COMPUTER NETWORKS

Introduction To Computer Networks

Computer Network means an interconnection of autonomous
(standalone) computers for information exchange. The connecting
media could be a copper wire, optical fiber, microwave or satellite.

The computer network includes the

Networking Elements -
following networking elements:

1. At least two computers

2. Transmission medium either wired or wireless
3. Protocols or rules that govern the communication
4. Network software such as Network Operating System

Network Criteria:
The criteria that have to be met by a computer network are:

1. Performance - It is measured in terms of transit time and

response time.
• Transit time is the time for a message to travel from one
device toanother
• Response time is the elapsed time between an inquiry and a
response.

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Performance is dependent on the following factors:

• The number of users

• Type of transmission medium
• Capability of connected network
• Efficiency of software

2. Reliability - It is measured in terms of

• Frequency of failure
• Recovery from failures
• Robustness during catastrophe

3. Security - It means protecting data from unauthorized

access.

Goals of Computer Networks:

The following are some important goals of computer
networks:

1. Resource Sharing - Many organizations has a

substantial number of computers in operations, which
are located apart. Ex. A group of office workers can
share a commonprinter, fax, modem, scanner etc.

2. High Reliability - If there are alternate sources of supply,

all files could be replicated on two or, machines. If one of
them is not available, due to hardware failure, the other
copies could be used.

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 3. Inter-process Communication - Network users, located
geographically apart, may converse in an interactive
session through the network. In order to permit this, the
network must provide almost error-free communications.

4. Flexible access - Files can be accessed from any

computer in the network. The project can be begun on
one computer and finished on another.

Other goals include Distribution of processing functions,

Centralized management, and allocation of network
resources, Compatibility of dissimilar equipment and
software, Good network performance, Scalability, Saving
money, Access to remote information, Person to person
communication etc.,

Transmission modes: -
Transmission Modes determine how data is transferred
between two devices in a computer network. There are 3
transmission modes in computer networks given below:

Simplex
Communication is uni-directional or one-way in Simplex Mode.
i.e. Only one device is allowed to transfer data and the other
device simply receives it. e.g. Radio Station (The station
transmits and the radio only receives).

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Half-Duplex Communication is possible both-ways but not
simultaneously. i.e. Both the devices/stations can transmit and
receive data but not at the same time. At an instant, only
communication in a single direction is allowed. e.g. Walkie-
Talkie.

Full-Duplex Bidirectional communication is possible

simultaneously. This can be possible in the following cases:

• Dedicated separate channels for transmission and

reception
• Capacity is divided between transmission and reception
(if single channel is used)

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e.g., Cellular/Telephone Network.

Network Topologies: -
The arrangement of nodes in a network generally follows
some pattern or organization. Each of these patterns have their
set of advantages/disadvantages. Such arrangements are
called collectively referred to as network topologies. Some of
the popular network topologies are as follows:

1- Mesh

Key points:

1. Robust & Easy fault-detection.

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 2. Installation is difficult & Expensive (fully-connected ~ lots
of cable required = nC2).

2- Star

Key points:

1. Easy & Cheap Installation (n cables required). Also device

needs to have only 1 port.
2. Single point-of-failure (central node).

3- Bus

Key points:

1. Easy & Cheap Installation (n + 1(main-line) cables

required).
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 2. Single line-of-failure (main-line).
3. Heavy Traffic causes collisions.

4- Ring

Key points:

1. Easy & Cheap Installation (1 line).

2. Difficulty in Troubleshooting.
3. Addition/Removal of nodes disturbs the topology.

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5- Hybrid

Key points:

1. Combination of all topologies (according to requirement).

2. This kind of topology is scalable and can serve a variety
of requirements
3. Due to intermixing of Ring, Bus, Star etc. topologies, it is
difficult to develop. (As each of the individual topologies
have their own rules and concepts ~ collision detection,
protocols for data transfer etc.).

