Introduction To Computer Networks

The Network Core

 Mesh of interconnected routers

 the fundamental question: how
is data transferred through net?
 circuit switching: dedicated

circuit per call: telephone

networks
 packet-switching: data sent

through network in discrete

“chunks” called packets

 Hotel reservation analogy

 Network Core: Circuit Switching
End-end resources reserved for the
duration of the call
 Three phases
 Establish, Transfer, Disconnect
 dedicated resources: no sharing
 Guaranteed performance
 Very Reliable
 Developed for Telephone networks

 Inefficient
o Channel capacity dedicated for
duration of connection
o If no data, capacity wasted
o Set up (connection) takes time
 Network Core: Packet Switching
Today’s internet is a packet switched network
Each end-end data stream divided into packets
 Each packet contains a portion of user data plus some control
info.
 Each packet has to find its own route to the destination
 No predetermined path
 Decision as to which node to hop to in the next step is taken
only when a node is reached.
 Resources used as needed

 Congestion : packets queue, wait for link use

 Reliability
 Less reliable
 Store and forward switching
 Routers receives complete packet before forwarding
 Throughput
 The rate (bits/sec) at which bits are transferred
between sender/receiver
 Difference between Bandwidth and Throughput?
 ISPs sell bandwidth
 In computer networks, the throughput is
less than the bandwidth for several reasons
 The channel may be shared by other users
 Packet loss due to congestion
 Packet loss due to bit errors
 Noise in the channel
 Transmission rates of the link over which the data
flows.
 Throughput
 Rs < Rc What is average end-end throughput?

Rs bits/sec Rc bits/sec

 Rs > Rc What is average end-end throughput?

Rs bits/sec Rc bits/sec

Throughput is min {Rs,Rc}

Transmission Rate of the bottleneck link
 Throughput
 10 clients/servers pairs,
 Common link R traversed by
all 10.
Rs
 Rate of the link R is very
large then the throughput is Rs Rs
min {Rs , Rc}
 Rs=2Mbps, Rc=1Mbps,
R
R=5Mbps
 Common link divides Rc Rc
transmission rate equally
among the 10 downloads Rc

 500kbps to each download

 Shared Link R is now the 10 connections share bottleneck link
bottleneck. R
 Throughput
 Difference between Bandwidth and Throughput?

Bandwidth is maximum amount of data that that can be travel through

a link/network.

Throughput is actual amount of data that can be transferred through a

network.
 How do loss and delay occur?
packets queue in router buffers
 packets queue, wait for turn
 queue ( buffer) has finite capacity
 packet arriving to full queue dropped (lost)
 lost packet may be retransmitted

packet being transmitted (delay)

B
packets queueing (delay)
free (available) buffers: arriving packets
dropped (loss) if no free buffers
 Throughput

Throughput  Transfer size / Transfer t ime

(effective end-to-end throughput)

Transfer time  RTT  1/Bandwidth  Transfer size
 Latency
Latency: time taken for a message to travel from one end of the network to the
other.

Latency  Propagation  Transmit  Queue

Propagation  Distance / Speed of light

Transmit  Size / Bandwidth

 2.0  108 m / s in a fiber


Speed of light   2.3  108 m / s in a cable
3.0  108 m / s in a vaccum

 Jitter
Interpacket gap

4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1
Packet Packet
source
Network sink

Jitter is a variation (somewhat random) of the latency from

packet to packet. Jitter is most often observed when
packets traverse multiple hops from source to destination.
Jitter may also occur due to packet loss.
 Building A Network: Cost
Effective Resource Sharing
 Key requirement for computer networks
is efficiency (Packet switching is the choice)
 A node when connected can send message
to any other node at network
 What if all nodes want to exchange
messages at same time
 Answer : Multiplexing
 Packet Switching: Statistical Multiplexing

10 Mbs
A Ethernet statistical multiplexing C

1.5 Mbs
B
queue of packets
waiting for output
link

D E

Sequence of A & B packets does not have fixed

pattern  statistical multiplexing.
 Protocol Layers
Networks are complex!
 many “pieces”:
Question:
 hosts
Is there any way of
 routers
organizing network
 links of various architecture?
media
 applications
Answer:
 protocols
Yes possible with a
 hardware,
layered architecture
software
 Organization of air travel
ticket (purchase) ticket (complain)

baggage (check) baggage (claim)

gates (load) gates (unload)

runway takeoff runway landing

airplane routing airplane routing

airplane routing

 A series of steps(actions)

Layers: each layer implements a service

 via its own internal-layer actions

 Combined with the services directly below it

 Why layering?
Dealing with complex systems:
 Discuss a well defined, specific part of a

large and complex system

 Modularization eases maintenance, updating

of system
 Change of implementation of layer’s

service transparent to rest of system

 e.g. change in gate procedure doesn’t

affect rest of system

 OSI
Model
Open System
Interconnect
Model
 OSI - The Model
 A layer model
 Each layer performs a subset of the
required communication functions
 Each layer relies on the next lower layer
to perform more primitive functions
 Each layer provides services to the next
higher layer
 Changes in one layer should not require
changes in other layers