DATA COMMUNICATION

SESSION, PRESENTATION AND

APPLICATION LAYERS
SESSION 6
BY
PRUTHVI KUMAR K R
 SESSION LAYER
THE SESSION LAYER (LAYER 5) IS RESPONSIBLE FOR
ESTABLISHING, MANAGING, SYNCHRONIZING AND
TERMINATING SESSIONS BETWEEN END-USER APPLICATION
PROCESSES.

THE SESSION LAYER TRACKS THE DIALOGS BETWEEN

COMPUTERS, WHICH ARE ALSO CALLED SESSIONS
 MAIN FUNCTIONS OF THE SESSION LAYER
ARE
• IT WORKS AS A DIALOG CONTROLLER. IT ALLOWS THE SYSTEMS TO
COMMUNICATE IN EITHER HALF-DUPLEX OR FULL-DUPLEX MODE OF
COMMUNICATION.

• IT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR TOKEN MANAGEMENT. THROUGH THIS, IT PREVENTS

THE TWO USERS TO SIMULTANEOUSLY ATTEMPT THE SAME CRITICAL
OPERATION.
 MAIN FUNCTIONS OF THE SESSION LAYER
ARE
• IT SYNCHRONIZES COMMUNICATION. IT ADDS SYNCHRONIZATION POINTS OR
CHECKPOINTS IN DATA STREAMS FOR LONG COMMUNICATIONS. THIS ENSURES
THAT DATA STREAMS UP TO THE CHECKPOINTS ARE SUCCESSFULLY RECEIVED
AND ACKNOWLEDGED. IN CASE OF ANY FAILURES, ONLY THE STREAMS AFTER
THE CHECKPOINTS HAVE TO BE RE-TRANSMITTED.

• SESSION-LAYER SERVICES ARE COMMONLY USED IN APPLICATION

ENVIRONMENTS THAT MAKE USE OF REMOTE PROCEDURE CALLS
(RPCS). AN EXAMPLE OF A SESSION-LAYER PROTOCOL IS THE
OSI PROTOCOL SUITE SESSION-LAYER PROTOCOL, ALSO KNOWN AS X.
225 OR ISO 8327
 PRESENTATION LAYER
THE PRESENTATION LAYER IS LAYER 6 OF THE 7-LAYER OPEN
SYSTEMS INTERCONNECTION (OSI) MODEL. IT IS USED TO PRESENT
DATA TO THE APPLICATION LAYER (LAYER 7) IN AN ACCURATE, WELL-
DEFINED AND STANDARDIZED FORMAT. THE PRESENTATION LAYER IS
SOMETIMES CALLED THE SYNTAX LAYER.
 PRESENTATION LAYER
• THE PRIMARY GOAL OF THIS LAYER IS TO TAKE CARE OF
THE SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS OF THE INFORMATION EXCHANGED BETWEEN
TWO COMMUNICATING SYSTEMS. PRESENTATION LAYER TAKES CARE THAT
THE DATA IS SENT IN SUCH A WAY THAT THE RECEIVER WILL UNDERSTAND
THE INFORMATION(DATA) AND WILL BE ABLE TO USE THE DATA.

• THE LANGUAGES(SYNTAX) CAN BE DIFFERENT OF THE TWO

COMMUNICATING SYSTEMS. UNDER THIS CONDITION PRESENTATION LAYER
PLAYS A ROLE TRANSLATOR.
 CONT.

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. THE PRESENTATION
LAYER MANAGES THESE ABSTRACT DATA STRUCTURES AND ALLOWS HIGHER-
LEVEL DATA STRUCTURES(EG: BANKING RECORDS), TO BE DEFINED AND
EXCHANGED.
 FUNCTIONS OF PRESENTATION LAYER
• TRANSLATION: BEFORE BEING TRANSMITTED, INFORMATION IN
THE FORM OF CHARACTERS AND NUMBERS SHOULD BE
CHANGED TO BIT STREAMS.
• THE PRESENTATION LAYER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR
INTEROPERABILITY BETWEEN ENCODING METHODS AS
DIFFERENT COMPUTERS USE DIFFERENT ENCODING METHODS.
• IT TRANSLATES DATA BETWEEN THE FORMATS THE NETWORK
REQUIRES AND THE FORMAT THE COMPUTER.
 CONT.
ENCRYPTION: IT CARRIES OUT ENCRYPTION AT THE TRANSMITTER
AND DECRYPTION AT THE RECEIVER.

