Network Layer

Introduction Datagrams and Virtual Circuits Routing Traffic Control

Jrg Liebeherr, 1998,1999

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Introduction
Main Task of the network layer is to move packets from the source host to the destination host Lowest layer to deal with end-to-end issues!
Node (Router) Network Data Link Physical Application
Presentation

Application
Presentation

Network Data Link Physical

Session Transport Network Data Link Physical

Session Transport Network Data Link Physical

Network Data Link Physical

Network Data Link Physical

Station (Host)

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Issues at the Network Layer

Switching Technique: Datagrams Virtual circuits Routing: How to forward packets How to calculate a path from source to destination? Traffic Control: Congestion control Rate control

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Issues at the Network Layer

Naming and Addressing: How to find the name of a network node? Internetworking: How to interconnect heterogeneous networks?

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Services and Implementation

2 packet switching techniques are used: Datagrams Virtual Circuits 2 services are provided to the transport layer: Connectionless Service
Sender and receiver treat each transmitted message as an independent unit

Connection-oriented Service
Sender and receiver see data as traveling on a logical connection Receiver receives data in the same order in which they are transmitted
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Connectionless and Connection-oriented

Connectionless service and connection-oriented service can be reliable or unreliable Reliable = Delivery of all data is ensured. The receiver acknowledges data and sender retransmits data that was not received Unreliable = No acknowledgments or retransmission of data
Note: unreliable connectionless service is often called datagram service

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Datagram Packet-Switching
Each packet is routed independently

B
2 1

1 2

4
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Virtual-Circuit Packet Switching

All packets of a VC follow the same route
B VC #1 2 3

VC #2
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Connectionless Service
Each packet is transmitted independently
1 B.

2 B.

B.3

B.3 B.2 B.1

A
C.3 C.2 C.1

Packet-switched network
C. 1

C. 2

C.3

C
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Connection-oriented Service
Logical connection is established
1. 1

1.3

1.2

1.3 1.2

1.1 2.1

A
2.3 2.2

Packet-switched network
2. 3

2.2

2.1

C
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Summary
The following implementations are feasible:

Datagram Connectionless Service Connectionoriented Service

Virtual Circuit

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Packet Routing
There are two parts to the routing problem: 1. How to pass a packet from an input interface to the output interface of a router (packet forwarding)? 2. How to calculate routes ? Packet forwarding is done differently in datagram and virtualcircuit packet networks Route calculation is done in a similar fashion

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Packet Forwarding of Datagrams

Recall: In datagram networks, each packet carries the full destination address Each router maintains a routing table which has one row for each possible destination address

Routing Table of node v via to

(next hop)

v x

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Packet Forwarding of Datagrams

When a packet with destination node arrives at an incoming link, ... 1. The router looks up the routing table 2. The routing table lookup yields the address of the next node (next hop) 3. The packet is transmitted onto the outgoing link that goes to the next hop Good: The router does not need to know about end-to-end flows Bad: Size of the routing table can grow very large
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Packet Forwarding with Virtual Circuits

Recall: In VC networks, the route is setup in the connection establishment phase During the setup, each router assigns a VC number (VC#) to the virtual circuit The VC# can be different for each hop VC# is written into the packet headers
Routing Table of node v
from VC# to VC#
2 3 path of virtual circuit 1

v x

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Packet Forwarding of Virtual Circuits

When a packet with VCin in header arrives from router n in, ... 1. The router looks up the routing table for an entry with (VCin, nin) 2. The routing table lookup yields (VCout, nout) 3.The router updates the VC# of the header to VCout and transmits the packet to n out Good: Bad: Routing table is small (how small?) Changing the route is complicated Routing table changes for each virtual circuit

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Comparison

Issue Circuti Setup Addressing

Datagram Network Not needed Each packet contains the full source and destination address Network does not hold state information on flows Each packet is routed independently

Virtual Circuit Network Required Each packet contains only a VC number Each VC is stored in the network

