17UEL08

17UEL08-Network Communications and Security III Year/VI Sem

MUTHAYAMMAL COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE,

RASIPURAM-637408
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION
III YEAR/VI SEM
17UEL08-NETWORK
NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS AND SECURITY

Unit-III (Network Protocols)

3.1. Overview of Network protocols:

A Protocol is a convention that is a set of software programs to make understanding between

the nodes of a network for smooth and proper transfer of information over the network.
Protocols normally lly have layers hidden in them. Consider the computer communications
network of nodes ass shown in the figure.
Each computer is called a node. Different
parts of databases, files are normally stored
in the individual nodes.
These protocols will do the process such as
which node need to send/receive data at
what time it could use, length of the data
frame and so on.
Assume that node A wants to transfer a file X
to node D and the node ode A is not directly
connected to node D.
For this reason the concept of store and Figure 1(Sample
(Sample Network)
forward is used in computer networks.
Initially a path is chosen as A-F-G-D
A and using
sing this path, the node A sends the file to node F.
The node at F normally has to t store this file in its buffer or disk. Likewise the file is store
and forwarded to node G and finally it reaches the node D.
This storing is necessary, because the link F-G F may be busy or node F has a queue of
messages from other nodes as well.
When the links F-G become free and ready for transmitting the file from F to G, node F
actually
lly transmits it to the node G.
Thus, the node F stores and forwards the file from A to G. This process repeats until the file
reaches the destination node D.
This procedure demands
emands that each node maintains a memory buffer to store the file and
some software, which controls the queuing of different messages and then transmitting
them to the next nodes.
This software also will have to take care of error and flow control functions in an error-free
error
manner.
When the file/message is transmitted, the nodes source and destination as well as all the
intermediate nodes have to agree on some basic fundamental information about the
message.
For example a bit 1is is represented by logical 5V and a bit 0is
is represented as logical 0V.
If there is no understanding between the nodes, the bits could be completely
misinterpreted. This understanding of physical level is called physical layer of the
protocol.

MCAS | Department of Electronicss and Com

Communication 1
 17UEL08-Network Communications and Security III Year/VI Sem

This physical layer deals with things like what are bits 0 and 1, the communication modes
such as serial/parallel, simplex/ half-duplex/duplex, synchronous/asynchronous, etc.
The functions like error detection and correction, acknowledgements and retransmissions
are clubbed under the name error control, and constitute an important part of the
communications software called Data link layer.
The data link layer also takes care of flow control that is the speed mismatch between any
two adjacent communicating nodes.
If the sending node sends data too fast the slow speed receiver will lose the message, hence
the speed should be continuously adjusted or monitored and this process is called flow
control.
If the message size is large the probability of an error is higher, so that large messages are
broken down in smaller chunks or blocks called packets or frames.
And the packets are transmitted over a shared transmission medium, so there would be a
data collision between messages of different nodes of the network.
There are two ways to reach the message from source node to destination node as virtual
circuit approach and the datagram approach.
These kind of routing, switching of packets between source node to destination node is
monitored and maintained by the Network layer of the protocol.
The establishment of connection between nodes, which node should access medium at
what time, and the completion of transmission and making termination of the connection
are managed and maintained by Session Layer of the protocol.
The data encryption/decryption or compression/decompression and code
conversions/translations are done before handing the message over to the destination
node are done by the presentation layer.
3.2. The OSI model:
The Open System interface (OSI) model is structured and layered protocol having seven
layers.
Assume a network having many hosts and suppose
host X wants to send a message to another host Y. Layer Layer
This message would travel via a number of Number Name
intermediate nodes. 1 Application Layer
These intermediate nodes as well as X and Y are
2 Presentation Layer
concerned with the three lowermost OSI layers, i.e.
physical, data link and network. 3 Session Layer
The other four layers are used by the sender (X) and 4 Transport Layer
the recipient (Y) only. Therefore, they are called end-
to-end layers. 5 Network Layer
Within a host each layer calls upon the services of its 6 Data Link layer
lower layer. For instance, layer 7 uses the services
7 Physical Layer
provided by layer 6. Layer 6 in turn, uses the services
of layer 5, and so on.
Between X and Y, the communication appears to be taking place between the layers at the
same level.
This is called as virtual communication or virtual path between X and Y.

MCAS | Department of Electronics and Communication 2

 17UEL08-Network Communications and Security III Year/VI Sem

The functions of the first three layers are contained in a special computer called a switch.
You could, now, construct a network of all switches, and imagine that the nodes are
attached to the various switches as shown.
All that we said about data link layer functions, routing, etc. is still valid as we can see.
When node A wants to send a message to node G, node A sends it to switch SA. After this, it
gets through a specific route to router SF, and then it reaches the node G.

Figure 2(The OSI Model)

3.3. Layered Organization

The application layer
software running at the
source node creates the data
to be transmitted to the
application layer software
running at a destination node.
It hands it over to the
presentation layer at the
source node.
Each of the remaining OSI
layers from this point
onwards adds its own header
to the frame as it moves from
presentation layer to the
physical layer at the source
Figure 3(Layered structure of OSI)
node.

