CSC 399

THEORETICAL COMPUTER SCIENCE

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 Network Systems: Protocols, Standards, Interfaces,
and Topologies

• Network architectures facilitate the operation,

maintenance, and growth of the network
• by isolating the user and the application from
the physical details of the network.
• Network architectures include protocols,
standards, interfaces, and topologies.

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 COMMUNICATION AND NETWORK PROTOCOLS

• Devices that are nodes in a network must

access and share the network to transmit and
receive data.
• These components work together by adhering
to a common set of rules that enable them to
communicate with each other.
• This set of rules and procedures governing
transmission across a network is a protocol.

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• The principal functions of protocols in a network are line
access and collision avoidance.
• Line access concerns how the sending device gains access
to the network to send a message.
• Collision avoidance refers to managing message
transmission so that two messages do not collide with
each other on the network.
• Other functions of protocols are to identify each device in
the communication path, to secure the attention of the
other device, to verify correct receipt of the transmitted
message, to verify that a message requires retransmission
because it cannot be correctly interpreted,
• and to perform recovery when errors occur.

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 Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)

• Is a protocol for sending information across

sometimes-unreliable networks with the
assurance that it will arrive in uncorrupted
form.
• TCP/IP allows efficient and reasonably error-
free transmission between different systems
and is the standard protocol of the Internet
and intranets.

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 Convergence
• Convergence is used to refer to the ability to transfer all types of
information—
• voice, data, video—utilizing a single Internet protocol (IP) network
infrastructure.
• In voice-over IP (VoIP) systems, analog voice signals are digitized and
transmitted as a stream of packets over a digital IP data network.
• VoIP utilizes a gateway to compress and convert the caller’s voice into
digital IP packets.
• These packets are then sent along the IP network.
• A second gateway then puts the voice packets in the correct order,
decompresses them, and converts the voice packets back into a
sound signal that can be received by existing telephone equipment.

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 Internet telephony (IP)
• Internet telephony (IP) is the transport of
telephone calls over the Internet, no matter
whether traditional telephony devices,
multimedia PCs, or dedicated terminals take
part in the calls
• and no matter whether the calls are entirely or
only partially transmitted over the Internet.

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 COMMUNICATIONS STANDARDS
• Attempts at standardizing data communications have been
somewhat successful, but standardization in the United States
has lagged behind other countries where the communications
industry is more closely regulated.
• Various organizations, including the Electronic Industries
Association (EIA),
• the Consultative Committee for International Telegraph and
Telephone (CCITT), and
• the International Standards Organization (ISO), have developed
electronic interfacing standards that are widely used within the
industry.
• The major types of standards are networking standards,
transmission standards, and software standards.

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 Networking Standards
• Typically, the protocols required to achieve communication on
behalf of an application are actually multiple protocols existing
at different levels or layers.
• Each layer defines a set of functions that are provided as
services to upper layers, and each layer relies on services
provided by lower layers.
• At each layer, one or more protocols define precisely how
software programs on different systems interact to accomplish
the functions for that layer.
• This layering notion has been formalized in several architectures.
• The most widely known is the Open Systems Interconnection
(OSI) Reference Model developed by the ISO.

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 OSI Model
• Layer 1: Physical layer. Concerned with transmitting
raw bits over a communications channel; provides a
physical connection for the transmission of data
among network entities and creates the means by
which to activate and deactivate a physical
connection.
• Layer 2: Data link layer. Provides a reliable means of
transmitting data across a physical link; breaks up the
input data into data frames sequentially and processes
the acknowledgment frames sent back by the receiver.

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• Layer 3: Network layer. Routes information from one
network computer to another; computers may be
physically located within the same network or within
another network that is interconnected in some
fashion; accepts messages from source host and sees
to it they are directed toward the destination.
• Layer 4: Transport layer. Provides a network-
independent transport service to the session layer;
accepts data from session layer, splits it up into
smaller units as required, passes these to the
network layer, and ensures all pieces arrive correctly
at the other end.

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• Layer 5: Session layer. User’s interface into network;
where user must negotiate to establish connection
with process on another machine; once connection
is established the session layer can manage the
dialogue in an orderly manner.
• Layer 6: Presentation layer. Here messages are
translated from and to the format used in the
network to and from a format used at the
application layer.
• Layer 7:Application layer. Includes activities related
to users, such as supporting file transfer, handling
messages, and providing security.
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• Network management software comes in different
shapes, and it has many functions in operating a
network.
• These functions reduce time spent on routine tasks, such
as remote, electronic installation of new software on
many devices across a network.
• They also provide faster response to network problems,
greater control over the network, and remote diagnosing
of problems in devices connected to the network.
• In short, network management software performs
functions that decrease the human resources needed to
manage the network.

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 INTERFACES
• An interface is a physical connection between two communications
devices.
• One important concept of interfacing concerns the types of data
transfer—parallel or serial.
• Parallel data transfer, most often used for local communication,
employs a communications interface with a series of dedicated
wires, each serving one purpose.
• In parallel communication, both data and control signals are
transmitted simultaneously.
• A serial data transfer, most often used for long-distance
communications, is bit by bit rather than many bits in parallel.
• Most data communications devices transmit in serial fashion. While
much slower than parallel data transfer, serial transfer is simpler and
requires much less on the part of the receiving system.

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 NETWORK TOPOLOGY
• The topology of a network is the physical layout
and connectivity of a network.
• Specific protocols, or rules of communications, are
often used on specific topologies, but the two
concepts are different. Topology refers to the ways
the channels connect the nodes,
• whereas protocol refers to the rules by which data
communications take place over these channels.
• Neither concept should be confused with the
physical cabling of the network.

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 NETWORK ARCHITECTURE AND SIZE

• Here networks are classified according to the

geographical size
• Local Area Network
• Metropolitan Area Network
• Wide Area Network

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Thank You.

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