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1 Network classification

What is Network?

A network consists of two or more computers that are linked in order to share resources (such as
printers and CDs), exchange files, or allow electronic communications. The computers on a
network may be linked through cables, telephone lines, radio waves, satellites, or infrared light
beams. Depending upon the geographical area covered by a network, it is classified as

A. Local Area Network (LAN)

Simply put, a LAN is a computer network that connects a relatively small area (a single building
or group of buildings). Most LANs connect workstations and computers to each other. Each
computer also known as a node, has its own processing unit and executes its own programs.
However, it can also access data and devices anywhere on the LAN. This means that many users
can access and share the same information and devices. A good example of a LAN device is a
network printer. Most companies cannot afford the budgetary or hardware expense of providing
printers for each of its users. Therefore, one printer (i.e., device) is placed on the LAN where
every user can access the same printer. Nodes in a LAN are linked together with a certain
topology. These topologies include Bus, Ring, Star, and etc. LANs are capable of very high
transmission rates (100 Mb/s to G b/s).

Fig.1 Local Area Network Diagram

B. Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

A metropolitan area network (MAN) is a large computer network that usually spans a city or a
large campus. A MAN is optimized for a larger geographical area than a LAN, ranging from
several blocks of buildings to entire cities. A MAN might be owned and operated by a single
organization, but it usually will be used by many individuals and organizations. A MAN often
acts as a high speed network to allow sharing of regional resources. A MAN typically covers an
area of between 5 and 50 km diameter. Examples of MAN, Telephone company network that
provides a high speed DSL to customers and cable TV network.

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 Fig.2 metropolitan Area Network Diagram

C. Wide Area Network

Wide area network connects two or more LANs and can span a relatively large geographical
area. The largest WAN in existence is the Internet. WAN covers a large geographic area such
as country, continent or even whole of the world. A WAN is two or more LANs connected
together. The LANs can be many miles apart. To cover great distances, WANs may transmit
data over leased high-speed phone lines or wireless links such as satellites. Multiple LANs
can be connected together using devices such as bridges, routers, or gateways, which enable
them to share data. The world's most popular WAN is the Internet

Fig.3 Wide Area Network Diagram

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D. Campus Area Networks (CAN)

Campus Area Networks (CAN) is a computer network which provides wireless access to the
internet or LAN for the users located in two or more building on the limited geographical area, or
in the open space surrounding these buildings. CAN is usually set in campus of university or
college, but same kind of planning and design can be applied for other purposes, for enterprise,
office building, etc.

Fig.4 Campus Area Network Diagram

E. Personal Area Network (PAN)

A PAN is a network that is used for communicating among computers and computer devices
(including telephones) in close proximity of around a few meters within a room. It can be used
for communicating between the devices themselves, or for connecting to a larger network such as
the internet. PANs can be wired or wireless. A personal area network (PAN) is a computer
network used for communication among computer devices, including telephones and personal
digital assistants, in proximity to an individual's body. The devices may or may not belong to the
person in question. The reach of a PAN is typically a few meters.

Fig.5 Personal Area Network Diagram

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1.2 ISO OSI model

The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) is an International standards

organisation responsible for a wide range of standards, including many that are relevant to
networking. In 1984 in order to aid network interconnection without necessarily requiring
complete redesign, the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model was approved as an
international standard for communications architecture.

a) THE OSI REFERENCE MODEL

The model was developed by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) in 1984. It
is now considered the primary Architectural model for inter-computer communications. The
Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model is a descriptive network scheme. It ensures
greater compatibility and interoperability between various types of network technologies. The
OSI model describes how information or data makes its way from application programmes (such
as spreadsheets) through a network medium (such as wire) to another application programme
located on another network. The OSI reference model divides the problem of moving
information between computers over a network medium into SEVEN smaller and more
manageable problems. This separation into smaller more manageable functions is known as
layering

b) A LAYERED NETWORK MODEL

The OSI Reference Model is composed of seven layers, each specifying particular network
functions. The process of breaking up the functions or tasks of networking into layers reduces
complexity. Each layer provides a service to the layer above it in the protocol specification. Each
layer communicates with the same layers software or hardware on other computers. The lower 4
layers (transport, network, data link and physical Layers 4, 3, 2, and 1) are concerned with the
flow of data from end to end through the network. The upper four layers of the OSI model
(application, presentation and sessionLayers 7, 6 and 5) are orientated more toward services to
the applications. Data is encapsulated with the necessary protocol information as it moves down
the layers before network transit.

c) THE SEVEN OSI REFERENCE MODEL LAYERS

As shown in figure below, the OSI reference model is built, bottom to top, in the following order:
Physical, data link, network, transport, session, presentation, and application. The physical layer
is classified as layer 1, and the top layer of the model, the application layer, is layer 7.