TCP/IP VS OSI
TCP/IP and OSI are reference models which divides the various
responsibilities into a logical separation of layers. Practical
implementations in devices are based on these 2 popular models.
The difference amongst them lies in the no. of layersand their
respective responsibilities:

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Brief description of each model:

OSI Model It stands for Open Systems Interconnection. It

comprises of 7 layers with the following responsibilities
(starting from the lowest layer):

• Physical Layer: It is responsible for actual physical

transmission of data (through channels). It
receives/transmits signals and then converts it to physical
bits (0 & 1). It handles bit-synchronization (using
clock), bit-rate control (number of bits/sec),
physical topology and transmission mode (simplex, half-
duplex, full-duplex).

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• Data-link Layer: It is responsible for Node-to-
Node delivery of packets, Framing, Error control, Flow
control, Physical Addressing (MAC). Upon receiving
packets from network layer, it encapsulates it within a
frame with the hardware (MAC) address of the receiver
(obtained via ARP ~ Address Resolution Protocol).

• Network Layer: It is responsible for Logical

Addressing (IPv4/v6) and Routing. Various routing
algorithms are implemented at this layer, which
determines the IP for the next hop in routing.

• Transport Layer: It is responsible for End-to-end delivery

of packets. It also does Segmentation & Reassembly of
packets (done if packet-size exceeds MTU ~ Max.
Transmission Unit). It also does multiplexing/de-
multiplexing of packets according to the application
(using port no.). TCP/UDP (Connection vs. Connection-
less) protocol is implemented at this layer.

• Session Layer: It is responsible for Session

Management (Establishment, Maintenance,
Termination), Authentication, Security, Synchronization &
Restoration (check-points are established, such that upon
re-connection state is resumed from the last saved point)
and Dialog Control (synchronization when multiple
parties are interacting ~ conference).

• Presentation Layer: It is responsible for Translation (e.g.

ASCII to EBCDIC), Encryption/Decryption and
Compression.
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 • Application Layer: Implements application-specific
protocols (HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, SMTP etc.) They produce
the data, interacts with the user (input and display of
data). e.g. Browsers, Skype, Messaging Apps.

TCP/IP Model
It comprises of 4 layers with the following responsibilities
(starting from the lowest layer):

• Network Access Layer: It is a combination of the Physical

and Data-Link Layer, and is responsible for data
transmission and hardware addressing (MAC).

• Internet Layer: It is the counterpart of OSI's Network

layer, and is responsible for routing and logical
addressing. (IP, ICMP, ARP).

• Transport Layer: Maintains End-to-end connectivity. It is

a counterpart of the OSI's transport layer, and has the
same responsibilities (TCP vs. UDP).

• Application Layer: Application-specific protocols are

implemented here. (HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, SMTP etc.)

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APPLICATION LAYER-
The application layer is the topmost layer of the OSI Model. It
is the layer in which user applications run. Various protocols
run at this layer serving different requirements. Let's
understand the working using the below diagram:

When someone browses the internet, then the browser

generates Application Data with specific Header files.
Following this, the transport layer breaks the Application data
into various parts. To this TCP header is added to each part of
the Application Data. Next comes the network layer, which
adds the destination address in the network header. Then the
link is made between the computer and the ISP routers. All the
traffic are being sent to the routers. To send the data over the
data link layer to any other routers, the computer uses MAC
address where the routers MAC address is used to set the link.
This MAC address is known using the ARP or Address
Resolution Protocol. The switch reads the MAC header of the
destination router. The routers laying on the Internet
implements three layers namely network layer, DLL, and
physical layer. Now finally when the data reached the
webserver then using the TCP header, the webserver
combines all the data.
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We shall go over in brief over each of the protocols:

• HTTP: Stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. It is a

request-response protocol that is used to receive web-
pages on a client-server architecture. The client requests
for a resource (HTML page, javascript file, images or any
other file) to the server. The server returns a response
accordingly. It uses TCP as the underlying Transport
Layer protocol. HTTP supports the following methods
(modes) of requests:
0. GET - Retrieve information from the server (GET
Requests is intended only for data fetching and
should not have any side-effect).
1. HEAD - Retrieve only header (meta-information) and
no response-body.
2. POST - Post/Send data back to the server. e.g. User-
data, form-data.
3. DELETE - Delete the specified resource.
4. OPTIONS - Returns the list of HTTP methods
supported by the server.

