1

How the TCP/IP Protocol Works

Les Cottrell SLAC
Lecture # 1 presented at the 26
th
International Nathiagali Summer College on Physics
and Contemporary Needs, 25
th
June 14
th
July, Nathiagali, Pakistan
Partially funded by DOE/MICS Field Work Proposal on Internet End-to-end
Performance Monitoring (IEPM), also supported by IUPAP
2
Overview
This is not a lecture on how to program TCP/IP,
rather an introduction to how major portions works
IP
Addressing: IP addresses, ARP, routing
ICMP
UDP
TCP: flow control, error recovery, establishment,
diconnect
References:
Internetworking with TCP/IP, volume I, principles, protocols & Architecture,
by Douglas Comer
TCP/IP Illustrated: the protocols, by W. Richard Stevens
Most information also available free via Web searches
3
Internet Protocol (IP RFC-791)
Transport Services
Connectionless packet delivery service
Application services
TCP/IP Internet provides 3 layers of service
Layering allows one to replace one service without affecting
others
IP layer (basic unit of transfer in TCP/IP) provides:
Best-effort (does not discard capriciously), unreliable (no
guarantees)
Packet may be lost, duplicated, out-of-order with no
notification
Connectionless (each packet treated independently)
IP software provides routing
4
Internet datagram
Basic transfer unit

Format of Internet datagram
Datagram header Datagram data area












Vers Type of serv. Total length
0 8 16 31
Identification Flags
24
Hlen
4
Fragment offset
19
TTL Protocol Header Checksum
Source IP address
Destination IP address
IP Options (if any) Padding
Data

5
IP datagram format (cont.)
Vers (4 bits): version of IP protocol (IPv4=4)
Hlen (4 bits): Header length in 32 bit words, without
options (usual case) = 20
Type of Service TOS (8 bits): little used in past, now
being used for QoS
Total length (16 bits): length of datagram in bytes, includes
header and data
Time to live TTL (8bits): specifies how long datagram is
allowed to remain in internet
Routers decrement by 1
When TTL = 0 router discards datagram
Prevents infinite loops
Protocol (8 bits): specifies the format of the data area
Protocol numbers administered by central authority to guarantee
agreement, e.g. TCP=6, UDP=17
6
IP Datagram format (cont.)
Source & destination IP address (32 bits each):
contain IP address of sender and intended recipient
Options (variable length): Mainly used to record a
route, or timestamps, or specify routing
7
IP Fragmentation
How do we send a datagram of say 1400 bytes through a
link that has a Maximum Transfer Unit (MTU) of say 620
bytes?
Answer the datagram is broken into fragments




Router fragments 1400 byte datagrams
Into 600 bytes, 600 bytes, 200bytes (note 20 bytes for IP header)
Routers do NOT reassemble, up to end host
Net 1
MTU=1500
Net 2
MTU=620
Net 3
MTU=1500
8
Fragmentation Control
Identification: copied into fragment, allows destination to
know which fragments belong to which datagram
Fragment Offset (12 bits): specifies the offset in the
original datagram of the data being carried in the fragment
Measured in units of 8 bytes starting at 0
Flags (3 bits): control fragmentation
Reserved (0-th bit)
Dont Fragment DF (1
st
bit):
useful for simple (computer bootstrap) application that cant handle
also used for MTU discovery (see later)
if need to fragment and cant router discards & sends error to source
More Fragments (least sig bit): tells receiver it has got last
fragment
TCP traffic is hardly ever fragmented (due to use of MTU
discovery). About 0.5% - 0.1% of TCP packets are
fragmented .
9
Fragment series composition
NB. If data segment contains its own header that is not
replicated
Offset=0
More frags
Offset=1480
More frags
Offset=2960
More frags
Offset=3440
Last frag
10
Internet Addressing
IP address is a 32 bit integer
Refers to interface rather than host
Consists of network and host portions
Enables routers to keep 1 entry/network instead of 1/host
Class A, B, C for unicast
Class D for multicast
Class E reserved
Classless addresses
Written as 4 octets/bytes in decimal format
E.g. 134.79.16.1, 127.0.0.1

11
Internet Class-based addresses
Class A: large number of hosts, few networks
0nnnnnnn hhhhhhhh hhhhhhhh hhhhhhhh
7 network bits (0 and 127 reserved, so 126 networks), 24 host bits (> 16M
hosts/net)
Initial byte 1-127 (decimal)
Class B: medium number of hosts and networks
10nnnnnn nnnnnnnn hhhhhhhh hhhhhhhh
16,384 class B networks, 65,534 hosts/network
Initial byte 128-191 (decimal)
Class C: large number of small networks
110nnnnn nnnnnnnn nnnnnnnn hhhhhhhh
2,097,152 networks, 254 hosts/network
Initial byte 192-223 (decimal)
Class D: 224-239 (decimal) Multicast [RFC1112]
Class E: 240-255 (decimal) Reserved

