Module-V

Application
Layer
 Outline

 Principles of Network Applications

 The Web and HTTP
 Electronic mail in the Internet
o SMTP, POP3, IMAP
 DNS-The Internet Directory

• Text book 2: Computer Networking: A Top down Approach-

James F Kurose 7th Edition

Application Layer 2-2

 Principles of Network Applications
 Network-applications are the driving forces for
the explosive development of the internet.
 Examples:
Creating a network app application
transport
network
data link
physical
Write Programs That:
• run on (different) end systems
• communicate over network
• e.g., web server software
communicates with browser
software.
application
transport
network
Possible Structure of Applications: data link
physical
application
transport
network
• client-server data link
physical

• peer-to-peer (P2P)
 Client-Server Architecture
Server:
 always-on host
 permanent IP address
 data centers for scaling

Clients:
 Randomly on
client/server  communicate with server
 may be intermittently
connected
 do not communicate directly
with each other.
 Examples: FTP, Web, e-mail
 Data Center
 A data-center is used to create a powerful virtual server.
 In date center, hundreds of servers must be powered and
maintained.
 example: Google has around 50 data-centers distributed around the world.
These 50 data-centers handle : search, YouTube, Gmail etc.
 P2P architecture
 No dedicated server
 Pairs of hosts are called peers. peer-peer
 The peers communicate directly with each
other.
 The peers are not owned by the service-
provider, instead these are laptops
controlled by users.
 Ex file sharing (BitTorrent), Internet
telephone (Skype)
 self-scalability ,Cost effective
 Challenges: ISP friendly : P2P traffic does
not conform to traditional ISP traffic
policies.
 Security: Openness & distribution
 Incentives: convincing users to volunteer
bandwidth & resources to the applications.
 Processes Communicating
Client process: process that
Process: program running within initiates communication
a host.
Server process: process that
• within same host, two
waits to be contacted
processes communicate using
IPC (defined by OS).
• processes in different hosts
communicate by exchanging
messages.
 App-layer protocol defines
• types of messages exchanged, open protocols:
– e.g., request, response • defined in RFCs
• message syntax: • allows for interoperability
– what fields in messages • e.g., HTTP, SMTP
& how fields are proprietary protocols:
delineated
• e.g., Skype
• message semantics
– meaning of information
in fields
• rules for when and how
processes send & respond to
messages

Application Layer 2-9

Transport Services Available to Applications
1. Reliable Data Transfer 2. Throughput
 BW sensitive app:
some apps (e.g., file transfer,
web transactions) require Guaranteed throughput
(e.g., multimedia)
100% reliable data transfer  Elastic app: May not need
• other apps (e.g., audio) can guarantee throughput file
tolerate some loss transfer, email

3. Timing
• some apps (e.g., Internet 4. Security
telephony, interactive  encryption, data integrity,
games) require low delay to …
be “effective”
 Internet Transport Protocols Services
TCP service:
• reliable transport between
sending and receiving process
• flow control: sender won’t
overwhelm receiver
• congestion control: throttle
sender when network
overloaded
• connection-oriented: setup
required between client and
server processes
UDP service:
• unreliable data transfer
between sending and
receiving process
• does not provide: reliability,
flow control, congestion
control, timing, throughput
guarantee, security, or
connection setup,
2-12
 Web and HTTP
 web page consists of objects(HTML)
 object is a file - HTML file, JPEG image, audio file,…
 web page consists of HTML-file & several
referenced objects.
 object is addressable by a URL,

www.someschool.edu/someDept/pic.gif

host name path name

 HTTP overview
HTTP: hypertext
transfer
protocol( port 80)
• client/server model HT T
P re
que
– client: browser that PC running
HTT
st
Firefox browser P re
requests, receives, spo
nse
and “displays” Web
objects est
u
– server: Web server TP
req
se
server
HT on
sends objects in resp running
Apache Web
TP
response to requests HT
server

iphone running
Safari browser
 HTTP overview (continued)

uses TCP: HTTP is

• client initiates TCP “stateless”
• server maintains no
connection (creates socket) information about
to server, port 80 past client requests
• server accepts TCP
connection from client
• HTTP messages exchanged
between browser (HTTP
client) and Web server (HTTP
server)
• TCP connection closed

