Introduction: Data communication: Components, Data representation,

Data flow, Networks: Network criteria, Physical Structures, Network

types: LAN, WAN, Switching, The Internet.
(1.1,1.2, 1.3(1.3.1to 1.3.4 of Text)

Network Models: Protocol Layering: Scenarios, Principles, Logical

Connections, TCP/IP Protocol Suite: Layered Architecture, Layers in
TCP/IP suite, Description of layers, Encapsulation and Decapsulation,
Addressing, Multiplexing and Demultiplexing, The OSI Model: OSI
Versus TCP/IP.
(2.1, 2.2, 2.3 of Text)
L1, L2
Computer Networks Module-1

DATA COMMUNICATIONS
When we communicate, we are sharing information. This sharing can be local or
remote. Between individuals, local communication usually occurs face to face, while
remote communication takes place over distance. The term telecommunication,
which includes telephony, telegraphy, and television, means communication at a
distance (tele is Greek for “far”). The word data refers to information presented in
whatever form is agreed upon by the parties creating and using the data.

Data communications are the exchange of data between two devices via some
form of transmission medium such as a wire cable. For data communications to occur,
the communicating devices must be part of a communication system made up of a
combination of hardware (physical equipment) and software (programs). The
effectiveness of a data communications system depends on four fundamental
characteristics: delivery, accuracy, timeliness, and jitter.

1. Delivery. The system must deliver data to the correct destination. Data must be
received by the intended device or user and only by that device or user.

2. Accuracy. The system must deliver the data accurately. Data that have been
altered in transmission and left uncorrected are unusable.

3. Timeliness. The system must deliver data in a timely manner. Data delivered late
are useless. In the case of video and audio, timely delivery means delivering
data as they are produced, in the same order that they are produced, and
without significant delay. This kind of delivery is called real-time transmission.

4. Jitter. Jitter refers to the variation in the packet arrival time. It is the uneven
delay in the delivery of audio or video packets. For example, let us assume that
video packets are sent every 30 ms. If some of the packets arrive with 30-ms
delay and others with40-ms delay, an uneven quality in the video is the result

Components

A data communications system has five components (see Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 Five components of data communication

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1. Message. The message is the information (data) to be communicated.

Popularforms of information include text, numbers, pictures, audio, and video.

2. Sender. The sender is the device that sends the data message. It can be a
computer, workstation, telephone handset, video camera, and so on.

3. Receiver. The receiver is the device that receives the message. It can be a
computer, workstation, telephone handset, television, and so on.

4. Transmission medium. The transmission medium is the physical path by

which a message travels from sender to receiver. Some examples of
transmission media include twisted-pair wire, coaxial cable, fiber-optic cable,
and radio waves.

5. Protocol. A protocol is a set of rules that govern data communications. It

represents an agreement between the communicating devices. Without a
protocol, two devices may be connected but not communicating, just as a
person speaking French cannot be understood by a person who speaks only
Japanese.

Data Representation

Information today comes in different forms such as text, numbers, images, audio, and
video.

Text

In data communications, text is represented as a bit pattern, a sequence of bits (0s or 1s).
Different sets of bit patterns have been designed to represent text symbols. Each set is
called a code, and the process of representing symbols is called coding. Today, the
prevalent coding system is called Unicode, which uses 32 bits to represent a symbol or
character used in any language in the world. The American Standard Code for
Information Interchange (ASCII), developed some decades ago in the United States,
now constitutes the first 127 characters in Unicode and is also referred to as Basic Latin.
Appendix A includes part of the Unicode.

Numbers

Numbers are also represented by bit patterns. However, a code such as ASCII is not usedto
represent numbers; the number is directly converted to a binary number to simplify
mathematical operations. Appendix B discusses several different numbering systems.

Images

Images are also represented by bit patterns. In its simplest form, an image is composed
of a matrix of pixels (picture elements), where each pixel is a small dot. The size of the
pixel depends on the resolution. For example, an image can be divided into 1000 pixels

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or 10,000 pixels. In the second case, there is a better representation of the image (better
resolution), but more memory is needed to store the image.

After an image is divided into pixels, each pixel is assigned a bit pattern. The size
and the value of the pattern depend on the image. For an image made of only black- and-
white dots (e.g., a chessboard), a 1-bit pattern is enough to represent a pixel.

If an image is not made of pure white and pure black pixels, we can increase the
size of the bit pattern to include gray scale. For example, to show four levels of gray
scale, we can use 2-bit patterns. A black pixel can be represented by 00, a dark gray
pixel by 01, a light gray pixel by 10, and a white pixel by 11.

