Module 1

Introduction and Physical Layer

 Computer Networks
• The term ''computer network'' to mean a
collection of autonomous computers
interconnected by a single technology.
• Two computers are said to be interconnected if
they are able to exchange information.
• The connection need not be via a copper wire;
fiber optics, microwaves, infrared, and
communication satellites can also be used.
• Networks come in many sizes, shapes and
forms
 Uses of Computer Networks
• Business Applications
• Home applications
• Mobile users
• Social Issues
 I.Business Applications
• Many companies have a substantial number of
computers.
• For example, a company may have separate
computers to monitor production, keep track of
inventories, and do the payroll.
• Initially, each of these computers may have worked in
isolation from the others, but at some point,
management may have decided to connect them to
be able to extract and correlate information about the
entire company.
• The issue here is resource sharing
• The goal is to make all programs, equipment,
and especially data available to anyone on the
network without regard to the physical
location of the resource and the user.
• Example: Having a group of office workers
share a common printer.
• Every large and medium-sized company and
many small companies are vitally dependent
on computerized information.
• Most companies have customer records,
inventories, accounts receivable, financial
statements, tax information, and much more
online.
• One can imagine a company's information
system as consisting of one or more databases
and some number of employees who need to
access them remotely.
• In this model, the data are stored on powerful
computers called servers.
• Often these are centrally housed and
maintained by a system administrator.
• In contrast, the employees have simpler
machines, called clients, on their desks, with
which they access remote data, for example,
to include in spreadsheets they are
constructing.
Figure : A network with two clients
and one server.
• This whole arrangement is called the client-
server model.
• It is widely used and forms the basis of much
network usage.
• It is applicable when the client and server are
both in the same building (e.g., belong to the
same company), but also when they are far
apart.
• If we look at the client-server model in detail,
we see that two processes are involved, one
on the client machine and one on the server
machine.
• Communication takes the form of the client
process sending a message over the network
to the server process.
• The client process then waits for a reply
message.
• When the server process gets the request, it
performs the requested work or looks up the
requested data and sends back a reply.
• These messages are shown in Fig
Figure 1-2. The client-server model
involves requests and replies.
• A computer network can provide a powerful
communication medium among employees.
• e-mail (electronic mail)
• e-mail is not the only form of improved
communication made possible by computer
networks.
• With a network, it is easy for two or more
people who work far apart to write a report
together.
• Yet another form of computer-assisted
communication is videoconferencing.
• Using this technology, employees at distant
locations can hold a meeting, seeing and
hearing each other and even writing on a
shared virtual blackboard.
• Videoconferencing is a powerful tool for
eliminating the cost and time previously
devoted to travel.
• A third goal for increasingly many companies
is doing business electronically with other
companies, especially suppliers and
customers.
• For example, manufacturers of automobiles,
aircraft, and computers, among others, buy
subsystems from a variety of suppliers and
then assemble the parts.
• Using computer networks, manufacturers can
place orders electronically as needed.
• Being able to place orders in real time (i.e., as
needed) reduces the need for large
inventories and enhances efficiency.
• A fourth goal that is starting to become more
important is doing business with consumers
over the Internet.
• Airlines, bookstores, and music vendors have
discovered that many customers like the
convenience of shopping from home.
• Consequently, many companies provide
catalogs of their goods and services online and
take orders on-line.
• This sector is expected to grow quickly in the
future. It is called e-commerce (electronic
commerce).
 II.Home Applications
• Some of the more popular uses of the Internet
for home users are as follows:
1. Access to remote information.
2. Person-to-person communication.
3. Interactive entertainment.
4. Electronic commerce.
 1. Access to remote information
• Access to remote information comes in many
forms.
• It can be surfing the World Wide Web for
information or just for fun.
• Information available includes the arts,
business, cooking, government, health,
history, hobbies, recreation, science, sports,
travel, and many others.
• Fun comes in too many ways to mention, plus
some ways that are better left unmentioned.
• Many newspapers have gone on-line and can
be personalized.
• On-line digital library – IEEE, ASM
• All of the above applications involve
interactions between a person and a remote
database full of information.
2.Person-to-person communication
• E-mail is already used on a daily basis by
millions of people all over the world and its
use is growing rapidly. It already routinely
contains audio and video as well as text and
pictures.
• Worldwide newsgroups, with discussions on
every conceivable topic, are already
commonplace among a select group of
people, and this phenomenon will grow to
include the population at large.
 Peer-to-peer communication
- In this form, individuals who form a loose
group can communicate with others in the
group, as shown in Fig . Every person can, in
principle, communicate with one or more
other people; there is no fixed division into
clients and servers.
- For example, fans sharing public domain music
or sample tracks that new bands have
released for publicity purposes, families
sharing photos, movies, and genealogical
information, and teenagers playing
multiperson on-line games.
Figure. In a peer-to-peer system
there are no fixed clients and
servers.
 Electronic gambling
• The trouble is, gambling is legal in a lot of
other places.
• Other communication-oriented applications
include using the Internet to carry telephone
calls, video phone, and Internet radio, three
rapidly growing areas.
• Another application is telelearning, meaning
attending 8 A.M. classes without the
inconvenience of having to get out of bed first.
 3. Interactive Entertainment
• It may be possible to select any movie or
television program ever made, in any country,
and have it displayed on your screen instantly.
• Live television may also become interactive,
with the audience participating in quiz shows,
choosing among contestants, and so on.
