60-367: Computer

Networks

Instructor: Randy Fortier

Purpose
 This course will provide the student with:
 Understanding of networking concepts
 Including hardware, protocols, architectures,

algorithms
 Knowledge to assist in network building and
administration
 From small LANs to large-scale WANs

 Intermediate network programming abilities

 e.g. Basic socket programming (time permitting)

 Knowledge of an advanced networking topic

 i.e. Knowledge gained in research project
Networking &
Internetworking

Connecting People, Places, and

Everything Else
Networks
 Any connection between two or more computers
 e.g. Even when you connect two computers via a USB
cable
 Networks use a set of low-level protocols (rules for
communication)
 e.g. TCP/IP, IPX/SPX
 Networks use standardized hardware
 e.g. Twisted pair cabling & Ethernet hubs, ATM
switches & optical fibre cabling
Network Speed
 A network’s speed can be summed up with two values:
 Bit rate:
 How many bits can be placed on the network in a given time

interval (e.g. 1 second)?

 This is often called bandwidth, but this is a misnomer since

bandwidth has to do with the range of frequencies to be used

 Bit rate becomes the dominant factor when sending many

packets (e.g. a large file)

 Latency:
 How long does it take a bit to be received by the destination

node?
 Latency becomes the dominant factor when sending

individual packets, or alternating sending/receiving

A Local Area Network (LAN)
Networks: Purpose
 Sharing files
 FTP, NFS, SMB
 Communicating
 E-Mail, instant messaging, games
 Executing programs remotely
 rlogin, telnet
Network Messaging
 Most local area networks use electrostatic
network hardware
 The wires transmit messages using electricity
 The transmission hardware charges the wire
positively or negatively to indicate 1 and 0
respectively
 The reception hardware senses the charge
0010
1110
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____
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 __10
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 ___0
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____
 ____
1110

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 ____
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 ____
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 ____
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Internetworking: internets (WANs)
 e.g. The Internet
 Any connection between two or more
networks
 e.g. An Ethernet network connected to another
Ethernet network by glass fibre cable and
ATM switches
An Internet

LAN A LAN B

Backbone A

LAN C LAN E

LAN D
Internets: Purpose
 Larger scope
 Access more shared files
 Communicate with more people
 Execute programs on more machines
 Network Properties

Networking Fundamentals for Specific

Network Types
Important Network Properties
 Scope: A network should provide services to
several applications
 Scalability: A network should operate
efficiently when deployed on a small-scale as
well as on a large-scale
 Robustness: A network should operate in
spite of failures or lost data
 Important Network Properties

 Self-Stabilization: A network, after a failure

or other problem, should return to normal (or
near normal) without human intervention
 Autoconfigurability: A network should
optimize its own parameters in order to
achieve better performance
 Safety: A network should prevent failures as
well as prevent failures from affecting other
areas of the network
 Important Network Properties

 Configurability: A network’s parameters

should be configurable to improve
performance
 Determinism: Two networks with identical
conditions should yield identical results
 Migration: It should be possible to add new
features to a network without disruption of
network service
Network Usage
 Ideally, the network usage should be
maximized
 If network resources are unused, the network
is not being used efficiently
 Unused network resources could be used to
provide higher throughput to hosts
 This typically becomes a problem in routing
 If all routers choose the single optimal path,
some (less than optimal) regions of the
network will be unused
The Internet

The Information Age

 Internet History

A Condensed Timeline of Internet

Development and Research Projects
The Birth of Arpanet
 Developed by ARPA (Advanced Research
Projects Agency)
 A packet-switched network connecting a
number of LANs, called Arpanet
 Used primarily for connecting the networks of
the U.S. Government’s defense initiative
(DARPA, which was a branch of the DoD)
 Became a useable internet in 1977
 The Internet Split
 Originally, Arpanet was strictly military and defense-
oriented
 Arpanet was converted to use the new standard
TCP/IP protocol set (1980)
 The Defense Communication Agency (DCA) split
Arpanet into two networks (1983):
 Arpanet: To be used for internetworking research
projects
 Milnet: To be used strictly for military purposes
A Military & University Internet
 The University of California (at Berkeley)
incorporated TCP/IP programming into its BSD
UNIX operating system (1983)
 ARPA funded research projects at many
Universities in order to make then internet-
capable (1983-1989)
 BSD UNIX developed the socket network
programming model commonly used today
 It was now possible for anyone to write internet
applications
 This resulted in a boom of internet applications,
many of which survive to this day
 A Public Internet
 It became practical for private organizations
to connect to the Internet (mid-late 1980s)
 Due to inexpensive hardware
 The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) was
empowered to manage research
 Coordinates and focuses research and
development with regards to the Internet and
TCP/IP
 Internet Users – July 2005
Continent Population Internet Users Internet Growth Percentage of
(#) Users (%) Rate World Users