There are several methods to represent color images. One method is called
RGB, so called because each color is made of a combination of three primary colors:
red, green, and blue. The intensity of each color is measured, and a bit pattern is
assigned to it. Another method is called YCM, in which a color is made of a
combination of three other primary colors: yellow, cyan, and magenta.

Audio

Audio refers to the recording or broadcasting of sound or music. Audio is by nature

different from text, numbers, or images. It is continuous, not discrete. Even when we
use a microphone to change voice or music to an electric signal, we create a
continuoussignal.

Video

Video refers to the recording or broadcasting of a picture or movie. Video can either
be produced as a continuous entity (e.g., by a TV camera), or it can be a
combination of images, each a discrete entity, arranged to convey the idea of motion.

Data Flow

Communication between two devices can be simplex, half-duplex, or full-duplex as

shown in Figure 1.2.

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Figure 1.2 Data flow (simplex, half-duplex, and full-duplex)

Simplex

In simplex mode, the communication is unidirectional, as on a one-way street. Only one

of the two devices on a link can transmit; the other can only receive.

Keyboards and traditional monitors are examples of simplex devices. The key-
board can only introduce input; the monitor can only accept output. The simplex
modecan use the entire capacity of the channel to send data in one direction.

Half-Duplex

In half-duplex mode, each station can both transmit and receive, but not at the same time.
When one device is sending, the other can only receive, and vice versa.

The half-duplex mode is like a one-lane road with traffic allowed in both
directions. When cars are traveling in one direction, cars going the other way must wait.
In a half-duplex transmission, the entire capacity of a channel is taken over by whichever
ofthe two devices is transmitting at the time. Walkie-talkies and CB (citizens band) radios
are both half-duplex systems.

The half-duplex mode is used in cases where there is no need for communication
in both directions at the same time; the entire capacity of the channel can be utilized for
each direction.

Full-Duplex

In full-duplex mode (also called duplex), both stations can transmit and receive
simultaneously (see Figure 1.2c).

The full-duplex mode is like a two-way street with traffic flowing in both
directions at the same time. In full-duplex mode, signals going in one direction share the

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capacity of the link with signals going in the other direction. This sharing can occur in two ways:
Either the link must contain two physically separate transmission paths, one for sending and the other for
receiving; or the capacity of the channel is divided between signals traveling in both directions.

One common example of full-duplex communication is the telephone network. When two people are
communicating by a telephone line, both can talk and listen at the same time.

The full-duplex mode is used when communication in both directions is required all the time. The
capacity of the channel, however, must be divided between the two directions.

Networks
A network is set of interconnected devices (sometime referred as nodes) which are used to
transmit data between them with agreed protocols. The networks are used to connect the people,
machines, devices to share the data anywhere in the world. The devices can be computers, printers,
mobile phones, servers which are capable of sending and receiving data. The data can be generated by
a device.
There is considerable confusion in the literature between a computer network and a distributed
system. The key distinction is that in a distributed system, a collection of independent computers
appears to its users as a single coherent system. Usually, it has a single model or paradigm that it
presents to the users. Often a layer of software on top of the operating system, called middleware, is
responsible for implementing this model. A well-known example of a distributed system is the World
Wide Web, in which everything looks like a document (Web page).

History of Network
A computer network is a digital telecommunications network which allows nodes to share
resources. In computer networks, computing devices exchange data with each other using connections
(data links) between nodes. These data links are established over cable media such as wires or optic
cables, or wireless media such as Wi-Fi.
Computer networking as we know it today may be said to have gotten its start with the Arpanet
development in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Prior to that time there were computer vendor
“networks” designed primarily to connect terminals and remote job entry stations to a mainframe.
In 1940, George Sitbit used a teletype machine to send instructions for a problem set from his
model at Dartmouth college to his complex number calculator in New York and received results back
by the same means. In 1950’s, early networks of communicating

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Computers included the military radar system Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) was
started.
Later, in 1960s, the notion of networking between computers viewing each other as equal peers
to achieve “resource sharing” was fundamental to the ARPA net design [1]. The other strong
emphasis of the Arpanet work was its reliance on the then novel technique of packet switching to
efficiently share communication resources among “bursty” users, instead of the more traditional
message or circuit switching. The table 1.1 gives the time frame of the computer network growth from
network to internet.

