Need for protocol-
When I say the term protocol, it means set of rules or
set of standards in the computer industry.
The protocol concept was introduced to standardize
networks in a way that allowed multi-vendor systems,
prior to this you would only be able to have one vendor
network as the devices could not communicate with
other vendor devices.
Optional**************************************
*********************************************
******
Not long ago there was a strong battle between popular
industries IBM and digital corp. to become leading
computer manufacturer. But there was a problem,
these manufacturers manufactured devices which were
not compatible with each other. So if you have bought a
computer of IBM you have to buy a monitor printer and
everything only from IBM. Similarly, if have a processor
from digital corp. it only supported the accessories from
the same company. There were many companies who
bought both products from both the companies one
used in accounts department and other in transport
departments but the problem was they could not
communicate with each other or share data.
*********************************************
*********************************************
******
That’s when the International Organization for
Standardization known as ISO decided there was a need
for standard. That’s how concept of protocols came into
picture.
Why multiple protocols?
So, ok we needed protocols for defining set of rules but
why not a single protocol can handle everything? Why
use multiple protocol?
Let’s take a realistic example, consider an office where
employees are categorized into different groups within
the organization. We will be having accounts
department, maintenance department, CEO, managers,
developers etc. When your salary is not credited we will
know that is a bank related issue which will be dealt by
accounts manager. Now if the office is not clean then
we know that is the responsibility with the maintenance
dept. Having such different designations is to divide
responsibilities of the work among the employees so
that whenever some issues happen we know where the
responsibility lies.
Same thing applies to computer networks. While
transmitting data across the network there is a room for
too many complex problems such as,
 Hardware failure.
A computer or router may fail either because
the hardware fails or because the operating
system crashes.
A network transmission link may fail or
accidentally become disconnected.
 Network Congestion.
Although all hardware and software operates
correctly, networks have finite capacity that can
be exceeded.
 Packet Delay/ Packet Loss.
 Data Corruption.
Electrical or magnetic interference or hardware
failures can cause transmission errors that
corrupt the contents of transmitted data;
interference can be especially severe on
wireless networks.
 Data Duplication/Inverted Arrivals.
Networks that offer multiple routes may deliver
packets out of sequence or may deliver
duplicates of packets.
So many complex aspects exist. It is impossible to write
a single protocol specification that will handle them all.
Hence we use multiple protocols, each of which
manages a part of the problem.
Protocols are implemented using protocol software.
Protocol softwares are designed in such a way that it
detects and diagnoses the issues. Protocol software
follows layered approach to handle multiple protocols.
ISO developed OSI which is an acronym for Open
System Interconnect which is more commonly known as
OSI reference model. At the same time, a competing
standard TCP/IP introduced by defense dept. of US
came into picture. The TCP/IP model is more like a
stripped down version of an OSI model and because it’s
more relevant, it went on to become industry standard.

