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LESSON 9:
PROTOCOLS AND NETWORK STANDARDS
Lesson Objectives:
The Objective Of This Lesson Is To Give You An Insight In
To:
Concept of Protocol
Role of protocol
Need of protocol
Communication protocol
Connection oriented protocol
Connection less protocol
What is Protocol
A protocol is the formal code of behavior for a system, or to be
more precise the set form in which data must be presented for
handling by a particular computer configuration. A protocol
defines the set of rules governing the exchange of data between
two entities such as user application programs, file transfer
packages, email etc.
Key Features of Protocols
i. Syntax. This is concerned with the format of the data blocks
ii. Semantics. This includes control data for co-ordination and
error handling
iii. Timing. This allows for speed matching and sequencing.
Roles of Protocol
In any computer network, data communication software
normally perform the following functions for the efficient and
error free transmission of data :
i. Data sequencing: It refers to breaking a long transmission
into blocks and maintaining control. that is along message is
split up into smaller packets of fixed size. These packets are
further fragmented into data frames, this techniques is widely
used in conjunction with error control techniques to reduce the
amount of data that must be retransmitted in case of a detected
error.
ii. Data routing : Routing algorithms are designed to find the
most efficient paths between sources and destinations. They
can handle varying degree of traffic on the present network
configuration with optimum time utilization. Normally, they
are dynamic enough to accommodate network changes and
growth.
iii. Flow control : A communication protocol also prevents a
fast sender from overwhelming a slow receiver. It ensures
resources sharing and protection against congestion by
regulating the flow of data on the communication lines.
iv. Error control : Error detecting and recovering routines are
also an important elements of communication protocols. The
most common methods for correcting errors is to retransmit a
block. This method requires coordination of the two stations
that the block having error is discarded by the receiving station
and is repeated by the transmitting station.
v. Precedence and order of transmission:There are well
defined rules to condition all stations about when to transmit
their data and when to receive data from other stations. It is
ensured that all stations get a chance to use the communication
lines and other resources of the network depending upon the
priorities assigned to them.
vi. Connection establishment : When two stations of a network
want to communicate with each other, the communication
protocol establishes and verifies a connection between the two.
vii. Data security : Providing data security and privacy is also
built into most communication software packages it prevents
access of data by unauthorized users because it is relatively easy
to tap a data communication line.
viii. Log information : Data communications softwares can
also develop log information which consists of all jobs and
data communications tasks that taken place. Such information
is normally used for financial purposes and the various users
of the network are charged accordingly.
Need for Protocol Architecture
When any two computer based entities wish to exchange data
there must exist more than just a physical data path between
the two communicating devices. There has to be some amount
of co-operation between the two devices to enable the data
transfer to take place. Some typical tasks that need to be
performed for the data transfer to take place are:
i. The source system must set up the communication path or
inform a remote network of the identity of the system it
wishes to communicate with
ii. The source system must determine whether the remote system
is ready to accept data
iii. The file transfer application on the source system must make
sure that the file management program within the remote
system is ready to accept the data from the source.
iv. If there is any incompatibility between the two systems file
formats, one of the systems must perform a format
translation.
v. If data are lost, there must be some recovery system.
vi. When the data transfer is complete, the systems must inform
each other of their readiness to break the connection.
vii. The tasks described above are a highly simplified view of the
process that actually takes place and the logic to implement
this co-operation is too complex to be installed as a single
module. Instead, this logic is broken down into a set of sub-
tasks, each of which is implemented separately.
viii. In a protocol architecture, the logic modules are arranged in
a vertical stack. Each layer of this stack performs a subset of
the entire logic necessary to communicate with a remote system.
Layers should be designed so that changes in one layer do not
affect any higher or lower layers.
ix. This stack of logic modules must be implemented in both of
the machines that wish to communicate. Communication is
achieved by corresponding, or peer levels in both machines
communicating with each other. Each of these peer levels
communicate according to a set of rules or conventions that
are known as a protocol.
Communication Protocols
Network architecture also defines communication protocols
that are used by a pair of corresponding layers in different
systems in providing that layers services. A communication
protocol defines the formats of the data units that are
exchanged by two complementary layers in different machines
and documents the rules that govern how those data units are
exchanged.
In a layered architecture, such as TCP/ IP, the user of a protocol
running in a particular layer is generally a process running in the
layer above. For example, the user of protocol running in the
TCP/ IP Internet layer is typically a process running in the transport
layer, and the user of a protocol running in the Transport layer is
typically a protocol
running in the Application layer. The user of a protocol running
in the Application layer is typically the person or application
program employing the internet for communication. An
important set of protocols operating in the Internet and
Transport layers of TCP/ IP architecture provide basic data transfer
services. A communication protocol provides a data transfer service
can provide either a connection-oriented service or connection
less service to a user of that protocol.