Year Event
The idea of ARPANET, one of the earliest computer networks, was proposed by Leonard Kleinrock in
1961
1961, in his paper titled "Information Flow in Large Communication Nets."
The term "packet" was coined by Donald Davies in 1965, to describe data sent between computers
1965
over a network.
ARPANET was one of the first computer networks to use packet switching. Development of
1969 ARPANET started in 1966, and the first two nodes, UCLA and SRI (Standford Research Institute),
were connected, officially starting ARPANET in 1969.
The first RFC surfaced in April 1969, as a document to define and provide information about computer
1969
communications, network protocols, and procedures.
The first network switch and IMP (Interface Message Processor) was sent to UCLA on August 29,
1969
1969. It was used to send the first data transmission on ARPANET.
The Internet was officially born, with the first data transmission being sent between UCLA and SRI
1969
on October 29, 1969, at 10:30 p.m.
Steve Crocker and a team at UCLA released NCP (NetWare Core Protocol) in 1970. NCP is a file
1970
sharing protocol for use with NetWare.
1971 Ray Tomlinson sent the first e-mail in 1971.
ALOHAnet, a UHF wireless packet network, is used in Hawaii to connect the islands together.
1971
Although it is not Wi-Fi, it helps lay the foundation for Wi-Fi.
1973 Ethernet is developed by Robert Metcalfe in 1973 while working at Xerox PARC.
1973 The first international network connection, called SATNET, is deployed in 1973 by ARPA.
An experimental VoIP call was made in 1973, officially introducing VoIP technology and capabilities.
1973
However, the first software allowing users to make VoIP calls was not available until 1995.
The first routers were used at Xerox in 1974. However, these first routers were not considered true IP
1974
routers.
1976 Ginny Strazisar developed the first true IP router, originally called a gateway, in 1976.
Bob Kahn invented the TCP/IP protocol for networks and developed it, with help from Vint Cerf, in
1978
1978.
Internet protocol version 4, or IPv4, was officially defined in RFC 791 in 1981. IPv4 was the first
1981
major version of the Internet protocol.
1981 BITNET was created in 1981 as a network between IBM mainframe systems in the United States.
CSNET (Computer Science Network) was developed by the U.S. National Science Foundation in
1981
1981.
1983 ARPANET finished the transition to using TCP/IP in 1983.
1983 Paul Mockapetris and Jon Postel implement the first DNS in 1983.
The NSFNET (National Science Foundation Network) came online in 1986. It was a backbone for
1986
ARPANET, before eventually replacing ARPANET in the early 1990's.
1986 BITNET II was created in 1986 to address bandwidth issues with the original BITNET.
1988 The first T1 backbone was added to ARPANET in 1988. Page 6
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WaveLAN network technology, the official precursor to Wi-Fi, was introduced to the market by
1988
AT&T, Lucent, and NCR in 1988.
Details about network firewall technology was first published in 1988. The published paper discussed
1988 the first firewall, called a packet filter firewall, that was developed by Digital Equipment Corporation
the same year.
Kalpana, a U.S. network hardware company, developed and introduced the first network switch in
1990
1990.
IPv6 was introduced in 1996 as an improvement over IPv4, including a wider range of IP addresses,
1996
improved routing, and embedded encryption.
The first version of the 802.11 standard for Wi-Fi is introduced in June 1997, providing transmission
1997
speeds up to 2 Mbps.
The 802.11a standard for Wi-Fi was made official in 1999, designed to use the 5 GHz band and provide
1999
transmission speeds up to 25 Mbps.
802.11b devices were available to the public starting mid-1999, providing transmission speeds up to
1999
11 Mbps.
1999 The WEP encryption protocol for Wi-Fi is introduced in September 1999, for use with 802.11b.
802.11g devices were available to the public starting in January 2003, providing transmission speeds
2003
up to 20 Mbps.
2003 The WPA encryption protocol for Wi-Fi is introduced in 2003, for use with 802.11g.
The WPA2 encryption protocol is introduced in 2004, as an improvement over and replacement for
2003
WPA. All Wi-Fi devices are required to be WPA2 certified by 2006.
The 802.11n standard for Wi-Fi was made official in 2009. It provides higher transfer speeds over
2009
802.11a and 802.11g, and it can operate on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bandwidths.
The Wi-Fi Alliance introduced WPA3 encryption for Wi-Fi in January 2018, which includes security
2018
enhancements over WPA2.
Table 1.1 Time period of Network growth

Uses of Computer Networks

The computer networks are used in different applications to meet the requirement of different
people at different places in different time. The following are the uses of computer network.

a) Business Applications.
Many companies have a substantial number of computers. For example, a company may have
separate computers to monitor production, keep track of inventories, and do the payroll. Initially, each
of these computers may have worked in isolation from the others, but at some point, management may
have decided to connect them to be able to extract and correlate information about the entire
company.

1. Resource sharing: The main task of the connectivity of resources is resource

sharing. For example, a high-volume networked printer may be installed instead of
large collection of individual printers.
2. Information Sharing : large and medium-sized company and many small
companies are vitally dependent on computerized information. This can be done by
a simple client server model connected by network as illustrated in Fig.1.4.