COMPRESSION: IT CARRIES OUT DATA COMPRESSION TO REDUCE

THE BANDWIDTH OF THE DATA TO BE TRANSMITTED. THE PRIMARY
ROLE OF DATA COMPRESSION IS TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF BITS TO
BE 0TRANSMITTED. IT IS IMPORTANT IN TRANSMITTING MULTIMEDIA
SUCH AS AUDIO, VIDEO, TEXT ETC.
 APPLICATION LAYER
• THE WHOLE INTERNET, HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE, WAS
DESIGNED AND DEVELOPED TO PROVIDE SERVICES AT THE
APPLICATION LAYER.
• THE FOURTH LAYER OF THE TCP/IP PROTOCOL SUITE IS WHERE
THESE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED FOR INTERNET USERS
 THE MAIN FUNCTION OF APPLICATION LAYER

• THE APPLICATION LAYER PROVIDES FULL END-USER ACCESS TO A VARIETY OF

SHARED NETWORK SERVICES FOR EFFICIENT OSI MODEL DATA FLOW.

• THIS LAYER HAS MANY RESPONSIBILITIES, INCLUDING ERROR HANDLING AND

RECOVERY, DATA FLOW OVER A NETWORK AND FULL NETWORK FLOW. IT IS
ALSO USED TO DEVELOP NETWORK-BASED APPLICATIONS.
 PROTOCOL USED IN APPLICATION LAYER
• TELNET: TELNET STANDS FOR THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK. ...
• FTP: FTP STANDS FOR FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL. ...
• TFTP: TRIVIAL FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL
• NFS: NETWORK FILE SYSTEM
• SMTP: SIMPLE MAIL TRANSFER PROTOCOL.
• LPD: LINE PRINTER DAEMON
• X WINDOW: ...
• SNMP:: SIMPLE NETWORK MANAGEMENT PROTOCOL
• DOMAIN NAME SERVICE
• DHCP
 TELNET
• TELNET STANDS FOR THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK.
• IT HELPS IN TERMINAL EMULATION. IT ALLOWS TELNET CLIENT TO ACCESS THE
RESOURCES OF THE TELNET SERVER.
• IT IS USED FOR MANAGING THE FILES ON THE INTERNET.
• IT IS USED FOR INITIAL SET UP OF DEVICES LIKE SWITCHES.
• THE TELNET COMMAND IS A COMMAND THAT USES THE TELNET PROTOCOL TO
COMMUNICATE WITH A REMOTE DEVICE OR SYSTEM. PORT NUMBER OF TELNET IS 23.
 FTP
• FTP STANDS FOR FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL.
• IT IS THE PROTOCOL THAT ACTUALLY LETS US TRANSFER FILES.
• IT CAN FACILITATE THIS BETWEEN ANY TWO MACHINES USING IT. BUT FTP IS NOT
JUST A PROTOCOL BUT IT IS ALSO A PROGRAM.
• FTP PROMOTES SHARING OF FILES VIA REMOTE COMPUTERS WITH RELIABLE AND
EFFICIENT DATA TRANSFER. PORT NUMBER FOR FTP IS 20 FOR DATA AND 21 FOR
CONTROL.
 TFTP
THE TRIVIAL FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL (TFTP) IS THE STRIPPED-DOWN, STOCK
VERSION OF FTP, BUT IT’S THE PROTOCOL OF CHOICE IF YOU KNOW EXACTLY
WHAT YOU WANT AND WHERE TO FIND IT.

IT’S A TECHNOLOGY FOR TRANSFERRING FILES BETWEEN NETWORK DEVICES AND

IS A SIMPLIFIED VERSION OF FTP
 NFS
• IT STANDS FOR NETWORK FILE SYSTEM.
• IT ALLOWS REMOTE HOSTS TO MOUNT FILE SYSTEMS OVER A NETWORK AND
INTERACT WITH THOSE FILE SYSTEMS AS THOUGH THEY ARE MOUNTED
LOCALLY.
• THIS ENABLES SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS TO CONSOLIDATE RESOURCES
ONTO CENTRALIZED SERVERS ON THE NETWORK.
 SMTP
• IT STANDS FOR SIMPLE MAIL TRANSFER PROTOCOL.
• IT IS A PART OF THE TCP/IP PROTOCOL. USING A PROCESS CALLED “STORE
AND FORWARD,” SMTP MOVES YOUR EMAIL ON AND ACROSS NETWORKS.
• IT WORKS CLOSELY WITH SOMETHING CALLED THE MAIL TRANSFER AGENT
(MTA) TO SEND YOUR COMMUNICATION TO THE RIGHT COMPUTER AND EMAIL
INBOX. PORT NUMBER FOR SMTP IS 25.
 LPD

