BC0048 Computer Networks

Question.1- Explain
(i) Merits and de-merits of Layered Architecture
(ii) Connection-Oriented VS Connectionless Services

Answer 1 - (i) Merits and de-merits of Layered Architecture
Different machines may be plugged in at different layers.
Increase the compatibility of different machines.
Common lower levels may be shared by different higher levels.
Functions may be removed from software to hardware and micro-
codes.
The relation between different control functions can be better
understood.

De-merits of layered architecture:-

Total overhead is higher.
Two communicating machines may have to use certain functions
which they could do without layers.
As technology changes, the functions may not be in the most cost-
effective layer.
(ii)Connection-Oriented and Connectionless Services
Layers can offer two types of services to the layers above them. They are
Connection oriented and Connection less. Connection oriented service is
modeled after telephone system. To use this service, the service user first
establishes a connection, uses the connection and then releases the
connection. In most of the cases the order is preserved so that bits arrive at
receiver in the same order as they were sent by the transmitter. In some
cases when a connection is established the source, the subnet, and the
receiver conduct negotiation of certain parameters like the maximum size
of the message, quality of service (QoS) required and other issues.
We have another type of service called Connection less service. This is
modeled after the postal system. Here each message carries the full
destination address, and each one is routed through the system
independent of each others. Here messages may not arrive at the receiver
in the same order as they were sent, as it depends on the route each
message takes on the way to the destination. Six different types of services
are summarized.
Service Example
Reliable message stream Sequence of pages

Connection-
Oriented

Connection-
Less


Comparisons of different services

Question.2 Define LAN, WAN and Differentiate them.

Answer 2 Local Area Networks (LAN)
Local Area Networks are generally called LANs. They are privately
owned networks within a single building or campus of up to few kilometers
in size. Most of LANs use Bus or ring topology for connection. They are
used to connect personal computers and workstations in company offices
and factories to share resources and exchange information. Traditional
LANs run at speeds of 10Mbps to 100Mbps, have low delay (microseconds
and nanoseconds) and make very few errors. Newer LANs operate at
10Gbps. Various topologies are possible for broadcast LANs.

LANs using (a) Bus topology (b) Ring topology
Wide Area Network (WAN)

WAN system
A wide area network is referred as WAN. WAN spans a large
geographical area often a continent or country. WAN contains a collection
Reliable byte stream Remote login
Unreliable connection Digitized voice
Unreliable datagram Electronic junk mail
Acknowledged datagram Registered mail
Request-reply Database query
of machines, traditionally called as hosts. These hosts can be on LANs and
are connected by a subnet or also called communication subnet. The hosts
are owned by customers or are personal computers. The communication
subnets are owned by a telephone company or internet service provider.
The subnet carries the messages from hosts to hosts, just as telephone
system carries words from speaker to listener. Each host is connected to a
LAN on which a router is present. Sometimes a host may be connected
directly to a router. The collection of communication lines and routers is
called a communication subnet.

In most WANs, the network contains many transmission lines each
connecting a pair of routers. A packet is sent from one router to another via
one or more intermediate routers. The packet is received at each
intermediate router in its entirety. That is store the packet in full until the
required output line is free, and then forwards it. A subnet that works
according to this principle is called store and forward or packet switched
subnet. Not all WANs are packet switched. A second possibility for a WAN is
a satellite system. Satellite networks are inherently broadcast networks.

Question.3 Explain the TCP/IP Reference Model with diagram.

Answer 3 The TCP/IP Reference Model
The TCP/IP reference model is the network model used in the current
Internet architecture. It was created in the 1970s by DARPA for use in
developing the Internet's protocols, and the structure of the Internet is still
closely reflected by the TCP/IP model. It has fewer, less rigidly defined
layers than the commonly referenced OSI model, and thus provides an
easier fit for real world protocols. It is considered as the grandfather of the
Internet, the ARPANET. This was a research network sponsored by the
Department of Defense in the United States.
A goal was of continuing the conversation between source and
destination even if transmission went out of operation. The reference
model was named after two of its main protocols, TCP (Transmission
Control Protocol) and IP (Internet Protocol). No document officially
specifies the model. Different names are given to the layers by different
documents, and different numbers of layers are shown by different
documents. There are versions of this model with four layers and with five
layers.
The original four-layer version of the model has layers. It consists of the
following four layers.

Layer 4- Process Layer or Application Layer:
This is where the "higher level" protocols such as FTP, HTTP, etc.
operate. The original TCP/IP specification described a number of different
applications that fit into the top layer of the protocol stack. These
applications include Telnet, FTP, SMTP and DNS.
Telnet is a program that supports the TELNET protocol over TCP.
TELNET is a general two-way communication protocol that can be used to
connect to another host and run applications on that host remotely.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a protocol that was originally designed to
promote the sharing of files among computer users. It shields the user from
the variations of file storage on different architectures and allows for a
reliable and efficient transfer of data.
SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) is the protocol used to transport
electronic mail from one computer to another through a series of other
computers along the route.
DNS (Domain Name System) resolves the numerical address of a
network node into its textual name or vice-versa. It would translate
www.yahoo.com to 204.71.177.71 to allow the routing protocols to find the
host that the packet is destined for.

