COMPUTER NETWORKS AND

INTERNET PROTOCOLS
SOUMYA K GHOSH SANDIP CHAKRABORTY
COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING,
IIT KHARAGPUR IIT KHARAGPUR

1
 Transport Layer - VI (Performance)
Application Application
End to End Performance
Transport Transport
Network Network Network
Data Link Data Link Data Link Data Link Data Link
Physical Physical Physical Physical Physical
 Bandwidth Delay Product
• Bandwidth Delay Product (BDP) = Link Bandwidth x Link Delay – an important metric
for flow control

• Consider Bandwidth = 50 Kbps, one way transit time (delay) = 250 msec
– BDP 12.5 Kbit
– Assume 1000 bit segment size; BDP = 12.5 segments

• Consider the event of a segment transmission and the corresponding ACK reception – this
takes a round trip time (RTT) – twice the one way latency.

• Maximum number of segments that can be outstanding during this duration = 12.5 x 2 =
25 segments
 Bandwidth Delay Product – Implication on Window Size
• Maximum number of segments that can be outstanding within this duration = 25 +
1 (as the ACK is sent only when the first segment is received) = 26
– This gives the maximum link utilization – the link will always be busy in
transmitting data segments

• Let BD denotes the number of frames equivalent to the BDP, w is the maximum
window size

• So, w = 2BD + 1 gives the maximum link utilization – this is an important

concept to decide the window size for a window based flow control
mechanism
 Implication of BDP on Protocol Design Choice
• Consider the link bandwidth = 1Mbps, Delay = 1ms
• Consider a network, where segment size is 1 KB (1024 bytes)
• Which protocol is better for flow control?
– (a) stop and wait,
– (b) Go back N,
– (c) Selective Repeat

• BDP = 1 Mbps x 1ms = 1 Kb (1024 bits)

• The segment size is eight times larger than the BDP -> the link can not hold an
entire segment completely
• Sliding window protocols do not improve performance
• Stop and Wait is better – less complexity
 Application Transport Interfacing – Sender Side

APPLICATION
USER
write(), send() Trigger
Periodically Transmission
Rate Control
KERNEL
TportSend()

Function names are hypothetical Send Data to IP

 Application Transport Interfacing – Sender Side

APPLICATION Different connections are treated differently, so

USER we need connection specific source buffering

write(), send() Trigger

Periodically Transmission
Rate Control
KERNEL write() call blocks the
TportSend() port until the complete
data is written in the
Transport Buffer - Sender Send Data to IP transport buffer
 Application Transport Interfacing – Receiver Side

APPLICATION read() call blocks the port until the data is

USER received and the complete data is read from the
transport buffer
read(), recv() Function names are hypothetical

KERNEL Transport
Buffer -
Interrupt Receiver TportRecv()
Data from
CheckBuffer() IP
 Organizing Transport Buffer Pool
• If most segments are nearly the same size, organize the buffer as a pool of
identically sized buffers (one segment per buffer)

• For variable segment size – chained fixed sized buffer (buffer size = maximum
segment size)

• Space would be wasted if segment sizes are widely varied

• Small buffer size – multiple buffers to store a single segment – added complexity
in implementation
 Organizing Transport Buffer Pool
• Variable size buffers (b)
– Advantage: better memory
utilization
– Disadvantage: Complicated
implementation

• Single large circular buffer for

every connection (c)
Source: Computer
– Good use of memory only Networks (5th Edition)
when connections are heavily by Tanenbaum,
Wetherell
loaded
11
 COMPUTER NETWORKS AND
INTERNET PROTOCOLS
SOUMYA K GHOSH SANDIP CHAKRABORTY
COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING,
IIT KHARAGPUR IIT KHARAGPUR

1
 Transport Layer - VII (Buffer Management and Congestion Control)

Application Application
Congestion Management
Transport Transport
Network Network Network
Data Link Data Link Data Link Data Link Data Link
Physical Physical Physical Physical Physical
 Transport Buffer at the Receiver Side