• Game playing - Already we have multiperson
real-time simulation games, games are played
with goggles and three-dimensional real-time,
photographic-quality moving images, we have
a kind of worldwide shared virtual reality.
 4.Electronic commerce
• Home shopping is already popular and
enables users to inspect the on-line catalogs
of thousands of companies. Some of these
catalogs will soon provide the ability to get an
instant video on any product by just clicking
on the product's name
• Access to financial institutions. Many people
already pay their bills, manage their bank
accounts, and handle their investments
electronically. This will surely grow as
networks become more secure.
• Electronic flea markets (e-flea?)
• On-line auctions of second-hand goods have
become a massive industry.
• Unlike traditional e-commerce, which follows
the client-server model, on-line auctions are
more of a peer-to-peer system, sort of
consumer-to-consumer
Figure. Some forms of e-
commerce.
• Telelearning may radically affect education;
universities may go national or international.
• Telemedicine is only now starting to catch on
(e.g., remote patient monitoring) but may
become much more important.
 III. Mobile Users
Wireless networks
• People on the road often want to use their
portable electronic equipment to send and
receive telephone calls, faxes, and electronic
mail, surf the Web, access remote files, and
log on to remote machines. And they want to
do this from anywhere on land, sea, or air.
• Computer conferences
• Wireless networks are of great value to fleets
of trucks, taxis, delivery vehicles, and
repairpersons for keeping in contact with
home.
• Wireless networks are also important to the
military. If you have to be able to fight a war
anywhere on earth on short notice, counting
on using the local networking infrastructure is
probably not a good idea.
• Food, drink, and other vending machines are
found everywhere.
• However, the food does not get into the
machines by magic.
• Periodically, someone comes by with a truck
to fill them.
• If the vending machines issued a wireless
report once a day announcing their current
inventories, the truck driver would know
which machines needed servicing and how
much of which product to bring. This
information could lead to more efficient route
planning.
• Another area in which wireless could save
money is utility meter reading.
• If electricity, gas, water, and other meters in
people's homes were to report usage over a
wireless network, there would be no need to
send out meter readers.
• Similarly, wireless smoke detectors could call
the fire department instead of making a big
noise.
M-Commerce (mobile commerce)
• Mobile maps
• wireless PDAs as a kind of electronic wallet,
authorizing payments in stores, as a
replacement for cash and credit cards.
• local weather forecasts
• mobile phone users are accustomed to paying
for everything – credit cards, google pay,
paytm
• personal area networks and wearable
computers – smart watches
 4 Social Issues
• The widespread introduction of networking has
introduced new social, ethical, and political
problems.
• Messages need not be limited to text. High-
resolution color photographs and even short video
clips can now easily be transmitted over computer
networks.
• Some people take a live-and-letlive view, but others
feel that posting certain material (e.g., attacks on
particular countries or religions, pornography, etc.) is
simply unacceptable and must be censored.
• Different countries have different and conflicting
laws in this area.
• People have sued network operators, claiming
that they are responsible for the contents of
what they carry, just as newspapers and
magazines are.
• Stronger yet, were network operators to
censor messages, they would likely delete
everything containing even the slightest
possibility of them being sued, and thus
violate their users' rights to free speech.
• Another fun area is employee rights versus
employer rights.
• Many people read and write e-mail at work.
• Many employers have claimed the right to
read and possibly censor employee messages,
including messages sent from a home
computer after work.
• Not all employees agree with this.
• Another key topic is government versus citizen.
• The FBI has installed a system at many Internet
service providers to snoop on all incoming and
outgoing e-mail for nuggets of interest to it.
• The government does not have a monopoly
on threatening people's privacy. The private
sector does its bit too.
• For example, small files called cookies that
Web browsers store on users' computers allow
companies to track users' activities in
cyberspace and also may allow credit card
numbers, social security numbers, and other
confidential information to leak all over the
Internet
• Computer networks offer the potential for
sending anonymous messages.
• In some situations, this capability may be
desirable. For example, it provides a way for
students, soldiers, employees, and citizens to
blow the whistle on illegal behavior on the
part of professors, officers, superiors, and
politicians without fear of reprisals.
• Computer networks have also introduced new
kinds of antisocial and criminal behavior.
• Electronic junk mail (spam) has become a part
of life because people have collected millions
of e-mail addresses and sell them on CD-
ROMs to would-be marketeers.
• E-mail messages containing active content
(basically programs or macros that execute on
the receiver's machine) can contain viruses
that wreak havoc.
• Identity theft is becoming a serious problem
as thieves collect enough information about a
victim to obtain get credit cards and other
documents in the victim's name.
• Finally, being able to transmit music and video
digitally has opened the door to massive
copyright violations that are hard to catch and
enforce.
 Conclusion
• A lot of these problems could be solved if the computer
industry took computer security seriously.
• If all messages were encrypted and authenticated, it
would be harder to commit mischief.
• The problem is that hardware and software vendors
know that putting in security features costs money and
their customers are not demanding such features.
• In addition, a substantial number of the problems are
caused by buggy software, which occurs because
vendors keep adding more and more features to their
programs, which inevitably means more code and thus
more bugs.
NETWORK HARDWARE
 Network Hardware
• Two dimensions were considering for network
design - transmission technology and scale
• There are two types of transmission technology
that are in widespread use.
• 1. Broadcast links. 2. Point-to-point links.
 Broadcast Networks
• Broadcast networks have a single communication
channel that is shared by all the machines on the
network.
• Short messages, called packets in certain contexts, sent
by any machine are received by all the others.
• An address field within the packet specifies the intended