2-15
 HTTP connections

non-persistent HTTP persistent

• at most one object HTTP(default)
sent over TCP • multiple objects can
connection be sent over single
– connection then TCP connection
closed between client,
• downloading multiple server
objects required
multiple connections
 Non-persistent HTTP: 1Req->1Resp
suppose user enters URL:
www.someSchool.edu/someDepartment/home.index
1a. HTTP client initiates TCP
connection to HTTP server
(process) at
www.someSchool.edu on port
80
2. HTTP client sends HTTP request
message (containing URL) into
TCP connection socket. Message
indicates that client wants object
someDepartment/home.index
time
(contains text,
references to 10
jpeg images)
1b. HTTP server at host
www.someSchool.edu waiting for
TCP connection at port 80.
“accepts” connection, notifying
client
3. HTTP server receives request message,
forms response message containing
requested object, and sends message
into its socket
 Non-persistent HTTP (cont.)

4. HTTP server closes TCP connection.

5. HTTP client receives response

message containing html file,
displays html. Parsing html file,
finds 10 referenced jpeg objects

time
6. Steps 1-5 repeated for each of 10
jpeg objects
 Non-persistent HTTP: response time

RTT: Time for a small packet to

travel from client to server and
back
HTTP response time: initiate TCP
connection
• one RTT: To initiate TCP RTT
connection request
file
• one RTT: HTTP request and first time to
RTT
few bytes of HTTP response to transmit
file
return file
received
• file transmission time
• non-persistent HTTP response
time time
time =
2RTT+ file transmission
time
 Persistent HTTP
non-persistent HTTP
issues:
• requires 2 RTTs per object
• OS overhead for each TCP
connection
• browsers often open
parallel TCP connections to
fetch referenced objects
persistent HTTP:
• server leaves connection
open after sending response
• subsequent HTTP messages
between same client/server
sent over open connection
• client sends requests as soon
as it encounters a referenced
object
• as little as one RTT for all the
referenced objects
2-20
 HTTP message: general format
Two types of HTTP messages: request, response
 HTTP request message
GET: Browser requests an object from the server.
POST: User fills out a form & sends to the server.
PUT: Upload objects to servers. DELETE: Allows application to delete object on a
server.

carriage return character

line-feed character
request line
(GET, POST, GET /index.html HTTP/1.1\r\n
,PUT,DELETE) Host: www-net.cs.umass.edu\r\n obj residing
User-Agent: Firefox/3.6.10\r\n browser
header Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml\r\n
Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5\r\n
lines Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate\r\n
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7\r\n
carriage return, Keep-Alive: 115\r\n
line feed at start Connection: keep-alive\r\n
of line indicates \r\n
end of header lines
HTTP Response Message
 HTTP response message
status line
(protocol
status code HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n
status phrase) Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2010 20:09:20 GMT\r\n
Server: Apache/2.0.52 (CentOS)\r\n
Last-Modified: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 17:00:02 GMT\r\n
Accept-Ranges: bytes\r\n
header Content-Length: 2652\r\n
lines Keep-Alive: timeout=10, max=100\r\n
Connection: Keep-Alive\r\n
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1\r\n
\r\n

data data data data data ...

data, e.g.,
requested
HTML file

Application Layer 2-24

 User-server Interaction: cookies
Websites to keep track of user

Small text file created by website,

stored in user
computer(temporarily/permanen
t)
four components:
1) cookieheader line of
HTTP response message
2) cookie header line in next
HTTP request message
3) cookie file kept on user’s
host, managed by user’s
browser
4) back-end DB at Web site
example:
• Susan always access Internet
from PC
• visits specific e-commerce
site for first time
• when initial HTTP requests
arrives at site, site creates:
– unique ID
– entry in backend DB
for ID
 Cookies: keeping “state” (cont.)
Client
Server
Host
Host
ebay 8734
usual http request msg Amazon server
cookie file creates ID
usual http response backend
Header set-cookie: 1678
1678 for user create
Browser ebay 8734 entry database
tores ID into amazon 1678
cookie file
usual http request msg
cookie: 1678 cookie- access
specific
usual http response msg action

one week later:

