Computer Networking and the Internet:

Design Issues

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 Motivation
What is the importance of the computer
networking and the Internet?
ƒ Applications: does it really make our lives easier?
ƒ Potential uses: where is it heading to?

As computer networking engineers:

ƒ What do we need to know about networks issues?
ƒ What do we do with these issues?

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Some “Cool” Internet Appliances

World’s smallest web server

http://www-ccs.cs.umass.edu/~shri/iPic.html

Web-enabled toaster + weather forecaster

http://dancing-man.com/robin/toasty/

IP picture frame
http://www.ceiva.com/ 3
 Applications: Efficient Workflow
Security Server

Internet Automation
Manufacturer

IT

Engineering Process
Server Server

Machine
Machine
Office Plant Controller

Access to multiple sources

ƒ Minimize travel
ƒ No 2nd party involvement
Paperless information entry
ƒ Status update
ƒ Auditing 4
ƒ Alerts
Computer Networking Components
and Issues

(A Network Design Perspective)

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Information, Computers, Networks

Information:
ƒ anything that can be represented in bits

Properties:
ƒ Information can be infinitely replicable
ƒ Computers can “manipulate” information
ƒ Networks create “access” to information

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 Networks

Potential of networking:
ƒ Move bits everywhere, cheaply, and with
desired performance characteristics
ƒ Break the space barrier for information

Networks provide “connectivity”

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 What is “Connectivity” ?

Direct or indirect access to every other

node in the network

Connectivity is the magic needed to

communicate if you do not have a
direct point-to-point physical link.
ƒ Tradeoff: Performance is worse than the
case with true physical link!

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 Connectivity
Building Blocks
ƒ Links: coax cable, optical fiber, wireless, etc.
ƒ Nodes: general-purpose workstations or devices

Direct Connectivity:
Point-to-Point
ƒ Point-to-point

ƒ Multiple access Node 1 Node 2 … Node n

Bus
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 Connectivity

Indirect Connectivity
ƒ Switched networks
– Switches create temporary
physical connections
ƒ E.g. Circuit-switched
Telephone Network

ƒ Inter-networks
– Routers create temporary
logical connections
ƒ E.g. Packet-switched
Internet

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 Connectivity
The Internet:
ƒ Best-effort (i.e.; no
performance guarantees)
ƒ Packet-by-packet delivery

A point-to-point physical
link:
ƒ Always-connected
ƒ Fixed bandwidth
ƒ Fixed delay
Point-to-Point
ƒ Zero-jitter

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 Point-to-Point Connectivity
Physical layer is, at least, needed for coding,
modulation, etc.
Link layer is needed only if the link is:
ƒ Shared: needs framing, medium access control,
multiplexing, etc.
ƒ Unreliable: needs reliability techniques
ƒ used sporadically and traffic can flood receivers:
needs flow control mechanisms

No need for protocol concepts like addressing,

names, routers, hubs, forwarding, or filtering in
point-to-point connections
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 Connecting N users Directly
Bus: broadcast, collisions, media access control
Full mesh: Cost vs simplicity

...

Bus
Full mesh

‰ Address concept is needed if we want a specific

receiver (or receivers) to consume the packet!
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List of Design Problems (so far)
Topologies
Framing
Error control
Flow control
Multiple access
ƒ How to share a link?

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 How to build Scalable Networks?
Scaling: the system allows for an increase of a
key parameter (e.g., the number of nodes),
without severely compromising the resources.
Î Inefficiency limits scaling

Direct connectivity is inefficient & hence does

not scale
ƒ Mesh: inefficient in terms of the number of links
ƒ Bus: inefficient in terms of the bandwidth use

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 Filtering and Forwarding
Filtering: choosing a subset of elements from a set
ƒ Filtering is the key to efficiency & scaling

Forwarding: sending packets to a filtered subset of the

links or nodes
ƒ Packet sent to one link or node improves efficiency

Solution: Build nodes that filter/forward and connect

indirectly such as “switches” & “routers”

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 Connecting N Nodes Indirectly
Star: One-hop path from a node to any other node
“Switch” S can filter and forward!
ƒ Reliability problem (single point of failure)
ƒ Bandwidth problem (bottleneck at the switch)
ƒ It may forward multiple packets in parallel for
additional efficiency!