12
Subnets
A subnet mask is applied to the host bits to
determine how the network is subnetted, e.g. if the
host is: 137.138.28.228, and the subnet mask is
255.255.255.0 then the right hand 8 bits are for the
host (255 is decimal for all bits set in an octet)
Host addresses of all bits set or no bits set, indicate a
broadcast, i.e. the packet is sent to all hosts.
13
Subnet Mask Conversions
/1 128.0.0.0
/2 192.0.0.0
/3 224.0.0.0
/4 240.0.0.0
/5 248.0.0.0
/6 252.0.0.0
/7 254.0.0.0
/8 255.0.0.0
/9 255.128.0.0
/10 255.192.0.0
/11 255.224.0.0
/12 255.240.0.0
/13 255.248.0.0
/14 255.252.0.0
/15 255.254.0.0
/16 255.255.0.0
/17 255.255.128.0
/18 255.255.192.0
/19 255.255.224.0
/20 255.255.240.0
/21 255.255.248.0
/22 255.255.252.0
/23 255.255.254.0
/24 255.255.255.0
/25 255.255.255.128
/26 255.255.255.192
/27 255.255.255.224
/28 255.255.255.240
/29 255.255.255.248
/30 255.255.255.252
/31 255.255.255.254
/32 255.255.255.255
Prefix
Length
Subnet Mask
Prefix
Length
Subnet Mask
128 1000 0000
192 1100 0000
224 1110 0000
240 1111 0000
248 1111 1000
252 1111 1100
254 1111 1110
255 1111 1111
Decimal Octet Binary Number
14
Address depletion
In 1991 IAB identified 3 dangers
Running out of class B addresses
Increase in nets has resulted in routing table explosion
Increase in net/hosts exhausting 32 bit address space
Four strategies to address
Creative address space allocation {RFC 2050}
Private addresses {RFC 1918}, Network Address
Translation (NAT) {RFC 1631}
Classless InterDomain Routing (CIDR) {RFC 1519}
IP version 6 (IPv6) {RFC 1883}
15
Creative IP address allocation
Class A addresses 64 127 reserved
Handle on individual basis
Class B only assigned given a demonstrated need
Class C
divided up into 8 blocks allocated to regional authorities
208-223 remains unassigned and unallocated
Three main registries handle assignments
APNIC Asia & Pacific www.apnic.net
ARIN N. & S. America, Caribbean & sub-Saharan
Africa www.arin.net
RIPE Europe and surrounding areas www.ripe.net
16
Private IP Addresses
IP addresses that are not globally unique, but used
exclusively in an organization
Three ranges:
10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255 a single class A net
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255 16 contiguous class Bs
192.168.0.0 192.168.255.255 256 contiguous class Cs
Connectivity provided by Network Address
Translator (NAT)
translates outgoing private IP address to Internet IP
address, and a return Internet IP address to a private
address
Only for TCP/UDP packets
17
Class InterDomain Routing (CIDR)
Many organization have > 256 computers but few
have more than several thousand
Instead of giving class B (16384 nets) give sufficient
contiguous class C addresses to satisfy needs
< 256 addresses assign 1 class C

< 8192 addresses assign 32 contiguous Class C nets

18
Since assigned contiguously, class C CIDR has same most
significant bits & so only needs one routing table entry
CIDR block represented by a prefix and prefix length
Prefix = single address representing block of nets, e.g
192.32.136.0 = 11000000 00100000 10001000 00000000 while
192.32.143.0 = 11000000 00100000 10001111 00000000


Prefix length indicates number of routing bits, e.g.
192.32.136.0/21 means 21 bits used for routing
CIDR collects all nets in range 192.32.136.0 through 143.0 into a single
router entry reduces router table entries
Removes address classes A, B & C boundaries
For more details see RFC 1519


CIDR & Supernetting
21 bit prefix (2048 host addresses)
19
Address Recognition Protocol (ARP)
IP address is at network layer, need to map it to the
MAC (Ethernet address) link layer address
Use ARP to map 48 bit Ethernet address to 32 bit IP
IP requests MAC address for IP address from local ARP
table
If not there, then an ARP request packet for IP address is
sent using physical broadcast address (all FFFs)
Host with requested IP address responds with its MAC
address as a unicast packet
On return, host updates ARP table and returns MAC
address
ARP cache times out
ARP packets are on top of Ethernet
20
ARP cont.
ARP requests are local only, do not cross routers