The model suggests dividing the network protocol into
layers, each of which solve part of the network
communication problem. We need to know what works
at what stage. So tomorrow if something doesn’t work,
instead of troubleshooting the entire thing we know
where exactly to look into. That is why we have a
layered approach.
X.25
X.25 is a protocol suite developed by ITU. X.25 was
adopted by public data networks. Considering X.25 will
help explain ISO layering.
In the X.25 view, a network operates much like a
telephone system. A network consists of packet
switches that contain the intelligence needed to route
packets. Computers do not attach directly to
communication wires of the network. Instead, each
computer attaches to one of the packet switches using
a serial communication line. In one sense, the
connection between a host and an X.25 packet switch is
a miniature network consisting of one serial link. The
host must follow a complicated procedure to transfer
packets across the network. Layers of the protocol
standard depicts how a packet travels across the
network to reach the destination.
ISO 7-Layer model
OSI model is designed to understand how the data is
transferred from one computer device to another
computer device in the network.
Protocol suites- A set of related protocols that are
designed for compatibility.
Let's start with the topmost layer.
Application layer:
 Application layer is used by network
applications.
 Network application means computer
applications that use internet like Google
Chrome Firefox Skype etc.
 The web browser is a network application
running in your PC. It does not reside in the
application layer but it uses application layer
protocols HTTP or HTTPS to do web surfing not
only web browser but all Network applications
including outlook, Skype etc. all are dependent
on application layer protocols to function.
 File transfer is done with the help of FTP
protocol, web surfing is done with the help of
HTTP or HTTPS protocol, for emails SMTP
protocol is used and for virtual terminals telnet
is used.
 So application layer provides services for
network applications with the help of protocols
to perform user activities
Presentation layer:
Presentation layer performs three basic functions
translation, compression and encryption/decryption.
 Presentation layer receives data from
application layer this data is in the form of
characters and numbers, presentation layer
convert these characters and numbers to
machine understandable binary. This function is
called translation.
 Before data is transmitted presentation layer
does data compression and it can be lossy or
lossless data. Data compression is very helpful
in real-time video and audio streaming to
maintain the integrity of data before
transmission.
 Data is encrypted to enhance the security of
sensitive data at sender side and at receiver
side data is decrypted. SSL protocol or Secure
Sockets Layer protocol is used in presentation
layer for encryption and decryption.
Session Layer:
 Session layer helps in setting up and
establishing, managing and terminating
connections between devices.
 Just before a session or a connection is
established with the server, server performs a
function called authentication.
 After authenticating the user, authorization is
checked. Authorization is the process to
determine if you have permission to access a
file.
 Session layer keeps a track of which data packet
belongs to which file either text file or image
file and tracks where the received data packet
go. So session layer helps in session
management authentication and authorization
Layer below session layer is transport layer.
Transport layer:
 Transport layer controls the reliability of
communication through segmentation, flow
control and error control
 Segmentation
o Data received from session layer is
divided into small data units called
segments
o Each segment contains a source and
destination port number and a
sequence number
o Port number helps to direct each
segment to the correct application and
sequence number helps to reassemble
segments in the correct order to form
correct message at the receiver
 Flow control
o Transport layer controls the amount of
data being transmitted
Consider our mobile is connected to a
server. Suppose, server can transmit
data maximum at 100 Mbps and our
mobile can process data maximum at
10 Mbps, say we are downloading a file
from the server but server starts
sending data at 50 Mbps which is
greater than the rate our mobile can
process so mobile phone with the help
of transport layer can tell the server to
slow down data transmission rate up to
10 Mbps so that no data gets lost.
Similarly, if server is sending data at 5
Mbps mobile phone tells the server to
increase data transmission rate to 10
Mbps to maintain system performance.
 Error control
o Transport layer also helps in error
control if some data does not arrive the
destination transport layer uses
automatic repeat request schemes to
retransmit the lost or corrupted data
o A group of bits called checksum is
added to each segment by the
transport layer to find out the received
corrupted segment
 Protocols of transport layer are-
o Transmission control protocol or TCP
o User Datagram Protocol or UDP
 Transport layer performs 2 types of services
o Connection Oriented Transmission
o Connectionless Transmission
Connection oriented transmission is done via TCP while
Connection less transmission is done via UDP. UDP is
faster than TCP because it does not provide any
feedback whether data was really delivered whereas
TCP provides a feedback therefore lost data can be re-
transmitted. UDP is used where it does not matter
whether we have received all data for example online
streaming, movies, songs, games etc. on the other hand
TCP is used we're full data delivery is must for example
world wide web email FTP etc.
Transport layer passes data segments through the
network layer.
Network layer:
 Network layer works for the transmission of
the received data segments from one
computer to another located in different
networks.
 Data units in the network layer are called data
packets.
 It is the layer where routers reside.
 The functions of network layer are logical
addressing, routing and path determination
 Logical Addressing- IP addressing done in
network layer is called logical addressing.
Every computer in a network at a unique IP
address. Network layer assigns sender and
receiver’s IP address to each segment to form
an IP packet. IP addresses are assigned to
ensure that each data packet can reach the
correct destination
 Routing- A method of moving data packet from
source to destination and it is based on the
logical address format of ipv4 or ipv6.
 Path determination- A computer can be
connected to internet server for a computer in
a number of ways. Choosing the best possible
path for data delivery from source to
destination is called path determination.
Data link layer:
  Receives data packet from network layer.
 Data packets contain IP addresses of sender
and receiver.
 There are two kinds of addressing logical
addressing and physical addressing
 Logical addressing is done at network layer
where sender and receivers IP addresses are
assigned to each segment to form a data
packet
 Physical addressing is done at data link layer
where MAC addresses of sender and receiver
are assigned to each data packet to form a
frame
 MAC address is a 12 digit alphanumeric
number embedded in network interface card of
your computer by your computer manufacturer
 Data unit in data link layer is called frame
 Data link layer has the ability to check if there
were errors induced during transmission, so it
could use cyclic redundancy check or parity
check or other checks.
Physical Layer:
 Till now data from application layer has
segmented by transport layer plays into