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Star
 Connecting N Nodes Indirectly
Ring: each node is connected to two neighboring
nodes forming a ring.
ƒ All nodes do “forwarding” and “filtering”
ƒ Near-minimal number of links
ƒ Reliability to link failure

Ring
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Connecting Nodes Indirectly: Inter-Networks
Inter-Network is a network of networks
ƒ E.g., the Internet

… …

=
Internet

… …

The goal is to design the black box on the right 19

Inter-Networks: Networks of Networks

Internetworking involves two fundamental

design problems: heterogeneity and scale
Concepts:
ƒ To handle heterogeneity: use translation, address & name
resolution, fragmentation, etc.
ƒ To handle scaling: use hierarchical addressing, routing,
naming, address allocation, congestion control, etc.

Covered in more detail in “Internetworking” course

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Additions to the Design Problem List

Switching, bridging,
routing
Reliability
Fragmentation
Naming, addressing
Congestion control,
traffic management

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How to do system design? (Design Ideas)
Example Goal: Design an Inter-network
Resources:
ƒ Computation: planning, analysis, etc.
ƒ Time: project management, due dates, etc.
ƒ Labor: team sizing, organizing, managing, etc.
ƒ Space: location, size, dimensions, etc.
ƒ Money: cost, budget analysis, investment, etc.

Design Rule: tradeoff cheaper resources

against expensive ones to meet design goals
ƒ Life is all about compromising and optimizing
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 Building blocks: Multiplexing
Multiplexing = sharing resources
ƒ Trading time and space for money
ƒ Cost: waiting time, buffer space & packet loss
ƒ Gain: Money Î less overall system costs

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 Statistical Multiplexing
Reduce resource requirements by exploiting
statistical knowledge of the system.
ƒ E.g., average rate ≤ service rate ≤ peak rate
ƒ If the service rate < the average rate, then the
system becomes unstable!!
– First, design to ensure system stability!!

ƒ Then, for a stable multiplexed system:

• Gain = peak rate/service rate.
• Cost: buffering, queuing delays, and data loss.

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 Stability of a Multiplexed System
Average Input Rate > Average Output Rate
Î System will become unstable!

How to ensure stability ?

1. Reserve enough capacity so that the average
demand is less than the reserved capacity
2. Dynamically detect overload and adapt either the
demand or the capacity to resolve the overload
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 What’s a performance tradeoff ?
•A situation where you cannot get something for nothing!
•Also known as a zero-sum game.

R = link bandwidth (bps)

L = packet length (bits)
a = average packet arrival rate

Traffic Intensity (or Link Utilization) = La/R

(Average traffic divided by the link capacity)
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 What’s a performance tradeoff ?
La/R ~ 0: average queuing
delay small (Wasteful Design)

La/R Î 1: delay become large

La/R > 1: infinite average delay

(service degrades unboundedly
Î instability)!

Statistics suggest that the best

tradeoff is when La/R ~ 0.8
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 Example Design: Circuit-Switching
Circuit-switching: a form of multiplexing
ƒ Divide link bandwidth into
“pieces”
ƒ Reserve pieces on
successive links and tie
them together to form a
“circuit”
ƒ Map traffic into the
reserved circuits
ƒ Resources are wasted if
unused: expensive design.
ƒ Mapping can be done without “headers”.
ƒ Everything inferred from timing (i.e. connection is
immediately available).
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 Example Design: Packet-Switching
Packet-switching: another form of multiplexing:
ƒ Chop up data (not links!)
into “packets” Bandwidth division into
– Packets: data + meta-data “pieces”
(e.g., header)
Dedicated allocation
ƒ “Switch” packets at
Resource reservation
intermediate nodes
– Store-and-forward if
bandwidth is not
immediately available.
Cost: self-descriptive header per-packet (i.e.; overhead),
buffering, and delays for applications.
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Summary of System Design Ideas

Multiplexing
Statistical Multiplexing
Stability and
performance tradeoffs
Circuit switching
Packet switching

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 Design Perspectives
Network users: services that their applications
need, e.g., guarantee that each message it sends
will be delivered without error within a certain
amount of time, etc.
Network designers: cost-effective design e.g.,
that network resources are efficiently utilized
and fairly allocated to different users
Network providers: system that is easy to
administer and manage e.g., faults can be easily
isolated and it is easy to account for usage

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