UPC FIB

ERASMUS MUNDUS MASTER

IN DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING
COURSE: COMPUTER NETWORKS Fall 2013
Author: Fotios Papaodyssefs fotisp87@gmail.com
Assignment 1

QUESTION 1: Why was NAT introduced, how does it works and what are the main drawbacks of
it?
Answer 1: Two of the most compelling problems of the current IP Internet are IP address exhaustion
and scaling in routing. Until long-term solutions are implemented and successfully deployed there is a
need for short term solutions to these problems. The Network Address Translator is the short term
solution to the problem of IP address exhaustion. It tackles the problem through address reuse by taking
advantage of the fact that at any giver time, only a small percentage of hosts inside a stub domain
communicate with hosts outside of this domain. With this in mind, it is not necessary for all the hosts to
hold a unique globally accessible IP address. Each stub router with NAT is assigned a unique Class C
address. The addresses inside this router's subdomain can be reused by any other stub domain thous are
not unique globally. NAT has several drawbacks that make it undesirable as a long term solution and in
some cases inappropriate even as a short term solution. The most important negative aspect of NAT is
that it violates the end-to-end principle. This has many consequences such as it makes security very
difficult. Encrypting the IP stack or the transport layer becomes impossible as TCP headers cannot be
encrypted for NAT to function. Additionally certain applications that carry and use the IP address inside
the application will not work with NAT unless NAT knows of this special case and makes the
appropriate translation. Other drawbacks are the increased probability of mis-addressing, the hiding of
the host and additional problems with protocols such as SNMP, DNS etc.
Sources:
[1] Evolution of the Network Architecture, CN-Course Material, slides 1-16,
http://jordid.site.ac.upc.edu/CN/CN-1-Evolution%20of%20the%20Network%20Architecture.pdf
[2] RFC 1631, http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1631.txt
QUESTION 2: What is an Autonomous System in regard to Internet architecture?
ANSWER 2: Autonomous Systems or Routing Domains are groups of IP networks run by one or more
network operators with a single, clearly defined routing policy. AS are identified by 16 bit thous
allowing for 65535 AS's thought the IPv4 protocol. Externally AS exchange routes using inter-domain
routing protocols such as BGPv4. Internally they exchange routes by using intra-domain protocols such
as OSPF, IS-IS, EIGRP and others. The importance of having a single and clearly defined routing

policy, stresses the definition of an autonomous system to the fact that an AS, while it may use multiple
IGPs, it appears externally to other AS's as having a single coherent interior routing plan and presents a
consistent picture of what networks are reachable through it. An AS maybe part of an ISP network but
not exclusively. Relationships between AS's can be described through the following three categories:
Transit, where you pay to another network for internet access. Peer (or swap) where two networks
exchange traffic for mutual benefit. Customer where another network pays you to provide them with
Internet access.
Sources:
[1] Internet Architecture, CN Course material, http://jordid.site.ac.upc.edu/CN/CN-2-Internet
%20Architecture.pdf
[2] RFC 1930, http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1930
QUESTION 3: Which are the IPv6 Address Classes and what are the possible scopes of an address?
ANSWER 3: IPv6 Addresses are divided in three classes. Unicast addresses that have only one
destination, Anycast addresses that can have any destination among a group of destinations and
Multicast addresses that have a number of specific destinations. Additionally to these classes an IPv6
address also has a scope which defines the part of the network that this address is valid. These scopes
are: Global, which means that an address can be routed in the whole internet, Site local, which means
that it can be routed only inside the local network and Link local which are addresses that are not
routed by routers and are used for communication inside a single link. Unicast addresses are formed by
combining a global routing prefix of 48 bits along with a subnet ID of 16 bits and attaching the
interface ID which is the identifier of the specific device. Usually this is done by manipulating the 48
bit MAC address to 64 bits.
Sources:
[1] IPv6, CN Course material, http://jordid.site.ac.upc.edu/CN/CN-3-IPv6.pdf