Africa 896,721,874 16,174,600 1.8% 258.3% 1.7%

Asia 3,622,994,130 323,756,956 8.9% 183.2% 34.5%

Europe 731,018,523 269,036,096 36.8% 161.0% 28.7%

Middle East 260,814,179 21,770,700 8.3% 311.9% 2.3%

North America 328,387,059 223,392,807 68.0% 106.7% 23.8%

South America / Carribean 546,723,509 68,130,804 12.5% 277.1% 7.3%

Australia / Oceania 33,443,448 16,448,966 49.2% 115.9% 1.8%

Total 6,420.102,722 938,710,929 14.6% 160% 100%

North American Users – July 2005
Country Population Internet Users Internet Growth Percentage of
(#) Users (%) Rate World Users

Canada 32,050,369 20,450,000 63.8% 61.0% 2.2%

Mexico 103,872,328 14,901,687 14.3% 449.4% 1.6%

United States 296,208,476 202,888,307 68.5% 112.8% 21.6%

Other 128,214 54,500 42.5% 24.4% 0.005%

Total 6,420,102,722 938,710,929 14.6% 160% 25.4%

Internet Implementation

Under the Hood

TCP/IP

 A considerably large part of this course

 The underlying network protocols upon which
application-level protocols are built
 e.g. HTTP, SMTP, IMAP
 TCP/IP is the framework for the Internet
TCP/IP

 TCP/IP is actually two protocols:

 TCP: Transport control protocol
 Creates reliable transport (handles lost
messages), offers a logical stream of data
(reorders mixed up messages)
 IP: Internet protocol
 Defines addressing (e.g. 137.207.32.2), routing
protocols (how to get messages from source to
destination), etc.
Internet Messaging
 TCP is a reliable protocol
 If a message does not arrive, it is re-sent
 Messages must be acknowledged by their
recipients before a certain time expires
 The message’s time-to-live (TTL) value
 Layered Architectures

Schemes for Organizing the

Responsibility of Networking Components
 Network Service Models

 Provide a layered abstraction for networking

 Each layer performs specific tasks
 Between each layer is an interface
 e.g. The hardware access layer might interact directly with
the hardware, providing a hardware-independent interface
to higher layers
 The same layer at the source and the destination are known
as ‘peer’ layers
 e.g. A ‘transport’ layer may provide reliable messaging, so
the transport layer in the source and destination will
communicate to ensure each message arrived in tact
Network Service Model

Sender Receiver

Higher level
Lower level
Layer n Layer n
… …
Layer 2 Layer 2
Layer 1 Layer 1

Network
The OSI Reference Model
 A layered service model developed by the
International Standardization Organization
(ISO)
 Defines 7 conceptual layers
 Each serves a very specific purpose
 OSI: Open System Interconnection
 Developed as a reference to be used for all
future protocols
The OSI Reference Model
 The 7 layers are (highest to lowest level):

1. Application
2. Presentation
3. Session
4. Transport
5. Network
6. Data link
7. Physical
The OSI Reference Model

Application protocol Application

protocol
Presentation Presentation
protocol
Session Session
protocol
Transport Transport
protocol
Network Network
protocol
Data link Data link
protocol
Physical Physical
 The OSI Reference Model

Physical Layer
 Represents the actual network hardware
 Deals with problems such as:
 Sending signals across wires
 e.g. Charging a wire with a specific voltage

 Converting bits to signals

 Even two Ethernet cards may have different physical
layers, as this layer deals with hardware specific
concerns
 The OSI Reference Model

Data Link Layer

 Represents the interface to the network
hardware
 Deals with problems such as:
 Transmission of groups of bits
 e.g. Groups of bits might represent an ASCII text
string, a floating point number, or a chunk of
binary data
 Verifying data integrity (using checksums)
 The OSI Reference Model

Network Layer
 Handles the connection between sender and receiver
 Deals with problems such as:
 Determining a path from the sender node to the
recipient node (i.e. routing)
 Determining the correct recipient (i.e. addressing)
 Network congestion
 Fragmenting data into packets
 Reassembly of packets
 The OSI Reference Model

Transport Layer
 Represents an end-to-end reliable
communication stream
 Deals with problems such as:
 Lost (unacknowledged) packets
 Duplicate packets
 Reordering packets
 The OSI Reference Model

