Network Layer

Network Layer
• The network layer is responsible for the source-to-destination delivery of a packet, possibly across
multiple networks (links).
• Whereas the data link layer oversees the delivery of the packet between two systems on the same
network (links), the network layer ensures that each packet gets from its point of origin to its final
destination.

• Communication at the network layer is host-to-host (computer-to-computer); a computer somewhere in the

world needs to communicate with another computer somewhere else in the world.
• The packet transmitted by the sending computer may pass through several LANs or WANs before reaching
the destination computer.
• The term IP address to mean a logical address in the network layer of the TCP/IP protocol suite.
• The Internet addresses are 32 bits in length; this gives us a maximum of 232 addresses.
✔ These addresses are referred to as IPv4 (IP version 4) addresses or simply IP addresses if there is no
confusion.
✔ IP Address: 117.149.29.2
 Network Layer
• Network layer: Handles the routing and sending of data between different networks.
✔ The most important protocols at this layer are IP and ICMP.
• Network Protocol : A protocol is an agreed-upon way of formatting data so that two or more devices are able to
communicate with and understand each other.
• A number of different protocols make connections, testing, routing, and encryption possible at the network layer, including:
IP, IPsec, ICMP, IGMP, GRE, OSPF, RIP, NAT, VRRP.

Functions performed by the network layer:

✔ Routing: When a packet reaches the router's input link, the router will move the packets to the router's
output link.
✔ Logical Addressing: The data link layer implements the physical addressing and network layer implements
the logical addressing.
✔ Logical addressing is also used to distinguish between source and destination system.
✔ The network layer adds a header to the packet which includes the logical addresses of both the sender and the receiver.
✔ Internetworking: It provides the logical connection between different types of networks.
✔ Fragmentation: A process of breaking the packets into the smallest individual data units that travel through
different networks.
 Network Layer: Design issues
✔ An introduction to some of the issues that the designers of the network layer must grapple with.
✔ A number of design issues exist for the layer to layer approach of computer networks.

✔ Some of the main design issues are as follows −

i. Store-and-Forward Packet Switching

ii. Services Provided to the Transport Layer

iii. Implementation of Connectionless Service

iv. Implementation of Connection-Oriented Service

v. Comparison of Virtual-Circuit and Datagram Networks

Store-and-Forward Packet Switching
The host sends the packet to the nearest router.
✔ This packet is stored there until it has fully arrived once the link is fully processed by
verifying the checksum then it is forwarded to the next router till it reaches the destination.
✔ This mechanism is called “Store and Forward packet switching.”
Services Provided to the Transport Layer
• The network layer provides services to the transport layer at the network layer/transport layer
interface.
✔ What kind of services the network layer provides to the transport layer?
✔ The services need to be carefully designed with the following goals in mind:

i. The services should be independent of the router technology.

ii. The transport layer should be shielded from the number, type, and topology of the routers present.
iii. The network addresses made available to the transport layer should use a uniform numbering plan,
even across LANs and WANs.

Based on the connections there are 2 types of services provided :

✔ Connectionless – The routing and insertion of packets into subnet is done individually.
✔ No added setup is required.
✔ Connection-Oriented – Subnet must offer reliable service and all the packets must be
transmitted over a single route.
Services Provided by the Network Layer
Services in Network Layer
• Guaranteed delivery: The service which guarantees that the packet will arrive at its destination.

• Guaranteed delivery with bounded delay: The packet will be delivered within a specified host-to-host
delay bound.

• In-Order packets: The packet arrives at the destination in the order in which they are sent.

• Guaranteed max jitter: The amount of time taken between two successive transmissions at the sender is
equal to the time between their receipt at the destination.

• Security services: The network layer provides security by using a session key between the source and
destination host.
✔ The source host encrypts the payloads of datagrams being sent to the destination host.
✔ The destination host would then decrypt the payload. In such a way, the network layer
maintains the data integrity and source authentication services.
Implementation of Connectionless Service
• Packet are termed as “datagrams” and corresponding subnet as “datagram subnets”.
✔ When the message size that has to be transmitted is 4 times the size of the packet, then the network layer
divides into 4 packets and transmits each packet to router via. a few protocol.
✔ Each data packet has destination address and is routed independently irrespective of the packets.
Implementation of Connectionless Service
Implementation of Connection-Oriented
Service
• A connection-oriented service, first establishes a connection, use it and then release it.
• The data packets are delivered to the receiver in the same order in which they have been sent by the
sender.

• It can be done in either Two ways :

✔ Circuit Switched Connection – A dedicated physical path or a circuit is established between the
communicating nodes and then data stream is transferred.
✔ Virtual Circuit Switched Connection – The data stream is transferred over a packet switched
network, in such a way that it seems to the user that there is a dedicated path from the sender to
the receiver.
✔ A virtual path is established here.

✔ While, other connections may also be using the same path.

Implementation of Connection-Oriented Service
Comparison of Virtual-Circuit and Datagram
Networks
Routing algorithms
• The main function of the network layer is routing packets from the source machine to the destination
machine.
✔ In most networks, packets will require multiple hops to make the journey.

• The Routing protocol is a routing algorithm that provides the best path from the source to the
destination. The best path is the path that has the "least-cost path" from source to the destination.
• Routing is the process of forwarding the packets from source to the destination but the best route to
send the packets is determined by the routing algorithm.
• The routing algorithm is that part of the network layer software responsible for deciding which
output line an incoming packet should be transmitted on.