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Figure 1.4 A network with two clients and one server

In client-server model in detail, two processes are involved, one on the client machine and
one on the server machine. Communication takes the form of the client process sending a
message over the network to the server process. The client process then waits for a reply
message. When the server process gets the request, it performs the requested work or looks
up the requested data and sends back a reply. These messages are shown in Fig. 1.5.

Figure 1.5 Client-server model involves requests and replies

3. Connecting People : another use of setting up a computer network has to do with

people rather than information or even computers. It is achieved through Email,
Video Conferencing.
4. E-commerce : many companies is doing business electronically with other
companies, especially suppliers and customers, and doing business with consumers
over the Internet.
b) Home Applications
The computer network provides better connectivity for home applications via desktop
computers, laptops, iPads, iPhones. Some of the more popular uses of the Internet for home users are
as follows:

1. Access to remote information.

2. Person-to-person communication (peer-to-peer).
i. Peer-to-peer - there are no fixed clients and servers.
ii. Audio and Video sharing
3. Interactive entertainment.
4. Electronic commerce.

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Table 1.2 Some forms of e-commerce

c) Mobile Users
As wireless technology becomes more widespread, numerous other applications are likely to
emerge. Wireless networks are of great value to fleets of trucks, taxis, delivery vehicles, and
repairpersons for keeping in contact with home. Wireless networks are also important to the military.
Although wireless networking and mobile computing are often related, they are not identical, as
Table 1.3 shows. Here we see a distinction between fixed wireless and mobile wireless. Even
notebook computers are sometimes wired. For example, if a traveller plugs a notebook computer into
the telephone jack in a hotel room, he has mobility without a wireless network.

Table 1.3 Combinations of wireless networks and mobile computing

Another area in which wireless could save money is utility meter reading. If electricity, gas,
water, and other meters in people's homes were to report usage over a wireless network, there would
be no need to send out meter readers.

d) Social issues
The widespread introduction of networking has introduced new social, ethical, and political
problems. A popular feature of many networks are newsgroups or bulletin boards whereby people can
exchange messages with like-minded individuals. As long as the subjects are restricted to technical
topics or hobbies like gardening, not too many problems will arise.
The following are the issues in society due to the misbehave or misconduct of computer
networks.

1. Network neutrality
2. Digital Millennium Copyright Act
3. Profiling users

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4. Phishing

Network Criteria

A network must be able to meet a certain number of criteria. The most important of
these are performance, reliability, and security.

Performance

Performance can be measured in many ways, including transit time and response
time. Transit time is the amount of time required for a message to travel from one
device to another. Response time is the elapsed time between an inquiry and a
response. The performance of a network depends on a number of factors, including
the number of users, the type of transmission medium, the capabilities of the
connected hardware, and the efficiency of the software.

Performance is often evaluated by two networking metrics: throughput and

delay. We often need more throughput and less delay. However, these two criteria are
often contradictory. If we try to send more data to the network, we may increase
throughput but we increase the delay because of traffic congestion in the network.

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Reliability

In addition to accuracy of delivery, network reliability is measured by the frequency

of failure, the time it takes a link to recover from a failure, and the network’s
robustness ina catastrophe.

Security

Network security issues include protecting data from unauthorized access, protecting
data from damage and development, and implementing policies and procedures for
recovery from breaches and data losses.

Type of Connection

A network is two or more devices connected through links. A link is a

communications pathway that transfers data from one device to another. For
visualization purposes, it is simplest to imagine any link as a line drawn between two
points. For communication to occur, two devices must be connected in some way to
the same link at the same time. There are two possible types of connections: point-to-
point and multipoint.

Point-to-Point: A point-to-point connection provides a dedicated link between two

devices. The entire capacity of the link is reserved for transmission between those two
devices. Most point-to-point connections use an actual length of wire or cable to connect
the two ends, but other options, such as microwave or satellite links, are also possible (see
Figure 1.3a). When we change television channels by infrared remote control, we are
establishing a point-to-point connection between the remote control and the television’s
control system.

Multipoint:

Figure 1.3 Types of connections: point-to-point and multipoint

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A multipoint (also called multidrop) connection is one in which more than two
specific devices share a single link (see Figure 1.3b). In a multipoint environment, the
capacity of the channel is shared, either spatially or temporally. If several devices can
use the link simultaneously, it is a spatially sharedconnection. If users must take turns, it
is a timeshared connection.