recipient.
• Upon receiving a packet, a machine checks the address
field.
• If the packet is intended for the receiving machine, that
machine processes the packet; if the packet is intended
for some other machine, it is just ignored.
 Broadcasting
• Broadcast systems generally also allow the
possibility of addressing a packet to all
destinations by using a special code in the
address field.
• When a packet with this code is transmitted, it
is received and processed by every machine
on the network. This mode of operation is
called broadcasting.
 Multi-casting
• Some broadcast systems also support transmission
to a subset of the machines, something known as
multicasting.
• One possible scheme is to reserve one bit to
indicate multicasting.
• The remaining n - 1 address bits can hold a group
number.
• Each machine can ''subscribe'' to any or all of the
groups. When a packet is sent to a certain group, it
is delivered to all machines subscribing to that
group.
 Point-to-point networks
• In contrast, point-to-point networks consist of
many connections between individual pairs of
machines.
• To go from the source to the destination, a
packet on this type of network may have to
first visit one or more intermediate machines.
• Often multiple routes, of different lengths,
are possible, so finding good ones is important
in point-to-point networks.
• So smaller, geographically localized networks
tend to use broadcasting, whereas larger
networks usually are point-to-point.
• Point-to-point transmission with one sender
and one receiver is sometimes called
unicasting.
 Classification based on Scale
• we classify multiple processor systems by their
physical size.
 Figure 1-6. Classification of
interconnected processors by
scale.
 Personal Area Networks
• At the top are the personal area networks,
networks that are meant for one person.
• For example, a wireless network connecting a
computer with its mouse, keyboard, and
printer is a personal area network.
• Also, a PDA that controls the user's hearing aid
or pacemaker fits in this category.
• Beyond the personal area networks come
longer-range networks.
 Local Area Networks
• Local area networks, generally called LANs, are
privately-owned networks within a single
building or campus of up to a few kilometers
in size.
• They are widely used to connect personal
computers and workstations in company
offices and factories to share resources (e.g.,
printers) and exchange information.
• LANs are distinguished from other kinds of
networks by three characteristics:
(1) their size,
(2) their transmission technology, and
(3) their topology.
• LANs are restricted in size, which means that
the worst-case transmission time is bounded
and known in advance.
• It also simplifies network management.
• LANs may use a transmission technology
consisting of a cable to which all the machines
are attached.
• Traditional LANs run at speeds of 10 Mbps to
100 Mbps, have low delay (microseconds or
nanoseconds), and make very few errors.
• Newer LANs operate at up to 10 Gbps.
 Topologies
• Various topologies are possible for broadcast
LANs.
• Figure 1-7. Two broadcast networks. (a) Bus.
(b) Ring.
 Bus Topology
• In a bus (i.e., a linear cable) network, at any instant at
most one machine is the master and is allowed to
transmit.
• All other machines are required to refrain from
sending.
• An arbitration mechanism is needed to resolve
conflicts when two or more machines want to transmit
simultaneously.
• The arbitration mechanism may be centralized or
distributed.
• IEEE 802.3, popularly called Ethernet, for example, is a
bus-based broadcast network with decentralized
control.
 Ring Topology
• In a ring, each bit propagates around on its own, not
waiting for the rest of the packet to which it belongs.
• Typically, each bit circumnavigates the entire ring in the
time it takes to transmit a few bits, often before the
complete packet has even been transmitted.
• As with all other broadcast systems, some rule is
needed for arbitrating simultaneous accesses to the
ring, such as having the machines take turns, are in
use.
• IEEE 802.5 (the IBM token ring), is a ring-based LAN
operating at 4 and 16 Mbps.
• FDDI is another example of a ring network.
 Classification based on Channels
• Broadcast networks can be further divided into static
and dynamic, depending on how the channel is
allocated.
• A typical static allocation would be to divide time
into discrete intervals and use a round-robin
algorithm, allowing each machine to broadcast only
when its time slot comes up.
• Static allocation wastes channel capacity when a
machine has nothing to say during its allocated slot,
so most systems attempt to allocate the channel
dynamically (i.e., on demand).
 Dynamic allocation methods
• Dynamic allocation methods for a common
channel are either centralized or decentralized.
• In the centralized channel allocation method,
there is a single entity, for example, a bus
arbitration unit, which determines who goes
next. It might do this by accepting requests and
making a decision according to some internal
algorithm.
• In the decentralized channel allocation method,
there is no central entity; each machine must
decide for itself whether to transmit.
 Metropolitan Area Networks
• A metropolitan area network, or MAN, covers
a city.
• Example : Cable television network
Figure. A metropolitan area
network based on cable TV.
 Wide Area Networks
• A wide area network, or WAN, spans a large
geographical area, often a country or
continent.
• It contains a collection of machines intended
for running user (i.e., application) programs,
called as machines hosts.
• The hosts are connected by a communication
subnet, or just subnet for short.
• The hosts are owned by the customers (e.g.,
people's personal computers), whereas the
communication subnet is typically owned and
operated by a telephone company or Internet
service provider.
• The job of the subnet is to carry messages
from host to host.
• Separation of the pure communication
aspects of the network (the subnet) from the
application aspects (the hosts), greatly
simplifies the complete network design.
• In most wide area networks, the subnet
consists of two distinct components:
transmission lines and switching elements.
• Transmission lines move bits between
machines.
• They can be made of copper wire, optical
fiber, or even radio links.
• Switching elements are specialized computers
that connect three or more transmission lines.
When data arrive on an incoming line, the
switching element must choose an outgoing
line on which to forward them.
• In this model, shown in Fig. 1-9, each host is
frequently connected to a LAN on which a
router is present, although in some cases a
host can be connected directly to a router.
• The collection of communication lines and
routers (but not the hosts) form the subnet.
Figure 1-9. Relation between hosts
on LANs and the subnet.