Application Transport Network

read() Transport
APP ip_recv()
Buffer

• There can be rate difference between

– The rate of application read
– The rate of transport receive
Dynamic Buffer Management for Window Based Flow Control
• Sender and receiver needs to dynamically adjust buffer allocations
• Based on the rate difference between the transport entity and the application,
the available size of the receiver buffer changes
Segments awaiting at
the buffer

Segments read by the

Free Space at Receiver Buffer application

• Sender should not send more data compared to receiver buffer space –
dynamically adjust the window size based on availability of receiver buffer space
Dynamic Buffer Management for Window Based Flow Control
• Receiver forwards available buffer space through ACK

Ensure that
the ACKs are
flowing in the
network
continuously
 Congestion Control in the Network
• Consider a centralized network scenario – how can you maintain optimal
flow rates? 6

10 5 18
2 50
50
S D
2
20 11
4
Apply Max Flow Min Cut Theorem !
But this is hard in a real network …
 Congestion Control in the Network

Source: Computer
Networks (5th Edition)
by Tanenbaum,
Wetherell Changing Bandwidth Allocation over Time
 Congestion Control in the Network
• Flows enter and exit network dynamically – so applying an algorithm for
congestion control is difficult

• Congestion avoidance: Regulate the sending rate based on what the

network can support
Sending Rate = minimum (network rate, Receiver rate)

Gradually increase the network rate Comes from flow control – receiver
and observe the effect on flow rates advertised window size for a sliding
(packet loss) window flow control
Network Congestion – Impact over Goodput and Delay

Source: Computer Networks

(5th Edition) by Tanenbaum,
Wetherell
 Congestion Control and Fairness
• Ensure that the rate of all the flows in the network is controlled in a fair way

• A bad congestion control algorithm may affect fairness - Some flows can get
starved

• Hard fairness in a decentralized network is difficult to implement

• Max-Min Fairness: An allocation is max-min fair if the bandwidth given to one

flow cannot be increased without decreasing the bandwidth given to another flow
with an allocation.
 Max-Min Fairness – An Example

Source: Computer Networks (5th

Edition) by Tanenbaum, Wetherell
 AIMD – Efficient and Fair Operating Point for Congestion Control

• Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease (AIMD) – Chiu and Jain

(1989)

• Let w(t) be the sending rate. a (a > 0) is the additive increase factor, and b
(0<b<1) is the multiplicative decrease factor
 AIMD – Design Rationale (Two Flows Example)

• AIAD – Oscillate across the

efficiency line

• MIMD – Oscillate across the

efficiency line (different slope
from AIAD)
Source: Computer Networks (5th Edition) by
Tanenbaum, Wetherell
 AIMD – Design Rationale (Two Flows Example)

Source: Computer
Networks (5th
Edition) by
Tanenbaum,
Wetherell

• The path converges towards the optimal point

• Used by TCP - Adjust the size of the sliding window to control the rates
15
 COMPUTER NETWORKS AND
INTERNET PROTOCOLS
SOUMYA K GHOSH SANDIP CHAKRABORTY
COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING,
IIT KHARAGPUR IIT KHARAGPUR

1
 Transport Layer - VI (Primitives)
Application Application
End to End Transmission
Transport Transport
Network Network Network
Data Link Data Link Data Link Data Link Data Link
Physical Physical Physical Physical Physical
 Transport Layer – Interfacing with Application and Network

Port Number

IP Address

Source: Computer Networks (5th

Edition) by Tanenbaum,
Wetherell
 Transport Layer – Interfacing with Application and Network
Source: Computer
Networks (5th Edition) by
Tanenbaum, Wetherell

Create a logical
pipe between the
sender and the
receiver and
monitor the data
transmission
through this pipe
 Transport Service Primitives
• To allow users to access transport service, the transport layer must provide
some operations to the application programs.

