Computer Networks

From Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Computer Networks
Latest Edition
Uses of Computer Networks

• Business Applications
• Home Applications
• Mobile Users
• Social Issues
Business Applications of Networks

A network with two clients and one server.

Business Applications of Networks (2)

The client-server model involves requests and replies.

 Home Network Applications

• Access to remote information

• Person-to-person communication
• Interactive entertainment
• Electronic commerce
Home Network Applications (2)

In peer-to-peer system there are no fixed clients and servers.

Home Network Applications (3)

Some forms of e-commerce.

 Mobile Network Users

Combinations of wireless networks and mobile computing.

 Network Hardware

• Local Area Networks

• Metropolitan Area Networks
• Wide Area Networks
• Wireless Networks
• Home Networks
Interconnected processors by scale

Classification of interconnected processors by scale.

 Computer Networks - Introduction

• A network is a number of computers linked together to share

resources.
• Or a group of computers and other devices connected
together is called a network. The computer can also share
resources, such as printers, fax modem and hard disks etc.
• The concept of connected computers sharing resources is
called networking.
• There are three types of networking:
LAN, MAN, WAN
 Computer Networks - Introduction

• Local Area Networks (LAN)

 Computer Networks - Introduction

• Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN)

 Computer Networks - Introduction

• Wide Area Networks (WAN)

 Computer Networks - Introduction

• Wide Area Networks (WAN)

Types of networks
Figure 1: Network performance

km
 Data Communication - Introduction

• Communication is the process of transferring messages from

one point to another point. Three basic elements of any
communication process are:
(1) A sender (Source), which creates the message to be
transmitted.
(2) A medium which carries the message.
(3) A receiver (Sink), which receives the message.
• Transmission media - The physical pathway on which the
computers are connected. Cable and wireless can connect
the computers in a network. For Example.
• Data Transfer Mode - There are three ways or modes for
transmitting data from one point to another. These are
(i) Simplex (ii) Half-Duplex (iii) Full-Duplex
 Analog and Digital Transmission

• Data is transferred from one point to another point by means

of electrical signals, which may be in digital or analog form.
• In an analog signal the transmitted signals (Power) varies
over a continuous range, for example sound, light and radio
waves.
• In a digital signal, the signal is a sequence of voltage
pulses represented in binary form, ON or OFF ( 1 or 0 ).
 Analog and Digital Transmission

• Computer generated data is digital whereas the telephone lines used for
data communication in computer networks are usually meant for carrying
analog signals.
• When a digital data are to be sent over an analog facility, the digital
signals must be converted to analog form.
• The technique by which a digital signal is converted to its analog form is
known as modulation. The reverse process, i.e., conversion of analog
signal to its digital form, at a destination device, is called a de-
modulation.
• Because, today we do not have all-digital or all-analog networks; we
have a mix of the two. Therefore, at various points in a network, it is
necessary to convert between the two signal types.
Analog and Digital Transmission
Analog and Digital Transmission
 Modulation

• Why is the conversion of the signals necessary? Typically modems

are used when the host computer and terminal are in different
locations.
• The terminals transmit data using 1’s and 0’s , which form square
waves. The square waves used in digital transmission cannot be sent
over standard telephone lines without first converting them to analog
form, because the public telephone network as designed to carry
analog signals like speech as shown above. Typically modems
convert the square waves that represent ones and zeroes to sine
waves for analog transmission.
• There are many different methods for performing this conversion,
each with its own advantages and disadvantages..
 Amplitude Modulation

• Two binary values (0 and 1) of digital data are represented by two

different amplitudes of the carrier signal keeping the frequency and
phase constant.
• Another name for amplitude modulation is amplitude shift keying, or
ASK, since data is transmitted by shifting amplitudes. (e.g) The bit
pattern 00101001 is being transmitted using amplitude modulation as
shown in fig.
 Amplitude Modulation

• Notice that the sine waves amplitude is high when transmitting a 1,

and low when transmitting a 0.
• The duration (or width) of each cycle of the sine wave does not
change throughout the transmission; in other words, the frequency
does not vary (as shown in fig). There are two completes cycles of
sine wave (Two peaks and two valleys) for each bit transmitted.
 Frequency Modulation