NETWORK TYPES

After defining networks in the previous section and discussing their physical structures,
we need to discuss different types of networks we encounter in the world today. The
criteria of distinguishing one type of network from another is difficult and sometimes
confusing. We use a few criteria such as size, geographical coverage, and ownership to
make this distinction. After discussing two types of networks, LANs and WANs, we
define switching, which is used to connect networks to form an internetwork (a network of
networks).
Local Area Network

A local area network (LAN) is usually privately owned and connects some hosts in a
single office, building, or campus. Depending on the needs of an organization, a LAN
can be as simple as two PCs and a printer in someone’s home office, or it can extend
throughout a company and include audio and video devices. Each host in a LAN has an
identifier, an address, that uniquely defines the host in the LAN. A packet sent by a host to
another host carries both the source host’s and the destination host’s addresses.

In the past, all hosts in a network were connected through a common cable,
which meant that a packet sent from one host to another was received by all hosts. The
intended recipient kept the packet; the others dropped the packet. Today, most LANs
use a smart connecting switch, which is able to recognize the destination address of the
packet and guide the packet to its destination without sending it to all other hosts. The
switch alleviates the traffic in the LAN and allows more than one pair to communicate
with each other at the same time if there is no common source and destination among
them. Note that the above definition of a LAN does not define the minimum or maximum
number of hosts in a LAN. Figure 1.8 shows a LAN using either a common cable or a
switch.
When LANs were used in isolation (which is rare today), they were designed to
allow resources to be shared between the hosts. As we will see shortly, LANs today are
connectedto each other and to WANs (discussed next) to create communication at a
wider level.

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PROTOCOL LAYERING
In data communication and networking, a protocol defines the rules that both the
sender and receiver and all intermediate devices need to follow to be able to
communicate effectively. When communication is simple, we may need only one
simple protocol; when the communication is complex, we may need to divide the task
between different layers, in which case we need a protocol at each layer, or protocol
layering.

Scenarios

Let us develop two simple scenarios to better understand the need for protocol layering.

First Scenario

In the first scenario, communication is so simple that it can occur in only one layer.
Assume Maria and Ann are neighbors with a lot of common ideas. Communication
between Maria and Ann takes place in one layer, face to face, in the same language,
asshown in Figure 1.16.

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Figure 1.16 A single-layer protocol

Even in this simple scenario, we can see that a set of rules needs to be
followed. First, Maria and Ann know that they should greet each other when they
meet. Second, they know that they should confine their vocabulary to the level of
their friendship. Third, each party knows that she should refrain from speaking
when the other party is speaking. Fourth, each party knows that the conversation
should be a dialog, not a monolog: both should have the opportunity to talk about the
issue. Fifth, they should exchange some nice words when they leave.

We can see that the protocol used by Maria and Ann is different from the
communication between a professor and the students in a lecture hall. The
communication in the second case is mostly monolog; the professor talks most of the
time unless a studenthas a question, a situation in which the protocol dictates that she
should raise her hand and wait for permission to speak. In this case, the
communication is normally very for-mal and limited to the subject being taught.

Second Scenario

In the second scenario, we assume that Ann is offered a higher-level position in her
company, but needs to move to another branch located in a city very far from Maria. The
two friends still want to continue their communication and exchange ideas because they
have come up with an innovative project to start a new business when they both retire.

They decide to continue their conversation using regular mail through the post
office. However, they do not want their ideas to be revealed by other people if the letters
are intercepted. They agree on an encryption/decryption technique. The sender of the
letter encrypts it to make it unreadable by an intruder; the receiver of the letter decrypts
it to get the original letter., but for the moment we assume that Maria and Ann use one
technique that makes it hard to decrypt the letter if one does not have the key for doing
so. Now we can say that the communication between Maria and Ann takes place in three
layers, as shown in Figure 1.17. We assume that Ann and Maria each have three
machines (or robots) that can perform the task at each layer.

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Figure 1.17 A three-layer protocol

Let us assume that Maria sends the first letter to Ann. Maria talks to the machine
at the third layer as though the machine is Ann and is listening to her. The third layer
machine listens to what Maria says and creates the plaintext (a letter in English), whichis
passed to the second layer machine. The second layer machine takes the plaintext,
encrypts it, and creates the cipher text, which is passed to the first layer machine. The
first layer machine, presumably a robot, takes the cipher text, puts it in an envelope, adds
the sender and receiver addresses, and mails it.

At Ann’s side, the first layer machine picks up the letter from Ann’s mail box,
recognizing the letter from Maria by the sender address. The machine takes out the
cipher- text from the envelope and delivers it to the second layer machine. The second
layer machine decrypts the message, creates the plaintext, and passes the plaintext to the
third-layer machine. The third layer machine takes the plaintext and reads it as though
Maria is speaking.

