Lecture -1

Introduction to Fundamental
concepts on Data communication
 Content
• Introduction
– Terminologies in Communication Network
– Introduction to Internet
– Switching techniques
– Layered Network Architecture
– Internetworking devices
– Network Standards
 1.1 Communication Network
• The term telecommunication means
communication at a distance. The word data
refers to information presented in whatever form
is agreed upon by the parties creating and using
the data.
• Data communications are the exchange of data
between two devices via some form of
transmission medium such as a wire cable or
wireless.
– Delivery → Correct destination
– Accuracy → Accurate data
– Timelines → Real-time transmission
– Jitter → Uneven delay
 Con…
• Public Telecommunication Networks
(Telephone System, Public Switched
Telephone Networks)
• Computer Networks (Data Communication
Networks)
• Narrowband-Integrated Services Data
Networks (N-ISDN)
• Broadband-Integrated Services Data Networks
(B-ISDN)
 Con..
Components
• Five components of data communication

Figure: Five components of data communication

 1.2 Computer Networking: Basic
concepts
• A network is a set of devices (nodes)
connected by communication links. A node can
be a computer, printer, or any other device
capable of sending and/or receiving data
generated by other nodes on the network.
• Computer Networks (Data Communication
Networks)
– A communication system for connecting
computer/hosts
 Con…

Types of Computer Networks

• Local Area Networks(LANs)

• Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs)

• Wide Area Networks(WANs)

 Con…

• Interconnection
of Networks:
internet

A heterogeneous network made of four WANs and two LANs

 1.3 Internet
• Internet is the network formed by the
cooperative interconnection of a large
number of computer networks
– Network of networks
– No one owns the internet
• Every person who makes connection owns a
slice of the internet
• There is no central administration to
internet
 Cont.

Figure: Key Elements of the Internet

Figure: A Networking Configuration
 1.4 Evolution of Internet
• 1950’s
– The U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency Network
(ARPANET)
• 1970
– ARPANET creates precursors to transmission control
protocol
• 1971
– Universities added to net
– Telnet and FTP
• 1972
– First electronic mail sent
• 1973
– ARPANET connected to England and Norway
 Con…
• 1974
– TCP starts being used for communication across a
system of networks
• 1982
– US DoD starts building defense data networks based
on ARPANET technology
• 1983
– ARPANET splits into ARPANET and MILNET
• 1983
– Internet now in place
– TCP/IP standardized
 Con..
• 1986
– National Science foundation (NSF) implements NSFNET; a
system of regional network of routers connected over a backbone
network
• 1991
– Archie and Gopher released

• 1992
– Internet links more than 17,000 networks in 33 counties, 3
million hosts
• 1993
– World wide web is launched
• 1995
– About 30 million users
 1. 5 Switching technologies

• Two different switching technologies

–Circuit switching
–Packet switching
 1.5.1 Circuit switching
• Dedicated communication path is required between
two stations
• The path follow a fixed sequences of intermediate
links
• A logical channel get defined on each physical link
• Dedicated to the connection Must have switching
capacity and channel capacity to establish connection
• Must have intelligence to work out routing
 Con..
• In circuit switching, three phases are required
for communication
– Connection Establish:
• Before data transmission
– Data Transfer
• Can proceed at maximum speed
– Disconnect (connection termination)
• Required after data transmission is over
• For de-allocation of network resources
Con…
 Con….
• Drawbacks
– Limited transfer rate: Channel capacity gets
dedicated during the entire duration of
communication
• Acceptable for voice communication
• Very inefficient for bursty traffic
– There is an initial delay
• For connection establishment
• Delay between entering address (dialing) and
connection
1.5.2 Packet switching
 Con…
• Data transmitted in small packets
– Typically 1000 octets
– Longer messages split into series of packets
– Each packet contains a portion of user data plus some
control info
• Modern form of long distance data communication
– Network resources are not dedicated
– A link can be shared
• The basic technology has evolved over time
– Basic concept has remained the same
– Widely used for long distance data communication
 Con…
• Data are transmitted in short packets (-Kbytes)
• A longer message is broken up into smaller
chunks
• The chunks are called packets
• Every packet contains a header
– Relevant information for routing etc.
 Con….
• Packet switching is based on store and
forward concept
– Each intermediate network node receives a whole
packet
– Decides the route
– Forwards the packet along the selected route
 Con….
• Advantages
– Links can be shared: so link utilization is better
– Suitable for computer generated traffic
• Typically bursty nature
– Buffering and data rate conversion can be
performed easily
– Some packets may be given priority over others, if
desired
 Con….
• How are the packets transmitted
– Two alternative approaches
• Virtual circuits
• Datagram
• The abstract network model