• Two binary values of digital data are represented by two different

frequencies while the amplitude and phase are kept constant.
• Frequency modulation of digital signal is also known as frequency
shift keying (FSK), since data is transmitted by shifting frequencies,
The same bit pattern 00101001 is being transmitted using frequency
modulation as shown in fig.
• Notice that the amplitude of the sine wave does not vary, But the
length of each cycle and hence the frequency, varies. A low frequency
(1070 HZ) is used to send a 0, and a higher frequency (1270 HZ) is
used to send a 1.
 Frequency Modulation

• Since the receiving modem recognizes only differences in frequency

and is not concerned with the amplitude of the signal.
• Moreover, frequency modulation devices are easier to design because
discrimination between two frequencies is simpler than detecting
phase changes.
• Thus for medium speed communication (1200 to 2400 bps) the FSK
scheme is preferred.
 Phase Modulation

• A more sophisticated technique is known as phase modulation,

because data is transmitted by changing the phase of sine wave.
Another name for phase modulation is phase shift keying, or PSK.
• Since data is transmitted by shifting phase. A sine wave (A continuous
tone or signals in the 1000 to 2000 Hz range called a sine wave
carrier) normally repeats itself indefinitely, with one peak and valley
after another shifting phase breaks the sine wave abruptly and starts it
again a few degree forward or backward.
• In our example, 180 degree phase shift is used to send ones, and a
continuous sine wave is used to send zeroes.
 Phase Modulation

• This is only one possible way to use phase modulation to transmit

data. Notice that the amplitude and frequency of the sine waves stay
constant throughout transmission.
• We simply shift phase during a time period to send a one, or continue
the sine wave uninterrupted to send a zero. The receiving modem can
monitor the incoming sine wave and determine if the phase shifted
during a particular time period.
• This technique is more efficient than both amplitude modulation and
frequency modulation. The main advantages of the phase modulation
are that only a single-frequency sine wave is used to send both 1’s
and 0’s in each direction
 Asynchronous & Synchronous Transmission

Data transmission on a line is normally carried out in two different

methods. Asynchronous & Synchronous Transmission
1) Asynchronous Transmission:
• When a terminal is connected to a computer and an operator manually
presses keys on the terminal, the time spend between successive
keystrokes would vary.
• Thus in asynchronous transmission, data is transmitted character by
character at irregular intervals. We assume that our characters are
represented by 8-bits, including any parity bit.
• With asynchronous transmission, each device must be set to transmit
and receive data at a given speed, known as the data rate (bits per
second). When an asynchronous device sends a byte, it begins by
sending a start bit, which is always a 0, followed by each of the eight
bits in the byte, and then sends a stop bit, which is always a 1.
 Asynchronous & Synchronous Transmission

• These bits add up to form a 10-bit package for transmission. The

asynchronous transmission of the letter “A” followed by the letter “B”,
from a terminal to a host computer using ASCII code is shown in fig.
The terminal user types the letter “A” on the keyboard, and the
terminal converts the letter “A” to the bit sequence 01000001 , with a
‘0’ used as the parity bit (for error detection). This manage the frame,
first the start bit , seven data bits, one parity bit and then stop bit have
been sent.
• Suppose each of these bits is sent 1 second apart. The start bit
actually starts the host computer’s internal stopwatch or clock, and the
host then expects to receive the next nine bits 1 second apart.
• The stop bit is used to halt the host computers internal stopwatch. It
can later be started again by another start bit, sent with the next
character, (i.e) with B. The transmitter will continue to transmit the stop
signal until it is ready to send the next character. The advantage of
this method is that it does not require any local storage at the terminal
or the computer as transmission takes place character by character.
Hence it is cheaper to implement.
Asynchronous & Synchronous Transmission
 Asynchronous & Synchronous Transmission

2) Asynchronous Transmission:
• Other commonly used form of data transmission is synchronous
transmission. Here start & stop bits are not used. There is no pause
between characters in synchronous data transmission.
• Synchronous data transmission usually involves large blocks of
characters, and special Sync characters can be sent at the beginning
of these data blocks. These Sync characters are a special series of
bits the receiving device can use to adjust to the transmitters exact
rate of speed.
• The header (Sync) also contains information to identify sender and
receiver. Following the header is a block of characters that contains
the actual message to be transmitted. The number of characters in a
block may be variable and may consist of hundreds of characters; the
actual data (message) characters in the block are transmitted by a
trailer.
 Asynchronous & Synchronous Transmission

• The trailer contains an end of message character. Thus, with

synchronous transmission entire blocks of characters are framed and
transmitted together.
 What is a Protocol?

