Communication Networks

EE 706, Spring’23
Gaurav S. Kasbekar
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
IIT Bombay
 Basic Information
• Timings
❑Monday: 9.30 am to 10.25 am
❑Tuesday: 10.35 am to 11.30 am
❑Thursday: 11.35 am to 12.30 pm
• Venue: LC 002
• Instructor: Gaurav S. Kasbekar
❑office: 211-B, EE Old Building
❑email: gskasbekar@ee.iitb.ac.in
• Teaching Assistants: TBD
• Course material will be posted on Moodle
 Pre-requisites
• First and second-year undergraduate students
should not take this course
• Knowledge of undergraduate-level probability
theory is required to understand the course
contents
 Communication “Networks”
• Much of communications addresses following
problem
• Transmitter and receiver connected by a single
physical link
❑e.g., copper cable, fibre optic, wireless
• How can the transmitter effectively (fast and
error-free) send a sequence of bits to the
receiver?
• Focus on modulation, coding, etc.
 Communication “Networks” (contd.)
• In this course: physical links
treated as black boxes
• Goal: to design efficient
networks of large number
of communicating devices
using physical links
• E.g.: Internet, Telephone
network

Ref: Kurose and Ross, 3rd ed

 Course Contents
• Overview and Fundamentals: Key networking
functions (reliable data transfer, medium access
control, routing, congestion control), overview of
Internet architecture, commonly used physical
media, circuit switching and packet switching,
network performance metrics (throughput, delay,
packet loss, jitter), layering, message segmentation
• Reliable Data Transfer: Stop-and-Wait, Go-Back-N
and Selective Repeat Protocols
• Medium Access Control: Random access protocols:
ALOHA, Slotted ALOHA, CSMA-CD, CSMA-CA,
Ethernet, bridges and switches
 Course Contents (contd.)
• Routing: Shortest path algorithms (Dijkstra, Bellman-
Ford), congestion-based routing and stability issues,
optimal routing, minimum spanning tree algorithms
(Kruskal, Prim), broadcasting algorithms
• Congestion Control: End-to-end and network
assisted congestion control, rate adjustment
algorithms, max-min fairness, analysis of TCP
congestion control
• Wireless and Mobile Networks: cellular networks,
wireless ad hoc and sensor networks, 802.11
Wireless LANs (Wi-Fi)
 Textbooks
• J. Kurose, K. Ross, “Computer Networking: A
Top Down Approach”, Eighth Edition, Pearson
Education, 2022
• D. Bertsekas, R. Gallager, “Data Networks”,
Second Edition, Prentice Hall India, 1992
(Available at: http://web.mit.edu/dimitrib/www/datanets.html)
 Other References
• A. Tanenbaum, D. Wetherall, “Computer Networks”,
Fifth Edition, Pearson Education, 2012.
• L. Peterson, B. Davie, “Computer Networks: A Systems
Approach”, Fifth Edition, Morgan Kaufmann, 2012.
• T.S. Rappaport, “Wireless Communications: Principles
and Practice”, Prentice Hall of India, 2nd ed, 2002.
• A. Kumar, D. Manjunath, J. Kuri, “Communication
Networking: An Analytical Approach”, Morgan
Kaufmann, 2004
• A. Kumar, D. Manjunath, J. Kuri, “Wireless Networking”,
Morgan Kaufmann, 2008
• A. Leon-Garcia, I. Widjaja, “Communication Networks:
Fundamental Concepts and Key Architectures”, Second
Edition, Tata McGraw Hill, 2004
 Other Resources
• Slides by Kurose and Ross:
http://ctas.poly.asu.edu/millard/CET459/lectno/K%20-
%20R%20stuff/index.html
• Modified versions of above slides will be used
for some of the lectures
 Grading
• Quizzes (best 2 out of 3): 10 % each
• Mid-sem: 30 %
• End-sem: 50 %
• Homework (won’t be graded)
❑Approximately 1 problem set per week
Example Networks
 Familiar Examples
• Internet
• Telephone network
• Local Area Networks
❑Ethernet
❑Wi-Fi
 Ad Hoc Networks
• Two or more wireless nodes communicate among
themselves without using infrastructure (e.g., base
station, access point)
• A node can directly communicate only with
neighbors
❑must use one or more intermediate nodes as relays for
others