Session Layer
 Represents a dialogue between sender and receiver
 Somewhat irrelevant in today’s networks
 Handles the establishment of an authenticated
connection to the receiver
 Deals with problems such as:
 Authentication of the sender node on the packet
assembler and disassembler (PAD)
 This is a remote computer which provided the lower

layers in a shared manner, which required

authentication
 The OSI Reference Model

Presentation Layer
 Specifies data representations so that both sides can
determine how to read data
 e.g. How many bytes to use for floating point values
(including compressed as well as uncompressed
values, encryption)
 e.g. What is the order of the bytes?
 Uses an ISO-defined standard for these
representations: Abstract Syntax Notation 1 (ASN.1)
 The OSI Reference Model

Application Layer
 Defines what data is stored in the message
(specific to each application)
 e.g. An E-Mail application would store such
things as recipient, subject, and body text into
an E-Mail application-level message
 e.g. A web server would put header
information (information about the server & the
document) as well as the document itself into
its application-level messages
OSI Reference Model: An Example

Application
E-Mail:
Presentation •Recipient
•Message:
Subject
Session •Recipient
Body – CHAR(9)
Frame:
Session
•SubjectMessage:
– CHAR (17)
•• Data Link Header
Transport •Session Header
Body – CHAR (243)
••Transport
NetworkFrame:
Network Header
Message:
Recipient
Network •••Subject
Transport Header
Network Header
Transport Header
•••Body
Session Header
Transport
Session Header
Header
••Recipient
Recipient
Session Header
Data link
••Subject
Subject
Recipient
••Body
Body
Subject
Physical
01001101111010010011001…
•Body Network
OSI Reference Model: Routing

Application Application

Presentation Presentation

Session Session

Transport Transport
Router
Network Network Network

Data link Data link Data link

Physical Physical Physical

OSI Reference Model Overview
 Each layer provides some abstraction to the higher
levels
 e.g. The physical layer actually charges the wire
 Higher layers need not worry about how to charge the

wire
 e.g. The transport layer ensures that message arrive
 Higher layers can assume that messages will arrive,

and will not be lost

 The OSI reference model was used as the basis for
X.25 networks, although these networks are not
discussed at length in this course
The TCP/IP Service Model
 Researchers developing the TCP/IP protocol
suite also developed a layered reference
model
 The TCP/IP reference model consists of 5
layers
 3 software layers
 1 software & hardware layer
 1 hardware layer
The TCP/IP Service Model
 The 5 layers:

1. Application
2. Transport
3. Internet
4. Network Interface
5. Hardware
 The TCP/IP Service Model

Application Layer
 Defines what data is stored in the message (specific
to each application)
 e.g. An E-Mail application would store such things as
recipient, subject, and body text into an E-Mail
application-level message
 e.g. A web server would put header information
(information about the server & the document) as well
as the document itself into its application-level
messages
 Essentially, this layer is identical to the application
layer in the OSI reference model
 The TCP/IP Service Model

Transport Layer
 Handles end-to-end communication
 Divides the data into manageable chunks of
information (packets)
 Provides reliable communication
 Ensures that all packets are received

 Provides error-free communication

 Uses a checksum to verify data integrity

 Implemented by the TCP protocol

 Transport control protocol
 The TCP/IP Service Model

Internet Layer
 Handles communication between machines
 The path of a message is determined (routing)
 The destination of a message is determined
(addressing)
 Implemented by the IP protocol
 Internet protocol
 The TCP/IP Service Model

Network Interface Layer

 Handles low level interaction with hardware
 Issues commands to the hardware to transmit a
number of bits (1 or 0)
 Deals with hardware-specific concerns

 Implemented by the device drivers for the hardware

installed into the operating system
 Essentially, this layer is identical to the data link layer
in the OSI model
 The TCP/IP Service Model

Hardware Layer
 Actually transmits signals onto the network
 Deals with issues such as:
 How to transmit signals (e.g. electrify the wire)
 How to detect problems (e.g. collisions)
 Represents the actual network hardware
 Essentially this layer is identical to the physical layer
in the OSI model
TCP/IP Service Model: Example

Application
E-Mail:
•Data Bytes
Transport
Transport Packet:
•IP Datagrams:
TCP Header
Internet ••Data
IP Header
Bytes
•TCP Header
Network •Data Bytes
Network Frame:
Interface •IP Header
•TCP Header
Hardware •Data Bytes
01001101111010010011001… Network
TCP/IP Service Model: Routing
Application Application

Transport Transport
Router
Internet Internet Internet

Network Network Network

Interface Interface Interface

Hardware Hardware Hardware

TCP/IP Service Model: Overview
 Major differences between OSI and TCP/IP:
 TCP/IP has no presentation layer
 The applications must agree on a data format (how

many bytes for a floating point, etc)

 Thus, presentation/encoding is handled by the

application layer
 TCP/IP has no session layer
 Not significant: It does little in modern networks