 Term “Subnet “
• The collection of routers and communication
lines that moved packets from the source host
to the destination host.
 Store-and-forward or Packet-
switched subnet
• In most WANs, the network contains numerous transmission
lines, each one connecting a pair of routers.
• If two routers that do not share a transmission line wish to
communicate, they must do this indirectly, via other routers.
• When 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, stored there until the
required output line is free, and then forwarded.
• A subnet organized according to this principle is called a store-
and-forward or packet-switched subnet.
 Packet Switched WAN
• When a process on some host has a message to be
sent to a process on some other host, the sending host
first cuts the message into packets, each one bearing
its number in the sequence.
• These packets are then injected into the network one
at a time in quick succession.
• The packets are transported individually over the
network and deposited at the receiving host, where
they are reassembled into the original message and
delivered to the receiving process.
Figure 1-10. A stream of packets
from sender to receiver.
 WAN by Satellite systems
• Each router has an antenna through which it can
send and receive.
• All routers can hear the output from the
satellite, and in some cases they can also hear
the upward transmissions of their fellow routers
to the satellite as well.
• Sometimes the routers are connected to a
substantial point-to-point subnet, with only
some of them having a satellite antenna.
 4.Wireless Networks
• Wireless networks can be divided into three
main categories:
1. System interconnection.
2. Wireless LANs.
3. Wireless WANs.
 System Interconnection
• System interconnection is all about
interconnecting the components of a
computer using short-range radio.
Examples :
• Almost every computer has a monitor,
keyboard, mouse, and printer connected to
the main unit by cables.
• Bluetooth: a short-range wireless network to
connect these components without wires.
• System interconnection networks use the
master-slave paradigm of Fig. below.
• The system unit is normally the master, talking
to the mouse, keyboard, etc., as slaves.
• The master tells the slaves what addresses to
use, when they can broadcast, how long they
can transmit, what frequencies they can use,
and so on.
 Figure 1-11. (a) Bluetooth
configuration. (b) Wireless LAN.
 Wireless LANs
• Wireless networking set up.
• These are systems in which every computer
has a radio, modem and antenna with which it
can communicate with other systems.
• However, if the systems are close enough,
they can communicate directly with one
another in a peer-to-peer configuration.
• Wireless LANs are becoming increasingly
common in small offices and homes.
• Standard for wireless LANs : IEEE 802.11
 Wireless WANs
• The radio network used for cellular telephones
is an example of a low-bandwidth wireless
system.
• In a certain sense, cellular wireless networks
are like wireless LANs, except that the
distances involved are much greater and the
bit rates much lower.
 Home Networks
• The fundamental idea is that in the future
most homes will be set up for networking.
• Every device in the home will be capable of
communicating with every other device, and
all of them will be accessible over the
Internet.
Home networking has some fundamentally different
properties than other network types.
• First, the network and devices have to be installed easy.
• Second, the network and devices have to be foolproof in
operation.
• Third, low price is essential for success.
• Fourth, the main application is likely to involve
multimedia, so the network needs sufficient capacity.
• Fifth, it must be possible to start out with one or two
devices and expand the reach of the network gradually.
• Sixth, security and reliability will be very important.
 Internetworks
• A collection of interconnected networks is
called an internetwork or internet.
NETWORK SOFTWARE
 Network Software
1. Protocol hierarchies
2. Design issues for the layers
3. Interfaces and services
4. Connection- oriented and connectionless
services
5. Service primitives
6. The relationship of Services to Protocols
 1.Protocol Hierarchies
• To reduce their design complexity, most networks are organized as a stack
of layers or levels, each one built upon the one below it.
• The number of layers, the name of each layer, the contents of each layer,
and the function of each layer differ from network to network.
• The purpose of each layer is to offer certain services to the higher layers,
shielding those layers from the details of how the offered services are
actually implemented.
• In a sense, each layer is a kind of virtual machine, offering certain services
to the layer above it.
• Layer n on one machine carries on a conversation with layer n on another
machine.
• The rules and conventions used in this conversation are collectively known
as the layer n protocol.
• Basically, a protocol is an agreement between the communicating parties on
how communication is to proceed.
Figure 1-13. Layers, protocols, and interfaces.
 Peers
• The entities comprising the corresponding layers on different machines are
called peers.
• The peers may be processes, hardware devices, or even human beings.
• In other words, it is the peers that communicate by using the protocol.
 Interface
• Between each pair of adjacent layers is an interface.
• The interface defines which primitive operations and services the lower
layer makes available to the upper one.
• When network designers decide how many layers to include in a network
and what each one should do, one of the most important considerations is
defining clean interfaces between the layers.
• A set of layers and protocols is called a network architecture.
 Design Issues for the Layers
1. Every layer needs a mechanism for identifying senders and receivers.
2. The rules for data transfer.
3. Error control
4. how to keep a fast sender from swamping a slow receiver with data.
5. the inability of all processes to accept arbitrarily long messages.
 Types of Data transfer through a
channel (Direction of Transmission)
1. Simplex Communication : Systems in which
data only travel in one direction. Eg: Radio,
TV remote etc.
2. Half-Duplex communication : data can travel
in either direction, but not simultaneously.
Eg: Walkie-Talkie
3. Full-Duplex communication : data travel in
both directions at once. Eg: telephonic
conversation
Interfaces and Services
 Connection-Oriented and
Connectionless services
• Layers can offer two different types of service to the layers above them:
connection-oriented and connectionless.
• Connection-oriented service is modeled after the telephone system.
• to use a connection-oriented network service, the service user first
establishes a connection, uses the connection, and then releases the
connection.