B D F

C E G H
 1.5.2.1 Virtual circuit Approach
• Similar in concept to circuit switching
• A route is established before packet
transmission starts
• All packets follow the same path
• The links comprising the path are not
dedicated
• Different from circuit switching in this respect
Working principles
• Route is established a prior
• Packet forwarded from one node to the next
using store-and-forward scheme
• Only the virtual circuit number need to be carried
by a packet
– Each intermediate node maintains a table
– Created during route establishment
– Used for packet forwarding
• No dynamic routing decision is taken by the
intermediate nodes
 1.5.2.2 Datagram
• Each packet treated independently
• Packets can take any practical route
• Every intermediate node has to take routing
decisions dynamically
• Makes use of a routing table
• Every packet must contain source and destination
addresses Packets may arrive out of order
• Packets may go missing
• Up to receiver to re-order packets and recover
from missing packets
Con….
 Con…
• Advantages
– Faster than virtual circuit for smaller number of
packets
– No route establishment and termination
– More flexible
– Packets between two hosts may follow different paths
– Can handle congestion/failed link
• Problems
– Packets may be delivered out of order
– If a node crashes momentarily, all of tis queued
packets are lost
– Duplicate packet may also be generated
 Virtual Circuits v Datagram
• Virtual circuits
– Network can provide sequencing and error control
– Packets are forwarded more quickly
• No routing decisions to make
– Less reliable
• Loss of a node looses all circuits through that node
• Datagram
– No call setup phase
• Better if few packets
– More flexible
• Routing can be used to avoid congested parts of the
network
 Comparative performance study
• Three types of delays must be considered
• Propagation delay
– Time taken by a data signal to propagate from one
node to the next
• Transmission time
– Time taken to send out a packet by transmitter
• Processing delay
– Time taken by a node to process a packet
Virtual circuit packet Datagram packet
switching switching
• Call request packet sent from • No initial delay
source to destination • The packets are sent out
• Call accept packet returns independently
back
• May follow different
• Packets sent sequentially in a paths
pipelined fashion
– Store-and-forward approach • Follow store-and-
forward approach
 1.6 Layered Network Architecture
• The process of transferring a message between
sender and receiver is more easily
implemented by breaking it down into simpler
components.
• Instead of a single layer, a group of layers are
used, dividing up the tasks required for
network communications.
• The two most important such network models
are the OSI and Internet models.
 Con…
• Open systems interconnections (OSI) reference
model
– Seven layered model
– Communication functions are partitioned into a
hierarchical set of layers
• Objective
– Systematic approach to design
– Changes in one layer should not require changes in
other layers
Con…
 Con…
• Physical layer
– Transmit raw bit stream over physical medium
• Data link
– Reliable transfer of frames over a point-to-pint link (follow
control, error control)
• Network layer
– Establishing, maintaining and terminating connections
– Routs packets through point-to-point links
– responsible for making routing decisions
• Transport layer
– End-to-end reliable data transfer, with error recovery and follow
control
– deals with end-to-end issues such as segmenting the message for
network transport, and maintaining the logical connections
between sender and receiver
 Con….
• Session
– Manages sessions
– responsible for initiating, maintaining and terminating each
logical session between sender and receiver
• Presentation
– Provides data independence
– formats data for presentation to the user, provides data
interfaces, data compression and translation between
different data formats
• Application
– Interface pint for user application
 Con…
How data follows?
 Con…

Figure: Network Models

 1.7 Internetworking devices

• NIC Card • Hub

• Repeater – extends the span of a single
LAN
• Hub
• Bridge/layer-2 switch
• Switch
– connects two or more LANs
• Bridge together/works at data link
• Router layer level
• Gateway • Router/layer-3 switch
• Firewall – Connects any combination of
LANs and WANs
– Works at network layer level
 1.8 Network Standards
Why Standards?
• Standards provide a fixed way for hardware
and/or software systems to communicate.
• For example, USB enables two pieces of
equipment to interface even though they are
manufactured by different companies.
• By allowing hardware and software from
different companies to interconnect, standards
help promote competition.
Types of Standards
• There are two main types of standards:
• Formal: a standard developed by an industry
or government standards-making body
• De facto: standards that emerge in the
marketplace and are widely used, but lack
official backing by a standards-making body
 Some Major Standards Making Bodies
• ISO: International Organization for
Standardization (www.iso.ch)
• ITU-T: International Telecommunications Union
–Telecom Group (www.itu.int)
• ANSI: American National Standards Institute
(www.ansi.org)
• IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronic
Engineers (see standards.ieee.org)
• IETF: Internet Engineering Task Force
(www.ietf.org
Thanks