Protocol layering enables us to divide a complex task into several smaller and
simpler tasks. For example, in Figure 1.17, we could have used only one machine to
do the job of all three machines. However, if Maria and Ann decide that the
encryption/ decryption done by the machine is not enough to protect their secrecy,
they would have to change the whole machine. In the present situation, they need to
change only the second layer machine; the other two can remain the same. This is
referred to as modularity. Modularity in this case means independent layers. A layer
(module) can be defined as a black box with inputs and outputs, without concern
about how inputs are changed to outputs. If two machines provide the same outputs
when given the same inputs, they can replace each other. For example, Ann and
Maria can buy the second layer machinefrom two different manufacturers. As long as
the two machines create the same cipher- text from the same plaintext and vice versa,
they do the job.

One of the advantages of protocol layering is that it allows us to separate the

services from the implementation. A layer needs to be able to receive a set of ser-

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vices from the lower layer and to give the services to the upper layer; we don’t care
about how the layer is implemented. For example, Maria may decide not to buy the
machine (robot) for the first layer; she can do the job herself. As long as Maria can
do the tasks provided by the first layer, in both directions, the communication
system works.

Another advantage of protocol layering, which cannot be seen in our simple

examples but reveals itself when we discuss protocol layering in the Internet, is that
communication does not always use only two end systems; there are intermediate
systems that need only some layers, but not all layers. If we did not use protocol
layering, we would have to make each intermediate system as complex as the end
systems, which makes the whole system more expensive.

Is there any disadvantage to protocol layering? One can argue that having a
single layer makes the job easier. There is no need for each layer to provide a service
to the upper layer and give service to the lower layer. For example, Ann and Maria
could find or build one machine that could do all three tasks. However, as mentioned
above, if one day they found that their code was broken, each would have to replace
the whole machine with a new one instead of just changing the machine in the second
layer.

Principles of Protocol Layering

Let us discuss two principles of protocol layering.

First Principle

The first principle dictates that if we want bidirectional communication, we need to

make each layer so that it is able to perform two opposite tasks, one in each direction.
For example, the third layer task is to listen (in one direction) and talk (in the other
direction). The second layer needs to be able to encrypt and decrypt. The first layer
needs to send and receive mail.

Second Principle

The second principle that we need to follow in protocol layering is that the two
objects under each layer at both sites should be identical. For example, the object
under layer 3 at both sites should be a plaintext letter. The object under layer 2 at
both sites should be a cipher text letter. The object under layer 1 at both sites should
be a piece of mail.

Logical Connections

After following the above two principles, we can think about logical connection between
each layer as shown in Figure 1.18. This means that we have layer-to-layer
communication. Maria and Ann can think that there is a logical (imaginary) connectionat

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each layer through which they can send the object created from that layer. We will see
that the concept of logical connection will help us better understand the task of lay-ering
we encounter in data communication and networking.

Figure 1.18 Logical connection between peer layers

TCP/IP PROTOCOL SUITE

Now that we know about the concept of protocol layering and the logical
communication between layers in our second scenario, we can introduce the TCP/IP
(Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). TCP/IP is a protocol suite (a set of
protocols organized in different layers) used in the Internet today. It is a hierarchical
protocol made upof interactive modules, each of which provides a specific functionality.
The term hierarchical means that each upper level protocol is supported by the services
provided by one or more lower level protocols. The original TCP/IP protocol suite was
defined as four software layers built upon the hardware. Today, however, TCP/IP is
thought of as afive-layer model. Figure 1.19. shows both configurations.

Layered Architecture

To show how the layers in the TCP/IP protocol suite are involved in communication
between two hosts, we assume that we want to use the suite in a small internet made upof
three LANs (links), each with a link-layer switch. We also assume that the links are
connected by one router, as shown in Figure 1.20.

Figure 1.19 Layers in the TCP/IP protocol suite

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 Let us assume that computer A communicates with computer B. As the figure shows, we
have five communicating devices in this communication: source host (computer A), the
link-layer switch in link 1, the router, the link-layer switch in link 2, and the destination
host (computer B). Each device is involved with a set of layers depending on the role of the
device in the internet. The two hosts are involved in all fivelayers; the source host needs to
create a message in the application layer and send it down the layers so that it is physically
sent to the destination host. The destination host needs to receive the communication at the
physical layer and then deliver it through theother layers to the application layer.

The router is involved in only three layers; there is no transport or application layer
in a router as long as the router is used only for routing. Although a router is always
involved in one network layer, it is involved in n combinations of link and physical lay-
ers in which n is the number of links the router is connected to. The reason is that each
link may use its own data-link or physical protocol. For example, in the above figure, the
router is involved in three links, but the message sent from source A to destination B is
involved in two links. Each link may be using different link-layer and physical-layer
protocols; the router needs to receive a packet from link 1 based on one pair of proto-
cols and deliver it to link 2 based on another pair of protocols.