Compare local IP and subnet mask => local subnet
Compare local subnet to destination IP
if local, ARP for MAC address
else remote so
if ROUTE entry, ARP for router to subnet
if default route, ARP for default gateway
otherwise, drop packet & return error

134.79.10.17
134.79.15.3 134.79.15.1 134.79.10.1
User A
User B
Subnet 1 Subnet 2
21
Routing
Routers must select next hop for packet
Get route information from other routers via a
routing protocol (RIP, OSPF, EIGRP etc.)
Note the following are non-routable:
private networks: 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12,
192.168.0.0/16
Loopback 127.0.0.0/24
22




ICMP Purpose (RFC 792)
Communicates control & error information
Between routers and hosts
Only reports to original source, suggests corrections
Error messages about error messages are not generated
Never generated due to multicasts
Packet format
Type Code Checksum
0 8 16 31
ICMP data (depends on type/code)

24
23
Main ICMP request types
Type ICMP
0 Echo reply, ping
3 Destination unreachable (code 1 host, code 3 port)
DF and must fragment (code 4)
4 Source quench
5 Redirect (change a route)
8 Echo request
11 Time exceeded (code 0 ttl=0, code 1 reassembly)
12 Parameter problems
24
ICMP Echo/Ping
Very commonly used diagnostic tool
Implementations vary between OS
Build echo request






Identifier used to match request to replies (e.g. pid)
Sequence number, starts at 0 increments by 1 for each ping packet
Used to detect loss, reorder, duplicates
Optional data, sent by requester, returned by replier
Usually contains a timestamp when the request was sent plus pad data




Type=8 Code=0 Checksum
0 8 16 31


Identifier Sequence number
Optional data
24
25
What do we learn from Ping
Host reachable
Host may respond to ping but not be running services
Round trip timing
Lost packets
Packet reordering duplicate packets
Example:

13cottrell@noric05:~>ping -c 4 lhr.comsats.net.pk
PING lhr.comsats.net.pk (210.56.16.10) from 134.79.125.205 : 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from lhr.comsats.net.pk (210.56.16.10): icmp_seq=0 ttl=242 time=716.962 msec
64 bytes from lhr.comsats.net.pk (210.56.16.10): icmp_seq=1 ttl=242 time=720.375 msec
64 bytes from lhr.comsats.net.pk (210.56.16.10): icmp_seq=2 ttl=242 time=725.907 msec
64 bytes from lhr.comsats.net.pk (210.56.16.10): icmp_seq=3 ttl=242 time=710.734 msec

--- lhr.comsats.net.pk ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/mdev = 710.734/718.494/725.907/5.566 ms
26
Unreachable
76cottrell@flora06:~>ping islamabad-server2.comsats.net.pk
ICMP 13 Unreachable from gateway 207.45.205.18
for icmp from FLORA06.SLAC.Stanford.EDU (134.79.16.101)
to islamabad-server2.comsats.net.pk (210.56.8.8)

What does this mean, see exercise?
27
Time Exceeded




Time-to-live has expired at a router (code=0)
ttl sets bound on number routers datagram can transit
Prevents infinite routine loops
Initialized by sender, decremented by 1 each time passes router
When ttl = 0 datagram thrown away & sender notified by ICMP
message
Fragment reassembly timer (code=1)





Type 11 Code Checksum
0 8 16 31


Unused
Internet header & 8 bytes of data
24
28
MTU Discovery
Path MTUs vary
Fragmentation is bad
Small transmission units are bad
SO need to discover optimum MTU (largest without
fragmentation)
Host sends a packet with the Dont Fragment bit set
Length is lesser of local MTU and MSS announced by
remote system
If MTU between hosts requires fragmentation (e.g. at an
intermediate router), then
if an ICMP DF bit set & must fragment then an ICMP message
is sent back to source, saying I cant fragment
try again with smaller size.
29
User Datagram Protocol - UDP
RFC 768, Protocol 17




