Unit V

Repeaters – Bridges – Routers – Gateway – Routing algorithms – TCP/IP Network, Transport

and Application Layers of TCP/IP – World Wide Web

CONNECTING DEVICES: Connecting devices divided into five different categories based on
the layer in which they operate in a network.

The five categories contain devices which can be defined as

1. Those which operate below the physical layer such as a passive hub

2. Those which operate at the physical layer (a repeater or an active hub).

3. Those which operate at the physical and data link layers (a bridge or a two-layer switch).

4. Those which operate at the physical, data link, and network layers (a router or a three-layer
switch).

5. Those which can operate at all five layers (a gateway).

Repeaters : A repeater is a device that operates only in the physical layer. Signals that carry
information within a network can travel a fixed distance before attenuation endangers the
integrity of the data. A repeater receives a signal and, before it becomes too weak or corrupted,
regenerates the original bit pattern. The repeater then sends the refreshed signal.

Bridges: A bridge operates in both the physical and the data link layer. As a physical layer
device, it regenerates the signal it receives. As a data link layer device, the bridge can check the
physical (MAC) addresses (source and destination) contained in the frame.

Routers : A router is a three-layer device that routes packets based on their logical addresses
(host-to-host addressing). A router normally connects LANs and WANs in the Internet and has a
routing table that is used for making decisions about the route. The routing tables are normally
dynamic and are updated using routing protocols.
Gateway: A gateway is normally a computer that operates in all five layers of the Internet or
seven layers of OSI model. A gateway takes an application message, reads it, and interprets it.
This means that it can be used as a connecting device between two internetworks that use
different models. For example, a network designed to use the OSI model can be connected to
another network using the Internet model. The gateway connecting the two systems can take a
frame as it arrives from the first system, move it up to the OSI application layer, and remove the
message.

Routing Algorithm: A Routing Algorithm is a method for determining the routing of packets
in a node. For each node of a network, the algorithm determines a routing table, which in each
destination, matches an output line. The algorithm should lead to a consistent routing, that is to
say without loop. This means that you should not route a packet a node to another node that could
send back the package.
There are three main types of routing algorithms:
• Distance Vector (distance-vector routing);
• To link state (link state routing);
• Path to vector (path-vector routing).
Distance vector routing algorithms: It requires that each node exchanges information between
neighbors that is to say between nodes directly connected. Therefore, each node can keep updated
a table by adding information on all its neighbors. This table shows the distance is each node and
each network to be reached. First to be implemented in the Arpanet, this technique quickly
becomes cumbersome when the number of nodes increases since we must carry a lot of
information node to node. RIP (Routing Information Protocol) is the best example of
a protocol using distance vector.
In this type of algorithm, each router broadcasts to its neighbors a vector that lists each network
it can reach the metric associated with, that is to say the number of hops. Each router can therefore
build a routing table with information received from its neighbors but has no idea of the identity
of routers that are on the selected route. Therefore, the use of this solution poses numerous
problems for external routing protocols. Indeed, it is assumed that all routers use the same metric,
which may not be the case between autonomous systems. Furthermore, an autonomous system
can have special reasons to behave differently from another autonomous system. In particular, if
an autonomous system needs to determine how else autonomous system will pass its messages,
e.g. for security reasons, he cannot know.
Link State Routing Algorithm: The algorithms link state had initially intended to overcome the
shortcomings of distance vector routing. When a router is initialized, it must define the cost of
each of its links connected to another node. The node then broadcasts the information to all nodes
in the autonomous system, and therefore not only to its neighbors. From all this information, the
nodes can perform their calculation for obtaining a routing table indicating the cost of achieving
each destination. When a router receives information that alters its routing table, it notifies all
intervening routers in its configuration. As each node has the network topology and costs of each
link, routing can be seen as central in each node. OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) implements
this technique, which is the second generation of Internet protocols.
The algorithms link state solves the problems mentioned above for external routing but raise
other. The various autonomous systems may have different metrics and specific restrictions, so it
is not possible to achieve a coherent route. The dissemination of all information necessary for all
the autonomous systems can also quickly become unmanageable.
Path-Vector Routing Algorithm: The purpose of the path-vector algorithms is to overcome the
shortcomings of the first two categories by providing metrics and seeking to know which network
can be reached by any node and autonomous systems which must be crossed for it. This approach
is very different from that distance-vector because the paths vectors do not take into account the
distances or costs. In addition, the fact that each list routing information all autonomous systems
that must be traversed to reach the destination router, the path vector approach is much more
directed towards the external routing systems. BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) belongs to this
category.
TCP/IP : The four layers of original TCP/IP model are Application Layer, Transport Layer,
Internet Layer and Network Access Layer.
Layer 4: Application Layer

Application layer is the top-most layer of four-layer TCP/IP model. Application layer is placed on
the top of the Transport layer. Application layer defines TCP/IP application protocols and how
host programs interface with Transport layer services to use the network.

