Introduction

Chapter 1
Prepared by Petros B.

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew

Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson
Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Uses of Computer Networks

• Business Applications
• Home Applications
• Mobile Users
• Social Issues

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Business Applications Examples
• Resource Sharing
• Common Printer
• Backup Systems,
• VPN (Virtual Private Networks)
• Ending the limitation of geographic
disperse working environments.
• Client - Server
 Business Applications (1)
A network with two clients and one server

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Business Application
• Client-Server Model
• Data Sharing
• Web Application
• Personal Information Sharing
• Email
• VoIP
• Video
• Tele-Conferencing
• Desktop Sharing
• Telemedicine
• e-commerce
• Shopping from home
 Business Applications (2)
The client-server model involves requests
and replies

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Home Applications (1)

In a peer-to-peer system there are no fixed

clients and servers.
Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Home Applications
• Peer-to-Peer Applications
• BitTorrent
• Sharing Music and Videos (Napster)
• Email, etc.
• Applications that involve interaction
between
• a person and a remote database
• Person-to-person communication
 Home Applications
• Person – to – Person Communication
• Audi + Video (Smell may take a while!)
• Instant Messaging (Twitter)
• Online Audio (Radio Channels)
• Online Video (YouTube)
• Telelearning
• Social Networking:
• Facebook
• Wiki – Wikipedia
• Home Shopping
• Finances
• Online auctions (eBay)
 Home Applications (2)
Some forms of e-commerce

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Home Applications
• Entertainment:
• MP3 and DVD-quality movies
• TV shows – IPTV (IP TeleVision)
• Interactive Live TV
• Game Playing
• Multiperson real-time simulation games.
• Ubiquitous Computing
• Smart Home Monitoring
• RDIF (Radio Frequency Identification)
• Replacing Bar Codes with a smart devices that my
turn the real world into the Internet of things.
 Mobile Users
• Mobile computers (handheld and laptops)
• Fastest growing segments in computer history.
• Individuals are able to use their mobile devices to:
• Read and send email,
• Tweet,
• Watch Movies,
• Download Music,
• Play Games,
• Serf the Web
• Internet connectivity allows for those applications to
be easily built
• Wireless Networks (Cars, Boats, and Airplanes can not have
wired Connections)
• Cellular Networks
• Wireless hotspots (802.11 Standard).
• Wireless Networking vs. Mobile Wireless Networks

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Mobile Users
Combinations of wireless networks and
mobile computing

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Mobile Users
• Smart Phones – Integration of Internet with Telephony
• Driving the wireless-mobile applications
• 3G & 4G cellular networks provides fast data services
• GPS is a standard feature
• m-commerce (mobile commerce)
• NFC (Near Field Communication) smart phones act as an DFID
smartcard and interact with nearby reader for payment.
• Sensor Networks
• Notes that Sense/gather data about state of the physical world.
• It is revolutionizing science
• Wearable Computers
• Implantable Devices
• Pacemakers, Insulin pumps, …
• Controllable wirelessly

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Network Hardware (1)

• Personal area networks

• Local area networks
• Metropolitan area networks
• Wide area networks
• The internet

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Network Software

• Protocol hierarchies
• Design issues for the layers
• Connection-oriented versus connectionless
service
• Service primitives
• Relationship of services to protocols

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Protocol Hierarchies (1)

Layers, protocols, and interfaces.

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Definitions
• Protocol – is an agreement between the communicating
parties.
• Peers – the entities comprising corresponding layers on
different machines.
• Peers use the protocol to communicated with each other.
• No data is directly transferred from layer n on one
machine to layer n on another machine.
• Each Layer passed data and control information to the layer
immediately below it until the lowest layer is reached.
• Below layer 1 is the physical medium through which actual
communication occurs.
• Virtual communication is shown by dotted lines and physical
communication by solid lines the previous figure.
 Definitions
• Interface
• It defines which primitive operations and services the lower
layer makes available to the upper one.
• Network Architecture:
• A set of layers and protocols.
• The specification of the network architecture must
contain enough information to allow an
implementation of the program or the hardware for
each layer so that it will obey appropriately the
protocol.
• Protocol Stack:
• The list of protocols used by a certain system – one protocol
per layer.
 Protocol Hierarchies (2)

The philosopher-translator-secretary
architecture
Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Protocol Hierarchies (3)