• In contrast, connectionless service is modeled after the postal system.

• Each message (letter) carries the full destination address, and each one is
routed through the system independent of all the others.
• Each service can be characterized by a quality of service.
• Some services are reliable in the sense that they never lose data.
• Usually, a reliable service is implemented by having the receiver
acknowledge the receipt of each message so the sender is sure that it
arrived.
 SERVICE PRIMITIVES

A service is formally specified by a set of primitives (operations) available to a user

process to access the service.
These primitives tell the service to perform some action or report on an action taken
by a peer entity.
 Service Primitives

• Request
• Indication
• Response
• Confirm
 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 says nothing at all about how these operations are implemented.
A service relates to an interface between two layers, with the lower layer being the service
provider and the upper layer being the service user.

A protocol, in contrast, 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.
REFERENCE MODELS
 The OSI Reference Model
• This OSI model is based on a proposal
developed by the International Standards
Organization (ISO) as a first step toward
international standardization of the protocols
used in the various layers.
• The model is called the ISO OSI (Open Systems
Interconnection) Reference Model because it
deals with connecting open systems—that is,
systems that are open for communication with
other systems.
Figure 1-20. The OSI reference
model
• The OSI model has seven layers.
i. Physical
ii. Data link
iii. Network
iv. Transport
v. Session
vi. Presentation
vii. Application
• The principles that were applied to arrive at the seven
layers can be briefly summarized as follows:
1. A layer should be created where a different
abstraction is needed.
2. Each layer should perform a well-defined function.
3. The function of each layer should be chosen with an
eye toward defining internationally standardized
protocols.
4. The layer boundaries should be chosen to minimize
the information flow across the interfaces.
5. The number of layers should be large enough that
distinct functions need not be thrown together in the
same layer out of necessity and small enough that
the architecture does not become unwieldy.
• The 7 layers can be grouped into 3 sub groups:
i. Network Support Layer: Physical, Data-link,
Network
ii. Users Support Layer: Session, Presentation,
Application
iii. Transport Layer: which links two subgroups
 Layers of OSI Model
Physical Layer
• The physical layer is concerned with
transmitting raw bits over a communication
channel.
• The design issues have to do with making sure
that when one side sends a 1 bit, it is received
by the other side as a 1 bit, not as a 0 bit.
• The design issues here largely deal with
mechanical, electrical, and timing interfaces,
and the physical transmission medium, which
lies below the physical layer.
 Data Link Layer
• The main task of the data link layer is to transform
frames from one layer to the next layer.
• It accomplishes this task by having the sender break
up the input data into data frames (typically a few
hundred or a few thousand bytes) and transmit the
frames sequentially (Framing).
• If the service is reliable, the receiver confirms
correct receipt of each frame by sending back an
acknowledgement frame.
• If frames are to be distributed to different system on
the network (MAC address), the data link layer adds
a header to the frame to define the sender or
receiver of the frame.
• Another issue that arises in the data link layer
(and most of the higher layers as well) is how
to keep a fast transmitter from drowning a
slow receiver in data.
• Some traffic regulation mechanism is often
needed to let the transmitter know how much
buffer space the receiver has at the moment.
Frequently, this flow regulation and the error
handling are integrated.
 Network Layer
• The network layer controls the operation of the
subnet.
• A key design issue is determining how packets are
routed from source to destination.
• If too many packets are present in the subnet at the
same time, they will get in one another's way,
forming bottlenecks.
• The control of such congestion also belongs to the
network layer.
• More generally, the quality of service provided
(delay, transit time, jitter, etc.) is also a network layer
issue.
• When a packet has to travel from one network
to another to get to its destination, many
problems can arise.
• The addressing used by the second network
may be different from the first one.
• The second one may not accept the packet at
all because it is too large.
• The protocols may differ, and so on.
• It is up to the network layer to overcome all
these problems to allow heterogeneous
networks to be interconnected.
 Transport Layer
• The basic function of the transport layer is to
accept data from above, split it up into smaller
units if need be, pass these to the network
layer, and ensure that the pieces all arrive
correctly at the other end.
• Furthermore, all this must be done efficiently
and in a way that isolates the upper layers
from the inevitable changes in the hardware
technology.
• The transport layer also determines what type of
service to provide to the session layer, and,
ultimately, to the users of the network.
• The most popular type of transport connection is an
error-free point-to-point channel that delivers
messages or bytes in the order in which they were
sent.
• However, other possible kinds of transport service
are the transporting of isolated messages, with no
guarantee about the order of delivery, and the
broadcasting of messages to multiple destinations.
• The type of service is determined when the
connection is established.
• The transport layer is a true end-to-end layer,
all the way from the source to the destination.
• In other words, a program on the source
machine carries on a conversation with a
similar program on the destination machine,
using the message headers and control
messages.
• In the lower layers, the protocols are between
each machine and its immediate neighbors,
and not between the ultimate source and
destination machines, which may be
separated by many routers.
 Session Layer
• The session layer allows users on different
machines to establish sessions between them.
• Sessions offer various services, including
dialog control (keeping track of whose turn it
is to transmit), token management
(preventing two parties from attempting the
same critical operation at the same time), and
synchronization (check pointing long
transmissions to allow them to continue from
where they were after a crash).
 Presentation Layer
• Unlike lower layers, which are mostly concerned with
moving bits around, the presentation layer is
concerned with the syntax and semantics of the
information transmitted.
• In order to make it possible for computers with
different data representations to communicate, the
data structures to be exchanged can be defined in an
abstract way, along with a standard encoding to be
used ''on the wire.''
• The presentation layer manages these abstract data
structures and allows higher-level data structures
(e.g., banking records), to be defined and exchanged.
 Application Layer
• The application layer contains a variety of
protocols that are commonly needed by users.
• One widely-used application protocol is HTTP
(HyperText Transfer Protocol), which is the
basis for the World Wide Web.
• When a browser wants a Web page, it sends
the name of the page it wants to the server
using HTTP.
• The server then sends the page back.
• Other application protocols are used for file
transfer, electronic mail, and network news.
The TCP/IP Reference Model
A Comparison of the OSI and TCP/IP Reference Models
Module 1 – part 2
Physical Layer
The Basis of Transmission Medium
• Information can be transmitted on wires by varying some physical property
such as voltage or current.
• By representing the value of this voltage or current as a single-valued
function of time, f(t), we can model the behavior of the signal and analyze it
mathematically.
Bandwidth-Limited Signals
• Let us consider a specific example: the transmission of the ASCII character ''b'' encoded in an 8-bit
byte. The bit pattern that is to be transmitted is 01100010.
The Maximum Data Rate of a Channel

V
Physical Layer
• The purpose of the physical layer is to transport a raw bit
stream from one machine to another.
• Various physical media can be used for the actual transmission.
• Each one has its own niche in terms of bandwidth, delay, cost,
and ease of installation and maintenance.
• Ex: Ultrium tape can hold 200 gigabytes.
 Twisted Pair
• One of the oldest and still most common transmission media is
twisted pair.
• A twisted pair consists of two insulated copper wires, typically
about 1 mm thick.
• The wires are twisted together in a helical form, just like a DNA
molecule.
• Twisting is done because two parallel wires constitute a fine
antenna.
• When the wires are twisted, the waves from different twists cancel
out, so the wire radiates less effectively.
•Twisted pairs can be used for transmitting either analog
or digital signals.
•The bandwidth depends on the thickness of the wire
and the distance traveled.
•Due to their adequate performance and low cost,
twisted pairs are widely used and are likely to remain so
for years to come.
Varieties of Twisted Pair cabling
• Twisted pair cabling comes in several varieties, two of which are important for computer
networks.
Category 3
• Category 3 twisted pairs consist of two insulated wires gently twisted together.
• Four such pairs are typically grouped in a plastic sheath to protect the wires and keep
them together.

Category 5
• Category 5 twisted pairs are similar to category 3 pairs, but with more twists per
centimeter, which results in less crosstalk and a better-quality signal over longer
distances, making them more suitable for high-speed computer communication.
 Coaxial cable
• It has better shielding than twisted pairs, so it can span longer
distances at higher speeds.
• Two kinds of coaxial cable are widely used.
• One kind, 50-ohm cable, is commonly used when it is intended
for digital transmission from the start.
• The other kind, 75-ohm cable, is commonly used for analog
transmission and cable television but is becoming more
important with the advent of Internet over cable.
• A coaxial cable consists of a stiff copper wire as the core, surrounded by
an insulating material.
• The insulator is encased by a cylindrical conductor, often as a
closely-woven braided mesh.
• The outer conductor is covered in a protective plastic sheath.
• The construction and shielding of the coaxial cable give it a good
combination of high bandwidth and excellent noise immunity.
• The bandwidth possible depends on the cable quality, length, and
signal-to-noise ratio of the data signal.
• Modern cables have a bandwidth of close to 1 GHz.
• Coaxial cables used to be widely used within the telephone system
for long-distance lines but have now largely been replaced by fiber
optics on long-haul routes.
• Coax is still widely used for cable television and metropolitan area
networks, however.