access
ebay 8734 usual http request msg
amazon 1678 cookie: 1678 cookie-
specific
Browser put action
ID in http
usual http response msg
request
 Web caching (Proxy Server)
Goal: satisfy client request without involving origin server
• user sets browser: Web accesses via
cache
• browser sends all HTTP requests to
cache
Web Cache/
– object in cache: cache returns proxy
HT T
object P re server q uest
H
que
T P re
T st T e
– else cache requests object client TP H ons origin
resp
on P resp
from origin server, then se H TT server
returns object to client t
ues
P req se
– Advantages HT T on
resp
1) To reduce response-time for TP
HT
client-request.
2) To reduce traffic on an client origin
institution’s access-link to the server
Internet.
3) To reduce Web-traffic in the
 The Conditional GET
client server
• It is a mechanism that
allows a cache to verify that
HTTP request msg
the objects are up to date. If-modified-since: <date> object
not
modified
• cache: specify date of HTTP response
before
HTTP/1.0
cached copy in HTTP 304 Not Modified <date>
request
If-modified-since:
<date>
HTTP request msg
• server: response contains If-modified-since: <date> object
no object if cached copy is modified
up-to-date: HTTP response after
HTTP/1.0 200 OK <date>
HTTP/1.0 304 Not
<data>
Modified
 The Conditional GET
 It is a mechanism that allows a cache to verify that the
objects are up to date.
 An HTTP request-message is called conditional GET if
1) Request-message uses the GET method and
2) Response-message includes an If-Modified-Since:
header-line.
 File Transfer: FTP
• Used by local host to transfer files to or from a remote-host over
the network.
• FTP uses client-server architecture
• FTP uses 2 parallel TCP connections
1) Control Connection : User ID, password ,commands to change
directory , put & get files.
2) Data Connection: To transfer files.
FTP commands & replies: USER,PASS,LIST(all files), RETR, STOR
 FTP commands, responses
sample commands:
• USER username
• PASS password
• LIST return list of file in
current directory
• RETR filename
retrieves (gets) file
• STOR filename stores
(puts) file onto remote host
sample return codes
• 331 Username OK,
password required
• 125 data connection
already open;
transfer starting
• 425 Can’t open data
connection
• 452 Error writing
file
 Electronic mail outgoing
message queue

Three major user

user mailbox

components: agent

• User agents(UA) mail user

server agent
• Mail servers(MS)
SMTP mail user
• Simple mail transfer protocol: server agent
SMTP SMTP
SMTP user
User Agent mail agent
server
• Read, reply, forward save user
compose messages agent
user
• e.g., Outlook, Thunderbird, agent
iPhone mail client
 Electronic mail: mail servers outgoing
Message Q
user mailbox
user
Mail servers: agent
• mailbox contains incoming mail user
messages for user server agent
• message queue of outgoing SMTP mail user
(to be sent) mail messages server agent
SMTP
SMTP user
SMTP protocol: mail
agent
server
• Between mail servers to send user
email messages , TCP , port - agent

25 user
agent

2-33
 Scenario: Alice sends message to Bob
1) Alice uses UA to compose
message “to”
bob@someschool.edu
2) Alice’s UA sends message to her
mail server; message placed in
message queue
3) client side of SMTP opens TCP
connection with Bob’s mail
server
4) SMTP client sends Alice’s message
over the TCP connection
5) Bob’s mail server places the
message in Bob’s mailbox
6) Bob invokes his UA to read
message

1 user mail user

mail agent
agent server SMTP server
2 3 6
4
5
Alice’s mail server Bob’s mail server
 Mail Message Format

SMTP: protocol for exchanging

email msgs header
blank
standard for text message line

format:
• header lines, e.g.,
body
– To:
– From:
– Subject:
• Body: the “message”
– ASCII characters only
 Mail Access Protocols
mail access
user SMTP SMTP user
protocol
agent agent
(e.g., POP,
IMAP)

sender’s mail receiver’s mail

server server

• SMTP: delivery/storage to receiver’s server

• Mail access protocol: retrieval from server
– POP: Post Office Protocol : authorization, download
– IMAP: Internet Mail Access Protocol : manipulation of stored msgs
on server, allows user to organize messages in folders

– HTTP: gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, etc.

