Computer Networks-I

Unit-I : Introduction

Topics Covered

Data Communication Networks The Internet Protocols and Standards Layered Tasks The OSI and the layers in the OSI Model TCP/IP Protocol Suite

Data Communication

It is the exchange of data between two devices via some form of transmission media. For data communication to occur the communicating devices must be part of a communication system made up of combination of hardware & software.

Effectiveness of data communication system

It depends on four fundamental characteristics

1.

2.

Delivery: System must deliver the data to correct destination. Accuracy: System must deliver data
accurately. Data that has been altered in transmission is unusable.

3.

Timeliness: The system must deliver data in a

timely manner. Data delivered late are useless.

4.

Jitter: Jitter refers to the variation in the

packet arrival time. It is the uneven delay.

Components

Data communication system has five components:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Message Sender Receiver Transmission Medium Protocol

Medium : It is the physical path by which a message Receiver :travels from sender to receiver. message. It is the device that receives the It can be a computer , workstation It can be twisted pair wire,co-axial , telephone handset ,video camera cable,fiber-optic cable,radio-waves..

Protocol : itis the device that sends the data message. Sender : ItItis a set of rules that governs data Message : is communication. the information to be communicated. ItIt can be computer ,workstation , telephone can be a text,pictures,sound,video. Without handset ,video devices may be connected but a protocol two camera not communicating

Data Representation

Data is represented as bit patterns. Different forms of information are :

1.

Text: Represented using Unicode uses 32 bits.

American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) constitutes the first 127 characters in Unicode. Numbers: Is directly converted to binary.

2.
3. 4.

Images: Is composed of a matrix of pixels. Audio: It is the representation of sound. It is

continuous.

5.

Video: It can be produced either as a continuous

entity or it can be a combination of images each a discrete entity arranged to convey the idea of motion.

Data Flow

Network

A network is a set of devices (nodes) connected by communication links. A node can be a computer, printer or any other device capable of sending or receiving data.

A link is a communication pathway that transfers data from one device to another.

Network Criteria

The criteria the network must meet are :

1.

Performance: measured by:

1. 2. 3. 4.

Transit time Response time Number of users Type of transmission medium

2.

Reliability: Network reliability is measured by the

frequency of failure, the time it takes for a link to recover from a failure and the networks robustness in a catastrophe .

3.

Security:
access.

It includes protecting data from unauthorized

Physical structures

Point-to-Point

Provides a dedicated link between two devices. Entire capacity of the link is reserved for transmission between those two devices.

Multipoint

More than two devices share a single link. Capacity of the channel is shared. If several devices can use the link simultaneously it is spatially shared connection. If users must take turns it is a timeshare connection.

Topology

Two or more device connect to a link. Two or more links form a topology. It is the geometric representation of the relationship of all the links and linking devices to one another. Physical Topology

describes the layout of the network describes how the data is sent across the network

Logical Topology

Four Basic Topologies

Mesh

Every device has a dedicated point-topoint link to every other device. There are

n(n-1) - Physical links and n(n-1)/2 - Physical channels to link n devices.

Every network must have n-1 input/output ports to be connected to other n-1 stations.

Advantages

Eliminate traffic problems Robust Privacy and Security Backup capabilities by providing multiple paths through the network.

Disadvantages

Amount of cabling required. (Redundant path) Number of I/O ports required.

Star Topology

Each device has dedicated point-to-point link only to central controller usually called hub. The devices are not directly linked to oneanother. It does not allow direct traffic between devices. Controller (hub) acts as an exchange: if one device wants to send data to another it sends the data to the controller which then relays the data to the other connected device.

Advantage

Less expensive than Mesh topology. Robustness, better performance. Isolation Of Devices. Lesser I/O ports required.

Disadvantage

High dependence of a system on central hub Performance & Scalability of network also depends on capabilities of hub. Network size is limited by number-ofconnections that can be made to the hub.

Bus Topology

It is multipoint One long cable acts as backbone to link all devices in a network. Nodes are connected to the bus cable by drop lines and taps. As signal travels along the backbone some of its energy is transformed into heat. Therefore it becomes weaker and weaker as it has to travel farther and farther. For this reason there is a limit on the number of taps a bus can support. Traffic generated by any computer will travel across the backbone and be received by all workstations.

