect request)
• The client process is suspended until there is a response.
• When the packet arrives at the server, it is processed by
the OS there.
• It checks to see if there is a listener.
– If so, It Unblocks the listener
– Sends back the ack
• The arrival of ack releases the client.
• Now the connection is established!
 Service Primitives( operations) for connection-
oriented service
• The server then execute RECEIVE to prepare to accept
the first request.
• The RECEIVE call blocks the server.
• The client then execute SEND to transmit its request.
• The arrival of the request packet unblock the server
process, so it can process the request.
• Server then execute SEND to return the answer to the
client.
• Finally, the client can use DISCONNECT to terminate the
connection.
 Connection-Oriented and Connectionless Services (5)

• Example: Connection-Oriented
 Services to Protocols Relationship
• Services are primitives that a layer provides for the layer
above it.

• Protocols are rules governing the meaning of

frames/packets/messages exchanged with the peer entity.
 Reference Models
• There are two competing models for how the software is
layered. These are the OSI and the TCP models.

• OSI (Open Systems Interconnection)

– Developed by ISO (International Standards Organization)
– 7 layers

• TCP (Transfer Control Protocol)

– Used in the Arpanet and in the Internet
– 5 layers
Reference Models
OSI Reference Model
 OSI Reference Model
 Application Layer:
– Layer at which user communicate with end system.
– This layer provides some protocols using which application can
communicate with each other.
– Eg: FTP

 Presentation Layer:
– Concerned with format of data exchanged between the end
systems.
– Eg. 32 bits in one machine & 64 bits in the other- conversion
 OSI Reference Model
3. Session Layer:
– Allow users of different machine to create session between
them.
– It can bind different stream belonging to same application.
– Eg: If we are doing video chat, session layer combines video
stream and audio stream.

4. Transport Layer:
– Receive data from session layer and divide it into messages or
segments and pass it to network layer.
– At the receiving end, it make sure that messages are accepted in
correct order.
– They are merged and passed to upper layers.
 OSI Reference Model
5. Network Layer:
– Breaks a message from transport layer into packets and transmit
across the network.
– It is the responsibility of the network layer to make sure the
packets reached at correct destination.- Routing

– Routing: What path is followed by packets from source to

destination. Can be based on a static table, when the
connection is created, or when each packet is sent.

– Congestion: Controls the number packets in the subnet.

 OSI Reference Model
6. Data Link Layer:
– Framing: Breaks apart messages into frames. Reassembles
frames into messages.
– Error handling: solves damaged, lost, and duplicate frames.
– Flow control: keeps a fast transmitter from flooding a slow
receiver.
– Frames are post onto physical layer for transmission.

7. Physical Layer:
– Purpose: Transmits raw bits across a medium.
– Actual data transmission happens here.
 OSI Reference Model
• Data Transmission in the OSI Model
TCP/IP Reference Model
 TCP/IP Reference Model
 Internet Layer
– Connector: Provides packet switched connectionless service.
– Routing :The IP (Internet Protocol) does delivery and congestion
control.

 Transport Layer
– TCP (Transmission Control Protocol): provides a reliable connection
oriented protocol that delivers a byte stream from one node to
another. Guarantees delivery and provides flow control.
– UDP (User Datagram Protocol) provides an unreliable connection-less
protocol for applications that provide their own.
 TCP/IP Reference Model
 Application Layer
– Terminal Telnet
– File transfer FTP
– The Web HTTP
– Mail SMTP
Comparing OSI and TCP/IP Models

Concepts central to the OSI model

• Services
• Interfaces
• Protocols