Provides unreliable, connectionless on top of IP
Minimal overhead, high performance
No setup/teardown, 1 datagram at a time
Application responsible for reliability
Includes datagram loss, duplication, delay, out-of-
sequence, multiplexing, loss of connectivity
IP
Port 1
TCP
UDP
Port 2 Port 1 Port 2
Demux on
IP protocol
Demux on
Port number
Network
Transport
App.
30
UDP Datagram format
Source/destination port: port numbers identify sending & receiving
processes
Port number & IP address allow any application in any computer on Internet to
be uniquely identified
Used to demultiplex datagrams to processes
Ports can be static or dynamic
Static (< 1024) assigned centrally, known as well known ports
Dynamic
Message length in bytes includes the UDP header and data




Source port




Destination port
UDP message len Checksum (opt.)
0
8 16 31 24
Data

31
UDP applications
Message oriented, e.g. SNMP, DNS, time
File system, e.g. NFS, AFS
Lightweight file transfer, e.g. tftp, bootp
32
Transmission Control Protocol -TCP
RFC 768 & host requirements RFC 1122
Reliable stream transport
Connection oriented (full duplex virtual circuit)
Conceptually place call, two ends communicate to agree on details
After agreeing application notified of connection
During transfer, ends communicate continuously to verify data received
correctly
When done, ends tear down the connection
If UDP is like regular mail, TCP is like phone call
Provides buffering and flow control
Takes care of lost packets, out of order, duplicates, long delays
Isolates application program from network details
Jargon
Segment = TCP packet
Socket= source (address + port) + destination (address + port)
33
TCP layering





To ID connection need:
Source: (address, port) AND Destination: (address, port)
Only need one port on host to allow multiple connections, since
each connection will have different (host, port) at other end
E.g. single host can serve multiple telnet connections
Passive open: application contacts OS & indicates will
accept incoming connection, OS assigns port and listens
Active open: application requests OS to connect to an (host,
port)

IP
Port 1
TCP
UDP
Port 2 Port 1 Port 2
Demux on
IP protocol
Demux on
Port number
Network
Transport
App.
IP port 6
34
TCP providing reliability
Positive acknowledgement (ACK) with
retransmission
Sender keeps record of each packet sent
Sender awaits an ACK
Sender starts timer when sends packet
Send pkt 1
Rcv ACK 1
Send pkt 2
Rcv ACK 2
Network messages
Rcv pkt 1
Rcv pkt 2
Send ACK 2
Send ACK 1
Sender site Receiver site
T
i
m
e

35
TCP simple lost packet recovery
Send pkt 1
Start timer
ACK normally
arrives
Rcv ACK 1

Network messages
Pkt should arrive
Rcv pkt 1
Send ACK 1
ACK should be sent
Sender site Receiver site
Loss
Timer expires
Retransmit pkt 1
start timer
36
TCP improving performance
BUT simple ACK protocol wastes bandwidth since it must
delay sending next packet until it gets ACK
Use sliding window







Sender can send 4 packets of data without ACK
When sender gets ACK then can send another packet
Window = unacknowledged packets/bytes
Keeps timer for each packet

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Initial window of 4 packets
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Window slides
Packets successfully sent
Packets sent, awaiting ACK
Packets to be sent
37
Tuning to fill pipe
Optimal window size depends on:
Bandwidth end to end, i.e. min(BW
links
) AKA bottleneck
bandwidth
Round Trip Time (RTT)
For TCP keep pipe full
Window (sometime called pipe) ~ RTT*BW
Can increase bandwidth by
orders of magnitude
Windows also used for flow control
Src
Rcv
t = bits in packet/link speed
RTT
38
Implementation
Sliding window operates at byte level, NOT packet






Receiver keeps similar window to put stream back
together
Since full duplex, altogether 4 windows & pointer
sets
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Current window
Highest byte that can be sent
Bytes sent and acknowledged
3 pointers
Highest byte sent
39
TCP flow control
Windows vary over time
Receiver advertises (in ACKs) how many it can receive
Based on buffers etc. available
Sender adjusts its window to match advertisement
If receiver buffers fill, it sends smaller adverts
Used to match buffer requirements of receiver
Also used to address congestion control (e.g. in
intermediate routers)
40
TCP Segment format










Source/Dest port: TCP port numbers to ID applications at
both ends of connection
Sequence number: ID position in senders byte stream








Source port








Destination port
Sequence number
0
8 16
31
24
Acknowledgement number
4
Hlen
10
Resv Code Window
Urgent ptr Checksum
Options (if any) Padding
Data if any

