Lecture 6

Communication Networks
 ’s
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T ctur
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a e Lecture Outline
le
1. Definition and benefits of networks
2. Network design issues:
• Media
• Topology
• Protocol
• Addressing
• Naming
3. Clarifying example:
Data transfer between a browser and a webserver
Networking

‘ Networks is a set of technologies –

including hardware, software and
media – that can be used to

‘connect computers together,

enabling them to communicate,
exchange information and share

’’
resources in real time
[Peter Norton]
Benefits
Resource sharing (cost savings)
Personal communication
Data backups
Reliability (reduced errors/inconsistencies)
Greater performance (distributed computing)
Personalized/ contextualized services
 Network
Design Issues
Media; Topology; Protocol;
Addressing; Naming;
Example networking application.
Transmission media
Wired (or Guided) Media
1) Copper pair:
• Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
• Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)

2) Coaxial Cable
3) Optical Fiber
Transmission media
Wireless (or Unguided) Media
1. Infrared
2. Radio
3. Microwave
4. Satellite
Network Topology
Network topology is the study of the physical
(real) and logical (virtual) interconnections
between nodes [Wikipedia]

Topology types:
Point to Point; Bus; Star; Ring; Mesh and Hybrid
Network Topology (cont)

Point to Point Bus

Star
Fully
Tree Connected
Partial
Mesh
Ring
Protocol

‘‘The rules governing the syntax, semantics,

and synchronization of communication.
[Wikipedia] ’
‘‘
Protocol defines 1) format and 2) order of
messages sent and received among network
entities and 3) action(s) taken on ’
’
transmission and receipt of message
[Kurose and Ross]
Protocol
In this course, we will focus on protocols for data traffic only.
TCP/IP is the most dominant suite of protocols and
is used on the Internet.
TCP/IP suite of protocols is often organized in a
hierarchy of layers (OSI layers; to be covered next
week)
Some other protocol suites (no where as popular)
include: NetBIOS/ NetBEUI and IPX/ SPX.
Addressing
Each station must be addressable
Two kinds of addresses:
1) Physical addressing (MAC addresses)
2) Logical addressing (IP addresses)
The communicating applications (source/ destination
applications) must also be identifiable
Identified through TCP ports
A socket (IP address + TCP port) identifies both
an application and the machine it’s on.
Physical Addressing: MAC
MAC Address: 48 bits
(Ethernet)
Flat addressing
Usually non-configurable
Logical Addressing: IP
IP Version 4; Address: 32 bits 4,294,967,296
possible addresses = 2
32

IP Version 6; Address: 128 bits

Hierarchical addressing
2 parts: a network part and a host part.
Machines in a LAN have the same
network part; they differ in host parts
How is the network part of an IP address
defined Subnet mask
IP (Internet Protocol)
IP Address
192.168.15.2 (decimal)
11000000   10101000  
00001111   00000010 (binary)
Subnet Mask:
255.255.255.0 (decimal)
11111111   11111111  
11111111   00000000 (binary)

Network partHost part

Applications Identification
How to identify source/ destination
application communicating
The source/ destination applications are
identified through TCP ports
Common TCP Ports:
HTTP: 80; SMTP:25; DNS: 53
Naming
Machine addresses are difficult to memorize
Solution: Provide recognizable names to
numerically addressed Internet resources.

Examples:
google.com; stanford.edu; niit.edu.pk
…, Third level domain, Second level domain; Top level domain (TLD);

List of TLDs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains
Naming
How to manage address to name mapping?
1) A hosts file on each machine
Unix/ Linux: /etc/hosts file
Windows: %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc
2) A decentralized domain name server system
Scalable solution
The name to IP mapping is available at a DNS server
DNS servers are of two types
a) DNS Authoritative server (each domain has at least two
authoritative servers)
b) DNS Caching server (each LAN can have one)
Example application

To clarify concepts, let us assume

a greatly simplified model of the
LAN of NUST-SEECSW
W
P
Network’s domain name:
W
C

niit.edu.pk
Let’s assume that a student (in the
niit.edu.pk LAN) wishes to access NUST-
SEECS website hosted at www.niit.edu.pk
Example
Addressapplication
Bar
http://www.niit.edu.pk

This is an example of a browser (Internet Explorer)

Other browsers include Firefox, Opera.
Browser acts as:
1 a client of webserver
2 fetches and displays user requested documents
Example application (contd.)