The transport layer needs to remember the state of the

pipe, so that appropriate actions can be taken. We need a
stateful protocol for transport layer.
 Transport Service Primitive – Connection Establishment
Client Server
CONNECT LISTEN

The client and

server needs to
remember the ESTABLISHED
ESTABLISHED
state
SEND
RECEIVE
DISCONNECT
 Transport Layer Protocol – State Diagram

SERVER
Source: Computer
Networks (5th Edition) by
Tanenbaum, Wetherell
 Transport Layer Protocol – State Diagram

CLIENT
Source: Computer
Networks (5th
Edition) by
Tanenbaum,
Wetherell
 Segment, Packet (or Datagram) and Frame

Source: Computer Networks (5th Edition) by

Tanenbaum, Wetherell
 Transport Layer Process Flow
• Connection Establishment - Initiate a connection by selecting the initial
sequence numbers, ensuring that the initial sequence numbers do not fall
within the forbidden region of the previous connection between the same
<source IP, source port, destination IP, destination port>
– Sequence number becomes a part of a transport layer connection
– <source IP, source port, source initial sequence number, destination IP,
destination port, destination initial sequence number> - uniquely
identifies a connection
 Transport Layer Process Flow
• Flow Control and Reliability - Use ARQ protocols for ensuring flow
control and reliability
– Sender will not send data at a rate higher than the receiver rate
– Sequence numbers are used to uniquely identify each byte/each
packet
– Loss in the communication path is handled through retransmission
• Congestion Control - reduce transmission rate once congestion is
detected
 Transport Layer Process Flow
• Congestion Control - reduce transmission rate once congestion is
detected
– Improves performance for end-to-end data delivery

• Connection Closure - close the connection when data transmission is

complete
– Synchronous closure with timeout
13
 COMPUTER NETWORKS AND
INTERNET PROTOCOLS
SOUMYA K GHOSH SANDIP CHAKRABORTY
COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING,
IIT KHARAGPUR IIT KHARAGPUR

1
 Transmission Control Protocol I (Primitives)
Application Application
Transmission Control Protocol
Transport Transport
Network Network Network
Data Link Data Link Data Link Data Link Data Link
Physical Physical Physical Physical Physical
 Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

• TCP was specifically designed to provide a reliable, end-to-end byte

stream over an unreliable internetwork.

• Internetwork – different parts may have widely different topologies,

bandwidths, delays, packet sizes and other parameters
 Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

• TCP dynamically adapts to properties of the internetwork and is robust in

the face of many kinds of failures.

• RFC 793 (September 1981) – Base protocol

– RFC 1122 (clarifications and bug fixes), RFC 1323 (High
performance), RFC 2018 (SACK), RFC 2581 (Congestion Control),
RFC 3168 (Explicit Congestion Notification)
 TCP Service Model
• All TCP connections are full-diplex and point-to-point. TCP does not
support multicasting or broadcasting.

• Uses Sockets to define an end-to-end connection (Source IP, Source Port,

Source Initial Sequence Number, Destination IP, Destination Port,
Destination Initial Sequence Number)

Host A SOCKET Host B

read() write()
 TCP Service Model

• Unix Model of Socket Implementation:

– A single daemon process, called Internet Daemon (inetd) runs all the
times at different well known ports, and wait for the first incoming
connection
– When a first incoming connection comes, inetd forks a new process
and starts the corresponding daemon (for example httpd at port 80,
ftpd at port 21 etc.)
 TCP Service Model
• A TCP connection is a byte stream, not a message stream

• Message boundaries are not preserved end-to-end

100 - 200
250 - 400
200 -250
Host A SOCKET Host B
read() write()
 TCP Service Model
• A TCP connection is a byte stream, not a message stream

• Message boundaries are not preserved end-to-end

Two segments
100 - 200 are dropped
250 - 400
200 -250
Host A SOCKET Host B
read() write()
 TCP Service Model
• A TCP connection is a byte stream, not a message stream

• Message boundaries are not preserved end-to-end

Bytes 200 - 400 needs to
100 - 200 be retransmitted
250 - 400
200 -250
Host A SOCKET Host B
read() write()
 TCP Service Model
• A TCP connection is a byte stream, not a message stream