41
TCP segment format cont.
Acknowledgement: identifies the number of the
byte the sender of this segment expects to receive
next
Hlen: specifies the length of the segment header in
32 bit multiples. If there are no options, the Hlen = 5
(20 bytes)
Reserved for future use, set to 0
Code: used to determine segment purpose, e.g.
SYN, ACK, FIN, URG
42
TCP Segment format- cont
Window: Advertises how much data this station is
willing to accept. Can depend on buffer space
remaining.
Checksum: Verifies the integrity of the TCP header
and data. It is mandatory.
Urgent pointer: used with the URG flag to indicate
where the urgent data starts in the data stream.
Typically used with a file transfer abort during FTP
or when pressing an interrupt key in telnet.
Options: used for window scaling, SACK,
timestamps, maximum segment size etc.
43
TCP timeout
Need a timeout estimate that will work for LANs
(RTT < msec.) to satellite WANs (hundreds of
msec. to secs). RTT can vary a lot with time of day,
day of week, or one second to next.
TCP records time segment sent
and time ACK received
Then calculates RTT sample
Smooth & use to estimate timeout, e.g.
Timeout=beta * RTT
s
Timeout= RTT
s
+ eta{=4}*f(dev(RTT
s
))
Needs to take account of losses, e.g.
New_timeout=gamma{2} * timeout
May 12th
Time of day
44
TCP connection establishment
3 way handshake





Initial sequence numbers (x, y) are chosen randomly
Guarantees both sides ready & know it, and sets
initial sequence numbers, also sets window & mss
Once connection established, data can flow in both
directions, equally well, there is no master or slave

Send SYN seq x
Rcv SYN/ACK
Send ACK y+1
Rcv SYN segment
Rcv ACK segment
Send SYN seq=y, ACK x+1
Site 1
Site 2
45
TCP close connection
Modified 3 way handshake (or 4 way termination)








App tells TCP to close, TCP sends remaining data & waits
for ACK, then sends FIN
Site 2 TCP ACKs FIN, tells its application end of data
Site 2 sends FIN when its app closes connection (may be
long delay (e.g. require human interaction).
(App closes)
Send FIN seq=x
Rcv ACK segment
Rcv FIN segment
Receive ACK segment
Send ACK x=1
(inform app)
Site 1 Site 2
Rcv FIN + ACK seg
Send ACK y+1
(app closes connection)
Send FIN seq=y, ACK x+1
46
More Information
Lectures, tutorials etc:
www.nv.cc.va.us/home/joney/tcp_ip.htm
www.cs.pdx.edu/~jrb/tcpip.lectures.html
www.raleigh.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/EZ306200/CCONTENTS
www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/iaabu/centri4/user/scf4ap1.htm
www.cis.ohio-state.edu/htbin/rfc/rfc1180.html
www.jbmelectronics.com/tcp.htm
Encylopaedia
http://www.freesoft.org/CIE/index.htm
TCP/IP Resources
www.private.org.il/tcpip_rl.html
Understanding IP addresses
http://www.3com.com/solutions/en_US/ncs/501302.html
Configuring TCP (RFC 1122)
ftp://nic.merit.edu/internet/documents/rfc/rfc1122.txt
Assigned protocols, ports etc (RFC 1010)
http://www.es.net/pub/rfcs/rfc1010.txt & /etc/protocols

47
Example: 3 way handshake
atlas> telnet sunstats.cern.ch
atlas is a WNT PC, sunstats is a Sun Solaris 5.6 host
MSS is set in TCP option in a SYN segment,
communicates the MSS the sender wants to receive
len=ip_hlen/tcp_hlen:ip_total_len
Initial Sequence Numbers are randomly selected
Telnet = port 23
W=Receive window size advertises how much data this
host will accept
48
Example: 3 way handshake - cont.
TCP from atlas:1174 to sunstats:23 seq=180839,
A=0, W=8192, SYN [len=5/6:44, opt=020405B4
<opt=2, len=4, mss=0x5B4=1460>]
TCP from sunstats:23 to atlas:1174
seq=1383568304, A=180840, W=64240, SYN/ACK
[len=5/6:44, opt=020405B4]
TCP from atlas:1174 to sunstats:23 seq =180840,
A=1383568305, W=8760 [len=5/5:40, opt=nul]
Notice window size can vary from segment to segment depending
on buffer space available
Notice smaller PC window advertisement
Notice ephemeral port selected by telnet client
Notice acknowledge next expected byte (=seq+1)
0x020405B4: 02 = option type, 04=len, 0x5B4=1460

49
Session start
SLAC>CERN: 256kbyte window,1 stream,
full speed > 30msec, 13MBytes in 20s, 5.1MBytes/s
Rcvr Advertised window
Acks returned by
Rcvr
Segments sent
Congestion window