p194 Interconnection Networks

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DESIGN PRINCIPLESFOR INTERCONNECTION OF NETWORKSBY

A.Dhana Rekha P.Tripura Nagavalli3

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CSE 3

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CSITGUDLAVALLERU ENGINEERING COLLEGEGUDLAVALLERU

ABSTRACT

With the development of individual computer networks comes the need tointerconnect them. Network designers are faced with heterogeneity of networks justthey were previously faced with heterogeneity of computers within a singlenetwork.This paper shows that similar structuring techniques,namely multiplexing,switching, cascading, wrapping and layering, can be applied, and that a set of simple principles can be derived which facilitate greatly the design of the interconnection of computer networks.These simple principles are applied to the analysis of some typicalexamples of network interconnection problems, in areas of addressing, routing, non-equivalent communication services, error control,flow control and terminalaccess.Similar principles could be applied to some unresolved issues in computer network interconnection, such as congestion control or administrative functions. It isfinally claimed that final objective of network interconnection studies are todetermine the set of international standards which are required to make network interconnection straightforward in the near future.

1. Introduction

Data processing is gradually evolving from its original model,to networking anddistributed processing.Computers have been linked into individual networks to satisfyneeds of individual organizations. Now, networks must be interconnected to cater tointer-organizational relationships.Even though this requirement for interconnection of computer networks was identified early, it is only recently that the problem has beenwidely recognized..A set of simple rules can tremendously help to analyse specific

interconnection problems, as well as improve potential interconnectability of anetwork through proper design choices.First question to be raised is "What is specificnetwork interconnection, as opposed to building single network ?".Basically, aninterconnected set of networks can be considered from an external (user's) point of view and from an internal (designer's) point of view.From a user's viewpoint, aninterconnected set of networks is not different from a single network.In particular, twoidentical networks can usually be integrated into a single bigger one. In addition, it isessential to preserve freedom in the design of future computer networks,but still beable to interconnect them with existing ones. In other words, the question is "how tointerconnect heterogeneous networks" rather than "how to build a world widehomogeneous network".Before being faced with the constraint of interconnectingheterogeneous networks, network designers have been faced with the problem of interconnecting heterogeneous computers.The set of techniques developed for thislatter purpose can be used again, with slight adaptations, for interconnectingheterogeneous networks.In this paper,we first briefly gave the set of techniques usedto design heterogeneous computer networks (section 2). In section (3),we mentionedhow these techniques can be applied to network interconnection and which principlescan be derived. This will then be illustrated with a number of concrete examples(sections 4 to 9). We concluded by indicating (section 10) some features which should be included in the design of any network to improve its interconnectability.

2. Structuring techniques

From experience , a few simple and powerful structuring techniques have mergedwhich now form the basis of any computer network architecture, namely :multiplexing, switching, cascading, wrapping and layering. These basic techniquesare briefly reviewed in the following :

Multiplexing

In any network, many resources are concurrently shared among several users or moregenerally among several activities. A multiplexing mechanism will take care of distributing the resource to the various activities which need it (see figure 2-I). Insimple cases the multiplexing mechanism is a local (non-distributed) activity ; i.e., itsdecision concern only local resources and are based on locally available information(e.g., allocation of transmission lines to packets for transmission between adjacentnodes).

Figure 2-I : Multiplexing resources between activitiesSwitching

When one resource is shared among several activities,it must be able to identify whichactivity is concerned with its successive actions,(see figure 2-2) and possibly deducewhere to forward a request for the following actions Switching implies interpretationof addresses and routing of requests.

Figure 2-2 : Addressing actionsCascading

Cascading consists in forming a linear string of entities (see figure 2-3) which forwardrequests along the cascade (e.g., forwarding a packet along the path between sourceand destination in a packet switching network). Cascading is the only way for communication between entities which are not directly connected to each other.

Figure 2-3 : Cascading assemblyWrapping

When functions performed by a set of cooperating entities are not exactly thoserequired by their users, a layer of entities can be added, wrapping the initial set (seefigure 2-4). Entities in this wrapping layer communicate through the initial set and perform the additional or modified functions.

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