RESEARCH WORK IT301

The Network Layer

The Network Layer is Layer 3 of the seven-layer OSI model of computer networking. The Network Layer is responsible for routing packets delivery including routing through intermediate routers, whereas the Data Link Layer is responsible for Media Access Control, Flow Control and Error Checking. The Network Layer provides the functional and procedural means of transferring variable length data sequences from a source to a destination host via one or more networks while maintaining the quality of service functions.

Functions of the Network Layer include:

Connection model: connectionless communication For example, IP is connectionless, in that a frame can travel from a sender to a recipient without the recipient having to send an acknowledgement. Connection-oriented protocols exist at other, higher layers of that model. Host addressing Every host in the network needs to have a unique address which determines where it is. This address will normally be assigned from a hierarchical system, so you can be "Fred Murphy" to people in your house, "Fred Murphy, Main Street 1" to Dubliners, or "Fred Murphy, Main Street 1, Dublin" to people in Ireland, or "Fred Murphy, Main Street 1, Dublin, Ireland" to people anywhere in the world. On the Internet, addresses are known as Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Message forwarding Since many networks are partitioned into subnetworks and connect to other networks for wide-area communications, networks use specialized hosts, called gateways or routers to forward packets between networks. This is also of interest to mobile applications, where a user may move from one location to another, and it must be arranged that his messages follow him. Version 4 of theInternet Protocol (IPv4) was not designed with this feature in mind, although mobility extensions exist. IPv6 has a better designed solution.

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Protocol Suite
A protocol suite is a collection of communications procedures, broken down into small data packets. Each contains its own set of rules and message formats, which work together to transmit information electronically across computer networks, via a common communications language.

TCP/IP Suite
o The Internet protocol suite TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is used to transmit trillions of data packets from node (computer, modem or routing device) to node, either worldwide (the Internet) or through private networks (sometimes called an intranet).

One Protocol or Two?

o Though TCP and IP are individual protocols, they are thought of as a single protocol (TCP/IP) due to the way they effectively work each other: IP transmits streams of data, composed of several packets, to its ultimate destination, and TCP completes the transmission by reassembling the packets. Every computer has its own unique IP address.

Set of Protocols
o Documents called "Requests For Comments" (RFC) define the set of protocols (UDP, ICMP, TCP and IP) in the TCP/IP suite, which is used for conversing among networks. The set of formats and procedures in each protocol governs how data is transferred and received between nodes.

Layers
o The TCP/IP suite uses an inter-networking (connecting two or more networks) of various software stages, called layers, to send information along its route--application (mailing, transferring files, remote access, authenticating and name resolution), transport, network and data link.

Origin and Development

o Seeking to provide a networking framework to communicate and exchange data among government agencies and universities, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), part of the U.S. Department of Defense) funded the early development of the ARPANET protocol suite in the early 1970s. Further technological advancements led to developing other data transmission networks. Becoming the standard for all military computer networking in 1982, TCP/IP paved the way for governments, businesses, schools, residences and other entities to communicate throughout the world.

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TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)

o TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is a set of rules (protocol) used along with the Internet Protocol (IP) to send data in the form of message units between computers over the Internet. While IP takes care of handling the actual delivery of the data, TCP takes care of keeping track of the individual units of data (called packets) that a message is divided into for efficient routing through the Internet. For example, when an HTML file is sent to you from a Web server, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) program layer in that server divides the file into one or more packets, numbers the packets, and then forwards them individually to the IP program layer. Although each packet has the same destination IP address, it may get routed differently through the network. At the other end (the client program in your computer), TCP reassembles the individual packets and waits until they have arrived to forward them to you as a single file. TCP is known as a connection-oriented protocol, which means that a connection is established and maintained until such time as the message or messages to be exchanged by the application programs at each end have been exchanged. TCP is responsible for ensuring that a message is divided into the packets that IP manages and for reassembling the packets back into the complete message at the other end. In the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) communication model, TCP is in layer 4, the Transport Layer.

TCP State machine:

State CLOSE-WAIT CLOSED CLOSING ESTABLISHED FIN-WAIT-1 FIN-WAIT-2 LAST-ACK LISTEN SYN-RECEIVED SYN-SENT
Description Waits for a connection termination request from the remote host. Represents no connection state at all. Waits for a connection termination request acknowledgment from the remote host. Represents an open connection, data received can be delivered to the user. The normal state for the data transfer phase of the connection. Waits for a connection termination request from the remote host or an acknowledgment of the connection termination request previously sent. Waits for a connection termination request from the remote host. Waits for an acknowledgment of the connection termination request previously sent to the remote host (which includes an acknowledgment of its connection termination request). Waits for a connection request from any remote TCP and port. Waits for a confirming connection request acknowledgment after having both received and sent a connection request. Waits for a matching connection request after having sent a connection request.