Port no. for HTTP: 80 (8080 occasionally)

• HTTPS: It is a secured version of HTTP made possible by

encrypting the data transferred using TLS (Transport-
Layer-Security). Earlier, its predecessor ~ SSL was used.
The use of HTTPs over HTTP increases security by
preventing eavesdropping, tampering and man-in-the-
middle attacks. Port used in HTTPs is the same as that of
HTTP.
• TELNET: Stands for TELecommunications NETwork. It is
used in terminal emulation, which one can use to access a
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 remote system. It is used for file-access and for the initial
setup of switches.

One may draw its similarities to SSH (Secure-Shell), but

as the name suggests SSH is secure as it uses encryption
in addition to normal terminal emulation. Telnet is thus no
longer used thanks to SSH. Port no. for Telnet: 23
Port no. for SSH: 22

• FTP: Stands for File Transfer Protocol. It provides reliable

and efficient file-transfer between two remote machines.
Port no. for FTP Data: 20
Port no. for FTP Control: 21s

• SMTP: Stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. Uses

TCP under the hood. Using a process called “store and
forward,” SMTP moves your email on and across
networks. It works closely with something called the Mail
Transfer Agent (MTA) to send your communication to the
right computer and email inbox.
Port no. for SMTP: 25.

• DNS: Stands for Domain Name Service. DNS maps

human-addressable English domain names to IP
addresses. www.abc.com might translate to
198.105.232.4. We as humans are comfortable in dealing
with named addresses of websites (facebook.com,
google.com etc.). However, to uniquely identify the server
hosting the application, numeric IP addresses are required
by the machine. DNS servers contain this mapping of
named addresses to IP addresses. Whenever we us a
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 named address is used, client machine services a request
to the DNS server to fetch the IP address.
Port no. for DNS: 53

• DHCP: Stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol.

Used for dynamic addressing of devices in a network.
DHCP server keeps a pool of available IP addresses.
Whenever a new device joins the network, it provides it
with an IP from the available pool with an expiration time.
DHCP is required in place of static addresses because
current requirements involve managing devices which are
continuously leaving/joining a network. Thus, a pool of
available addresses is required which can be leased to
devices currently residing in the network.
Port no. for DHCP: 67, 68

TRANSPORT LAYER: -
Transport Layer is the layer which lies just above the Network
layer and is responsible for end-to-end connectivity. It is so-
called because it provides point-to-point rather than hop-to-
hop. The unit of transmission at the transport layer is called
segmentation. TCP (Transmission Control
Protocol), UDP (User Datagram Protocol)
and DCCP (Datagram Congestion Control Protocol) are some
of the protocols running in the transport layer. The transport
layer also provides the acknowledgement of the successful
data transmission and re-transmits the data if an error is
found.
At sender’s side: Transport layer receives the formatted data
from the upper layers, performs Segmentation and also
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implements Flow & Error control to ensure proper data
transmission. It also adds Source and Destination port number
in its header and forwards the segmented data to the Network
Layer.

Note: The sender need to know the port number associated

with the receiver’s application. Generally, this destination port
number is configured, either by default or manually. For
example, when a web application makes a request to a web
server, it typically uses port number 80, because this is the
default port assigned to web applications. Many applications
have default port assigned.