Example information flow supporting virtual

communication in layer 5.
Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Protocol Hierarchies (3)
• The peer process abstraction is crucial to all network
design.
• Level 4 protocol conceptually think of their communication
as being “horizontal”:
• SendToOtherSide
• GetFromOtherSide
 Design Issues
• Reliability:
• Network must operate correctly although it is made up of a
collection of components that are themselves unreliable.
• Error Detection:
• It typically uses codes to locate the erroneously transmitted
bit(s) and request re-transmission.
• Error Correction
• Correct messages is recovered from the possibly incorrect
bit(s) that were originally received.
• Routing:
• Finding a working path through a network.
• Protocol Layering:
• Networks grow larger over time and new designs emerge that
need to connected to the existing networks.
 Design Issues (cont.)
• Addressing and Naming:
• Every layer needs a mechanism for identifying the senders and
receivers that are involved in a particular message.
• Internetworking:
• Different network technologies often have different limitations:
• Not all communication channels preserve the order of messages send on them.
• Differences in the maximum size of a message that the networks can transmit.
• Scalable:
• Designs that continue to work well when the network gets large.
• Resource Allocation
• Networks work with their resources to provide services to various
hosts. If they are not aware of limitations of the networks resources
than the network is providing proper resource allocation.
• Flow Control
• Feedback from the receiver to the sender is often used to alleviate
the problem of the sender swamping the slow receiver with data.
 Design Issues (cont.)
• Congestion:
• The problem may occur when the network is oversubscribed
because to many computers want to send too much traffic
and the network will not be able to deliver them all.
• Overloading problem of the network.
• One strategy is for each computer to reduce its demand.
• Quality of Service
• Additional Resources (other then Bandwidth),
• Real-time delivery (for applications that require high
throughput),
• Live Video,
• Network Security
• How good is the network against different kinds of threats
• Eavesdropping,
• Confidentiality,
• Authentication,
• Integrity, etc.
 Connection-Oriented Versus
Connectionless Service
• Layers can offer two different types of
service to the layers above them:
• Connection-oriented, and
• Connectionless
 Connection-Oriented Service
• Modeled after telephone system:
• Establishes a connection
• Acknowledged
 Acknowledgment service introduces overhead and
delays.
• Reliable
 Connectionless Service
• Modeled after a postal system:
• Connection establishment is not necessary
• Unacknowledged
• Unreliable
• Used for real-world application
 Live streaming
 Video and Audio
The Relationship of Services to Protocols
• A service is a set of primitives (operations) that a
layer provides to the layer above it.
• The service defines what operations the layer is prepared to
perform on behalf of its users, but it does not say anything at
all about how these operation are implemented.
• A protocol is a set of rules governing the format and
meaning of the packets, or messages that are
exchanged by the peer entities within a layer.
• Entities use protocols to implement their service definitions.
• They are free to change their protocols at will, provided they
do not change the service visible to their users.
• In this way the service and the protocol are completely
decoupled.
The Relationship of Services to Protocols

The relationship between a service and a

protocol.
Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
The Relationship of Services to Protocols
• Key Concept:
• Services relate to interfaces between layers
• Protocols relate to the packets send between peer entities on
different machines.

• Programming Languages Analogy:

• Service is like an abstract data type or an object in an object-
oriented language.
• It defines operations that can be performed on an object bud does not
specify how these operations are implemented.
• Protocol relates to the implementation of the service and as
such is not visible to the user of the service.
 Reference Models

• OSI reference model

• TCP/IP reference model
• Model used for this course
• Comparison of OSI and TCP/IP
• Critique of OSI model and protocols
• Critique of TCP/IP model

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 The OSI Reference Model

Principles for the seven layers

• Layers created for different abstractions
• Each layer performs well-defined function
• Function of layer chosen with definition of
international standard protocols in mind
• Minimize information flow across interfaces
between boundaries
• Number of layers optimum

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 The OSI Reference Model

The OSI reference model

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 OSI Reference Model Layers
• Physical layer
• Data link layer
• Network layer
• Transport layer
• Session layer
• Presentation layer
• Application layer

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Physical Layer
• Is concerned with transmitting raw bits over a communication
channel.
• Design Issues:
• Ensuring that when one side sends a 1 – bit of information it is
received as 1-bit (not as 0-bit or 2-or more- bits).
• What type of signal should be used to represent “1” and “0”?
• How many nano seconds a bit lasts?
• Whether transmission can occur simultaneously in both direction?
• How initial connection is being established?
• How it is torn down when both sides are finished?
• How many pins the network connector has?
• What each pin is used for? Etc.

• Deals with mechanical, electrical, timing interfaces, and the

physical transmission medium.