A link-layer switch in a link, however, is involved only in two layers, data-link and
physical. Although each switch in the above figure has two different connections, the
connections are in the same link, which uses only one set of protocols. This means that,
unlike a router, a link-layer switch is involved only in one data-link and one physical
layer.
Description of Each Layer

After understanding the concept of logical communication, we are ready to briefly

discuss the duty of each layer.

Physical Layer

We can say that the physical layer is responsible for carrying individual bits in a
frame across the link. Although the physical layer is the lowest level in the TCP/IP
protocol suite, the communication between two devices at the physical layer is still a
logical communication because there is another, hidden layer, the transmission
media, under the physical layer. Two devices are connected by a transmission
medium (cable or air). We need to know that the transmission medium does not carry
bits; it carries electrical or optical signals. So the bits received in a frame from the data-
link layer are trans- formed and sent through the transmission media, but we can think
that the logical unit between two physical layers in two devices is a bit. There are
several protocols that transform a bit to a signal. We discuss them in Part II when we
discuss the physical layer and the transmission media.

Data-link Layer

We have seen that an internet is made up of several links (LANs and WANs) connected

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by routers. There may be several overlapping sets of links that a datagram can travel
from the host to the destination. The routers are responsible for choosing the best links.
However, when the next link to travel is determined by the router, the data-link layer is
responsible for taking the datagram and moving it across the link. The link can be a
wired LAN with a link-layer switch, a wireless LAN, a wired WAN, or a wireless WAN.
We can also have different protocols used with any link type. In each case, the data-link
layer is responsible for moving the packet through the link.

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Page 23
 TCP/IP does not define any specific protocol for the data-link layer. It supports
all the standard and proprietary protocols. Any protocol that can take the datagram and
carry it through the link suffices for the network layer. The data-link layer takes a data-
gram and encapsulates it in a packet called a frame.

Each link-layer protocol may provide a different service. Some link-layer

protocols provide complete error detection and correction, some provide only error
correction.

Network Layer

The network layer is responsible for creating a connection between the source computer
and the destination computer. The communication at the network layer is host-to-host.
However, since there can be several routers from the source to the destination, the routersin
the path are responsible for choosing the best route for each packet. We can say that the
network layer is responsible for host-to-host communication and routing the packet
through possible routes. Again, we may ask ourselves why we need the network layer. We
could have added the routing duty to the transport layer and dropped this layer. One
reason, as we said before, is the separation of different tasks between different layers. The
second reason is that the routers do not need the application and transport layers.
Separating the tasks allows us to use fewer protocols on the routers.

The network layer in the Internet includes the main protocol, Internet Protocol
(IP), that defines the format of the packet, called a datagram at the network layer. IP also
defines the format and the structure of addresses used in this layer. IP is also responsible
for routing a packet from its source to its destination, which is achieved by each router
forwarding the datagram to the next router in its path.

IP is a connectionless protocol that provides no flow control, no error control,

and no congestion control services. This means that if any of theses services is required
for an application, the application should rely only on the transport-layer protocol. The
net- work layer also includes unicast (one-to-one) and multicast (one-to-many) routing
protocols. A routing protocol does not take part in routing (it is the responsibility of IP),
but it creates forwarding tables for routers to help them in the routing process.

The network layer also has some auxiliary protocols that help IP in its delivery
and routing tasks. The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) helps IP to report
some problems when routing a packet. The Internet Group Management Protocol
(IGMP) is another protocol that helps IP in multitasking. The Dynamic Host
Configuration Protocol (DHCP) helps IP to get the network-layer address for a host.
The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is a protocol that helps IP to find the link-
layer address of a host or a router when its network-layer address is given.

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Transport Layer

The logical connection at the transport layer is also end-to-end. The transport layer at
the source host gets the message from the application layer, encapsulates it in a
transport- layer packet (called a segment or a user datagram in different protocols)
and sends it, through the logical (imaginary) connection, to the transport layer at the
destination host. In other words, the transport layer is responsible for giving services
to the application layer: to get a message from an application program running on the
source host and deliver it to the corresponding application program on the destination
host. We may askwhy we need an end-to-end transport layer when we already have an
end-to-end application layer. The reason is the separation of tasks and duties, which
we discussed earlier. The transport layer should be independent of the application
layer. In addition, we will see that we have more than one protocol in the transport
layer, which means that each application program can use the protocol that best
matches its requirement.