• In this process, a routing table is created which contains information regarding routes that data
packets follow.
• Various routing algorithms are used for the purpose of deciding which route an incoming data packet
needs to be transmitted on to reach the destination efficiently.
Classification of Routing Algorithms
The routing algorithms can be classified as follows:
Adaptive Algorithms/ dynamic routing
✔ The algorithms that change their routing decisions whenever network topology or traffic load
changes.
✔ These make use of dynamic information such as current topology, load, delay, etc. to select
routes.
✔ A router may select a new route for each packet (even packets belonging to the same
transmission) in response to changes in the condition and topology of the networks.
✔ Optimization parameters are distance, number of hops, and estimated transit time.
Non-Adaptive Algorithms/ static routing
✔ The algorithms that do not change their routing decisions once they have been selected, as a
route to be taken is computed in advance and downloaded to routers when a router is booted.
✔ Once the pathway to the destination has been selected, the router sends all packets for that
destination along that one route.
✔ Nonadaptive algorithms do not base their routing decisions on any measurements or estimates of the
current topology and traffic.
Types of Routing Algorithms
Shortest path
1. Shortest path routing routing
Distanc
2. Flooding e
Types Flooding
vector
3. Hierarchical routing, of
routing
4. Broadcast, Routing
Algorit
5. Multicast, Broadc
hms Hierarchical
routing
ast
6. Distance vector routing
Multic
ast
Shortest path routing
• Dijkstra’s Shortest Path Algorithm which was developed by Dutch computer scientist
Edsger W. Dijkstra in 1956.
• Dijkstra’s algorithm is a popular algorithms for solving many single-source shortest path
problems having non-negative edge weight in the graphs i.e., it is to find the shortest
distance between two vertices on a graph.
• Finds shortest paths from given source nodes to all other nodes.
• The aim is to find the optimal paths between the network nodes so that routing cost is
minimized.
 Graphs
• Graph is non-linear data structures representing the "connections" between the vertices through edges.
✔ Vertices: Vertices are the basic units of the graph used to represent real-life, objects,
persons, or entities. Sometimes, vertices are also known as Nodes.
✔ Edges: Edges are drawn or used to connect two vertices of the graph. Sometimes, edges are
also known as Arcs.
Example : Shortest
path routing
Example
Step 1: Start from Node 0 and mark Node 0 as visited and check adjacent nodes
Step 2: Check for adjacent Nodes, (Either choose Node1 with distance 2 or either
choose Node 2 with distance 6 ) and choose Node with minimum distance.
Distance: Node 0 -> Node 1 = 2
Step 3: Then Move Forward and check for adjacent Node which is Node 3, so marked it as
visited and add up the distance, Now the distance will be:
Distance: Node 0 -> Node 1 -> Node 3 = 2 + 5 = 7
Step 4: Again two choices for adjacent Nodes (Either choose Node 4 with distance 10 or either choose Node 5
with distance 15) so choose Node with minimum distance.
Node 4 is Minimum distance adjacent Node, so marked it as visited and add up the distance.
Distance: Node 0 -> Node 1 -> Node 3 -> Node 4 = 2 + 5 + 10 = 17
Step 5: Again, Move Forward and check for adjacent Node which is Node 6, so marked it as visited
and add up the distance, Now the distance will be:
Distance: Node 0 -> Node 1 -> Node 3 -> Node 4 -> Node 6 = 2 + 5 + 10 + 2 = 19

So, the Shortest Distance from the Source Vertex is 19 which is optimal one
 Flooding
In a computer network, flooding occurs when a router uses a non-adaptive routing algorithm
to send an incoming packet to every outgoing link except the node on which the packet
arrived.
Flooding is a way to distribute routing protocols updates quickly to every node in a large
network.

Working process of flooding algorithms?

Flooding algorithms can be configured in
one of two ways:
i. Every node acts as a sender and a receiver;
ii. Every node tries to send the packet to each
of its counterparts except for the source
node.
 Types of flooding
i. Controlled flooding: Use two algorithms to control the transmission of packets to the
neighbouring nodes.
i. Sequence Number Controlled Flooding (SNCF) and
• Each node maintains a list of the source address and sequence number of each broadcast
packet it has already received, duplicated, and forwarded.
ii. Reverse Path Forwarding (RPF).
• Only know the next neighbour on its unicast shortest path to the sender
ii. Uncontrolled flooding: Each router unconditionally transmits the incoming data
packets to all its neighbours.
iii. Selective flooding: Nodes are configured to only send incoming packets to routers in
one direction.
i. This can help to prevent some of the mishaps that occur with uncontrolled flooding, but is not
as sophisticated as controlled flooding.
Hierarchical routing
Hierarchical routing is the procedure of arranging routers in a hierarchical manner.
As networks grow in size, the router routing tables grow proportionally.
✔ The routers are divided into regions.

✔ Each router has complete details about how to route packets to destinations within its
own region, but has no information about routers in other regions.
✔ When different networks are interconnected, it is natural to regard each one as a separate region
to free the routers in one network from having to know the topological structure of the other ones.