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew

Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson
Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Data Link Layer
• Main task of the data link layer is to transform a raw
transmission facility into a line that appears free of undetected
transmission errors.
• It does this by:
• Break up the input data into data frames.
• Sequential transmission of each frame.
• The receiver confirms correct receipt of each frame by sending back
an acknowledgment frame.
• How to keep a fast transmitter from drowning a slow receiver in
data.
• Some traffic mechanism may be needed to let the transmitter know
when the receiver can accept more data.
• Broadcast networks have an additional issue in the data link layer:
• How to control access to the shared channel?
• A special sublayer of the data link layer, called “Medium Access Control” sublayer,
deals with this problem
 Network Layer
• This layer controls the operation of the subnet.
• Key design issue is determining how packets are routed from source to
destination.
• Static tables are wired into the network and are rarely changed, or
• They are changed more often dynamically to avoid failed components.
• They can be determined at the start of each conversation (e.g., login session), or
• They can be highly dynamic and for each packed the new routing can be established depending
on the load.
• Congestion handling: If two many packets are present in the subnet at
the same time, they will get in each other’s way forming bottlenecks.
• Quality of Service:
• Delay,
• Transit time,
• Jitter, Etc.
are also a network layer issues.
• It is up to the network layer to overcome all the problems that occur in
heterogeneous networks so that they may be interconnected.
• In broadcast networks the routing problem is simple so the network
layer is often thin or even nonexistent.
 Transport Layer
• The main function of Transport Layer is to:
• Accept data from above it,
• Split it up into smaller units if needed be,
• Pass these to the network layer,
• Ensure that the pieces all arrive correctly at the other end,
• All this must be done efficiently and in a way that isolated the upper layers
from the inevitable changes in the hardware technology over the course of
time.
• In addition, it is charged for determining what type of service to provide
to the session layer, and ultimately, to the user of the network.
• Example:
1. Error-free point-to-point channel that delivers messages or bytes in the
order in which they were send.
2. Transporting of isolated messages with no guarantees about the order of
delivery,
3. Broadcasting of messages to multiple destination.
• Transport Layer is a true end-to-end layer; it carries data all the way
form the source to the destination.
 Session Layer
• The session layer allows users on different machines to establish
sessions between them.
• Services:
• Dialog control - Keeping track the whose turn is it to transmit,
• Token management – Preventing tow parties from attempting the same
critical operation simultaneously, and
• Synchronization – Check pointing long transmissions to allow them to pick
up form where they left off in the event of a crash and subsequent recovery.
 Presentation Layer
• This layer is concerned with the presentation of the message; that is
syntax and semantics of the information transmitted.
• It deals with different internal data representations on different
machines:
• Abstract data structures,
• Standard encoding to be used,
 Application Layer
• This layer commonly contains a variety of protocols that are needed by
the users.
• For example:
• HTTP – Hyper Text Transfer Protocol,
• FTP - File Transfer Protocol
• POP/SMTP – E-mail Protocol,
• RSS – Network News, etc.
 The TCP/IP Reference Model Layers

• Link layer
• Internet layer
• Transport layer
• Application layer

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 The TCP/IP Reference Model
• Grandparent of all wide area computer networks ARPANET
• It’s successor Internet
• ARPNET research network sponsored by the DoD.
• Used initially leased telephone lines.
• When satellite and radio networks were included the new
reference architecture was needed.
• Hence the ability to connect to multiple networks in a seamless
way was one of the major design goals.
• This architecture latter became known as the TCP/IP Reference
Model.
• Design criteria:
• Network be able to survive loss of subnet hardware without existing
conversations being broken off.
• Applications with divergent requirements were supported ranging
from file transfer to real-time speech transmission.
 The TCP/IP Reference Model (1)

The TCP/IP reference model

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Link Layer
• Packet switched network
• Connectionless layer that runs across different
networks.
• The lowest layer, the link layer, describes what
links such as serial lines and classic Ethernet
must do to meet the needs of this
connectionless internet layer.
• It is not actual layer in the classical sense of the
term rather is an interface between hosts and
transmission links.
 Internet Layer
• The Internet Layer holds this architecture together.
• Its job is to permit hosts to inject packets into any
network and have them travel independently to the
destination (potentially on a different network).
• The packets may arrive in a completely random order
from the original and the higher layer must rearrange
them – if in-order of delivery is desired.

