Application Layer

Chapter 9

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Introduction

 Top most layer in OSI or TCP/IP model

 Ensures effective communication between different

applications on different networks

 This layer is for applications which are involved in

communication system
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Introduction (Cont.)

 Takes help from all layers below for its function

 It has different protocols like: HTTP, FTP, DHCP, SMTP

etc.

 Protocols are used for specific purpose.

 For example, browser uses HTTP to communicate with

web servers 3
Application Layer
Presentation Layer

Session Layer

Transport Layer

Network Layer
Datalink Layer
Physical Layer
Fig: OSI Model
4
Functions of Application Layer
a. File transfer, access and management

b. Email and communication

c. Network access and directories

d. Remote login

e. Addressing

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a. File transfer, access and management
 A standard mechanism to transfer, access and
manage files on a remote computer

 Cloud storage is an example

 We can upload, share, retrieve and manage files on

cloud (e.g. Google Drive)

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b. Email and Communication
 Application layer provides protocols used in
communication tools

 It provides email services that allow us to send and

receive information or files

 Direct communication through text, audio, video is

possible
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c. Network access and directories

 It allows us to search and access information

through network directories service

 For example, we can search information hosted on

remote web server

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d. Remote login

 It allows a user to log on to a remote host

 The application creates software emulation of a

terminal at the remote host

 User's computer talks to the software terminal which

in turn, talks to the host
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e. Addressing

 For client-server communication, addressing is

required

 When client makes request, it contains address of

server and its own

 When server responds, it contains address of

destination

 DNS is used for addressing

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SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
 SMTP is an internet standard communication protocol for
electronic mail transmission

 It is used to send email to other computers over the

internet

 Its main purpose is to set up communication rules

between servers

 It can handle error. For example, if recipient address is

wrong, server reply with error message.
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SMTP (Cont.)
 The SMTP model is of two types
a. End to End
b. Store and forward

 End to end method is used to communicate between

organizations

 Store and forward method is used inside of an

organization

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Working principle of SMTP

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Advantages of SMTP

 Easy to use

 Can explain why email failed to deliver

 Since it is open standard protocol, it can be used by any

network devices

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Disadvantages of SMTP

 Back and forth communication between servers can cause

delay

 Some firewall can block ports commonly used for SMTP

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POP3 (Post Office Protocol Version 3)
 POP3 is an internet standard protocol used by email
clients to retrieve email from mail server

 It is generally used to support single client

 It is commonly used because of its simplicity

 It stores email in the mail server

 After downloading the email to a single computer, it is

deleted from the server
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Working principle of POP3

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Advantages of POP3

 Easy and fast access to emails

 No limit on the size of email

 Requires less server storage

 Easy to configure

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Disadvantages of POP3

 Emails are deleted automatically

 High risk of malware attack

 Email folders can be corrupted

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IMAP(Internet Message Access Protocol)
• Its allows you to access your email wherever you are, from any
device.

• When you read message using imap,you aren’t actually

downloading or storing it on your computer; instead you’re reading
it from the email service.

• As a result , you can check your email from different devices,

anywhere in world: your phone, a computer ,a friends computer.

• Imap is a Pull Protocol.

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 Working Principle of IMAP:

 IMAP follows Client-server Architecture and is the most commonly

used email protocol.
 It is a combination of client and server process running on other
computers that are connected through a network.
 This protocol resides over the TCP/IP protocol for communication.
 Once the communication is set up the server listens on port 143 by
default which is non-encrypted.
 For the secure encrypted communication port, 993 is used.

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Advantages
• User have remote access to all the contents.

• IMAP clients can create , rename, or delete mailboxes

on the server.

• There is no need of physically allocate any storage to

save contents.

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Disadvantage
• Imap is complex to maintain.

• Emails of the user are only available when there is an

internet connection.

• Its is slower to load message.

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DHCP:

DHCP Stand for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol.

DHCP is called to assign Ip address to the host.

DHCP Comes in two flavors as it comes as Client And

Server.

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Working Principle of DHCP

Fig:- Working of DHCP

 Above, Figure we have 2 pcs a Switch and Router. For
Computers to work over the network, they need an
IP(internet Protocol) address, not just any address,
that address that has to be Unique on the network.

 Above figure we have only two PCs so we can assign

manually address. But if we have more than 100 PCs
we could possible do it but it takes more time.
So in this place DHCP comes in handy.

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DHCP Discover:
 Each Computer run a DHCP client it will allows the
computer to ask IP address .

 If the PCs/Host is turn on and it doesn't have any address

then it looks for DHCP server and Host will send the
Broadcast message to all of the Other Devices and they
get the message look and drop it.

DHCP Offer:
 When the DHCP Server get the message then DHCP
server will offer the IP address to the host.

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DHCP Request:
 The Host will received the IP address and send the
request to DHCP server.

DHCP ACK:

 The DHCP send the IP address to host along with subnet

mask , default gateway and DNS server. The DHCP server
keeps the record of the leased IP address and their
leased time. leased time is a period where host need to
renew the IP address other it will return to address pool
and ready to give other hosts.

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 Advantages:
 IP address are supplied automatically.

DHCP minimizes configuration errors.

Client Configuration is updated automatically.

Common source of network problems is eliminated.

 Disadvantages:
 Client is not able to access the network in the absence of the DHCP server.

 Your machine name does not change when you get new IP address.

 It uses UDP(User Datagram Protocol) which is Unreliable and insecure

protocol.
 DNS

 DNS stands for Domain Name System.