✔ For huge networks, a two-level hierarchy may be insufficient:

✔ It may be necessary to group the regions into clusters, the clusters into zones, the zones into
groups, and so on.
 Example of Hierarchical routing

Figure 5-14 gives a quantitative example of routing in a two-level hierarchy with five regions. The full routing table for router 1A has 17
entries, as shown in Fig. 5-14(b). When routing is done hierarchically, as in Fig. 5-14(c), there are entries for all the local routers, as before,
but all other regions are condensed into a single router, so all traffic for region 2 goes via the 1B-2A line, but the rest of the remote traffic
goes via the 1C-3B line. Hierarchical routing has reduced the table from 17 to 7 entries.
 Broadcast Routing
Hosts need to send messages to many or all other
hosts.
• Sending a packet to all destinations simultaneously is
called broadcasting.
• Broadcast routing ensures that packets reaches all
devices or nodes within the network.

An improvement is multidestination routing, in which each packet contains either a list

of destinations or a bit map indicating the desired destinations.
✔ When a packet arrives at a router, the router checks all the destinations to determine
the set of output lines that will be needed.
 Broadcast Routing
A spanning tree is a subset of the network that includes all the routers but contains no loops. Sink trees are spanning
trees.
Reverse path forwarding: a broadcast packet arrives at a router, the router checks to see if the packet arrived on the
link that is normally used for sending packets toward the source of the broadcast.
Reverse path forwarding: a broadcast packet arrives at a router, the router checks to
see if the packet arrived on the link that is normally used for sending packets toward
the source of the broadcast.
 Multicast routing
• Multicast routing is a networking
method for efficient distribution of
one-to-many traffic.
• Multicast routing begins by sending
a select group of receivers the data,
which they filter out to other
necessary receivers.
• Sending a message to such a group is
called multicasting, and the routing
algorithm used is called multicast
routing.
Multicast routing
Multicast routing schemes build on the broadcast routing schemes we have already studied, sending packets
along spanning trees to deliver the packets to the members of the group while making efficient use of bandwidth.
 ✔ Sent from one sender to all the ✔ Sent from one sender to all the
✔ Packet is sent from one sender
receivers who are interested to connected and possible receivers,
to one receiver, i.e., it is
receive that particular traffic, i.e., it i.e., it is one to all communication.
one-to-one communication.
is one-to-many communication.
Difference between Broadcat and Multicast Routing
Distance vector routing
A distance-vector protocol calculates the distance and direction of the vector of the next hop from
the information obtained by the neighboring router.
Distant vector routing protocol also called as Bellman-Ford algorithm or Ford Fulkerson
algorithm used to calculate a path.
Historically known as the old ARPANET routing algorithm {or known as Bellman
Ford (BF) algorithm}.

Key points of distance vector routing protocol:

✔ Network Information: Every node in the network have information about its neighboring node.
✔ Each node in the network is designed to share information with all the nodes in the network.
✔ Routing Pattern: In DVR the data shared by the nodes are transmitted only to that node that is linked
directly to one or more nodes in the network.
✔ Data sharing: The nodes share the information with the neighboring node from time to time as there is a
change in network topology.
 Bellman-Ford algorithm
• Bellman ford algorithm is a single-source shortest path algorithm.
• Used to find the shortest distance from the single vertex (node) to all the other vertices (nodes) of a
weighted network.
• It is similar to Dijkstra's algorithm but it can work with network in which edges can have
negative weights.

Step to calculates shortest distances used (V - 1) times/Iteration, where V is the number of nodes in given network.

To calculate the distance between X and Y node using bellmen- ford equation.

where,
dx(y) = The least distance from x to y
c(x,v) = Node x's cost from each of its neighbor v
dv(y) = Distance to each node from initial node
minv = Selecting shortest distance
 Step - 1
Example As we can see in the above diagram of the DVR network, the routers in the network start sharing
their information with the neighboring routers in the network.

Routing table of A: Routing table of C:

Destination distance Hop Destination distance Hop

A 0 A A infinity -
B 8 B B 2 B
C infinity - C 0 C
D 5 D D 3 D

Routing table of B: Routing table of D :

Destination distance Hop Destination distance Hop
A 8 A A 5 A
B 0 B B infinity -
C 2 C C 3 C
D infinity - D 0 D
 Step - 2
After creating the separate local table this information is shared with the
neighboring node having a direct link.

For Router A:
The router A has a direct connection to neighboring routers B and D.

Destination Vector B Vector D

A 8 5
B 0 infinity ✔ Consequently, A's new routing table is:
C 2 3
D infinity 0 Destination distance Hop
A 0 A
B 8 B
C 8 D
D 5 D
 For router B:
Router B receives information from A and C.

✔ The new routing table for B is calculated as:

Destination Vector A Vector C

A 0 infinity
B 8 2
C infinity 0
Consequently, B's new routing table is:
D 5 3
Destination distance Hop
A 8 A
B 0 B
C 2 C
D 5 C
For router C:
The router C receives information from B and D.

✔ The new routing table for C is calculated as:

Destination Vector B Vector D

A 8 5
B 0 infinity
C 2 3
Consequently, C's new routing table is:
D infinity 0
Destination distance Hop
A 8 D
B 2 B
C 0 C
D 3 D
 For router D:
The router D receives information from A and C.

