Data Communication

UNIT 5: Transport Layer

Syllabus:
• Transport Service
• Elements Of Transport Protocols
• User Datagram Protocol - Transmission Control Protocol

Transport Layer:
• The transport layer is a 4th layer from the top.
• The main role of the transport layer is to provide the communication services directly
to the application processes running on different hosts.
• The transport layer provides a logical communication between application processes
running on different hosts. Although the application processes on different hosts are
not physically connected, application processes use the logical communication
provided by the transport layer to send the messages to each other.
• The transport layer protocols are implemented in the end systems but not in the
network routers.
• A computer network provides more than one protocol to the network applications. For
example, TCP and UDP are two transport layer protocols that provide a different set of
services to the network layer.
• All transport layer protocols provide multiplexing/demultiplexing service. It also
provides other services such as reliable data transfer, bandwidth guarantees, and delay
guarantees.
• Each of the applications in the application layer has the ability to send a message by
using TCP or UDP. The application communicates by using either of these two
protocols. Both TCP and UDP will then communicate with the internet protocol in the
internet layer. The applications can read and write to the transport layer. Therefore, we
can say that communication is a two-way process.

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Services Provided by The Transport Layer:

➢ End-to-end delivery:
• The transport layer transmits the entire message to the destination. Therefore, it
ensures the end-to-end delivery of an entire message from a source to the destination.
➢ Reliable delivery:
• The transport layer provides reliability services by retransmitting the lost and damaged
packets.

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➢ The reliable delivery has four aspects:
• Error control
• Sequence control
• Loss control
• Duplication control
➢ Flow control
• Flow control is used to prevent the sender from overwhelming the receiver. If the
receiver is overloaded with too much data, then the receiver discards the packets and
asking for the retransmission of packets. This increases network congestion and thus,
reducing the system performance. The transport layer is responsible for flow control. It
uses the sliding window protocol that makes the data transmission more efficient as
well as it controls the flow of data so that the receiver does not become overwhelmed.
Sliding window protocol is byte oriented rather than frame oriented.

➢ Multiplexing
• The transport layer uses the multiplexing to improve transmission efficiency.

• Multiplexing can occur in two ways:

• Upward multiplexing: upward multiplexing means multiple transport layer
connections use the same network connection. To make more cost-effective, the
transport layer sends several transmissions bound for the same destination along the
same path; this is achieved through upward multiplexing.

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• Downward multiplexing: downward multiplexing means one transport layer

connection uses the multiple network connections. Downward multiplexing allows the
transport layer to split a connection among several paths to improve the throughput.
This type of multiplexing is used when networks have a low or slow capacity.

➢ Addressing:
• According to the layered model, the transport layer interacts with the functions of the
session layer. Many protocols combine session, presentation, and application layer
protocols into a single layer known as the application layer. In these cases, delivery to
the session layer means the delivery to the application layer. Data generated by an
application on one machine must be transmitted to the correct application on another
machine. In this case, addressing is provided by the transport layer.
• The transport layer provides the user address which is specified as a station or port.
The port variable represents a particular TS user of a specified station known as a
transport service access point (TSAP). Each station has only one transport entity.
• The transport layer protocols need to know which upper-layer protocols are
communicating.

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Elements Of Transport Protocols:

1. Addressing: Transport protocols utilize port numbers to address different applications

or services on a device. This addressing enables multiple services to run concurrently
on the same device and ensures that data is correctly delivered to the intended
application.
2. Segmentation and reassembly: Breaking down large data into smaller segments at
the sender's end for efficient transmission over the network. At the receiver's end,
these segments are reassembled into the original data.
3. Connection establishment and termination: In the case of connection-oriented
protocols like tcp, there's a process for setting up a connection, ensuring both ends are
ready for communication. Once data transmission is complete, the connection is
terminated.
4. Reliability mechanisms: TCP, for instance, employs acknowledgment mechanisms
and retransmission strategies to ensure reliable data delivery. It tracks sent data and
requires acknowledgments to confirm successful receipt or requests retransmission if
data is lost or corrupted.
5. Flow control: Managing the flow of data between sender and receiver to prevent
congestion or overwhelming the recipient. This involves techniques to adjust the rate
of data transmission based on the receiver's ability to process it.
6. Error detection and correction: Including checksums or other error-detection codes
within the data segments to identify any corruption during transmission. In some
cases, error correction methods are also employed to rectify errors.