Ref: http://www.acorn.net.au/telecoms/adhocnetworks/adhocnetworks.html
 Applications of Ad Hoc
Networks
• Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct
❑file transfer among mobiles, laptops, etc.
• Military/ Emergency applications
❑military personnel operating in hostile territory
❑operation in an area with no infrastructure or where
infrastructure has failed (e.g., earthquake, flood-affected areas)
❑rescue missions
• When transient networks need to be set up
❑e.g., networks for wilderness expeditions or conferences may
exist for only a short period of time before dispersing or moving
• When nodes are spread over too large an area for one base
station to cover and addition of more base stations expensive
5-15
 Applications of Ad Hoc Networks
• National security (contd.)
❑for communication in times of national crisis, when the
existing communication infrastructure is non-operational due
to a natural disaster or a global war
• Commercial use
❑for setting up communication in exhibitions, conferences, or
sale presentations
• Education
❑formation of ad hoc network among mobiles of students and
teacher in a classroom
❑e.g., for conducting quizzes, polls, etc.
• Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs)
❑details later
• Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs)
❑details later 5-16
 Applications of Ad Hoc Networks (contd.)
• VANETs comprise vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure
communications based on wireless network technologies
• Among wireless networks, VANETs have a distinctive set of:
❑ candidate applications (e.g., collision warning and local traffic
information for drivers),
❑ and environment (e.g., vehicular traffic flow patterns)
• VANETs offer direct
communication between
vehicles and to and from
roadside units (RSUs)

Ref: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/vehicular-ad-hoc-network
 Applications of VANETs
• Traffic signal violation warning
• Curve speed warning
• Route guidance and navigation
• Tolling
• Point-of-interest notifications

5-18
 Applications of Ad Hoc Networks (contd.)
• Flying Ad Hoc Networks (FANETs)
❑ad hoc network in which nodes are unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs)
❑enables communication among the UAVs of a swarm of
multiple UAVs
❑allows UAVs of a swarm to coordinate among themselves and
perform tasks such as search and destroy operations, border
surveillance, managing wildfire, etc.

Ref: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Flying-
Adhoc-Network_fig1_271644696
5-19
 Wireless Sensor Networks
• Are ad hoc networks
• The wireless nodes can sense various quantities
❑ e.g., ambient temperature, moisture
• Large number of sensors perform distributed sensing
of an area and route sensed data to sink node

Ref: Akyildiz et al, “Wireless Sensor Networks: a Survey”, Computer Networks , 2002
 Internet of Things (IoT)
• IoT is extension of Internet connectivity to
resource-constrained devices (e.g., sensors,
actuators) and everyday objects
• Allows remote monitoring and control of such
devices
❑henceforth called “IoT nodes”
 Applications of WSNs and IoT
• Precision Agriculture
❑sensors deployed at multiple points in a farm
❑they monitor soil moisture/ composition,
temperature, humidity, etc.
❑measurements from sensors can be monitored
remotely; used to control irrigation/ fertilizing

Ref: http://monet.postech.ac.kr/research.html
 Applications of WSNs and IoT (contd.)
• Smart Healthcare
❑ Sensor devices are attached to patient’s body
❑ They collect medical data and vital signs (e.g., blood pressure, body
temperature, cholesterol level, heart rate, etc.) from patient
❑ Enables automatic diagnosis of conditions, tracking of progress
❑ Anomalies can be indicated directly to healthcare provider, without
significant human involvement
• Smart Home
❑ Automatic lighting system senses presence of human beings and
switches on the lights only in specific areas of house accordingly
❑ Automatic control of heating and air conditioning, e.g., to avoid
heating or cooling an empty home
❑ Smart appliances can be remotely switched ON or OFF over Internet
❑ Security: e.g., infrared/ proximity sensors to sense intrusion by
burglars, transmission of alerts to home owner’s smartphone
❑ Home automation for elderly and disabled: making it easier for the
elderly and disabled to remain at home, safely and comfortably
(instead of being moved to a healthcare facility)
Applications of WSNs and IoT (contd.)
• Infrastructure/ Machine Monitoring and
Preventive Maintenance
❑sensors fixed to machines in factory, walls of
buildings, bridges, etc., which sense vibration
patterns/ acoustics
❑send alerts when maintenance needed
• Environment monitoring
❑sensors floated at various altitudes in atmosphere
to sense temperature, air quality, etc.
• Smart Cities
• Intelligent Transportation System
• Industrial Automation
 Communication Satellites
• Satellites deployed in orbits at various
altitudes
❑few hundred km to several thousand km
• Can directly communicate with
❑ground stations
❑mobile devices on earth
❑neighboring satellites

Ref: Tanenbaum, Chapter 2

 Communication Satellites (contd.)

