the topic of the discussion today is multiplexing and the (demux) in the transport layer.

we will try to understand this topic with some example that suppose the device that you are seeing on
the screen is their computer.

now each and every computer is having five layers these are the tcp layers which are physical layer, link
layer, network transport and the application layer.

suppose you have opened two application in the application layer which are the skype and the firefox
browser.

now the skype is having server and that server is far away from you so you can see that the skype server
is also having layers which are same as the layers of your device.

so skype is also having layers which are the physical layer, link layer ,network transport and the
application layer.

you want to open the amazon website so in the browser you will type www.amazon.com

and amazon is also having its own servers.

again those servers are far away from you and it is also having this five layers you can see that these
devices are having ip address.

in the internet, it is necessary for all the devices to have unique ip address because without ip address
these devices cannot talk to each other so ip address of your device is 1.2.3.4 and the ip address of the
skype server it is a 9.3.45.9 ,

and of the amazon server it is 23.1.3.

let's consider the situation that in the skype you want to send message to your colleague:

when any message is sent from your device the flow of the message will be from the top layer to bottom
layer.

you know how tcpip works right:

whenever any message is sent from the device the message will flow from the top layer to bottom layer
so message will pass from the application layer transport, layer network data link and the physical layer
and when any device is receiving message.
for example the message which is sent by your device will be received by the skype server so when
skype server is receiving your message the flow of the data will be from the bottom layer to top layer
means from the physical layer then link, network ,transport and the application layer.

suppose you have typed some message and you have pressed the enter so when you press enter the
data will be passed from your computer to the skype server notice in the message the source ip is
1.2.3.4 and the destination ip is 9.3.45.9 . so your computer knows that what is the ip address of the
skype server how it knows using the dns which is called domain name system.

suppose you want to open the amazon website on your browser so you have typed the
www.amazon.com so request will be sent from your computer to the amazon server.

you can see the message of request which is sent from your computer to the amazon server is having
source ip which is 1.2.3.4 and the destination ip is 23.1.3.8.

so message which are sent by your computer are received successfully by both the servers.

so you can see that both the servers are replying with some message the message which is sent by the
skype server is having source ip address which is 9.3.45.9 and the destination ip is 1.2.3.4 which is the ip
address of your device and the amazon is replying with message is having source ip which is 23.1.3.8 and
the destination ip is 1.2.3.4.

now this both messages are arriving at your device at the same time so when your computer will receive
this both message your computer will get confused

because there are two applications which are running in the application layer

because the data is received at the same time your computer will be confused that which data should be
delivered to which application and right now there are only two applications which are running.

imagine if 10 or 12 applications are running simultaneously and they are sending and receiving data at
the same time in that case your computer will be confused and it will not be able to understand that
which data should be delivered to which application.

so that is why we need the port address and this problem is solved at the transport layer.

so let's see the same example, but one additional thing that we will discuss before sending any data
using application the port will be generated in the transport layer so you can see that the port.

for the skype application is three the (port)

for the firefox browser is eight.

the port of the skype server is 2 and the port at the amazon server is 6. so any message will be sent and
received by any application with their respective port only.

so when skype will send any message it will pass that message using the port number three when the
image when the firefox browser will send any message it will send message using the port number eight.
let's consider the same situation that you are typing some message and you have press the enter so the
message will be sent from your device to the skype server notice the port address is attached with the ip
address so source ip you can see that 1.2.3.4 and the source port address is three, destination ip is
9.3.45.9 and the destination port address is 2.

so when the skype server will reply it knows that to which port it has to reply so it will reply and the
skype application will receive the message which is sent from the skype server.

the message you can see that the source ip is 9.3.45.9 the port address is 2 and destination address is
1.283.4 and the port address is three.

and

if you are opening the amazon website in the browser the request will be sent using the port address
eight and when the message is received it is also used using the port address

http://www.cnt4all.com/2016/08/07-transport-layer-multiplexing-and.html

While using a computer, one may open many applications to connect to a multitude of serves or other
computers at the same time. Multiplexing and demultiplexing are just concepts which describe the
process of the transmission of data generated by different applications simultaneously, and when
arriving at the Transport layer, each data segment is independently processed and sent to its
appropriate application in the destination machine.

Let us assume that you are using Google chrome browser to view news online, Microsoft outlook to
send e-mails, and chat application to chat with your friends. All that takes place simultaneously.
Whatever remote network device sees your computer merely as an IP. Here is the problem ! if your
computer is seen as one IP address, how the exact application can be found to receive data, and what
will happen if the incoming data for Microsoft outlook is forwarded to chat application. The resolution to
this problem is port numbers as demystified in the preceeding lesson. Each network application will bind
itself to an available port number so that the application can be identified based on port numbers.

The process of assigning port numbers to each type of data coming from the Application layer, dividing
them into small segment in such a way that each segment is designated a port number, and putting the
segments of different applications on wire for transmission is what paves the way for multiplexing and
demultiplexing. Consider the following figure.
Obviously, one chief aim of multiplexing and demultiplexing is allowing us to use a multitude of
applications concurrently. The above figure reveals source computer is using Google, Outlook, and Chat
application at the same time. All data is forwarded to Destination computer. As you see, each
application has a segment put on wire to be transmitted. That signifies that all applications are running
simultaneously ; conversely, if no multiplexing/demultiplexing exists, a user can use only one application
at a time on the grounds that only the segments of that application are put on wire and transmitted.
Take a look at the following figure for more clarification.

As you already know, multiplexing/demultiplexing occurs at the Transport layer and application
programs reside within the Application layer. Besides, port numbers are assigned to each application at
the same layer. To clarify the above figure, applications at the Application layer have generated data,
then handed down to the Transport layer to be segmented. After segmenting the data, port numbers
are given to each segment to be ready for transmission. Lastly, segmenets are put on wire to travel
across the network to the destination. This process is called ‘multiplexing’. When the transmitted
segments reach the Transport layer of the destination, They are automatically sent up to their
appropriate applications. This process is called ‘demultiplexing’.