TIME-WAIT

Waits for enough time to pass to be sure the remote host received the acknowledgment of its connection termination request.

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Each side of a TCP connection has an associated 16-bit unsigned port number (0-65535) reserved by the sending or receiving application. Arriving TCP data packets are identified as belonging to a specific TCP connection by its sockets, that is, the combination of source host address, source port, destination host address, and destination port. This means that a server computer can provide several clients with several services simultaneously, as long as a client takes care of initiating any simultaneous connections to one destination port from different source ports. Port numbers are categorized into three basic categories: well-known, registered, and dynamic/private. The wellknown ports are assigned by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and are typically used by systemlevel or root processes. Well-known applications running as servers and passively listening for connections typically use these ports. Some examples include: FTP (20 and 21), SSH (22), TELNET (23), SMTP (25) and HTTP (80). Registered ports are typically used by end user applications as ephemeral source ports when contacting servers, but they can also identify named services that have been registered by a third party. Dynamic/private ports can also be used by end user applications, but are less commonly so. Dynamic/private ports do not contain any meaning outside of any particular TCP connection.

TCP/IP SERVICES FOR from E-Electronics

Part # Distributor Manufacturer Product Category Description

DEC E-Electronics TCP/IP SERVICES QLVHRAJUGNG E-Electronics

Not Provided

Not Provided

QL-VI8A9-AANT

Not Provided

Not Provided

DEC TCP/IP SERVICES FOR VMS

QLE-Electronics VHRA5-AA QL-OXAG- E-Electronics AA QLE-Electronics VHRA9-JM QLE-Electronics VHRA9-JL QLE-Electronics VHRA9-JT QLE-Electronics 0LXAE-AA

Not Provided Not Provided Not Provided Not Provided Not Provided Not Provided

Not Provided Not Provided Not Provided Not Provided Not Provided Not Provided

TCP/IP SERVICES V/V LICENSE TCP/IP SERVICES FOR OPEN VMS AXP SYSTEM DEC TCP/IP Services for Open VMS TCP/IP SERVICES LICENSE TCP/IP SERVICES FOR OPEN VMS TCP/IP SERVICE VMS/ALPHA

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Functions Performed By TCP

Despite the complexity of TCP, its basic operation can be reasonably simplified by describing its primary functions. The following are the five main tasks that TCP performs: o

Addressing/Multiplexing: TCP is used by many different applications for their transport protocol.
Therefore, like its simpler sibling UDP, an important job for TCP is multiplexing the data received from these different processes so they can be sent out using the underlying network-layer protocol. At the same time, these higher-layer application processes are identified using TCP ports. The section on TCP/IP transport layer addressing contains a great deal of detail on how this addressing works.

Connection Establishment, Management and Termination: TCP provides a set of procedures that
devices follow to negotiate and establish a TCP connectionover which data can travel. Once opened, TCP includes logic for managing connections and handling problems that may result with them. When a device is done with a TCP connection, a special process is followed to terminate it.

Data Handling and Packaging: TCP defines a mechanism by which applications are able to send data to it
from higher layers. This data is then packaged into messages to be sent to the destination TCP software. The destination software unpackages the data and gives it to the application on the destination machine.

Data Transfer: Conceptually, the TCP implementation on a transmitting device is responsible for the transfer
of packaged data to the TCP process on the other device. Following the principle of layering, this is done by having the TCP software on the sending machine pass the data packets to the underlying network-layer protocol, which again normally means IP.

Providing Reliability and Transmission Quality Services: TCP includes a set of services and
features that allow an application to consider the sending of data using the protocol to be reliable. This means that normally, a TCP application doesn't have to worry about data being sent and never showing up, or arriving in the wrong order. It also means other common problems that might arise if IP were used directly are avoided.

Providing Flow Control and Congestion Avoidance Features: TCP allows the flow of data between
two devices to be controlled and managed. It also includes features to deal with congestion that may be experienced during communication between devices.

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Advantages and Disadvantages of TCP

Advantages of tcp
the operating system does all the work. you just sit back and watch the show. no need to have the same bugs in your code that everyone else did on their first try; it's all been figured out for you. since it's in the os, handling incoming packets has fewer context switches from kernel to user space and back; all the reassembly, acking, flow control, etc is done by the kernel. tcp guarantees three things: that your data gets there, that it gets there in order, and that it gets there without duplication. (the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth...) routers may notice tcp packets and treat them specially. they can buffer and retransmit them, and in limited cases preack them. tcp has good relative throughput on a modem or a lan.