✔ The new routing table for D is calculated as:

Destination Vector A Vector C

A 0 infinity
B 8 2
C infinity 0
D 5 3 Consequently, D's new routing table is:
Destination distance Hop
A 5 A
B 5 C
C 3 C
D 0 D
 • Step - 3
✔ After this, the router again exchanges the distance vector obtained in step 2 with its
neighboring router.
✔ After exchanging the distance vector, the router prepares a new routing table.

For router A:
Destination Vector B Vector D
A 8 5
B 0 5
C 2 3
Consequently, A's new routing table is:
D 5 0
Destination distance Hop
A 0 A
B 8 B
C 8 D
D 5 D
 For router B:
The router B receives information from A and C.

✔ The new routing table for B is calculated as:

Destination Vector A Vector C

A 0 8
B 8 2
C 8 0
D 5 3 Consequently, B's new routing table is:

Destination distance Hop

A 8 A
B 0 B
C 2 C
D 5 C
 For router C:
The router C receives information from B and D.

✔ The new routing table for C is calculated as:

Destination Vector B Vector D

A 8 5
B 0 5 Consequently, C's new routing table is:
C 2 3 Destination distance Hop
D 5 0 A 8 D
B 2 B
C 0 C
D 3 D
 For router D:
The router D receives information from A and C.

✔ The new routing table for D is calculated as:

Destination Vector A Vector C

A 0 8
Consequently, D's new routing table is:
B 8 2
C 8 0 Destination distance Hop
D 5 3 A 5 A
B 5 C
C 3 C
As you can see in the above network all the link has been used.
D 0 D
✔ In the routing table of A link AD and AB is used.
✔ In the routing table of B only link BA and BC.
✔ In the routing table of C, only links CB and CD are used and
in D's routing table only links DA and DC are used.
Congestion Control Algorithms,
Congestion:
A state occurring in network layer when the message traffic is so heavy that it slows down
network response time.
✔ When too many packets are present in the network it causes packet delay and loss of packet which
degrades the performance of the system. This situation is called congestion.
✔ The network layer and transport layer share the responsibility for handling congestions.
✔ One of the most effective ways to control congestion is trying to reduce the load that transport
layer is placing on the network.

• Effects of Congestion
✔ As delay increases, performance decreases.
✔ If delay increases, retransmission occurs, making situation worse.
 Congestion collapse

When the number of packets hosts send into the network is well within its carrying capacity, the number delivered is
proportional to the number sent. If twice as many are sent, twice as many are delivered.
Causes of Congestion
• If all of a sudden, streams of packets begin arriving on three or four input lines and all need the same output line, a
queue will build up.
✔ If there is insufficient memory to hold all of them, packets will be lost.
• Slow processors can also cause congestion.
✔ If the routers’ CPUs are slow at performing the bookkeeping tasks required of them (queueing buffers, updating
tables, etc.) queues can build up even though there is excess line capacity.
✔ Low-bandwidth lines can also cause congestion.
• Low-bandwidth links or routers that process packets more slowly than the line rate can also become congested.
• Example:

• Case 1: consider a network made up of 100-Gbps fiber optic links on which a supercomputer is trying to force
feed a large file to a personal computer that is capable of handling only 1 Gbps.
• Although there is no congestion (the network itself is not in trouble), flow control is needed to force the supercomputer to stop
frequently to give the personal computer a chance to breathe.

• Case 2: consider a network with 1-Mbps lines and 1000 large computers, half of which are trying to transfer
files at 100 kbps to the other half.
• Here, the problem is not that of fast senders overpowering slow receivers, but that the total offered traffic exceeds what the
network can handle.
 Congestion control algorithms
• Congestion Control is a mechanism that controls the entry of data packets into the network,
enabling a better use of a shared network infrastructure and avoiding congestive collapse.
• Congestive-Avoidance Algorithms (CAA) are implemented at the TCP layer as the
mechanism to avoid congestive collapse in a network.
✔ By detecting congestion and adjusting the data transmission rate to avoid it.

Approaches to Congestion Control

✔ The presence of congestion means that the load is greater than the resources can handle.
✔ Two solutions come to mind: increase the resources or decrease the load.
Approaches to Congestion Control
Network provisioning
✔ Sometimes resources can be added dynamically when there is serious congestion.
✔ More often, links and routers that are regularly heavily utilized are upgraded at the earliest opportunity happens
on a time scale of months, driven by long-term traffic trends.
Traffic-aware routing
✔ To make the most of the existing network capacity, routes can be tailored to traffic patterns that change during the
day as network users wake and sleep in different time zones.
✔ Splitting traffic across multiple paths is also helpful
Admission control
✔ Sometimes it is not possible to increase capacity.
✔ New connections can be refused if they would cause the network to become congested.
Traffic throttling
✔ Routers can monitor the average load, queueing delay, or packet loss. In all cases, rising numbers indicate
growing congestion.
Load shedding
✔ When all else fails, the network is forced to discard packets that it cannot deliver.
✔ A good policy for choosing which packets to discard can help to prevent congestion collapse
 Congestion control algorithm
There are two congestion control algorithm which are under admission control approach as
follows:
i. Leaky Bucket Algorithm
ii. Token Bucket Algorithm

Congestion control algorithm under

Admission control

Leaky Bucket Algorithm Token Bucket Algorithm

Leaky Bucket Algorithm
• The Leaky bucket algorithm is a “traffic shaping” algorithm to reduce the load,
the transport layer places on the network layer and reduce congestion in the
network.
• Traffic shaping is a congestion management technique, It control the amount of traffic sent to
network and regulates the rate of data transmission.
Goal of Leaky Bucket
✔ To reduce the load, the transport layer places on the network to reduce congestion and improve network
performance.
Bursty traffic is sudden, unexpected network volume
• Example traffic, peak and depression in a network

Apply Leaky bucket algorithm

5 Mbps data will sent in network
Total Data
10 * 2 = 20
20 * 3 = 60
15 * 2 = 30
Example
• Suppose data enters the network from various sources at different speed.