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7. Multiplexing/demultiplexing: Multiplexing is the process of combining data from
different applications into a single stream for transmission, while demultiplexing
separates this combined stream into individual streams for the respective applications
at the receiving end.
8. Protocol portioning: Tcp, for example, is divided into segments, each carrying a
sequence number. This helps in reordering segments at the receiver's end to
reconstruct the correct sequence of data.

What Is The TCP?

• The TCP stands for transmission control protocol. If we want the communication
between two computers and communication should be good and reliable. For example,
we want to view a web page, then we expect that nothing should be missing on the
page, or we want to download a file, then we require a complete file, i.e., Nothing
should be missing either it could be a text or an image. This can only be possible due
to the TCP. It is one of the most widely used protocols over the TCP/IP network.

Features Of TCP:
• Data delivery
TCP protocol ensures that the data is received correctly, no data is missing and in
order. If TCP protocol is not used, then the incorrect data can be received or out of
order. For example, if we try to view the web page or download a file without using
TCP, then some data or images could be missing.
• Protocol
Tcp is a connection-oriented protocol. Through the word connection-oriented, we
understand that the computers first establish a connection and then do the
communication. This is done by using a three-way handshake. In a three-way
handshake, the first sender sends the SYN message to the receiver then the receiver
sends back the SYN ACK message to confirm that the message has been received.
After receiving the SYN ACK message, the sender sends the acknowledgment
message to the receiver. In this way, the connection is established between the
computers. Once the connection is established, the data will be delivered. This
protocol guarantees the data delivery means that if the data is not received then the
TCP will resend the data.

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What is the UDP?

• The UDP stands for user datagram protocol. Its working is similar to the TCP as it is
also used for sending and receiving the message. The main difference is that UDP is a
connectionless protocol. Here, connectionless means that no connection establishes
prior to communication. It also does not guarantee the delivery of data packets. It does
not even care whether the data has been received on the receiver's end or not, so it is
also known as the "fire-and-forget" protocol. It is also known as the "fire-and-
forget" protocol as it sends the data and does not care whether the data is received or
not. UDP is faster than TCP as it does not provide the assurance for the delivery of the
packets.

Features of UDP protocol:

• Transport layer protocol
• UDP is the simplest transport layer communication protocol. It contains a minimum
amount of communication mechanisms. It is considered an unreliable protocol, and it
is based on best-effort delivery services. UDP provides no acknowledgment
mechanism, which means that the receiver does not send the acknowledgment for the
received packet, and the sender also does not wait for the acknowledgment for the
packet that it has sent.
• Connectionless
• The UDP is a connectionless protocol as it does not create a virtual path to transfer the
data. It does not use the virtual path, so packets are sent in different paths between the
sender and the receiver, which leads to the loss of packets or received out of order.

Difference between TCP – UDP:

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 Data Communication
TCP
Full form It stands for Transmission Control
Protocol.
Type of It is a connection-oriented protocol,
connection which means that the connection
needs to be established before the
data is transmitted over the network.
Reliable TCP is a reliable protocol as it
provides assurance for the delivery of it does not take the guarantee for
data packets.
Speed TCP is slower than UDP as it
performs error checking, flow
control, and provides assurance for
the delivery of
Header size The size of TCP is 20 bytes.
Acknowledgment TCP uses the three-way-handshake
concept. In this concept, if the sender
receives the ACK, then the sender
will send the data. TCP also has the
ability to resend the lost data.
Flow control It follows the flow control
mechanism mechanism in which too many
packets cannot be sent to the receiver
at the same time.
Error checking TCP performs error checking by
using a checksum. When the data is
corrected, then the data is
retransmitted to the receiver.
Applications This protocol is mainly used where a
secure and reliable communication
process is required, like military
services, web browsing, and e-mail.
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UDP
It stands for User Datagram
Protocol.
It is a connectionless protocol,
which means that it sends the
data without checking whether
the system is ready to receive or
not.
UDP is an unreliable protocol as
the delivery of packets.
UDP is faster than TCP as it
does not guarantee the delivery
of data packets.
The size of the UDP is 8 bytes.
UDP does not wait for any
acknowledgment; it just sends
the data.
This protocol follows no such
mechanism.
It does not perform any error
checking, and also does not
resend the lost data packets.
This protocol is used where fast
communication is required and
does not care about the
reliability like VoIP, game
streaming, video and music
streaming, etc.
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