MCAS | Department of Electronics and Communication 3

 17UEL08-Network Communications and Security III Year/VI Sem

At the lowest physical layer, the data is transmitted as voltage pulses across the
communication medium.
That means that the application layer hands over the entire data to the presentation layer.
Let us call this as L7 data, after the presentation layer receives and processes this data, it
adds its own header to the original data and sends it to the next layer in the hierarchy.
Therefore, from the presentation layer to the session layer, the data is sent as L7 data + H6,
where H6 is the header added by the sixth layer. L7 data + H6 is the input data and let us
call this L6 data.
When the session layer sends this data to the transport layer, it sends the original data L6
plus its own header H5 together and so on.
In the end, the original data (L7) and all the headers are sent across the physical medium
where by a reverse process, the headers get dropped to recover the original data L7.

3.4. OSI Layer Functions:

3.4.1. Physical Layer:

The physical layer is concerned with sending raw bits between the source and destination
nodes through intermediate nodes.
To do this, the source and the destination nodes have to agree on a number of factors, such
as, what voltage constitutes a bit value 0 and 1, what is the bit interval, whether the
communication is simplex, half duplex or full duplex, and so on.
It also deals with the electrical and mechanical specifications of the cables, connectors, and
interfaces such as RS 232-C, etc.

Figure 4(Physical Layer)

The process performed in the physical layer are:

Signal encoding : How are the bits 0 and 1 to be represented

Medium: What kind of medium is used, and what are its properties
Bit synchronization: Is the transmission asynchronous or synchronous

MCAS | Department of Electronics and Communication 4

 17UEL08-Network Communications and Security III Year/VI Sem

Transmission type: Is the transmission serial or parallel

Transmission mode: Is the transmission simplex, half-duplex or full duplex
Topology: which type of topology is used(mesh, star, ring, bus or hybrid)
Multiplexing: Is multiplexing used, and if so, what is its type (FDM, TDM)
Interface: How are the two closely linked devices connected
Bandwidth: Which of base band or broadband communication is being used
Signal type: analog signals or digital signals used for transmission.
3.4.2. Data Link Layer:

The data link layer is responsible for transmitting a group of bits between the adjacent
nodes.
The group of bits is generally called frame or packet.
The network layer passes a data unit to the data link layer.
At this stage, the data link layer adds the header information and this now becomes a data
unit to be passed to the physical layer.
The header contains the addresses and other control information.
The addresses at this level refer to the physical addresses of the adjacent nodes in the
network, between which the frame is being sent.
Thus, these addresses change as the frame travels from different nodes on a route from the
source node to the destination node.
The addresses of the source and destination nodes are already a part of data unit
transferred from the network layer to the data link layer.

Figure 5(Data Link Layer)

The data link layer performs the following functions.

Addressing: Headers and trailers are added, containing the physical addresses of
the adjacent nodes, and removed upon a successful delivery.
Flow control: This avoids overwriting on the receiver's buffer by regulating the
amount of data that can be sent.
Media Access Control (MAC): In LANs, it decides who can send data, when and how
much.

MCAS | Department of Electronics and Communication 5

 17UEL08-Network Communications and Security III Year/VI Sem

Synchronization: Headers contains bits to synchronize its timing to know the bit
interval to recognize the bit correctly.
Error control: It checks the CRC to ensure the correctness of the frame. If incorrect,
it asks for retransmission. Fro this there are multiple schemes positive
acknowledgement, negative acknowledgement, go-back-n, sliding window, etc.,
Node-to-node delivery: Finally, it is responsible for error-free delivery of the entire
frame/ packet to the next adjacent node.
3.4.3. Network Layer:

The network layer is responsible for routing a packet within the network. May be from the
source to the destination nodes across multiple nodes in the same network, or across
multiple networks.
This layer ensures the successful delivery of a packet to the destination node.
To perform this, it has to choose a route by using the methods either virtual circuit or
datagram approach.
This layer is also responsible for tackling the data congestion problem at a node.
This layer has to carry out the accounting function to facilitate this billing based on how
many packets are routed, when etc.
When packets are sent across national boundaries, the rates may change, thus making this
accounting function complex.
A router can connect two networks with different protocols, packet lengths and formats.
The network layer is responsible for the creation of a homogenous network by helping to
overcome these problems.
At this layer, a header is added to a packet, which includes the logical addresses of source
and destination.

Figure 6(Network Layer)

The network layer performs the following functions:

Routing: Routing of packets using virtual circuit or datagram approach.
Congestion control: Data buffer status at each node to protect from loss of packets.
Logical addressing Source and destination logical addresses (IP addresses).
Address transformations: Interpreting logical addresses to get their physical
equivalent.
Accounting and billing: calculating the packets and links used for final billing.
Error free delivery: Source to destination error-free delivery of a packet.