Advantages

Ease of installation. Cost effective (Bus uses less cabling then mesh or star topologies.)

Disadvantages

If there is a problem with the cable entire network goes down Performance degrades as additional computers are added or on heavy traffic load The damaged area reflects signals back in the direction of origin creating noise in both direction.

Ring Topology

Each device has a dedicated point-to-point connection only with the two devices on either side of it Signal is passed along the ring in one direction from device to device until it reaches the destination. Each device in the ring incorporates a repeater. When a device receives a signal intended for another device its repeater regenerates the bits and passes them along.

Advantages

Disadvantages

Easy to install and reconfigure Very orderly network where every device has access to the token and opportunity to transmit.

One malfunctioning workstation creates problems for entire network. Slower

Categories of Networks

Three primary categories

1. 2. 3.

LAN ( Local Area Network ) MAN ( Metropolitan Area Network ) WAN ( Wide Area Network )

LAN

Local Area Network Links the devices in a single office building or campus. LAN size is limited to few Kilometers. Allow resources to be shared. Generally LAN uses only one type of transmission medium. Common LAN topologies are bus , ring and star. Data rate 4-16Mbps.

MAN

Metropolitan Area Network

Designed to extend over an entire city.

It may be a single network or it may be means of connecting number of LANs into larger network so that resources may be shared LAN to LAN.
MAN may be wholly owned and operated by a private company or it may be a service provided by public company.

WAN

Wide Area Network Provides long distance transmission of data,voice,image and video information over large geographic areas that may comprise a country,a continent or even whole world.

A WAN that is wholly owned and used by a single company is often referred to as an Enterprise Network

What is an internet?

An internet is two or more networks that can communicate with each other.
The Internet is a collaboration of more than hundreds of thousands interconnected networks. The Internet is a communication system that has brought information to our fingertips and organized it for use.

Protocols

It is a set of rules that governs data communication. It defines what is communicated, how it is communicated and when it is communicated. Key elements of protocol are

Syntax: structure or format of data Semantics: meaning of each section of bits. Timing: when data should be sent and how
fast they can be sent.

Standards

It is an agreed-upon way of doing something or measuring something.

It is essential in creating and maintaining an open and competitive market. in guaranteeing national and international interoperability of data and technology and processes.

Two categories of data communication standards

De facto (by Fact or by practice) De jure (by law or by regulation)

Standards Creation Committees

International Standards for Standardization (ISO)

International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standards (ITU-T) American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

Layered Tasks - OSI Model

The Open Systems Interconnection model (OSI model) is a product of the Open Systems Interconnection effort at the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
It is a way of sub-dividing a communications system into smaller parts called layers. A layer is a collection of conceptually similar functions that provide services to the layer above it and receives services from the layer below it.

OSI model

Interaction between layers

Organization of the Layers

Seven layers belong to three subgroups

1.

2.
3.

Layer 1,2,3 are the network support layers Layer 5,6,7 are the user support layers Layer 4 links the two subgroups

Communication using the OSI model

DDATA HHEADER TTRAILER

Encapsulation

Data portion of a packet at level N-1 carries the whole packet (data & header maybe trailer) from level N. the concept is called encapsulation. Level N-1 is not aware of which part of the encapsulated packet is data and which part is header or trailer. For level N-1 the whole packet coming from level N is treated as one integral unit.

Physical layer

The Physical Layer defines the electrical and physical specifications for devices. Establishes and terminates connections to communication medium.

Physical layer

Physical layer is also concerned with

1.

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Physical characteristics of interface and medium Representation of bits. Data rate. Synchronization of bits. Line configuration. Physical topology Transmission mode

Data link layer

Data link layer

The Data Link Layer provides the functional and procedural means to transfer data between network entities. To detect and possibly correct errors that may occur in the Physical Layer. Layer 2 transmits data in the form of frames. It uses MAC address for transmission.

Data link layer

1.
2. 3. 4. 5.

Other responsibility of data link layer

Framing Physical addressing Flow control Error control Access control

Hop-to-hop delivery

A B E F B E

Network layer

It is responsible for the source to destination delivery of a packet possibly across multiple networks (links).

Network layer

Other responsibilities include

1.

2.

Logical addressing: Every host in the network needs to have a unique address which determines where it is. Routing: Connecting devices route packets to delivery through intermediate routers.

