Presentation on

Architecture
BY – KAJAL KUMAR DEY
AT U L S I L O R I
NIT ROURKELA
 Introduction
Skype is a telecommunications application that specializes in providing video chat and voice calls
between computers, tablets, mobile devices, the Xbox One console, and smartwatches via the
Internet.
Skype also provides instant messaging services.
There are over 660 million worldwide users.
First released in August 2003, Skype was created by the
Swede Niklas Zennström and the Dane Janus Friis
Introduction Continue…
In September 2005, eBay acquired Skype for $2.6 billion.
In September 2009 the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board announced the acquisition of
65% of Skype for $1.9 billion from eBay
Microsoft bought Skype in May 2011 for $8.5 billion. Skype division headquarters are in
Luxembourg.
Skype originally featured a hybrid peer-to-peer and client–server system. Skype has been
powered entirely by Microsoft-operated supernodes since May 2012.
Throughout 2016 and 2017, Microsoft redesigned its Skype clients in a way that transitioned
Skype from peer-to-peer service to a centralized Azure service and adjusted the user interfaces
of apps to make text-based messaging more prominent than voice calling.
P2P - Peer-to-peer architecture
P2P architecture) is a commonly used computer networking architecture in which each
workstation, or node, has the same capabilities and responsibilities.
It is often compared and contrasted to the classic client/server architecture, in which some
computers are dedicated to serving others.
P2P networks have many applications, but the most common is for content distribution.
There are three models of unstructured P2P computer network architecture:
● Pure P2P
● Hybrid P2P
● Centralized P2P
VOIP (Voice over internet protocol)
-> Introduction

Voice over Internet Protocol (Voice over IP, VoIP) is a methodology and group of technologies for
the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP)
networks, such as the Internet.
The steps and principles involved in originating VoIP telephone calls are similar to traditional
digital telephony and involve signalling, channel setup, digitization of the analog voice signals,
and encoding.
Instead of being transmitted over a circuit-switched network; however, the digital information is
packetized, and transmission occurs as IP packets over a packet-switched network.
 VOIP (Voice over internet protocol)
-> Protocols Used
VoIP protocols include:
● Session Initiation Protocol​ (SIP)
● H.323
● Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP)
● Gateway Control Protocol (Megaco, H.248)
● Real-time Transport Protocol​ (RTP)
● Real-time Transport Control Protocol​ (RTCP)
● Secure Real-time Transport Protocol​ (SRTP)
● Session Description Protocol​ (SDP)
● Inter-Asterisk exchange​ (IAX)
● Jingle​ ​XMPP​ VoIP extensions
● Skype protocol
VOIP (Voice over internet protocol)
-> Quality of service
Communication on the IP network is perceived as less reliable in contrast to the circuit-switched
public telephone network because it does not provide a network-based mechanism to ensure
that data packets are not lost, and are delivered in sequential order.
It is a best-effort network without fundamental Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees.
Voice, and all other data, travels in packets over IP networks with fixed maximum capacity.
This system may be more prone to congestion and DoS attacks than traditional circuit switched
systems.
VOIP (Voice over internet protocol)
-> Operational Cost
VoIP has drastically reduced the cost of communication by sharing network infrastructure
between data and voice.
A single broad-band connection has the ability to transmit more than one telephone call.
Secure calls using standardized protocols, such as Secure Real-time Transport Protocol are
already in place with VoIP.
It is only necessary to encrypt and authenticate the existing data stream.
VOIP (Voice over internet protocol)
-> Working
First, voice is converted from an analog signal to a digital signal. It is then sent over the Internet
in data packets to a location that will be close to the destination. Then it will be converted back
to an analog signal for the remaining distance over a traditional circuit switched (PSTN) (unless it
is VoIP to VoIP).
Your call can be received by traditional telephones worldwide, as well as other VoIP users. VoIP
to VoIP calls can travel entirely over the Internet. Since your voice is changed to digital (so that
it can travel over the Internet), other great features such as voice messages to email, call
forwarding, logs of incoming and outgoing calls, caller ID, etc., can be included in your basic
calling plan all for one low price.
Skype : Working and Architecture
Skype Network
Skype is one of the largest VoIP providers with over 500 million users.
​Skype was the first peer-to-peer IP telephony network ​created by the developers of KaZaa.