Layer 3- Host-To-Host (Transport) Layer:
This is where flow-control and connection protocols exist, such as TCP.
This layer deals with opening and maintaining connections, ensuring that
packets are in fact received. The transport layer is the interface between
the application layer and the complex hardware of the network. It is
designed to allow peer entities on the source and destination hosts to carry
on conversations. Data may be user data or control data. Two modes are
available, full-duplex and half duplex. In full-duplex operation, both sides
can transmit and receive data simultaneously, whereas in half duplex, a
side can only send or receive at one time.
Layer 2- Internet or Internetworking Layer:
This layer defines IP addresses, with many routing schemes for
navigating packets from one IP address to another. The job of the network
layer is to inject packets into any network and have them travel
independently to the destination. The layer defines IP (Internet Protocol)
for its official packet format and protocol. Packet routing is a major job of
this protocol.
Layer 1- Network Access Layer:
This layer describes the physical equipment necessary for
communications, such as twisted pair cables, the signalling used on that
equipment, and the low-level protocols using that signalling. The Host-to-
Network layer interfaces the TCP/IP protocol stack to the physical
network. The TCP/IP reference model does not specify in any great detail
the operation of this layer, except that the host has to connect to the
network using some protocol so it can send IP packets over it. As it is not
officially defined, it varies from implementation to implementation, with
vendors supplying their own version.
The basic idea of the networking system is to allow one application on a
host computer to talk to another application on a different host computer.
The application forms its request, then passes the packet down to the lower
layers, which add their own control information, either a header or a footer,
onto the packet. Finally the packet reaches the physical layer and is
transmitted through the cable onto the destination host.
The packet then travels up through the different layers, with each layer
reading, deciphering, and removing the header or footer that was attached
by its counterpart on the originating computer. Finally the packet arrives at
the application it was destined for. Even though technically each layer
communicates with the layer above or below it, the process can be viewed
as one layer talking to its partner on the host.
Question.4 Write a short note on
(i) Connection Establishment
(ii) Connection Release

Answer 4 (i) Connection Establishment
Establishing a connection sounds easy but in practice it is not so. The
problem occurs when the network can lose, store and duplicate packets.
The Major problem is the existence of delayed duplicates. It can be solved
in various ways but not of them work satisfactorily.
One way is to use throw away transport addresses. Here each time a
transport address is needed, a new one is generated. When a connection is
released, the address is discarded.
Another possibility is to give each connection a connection identifier that
is a sequence number incremented for each connection established. This
number is chosen by initiating party. After each connection is released,
each transport entity could update a table listing obsolete connections this
scheme has basic flaws: it requires each transport entity to maintain a
certain amount of history information indefinitely. If a machine crashes and
loses its memory, it will no longer know which connection identifiers have
already been used.
Another mechanism is to kill off the aged packets. Packet lifetime can be
restricted to a known maximum using one of the following ways.
1. Restricted subnet design
2. Putting a hop counter in each packet
3. Time stamping each packet.

(a) Normal operation

(b) Old Duplicate connection request

(c) Duplicate connection request and duplicate Ack.
(a) Illustrates. The connection establishment protocol introduced by
Tomlinson is known as a three way handshake. This protocol does not
require both sides to begin sending with the same sequence number. The
three way handshake connection establishment protocol.
The normal set up procedure when host1 initiates. Host 1 chooses a
sequence number, x and sends a CONNECTION REQUEST TPDU containing
it to host 2. Host 2 replies with a CONNECTION ACCEPTED TPDU
acknowledges x and announcing its own initial sequence number, y.
Finally host 1 acknowledges host 2s choice of an initial sequence number
in the first data TPDU that it sends.
(b) Illustrates. The three way handshake that works in the presence of
delayed duplicate control TPDUs. The first TPDU is a delayed duplicate
CONNECTION REQUEST from an old connection. This TPDU arrives at host
2 without host 1s knowledge. Host 2 reacts to this TPDU by sending host 1
a CONNECTION ACCEPTED TPDU, asking for verification that host 1 was
indeed trying to set up a new connection. When host 1 rejects host 2s
attempt to establish, host 2 realizes that it was tricked by a delayed
duplicate and abandons the connection. Thus a delayed duplicate does no
damage.
The worst case is as shown in figure (c). It is when both a delayed
CONNECTION REQUEST and an acknowledgement to a CONNECTION
ACCEPTED are floating around in the subnet. Host 2 has proposed using y
as the initial sequence number for host 2 to host 1 traffic. When the second
delayed TPDU arrives at host 2, the fact that this is an old duplicate. An
alternative scheme for establishing connections reliably in a situation of
delayed duplicates is described by Watson in 1981. It uses multiple timers
to exclude undesired events.