At receiver’s side: Transport Layer reads the port number

from its header and forwards the Data which it has received to
the respective application. It also performs sequencing and
reassembling of the segmented data.
Let's look at the diagrammatic representation of the working at
the transport layer:

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Here is a list of few important port numbers and there uses:

Transport Layer has the following responsibilities:

• Process to process delivery - While Data Link Layer

requires the MAC address (48 bits address contained
inside the Network Interface Card of every host machine)
of source-destination hosts to correctly deliver a frame
and Network layer requires the IP address for appropriate
routing of packets , in a similar way Transport Layer
requires a Port number to correctly deliver the segments
of data to the correct process amongst the multiple
processes running on a particular host. A port number is
a 16 bit address used to identify any client-server
program uniquely.

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• End-to-end Connection between hosts - The transport
layer is also responsible for creating the end-to-end
Connection between hosts for which it mainly uses TCP
and UDP. TCP is a secure, connection- orientated
protocol which uses a handshake protocol to establish a
robust connection between two end- hosts. TCP ensures
reliable delivery of messages and is used in various
applications. UDP, on the other hand, is a stateless and
unreliable protocol which ensures best-effort delivery. It
is suitable for the applications which have little concern
with flow or error control and requires to send the bulk of
data like video conferencing. It is often used in
multicasting protocols.

• Multiplexing and Demultiplexing - Multiplexing allows

simultaneous use of different applications over a network
which is running on a host. The transport layer provides
this mechanism which enables us to send packet streams
from various applications simultaneously over a network.
The transport layer accepts these packets from different
processes differentiated by their port numbers and
passes them to the network layer after adding proper
headers. Similarly, Demultiplexing is required at the
receiver side to obtain the data coming from various
processes. Transport receives the segments of data from
the network layer and delivers it to the appropriate
process running on the receiver's machine.

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• Congestion Control - Congestion is a situation in which
too many sources over a network attempt to send data
and the router buffers start overflowing due to which loss
of packets occur. As a result retransmission of packets
from the sources increases the congestion further. In this
situation, the Transport layer provides Congestion
Control in different ways. It uses open loop congestion
control to prevent the congestion and closed
loop congestion control to remove the congestion in a
network once it occurred. TCP provides AIMD- additive
increase multiplicative decrease, leaky bucket technique
for congestion control.

• Data integrity and Error correction - Transport layer

checks for errors in the messages coming from
application layer by using error detection codes,
computing checksums, it checks whether the received
data is not corrupted and uses the ACK and NACK
services to inform the sender if the data has arrived or not
and checks for the integrity of data.

• Flow control - The transport layer provides a flow

control mechanism between the adjacent layers of the
TCP/IP model. TCP also prevents data loss due to a fast
sender and slow receiver by imposing some flow control
techniques. It uses the method of sliding window protocol
which is accomplished by the receiver by sending a
window back to the sender informing the size of data it
can receive.

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DATA LINK LAYER: -
The data link layer is responsible for the node to node delivery
of the message. The main function of this layer is to make sure
data transfer is error-free from one node to another, over the
physical layer. When a packet arrives in a network, it is the
responsibility of DLL to transmit it to the Host using its MAC
address. The working is as follows:

Data Link Layer is divided into two sub layers :

1. Logical Link Control (LLC)

2. Media Access Control (MAC)

The packet received from the Network layer is further divided

into frames depending on the frame size of NIC(Network
Interface Card). DLL also encapsulates Sender and Receiver’s
MAC address in the header.

The Receiver’s MAC address is obtained by placing an

ARP(Address Resolution Protocol) request onto the wire
asking "Who has that IP address?" and the destination host
will reply with its MAC address.

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Now let's see how the DLL works in a small office:

The switch is used to connect multiple computers or laptops

which in turn is connected to a router. This is then connected
to the internet. All the 1-to-1 connection is done using DLL.
The setup is called LAN as they are all connected in Local Area
Network.