Consider one bursty source that

✔ Sends data at 20 Mbps for 2 seconds for total of 40 Mb.
✔ Then it silent, sending no data for 5 seconds.
✔ Then it again transmits data at a rate of 10 Mbps for 3 seconds, thus sending a total of 30 Mbps.
✔ So, in a time span of 10 seconds the source sends 70 Mb data.

• The network has only committed a bandwidth of 5 Mbps for this source.
✔ It uses the leaky bucket algorithm to output traffic at the rate of 5 Mbps during the same time
period of 10 Seconds, which smooths out the network traffic.
Token Bucket Algorithm
• Token bucket algorithm is based on analogy of a fixed capacity bucket into which
tokens, normally representing a unit of bytes or a single packet of predetermined size,
are added a fixed rate.

It employs a metaphorical "token bucket" that holds

tokens at a fixed rate.
✔ Each token represents permission to perform a specific
action or transmit a unit of data.
✔ Requests or events require a certain number of tokens
to proceed, and the system consumes tokens from the
bucket accordingly.
✔ If there are insufficient tokens, the request may be
delayed or denied.
✔ To control the rate of actions to prevent network
congestion and ensure more predictable resource usage.
Token Bucket Algorithm
Token Bucket Algorithm
QUALITY OF SERVICE
• Quality of service (QoS) is the use of mechanisms or technologies that work on a network to control
traffic and ensure the performance of critical applications with limited network capacity.

• A stream of packets from a source to a destination is called a flow.

✔ A flow might be all the packets of a connection in a connection-oriented network, or all the packets sent
from one process to another process in a connectionless network.
✔ The needs of each flow can be characterized by four primary parameters:
✔ Reliability, delay, jitter and Bandwidth.
✔ Together, these determine the QoS (Quality of Service) the flow requires.
 Flow
Characteristics

• Reliability
✔ Reliability is a characteristic that a flow needs.

• Delay
✔ Source-to-destination delay is another flow characteristic.

• Jitter
✔ Jitter is the variation in delay for packets belonging to the same flow.

• Bandwidth
✔ Different applications need different bandwidths.
Quality of Service
• Quality of Service (QoS) is an internetworking issue that has been discussed
more than defined.

Four issues must be addressed to ensure quality of service:

i. What applications need from the network.

ii. How to regulate the traffic that enters the network.

iii. How to reserve resources at routers to guarantee performance.

iv. Whether the network can safely accept more traffic

QUALITY
Application
OF Requirements
Leaky Buckets
SERVICE Traffic Shaping
Token Buckets
Packet Scheduling

QUALITY OF SERVICE
Admission Control

RSVP—The Resource
Integrated Services
reSerVation Protocol

Expedited
Forwarding
Differentiated
Services
Assured Forwarding
 INTERNETWORKING
• Connecting computer networks to additional networks using gateways and routers is commonly
known as internetworking. These interconnected networks are called internetworks.
• It would be much simpler to join networks together if everyone used a single networking technology, and it is
often the case that there is a dominant kind of network, such as Ethernet.
• A router that can handle multiple network protocols is called a multiprotocol router.

✔ Since networks often differ in important

ways, getting packets from one network
to another is not always so easy.
✔ The problems of heterogeneity, and also
problems of scale as the resulting internet
grows very large.
 INTERNETWORKING

How Networks How Networks Can Internetwork Packet

Tunneling
Differ Be Connected Routing Fragmentation
 How Networks Differ
• Networks can differ in many ways.
• Some of the differences, such as different modulation techniques or frame formats, are
internal to the physical and data link layers.
• When packets sent by a source on one network must transit one or more foreign networks before
reaching the destination network, many problems can occur at the interfaces between networks.

To start with, the source needs to be able to

address the destination.
if the source is on an Ethernet network and the
destination is on a WiMAX network?

✔ Assuming, even specify a WiMAX destination

from an Ethernet network, packets would
cross from a connectionless network to a
connection-oriented one.
✔ This may require that a new connection be set
up on short notice, which injects a delay, and
much overhead if the connection is not used for
many more packets.
How Networks Can Be Connected
• There are two basic choices for connecting different networks:
• Can build devices that translate or convert packets from each kind of network into packets for
each other network.
• A router that can handle multiple network protocols is called a multiprotocol router.
 ✔ A technique of inter-networking called Tunneling is used when source and destination
Tunneling networks of the same type are to be connected through a network of different types.
✔ Tunneling uses a layered protocol model such as those of the OSI or TCP/IP protocol
suite.
✔ Handling the two different networks interwork is exceedingly difficult.
✔ However, there is a common special case that is manageable even for different network protocols.
✔ This case is where the source and destination hosts are on the same type of network, but there is a different
network in between.
Deployment of a network protocol with a new feature is a common reason, as our ‘‘IPv6 over IPv4’’ example shows.
 The limitation of tunnels is turned into an advantage with VPNs (Virtual Private Networks).
✔ A VPN is simply an overlay that is used to provide a measure of security.

