Overview of TCP/IP Protocol Suite/Stack • TCP/IP that is Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol was developed by Department of Defence's Project Research Agency (ARPA, later DARPA) as a part of a research project of network interconnection to connect remote machines. • The features that stood out during the research, which led to making the TCP/IP Protocol Suite/Stack were: • Support for a flexible architecture. Adding more machines to a network was easy. • The network was robust, and connections remained intact until the source and destination machines were functioning. • The overall idea was to allow one application on one computer to talk to(send data packets) another application running on different computer. Introduction • TCP/IP means Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol. It is the network model used in the current Internet architecture as well. • Protocols are set of rules which govern every possible communication over a network. These protocols describe the movement of data between the source and destination or the internet. They also offer simple naming and addressing schemes. TCP/IP protocol stack • TCP/IP is the protocol suite upon which all Internet communication is based. • Different vendors have developed other networking protocols, but even most network operating systems with their own protocols, such as Netware, support TCP/IP. • It has become the de facto standard. • Protocols are sometimes referred to as protocol stacks or protocol suites. A protocol stack is an appropriate term because it indicates the layered approach used to design the networking software TCP/IP protocol stack
• Flow of data between two computers using TCP/IP
stacks. Different Layers of TCP/IP Reference Model
• The 4 layers that form the TCP/IP reference model
are: i. Layer 1 (Host-to-network Layer/ Network access layer) ii. Layer 2 (Internet layer) iii. Layer 3 (Transport Layer) iv. Layer 4 (Application Layer) Different Layers of TCP/IP Reference Model • Though there are sources that indicate that the model has five layer i.e. Layer 5 (Application), Layer 4 (Transport), Layer 3 (Internet), Layer 2 (Network), and Layer 1 (Physical). i. Layer 1 (Host-to-network Layer/ Network access layer) • Lowest layer of the all. • Protocol is used to connect to the host, so that the packets can be sent over it. • Varies from host to host and network to network. Different Layers of TCP/IP Reference Model ii. Layer 2 (Internet layer) • Selection of a packet switching network which is based on a connectionless internetwork layer is called a internet layer. • It is the layer which holds the whole architecture together. • It helps the packet to travel independently to the destination. • Order in which packets are received is different from the way they are sent. • IP (Internet Protocol) is used in this layer. • The various functions performed by the Internet Layer are: – Delivering IP packets – Performing routing – Avoiding congestion Different Layers of TCP/IP Reference Model iii. Layer 3 (Transport Layer) • It decides if data transmission should be on parallel path or single path. • Functions such as multiplexing, segmenting or splitting on the data is done by transport layer. • The applications can read and write to the transport layer. • Transport layer adds header information to the data. • Transport layer breaks the message (data) into small units so that they are handled more efficiently by the network layer. • Transport layer also arrange the packets to be sent, in sequence. Different Layers of TCP/IP Reference Model iv. Layer 4 (Application Layer) The TCP/IP specifications described a lot of applications that were at the top of the protocol stack. Some of them were TELNET, FTP, SMTP, DNS etc. • TELNET is a two-way communication protocol which allows connecting to a remote machine and run applications on it. • FTP(File Transfer Protocol) is a protocol, that allows File transfer amongst computer users connected over a network. It is reliable, simple and efficient. • SMTP(Simple Mail Transport Protocol) is a protocol, which is used to transport electronic mail between a source and destination, directed via a route. • DNS(Domain Name Server) resolves an IP address into a textual address for Hosts connected over a network. • It allows peer entities to carry conversation. • It defines two end-to-end protocols: TCP and UDP Different Layers of TCP/IP Reference Model • TCP(Transmission Control Protocol): It is a reliable connection-oriented protocol which handles byte- stream from source to destination without error and flow control. • UDP(User-Datagram Protocol): It is an unreliable connection-less protocol that do not want TCPs, sequencing and flow control. Eg: One-shot request- reply kind of service. Merits of TCP/IP model • It operated independently. • It is scalable. • Client/server architecture. • Supports a number of routing protocols. • Can be used to establish a connection between two computers. Demerits of TCP/IP • In this, the transport layer does not guarantee delivery of packets. • The model cannot be used in any other application. • Replacing protocol is not easy. • It has not clearly separated its services, interfaces and protocols. PROTOCOLS Introduction A Family of Protocols • TCP/IP is a large collection of different communication protocols based upon the two original protocols TCP and IP. TCP - Transmission Control Protocol • TCP is used for transmission of data from an application to the network. • TCP is responsible for breaking data down into IP packets before they are sent, and for assembling the packets when they arrive. IP - Internet Protocol • IP takes care of the communication with other computers. • IP is responsible for the sending and receiving data packets over the Internet. Protocols HTTP - Hyper Text Transfer Protocol • HTTP takes care of the communication between a web server and a web browser. • HTTP is used for sending requests from a web client (a browser) to a web server, returning web content (web pages) from the server back to the client. HTTPS - Secure HTTP • HTTPS takes care of secure communication between a web server and a web browser. • HTTPS typically handles credit card transactions and other sensitive data. Protocols SSL - Secure Sockets Layer • The SSL protocol is used for encryption of data for secure data transmission. SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol • SMTP is used for transmission of e-mails. MIME - Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions • The MIME protocol lets SMTP transmit multimedia files including voice, audio, and binary data across TCP/IP networks. IMAP - Internet Message Access Protocol • IMAP is used for storing and retrieving e-mails. Protocols POP - Post Office Protocol • POP is used for downloading e-mails from an e-mail server to a personal computer. FTP - File Transfer Protocol • FTP takes care of transmission of files between computers. NTP - Network Time Protocol • NTP is used to synchronize the time (the clock) between computers. DHCP - Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol • DHCP is used for allocation of dynamic IP addresses to computers in a network. Protocols SNMP - Simple Network Management Protocol • SNMP is used for administration of computer networks. LDAP - Lightweight Directory Access Protocol • LDAP is used for collecting information about users and e- mail addresses from the internet. ICMP - Internet Control Message Protocol • ICMP takes care of error-handling in the network. ARP - Address Resolution Protocol • ARP is used by IP to find the hardware address of a computer network card based on the IP address. RARP - Reverse Address Resolution Protocol • RARP is used by IP to find the IP address based on the hardware address of a computer network card. Protocols BOOTP - Boot Protocol • BOOTP is used for booting (starting) computers from the network. PPTP - Point to Point Tunneling Protocol • PPTP is used for setting up a connection (tunnel) between private networks.