State Information Routing

Effect of router failure Congestion Control

Route chosen when VC is setup. All packets follow same route Some packets are lost All VCs at crashed router are terminated Difficult Easier (but not simple)

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Routing Algorithms
Objective of routing algorithms is to calculate `good routes Routing algorithms for both datagrams and virtual circuits should satisfy: - Correctness - Simplicity - Simplicity - Robustness - Stability - Fairness - Optimality Impossible to satisfy everything at the same time

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Fairness vs. maximum throughput

Example: Assume that stations A, B, C wants to send to A, B, and C, each at 5 Mb/s Assume the capacity of the network links is 10 Mb/s.

A D A
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C D B
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Stability vs. optimal delay

Example: Optimize delay by sending all packets over link with the least traffic. Update the routing decision every 10 sec B 96 Kbps A C
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Elements of Routing Algorithms

Optimization Criteria: - Number of Hops - Cost - Delay - Throughput Decision Time: Once per session (VCs) Once per packet (datagram) Decision Place: Each node (distributed routing) Central node (centralized routing) Sending node (source routing)
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Shortest-Path Routing
Adaptive routing algorithms use a shortest path algorithm to calculate the route with the least cost Three components: 1. Measurement Component Nodes (routers) measure the current characteristics such as delay, throughput, and cost 2. Protocol Nodes disseminate the measured information to other nodes 3. Calculation Nodes run a least-cost routing algorithm to recalculate their routes
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Goal of Shortest Path Routing

Goal: Given a network were each link between two nodes i and j is assigned a cost. Find the path with the least cost between nodes i and j. Parameters: dij cost of link between node i and node j; dij = , if nodes i and j are not connected; dii = 0 N set of nodes

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Approaches to Shortest Path Routing

There are two basic approaches to least-cost routing in a communication network There are two basic approaches to shortest-path routing: 1. Link State Routing 2. Distance Vector Routing

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Approaches to Shortest Path Routing

1. Link State Routing
Each node knows the distance to its neighbors The distance information (=link state) is broadcast to all nodes in the network Each node calculates the routing tables independently

2. Distance Vector Routing

Each node knows the distance (=cost) to its directly connected neighbors A node sends a list to its neighbors with the current distances to all nodes If all nodes update their distances, the routing tables eventually converge
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Link State Routing

Each node must discover its neighbors measure the delay (=cost) to its neighbors broadcast a packet with this information to all other nodes compute the shortest paths to every other router The broadcast can be accomplished by flooding The shortest paths can be computer with Dijkstras algorithm

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Dijkstras Algorithm
Finds the shortest path from a source node to all other nodes s source node Dn cost of the least-cost path from node s to node n

M = {s}; for each Dn

n M = dsn;

while (M all nodes) do Find w M for which Dw = min{Dj ; j M}; Add w to M; for each n M Dn = minw [ Dn, Dw + dwn ]; Update route; enddo

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Example Network

5 2 1 1 1

2 2

3 3 5 3 1 6 6 2

4 4

5 5

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Example
Example: Calculate the shortest paths for node 1.

Iteration M Init

D1

D2

D3

D4

D5

D6

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Example
Result is a routing tree:

... which results in a routing table (of node 1):

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Discussion of Link State Routing

Recall: Link State Routing methods use Dijkstra's algorithm Each node requires complete topology information Each node has two tasks: Test status of all neighbor nodes Propagate link state information of neighbors to all other nodes by sending a broadcast message Whenever a link state message arrives. the node updates its topology information and recalculates the shortest paths

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Discussion of Link State Routing

Advantages of Link State Routing: Each nodes computes routes from the same data Guaranteed to converge Update messages (state information) does not depend on total number of nodes; only depends on number of neighbors Disadvantages of Link State Routing: Each node must maintain global database