Tunneling is widely used to connect isolated hosts and networks using other networks.
✔ The network that results is called an overlay since it has effectively been overlaid on the base network.
 Tunneling
✔ Tunneling is a mechanism by which two or more same networks communicate with each other, by
passing intermediate networking complexities.
✔ Tunneling is configured at both ends.
 Internetwork Routing
✔ In internetworking, routers have knowledge of each other’s address and addresses beyond them.
✔ They can be statically configured go on different network or they can learn by using
internetworking routing protocol.
Routing protocols
Within each network, an intradomain or interior gateway protocol is used for routing. (‘‘Gateway’’
is an older term for ‘‘router’’).
✔ Across the networks that make up the internet, an interdomain or exterior gateway protocol is
used.
✔ The networks may all use different intradomain protocols, but they must use the same interdomain
protocol.

Routing protocols which are used within an organization or administration are called Interior
Gateway Protocols (IGP).
RIP, OSPF are examples of IGP.

Routing between different organizations or administrations may have Exterior Gateway Protocol
and there is only one EGP i.e. Border Gateway Protocol.
In the Internet, the interdomain routing protocol is called BGP (Border Gateway Protocol).
 Packet Fragmentation
Every packet based network has an MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) size. The MTU is the size of
the largest packet that network can transmit.

✔ Fragmentation: when the maximum size of datagram is greater than maximum size of data that can be held
in a frame i.e., its Maximum Transmission Unit, The network layer divides the datagram received from the
transport layer into fragments so that data flow is not disrupted.
✔ Packets larger than the allowable MTU must be divided into smaller packets or fragments to enable
them to traverse the network.
✔ These limits have various causes, among them :
i. Hardware (e.g., the size of an Ethernet frame).
ii. Operating system (e.g., all buffers are 512 bytes).
iii. Protocols (e.g., the number of bits in the packet length field).
iv. Compliance with some (inter)national standard.
v. Desire to reduce error-induced retransmissions to some level.
vi. Desire to prevent one packet from occupying the channel too long.

IP fragmentation is an Internet Protocol (IP) process that breaks packets into smaller pieces (fragments), so that
the resulting pieces can pass through a link with a smaller maximum transmission unit (MTU) than the original
packet size. The fragments are reassembled by the receiving host.
 Packet Fragmentation
▪ Transparent fragmentation is straightforward but has some problems.
▪ Nontransparent fragmentation strategy is to refrain from recombining fragments at any intermediate routers.
✔ The main advantage of nontransparent fragmentation is that it requires routers to do less work.
 THE NETWORK LAYER IN THE INTERNET
In the network layer, the Internet can be viewed as a collection of networks or ASes (Autonomous
Systems) that are interconnected.

✔ ISPs (Internet Service Providers) that provide Internet access to homes and businesses, data centers and colocation
facilities full of server machines, and regional (mid-level) networks.

✔ The data centers serve much of the content that is sent over the Internet.
✔ Attached to the regional networks are more ISPs, LANs at many universities and companies, and
other edge networks.

The glue that holds the whole Internet together is the network layer protocol, IP (Internet Protocol).

The Network layer protocols, IP was designed from the beginning with internetworking in mind.

✔ To provide a best-effort (i.e., not guaranteed) way to transport packets from source to destination,
without regard to whether these machines are on the same network or whether there are other
networks in between them.
THE NETWORK LAYER IN THE INTERNET
THE NETWORK LAYER IN THE INTERNET
✔ The IP Version 4 Protocol,
✔ IP Addresses,
✔ IP Version 6,
✔ Internet Control Protocols,
✔ Label Switching and MPLS,
✔ OSPF—An Interior Gateway Routing Protocol,
✔ BGP—The Exterior Gateway Routing Protocol,
✔ Internet Multicasting,
✔ Mobile IP,
The IP Version 4 Protocol
• The network layer in the Internet is with the format of the IP datagrams themselves.
• An IPv4 datagram consists of a header part and a body or payload part.
• The header has a 20-byte fixed part and a variable-length optional part.
• The bits are transmitted from left to right and top to bottom, with the high-order bit of the Version field
going first.
 The IPv4 (Internet Protocol) header

✔ Version – The IP version number, 4.