1.Connection Oriented Protocols
A process implementing a connection-oriented protocol
provides a service similar to that provided by the telephone
system. It consists of three distinct phases:
Connection establishment (dial a call)
Data transfer (talk over the connection)
Connection release (hang up the phone)
A three-party agreement must be established before
communication can take place. The three parties include the two
communicating partners and the data transfer service itself. An
exchange of messages that implements a procedure called a
handshake generally takes place between the processes
implementing the protocol in each of the hosts in order to set
up an association, called a connection, between them.
With a connection-oriented protocol, data transfer always involves
a pair of communicating partners. If a process wishes to transmit
a message to two or more other partners, it must establish a
separate connection with each, and it must transmit the message
to each partner in a separate operation. With a connection-oriented
protocol, the recipient only needs to be completely identified at
the time that the connection is established. Enough information
is required when transferring data only to identify the connection
with which the data is associated.
A connection-oriented protocol is often described as providing a
reliable and sequential data transfer service. As long as the
connection remains established, the sender can assume that each
message is successfully received and that the messages are received
in the same order sent. If something goes wrong, the connection
is released, and all parties are informed of the release. The
connection can be released at any time by either of the
communicating parties or by the protocol itself. This is an inherent
property of a connection-oriented protocol because any of the
three parties can independently fail at any time.
2. Connection less Protocols
A connectionless protocol works more like the postal system.
A process implementing a connectionless protocol accepts each
message for transmission and tries its best to deliver it, just as
the postal system accepts addressed letters and attempts to
deliver them to their intended recipients. With a connectionless
protocol, communication takes place in a single phase, and
there is no need to establish a logical connection between the
sending and the receiving processes. The user process hands a
message to the process implementing the protocol and
identifies the destination process to which the message is to be
sent. The process implementing the protocol then attempts to
deliver the message to its destination. Each message must
completely specify its intended recipient and is handled
independently from all other messages.
A connection less protocol may incur less protocol overhead than
a connection-oriented protocol, especially when small amounts
of data must be transferred. The delay involved in sending small
amounts of data is also often less with a connectionless protocol
because no time is spent in setting up a connection before the
message is sent. With a connectionless protocol, a multicast facility
can be implemented in which a message can be sent to several
destinations using the same request.
However, with a connectionless protocol, nothing is done to
ensure that messages are received in the same sequence sent, the
receiver sends no acknowledgment that it has received a message,
and no error recovery procedures are provided. Any required error
recovery services must be provided by a higher-level protocol or
by the programs that are communicating.
A connectionless protocol typically provides a best-effort delivery
service, sometimes called a datagram service. The sender does not
know for sure that a message being sent will actually be received
by its intended recipient. A connectionless protocol does not
provide a reliable service.
Connection less versus Connection-Oriented
Protocols
It is important to point out that the term reliable used in
describing the difference between a connectionless and a
connection-oriented protocol is perhaps not the best term that
could be used. Reliable has a good connotation that may cause
the reader to infer that a connection-oriented protocol is in
some way better than a connectionless protocol. The point is,
however, that connectionless protocols are better for some
purposes, and connec-tion-oriented protocols are better for
others.
For example, a connection-oriented protocol, although it may
provide a reliable ser-vice, may provide a very poor service if
frequent failures cause the connection to be con-stantly broken,
thus requiring new connections to be established to continue
data transfer. On the other hand, a connectionless protocol may
provide a very good service that deliv-ers 999,999 messages out
of every 1,000,000 sent, even though we may not be able to
consider it completely reliable.
A connectionless protocol is often appropriate for an application
that does not require that 100 percent of the messages get through.
A connectionless protocol is also often appropriate in a lower
layer, even when reliability is important. In such a case, the required
reliability controls are simply provided by a process operating in a
layer above the one in which the unreliable connectionless protocol
is operating. Errors are detected by the higher-layer process and
are corrected there, possibly by requesting that lost mes-sages be
retransmitted
Points to Ponder
A protocol is the formal code of behavior for a system, or to
be more precise the set form in which data must be presented
for handling by a particular computer configuration
Data sequencing refers to breaking a long transmission into
blocks and maintaining control
Routing algorithms are designed to find the most efficient
paths between sources and destinations
A communication protocol also prevents a fast sender from
overwhelming a slow receiver
It Providing data security and privacy is also built into most
communication software packages
Data communications softwares can also develop log
information which consists of all jobs and data
communications tasks that taken place
A communication protocol defines the formats of the data
units that are exchanged by two complementary layers in
different machines and documents the rules that govern how
those data units are exchanged.
A process implementing a connection-oriented protocol
provides three distinct phases:
Connection establishment (dial a call)
Data transfer (talk over the connection)
Connection release (hang up the phone)
A connectionless protocol implements protocol accepts each
message for transmission and tries its best to deliver it
Students Activity
1.What is a protocol?Define the need of a protocol?
2.Define various role of a protocol?
3.Define Communication protocol?Differentiate between
connection oriented & connection less protocol
Students Notes