Ref: Tanenbaum, Chapter 2

• Example applications
❑Internet, telephone, TV services, esp. in remote areas
❑providing connectivity in emergency, military
applications
 This Course
• Variety of networks with diverse applications
Our focus:
• Fundamental and broad principles in network
design
• Not on architecture of any particular network
❑although several illustrative examples in context
of Internet
Basic Principles and Challenges
 Network Topology
• Problem: n devices at
different locations need to
be connected to each other
❑e.g., computers, telephones
• Option 1: Pair-wise
connection
• Drawback:
❑expensive and wasteful, not
scalable Ref: Tanenbaum, Chapter 2
 Network Topology (contd.)
• Option 2: via one switch/ router/ bridge
• Scalability better than option 1, but
inadequate

Ref: Tanenbaum, Chapter 2

 Network Topology (contd.)
• Option 3: two-level hierarchy of switches

Ref: Tanenbaum, Chapter 2

 Network Topology (contd.)
• More generally
❑ hierarchy with multiple levels of switches
• Loosely hierarchical network of switches
❑ more flexible
❑ e.g., Internet, Public Switched Telephone
Network
 Example

Ref: Kurose and Ross, Chapter 1

 Routing
• Terminology: “end system”
❑sources or sinks of data (as opposed to
switches)
• Consider a pair of end systems A and
B
• In general, many paths between
them A
• Problem: Which path to send data
along?
• Commonly used solution: “shortest
path”
❑need efficient algorithms for finding B
shortest path in large networks

Ref: Kurose and Ross

 Routing (contd.)
• A single source node may want to simultaneously
send data to multiple receivers
❑e.g., live streaming of an event
❑“broadcast/ multicast”
• Inefficient to separately send in parallel to each
receiver
• Use a “spanning tree“
❑need efficient algorithms to find good spanning trees

Ref: Bertsekas and Gallager, Chapter 5

 Terminology: Packets
• A, B: end systems in Internet
• Data from A to B typically not sent as a
continuous bit stream, but broken into small
chunks
❑“packets”
❑reasons later
 Reliable Data Transfer
• File to be transferred from A to B A
❑broken into packets
• Some packets may be lost on the way
❑routers “drop” them due to congestion
❑must be retransmitted
• How does A know which packets to
retransmit and when?
• What if duplicate packets are received at B? Ref: Kurose and Ross B
• Different packets may take different routes from A to
B
❑possibly reach B out of order
❑B must correctly order them
• A and B could be separated by large distance
❑A must be able to send packets while waiting for feedback
from B
❑“stop and wait” scheme inefficient
 Medium Access Control
• Several physical links (e.g., wireless,
Ethernet) are broadcast media
❑If exactly one node transmits a packet at a
time, successfully received
❑If two or more nodes transmit, then collision
• How do nodes decide which node transmits
when in a distributed manner?
 Congestion Control
• Two or more sender-receiver pairs sharing one or more links
• If each sender transmits at maximum rate, congestion at
intermediate routers and packets dropped
• Also, bandwidth of links must be fairly shared between
competing flows
❑ else a few flows would hog the bandwidth and others would starve
• Senders cannot simply send at maximum rate
• Need a distributed way for sources to dynamically adapt their
transmission rates to available bandwidth

Source
1
Router Destination
1

Source Router
2
Router
Destination
2
Source
3
Ref: Princeton, CS Dept, Fall 2006, CS 561 course notes
 Distributed Algorithms
• Most of the above problems require distributed
solutions
• Two or more entities (e.g., humans, computers)
at different locations
• Need to jointly perform a task
❑via local actions (e.g., send message, start/ stop a
timer) and
❑message exchanges
• Understanding of distributed algorithms crucial
in networking