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Distance Vector
Each node maintains two tables: Distance Table: Cost to each node via each outgoing link Routing Table: Minimum cost to each node and next hop node Nodes exchange messages that contain information on the cost of a route Reception of messages triggers recalculation of routing table

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Distance Vector Algorithm: Tables

v l(v,w) w n Distance Table
via to

RoutingTable to via
(next hop)

cost

Cd(v,w) Cd(v,n)

Dd(v)

l (v,w) C d(v,w) Dd(v)

Jrg Liebeherr, 1998,1999

cost of link (w,v) cost from v to d via w minimum cost from v to d

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Note: In the figure, Cd (v,w)<Cd (v,n) and, therefore, Dd (v) = Cd (v,n)

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Messages
Nodes exchange messages to their neighbors. If node v sends a messages to node x of the form, [m , D m (v)], this means I can go to node m with minimum cost D m (v)

v v

[m , D m (v)]

x x

This message is only of interest to neighbors of v

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New link with cost l(m,v) comes up

l(v,w)

m l(m,v)

w n

Distance Table
via to

RoutingTable via to cost

(next hop)

Cm(v,p)

l(m,v)

Dm(v)

New row

New column
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New link with cost l(m,v) comes up

Operations at node v
1. Add new row in distance and routing table, and new column to distance table 2. Recalculate distance table under consideration of l(m,v) 3. Compute min w Cm (v,w): (a) If no changes to previous value of minw Cm(v,w): Do nothing (b) If Cm(v, m) = minw Cm (v,w) Dm(v)=Cm (v,m) change entry in m-th row of routing table to (m, , Dm(v)) and send message [m, Dm(v)] to all neighbors 3. Also: Since v is a neighbor of m, v sends the contents of its routing table to m: [a, Da(v)], [b, Db(v)], ...., [z, Dz (v)]
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Cost of link changes by m

m l(m,v)+ m

x y

d e

Distance Table
via to

m Ce(v,m)+ m Cd(v,m)+ m

RoutingTable via to cost

(next hop)

e d

e d

y m

De(v) Dd(v)

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Cost of link changes by m

Operations at node v 1. Entries in m-th column of distance table are changed by (if link goes down: = ). 2. For all destinations d:
Compute min w Cm (v,w): (a) If no changes to previous value of minw Cm(v,w): Do nothing (b) If Cm(v, m) = minw Cm (v,w) Change entry in d-th row of routing table to (m,Cd(v, m)), and send messages [d, Cd(v, m)] to all neighbors

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Node v receives a message [d, Dd(w)]

[d,Dd(w)]

Distance Table
via to

RoutingTable via to cost

(next hop)

Cd(v,w)

Dd(v)

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Node v receives a message [d, Dd(w)]

Operations at node v 1. If d = v then ignore the message 2. If d v then
Cd(v, w) = Dd(w) + l (w,v) Compute minx Cd(v,x) : If no changes, then do nothing If Cd(v,w)=minx Cd(v,x), then change entry in d-th row of routing table to (d, Cd(v, w)) and send message [d, Cd(v,w)] to all neighbors.

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Example
Assume that Node 1 comes up at time t=0 Show how the entries for destination 1 are updated at all other nodes 5 2 1 1 1 4 4
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2 2 2

3 3

3 3 5 1 5 5 2 6 6

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Example
Node 2 Distance via 1 3 4 Routing via cost Node 3 Distance via 1 2 4 5 6 Routing via cost
1 1 2 2 4 5 3 1 2 1 6 5 2 3 3 5

via 1 Node 4

via cost

Node 6 Distance Routing via 3 4 6 via cost Node 5 Distance Routing via cost via 5 6

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Discussion of Distance Vector Routing

Entries of routing tables can change while a packet is being transmitted. This can lead to a single datagram visiting the same node more than once (Looping) If the period for updating the routing tables is too short, routing table entries are changed before convergence (from the previous updates) is achieved Example: The ARPANET used a Distance Vector algorithm with an update period of <1 sec. Due to the instability of routing, the ARPANET switched in 1979 to a link state routing algorithm
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Routing Algorithms in the Internet