✔ Header length – The length of the datagram header in 32-bit words.
✔ Type of service (Differentiated services) – Contains five subfields that specify the precedence(priority
0-7), delay, throughput, reliability, and cost desired for a packet.
✔ Total length – The length of the datagram in bytes including the header, options, and the appended
transport protocol segment or packet. The maximum length is bytes.
✔ Identification – An integer that identifies the datagram.
✔ DF – Don’t fragment
✔ MF – More Fragments. All fragments except the last one have this bit set.
✔ Fragment offset – The relative position of this fragment measured from the beginning of the original
datagram in units of 8 bytes.
✔ Time to live – How many routers a datagram can pass through. Each router decrements this value by 1
until it reaches 0 when the datagram is discarded.
✔ Protocol – The high-level protocol type.
 The IPv4 (Internet Protocol) header
✔ Header checksum – A number that is computed to ensure the integrity of the header values.
✔ Source address – The 32-bit IPv4 address of the sending host.
✔ Destination address – The 32-bit IPv4 address of the receiving host.
✔ Options – A list of optional specifications for security restrictions, route recording, and source
routing. Not every datagram specifies an options field.
✔ Padding – Null bytes which are added to make the header length an integral multiple of 32 bits as
required by the header length field.
IP address (Internet Protocol address)
• An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a unique numerical identifier for every device or network that
connects to the internet.
• There are two versions of IP addresses that are commonly used on the internet:-
• IPv4 and IPv6.
• An IPv4 address is expressed as a set of four dotted decimal numbers, where each octet is separated
by a period, such as 192.168.35.4
• A full IP address ranges from 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255.

• An IPv6 address represents eight groups of four hexadecimal digits separated by colons, such as
2620:cc:8000:1c82:544c:cc2e:f2fa:5a9b.
 IP Addresses
• A defining feature of IPv4 is its 32-bit addresses. Every host and router on the Internet has an IP
address that can be used in the Source address and Destination address fields of IP packets.
• An IPv4 address is a 32-bit address that uniquely and universally defines the connection of a device to
the Internet.
• In IPv4, a unique sequence of bits is assigned to a computer,
✔ a total of (2^32) devices approximately = 4,294,967,296 can be assigned with IPv4.
 ✔ The 0.0.0.0 is a Non-routable address is that indicates
IP Addresses an invalid, or inapplicable end-user address.
• An IP address is an online device address used ✔ A loopback address is a distinct reserved IP address
for communicating across the internet. range that starts from 127.0.0.0 ends at 127.255.255.255.
• It really refers to a network interface, so if a host ✔ 127.255.255.255 is the broadcast address for
is on two networks, it must have two IP addresses. 127.0.0.0/8.
✔ However, in practice, most hosts are on one ✔ The loopback addresses are built into the IP domain
network and thus have one IP address. system, enabling devices to transmit and receive the data
✔ In contrast, routers have multiple interfaces packets.
and thus multiple IP addresses.
✔ The loopback address 127.0.0.1 is generally known as
localhost.
 IP Addresses
✔ IP addresses are assigned and managed by a nonprofit corporation called ICANN (Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers), to avoid conflicts.
✔ ICANN has delegated parts of the address space to various regional authorities, which dole out IP addresses
to ISPs and other companies.
✔ This is the process by which a company is allocated a block of IP addresses.

Maximum
Address
IP Class number of
Range
networks

Class A 1-126 126 (27-2)

Class B 128-191 16384
Class C 192-223 2097152
Reserve for
Class D 224-239
multitasking

Reserved for
Class E 240-254 Research and
development
 Subnetting is the process of creating a subnetwork
Subnetting (also known as a subnet) within a network. Network
interfaces and devices within a subnet can communicate
with each other directly. Routers facilitate communication
between different subnets.
IP Version 6
• Internet Protocol (IP) version 6 (IPv6 or IPng) is the next generation of IP and has been designed to be an
evolutionary step from IP version 4 (IPv4).
• An IPv6 address is a 128-bit alphanumeric value that identifies an endpoint device in an Internet Protocol
Version 6 (IPv6) network.
• IPv6 was developed by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to deal with the problem of IPv4
exhaustion. IPv6 is a 128-bits address having an address space of 2128, which is way bigger than IPv4.
• an IPv6 address is 128 bits long and is arranged in eight groups, each of which is 16 bits. Each group is
expressed as four hexadecimal digits and the groups are separated by colons (:).

An IPv6 address is split into two parts: a network and a node component.
i. The network component is the first 64 bits of the address and is used for routing.
ii. The node component is the later 64 bits and is used to identify the address of the interface.
It is derived from the physical, or MAC address, using the 64-bit extended unique identifier (EUI-64) format defined by
the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
The Main IPv6
Header The IPv6 header is more streamlined: it contains 8 fields,

✔ The Version field is always 6 for IPv6.

✔ The Differentiated services field
(originally called Traffic class) is used
to distinguish the class of service for
packets with different real-time
delivery.

✔ Flow label field provides a way for a source and destination to mark groups of packets that forming a pseudo connection.
✔ Payload length field tells how many bytes follow the 40-byte header.
✔ Next header field lets the cat out of the bag.
✔ Hop limit field is used to keep packets from living forever.
✔ Source address and Destination address fields.
 Internet Control Protocols
• The Internet has several companion control protocols that are used in the network layer.

IMCP—The Internet
Control Message Protocol

ARP—The Address
Internet Control Protocols
Resolution Protocol

DHCP—The Dynamic Host

Configuration Protocol
IMCP—The Internet Control Message
Protocol
• The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is a protocol that devices within a network use to
communicate problems with data transmission.
• It is used for error handling in the network layer, and it is primarily used on network devices such as
routers.
• The use of ICMP is for reporting errors.
• For example: extremely large packets of data may be too big for a router to manage.
• In that case, the router will discard the data packet and transmit an ICMP message to the sender informing it of the issue.

✔ Type: It is an 8-bit field. It defines the ICMP message type.