Now let's see how the DLL works in a small office:

Here the router is used to convey the connection in wireless

form. This is then connected to the internet. All the 1-to-1

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connection is again done using DLL. The setup is called WLAN
as they are all connected in Wireless Local Area Network. This
network might have a collision.

The functions of the Data Link layer are :

1. FRAMING Framing is a function of the data link layer. It

provides a way for a sender to transmit a set of bits that
are meaningful to the receiver. This can be accomplished
by attaching special bit patterns to the beginning and end
of the frame.
2. Physical addressing: After creating frames, Data link
layer adds physical addresses (MAC address) of sender
and/or receiver in the header of each frame.
3. ERROR-DETECTION: Data link layer provides the
mechanism of error control in which it detects and
retransmits damaged or lost frames.
4. Error and Flow Control: The data rate must be constant
on both sides else the data may get corrupted thus, flow
control coordinates that amount of data that can be sent
before receiving acknowledgement.
5. ACCESS CONTROL: When a single communication
channel is shared by multiple devices, MAC sub-layer of
data link layer helps to determine which device has
control over the channel at a given time.

Packet in Data Link layer is referred as Frame.

Data Link layer is handled by the NIC (Network Interface Card) and
device drivers of host machines. Switch & Bridge are Data Link Layer
devices.

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NETWORK LAYER: -
Network layer works for the transmission of data from one
host to the other located in different networks. It also takes
care of packet routing i.e. selection of the shortest path to
transmit the packet, from the number of routes available. The
sender & receiver's IP address are placed in the header by the
network layer.
The functions of the Network layer are:

1. Routing: The network layer protocols determine which

route is suitable from source to destination. This function
of network layer is known as routing.
2. Logical Addressing: In order to identify each device on
internetwork uniquely, network layer defines an
addressing scheme. The sender & receiver’s IP address
are placed in the header by network layer. Such an
address distinguishes each device uniquely and
universally.

Segment in Network layer is referred as Packet.

Network layer is implemented by networking devices such

as routers.

Let's look at some primary needs of the Network layer and

why it is so important to implement:

1. Internetworking: Made possible using Routers. This can

be across various types like 802.11, 3G, Ethernet etc.

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 2. Addressing: This involves processing of IP Addresses

3. Routing and Forwarding: A routing table is maintained

by the routers to decide how a packet must be
transmitted globally to its specific IP addresses. This
process does the global connection is called routing.
Forwarding is more of a local concept instead of global.

4. Scalability (Using hierarchy in Networks): This refers to

the hierarchical organization of packets.

5. Bandwidth Control: There must be a good utilization of

Bandwidth.

6. Fragmentation and Re-assembly: Division of bigger

packets into multiple small packets and rearranging them
to get the original packet is called Fragmentation and Re-
assembly respectively.

Before understanding the working at the Networking layer,

let's get familiar with a few technical devices that has a great
role to play in this system:

1. Switch - A switch is a multiport bridge with a buffer and

a design that can boost its efficiency(a large number of
ports imply less traffic) and performance.
The switch is adata link layer device. The switch can
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 perform error checking before forwarding data, that
makes it very efficient as it does not forward packets
that have errors and forward good packets selectively
to correct port only. In other words, switch divides
collision domain of hosts, but broadcast domain
remains the same.

2. Routers - A router is a device like a switch that routes

data packets based on their IP addresses. The router is
mainly a Network Layer device. Routers normally connect
LANs and WANs together and have a dynamically
updating routing table based on which they make
decisions on routing the data packets. Router divide
broadcast domains of hosts connected through it.

3. Brouter - It is also known as the bridging router is a

device which combines features of both bridge and
router. It can work either at the data link layer or a
network layer. Working as a router, it is capable of
routing packets across networks and working as a bridge,
it is capable of filtering local area network traffic.
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4. Repeater - A repeater operates at the physical layer. Its
job is to regenerate the signal over the same network
before the signal becomes too weak or corrupted so as to
extend the length to which the signal can be transmitted
over the same network. An important point to be noted
about repeaters is that they do not amplify the signal.
When the signal becomes weak, they copy the signal bit
by bit and regenerate it at the original strength. It is a 2-
port device.

