CCNA 1 v3.

1 Module 11
TCP/IP Transport and
Application Layers

© 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 1

Objectives
Introduction to Transport Layer

• Five basic services:

Segmenting upper-layer application data
Establishing end-to-end operations
Transporting segments from one end
host to another end host
Ensuring data reliability
Providing flow control
Reliability
Reliability

• The primary duties of the transport layer, are to transport

and regulate the flow of information from the source to the
destination, reliably and accurately.
• End-to-end control and reliability are provided by sliding
windows, sequencing numbers, and acknowledgments
Flow Control
• Sometimes the receiving host that is unable to
process data as quickly as it arrives which could
result in data loss.

• Flow control allows the two hosts to establish a

data-transfer rate that is agreeable to both.
Multiplexing of Upper-Layer Conversations
 Establishing a Connection with a Peer System
• One function of the transport layer is to establish a
connection-oriented session between similar
devices at the application layer.

• Below is a general description of handshaking

TCP 3 way handshake is discussed on the next slide

• The first handshake requests synchronization.

• The second and third handshakes acknowledge
the initial synchronization request
• The final handshake segment is an
acknowledgment used to inform the destination
that both sides agree that a connection has been
established.
• After the connection has been established, data
transfer begins.
 TCP Three-Way Handshake
• TCP requires connection establishment before
data transfer begins.

• TCP uses a modified version of the general

handshaking process on the previous slide

• The algorithm used to establish and terminate

the connection is called the Three Way
Handshake

• For a connection to be established or initialized,

the two hosts must synchronize their Initial
Sequence Numbers (ISN).

• Synchronization is done through an exchange of

connection establishing segments that carry a
control bit called SYN, for synchronize, and the
Initial Sequence Numbers.

• The connection is established when each side

has received the ISN from the other side and sent
a confirming ACK.
 General Principle of Flow Control

• When data arrive too quickly for a host to

process, they are temporarily stored in
memory

• If the traffic continues, the host eventually

exhausts its memory and must discard the
additional data that arrive.

• Instead of allowing data to be lost, flow

control allows the receiver to issue a “not
ready” indicator to the sender

• The sending host stops transmission until it

receives a “ready” signal from the receiver.
Windowing (TCP Flow Control Mechanism)

• One packet and one acknowledgement at a time results in a low

throughput.
• However if multiple packets are sent the receiver may not be
able to process them and some may be lost

• To address this problem TCP uses a flow control mechanism

called Windowing
• Windowing allows the receiving node to inform the sender of
the maximum amount of segments it can receive

• Windowing allows a sequence (block) of packets to be sent at

which time the sender waits for an acknowledgement for all
packets
Window Size
• TCP window sizes are variable during the lifetime of a
connection.

• The window size is varied by the receiver to flag the

amount of data it can accommodate in its receive
buffer

• Note that larger window sizes increase communication

efficiency.
TCP Basic Window
TCP Sliding Window
TCP Sliding Window
TCP Sequence and Acknowledgment

•Understand all the figures in 11.1.6

Acknowledgments
• Positive acknowledgment requires a recipient to
communicate with the source, sending back an
acknowledgment message when it receives data.

• Sender keeps a record of each data segment that it sends

and expects an acknowledgment.

• The sender also starts a timer when it sends a segment and

will retransmit a segment if the timer expires before an
acknowledgment arrives

• TCP reassembles the segments into a complete message. If

a sequence number is missing in the series, that segment is
retransmitted.

• Understand all the figures in 11.1.6

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

• TCP is a connection-oriented transport layer (Layer

4) protocol that provides reliable full-duplex data
transmission

• The protocols that use TCP include:

FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
Telnet
User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
• UDP is a connectionless transport layer (layer 4) protocol.

• It does not support windowing, acknowledgments or

guaranteed delivery.

• UDP is designed for applications that can accommodate lost

data – such as streaming video

• The protocols that use UDP include:

TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol)
SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol)
DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol)
DNS (Domain Name System)
TCP and UDP Port Numbers
• Both TCP and UDP use port (socket) numbers to pass
information to the upper layers.

• Port numbers are managed by Internet Assigned

Numbers Authority (IANA).

• Numbers below 1024 are assigned to specific services

Example: Any conversation bound for the FTP
application uses the standard port numbers 20 and
21

• Numbers above 1024 are dynamically assigned ports

numbers.
TCP and UDP Port Numbers
• TCP and UDP use port numbers to multiplex
separate data streams, associated with different
applications, over the same path
TCP Segment Format
UDP Segment Format
Application Layer
Application Layer
Responsibilities of Application Layer

• Identifying and establishing the availability

of intended communication partners

• Synchronizing cooperating applications

• Establishing agreement on procedures for

error recovery

• Controlling data integrity

Application Layer Examples

• Domain Name System

• File Transfer Protocol
• Hypertext Transfer Protocol
• Simple Mail Transport Protocol
• Simple Network Management Protocol
• Telnet
DNS

• The Domain Name System (DNS) is a system used

for translating names of domains into IP addresses.
• A domain is a group of computers that are
associated by their geographical location or their
business type.
• There are more than 200 top-level domains on the
Internet, examples of which include the following:

.us – United States .gov – government sites

.uk – United Kingdom .org – non-profit sites
.edu – educational sites .net – network service
.com – commercial sites
FTP and TFTP

• FTP is a reliable, connection-oriented

service that uses TCP to transfer files
between systems that support FTP.
• TFTP is a connectionless service that uses
User Datagram Protocol (UDP).
TFTP is used on routers to transfer
configuration files and Cisco IOS images.
TFTP is designed to be small and easy to
implement.
FTP Application
URL
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer protocol)

• E-mail servers communicate with each other using the

Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) to send and
receive mail.
SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol)

The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an

application layer protocol that facilitates the exchange of
management information between network devices.
Telnet

• Telnet client software provides the

ability to log in to a remote host
that is running a Telnet server. The
Telnet client will provide a
command line Interface (like the
DOS command line) which will
execute commands remotely on the
server.
Summary