The values range from 0 to 127 are defined for ICMPv6, and
the values from 128 to 255 are the informational messages.
✔ Code: It is an 8-bit field that defines the subtype of the
ICMP message.
✔ Checksum: It is a 16-bit field to detect whether the error
exists in the message or not.
IMCP—The Internet Control Message
Protocol
Each ICMP message type is carried encapsulated in an IP packet. The most important ones are
listed in Fig. 5-60.
ARP—The Address Resolution Protocol
• Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is a communication protocol used to find the MAC (Media Access Control)
address of a device from its IP address. This protocol is used when a device wants to communicate with another device
on a Local Area Network or Ethernet.
• It is a layer 2 protocol used to map MAC addresses to IP addresses. All hosts on a network are located by their IP
address, but NICs do not have IP addresses, they have MAC addresses.
• ARP is the protocol used to associate the IP address to a MAC address.
• There are different versions and use cases of ARP.
i. Proxy ARP
✔ Proxy ARP is a technique by which a proxy device on a given network answers the ARP request for an IP address that
is not on that network.
✔ The proxy is aware of the location of the traffic's destination and offers its own MAC address as the destination.
ii. Gratuitous ARP
✔ Gratuitous ARP is an administrative procedure, carried out as a way for a host on a network to simply announce or
update its IP-to-MAC address.
iii. Reverse ARP (RARP)
✔ Host machines that do not know their own IP address can use the Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP) for
discovery.
• Inverse ARP (IARP)
✔ Whereas ARP uses an IP address to find a MAC address, IARP uses a MAC address to find an IP address.
 ARP—The Address Resolution Protocol
The ARP program to find a MAC address that matches the IP address.
✔ The ARP cache keeps a list of each IP address and its matching MAC address.
✔ The ARP cache is dynamic, but users on a network can also configure a static ARP table
containing IP addresses and MAC addresses.
DHCP—The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
• Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a client/server protocol that automatically
provides an Internet Protocol (IP) host with its IP address and other related configuration
information such as the subnet mask and default gateway.
• DHCP helps enterprises to smoothly manage the allocation of IP addresses to the end-user clients’
devices such as desktops, laptops, cellphones, etc.
• It is an application layer protocol that is used to provide:

✔ DHCP maintaining a unique IP Address for a host using the server.

✔ DHCP servers maintain information on TCP/IP configuration and provide configuration of address to
DHCP-enabled clients in the form of a lease offer.
How Does DHCP Work?
To fully understand the working of DHCP, we must look at the components of the DHCP network:

✔ DHCP server: This is the central device that holds, assigns, and manages IP addresses.
✔ It can be a server, router, or SD-WAN appliance.

✔ DHCP client: This is the endpoint that requests for IP addresses and can be installed on any
type of peripheral device, although most are part of the default settings.

✔ Subnets: These are parts of a more extensive network.

✔ DHCP relay: This refers to devices like routers that acts as a middleman between clients and
server, amplifying the messages to reach their destination goal.
Label Switching and MPLS
• Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is an IP packet routing technique that routes IP packet through
paths via labels instead of looking at complex routing tables of routers.
✔ This feature helps in increasing the delivery rate of IP packets.
• MPLS is a networking technology that routes traffic using the shortest path based on “labels,” rather than
network addresses, to handle forwarding over private wide area networks.
• MPLS is multiprotocol, which means it can handle multiple network protocols.
✔ MPLS is highly versatile and unifying, as it provides mechanisms to carry a multitude of traffic, including Ethernet traffic.
✔ One of the key differentiators between MPLS and traditional routers is it doesn't need specialized or additional hardware.

A new MPLS header had to be added in front of the

IP header.
✔ On a router-to-router line using PPP as the
framing protocol, the frame format, including the
PPP, MPLS, IP, and TCP headers, is as shown in
Fig. 5-62.
 Label Switching and MPLS
The MPLS network, this label is used to forward the packet.
✔ At the other edge of the MPLS network, the label has served its purpose and is removed, revealing the IP
packet again for the next network.
OSPF—An Interior Gateway Routing Protocol
• The OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) protocol is a IP Routing protocols, and is an Interior
Gateway Protocol (IGP) for the Internet, used to distribute IP routing information throughout
a single Autonomous System (AS) in an IP network.
✔ The protocol which aims at moving the packet within a large autonomous system or routing domain.
✔ It is an intradomain protocol, which means that it is used within an area or a network.
✔ It is based on a link-state routing algorithm in which each router contains the information of every domain, and based
on this information, it determines the shortest path.
✔ The goal of routing is to learn routes.
✔ The OSPF achieves by learning about every router and subnet within the entire network.

• OSPF uses a link-state routing algorithm. Each router has information about every link and router
in the network.
✔ It finds the shortest path to each destination.
✔ OSPF learns about all routers and subnets in the network to build a link-state database (LSDB).
✔ Routers exchange link-state advertisements (LSAs) to share information about routers, subnets, and more.
OSPF—An Interior Gateway Routing Protocol
 BGP—The Exterior Gateway Routing
Protocol
✔ Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is a standardized exterior gateway protocol designed to exchange routing
and reachability information among autonomous systems (AS) on the Internet.
✔ BGP is one of a family of IP Routing protocols, and is an Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP) designed to
distribute routing information between ASs.