MCAS | Department of Electronics and Communication 6

 17UEL08-Network Communications and Security III Year/VI Sem

3.4.4. Transport Layer:

The transport layer is the first end-to-end layer between source and destination.
Therefore, a header at the transport layer contains information that helps to send the
message to the corresponding layer at the destination node.
The message is broken into packets and travel through a number of intermediate nodes
there may be a missing of packet at the destination, hence the transport layer ensures that
the complete message arrives at the destination in the proper order.
The transport layer takes care of error control and flow control, both at the source and at
the destination for the entire message.
The transport layer receives data from the session layer on the source computer, which
needs to be sent across to the other computer.
The transport layer on the source computer breaks the data into smaller packets and gives
them to the network layer.
If the original data is to be recreated at the session layer of the destination computer, we
would need some mechanism for identifying the sequence in which the data was
fragmented into packets by the transport layer at the source computer.
For this purpose, when it breaks the session layer data into packets, the transport layer of
the source computer adds sequence numbers to the packets.
Now, the transport layer at the destination can reassemble them to create the original data
and present it to the session layer.

Figure 79 Transport Layer)

The transport layer may also establish a logical connection between the source and the
destination.
This connection consists of three phases: establishment, data transfer and connection
release.
The responsibilities of the transport layer are as follows:
Host-to-host message delivery: Ensuring that all the packets of a message sent by a
source node arrive at the intended destination.
Application-to-application communication: The transport layer enables
communication between two applications running on different computers.
Segmentation and reassembly: The transport layer breaks a message into packets,
numbers them by adding sequence numbers at the source and uses the sequence
numbers at the destination to reassemble the original message.

MCAS | Department of Electronics and Communication 7

 17UEL08-Network Communications and Security III Year/VI Sem

Connection: The transport layer might create a logical connection between the source
and the destination for the duration of the complete message transfer for better control
over the message transfer.

3.4.5.Session Layer:

The main functions of the session layer are to establish, maintain and synchronize the
interaction between two communicating hosts.
It makes sure that a session once established is closed gracefully, and not abruptly.
Suppose that after the first 105 pages have been sent, the connection between the two
hosts is broken for some reason, the Session layer checks and establishes connections
between the hosts of two different users.
For this, the users might need to enter identification information such as login and
password.
The session layer also decides whether the communication is simplex, half duplex or full
duplex.
For example, suppose that a user wants to send a very big document consisting of 1000
pages to another user and there is a break at the middle if transmission of file.
To avoid a complete retransmission from the first page, the session layer between the two
hosts could create sub-sessions.
After each sub-session is over, a checkpoint can be taken. In some cases, the check pointing
may not be required at all as the data being transmitted is small.
When the session layer receives data from the presentation layer and it adds a header to it
which contains information about check points.

Figure 8(Session Layer)

The responsibilities of the session layer are as follows:

Sessions and sub-sessions: The session layer divides a session into sub-sessions for
avoiding retransmission of entire messages by adding check points.
Synchronization: The session layer decides the order in which data need to be passed
to the transport layer.

MCAS | Department of Electronics and Communication 8

 17UEL08-Network Communications and Security III Year/VI Sem

Dialog control: The session layer also decides which user or application sends data,
and at what point of time, and whether the communication is simplex, half duplex or full
duplex.
Session closure : The session layer ensures that the session between the hosts is closed
gracefully.

3.4.6.Presentation Layer:

When two hosts are communicating with each other, they might be using different coding
standards and character sets for representing data internally.
For example one host could be using ASCII code for character representation, whereas the
other host could be using EBCDIC then the presentation layer has to take care of such
differences.
It is also responsible for data encryption/decryption for security and data
compression/decompression for more efficiency in data transmission. To summarize, the

Figure 9(Presentation Layer)

The responsibilities of the presentation layer are as follows:

Translation: The translation between the sender's and the receiver's message formats is
done by the presentation layer if the two formats are different.
Encryption: The presentation layer performs data encryption and decryption for security.
Compression: For efficient transmission, the presentation layer performs data
compression before sending and decompression at the destination.

3.4.7.Application Layer:
The application layer is the topmost layer in the OSI model it enables a user to access the
network.
The application programs using the network services also reside at this layer.
This layer provides user interface for network applications such as remote log in
(TELNET), World Wide Web (WWW), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), electronic mail (email),
remote database access, etc.

MCAS | Department of Electronics and Communication 9

 17UEL08-Network Communications and Security III Year/VI Sem

The users and application programs interact with a physical network at this layer.
This should not be confused with the application system like accounting or purchasing etc.
If an accounting application requires an access to a remote database, or wants a file to be
transferred, it will invoke the appropriate application layer.
Thus the layer can be considered as consisting of the application such as FTP, email, WWW,
etc. which are the different ways in which one can access the network services.
Thus, the application layer provides an abstracted view of the layers underneath, and
allows the users and applications to concentrate on their tasks, rather than worrying about
lower level network protocols.

Figure 10(Application Layer)

To summarize, the responsibilities of the application layer are as follows:

Network abstraction: The application layer provides an abstraction of the network
to an end user and an application.
File access and transfer: It allows a user to access, download or upload files
from/to a remote host.
Mail services: It allows the users to use the mail services.
Remote login: It allows logging into a host which is remote.
World Wide Web (WWW): Accessing the Web pages is also a part of this layer.

MCAS | Department of Electronics and Communication 10