(10 Base5 – Thick Ethernet ; 10 Base2 – Thin Ethernet (T-shaped connectors)

 Fibre Optics
•Fast computer technology is improving.
• An optical transmission system has three key components: the
light source, the transmission medium, and the detector.
• Conventionally, a pulse of light indicates a 1 bit and the
absence of light indicates a 0 bit.
• The transmission medium is an ultra-thin fiber of glass.
• The detector generates an electrical pulse when light falls on it.
• By attaching a light source to one end of an optical fiber and a
detector to the other, we have a unidirectional data transmission
system that accepts an electrical signal, converts and transmits
it by light pulses, and then reconverts the output to an electrical
signal at the receiving end.
• When a light ray passes from one medium to another, for example, from
fused silica to air, the ray is refracted (bent) at the silica/air boundary, as
shown in Fig. 2-5(a).
• Here we see a light ray incident on the boundary at an angle a1 emerging at
an angle b1.
• The amount of refraction depends on the properties of the two media (in
particular, their indices of refraction).
• For angles of incidence above a certain critical value, the light
is refracted back into the silica; none of it escapes into the air.
• Thus, a light ray incident at or above the critical angle is trapped
inside the fiber, as shown in Fig. 2-5(b), and can propagate for
many kilometers with virtually no loss.
• The sketch of Fig. 2-5(b) shows only one trapped ray, but since
any light ray incident on the boundary above the critical angle
will be reflected internally, many different rays will be bouncing
around at different angles.
• Each ray is said to have a different mode, so a fiber having this
property is called a multimode fiber.
Fiber optic cables
• Fiber optic cables are similar to coax, except without the braid.
• Figure 2-7(a) shows a single fiber viewed from the side.
• At the center is the glass core through which the light propagates.
• In multimode fibers, the core is typically 50 microns in diameter,
about the thickness of a human hair.
• In single-mode fibers, the core is 8 to 10 microns
Figure 2-7. (a) Side view of a single fiber. (b) End view of a sheath with three fibers.
• The core is surrounded by a glass cladding with a lower index of
refraction than the core, to keep all the light in the core.
• Next comes a thin plastic jacket to protect the cladding.
• Fibers are typically grouped in bundles, protected by an outer
sheath.
• Two kinds of light sources are typically used to do the signaling,
LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) and semiconductor lasers.
• The receiving end of an optical fiber consists of a photodiode,
which gives off an electrical pulse when struck by light.
 Wireless Transmission
• Wireless transmission is a form of unguided media.
• Wireless communication involves no physical link established between
two or more devices, communicating wirelessly.
• Wireless signals are spread over in the air and are received and
interpreted by appropriate antennas.
• When an antenna is attached to electrical circuit of a computer or wireless
device, it converts the digital data into wireless signals and spread all
over within its frequency range.
• The receptor on the other end receives these signals and converts them
back to digital data.
• A little part of electromagnetic spectrum can be used for wireless
transmission.
Radio Transmission

• Radio frequency is easier to generate and because of its large wavelength it

can penetrate through walls and structures alike.
• Radio waves can have wavelength from 1 mm – 100,000 km and have
frequency ranging from 3 Hz (Extremely Low Frequency) to 300 GHz
(Extremely High Frequency).
• Radio waves at lower frequencies can travel through walls whereas higher
RF can travel in straight line and bounce back.
• The power of low frequency waves decreases sharply as they cover long
distance. High frequency radio waves have more power.
• Lower frequencies such as VLF, LF, MF bands can travel on the ground up
to 1000 kilometers, over the earth’s surface.
• Radio waves of high frequencies are prone to be absorbed by rain and
other obstacles.
• They use Ionosphere of earth atmosphere.
• High frequency radio waves such as HF and VHF bands are spread
upwards.
• When they reach Ionosphere, they are refracted back to the earth.
Microwave Transmission

• Electromagnetic waves above 100 MHz tend to travel in a straight line

and signals over them can be sent by beaming those waves towards
one particular station.
• Because Microwaves travels in straight lines, both sender and receiver
must be aligned to be strictly in line-of-sight.
• Microwaves can have wavelength ranging from 1 mm – 1 meter and
frequency ranging from 300 MHz to 300 GHz.
• Microwave antennas concentrate the waves making a beam of it.
• As shown in picture above, multiple antennas can be aligned to reach
farther.
• Microwaves have higher frequencies and do not penetrate wall like
obstacles.
• Microwave transmission depends highly upon the weather conditions
and the frequency it is using.
Infrared Transmission

• Infrared wave lies in between visible light spectrum and microwaves.

• It has wavelength of 700-nm to 1-mm and frequency ranges from
300-GHz to 430-THz.
• Infrared wave is used for very short range communication purposes
such as television and it’s remote.
• Infrared travels in a straight line hence it is directional by nature.
• Because of high frequency range, Infrared cannot cross wall-like
obstacles.
Light Transmission

• Highest most electromagnetic spectrum which can be used for data

transmission is light or optical signaling. This is achieved by means of
LASER.
• Because of frequency light uses, it tends to travel strictly in straight line.
• Hence the sender and receiver must be in the line-of-sight. Because laser
transmission is unidirectional, at both ends of communication the laser and
the photo-detector needs to be installed.
• Laser beam is generally 1mm wide hence it is a work of precision to align
two far receptors each pointing to lasers source.
• Laser works as Tx (transmitter) and photo-detectors works as Rx
(receiver).
• Lasers cannot penetrate obstacles such as walls, rain, and thick fog.
Additionally, laser beam is distorted by wind, atmosphere temperature,
or variation in temperature in the path.
• Laser is safe for data transmission as it is very difficult to tap 1mm
wide laser without interrupting the communication channel.
Transmission Mode
 Transmission mode
• The Transmission mode is used for direction of signal flow between
two linked devices.
• There are three types of Transmission mode:-
1. Simplex
2. Half-Duplex
3. Full-Duplex
 1. Simplex
• Simplex:-In this transmission, client can only receive .
• TV broadcasting is an example.
• The other example is keyboard and Monitor, Keyboard can only input
while monitor can accept the output.
• The simplex direction communicate is unidirectional and only one of
devices on a link can transmit.

Figure 1.2: Simplex mode

 2. Half-Duplex
• Half-Duplex:-.In the half duplex the sender and receiver can transmit as well as receive the data
but not simultaneously.
• Half duplex applications include line printer and modem communications.
• For example the walkie-talkie this is the type of communication and used for low speed
transmission.