 In TCP/IP a session is typically managed by the

application layer
The TCP/IP Protocol in Action
 Consider the following simplified network
route
 The source (S) and destination (D) are
separated by two routers (R1, R2)

S R1 R2 D
The TCP/IP Protocol in Action
 Let’s consider a web browser, using HTTP
 The web browser on S sends a packet to the web server
on D
 The application layer (i.e. the browser) provides the
logical (IP) addresses for S (IPS) and D (IPD)
 The application layer also provides the port numbers for
the source (PortS) and destination (PortD)

S R1 R2 D
HTTP Req
 The TCP/IP Protocol in Action
 The Transport layer (TCP) uses the port
numbers (e.g. 2765 and 80) to create a TCP
packet (sometimes called a segment):

S R1 R2 D
Source Port: 2765
Destination Port: 80

HTTP Req
 The TCP/IP Protocol in Action
 The Internet (i.e. IP) layer uses the IP
addresses specified by the application layer
to create an IP datagram
 e.g. 137.207.140.71, 24.87.204.16
 Next, a route is determined for the packet,
using S’s routing table
 S only needs one router’s address (R1)

S R1 R2 D
Source IP: 137.207.140.71
Dest IP: 24.87.204.16
TCP Segment

HTTP Req
 The TCP/IP Protocol in Action
 The MAC addresses of S and R1 (MACS and
MACR1) are used to create a network frame
 If the MAC address of R1 is not known, ARP
(address resolution protocol) is used

S R1 R2 D
Source MAC: MACS
Dest MAC: MACR1
IP Datagram

TCP Segment
HTTP Req
 The TCP/IP Protocol in Action
 Let’s simplify the picture (for clarity)
 In subsequent steps the IP datagram and its
contents will not change very much

S R1 R2 D
Source MAC: MACS
Dest MAC: MACR1
IP Datagram
The TCP/IP Protocol in Action
 The network frame is transmitted on the
network to R1
 This is possible since S and R1 are both
members of the same network

S R1 R2 D
Source MAC: MACS
Dest MAC: MACR1
IP Datagram
The TCP/IP Protocol in Action
 R1 will extract the IP datagram from the
payload of the network frame
 R1 looks up the destination IP address (IPD) in
it’s routing table, to determine which router
should get the datagram next (R2)

S R1 R2 D
IP Datagram
The TCP/IP Protocol in Action
 R1 uses its own MAC address (MACR1) and
R2’s MAC address (MACR2) to create another
network frame

S R1 R2 D
Source MAC: MACR1
Dest MAC: MACR2
IP Datagram
The TCP/IP Protocol in Action
 The network frame is received by R2, and the
IP datagram is extracted from it’s payload
 R2 uses its routing table to lookup IPD
 In this case, R2 is directly connected to D
 This is called direct routing

S R1 R2 D
Source MAC: MACR1
Dest MAC: MACR2
IP Datagram
The TCP/IP Protocol in Action
 Most likely, R2 does not have the MAC
address of D (MACD)
 The address resolution protocol (ARP) is used
to determine the MAC address:

S R1 R2 ARP Request
D
IP: 24.87.204.16
IP Datagram
MAC: ?
The TCP/IP Protocol in Action
 D recognizes it’s IP address and responds
with its MAC address (MACD)
 e.g. 08-7F-3C-90-0C-DF

S R1 R2 ARP Response
D
IP: 24.87.204.16
IP Datagram
MAC: 08-7F-3C-90-0C-DF
The TCP/IP Protocol in Action
 A network frame is created by R2 now that
the MAC address is known
 The frame is sent directly to D

S R1 R2 D
Source MAC: MACR2
Dest MAC: MACD
IP Datagram
The TCP/IP Protocol in Action
 D extracts the IP datagram from the network
frame (which is discarded)
 The IP datagram’s payload is passed to the
transport layer

S R1 R2 D
Source MAC: MACR2
Dest MAC: MACD
IP Datagram
The TCP/IP Protocol in Action
 The Transport layer (within D’s operating
system), will use the port numbers specified
in the TCP segment to determine to which
application it should send the segment
 In this case, to the application bound to port
80 (the web server)

S R1 R2 D
Source Port: 2765
Destination Port: 80

HTTP Req
The TCP/IP Protocol in Action
 Now, the web server on D has the HTTP
request, and it processes it
 An HTTP response is sent back using the
same process
 The web server uses the same IP addresses
and logical addresses as the last message

S R1 R2 D
HTTP Req
The Protocol Stack
 We’ve just seen a simplified overview of how
the TCP/IP protocol stack works in practice
 Subsequent lectures will break down many of
these steps, and discuss the process further
 More details, and some additional steps will be
introduced as the course progresses
 The lectures will be ‘bottom-up’, meaning we
will start at the lowest layer, and work our way
up