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Fig.6 the OSI seven layer model

1.3 Function of each Layer

a) Functions of Physical Layer

Physical characteristics of interfaces and media: The physical layer defines the
characteristics of the interface between devices and the transmission media, including its
type.
Representation of the bits: the physical layer data consist of a stream of bits without any
interpretation. To be transmitted, bits must be encoded into signals electrical or optical-.
The physical layer defines the type of encoding.
Data rate: The physical layer defines the transmission rate, the number of bits sent each
second.
Synchronization of bits. The sender and receiver not only must use the same bit rate but
also must be synchronized at the bit level. In other words, the sender and the receiver
clocks must be synchronized.
Line configuration. The physical layer is concerned with the connection of devices to
the media (point to point or multipoint).
Physical topology. The physical topology defines how devices are connected to make a
network.
Transmission mode. The physical layer also defines the direction of transmission
between two devices: simplex, half-duplex, or full-duplex.

b) Functions of the data link layer:

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 Framing. The data link layer divides the stream of bits received from the network layer
into data units called frames.
Physical addressing. If frames are to be distributed to different systems on the network,
the data link layer adds a header to the frame to define the physical address of the sender
(source address) and/or receiver (destination address) of the frame.
Flow Control. If the rate at which the data are absorbed by the receiver is less than the
rate produced in the sender, the data link layer imposes a flow control mechanism to
prevent overwhelming the receiver.
Error control. The data link layer adds reliability to the physical layer by adding
mechanisms to detect and retransmit damaged or lost frames. Error control is normally
achieved through a trailer to the end of the frame.
Access Control. When two or more devices are connected to the same link, data link
layer protocols are necessary to determine which device has control over the link at any
time.

c) Functions of Network Layer

Internetworking: It provides Internetworking.

Logical Addressing: When packet is sent outside the network, network layer adds
Logical (network) address of the sender & receiver to each packet.
Network addresses are assigned to local devices by network administrator and assigned
dynamically by special server called DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)
Routing: When independent network are connected to create internetwork several
routes are available to send the data from source to destination. This network is
interconnected by routers & gateways that route the packet to final destination.

d) Functions of Transport Layer

Port addressing: computer often run several processes (running programs) at the same
time. Process-to-process delivery means delivery from a specific process on one
computer to a specific process on the other. The transport layer header includes a type of
address called port address. The network layer gets each packet to the correct computer;
the transport layer gets the entire message to the correct process on that computer.
Segmentation and reassembly: a message is divided into transmittable segments, each
having a sequence number. These numbers enable the transport layer to reassemble the
message correctly upon arrival at the destination.
Connection control: The transport layer can be either connectionless or connection-
oriented. A connectionless transport layer treats each segment as an independent packet
and delivers it to the transport layer at the destination machine. A connection-oriented
transport layer makes a connection with the transport layer at the destination machine
first before delivering the packets. After all the data are transferred, the connection is
terminated

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 Flow control: the transport layer performs a flow control end to end. The data link layer
performs flow control across a single link.
Error control: the transport layer performs error control end to end. The data link layer
performs control across a single link.

e) Functions of Session Layer

Establishing, Maintaining and ending a session: When sending device first contact
with receiving device, it sends synchronization packet to establish a connection &
determines the order in which information will be sent. Receiver sends
acknowledgement. So the session can be set & end.
Dialog Control: This function determines that which device will communicate first and
the amount of data that will be sent.
Dialog separation: Process of adding checkpoints and markers to the stream of data is
called dialog separation

f) Functions of Presentation Layer

Data Presentation or Translation: Because different computers use different encoding

systems. It ensures that the data being sent is in the format that the recipient can process.
Data Encryption: Presentation Layer provides this facility by which hides the
information from everyone except the person who originally sent the information & the
intended recipient. When encrypted data arrives at destination, PL decrypts the message.
Data Compression: Presentation Layer shrinks large amount of data into smaller pieces
i.e. it reduces the size of data

g) Functions of Application Layer

Mail Services: This application provides various email services.

File transfer & Access: It allows users to access files in a remote host, to retrieve files
from remote computer for use etc.
Remote log-in: A user can log into a remote computer and access the resources of that
computer.
Accessing the World Wide Web: Most common application today is the access of the
World Wide Web

1.4 Internetworking and Routing

A. Internetworking

In real world scenario, networks under same administration are generally scattered
geographically. There may exist requirement of connecting two different networks of same kind
as well as of different kinds. Routing between two networks is called internetworking. Networks
can be considered different based on various parameters such as, Protocol, topology, Layer-2
network and addressing scheme. In internetworking, routers have knowledge of each others

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address and addresses beyond them. They can be statically configured go on different network or
they can learn by using internetworking routing protocol.

Fig.7 Internetworking Diagram

B. Routing

When a device has multiple paths to reach a destination, it always selects one path by preferring
it over others. This selection process is termed as Routing. Routing is done by special network
devices called routers or it can be done by means of software processes. The software based
routers have limited functionality and limited scope. A router is always configured with some
default route. A default route tells the router where to forward a packet if there is no route found
for specific destination. In case there are multiple path existing to reach the same destination,
router can make decision based on the following information: Hop Count, Bandwidth, Metric,
Prefix-length, Delay, Routes can be statically configured or dynamically learnt. One route can be
configured to be preferred over others.

a) Unicast routing

Most of the traffic on the internet and intranets known as unicast data or unicast traffic is sent
with specified destination. Routing unicast data over the internet is called unicast routing. It is
the simplest form of routing because the destination is already known. Hence the router just has
to look up the routing table and forward the packet to next hop.