5. Hub - A hub is basically a multiport repeater. A hub

connects multiple wires coming from different branches,
for example, the connector in star topology which
connects different stations. Hubs cannot filter data, so
data packets are sent to all connected devices. In other
words, the collision domain of all hosts connected
through Hub remains one. Also, they do not have the
intelligence to find out the best path for data packets
which leads to inefficiencies and wastage.

Types of Hub
o Active Hub:- These are the hubs which have their
own power supply and can clean, boost and relay
the signal along with the network. It serves both as
a repeater as well as wiring Centre. These are used
to extend the maximum distance between nodes.

o Passive Hub:- These are the hubs which collect

wiring from nodes and power supply from active
hub. These hubs relay signals onto the network
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 without cleaning and boosting them and can't be
used to extend the distance between nodes.

6. Bridge - A bridge operates at data link layer. A bridge is a

repeater, with add on the functionality of filtering content
by reading the MAC addresses of source and destination.
It is also used for interconnecting two LANs working on
the same protocol. It has a single input and single output
port, thus making it a 2 port device.

Types of Bridges

o Transparent Bridges:- These are the bridge in which

the stations are completely unaware of the bridge's
existence i.e. whether or not a bridge is added or
deleted from the network, reconfiguration of the
stations is unnecessary. These bridges make use of
two processes i.e. bridge forwarding and bridge
learning.

o Source Routing Bridges:- In these bridges, routing

operation is performed by source station and the
frame specifies which route to follow. The hot can
discover frame by sending a special frame called
discovery frame, which spreads through the entire
network using all possible paths to destination.

7. Gateway - A gateway, as the name suggests, is a

passage to connect two networks together that may work
upon different networking models. They basically works
as the messenger agents that take data from one system,
interpret it, and transfer it to another system. Gateways

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 are also called protocol converters and can operate at any
network layer. Gateways are generally more complex
than switch or router.

Functions of Network Layer:

1) It helps in the delivery of data in the form of packets.

2) It helps in the delivery of packets from source host to
the destination host.
3) The network layer is basically used when we want to
send data over a different network.
4) In this logical addressing is used ie. when data is to be
sent in the same network we need an only physical
address but if we wish to send data outside network we
need a logical address.
5) It helps in routing ie. routers and switches are
connected at this layer to route the packets to its final
destination.

IPv4 and IPv6: -

These are internet protocol version 4 and internet protocol
version 6, IP version 6 is the new version of Internet Protocol,
which is way better than IP version 4 in terms of complexity
and efficiency.

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TCP & UDP (DIFFERENCE) : -
TCP is a connection-oriented, stateful protocol which ensures
security, reliability in data transfer. It is established as a 3-way
handshake process given below:

1. SYN: In the first step, sender sends a segment with SYN

message (containing Synchronize Sequence Number)
expressing it's wish to establish a connection. The
Sequence No. determines what segment it wants to start
the communication with.

2. SYN + ACK: Receiver responds by replying with a segment

with SYN-
ACK bits set. Acknowledgement(ACK) signifies the response
of segment it received and SYN signifies with what sequence
number it is likely to start the segments with.

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 3. ACK: In the final part, sender acknowledges the
response and they both establish a reliable connection
with which actual data transfer can occur.

UDP on the other hand is a connection-less protocol, which

doesn't care about reliability. Thus, if some packets get lost,
they are skipped. It is thus used in applications where it
doesn't matter if we lose out some data. e.g. Video
Streaming/Call , VoIP (Voice-over-IP), Multiplayer Games.
UDP's main focus is transmission speed (thus re-transmissions
are not done in this protocol).
More differences between TCP and UDP are given below:

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