(ii) Connection Release
Releasing a connection is easier than establishing the connection. There
are two styles of terminating/releasing a connection. They are:
Symmetric release
Asymmetric release
Asymmetric release is the way the telephone system works. Here when
one party hangs up, the connection is broken. Asymmetric release is abrupt
and may result in data loss. Symmetric release treats the connection as two
separate unidirectional connections and requires each one to be released
separately.
Figure (a) four scenarios of releasing using a three way handshake
technique. The first one figure (a) shows the normal case in which one of
the users sends a DISCONNECTION REQUEST (DR) TPDU. In order to
initiate the connection release. When it arrives, the recipient sends back a
DR TPDU and starts the timer to keep track in case DR is lost. When this DR
TPDU arrives the original sender sends back an ACK TPDU and releases the
connection. Finally when the ACK TPDU arrives the receiver also releases
the connection.
Releasing a connection means that the transport entity removes the
information about the connection from its table of connections and signals
the owner who had started that connection.

Figure (b) illustrates the situation when the signal ACK TPDU which we
came across in normal connection release is lost. The situation is saved by
the use of timer. When the timer expires, the connection is released
anyway.

Figure (c) illustrates the case when the second DR TPDU which we came
across in normal connection release is lost. The user initiating the
disconnection will not receive the expected response, with time out and
will start all over again. Here we assume the second time no TPDU are lost
and all TPDUs delivered correctly and on time.

Last scenario is same as previous except that now we assume all the
repeated attempts to retransmit the DR TPDU also fail due to lost TPDUs.
After N retries, the sender gives up and releases the connection. Mean
while, the receiver times out and also exists, that is it also releases the
connection.

Question.5 Write notes on
(i) Non- Persistent CSMA
(ii) 1- Persistent CSMA.

Answer 5(i) Non- Persistent CSMA
Non persistent CSMA is less aggressive compared to P persistent
protocol. In this protocol, before sending the data, the station senses the
channel and if the channel is idle it starts transmitting the data. But if the
channel is busy, the station does not continuously sense it but instead of
that it waits for random amount of time and repeats the algorithm. Here the
algorithm leads to better channel utilization but also results in longer delay
compared to 1 persistent.
(ii) 1- Persistent CSMA
When the sender (station) is ready to transmit data, it checks if the
transmission medium is busy. If so, it then senses the medium continually
until it becomes idle, and then it transmits the message (a frame). In case of
a collision, the sender waits for a random period of time and attempts to
transmit again. 1-persistent CSMA is used in CSMA/CD systems
including Ethernet.

Question.6 Describe Circuit switching and Message switching.

Answer 6 Circuit switching
Circuit Switching: A circuit switching network is one that establishes a
dedicated circuit (or channel) between nodes and terminals before the
users may communicate. Each circuit that is dedicated cannot be used by
other callers until the circuit is released and a new connection is set up.
Even if no actual communication is taking place in a dedicated circuits then,
that channel still remains unavailable to other users. Channels that are
available for new calls to be set up are said to be idle. Circuit switching is
used for ordinary telephone calls. It allows communications equipment and
circuits, to be shared among users. Each user has sole access to a circuit
during network use.
Circuit switching can be relatively inefficient because capacity is wasted
on connections which are set up but are not in continuous use. On the other
hand, the connection is immediately available and capacity is guarantee
until the call is disconnected
Communication using circuit switching involves three phases discussed
below:
a. Connection establishment: Before any signal can be transmitted,
an end to end circuit must be established.
b. Data transfer: Information can now be transmitted from source
through the network to the destination using the dedicated path
established.
c. Termination: After some period of data transfer, the connection is
terminated
Call setup time with conventional equipment is typically on the order of
5 to 25 seconds after completion of dialing. Trade-offs between circuit
switching and other types of switching depend strongly on switching times.

Message switching
Message switching was the precursor of packet switching, where messages
were routed in their entirety and one hop at a time. It was first introduced
by Leonard Kleinrock in 1961. Message switching system is nowadays
mostly implemented over packet-switched or circuit-switched data
networks.
Hop-by-hoop Telex forwarding are examples of message switching
systems. E-mail is another example of a message switching system. When
this form of switching is used, no physical path is established in advance in
between sender and receiver. Instead, when the sender has a block of data
to be sent, it is stored in the first switching office then forwarded later at
one hop at a time.
Each block is received in its entity form, inspected for errors and then
forwarded or re-transmitted. It is a form of store-and-forward network.
Data is transmitted into the network and store in a switch. The network
transfers the data from switch to switch when it is convenient to do so, as
such the delays can happen. The source and destination terminal need not
be compatible, since conversions are done by the message switching
networks.
A delay for putting the message on the communications link is also
incurred at each node enrooted. Message lengths are slightly longer than
they are in circuit switching, after establishment of the header includes
information identifying must be included with each message. The header
includes information identifying the destination as well as other types of
information. Most message switched networks do not use dedicated point-
to-point links.