As we said, there are a few transport-layer protocols in the Internet, each

designed for some specific task. The main protocol, Transmission Control Protocol
(TCP), is a connection-oriented protocol that first establishes a logical connection
between trans- port layers at two hosts before transferring data. It creates a logical
pipe between two TCPs for transferring a stream of bytes. TCP provides flow control
(matching the send- ing data rate of the source host with the receiving data rate of the
destination host to prevent overwhelming the destination), error control (to guarantee
that the segments arrive at the destination without error and resending the corrupted
ones), and conges- tion control to reduce the loss of segments due to congestion in
the network. The other common protocol, User Datagram Protocol (UDP), is a
connectionless protocol that transmits user datagrams without first creating a logical
connection. In UDP, each user datagram is an independent entity without being
related to the previous or the next one(the meaning of the term connectionless). UDP
is a simple protocol that does not pro- vide flow, error, or congestion control. Its
simplicity, which means small overhead, is attractive to an application program that
needs to send short messages and cannot afford the retransmission of the packets
involved in TCP, when a packet is corrupted or lost. A new protocol, Stream Control
Transmission Protocol (SCTP) is designed to respond to new applications that are
emerging in the multimedia.

Application Layer

As Figure 2.6 shows, the logical connection between the two application layers is
end- to-end. The two application layers exchange messages between each other as
though there were a bridge between the two layers. However, we should know that the
communication is done through all the layers.

Communication at the application layer is between two processes (two programs

running at this layer). To communicate, a process sends a request to the other process

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and receives a response. Process-to-process communication is the duty of the applica-
tion layer. The application layer in the Internet includes many predefined protocols, but a
user can also create a pair of processes to be run at the two hosts.

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a vehicle for accessing the World
Wide Web (WWW). The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is the main protocol
used in electronic mail (e-mail) service. The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is used for
transferring files from one host to another. The Terminal Network (TELNET) and
Secure Shell (SSH) are used for accessing a site remotely. The Simple Network
Management Protocol (SNMP) is used by an administrator to manage the Internet at
global and local levels. The Domain Name System (DNS) is used by other protocols to
find the network-layer address of a computer. The Internet Group Management Protocol
(IGMP) is used to collect membership in a group.

THE OSI MODEL

Although, when speaking of the Internet, everyone talks about the TCP/IP protocol
suite, this suite is not the only suite of protocols defined. Established in 1947, the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a multinational body
dedicated to worldwide agreement on international standards. Almost three-fourths of
the countries in the world are represented in the ISO. An ISO standard that covers all
aspects of network communications is the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI)
model. It was first introduced in the late 1970s.

An open system is a set of protocols that allows any two different systems to
communicate regardless of their underlying architecture. The purpose of the OSI
model is to show how to facilitate communication between different systems without
requiring changes to the logic of the underlying hardware and software. The OSI
model is not a protocol; it is a model for understanding and designing a network
architecture that is flexible, robust, and interoperable. The OSI model was intended to
be the basis for the creation of the protocols in the OSI stack.

The OSI model is a layered framework for the design of network systems that
allows communication between all types of computer systems. It consists of seven
sep- arate but related layers, each of which defines a part of the process of moving
informationacross a network (see Figure 1.26).

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 Computer Networks Module-1

Figure 1.26 The OSI model

OSI versus TCP/IP

When we compare the two models, we find that two layers, session and presentation, are
missing from the TCP/IP protocol suite. These two layers were not added to the TCP/IP
protocol suite after the publication of the OSI model. The application layer in the suite is
usually considered to be the combination of three layers in the OSI model, as shown in
Figure 1.27.

Figure 1.27 TCP/IP and OSI model

Two reasons were mentioned for this decision. First, TCP/IP has more than one
transport-layer protocol. Some of the functionalities of the session layer are available in
some of the transport-layer protocols. Second, the application layer is not only one
piece of software. Many applications can be developed at this layer. If some of the
functionalities mentioned in the session and presentation layers are needed for a
particular application, they can be included in the development of that piece of software.

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Computer Networks Module-1

Lack of OSI Model’s Success

The OSI model appeared after the TCP/IP protocol suite. Most experts were at first
excited and thought that the TCP/IP protocol would be fully replaced by the OSI model.
This did not happen for several reasons, but we describe only three, which are agreed
upon by all experts in the field. First, OSI was completed when TCP/IP was fully in place
and a lot of time and money had been spent on the suite; changing it would cost a lot.
Second, some layers in the OSI model were never fully defined. For example, although
the services provided by the presentation and the session layers were listed in the
document, actual protocols for these two layers were not fully defined, nor were they
fully described, and the corresponding software was not fully developed. Third, when
OSI was implemented by an organization in a different application, it did not show a high
enough level of performance to entice the Internet authority to switch from the TCP/IP
protocol suite to the OSI model.

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