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Network Data Handling Basics

This document discusses IP encapsulation, fragmentation, and reassembly. It explains that encapsulation involves placing an entire IP datagram within the data area of a frame when transmitting over a network. Fragmentation is used by routers to break up large datagrams that exceed the MTU into smaller fragments. The destination host is responsible for reassembling the original datagram from any fragments.

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178 views8 pages

Network Data Handling Basics

This document discusses IP encapsulation, fragmentation, and reassembly. It explains that encapsulation involves placing an entire IP datagram within the data area of a frame when transmitting over a network. Fragmentation is used by routers to break up large datagrams that exceed the MTU into smaller fragments. The destination host is responsible for reassembling the original datagram from any fragments.

Uploaded by

Ceh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Chapter 21

IP Encapsulation,
Fragmentation, and
Reassembly

Refers

Encapsulation

to embedding of data
When an IP datagram is encapsulated in a frame, the
entire datagram is placed in the data area of a frame (fig
21.1)
network hardware does not care what is inside the frame
data area
destination address in the frame is the physical address of
the next hop to which the datagram should be sent
whenever the destination computer is on a remote
network.
datagram is encapsulated in a frame appropriate to the
network being traversed
When the datagram crosses a router, the old frame header
is discarded and a new frame header a prepended. (fig
21.2)

Maximum Transmission Unit


(MTU)
a

limitation placed by the network hardware


technology on the size of a datagram (fig
21.3)
eg. Ethernets MTU is 1500 bytes

Fragmentation
used

by an IP router to solve the problem of


different MTUs of networks
When a router sees that a datagram is larger than
the MTU of the network over which it must be
sent, the router divides the datagram in smaller
pieces called fragments, and sends each fragment
independently (fig 21.4)
A bit in the FLAGS field in the IP header
indicates whether the datagram is a fragment or a
complete datagram.
FRAGMENT OFFSET field in the IP header of a
fragment specifies where in the original datagram
the fragment belongs.

Reassembly
process

of recreating the original datagram from


fragments
Fragments are forwarded to the ultimate
destination host, which reassembles them.
MORE FRAMENTS bit in the FLAGS field tells
the final host to know whether all fragments have
arrived
Intermediate routers need not reassemble
fragments
fragments may traverse different paths, making
reassembly in the intermediate routers impossible

Identifying the Datagram a


Fragment Belongs
each

datagram is assigned a unique number by the


source computer in the IDENTIFICATION field
of IP header
A copy of this number is copied into each fragment
destination computer can reassemble the fragments
to the proper datagrams by examining the source
IP address, IDENTIFCATION field, and
FRAGMENT OFFSET field.

Fragment Loss
if

a fragment is lost, the destination computer


discards the remaining fragments corresponding to
the same datagram
Sender will retransmit the entire datagram since it
does not know how the datagram was fragmented
when the datagram is retransmitted, it may
traverse a different routing path and be fragmented
differently.

Fragmenting a Fragment
an

intermediate router with smaller MTUs


may fragment an existing fragment by
modifying the FRAGMENT OFFSET field
The ultimate destination computer does not
know whether an incoming fragment had be
fragmented into subfragments.

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