 DNS is the Processing of giving name to an IP

address.

 The Domain Name System (DNS) turns domain

names into IP addresses, which browsers use to load
internet pages.

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Working Principle of DNS:

DNS Recursive resolver

Fig: Working Principle of DNS

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 When you type any website name such as google.com, facebook.com .Where
webserver Does not work with domain name. so computer need to translate this in to
IP address.
 The First thing computer will check the local cache in both computer and the browser.
 If there is no cache entries then computer will send query that is called to DNS
recursive Resolver asking for IP address for any website like facebook.com.
 Once the query is received by the DNS recursive Resolver ,it checks it Cache , if it
cannot find then website that you have pressed then it will request to another server.
 This server is Root server. The root server is the top level of DNS hierarchy. The Root
server provides the Top level domain servers. Like .com, .net, org etc.
 For this example :-Then root server will refer us top level Domain server for .com.
Then we query Top level domain server for the websites like facebook.com .
 A Top level domain server contains information for Domains with specific extension
such as .com .org etc.
 But if the TDL still does not know the IP Address.
 When we send Query to Authoritative name server this the last step in DNS Processing
, if it has the record of the website like facebook.com then it will send IP Address.
 The IP Address is Send to our DNS resolver and DNS resolver will send the IP address
to our Computer. With the IP address our Computer can work with webserver.

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 Advantages:

 DNS adds an extra layer of security.

 DNS is that it can offer high speed connections.

 DNS has Stability.

 No need for memorizing IP addresses.

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 Disadvantages:

 DNS issues are generally difficult to troubleshoot.

 major problems that DNS undergoes is the DNS attack.

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HTTP
• The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application-level protocol for
distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. This is the
foundation for data communication for the World Wide Web (i.e. internet)
since 1990. HTTP is a generic and stateless protocol which can be used for
other purposes as well using extensions of its request methods, error
codes, and headers.
• Basically, HTTP is a TCP/IP based communication protocol, that is used to
deliver data (HTML files, image files, query results, etc.) on the World Wide
Web. The default port is TCP 80, but other ports can be used as well. It
provides a standardized way for computers to communicate with each
other. HTTP specification specifies how clients' request data will be
constructed and sent to the server, and how the servers respond to these
requests.

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Basic Architecture
The following diagram shows a very basic architecture of a web
application and depicts where HTTP sits:

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• The HTTP protocol is a request/response protocol based on the
client/server based architecture where web browsers, robots and
search engines, etc. act like HTTP clients, and the Web server acts as a
server.
• Client
• The HTTP client sends a request to the server in the form of a request
method, URI, and protocol version, followed by a MIME-like message
containing request modifiers, client information, and possible body
content over a TCP/IP connection.
• Server
• The HTTP server responds with a status line, including the message's
protocol version and a success or error code, followed by a MIME-like
message containing server information, entity meta information, and
possible entity-body content.

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WWW(World Wide Web)
• WWW stands for World Wide Web. A technical definition of the
World Wide Web is : all the resources and users on the Internet that
are using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
• A broader definition comes from the organization that Web
inventor Tim Berners-Lee helped found, the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C).
• The World Wide Web is the universe of network-accessible
information, an embodiment of human knowledge.
• In simple terms, The World Wide Web is a way of exchanging
information between computers on the Internet, tying them together
into a vast collection of interactive multimedia resources.
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WWW
• The WWW today is a distributed client/server service, in which a
client using a browser can access a service using a server. However,
the service provided is distributed over many locations called sites as
shown in fig.

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File Transfer : Ftp, PUTTY, WinSCP
FTP
 FTP stands for File transfer protocol.
 FTP is a standard internet protocol provided by TCP/IP used for transmitting
the files from one host to another.
 It is mainly used for transferring the web page files from their creator to the
computer that acts as a server for other computers on the internet.
 It is also used for downloading the files to computer from other servers.

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Objectives of FTP
• It provides the sharing of files.
• It is used to encourage the use of remote computers.
• It transfers the data more reliably and efficiently.

Why FTP?
Although transferring files from one system to another is very simple and straightforward, but
sometimes it can cause problems. For example, two systems may have different file conventions.
Two systems may have different ways to represent text and data. Two systems may have different
directory structures.
FTP protocol overcomes these problems by establishing two connections between hosts.
One connection is used for data transfer, and another connection is used for the control connection.

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Mechanism of FTP

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WinSCP
• WinSCP (Windows Secure Copy) is a free and open-source SSH File
Transfer Protocol (SFTP), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), WebDAV,
Amazon S3, and secure copy protocol (SCP) client for Microsoft
Windows.
• Its main function is secure file transfer between a local computer and
a remote server.
• Beyond this, WinSCP offers basic file manager and file synchronization
functionality.
• For secure transfers, it uses the Secure Shell protocol (SSH) and
supports the SCP protocol in addition to SFTP.
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PUTTY
• PuTTY is a free and open-source terminal emulator, serial console and
network file transfer application. It supports several network protocols,
including SCP, SSH, Telnet, rlogin, and raw socket connection. It can also
connect to a serial port. The name "PuTTY" has no official meaning.

• PuTTY was originally written for Microsoft Windows, but it has been ported
to various other operating systems. Official ports are available for some
Unix-like platforms, with work-in-progress ports to Classic Mac OS and
macOS, and unofficial ports have been contributed to platforms such as
Symbian, Windows Mobile and Windows Phone.

• PuTTY was written and is maintained primarily by Simon Tatham, a British

programmer.

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