Disadvantages of tcp

the operating system may be buggy, and you can't escape it. it may be inefficient, and you have to put up with it. it may be optimized for conditions other than the ones you are facing, and you may not be able to retune it. tcp makes it very difficult to try harder; you can set a few socket options, but beyond that you have to tolerate the built in flow control. tcp may have lots of features you don't need. it may waste bandwidth, time, or effort on ensuring things that are irrelevant to the task at hand. tcp has no block boundaries; you must create your own. routers on the internet today are out of memory. they can't pay much attention to tcp flying by, and try to help it. design assumptions of tcp break down in this environment. tcp has relatively poor throughput on a lossy, high bandwidth, high latency link, such as a satellite connection or an overfull t1. tcp cannot be used for broadcast or multicast transmission. tcp cannot conclude a transmission without all data in motion being explicitly acked.

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The Internet Protocol (IP) is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams (packets) across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite. Responsible for routing packets across network boundaries, it is the primary protocol that establishes the Internet. IP is the primary protocol in the Internet Layer of the Internet Protocol Suite and has the task of delivering datagrams from the source host to the destination host solely based on their addresses. For this purpose, IP defines addressing methods and structures for datagram encapsulation. Historically, IP was the connectionless datagram service in the original Transmission Control Program introduced by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn in 1974, the other being the connection-oriented Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). The Internet Protocol Suite is therefore often referred to as TCP/IP. The first major version of IP, now referred to as Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) is the dominant protocol of the Internet, although the successor, Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) is in active, growing deployment worldwide.

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Functions and Services of Internet Protocol

Basic functions Addressing
o IP packet headers contain addresses that identify the sending computer and the receiving computer. Routers use this information to guide each packet across communication networks and connect the sending and receiving computers.

Reassembly
o Internet Protocol keeps track of the way messages between computers are broken into packets. Since most messages are too big to fit in one packet, and since packets aren't sent in any organized order, they must be reassembled as they arrive at the recipient. IP dictates how packets are reassembled into usable messages.

Timeouts
o Each IP packet contains a self-destructive counter that limits its lifetime. If a packet's defined lifetime expires, the packet is destroyed so that the Internet doesn't get overloaded with broken packets wandering aimlessly.

Options
o IP includes optional features such as allowing the sending computer to decide the path its packets take to get to the receiving computer, to trace the path they take or to include added security in the packets

Services
The Internet Protocol is responsible for addressing hosts and routing datagrams (packets) from a source host to the destination host across one or more IP networks. For this purpose the Internet Protocol defines an addressing system that has two functions. Addresses identify hosts and provide a logical location service. Each packet is tagged with a header that contains the meta-data for the purpose of delivery. This process of tagging is also called encapsulation.

IP Addressing and Routing

Perhaps the most complex aspects of IP are IP addressing and routing. Addressing refers to how end hosts become assigned IP addresses and how subnetworks of IP host addresses are divided and grouped together. IP routing is performed by all hosts, but most importantly by internetwork routers, which typically use either interior gateway protocols (IGPs) or external gateway protocols (EGPs) to help make IP datagram forwarding decisions across IP connected networks. IP routing is also common in local networks. For example, Ethernet switches sold today support IP multicast. These switches primarily use IP addresses but also support MAC addresses for compatibility with older layer 2 Ethernet switches.

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Internet Protocol

Computers that are connected to each other create a network. These networks are often configured with "public" Internet Protocol (IP) addresses -- that is, the devices on the network are "visible" to devices outside the network (from the Internet or another network). Networks can also be configured as "private" -- meaning that devices outside the network cannot "see" or communicate directly to them.

Computers on a public network have the advantage (and disadvantage) that they are completely visible to the Internet. As such, they have no boundaries between themselves and the rest of the Internet community. This advantage oftentimes becomes a distinct disadvantage since this visibility can lead to a computer vulnerability exploit -- a.k.a., a "hack" -- if the devices on the public network are not properly secured. Most likely, your computer at work is on the Medical Center's private network. A public/private network like the Medical Center's has the advantage that the majority of the network is "privatized," and therefore unseen directly from the Internet.

Only a limited number of computers, such as those hosting our public Web sites, are on the public network and are therefore accessible from the Internet. We typically set these Web servers into a protected area known as a DMZ. By minimizing exposure to the Internet, the Medical Center's network attracts less attention for malicious network attacks.

The disadvantage of a private network is that it entails more configuration and administration to maintain usability. At times, not being fully visible on the Internet can cause some difficulty in connecting to certain services, such as streaming audio/video, chat/instant messaging programs, or some secure Web sites.

Maintaining most computers on a private network, with only an IDP/IDS and/or Firewall visible to the public Internet helps maintain a highly secure environment for the computers on the private network, while at the same time keeping them connected to the public Internet.

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