The HTTP request sent

by the student PC (the machine pc.niit.edu.pk)
to the webserver (the machine www.niit.edu.pk)
would be something like “GET / HTML/1.1”

Packet so far: GET / HTML/1.1

Outstanding issues:
1 How to send this request to Webserver?

2 Which application at webserver must process this packet?

 Example application (contd.)

1 But how to send this request to Webserver?

To communicate with www.niit.edu.pk

(hostname), its IP address must be known

How to resolve hostnames to IP addresses

Domain Name Service (DNS)

Example application (contd.)

D
N
S

W
W
W
DNS Client/Server Exchange
D
N
S

Request
W
W
W

Tell me the IP address

of www.niit.edu.pk?
DNS Client/Server Exchange
D
N
Reply S

W
W
W

The IP address of
www.niit.edu.pk is
202.125.157.196
Example application (contd.)

2 Which application at webserver must process

this packet?
In TCP/IP, each well-known application is
identified using ports.
The port of DNS is 53; HTTP is 80; SMTP is 25.
In our considered example, HTTP server
application (port 80) would process the packet.
Source Port | Destination Port | GET / HTML/1.1
Packet so far: > 1024 | 80 |
 Example application (contd.)

The destination IP address (found through DNS)

is 202.125.157.196.
Let’s assume the source IP address is
202.125.157.150
(network must be same; to be explained later)
Packet so far:
Source IP | Destination IP | Source Port | Destination Port | GET / HTML/1.1
202.125.157.150 | 202.125.157.196 | > 1024 | 80 |

Logical addressing: network and host parts

*Assuming /24 subnet mask (to be explained later)
Example application (contd.)

3 How to send the created packet to Webserver?

To communicate with any host, its physical address
(called MAC address) must be known.

How to resolve IP addresses to MAC addresses

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
ARP Client/Server Exchange
D
N
S

Request
W
W
W

Any one knows the

MAC (physical) address
of 202.125.157.196 ?
ARP Client/Server Exchange
D
N
S

W
Reply W
W

The MAC address of

202.125.157.196 is
12:34:aa:bb:cc:dd
 Example application (contd.)

Now that the physical (MAC) addresses are

known, communication can take place
The destination MAC address is 12:34:aa:bb:cc:dd
The source MAC address (let’s assume) is
23:34:aa:bb:cc:dd
IP packet containing the data
Source IP | Destination IP | Source Port | Destination Port | GET / HTML/1.1
202.125.157.150 | 202.125.157.196 | > 1024 | 80 |

MAC frame
Source MAC address | Destination MAC address Payload FCS
Encapsulation
This topic is to be studied in more depth next lecture

Application data GET / HTML/1.1

Source Port | Destination Port Payload

TCP Segment > 1024 | 80

IP Packet Source IP | Destination IP Payload

MAC Frame 202.125.157.150 | 202.125.157.196

Source MAC address | Destination MAC address Payload FCS

23:34:aa:bb:cc:dd | 12:34:aa:bb:cc:dd
HTTP Client/Server Exchange
D
N
S

Request
W
W
W

Send me the index.html page

for the host www.niit.edu.pk
using HTTP version 1.1
HTTP Client/Server Exchange
D
N
S

W
Reply W
W

The index.html page in the wwwroot directory

configured for the www.niit.edu.pk webserver
is sent back to the browser for display
 re’s
ct u r y
Le m m a
Su

a) We’ve discussed basic types of 1) network

media; 2) network topologies; 3) addressing
schemes; 4) name resolution techniques.

b) We’ve studied an example of data transfer

between a browser and a webserver.
 e x t
N re
c tu
Le
Internetworking
Interconnecting multiple networks
Hierarchical addressing;
Routing;
Encapsulation/ layered communication
References (today’s and next lecture):
“Networking basics” and “Data Communications”
 ??
? Questions/
Confusions?
Credits/ Acknowledgement can be found
at the course website:
http://tinyurl.com/5hb8pp