In data communication, a protocol is a set of rules and procedures

established to control transmission between two points so that the
receiver can properly interpret the bit stream transmitted by the
sender. Protocols are the data communications software. An example
of a human communications protocol can be found in a classroom
and traffic rules etc. In any computer network, protocols perform
the following functions for the efficient & error free transmission of
data:
• Data Sequencing.
• Data Routing.
• Flow Control.
• Error Control.
• Precedence and order of Transmission.
• Connection Establishment.
• Data Security.
• Log Information.
 Network Principles – Switching Schemes

• Switching is the process of physically moving bits through a

network node, from an input port to an output port.
• A network node is any point on the network where
communications lines interface (i.e., PBX, a multiplexer, a
modem, a host computer, or one of a number of other
devices).
• Switching elements are specialized computers used to
connect two or more transmission lines. The switching
process is based on information gathered through a routing
process.
• There are two switching modes: Circuit Switching and Packet
Switching. Both of these switching modes offer forms of
bandwidth on demand. Both have different ways of performing
path calculations and forwarding functions.
 Circuit Switching Network

• In circuit switching, a dedicated connection is made b/w the two

communicating devices. That path is a connected sequence of
links between network nodes.

Communication via circuit switching involves three phases:

Circuit Establishment - Before any signals can be transmitted, an end-to-end
circuit must be established.
Data Transfer - Information can now be transmitted from A through network to E.
Circuit Disconnect - After some period of data transfer, the connection is
terminated to de-allocate the dedicated resources.
 Circuit Switching Network

• Connection path is established before data transmission begins.

• Circuit switching can be rather inefficient. Channel capacity is
dedicated for the duration of a connection, even if no data are
being transferred.
• Information is transmitted
at a fixed data rate
with no delay.
• No congestion.
• A possible long wait to establish a connection. A fixed share of
networks resources is reserved for the call, and no other call can
use those resources until the original connection is closed.
• The best-known example of a circuit-switching network is the
public telephone network.
 Packet Switching

With packet switching data is sent from device to device in whole across
the network. Packets are forwarded through a series of packet-switches,
also known as routers that ultimately lead to the destination (also known
as store and forward mechanism). Data is broken into small pieces and
routed from device to device. A packet header contains - destination
address and sequence number.
• packets are queued up and transmitted as rapidly as possible overlink.
• Two stations of different data rates can exchange packets because
each connects to its node at its proper data rate.
• When traffic becomes heavy on a circuit-switching network, some calls
are blocked. On a packet-switching network, packets are still
accepted, but delivery delay increases.
• Priorities can be used. Thus, if a node has a number of packets
queued for transmission; it can transmit higher-priority packets first.
• There are two methods of packet switching: Datagram Packet
Switching, Virtual Circuit Packet Switching
 Datagram Packet Switching

• a connectionless method.
• Each piece of information is
tagged with destination
address so no dedicated
connection is needed. Every piece of data is routed individually, and
the packets might not all take the same path to the destination point,
and hence they may arrive out of sequence.
• Therefore, the sequence number is very important; the terminating
point needs it to be able to reassemble the message in its proper
order. Thus, at the destination device, the data is pieced back
together by using a PAD.
• Each datagram must contain the full destination address. For a large
network, these addresses can be quite long. In datagram switching
the node need to make a routing decision for each packet. But call
setup phase is avoided.
 Virtual Circuit Packet Switching

• Similar to dedicated circuit switching, except connections are virtual.

• This way, more than one communication can go over the physical
path. This is considered connection-oriented packet switching.
Generally, the packets from many different sources are statistically
multiplexed and sent on to their destinations over virtual circuits.
• If packets flowing over a given virtual circuit always take same route
through network. In a connection-oriented packet-switched network,
only one call request packet contains source & destination address.
Therefore, subsequent packets don't have to contain address
information, which reduces overall overhead.
• Each packet now contains a VC number as well
as data. Each node on the pre-established
route knows where to direct such
packets; no routing decisions
are required.
Datagram vs. Virtual Circuit