7/20/2020 Application Layer Protocols (DNS, SMTP, POP, FTP, HTTP) Study Notes : Computer Sc. & Engg.

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Application Layer Protocols (DNS, SMTP, POP, FTP, HTTP) Study

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341 upvotes 46 comments Updated : Aug 27, 2019, 5:30

By : Richa Tiwari
An application layer protocol de nes how application processes (clients and servers), running
on different end systems, pass messages to each other. In particular, an application layer
protocol de nes:

The types of messages, e.g., request messages and response messages.

The syntax of the various message types, i.e., the elds in the message and how the elds
are delineated.
The semantics of the elds, i.e., the meaning of the information that the eld is supposed
to contain;
Rules for determining when and how a process sends messages and responds to
messages.

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SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol):

One of the most popular network service is electronic mail (e-mail).

The TCP/IP protocol that supports electronic mail on the Internet is called Simple Mail
Transfer Protocol (SMTP).
SMTP transfers messages from senders' mail servers to the recipients' mail servers using
TCP connections.
Users based on e-mail addresses.
SMTP provides services for mail exchange between users on the same or different
computers.
Following the client/server model:
SMTP has two sides: a client side which executes on a sender's mail server, and
server side which executes on recipient's mail server.
Both the client and server sides of SMTP run on every mail server.
When a mail server sends mail (to other mail servers), it acts as an SMTP client.
When a mail server receives mail (from other mail servers) it acts as an SMTP server.

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TELNET (Terminal Network):

TELNET is client-server application that allows a user to log onto remote machine and lets
the user to access any application program on a remote computer.
TELNET uses the NVT (Network Virtual Terminal) system to encode characters on the
local system.
On the server (remote) machine, NVT decodes the characters to a form acceptable to the
remote machine.
TELNET is a protocol that provides a general, bi-directional, eight-bit byte oriented
communications facility.
Many application protocols are built upon the TELNET protocol
Telnet services are used on PORT 23.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol):

FTP is the standard mechanism provided by TCP/IP for copying a le from one host to
another.
FTP differs form other client-server applications because it establishes 2 connections
between hosts.
Two connections are: Data Connection and Control Connection.
Data Connection uses PORT 20 for the purpose and control connection uses PORT 21 for
the purpose.
FTP is built on a client-server architecture and uses separate control and data connections
between the client and the server.
One connection is used for data transfer, the other for control information (commands and
responses).
It transfer data reliably and ef ciently.

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME):

It is an extension of SMTP that allows the transfer of multimedia messages.

If binary data is included in a message MIME headers are used to inform the receiving mail
agent:
 Content-Transfer-Encoding: Header alerts the receiving user agent that the
message body has been ASCII encoded and the type of encoding used.
Content-Type: Header informs the receiving mail agent about the type of data
included in the message.

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7/20/2020 Application Layer Protocols (DNS, SMTP, POP, FTP, HTTP) Study Notes : Computer Sc. & Engg.

POP (Post Of ce Protocol):

POP is also called as POP3 protocol.

This is a protocol used by a mail server in conjunction with SMTP to receive and holds
mail for hosts.
POP3 mail server receives e-mails and lters them into the appropriate user folders.
When a user connects to the mail server to retrieve his mail, the messages are
downloaded from mail server to the user's hard disk.

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol):

This is a protocol used mainly to access data on the World Wide Web (www).
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) the Web's main application-layer protocol
although current browsers can access other types of servers
A respository of information spread all over the world and linked together.
The HTIP protocol transfer data in the form of plain text, hyper text, audio, video and so
on.
HTTP utilizes TCP connections to send client requests and server replies.
 it is a synchronous protocol which works by making both persistent and non persistent
connections.

Domain Name System (DNS):

To identify an entity, TCP/IP protocol uses the IP address which uniquely identi es the
connection of a host to the Internet.
DNS is a hierarchical system, based on a distributed database, that uses a hierarchy of
Name Servers to resolve Internet host names into the corresponding IP addresses
required for packet routing by issuing a DNS query to a name server.
However, people refer to use names instead of address. Therefore, we need a system that
can map a name to an address and conversely an address to name.
In TCP/IP, this is the domain name system.
DNS in the Internet: DNS is protocol that can be used in different platforms.
Domain name space is divided into three categories.
Generic Domain: The generic domain de nes registered hosts according, to their generic
behaviour. Each node in the tree de nes a domain which is an index to the domain name
space database.

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Country Domain: The country domain section follows the same format as the generic
domain but uses 2 characters country abbreviations (e.g., US for United States) in place of
3 characters.
Inverse Domain: The inverse domain is used to map an address to a name.

Overview of Services

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Aug 27 Computer Sc. & Engg.

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