• IT STANDS FOR LINE PRINTER DAEMON.IT IS DESIGNED FOR PRINTER

SHARING.
• IT IS THE PART THAT RECEIVES AND PROCESSES THE REQUEST. A “DAEMON” IS
A SERVER OR AGENT.
 X WINDOW
• IT DEFINES A PROTOCOL FOR THE WRITING OF GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE–
BASED CLIENT/SERVER APPLICATIONS.
• THE IDEA IS TO ALLOW A PROGRAM, CALLED A CLIENT, TO RUN ON ONE
COMPUTER.
• IT IS PRIMARILY USED IN NETWORKS OF INTERCONNECTED MAINFRAMES.
 SNMP
• IT STANDS FOR SIMPLE NETWORK MANAGEMENT PROTOCOL.
• IT GATHERS DATA BY POLLING THE DEVICES ON THE NETWORK FROM A
MANAGEMENT STATION AT FIXED OR RANDOM INTERVALS, REQUIRING
THEM TO DISCLOSE CERTAIN INFORMATION.
• IT IS A WAY THAT SERVERS CAN SHARE INFORMATION ABOUT THEIR CURRENT
STATE, AND ALSO A CHANNEL THROUGH WHICH AN ADMINISTRATE CAN
MODIFY PRE-DEFINED VALUES. PORT NUMBER OF SNMP IS 161(TCP) AND
162(UDP).
 DNS
• IT STANDS FOR DOMAIN NAME SERVICE. EVERY TIME YOU USE A DOMAIN
NAME, THEREFORE, A DNS SERVICE MUST TRANSLATE THE NAME INTO THE
CORRESPONDING IP ADDRESS.
• FOR EXAMPLE, THE DOMAIN NAME WWW.ABC.COM MIGHT TRANSLATE TO
198.105.232.4. PORT NUMBER FOR DNS IS 53.
 WORLD WIDE WEB AND HTTP
• THE IDEA OF THE WEB WAS FIRST PROPOSED BY TIM BERNERS-LEE IN 1989 AT CERN†,
• THE EUROPEAN ORGANIZATION FOR NUCLEAR RESEARCH, TO ALLOW SEVERAL
RESEARCHERS AT DIFFERENT LOCATIONS THROUGHOUT EUROPE TO ACCESS EACH
OTHERS’ RESEARCHES.

• THE WEB TODAY IS A REPOSITORY OF INFORMATION IN WHICH THE DOCUMENTS, CALLED

WEB PAGES, ARE DISTRIBUTED ALL OVER THE WORLD AND RELATED DOCUMENTS ARE
LINKED TOGETHER
 CONT.
• THE POPULARITY AND GROWTH OF THE WEB CAN BE RELATED TO TWO
TERMS IN THE ABOVE STATEMENT:

• DISTRIBUTED AND LINKED. DISTRIBUTION ALLOWS THE GROWTH OF THE

WEB. EACH WEB SERVER IN THE WORLD CAN ADD A NEW WEB PAGE TO THE
REPOSITORY AND ANNOUNCE IT TO ALL INTERNET USERS WITHOUT
OVERLOADING A FEW SERVERS.
 CONT.
• LINKING ALLOWS ONE WEB PAGE TO REFER TO ANOTHER WEB PAGE STORED IN
ANOTHER SERVER SOMEWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD. THE LINKING OF WEB PAGES
WAS ACHIEVED USING A CONCEPT CALLED HYPERTEXT,

• TODAY, THE TERM HYPERTEXT, COINED TO MEAN LINKED TEXT DOCUMENTS, HAS
BEEN CHANGED TO HYPERMEDIA, TO SHOW THAT A WEB PAGE CAN BE A TEXT
DOCUMENT, AN IMAGE, AN AUDIO FILE, OR A VIDEO FILE.
 ARCHITECTURE OF WWW
• THE WWW TODAY IS A DISTRIBUTED CLIENT-SERVER SERVICE, IN WHICH A CLIENT USING A
BROWSER CAN ACCESS A SERVICE USING A SERVER. HOWEVER, THE SERVICE PROVIDED IS
DISTRIBUTED OVER MANY LOCATIONS CALLED SITES.

• EACH SITE HOLDS ONE OR MORE WEB PAGES. EACH WEB PAGE, HOWEVER, CAN CONTAIN
SOME LINKS TO OTHER WEB PAGES IN THE SAME OR OTHER SITES.