Figure 1.3: Half-duplex mode

 3. Full-Duplex
• Full-Duplex:-In Full Duplex data can be sent in both directions.
• Both sender and receiver can transmit and receive data simultaneously.
• The telephone network is the best communication example.
• When the two persons can talk easily by a telephone line, both can talk and listen
at the same time.

Figure 1.4: Full Duplex mode

Physical Topologies
TOPOLOGY
• It is arrangement of the network either physically or logically.
• Computers can be physically arranged by using wires or logically arranged with help of satellite
communication.
• There are following types of topologies
1.Bus
2.Star
3.Ring
4.Mesh
BUS
• A linear bus topology consists of a single cable with a terminator at each end.
• All nodes like server, workstations and peripherals are connected to the linear cable using a drop
cable.
• In this topology one node act as a master that is allowed to transmit and others receive.
• If more than one machine want to transmit then there may be conflict then arbitration mechanism
is used to resolve the conflict.
Advantages of a Linear Bus Topology
∙ Peripherals can be connected easily to a linear bus.
∙ It is easy to install and require less cabling
Disadvantages of a Linear Bus Topology
∙ Limited no. of devices can be attached to main cable
∙ The whole network shuts down if the main cable breaks at certain point.
∙ It is difficult to diagnose the problem if the whole network shuts down.
Star
• In this topology each node is connected directly to a central network hub, switch, or concentrator .
• The data passes through the hub, switch, or concentrator before going to its destination.
• The hub, switch, or concentrator manages and controls all functions of the network.
• It also works like a multiport repeater .
• The star can be commonly configured with twisted pair cable.
• It can also be configured with coaxial cable or fiber optic cable.
Advantages of a Star Topology
∙ It is easy to configure a star topology.
∙ Nodes can be easily connected or removed without disrupting the network.
∙ It is easy to diagnose the faults and rectify it.
Disadvantages of a Star Topology
∙ It requires more cable length .
∙ If the central hub, switch, or concentrator fails, all the connected nodes get
disabled.
∙ It is more expensive because of the cost of connecting devices etc.
RING TOPOLOGY
• In ring topology the computers are connected together to form a ring.
• Each system passes the data to its successor after receiving from its predecessor .
• The data flows unidirectionally in a circular manner in ring ,either clockwise or counter clockwise.
• It works on the mechanism of token passing.
• Any system in a ring which want to transmit data requires to acquire token, modifies it ,adds data and address
to it .Afterwards it is retransmitted.
• Every system in a ring will get this token one by one until the designated address matches.
• Once the address is matched ,the data is copied onto that machine. Thereafter the token is released.
ADVANTAGES of RING TOPOLOGY:
a. It ensures speedy transmission of the data.
b. It is easy to install and maintain.
c. All the participating systems get equal chance to transmit the data
DISADVANTAGES of RING TOPOLOGY
a.The failure of one system can lead to failure of the whole network .
b. It is difficult to diagnose a fault.
c. Adding or removing a device is not possible without disturbing the entire
network.
MESH TOPOLOGY

• In mesh topology redundant and separate cabling is done to connect every system to every other system on the
network, providing a dedicated communication path between two connected system.
• Here when one link fails it is taken over by other to take over the load.
• The data from the sender is directly sent to receiver because each system has individual and separate pair of
wires.
ADVANTAGES of MESH TOPOLOGY :
a. If one link fails it does make any effect to other nodes.
b. Easy to detect the fault because there is point to point link between two nodes.
c. There will not be any congestion because of fully connected network
DISADVANTAGES of MESH TOPOLOGY:
a. Complex to install and maintain.
b. Very Expensive.
c. Requires lot of cable so high cost is involved
Signal Encoding
Physical Signaling and Encoding:
Representing Bits
• Signaling Bits for the Media: Each signal placed onto the media has a
specific amount of time to occupy the media. This is referred to as its
bit time.
• Signals are processed by the receiving device and returned to its
representation as bits.
• At the Physical layer of the receiving node, the signals are converted
back into bits.
• The bits are then examined for the start and end of frame bit patterns
to determine that a complete frame has been received.
• The Physical layer then delivers all the bits of a frame to the Data Link
layer.
• Successful delivery of the bits requires some method of
synchronization between transmitter and receiver.
• In LANs, each end of the transmission maintains its own clock.
• Signaling Methods: Bits are represented on the medium by changing
one or more of the following characteristics of a signal:
• Amplitude • Frequency • Phase
• The amplitude of a signal measures the value of the signal at any
point.
• The frequency of a signal refers to the number of periods in one
second.
• The phase describes the position of the waveform relative to time
zero."
Signal Encoding
• Encoding is the process of converting the data or a given sequence of
characters, symbols, alphabets etc., into a specified format, for the
secured transmission of data. Decoding is the reverse process of
encoding which is to extract the information from the converted
format.
Data Encoding
• Encoding is the process of using various patterns of voltage or current
levels to represent 1s and 0s of the digital signals on the transmission
link.
• The common types of line encoding are Unipolar, Polar, Bipolar, and
Manchester.
Encoding Techniques
• The data encoding technique is divided into the following types,
depending upon the type of data conversion.
• Analog data to Analog signals − The modulation techniques such as
Amplitude Modulation, Frequency Modulation and Phase Modulation
of analog signals, fall under this category.
• Digital data to Analog signals − The modulation techniques such as
Amplitude Shift Keying ASK, Frequency Shift Keying FSK, Phase
Shift Keying PSK, etc., fall under this category.
• Digital data to Digital signals − There are several ways to map digital
data to digital signals. Some of them are −
- Non Return to Zero NRZ:NRZ Codes has 1 for High
voltage level and 0 for Low voltage level.
- NRZ - L NRZ–LEVEL
- NRZ - I NRZ–INVERTED
 Hub
• Hub is a very simple network connecting device.
• In Star/hierarchical topology, a Repeater is called Hub.
• It is also known as a Multiport Repeater Device.
• A Hub is a layer-1 device and operates only in the physical network of the OSI
Model.
• Since it works in the physical layer, it mainly deals with the data in the form of bits
or electrical signals.
• A Hub is mainly used to create a network and connect devices on the same network
only.
• A Hub is not an intelligent device, it forwards the incoming messages to other
devices without checking for any errors or processing it.
• It does not maintain any address table for connected devices.
• It only knows that a device is connected to one of its ports.
• When a data packet arrives at one of the ports of a Hub, it simply
copies the data to every port.
• In other words, a hub broadcasts the incoming data packets in the
network. Due to this, there are various security issues in the hub.
Broadcasting also leads to unnecessary data traffic on the channel.
• A Hub uses a half-duplex mode of communication.
• A hub is connected in limited network size.
• If the network size is increased, the speed of the network will slow
down.
• Also, a hub can only connect the devices in the same network with the
same data rates and format only.
 There are mainly two types of Hub, they are:
1.Active Hub: An Active hub is also known as Concentrator. It
requires a power supply and can work as a repeater. Thus, it can
analyze the data packets and can amplify the transmission
signals, if needed.
2.Passive Hub: A passive hub does not need any power supply to
operate. It only provides communication between the
networking devices and does not amplify the transmission
signals. In other words, it just forwards the data as it is.
 Advantages of using a Hub:
1.It is simple to implement.
2.The implementation cost is low.
3.It does not require any special system administration
configuration. We can just plug and play it.
Disadvantages
1.It can connect devices of the same network only.
2.It uses a half-duplex mode of communication.
3.It is less secure, as it broadcasts the data packets.
4.It can be used in a limited network size only.
5.Broadcasting induces unnecessary traffic on the channel.
Repeater