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 Fig.8 Unicast routing Diagram

b) Broadcast routing

By default, the broadcast packets are not routed and forwarded by the routers on any network.
Routers create broadcast domains. But it can be configured to forward broadcasts in some special
cases. A broadcast message is destined to all network devices.

Broadcast routing can be done in two ways algorithm:

A router creates a data packet and then sends it to each host one by one. In this case, the
router creates multiple copies of single data packet with different destination addresses.
All packets are sent as unicast but because they are sent to all, it simulates as if router is
broadcasting. This method consumes lots of bandwidth and router must destination
address of each node.
Secondly, when router receives a packet that is to be broadcasted, it simply floods those
packets out of all interfaces. All routers are configured in the same way.

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 Fig.9 Broadcast routing Diagram

This method is easy on router's CPU but may cause the problem of duplicate packets received
from peer routers. Reverse path forwarding is a technique, in which router knows in advance
about its predecessor from where it should receive broadcast. This technique is used to detect and
discard duplicates.

c) Multicast Routing

Multicast routing is special case of broadcast routing with significance difference and challenges.
In broadcast routing, packets are sent to all nodes even if they do not want it. But in Multicast
routing, the data is sent to only nodes which wants to receive the packets.

Fig.10 Multicast routing Diagram

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The router must know that there are nodes, which wish to receive multicast packets or stream
then only it should forward. Multicast routing works spanning tree protocol to avoid looping.
Multicast routing also uses reverse path Forwarding technique, to detect and discard duplicates
and loops.

d) Any cast Routing

Anycast packet forwarding is a mechanism where multiple hosts can have same logical address.
When a packet destined to this logical address is received, it is sent to the host which is nearest in
routing topology.

Fig.11 Anycast routing Diagram

Any cast routing is done with help of DNS server. Whenever an Anycast packet is received it is
enquired with DNS to where to send it. DNS provides the IP address which is the nearest IP
configured on it

C. Example

The principle of a packet-switched WAN is so important that it is worth devoting a few more
words to it. Generally, when a process on some host has a message to be sent to a process on
some other host, the sending host first cuts the message into packets, each one bearing its number
in the sequence. These packets are then injected into the network one at a time in quick
succession. The packets are transported individually over the network and deposited at the

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receiving host, where they are reassembled into the original message and delivered to the
receiving process. A stream of packets resulting from some initial message is illustrated in Fig.12

Figure 1-12. A stream of packets from sender (device B) to receiver (device D)

1.5 Routing Protocols

a) Unicast Routing Protocols

There are two kinds of routing protocols available to route unicast packets:

Distance Vector Routing Protocol

Distance Vector is simple routing protocol which takes routing decision on the number of
hops between source and destination. A route with less number of hops is considered as
the best route. Every router advertises its set best routes to other routers. Ultimately, all
routers build up their network topology based on the advertisements of their peer routers,
For example Routing Information Protocol RIP.
Link State Routing Protocol
Link State protocol is slightly complicated protocol than Distance Vector. It takes into
account the states of links of all the routers in a network. This technique helps routes
build a common graph of the entire network. All routers then calculate their best path for
routing purposes. For example, Open Shortest Path First OSPF and Intermediate System
to Intermediate System ISIS.

b) Multicast Routing Protocols

Unicast routing protocols use graphs while Multicast routing protocols use trees, i.e. spanning
tree to avoid loops. The optimal tree is called shortest path spanning tree.

DVMRP - Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol

MOSPF - Multicast Open Shortest Path First
CBT - Core Based Tree

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 PIM - Protocol independent Multicast

Protocol Independent Multicast is commonly used now. It has two flavors:

PIM Dense Mode.

This mode uses source-based trees. It is used in dense environment such as LAN.
PIM Sparse Mode
This mode uses shared trees. It is used in sparse environment such as WAN

1.6 Routing Algorithms

The routing algorithms are as follows:

a) Flooding

Flooding is simplest method packet forwarding. When a packet is received, the routers send it to
all the interfaces except the one on which it was received. This creates too much burden on the
network and lots of duplicate packets wandering in the network. Time to Live TTL can be used
to avoid infinite looping of packets. There exists another approach for flooding, which is called
Selective Flooding to reduce the overhead on the network. In this method, the router does not
flood out on all the interfaces, but selective ones.

b) Shortest Path

Routing decision in networks, are mostly taken on the basis of cost between source and
destination. Hop count plays major role here. Shortest path is a technique which uses various
algorithms to decide a path with minimum number of hops.

Common shortest path algorithms are:

Dijkstra's algorithm
Bellman Ford algorithm
Floyd Warshall algorithm

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