Application layer includes all the higher-level protocols like DNS (Domain Naming
System), HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), Telnet, SSH, FTP (File Transfer Protocol), TFTP
(Trivial File Transfer Protocol), SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), SMTP (Simple
Mail Transfer Protocol) , DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), X Windows, RDP
(Remote Desktop Protocol) etc.

Layer 3: Transport Layer

Transport Layer is the third layer of the four-layer TCP/IP model. The position of the Transport
layer is between Application layer and Internet layer. The purpose of Transport layer is to permit
devices on the source and destination hosts to carry on a conversation. Transport layer defines the
level of service and status of the connection used when transporting data.

The main protocols included at Transport layer are TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and UDP
(User Datagram Protocol).

Layer 2: Internet Layer

Internet Layer is the second layer of the four-layer TCP/IP model. The position of Internet layer is
between Network Access Layer and Transport layer. Internet layer pack data into data packets
known as IP datagrams, which contain source and destination address (logical address or IP
address) information that is used to forward the datagrams between hosts and across networks. The
Internet layer is also responsible for routing of IP datagrams.

Internet layer allow hosts to insert packets into network and have them delivered to the destination,
on the same network or on another remote network. At the destination side data packets may appear
in a different order than they were sent. It is the job of the higher layers to rearrange them in order
to deliver them to proper network applications operating at the Application layer.

The main protocols included at Internet layer are IP (Internet Protocol), ICMP (Internet Control
Message Protocol), ARP (Address Resolution Protocol), RARP (Reverse Address Resolution
Protocol) and IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol).

Layer 1. Network Access Layer

Network Access Layer is the first layer of the four-layer TCP/IP model. Network Access Layer
defines details of how data is physically sent through the network, including how bits are
electrically or optically signaled by hardware devices that interface directly with a network
medium, such as coaxial cable, optical fiber, or twisted pair copper wire.
The protocols/standards included in Network Access Layer are Ethernet, Token Ring, FDDI,
X.25, Frame Relay etc.

The most popular LAN architecture among those listed above is Ethernet. Ethernet uses an Access
Method called CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection) to access the
media, when Ethernet operates in a shared media. An Access Method determines how a host will
place data on the medium.

IN CSMA/CD Access Method, every host has equal access to the medium and can place data on
the wire when the wire is free from network traffic. When a host wants to place data on the wire,
it will check the wire to find whether another host is already using the medium. If there is traffic
already in the medium, the host will wait and if there is no traffic, it will place the data in the
medium. But, if two systems place data on the medium at the same instance, they will collide with
each other, destroying the data. If the data is destroyed during transmission, the data will need to
be retransmitted. After collision, each host will wait for a small interval of time and again the data
will be retransmitted.

WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW): The World Wide Web (WWW), or the web, is a repository of
information spread all over the world and linked together. 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 provides is distributed over many locations called web sites Hypertext and hypermedia.
The WWW uses the concept of hypertext and hypermedia. In a hypertext environment, information
is stored in a set of document that is linked together using of concept of pointer. The reader who
is browsing through the document can move to other documents by choosing (clicking) the items
that are linked to other document. Hypertext document contain only text, hypermedia document
can contain pictures, graphics, and sound. A unit of hypertext or hypertext document contain only
text, hypermedia available on the web is called a page. The main page for an organization or an
individual is known as a homepage.

Browser Architecture: A variety of vendors offer commercial browsers that interpret and display
a web document, and all of them use nearly the same architecture. Each browser usually consists
of three parts: a controller, client program, and interpreters. The controller receives input from the
keyboard or the mouse and uses the client program to access the document. After the document
has been accessed, the controller uses one of the interpreters to display the document on the screen.
The client program can be one of the methods (protocol) described previously such as HTTP, FTP
OR TELNET. The interpreters can be HTML or JAVA, depending on the type of document.