Skype uses wide-band codec (iLBC, iSAC and iPCM developed by GlobalIPSound ) which allows it
to maintain reasonable call quality at an available bandwidth of 32 kb/s. The minimum and
maximum audible frequency Skype codec allowed to pass-through are 50 Hz and 8,000 Hz
respectively.
The network contains three types of entities: supernodes, ordinary nodes, and the login server.
The Skype user directory is decentralized and distributed among the supernodes in the network.
Skype : Working and Architecture
Key Components
Skype Client (SC): ​Skype application which can be used to place calls, send messages etc.
Super Node (SN): ​Super nodes are the endpoints where Skype clients connect to. Any node with
a public IP address having sufficient CPU, memory, and network bandwidth is a candidate to
become a super node and a Skype client cannot prevent itself from becoming a super node.
Also, if a SC cannot establish a TCP connection with a SN then it will report a login failure.
Skype Authentication Server: This is the only centralized Skype server which is used to
authenticate Skype users.
Start of Message (SoM) Structure: ​Skype uses the same port to communicate with the outside
world. Therefore, it needs an unencrypted structure in the beginning of each UDP packet to
analyze the sequence and the flows at the application layer.
Skype : Architecture
Skype Connections
Skype to Skype (End to End) (E2E) Call signalling and media transfer :
1. If both caller and receiver are on public IPs and receiver is in the buddy list of the caller, then
they establish a call through a direct TCP connection with each other and transfer media
using UDP.
2. If the caller or receiver is behind a port-restricted NAT then they establish a call through a
few packets initially transferred between caller, receiver, SN and other hosts and a UDP
connection is established between the caller and receiver which is used to transfer media as
well.
3. If caller and receiver are behind a UDP-restricted firewall they will need a relay (node) in
between to establish TCP connection to and then the traffic (including media) will go
through from one side to the other. For users that are not present in the buddy list, call
placement is equal to user search plus call signalling.
Skype Connections Continue…
Skype to PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) (SkypeOut) :
1. For Skype out, the application initially contacts the SN and then the PSTN gateway at port
12340. The gateway servers are a separate part of the architecture and not a part of the
overlay network. (An overlay network is a telecommunications network that is built on top
of another network and is supported by its infrastructure.)
2. In addition, host servers 195.215.8.140 and 212.72.49.155 are only connected when a user
tries to call another user in the PSTN network; therefore, we assume these servers to be
Skype-to-PSTN gateways (SkypeOut).
Skype Functions
Startup : When SC v1.4 was run for the first time after installation, it sent a HTTP 1.1 GET
request to the Skype server (skype.com). The first line of this request contained the keyword
‘installed’.
Login : Login is perhaps the most critical function to the Skype operation. It is during this process
a SC authenticates its user name and password with the login server, advertises its presence to
other peers and its buddies, determines the type of NAT and firewall it is behind, discovers
online Skype nodes with public IP addresses, and checks the availability of latest Skype version.
Skype Functions Continue…
User Search : Skype uses its Global Index (GI) technology to search for a user. Skype claims that
search is distributed and is guaranteed to find a user if it exists and has logged in during the last
72 hours. Extensive testing suggests that Skype was always able to locate users who logged in
using a public or private IP address in the last 72 hours.
Call Establishment and Teardown : We consider call establishment for users that are in the
buddy list of caller and for users that are not present in the buddy list. It is important to note
that call signalling is always carried over TCP. For users that are not present in the buddy list, call
placement is equal to user search plus call signalling.
Skype Functions Continue…
Media Transfer and Codecs : If both Skype clients (v1.4) were on machines with public IP
addresses, then media traffic flowed directly between them over UDP. The media traffic flowed
to and from the UDP port configured in the options dialog box. The voice packet size varied
between 40 and 120 bytes. For two users connected to Internet over 100 Mbps Ethernet with
almost no congestion in the network, roughly 85 voice packets were exchanged both ways in one
second. The total uplink and downlink bandwidth used for voice traffic was 5 kilobytes/s.
Conference Calling : During a conference call, the most powerful machine always gets elected as
a conference host and the other clients send their data to that host.
References
1. Skype, Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype
2. How VoIP Works, HowStuffWorks, http://computer.howstuffworks.com/ip-telephony.htm
3. What is VoIP, a tutorial, VoIP Mechanic, http://www.voipmechanic.com/what-is-voip.htm
4. Skype Architecture, http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~salman/publications/skype1_4.pdf
5. Peer-to-peerNetwork: https://www.techopedia.com/definition/25777/peer-to-peer-network-
p2p-network
Thank You