 POP3 protocol-port 110
S: +OK POP3 server ready
1. Authorization phase C: user bob
S: +OK
• client commands: C: pass hungry
– user: username S: +OK user successfully logged on
– pass: password
C: list
• server responses S: 1 498
– +OK S: 2 912
– -ERR S: .
C: retr 1
2. Transaction phase, S: <message 1 contents>
client: S: .
C: dele 1
• list: list message numbers
C: retr 2
• retr: retrieve message by number S: <message 1 contents>
• dele: delete S: .
• Quit C: dele 2
C: quit
S: +OK POP3 server signing off
3. Update
 DNS -The Internet’s Directory Service(port-53)

 Translates domain names  IP addresses.

 ex: domain-name(Host name) “www.google.com” IP address
“198.105.232.4”.
 Because domain-names are alphabetic, easier to
remember for human being.
 DNS provides following services
1) Host Aliasing : A host with a complicated hostname can
have one or more alias names.

2) Mail Server Aliasing: For obvious reasons, it is highly desirable that

e-mail addresses be mnemonic.

3) Load Distribution : It perform load distribution among replicated

servers.
 Overview of How DNS Works
Distributed database design is more preferred over
centralized :

1) A Single Point of Failure : If the DNS server crashes then the

entire Internet will not stop.
2) Traffic Volume : A Single DNS Server cannot handle the huge
global DNS traffic.
3) Distant Centralized DB: A single DNS server cannot be “close
to” all the querying clients.
➢ If we put the single DNS server in Mysore, then all queries from USA must
travel to the other side of the globe, leads delay.
4) Maintenance: The single DNS server would have to keep
records for all Internet hosts.
 DNS: a distributed, hierarchical database
Root DNS Servers

… …

com DNS servers org DNS servers edu DNS servers

pbs.org poly.edu umass.edu

yahoo.com amazon.com
DNS servers DNS servers DNS servers
DNS servers DNS servers

Authoritative

client wants IP for www.amazon.com:

• client queries root server to find com DNS server
• client queries .com DNS server to get amazon.com DNS server
• client queries amazon.com DNS server to get IP address for
www.amazon.com
 DNS name
resolution example root DNS server

2
• host at cis.poly.edu wants 3
TLD DNS server
IP address for 4
gaia.cs.umass.edu
5

local DNS server

iterative query: dns.poly.edu
 contacted server replies 7 6
with name of server to 1 8
contact
 “I don’t know this authoritative DNS server
dns.cs.umass.edu
name, but ask this requesting host
server” cis.poly.edu

gaia.cs.umass.edu
 DNS name
resolution example root DNS server

2 3
recursive query: 7
6
 puts burden of name TLD DNS
resolution on contacted server
name server local DNS server
 heavy load at upper dns.poly.edu 5 4
levels of hierarchy? 1 8

authoritative DNS server

dns.cs.umass.edu
requesting host
cis.poly.edu

gaia.cs.umass.edu
 DNS Record:
Instructions in authoritative DNS servers, provide info( Domain+ IP address )

DNS: distributed database storing resource records (RR)

when a resource
RR format: (name, value, type, ttl) should be removed
from a cache

type=A(Address) type=CNAME
 name is hostname  name is alias name for some “canonical”
 value is IP address (the real) name
 value is canonical name

type=NS(Name Server) type=MX(mail exchange)

– name is domain  value is name of mailserver
– value is hostname of associated with name
authoritative name server for
this domain
 DNS : Messages
• Query(Request) and reply messages, both with same message format

2 bytes 2 bytes

msg header identification flags

Header
 identification: 16 bit # for query, # questions # answer RRs Section
reply to query uses same # (12bytes
 flags: # authority RRs # additional RRs
 1.query(0) or reply(1)
 2. Authoritative: set in questions (variable # of questions) Question
reply msg when DNS is Section
authoritative server
answers (variable # of RRs)
 3. Recursion Desired: Set
when client desires DNS
performs recursion authority (variable # of RRs)

additional info (variable # of RRs)

 DNS Protocol, Messages

2 bytes 2 bytes

question being identification flags

asked about the
domain-name # questions # answer RRs
domain-name
# authority RRs # additional RRs

Info about query: name, type fields

for a query questions (variable # of questions)

RRs in response answers (variable # of RRs)

to query
records for authority (variable # of RRs)
authoritative servers

additional “helpful” additional info (variable # of RRs)

info that may be used