• The internet layer define san official packet format

and protocol called IP (Internet Protocol).
• Packet routing is a major issue and IP has not proven
effective at avoiding congestion.
 Transport Layer
• Transport Layer is designed to allow peer entities on the source
and destination hosts to carry on a conversation, similarly to the
OSI transport layer.
• Two end-to-end transport protocols:
• TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) – reliable connection-oriented
protocol that allows a byte stream originating on one machine to be
delivered without error on any other machine in the internet.
• UDP (User Datagram Protocol) – is unreliable connectionless
protocol.
 Transport Layer
• TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) – reliable connection-oriented
protocol that allows a byte stream originating on one machine to be
delivered without error on any other machine in the internet.
• It segments the incoming byte stream into discrete messages
• Passes each one on to the internet layer.
• At the receiver the TCP process reassembles the received messages.
• Flow control is also managed by TCP to ensure that a fast sender cannot
swamp a slow receiver.
• UDP (User Datagram Protocol) – is unreliable connectionless
protocol.
• For applications that do not want TCP’s sequencing or flow control and
they want to provide one of their own.
• Widely used for one-shot, client-server-type request-reply queries and
application in which prompt deliver is more important than accurate
delivery.
• Speech
• Video
 The TCP/IP Reference Model (2)

The TCP/IP reference model with some

protocols
 Application Layer
• Applications must include any session or presentation functions
that they require.
• Experience with the OSI model has proven this view to be
correct: these layers are of little use to most applications.
• Application Layer contains all the higher-level protocols.
• TELNET - Virtual Terminal
• FTP – File Transfer Protocol
• SMTP – electronic mail
• Many other protocols have been added (see figure in the
previous slide):
• DSN – Domain Name System
• HTTP – Hyper Text Transfer Protocol
• RTP – Real-time Transfer Protocol
 The Model Used in this Course

The reference model used in this Course.

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 The Model Used in this Book
• Using the 5 layers:
• Physical
• Link
• Network
• Transport, and
• Application
• Value of OSI model is retained for understanding
network architecture.
 Comparison of the OSI and
TCP/IP Reference Models

Concepts central to OSI model

• Services
• Interfaces
• Protocols

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 The Properties
• TCP/IP model did not originally distinguish between:
• Services

• Interfaces, and

• Protocols

• The model was retrofitted after the fact to make it more OSI-

like.

• However, protocols in the OSI model are better hidden than in

the TCP/IP model and can be replaced relatively easily as the

technology changes.
 The Properties
• The OSI reference model was devised before the corresponding
protocols were invented.
• This ordering meant that the model was not biased toward one
particular set of protocols: a fact that made it quite general.
• The downside of this ordering was that the designers did not have
much experience with the subject and did not have a good idea of
which functionality to put in which layer.
• With TCP/IP the reverse was true: The protocols came first, and
the model was really just a description of the existing protocols.
• There was no problem with protocols fitting the model.
• The trouble was that the model did not fit any other protocol stacks:
It was not especially useful for describing other non-TCP/IP
networks.
Critique of the OSI Model and Protocols

• Bad timing.
• Bad technology.
• Bad implementations.
• Bad politics.

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 OSI Model Bad Timing

The apocalypse of the two elephants.

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 OSI Model Bad Technology
• Both OSI Model and the protocols are flawed.
• The choice of several layers was more
political then technical.
• Two of the layers (Session and Presentation) are nearly
empty.
• Two other layers (Datalink and Network) are overfull.
• Model and its associated service definitions
and protocols is extraordinary complex.
• Some functions (addressing, flow control,
and error control) reappear again and again
in each layer.
 OSI Model Bad Implementation
• Given the enormous complexity of the OSI Model, initial
implementations were:
• Huge,
• Unwieldy, and
• Slow

• One of the first TCP/IP, part of the Berkley Unix was

quite good and free.
 OSI Model Bad Politics
• TCP/IP was considered (correctly) to be born in the
US by academic institutions.
• OSI was widely thought to be creature of European
telecommunication ministries, the European
Community, and later the U.S. Government.
 Critique of the TCP/IP Model
• Does not distinguish clearly the concepts of services, interfaces,
and protocols.
• Good Software Engineering practice requires differentiating
between the specification and the implementation.
• The link layer is really not a layer at all: It is an interface between
the network and data link layers. The distinction between in interface
and a layer is crucial.
• TCP/IP model does not distinguish between the physical and data link
layers.
• Physical layer has to do with the transmission characteristics of the
medium used (copper wire, fiber optics, wireless communication,
etc.).
• Data link layer job is to delimit the start and end of frames and get
them from one side to the other with the desired degree of reliability.
• IP and TCP protocols were carefully thought out and well
implemented, however, the other protocols were ad-hoc.
• Example - TELNET designed for a ten-character-per second
mechanical Teletype terminal and it does not know anything about
graphical user interfaces and mice.
 Example Networks

• Internet
• ARPANET
• NSFNET
• Third-generation mobile phone networks
• Wireless LANs: 802.11
• RFID and sensor networks

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 RFID and Sensor Networks (1)

RFID used to network everyday objects.

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 RFID and Sensor Networks (2)

Multihop topology of a sensor network

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 Network Standardization

• Who’s Who in telecommunications

• Who’s Who in international standards
• Who’s Who in internet standards

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 End
Chapter 1

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011