• Message boundaries are not preserved end-to-end

Bytes 200 - 400 needs to
200 -300 300 - 400 be retransmitted

Host A SOCKET Host B

read() write()
 TCP Service Model
Example:
– The sending process does four 512 byte writes to a TCP stream – for
write() call to the TCP socket
– These data may be delivered as – four 512 byte chunks, two 1024 byte
chunks, one 2048 byte chunk or some other way
– There is no way for the receiver to detect the unit(s) in which the data
were written by the sending process.
 The TCP Protocol – The Header

Source: Computer Networks (5th

Edition) by Tanenbaum,
Wetherell
 TCP Sequence Number and Acknowledgement Number
• 32 bits sequence number and acknowledgement number

• Every byte on a TCP connection has its own 32 bit sequence number – a byte
stream oriented connection

• TCP uses sliding window based flow control – the acknowledgement number
contains next expected byte in order, which acknowledges the cumulative bytes
that has been received by the receiver.
– ACK number 31245 means that the receiver has correctly received up to
31244 bytes and expecting for byte 31245
 TCP Segments
• The sending and receiving TCP entities exchange data in the form of
segments.

• A TCP segment consists of a fixed 20 byte header (plus an optional part)

followed by zero or more data bytes.
 TCP Segments

• TCP can accumulate data from several write() calls into one
segment, or split data from one write() into multiple segments

• A segment size is restricted by two parameters

– IP Payload (65515 bytes)
– Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) of the link
 How a TCP Segment is Created
• Write() calls from the applications write data to the TCP sender buffer.

• Sender maintains a dynamic window size based on the flow and

congestion control algorithm

Application Transport Network

Flow and
write() Congestion Segment
Transport
Control ip_send()
APP Buffer
(Window
size)
 How a TCP Segment is Created
• Modern implementations of TCP uses path MTU discovery to determine
the MTU of the end-to-end path (uses ICMP protocol), and sets up the
Maximum Segment Size (MSS) during connection establishment
– May depend on other parameters (buffer implementation).

• Check the sender window after receiving an ACK. If the window size is
less than MSS, construct a single segment; otherwise construct multiple
segments, each equals to the MSS
 Challenges in TCP Design
• Segments are constructed dynamically, so retransmissions do not
guarantee the retransmission of the same data segment – a
retransmission may contain additional data or less data

• Segments may arrive out-of-order. TCP receiver should handle out-of-

order segments in a proper way, so that data wastage is minimized.
 Window Size field in the TCP Segment Header
• Flow control in TCP is handled using a variable sized sliding window.

• The window size field tells how many bytes the receiver can receive based
on the current free size at its buffer space.

• What is meant by window size 0?

• TCP Acknowledgement – combination of acknowledgement number and

window size
20
 COMPUTER NETWORKS AND
INTERNET PROTOCOLS
SOUMYA K GHOSH SANDIP CHAKRABORTY
COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING,
IIT KHARAGPUR IIT KHARAGPUR

1
 Transmission Control Protocol II (Connections)
Application Application
Transmission Control Protocol
Transport Transport
Network Network Network
Data Link Data Link Data Link Data Link Data Link
Physical Physical Physical Physical Physical
 TCP Connection Establishment
Host A Host A • How to choose the initial sequence
number?
– Avoid delayed duplicates, do now
generate the initial sequence number
for every connection from 0
– Original implementation of TCP used a
clock based approach, the clock ticked
every 4 microseconds, the value of the
clock cycles from 0 to 232-1. The value
of the clock gives the initial sequence
number
 TCP Connection Establishment
Host A Host A

• TCP SYN flood attack

– Solution: Use cryptographic function
to generate sequence numbers
 TCP Connection Release
Host A Host A

Active Close Passive Close

Timeout
 TCP State Transition Diagram – Connection Modeling

Event/Action
Dashed: Server
Source: Computer Networks (5th Edition) by Tanenbaum, Wetherell Solid: Client
 TCP State Transition Diagram – Connection Modeling

Event/Action
Source: Computer Networks Dashed: Server
(5th Edition) by Tanenbaum,
Wetherell Solid: Client
8