packets by network layer and framed by data
link layer which is a sequence of binary zeros
and ones, physical layer convert these binary
sequence into signal and transmits over local
media, it can be an electrical signal in case of
copper cable or LAN cable, light signal in case
of optical fiber and radio signal in case of air. So
signal generated by a physical layer depends on
the type of media used to connect two devices.
 At the receiver, physical layer receives signals,
convert it to bits and pass it to data link layer as
a frame. Frame is further de-capsulated as data
moves through higher layers. Finally data is
moved to application layer. Application layer
protocols makes the sender's message visible in
the application in the receivers computer
screen.
TCP/IP model
ISO model, was just a theoretical idea before protocols
were implemented, the Internet 5-layer reference
model was formalized after protocols were designed
and tested.
TCP/IP protocols are organized into five conceptual
layers — four layers define packet processing and a fifth
layer defines conventional network hardware.
TCP/IP is relevant and practical, another reason this
framework has been so successful is that it's willing to
use existing protocols like Ethernet if they already exist.
Application layer:
 OSI session, presentation and application are all
rolled into a single application layer.
 This layer defines the communications between
applications on two hosts, this doesn't define
how the applications work of course, instead, it
describes on how the applications use the
network.
 Let’s just focus on http for an example, if the
browser wants to get a webpage from the
server, it will send an HTTP request. Just like
OSI, the request passes down through the
layers on one side and back up through the
layers on the other side. Logically one layer
talks to the corresponding layer.
 At the other side, the server will go through the
same process to respond with the requested
webpage.
Transport layer:
When the information coming from the upper layers
comes to the transport layers, transport layer breaks
them into manageable segments. Each segment, the
transport layer adds its own header to create
encapsulation.
Two critical decisions the transport layer takes is:
- Whether to use Reliable Communication or Unreliable
Communication
When applications need a reliable communication, they
use TCP. If it wants an unreliable communication, it uses
UDP.
When I say 'Reliable', it doesn’t mean it is better than
'Unreliable' in that, the only difference is that the
reliable communication has to get an acknowledgement
for every packet that is sent! In unreliable, there is no
acknowledgement that is received for every segment
transmission. So unreliable is actually faster because of
the less overhead. So if it is real-time applications, they
will use UDP, because it is faster and it is real-time. So
most of the time, if you have tried watching an online
transmission or a live feed, there are times when we
see those green pixels on the screen. This is nothing but
the information for that pixel has not been received and
the receiving device has no way of telling the sending
device that it did not receive that pixel.
- Create Port Numbers
Similarly another function that is taken care of by the
transport layer is to create port numbers.
Port number is a number that is attached with the IP
Address, to identify which application this information
is coming from. The transport layer, creates a random
port source port number and attaches the port number
for the destination. So if your traffic is going to a
webserver, the webserver has a standard port number
of 80! So if you are going to an IP Address of
10.10.10.10 for instance as an example, it takes
10.10.10.10 and adds a port number for 80. So it
creates a socket. Socket is nothing but an IP address and
port number. It creates a socket and send down to the
network layer. It also adds a source port number. Why
does it require source port number? The reason it
creates a source port number is because if there are 2
applications running on your computer and it is going to
the same IP address, when the reply comes back the
transport layer needs to know which data goes to which
application. And it will identify that by actually having
our source port number.
Internet layer:
When the Internet layer gets a segment from the
transport layer, it adds an Internet layer header. When
an Internet layer header is added, that information is
called as a Packet! So one of the critical functions of the
Internet Layer is of IP Address or also known as Logical
Addressing. It also finds the best path just like it did in
ISO model. It sends the IP packet directly to the
destination if the destination IP address is on the local
network or sends it to a router to be forwarded across
the internet if the destination is remote.
Network Interface Layer:
When the packet comes from the Internet layer MAC
addresses are added to it to for a FRAME.
MAC is nothing but an acronym for Media Access
Control, and MAC address is a hardware address. This is
a layer where Error Checking happens.
Physical layer:
Physical layer is where the actually data transfer
happen. This is the layer that deals with wires, cables
and hardware ports/connectors and all similar things
that happen at this layer.
As a computer engineer or as a network engineer, when
somebody tells you that the internet doesn’t work, as
an engineer you will start working or troubleshooting
from Physical Layer. First you will check the cables to
see if it works. If the cables are fine, next you will check
for Layer 2 problem. Then you will go to Layer 3, Layer 4
and so on. So you will trouble shoot by layers and that is
why we have to learn about the models.
Conceptual protocol layering vs. realistic view of
protocol software with multiple network interfaces
and multiple protocols:
There could be a common protocol at layer 3 similar to
that of conceptual model.
However, there can be multiple applications at layer 5,
more than one application can use transport protocol.
Internet protocols have multiple transport protocols at
Layer 4, multiple physical networks at Layer 1, and
multiple network interface modules at Layer 2.
Although multiple independent protocols can exist
above IP and multiple networks can exist below IP, all
outgoing or incoming traffic must pass through IP.
That’s why Internet Protocol in the TCP/IP suite is often
referred as hour glass or narrow waist.
We can use the layering model to explain the difference
between end systems (users’ computers) and
intermediate systems (routers).

In the figure, a sending application on computer A uses

a transport protocol to send data to a receiving
application on computer B. The message passes down
the protocol stack on computer A, and is transmitted
across network 1 to Router 1. When it reaches the first
router, the packet passes up to the internet layer (Layer
3), which forwards the packet over network 2 to Router
2. On Router 2, the message passes up to Layer 3, and is
forwarded over network 3 to the destination. When it
reaches the final destination machine, the message
passes up to the transport layer, which delivers the
message to the receiving application.

Locus of intelligence:

— In the original telephone network, all the

intelligence was located in phone switches. The
host device only consisted the passive
electronics such as a microphone, earpiece & a
mechanism used to dial.
— The TCP/IP protocols require attached
computers to run transport protocols and
applications as well as Layer 3 and Layer 2
protocols. There is a much involvement of the
end device in forwarding the packets.
— Unlike traditional analog telephone system,
TCP/IP internet can be viewed s a relatively
simple packet delivery system to which
intelligent hosts attach.