Distance Vector Routing Information Protocol (RIP) Gateway-to-Gateway Protocol (GGP) Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP) Link State Intermediate System Intermediate System (IS-IS) Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)

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Traffic Control
Traffic control at the network layers attempts to control the number of packets that are in the network at a time Goal of traffic control: Prevent the network from becoming a bottleneck Different types of traffic control: Flow Control Congestion Control Routing

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Flow Control vs. Congestion Control

Flow Control - regulates the rate of the data flow between two points Congestion Control - regulates the number of packets that can be in the network Congestion control may consider more than two points, i.e., it may deal with the entire network.

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What is Congestion ?
Congestion occurs if the number of queued packets at the output buffers of a router grows large Effect of long queues in output buffers: increased delays, buffer overflows, timeouts at sender, etc

Output buffer

Router
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When does Congestion Occur ?

Define the Offered Load of a network to be the average rate of packets that enter the output queue The following are pretty good rules of thumb: Average number of packets in queue = Average delay in output queue = Load 1 Load 1 1 Load

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Effects of Congestion
Congestion occurs if Load 1
uncontrolled 1 Delay ideal controlled Load 1 1 Throughput ideal controlled uncontrolled Load 1
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Problems without Traffic Control

The following problems may occur in a network with insufficient traffic control at the network layer. Loss of Efficiency Unfairness Lockup (Deadlock)

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Loss of Efficiency
Throughput may decrease if offered load is increased

Throughput

ideal controlled uncontrolled Load 1

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Unfairness
Packet streams with low load are penalized by high traffic load from other packet streams

low load

Node

very high load

output queue

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Problems without Traffic Control

Deadlock (Lockup): If there is a cycle of nodes, each having run out of buffer space and each having to transmit a packet to the next node in the cycle to free buffer space

Node A

D wants to send packets to A

Node D

A wants to send packets to B

C wants to send packets to D B wants to send packets to C

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Node B
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Node C

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Scope and Level of Traffic Control

Traffic Control can be done at several levels:
End-to-End Level Entry-to-Exit level Network Access Hop Level Hop Level Hop Level Node
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Transport Network Data Link

Network Access Network Access Node

Network Hop Access Level Node

Station
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Station

Techniques for Traffic Control

Preallocation of Buffers Packet Discarding Choke Packets Sliding Window Flow Control Leaky Bucket

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Preallocation of Buffers
Approach: Reserve sufficient buffer space at each node for each virtual circuit during the virtual circuit setup phase Requires admission control: If sufficient buffers are not available, reject the virtual circuit Caveat: Overallocation of buffer space will limit the utilization of the network.

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Packet Discarding
Drop packets if they arrive at a node with almost full buffers Heuristics should be used to decide when to drop a packet For example, ACK packets should not be dropped

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Choke Packets
If a packet enters a node and the queue length of the outgoing buffer exceeds a threshold, the node sends a choke packet to the source node If the source node receives a choke packet it reduces the traffic by a certain amount. For example, the window size could be reduced. If a (throttled) source node does not receive a choke packet within a given time interval, it is allowed to increase the traffic. Example: IP (Internet Protocol) uses choke packets
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Sliding Window Flow Control

Can be used at the hop-by-hop and the entry-to-exit level

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Leaky Bucket
A Leaky Bucket is used to control the maximum rate at which a sender can transmit traffic Leaky buckets operate at the station/node interface Two parameters: token rate r and bucket size B
new tokens
r

Token Bucket packet arrivals packet queue

Network

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Operation of a Leaky Bucket

Tokens are added to the token bucket at rate of r No tokens are added to the token bucket if the bucket contains already B tokens For each transmitted packet tokens must be removed from the bucket (one token per for each byte) If the token bucket does not have enough tokens, the packet is either dropped (In some versions of the leaky buckets the packets can be queued until a token arrives)

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