Source-to-destination delivery

Transport layer

Transport Layer

It is responsible for process to process delivery of entire message.

The transport layer ensures that the whole message arrives intact and in order, overseeing both error control and flow control at source-todestination level.

Transport layer

Other responsibilities
1.

2. 3. 4. 5.

Service point addressing: process to process delivery Segmentation and reassembly Connection control Flow control Error control

Session layer

The session layer is the network dialog controller It establishes, maintains and synchronizes the interaction among communicating systems.

Session layer

The Session Layer provides the mechanism for opening, closing and managing a session between end-user application processes.
Other responsibilities
1. 2.

Dialog control Synchronization

Presentation layer
It is concerned with the syntax and semantics of the information exchanged between two systems

Presentation layer

The Presentation Layer is responsible for the delivery and formatting of information to the application layer for further processing or display. Other responsibilities:
Translation: Conversion to bit streams. Encryption: for privacy. Compression: to reduce data size.

Application layer

Application layer

It enables the user, human or software, to access the network. It provides user interface and support for services such as
1. 2.

electronic mail, remote file access and transfer,

Summary of layers

TCP/IP Protocol Suite

The layers in the TCP/IP protocol suite do not exactly match those in the OSI model. The original TCP/IP protocol suite was defined as having four layers: host-tonetwork, internet, transport & application. However, when TCP/IP is compared to OSI, we can say that the TCP/IP protocol suite is made of five layers:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Physical data link Network Transport Application

TCP/IP and OSI model

Network Layer

TCP/IP supports Internetwork Protocol: IP

IP in turn uses four supporting protocols :
1. 2. 3.

4.

ARP Address Resolution Protocol RARP Reverse ARP ICMP Internet Control Message Protocol IGMP Internet Group Message Protocol

Internetworking Protocol ( IP)

IP is the transmission mechanism used by TCP/IP It is unreliable It is connectionless Best effort delivery service IP transports data in Packets called datagram's each of which is transported separately Datagram's can travel along different routes and can arrive out of sequence or be duplicated.

Address Resolution Protocol

ARP is used to associate a logical address with a physical address.

Reverse Address Resolution Protocol

RARP allows a host to discover its Internet Address when it knows only its Physical Address It is used when a computer is connected to a network for the first time.

ARP operation

Internet Control Message Protocol

ICMP is a mechanism used by hosts and gateways to send notification of datagram problems back to sender ICMP sends query and error reporting messages

Internet Group Message Protocol

IGMP is used to facilitate the simultaneous transmission of a message to a group of recipients.

Transport layer

At the transport layer TCP/IP defines three protocols :

1. 2. 3.

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) User Datagram Protocol (UDP) Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP)

User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

It is the simpler of the two standard TCP/IP transport protocol It is process to process protocol that adds only port addresses, checksum, error control and length information to the data from the upper layer

Transmission Control Protocol

TCP is reliable stream transport protocol (connection). A connection must be established between both ends of a transmission before either can transmit data. At the sending end of each transmission TCP divides a stream of data into smaller units called segments. At the receiving end TCP collects each datagram as it comes in and reorders the transmission based on sequence numbers.

Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP)

SCTP provides support for newer applications such as voice over the Internet.
It is a transport layer protocol that combines the best features of UDP and TCP.

Addresses in TCP/IP
Four levels of addresses are used in an internet employing the TCP/IP protocols: physical, logical, port, and specific.

Relationship of layers and addresses in TCP/IP

Physical Address

It is also known as the link address. It is the address of a node as defined by its LAN or WAN. It is included in the frame used by the data link layer It is the lowest level address

Logical addresses

Logical addresses are necessary for universal communications that are independent of underlying physical networks A universal addressing system is needed in which each host can be identified uniquely regardless of the underlying physical network. Logical address in Internet is currently 32 bit address that can uniquely define a host connected to the Internet. No two publicly addressed and visible hosts on the Internet can have the same IP address.

Port address

The identifier of a port is the port address. Used in process to process communication. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is responsible for maintaining the official assignments of port numbers for specific uses. Eg. port 20- FTP data transfer
port 23- Telnet protocol

Specific Address

Addresses designed for a specific address. Eg- URL- universal recourse locator
Email address

End of Unit-1