• A repeater is a dynamic network device used to reproduce the signals

when they transmit over a greater distance so that the signal’s strength
remains equal.
• It can be used to create an Ethernet network.
• A repeater that occurs as the first layer of the OSI layer is the physical
layer.
• Repeaters need to re-broadcast a signal, they can introduce more noise
or latency in a wireless radio wave.
• That can cause wireless network speeds to slow down, creating other
issues.
Features of Repeaters

• These repeaters are linked to each other at the physical layer.

• It sends the signals for the unsteady areas to enlarge the system signals.
• These receptors linked the various network signals to convert the data
between the two devices.
• These repeaters can eliminate the distance between the two devices.
• The repeaters can frequently monitor the signals that are created between the
two LANs.
• Repeaters can support dynamic networking.
• This IP network can support a fast response to any issue in the repeater
network.
Advantages of Repeater
• The main advantages of repeaters are −
• The signals get weaker as they transit to greater distances. The repeater provides the
stability of the signals.
• These repeaters are cost-effective and easy to use.
• The repeaters don’t influence network performance.
• It is not all signals that can be linked using physical media.
• These repeaters can retransmit the information and powerful the weak signals.
Disadvantage of Repeaters
• The main disadvantages of repeaters are −
• They cannot connect two distinct networks.
• While amplifying the signals, the repeaters also amplify the level of noise in those
• signals.
• If we enhance the extent of the web by only using the repeaters. In that case, the signal
propagation time will grow to a considerable level, and the network’s performance will
collapse.
 Bandwidth
• Bandwidth refers to the data capacity of a channel.
• It is defined as the total amount of data which can be transferred over
a network in a specific period of time.
• The maximum capacity of a network, including the network size and
server processing capacity, is referred to as Bandwidth.
• Bandwidth is measured in bits per second (bps), such as megabits per
second (Mbps) and gigabits per second (Gbps).
 Latency
• Latency literally means delay.
• In a network, latency refers to the measure of time it takes for data to
reach its destination across a network.
• In the network ecosystem, latency is the time taken by a request or
data to travel from its source to the destination. Here, a user’s action is
the request and how long a web application takes to respond to this
request.
• This delay in time also includes the time a server takes to process the
request. Hence, it is measured as the round trip – the total time taken
by a request to be captured and processed through several devices and
then received by the user where it gets decoded.
• Having a lower latency means having less of a delay when sending
data within a system, making the system run faster and resulting in a
positive user experience.
• A higher latency can cause an increase in webpage load times or
disrupt video or audio steams.
 Throughput
• Throughput is the measurement of the amount of data being
transmitted across a network, interface, or channel in a given length
of time.
• Throughput is also known as "effective data rate" or "payload rate".
• Measuring network throughput is usually done in bits per second
(bit/s or bps).
• In other words, it is the measurement of the rate at which data is
processed and transferred from one location to another in a given
timeframe.
• In computer networks, throughput can be affected by a number of
factors, including bus or network congestion, packet loss/errors, and
the protocol used.
 Relation between Latency & Througput
• A higher latency means packets will take a longer amount of time to
reach their destination, resulting in slower devices and applications.
Similarly, the lower the amount of throughput, the lower the number
of packets being processed in a specific time period.
• Both latency and throughput are factors that affect a network or
system’s performance.
• Latency is considered to be the delay in processing data while
throughput is how much data can be sent in a given period of time.
Relationship between Bandwidth, Latency
and Throughput
 Queuing time
• Key component in network delay.
• Time the packet spends in routing queues.
• Queuing delay is the sum of the delays encountered by a
packet between the time of insertion into the network and the
time of delivery to the address.
• Let the packet is received by the destination, the packet will not
be processed by the destination immediately.
• It has to wait in a queue in something called a buffer.
• So the amount of time it waits in queue before being processed
is called queueing delay.
Bandwidth delay product
• In data communications, the bandwidth-delay product is the product of a
datalink’s capacity (in bits per second) and its round-trip delay time ( in seconds).
• Bandwidth delay product is a measurement of how many bits can fill up a network
link.
• It gives the maximum amount of data that can be transmitted by the sender at a
given time before waiting for acknowledgment.
• Thus it is the maximum amount of unacknowledged data.
• The link capacity of a channel is the number of bits transmitted per second. Hence,
its unit is bps, i.e. bits per second.
• The round – trip delay time is the sum of the time taken for a signal to be
transmitted from the sender to the receiver and the time taken for its
acknowledgment to reach the sender from the receiver. The round – trip delay
includes all propagation delays in the links between the sender and the receiver.
• The unit of bandwidth delay product is bits or bytes.
Example

Consider that the link capacity of a channel is 512 Kbps and round – trip
delay time is 1000ms.
• The bandwidth delay product
= 512 × 103 bits/sec × 1000 × 10−3 sec
= 512,000 bits = 64,000 bytes = 62.5 KB