• IN OTHER WORDS, A WEB PAGE CAN BE SIMPLE OR COMPOSITE. A SIMPLE WEB PAGE HAS
NO LINKS TO OTHER WEB PAGES; A COMPOSITE WEB PAGE HAS ONE OR MORE LINKS TO
OTHER WEB PAGES. EACH WEB PAGE IS A FILE WITH A NAME AND ADDRESS.
ASSUME WE NEED TO RETRIEVE A SCIENTIFIC DOCUMENT THAT CONTAINS ONE REFERENCE
TO ANOTHER TEXT FILE AND ONE REFERENCE TO A LARGE IMAGE
 WEB CLIENT (BROWSER)
• A VARIETY OF VENDORS OFFER COMMERCIAL BROWSERS THAT INTERPRET AND DISPLAY
A WEB PAGE, AND ALL OF THEM USE NEARLY THE SAME ARCHITECTURE. EACH BROWSER
USUALLY CONSISTS OF THREE PARTS: A CONTROLLER, CLIENT PROTOCOLS, AND
INTERPRETERS
 WEB SERVER
• THE WEB PAGE IS STORED AT THE SERVER. EACH TIME A REQUEST ARRIVES, THE
CORRESPONDING DOCUMENT IS SENT TO THE CLIENT. TO IMPROVE EFFICIENCY, SERVERS
NORMALLY STORE REQUESTED FILES IN A CACHE IN MEMORY; MEMORY IS FASTER TO
ACCESS THAN A DISK.
• A SERVER CAN ALSO BECOME MORE EFFICIENT THROUGH MULTITHREADING OR
MULTIPROCESSING. IN THIS CASE, A SERVER CAN ANSWER MORE THAN ONE REQUEST AT A
TIME. SOME POPULAR WEB SERVERS INCLUDE APACHE AND MICROSOFT INTERNET
INFORMATION SERVER.
 UNIFORM RESOURCE LOCATOR (URL)

• A WEB PAGE, AS A FILE, NEEDS TO HAVE A UNIQUE IDENTIFIER TO DISTINGUISH IT FROM OTHER
WEB PAGES. TO DEFINE A WEB PAGE, WE NEED THREE IDENTIFIERS: HOST, PORT, AND PATH.
• HOWEVER, BEFORE DEFINING THE WEB PAGE, WE NEED TO TELL THE BROWSER WHAT CLIENT
SERVER APPLICATION WE WANT TO USE, WHICH IS CALLED THE PROTOCOL. THIS MEANS WE
NEED FOUR IDENTIFIERS TO DEFINE THE WEB PAGE.

• THE FIRST IS THE TYPE OF VEHICLE TO BE USED TO FETCH THE WEB PAGE; THE LAST THREE
MAKE UP THE COMBINATION THAT DEFINES THE DESTINATION OBJECT (WEB PAGE).
 CONT.
• PROTOCOL. THE FIRST IDENTIFIER IS THE ABBREVIATION FOR THE CLIENT-SERVER
PROGRAM THAT WE NEED IN ORDER TO ACCESS THE WEB PAGE. ALTHOUGH MOST OF THE
TIME THE PROTOCOL IS HTTP (HYPER TEXT TRANSFER PROTOCOL), WHICH WE WILL
DISCUSS SHORTLY, WE CAN ALSO USE OTHER PROTOCOLS SUCH AS FTP (FILE TRANSFER
PROTOCOL).

• HOST. THE HOST IDENTIFIER CAN BE THE IP ADDRESS OF THE SERVER OR THE UNIQUE
NAME GIVEN TO THE SERVER. IP ADDRESSES CAN BE DEFINED IN DOTTED DECIMAL
NOTATION (SUCH AS 64.23.56.17); THE NAME IS NORMALLY THE DOMAIN NAME THAT
UNIQUELY DEFINES THE HOST, SUCH AS FOROUZAN.COM,
 CONT.
• PORT. THE PORT, A 16-BIT INTEGER, IS NORMALLY PREDEFINED FOR THE CLIENT-SERVER
APPLICATION. FOR EXAMPLE, IF THE HTTP PROTOCOL IS USED FOR ACCESSING THE WEB
PAGE, THE WELL-KNOWN PORT NUMBER IS 80. HOWEVER, IF A DIFFERENT PORT IS USED,
THE NUMBER CAN BE EXPLICITLY GIVEN.

• PATH. THE PATH IDENTIFIES THE LOCATION AND THE NAME OF THE FILE IN THE
UNDERLYING OPERATING SYSTEM. THE FORMAT OF THIS IDENTIFIER NORMALLY DEPENDS
ON THE OPERATING SYSTEM. IN UNIX, A PATH IS A SET OF DIRECTORY NAMES FOLLOWED
BY THE FILE NAME, ALL SEPARATED BY A SLASH. FOR EXAMPLE, /TOP/NEXT/LAST/MYFILE IS
A PATH THAT UNIQUELY DEFINES A FILE NAMED MY FILE STORED IN THE DIRECTORY LAST,
WHICH ITSELF IS PART OF THE DIRECTORY NEXT, WHICH ITSELF IS UNDER THE DIRECTORY
TOP.,