Arhitecturi si Protocoale

de Comunicatii (APC)

Network Architectures
and Devices

Introduction

Octavian Catrina

Why do we need data networks?

Information must move

For many applications, the data source, storage, and

processing or usage occur on different computers.
E.g., these slides, the web content, amazon.com's databases of
items to sell and customer accounts.

We need a communication infrastructure for distributed

computer applications.

People want to communicate

Computers are powerful, versatile communication devices.

E.g., e-mail, instant messaging, telephony, conferencing apps.

Resources have to be shared

Hardware, software, data.

E.g., high performance/reliable storage & printing, these slides, our
intranet, web search engines and content.

Octavian Catrina

Information handling

What information? Various media types

Time-independent (discrete) media: numbers, characters, text,

graphics, image, etc.
Time-dependent (continuous) media: speech/audio, video.
Special constraints if transfer and playback at the same time.

How to represent it? Information encoding

Common basic representation of different media types that can

be handled by computers: bit/octet strings = data.
For each media type (ASCII, UTF, GIF, JPEG, MPEG, PDF, ).
To describe multimedia messages (e.g., MIME).

How to communicate the data? Data networks

Communication infrastructure that provides the means to move

data between computers and meet the specific requirements of
different media types.

Octavian Catrina

Quality of Service (QoS)

What quality of the communication service require the

applications from the network?

Data reliability (integrity) requirements

Data delivered without being altered: same sequence of same

data values. Typical requirements for data integrity:
100% for transmission of discrete media (e.g., documents, software).
100% for real-time transmission of continuous media (video, audio).

Real-time requirements

Data delivered within specified time constraints:

Throughput (bits/second), transfer delay, delay variation.
E.g., to allow continuous media (audio/video) playback or
timely command execution in computer controlled systems.

Octavian Catrina

Communication types (1)

Point-to-point (unicast)

Unicast

One sender (source).

One receiver (destination).

Multi-point

Broadcast.
Multicast 1 : N

Broadcast
One-to-all (certain scope).
Multicast
One-to-N (certain group and scope).
N-to-M multicast
N senders, M receivers.

Multicast N : M

One or both directions

Simplex: one-way transmission.

(Full-)Duplex: two-way simultaneously.
Half-duplex: two-way taking turns.
Octavian Catrina

Communication types (2)

Connection-oriented

Preliminary agreement and resource allocation.

Higher complexity. Setup delay. Can guarantee QoS.
(1) Connection establishment

(2) Data transfer

(3) Connection release

(1) Is communication possible?

What terms? Are there enough
resources? Allocate resources.
(3) Release resources.

Connectionless

Data transfer without preliminary agreement.

Lower complexity and delay. Low QoS provision capability.
Datagram (data or query)
Datagram (data or reply/ack)

Octavian Catrina

Several kinds:
- Unacknowledged datagram.
- Acknowledged datagram.
- Request-reply communication.
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Scalable connectivity

Data links

Wired (cabled) or wireless data channels.

Point-to-point link: Two computers.
Multi-access link: Unique address for each
computer. Shared data channel (with
access coordination) or data switch.

Data networks

Efficient resource sharing techniques for cost-effective

interconnection for a large number of computers. Example:

Many data streams share

each data link:
Multiplexing/demultiplexing

Octavian Catrina

Interconnection devices
forward data on the links
towards the destination:
Switching and routing
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A basic network classification

Local Area Networks - LAN

Wide Area Networks - WAN

Wide geographical distribution

(100s-1000s Km; country, continent).
Any number of computers.

Metropolitan Area Networks - MAN

Limited geographical distribution

(100s-1000s m; floor, building, campus).
Small number of computers (100s).

Intermediate between LAN-WAN.

Different technologies for each class!

Octavian Catrina

Network architectures and

devices
Octavian Catrina

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Network architecture

Objectives

Facilitate the design, implementation, and maintenance.

Ensure interoperability between networking SW and HW from
different vendors - standards instead of proprietary solutions.

Layered architecture

Specifies the conceptual structure of the communication system

implemented by all the nodes in a network.
Communication subsystem structured as a hierarchy of modules.
Interactions between modules in each node (interfaces, messages).
Interactions between modules in different nodes (protocols).

Functional architecture of a network

Specifies functional (groups of) devices in a network and the

interactions between them (interfaces, protocols).
Network design based on functional, performance, scalability, fault
tolerance, and reliability requirements, budget, etc.

Octavian Catrina

11

Layered architecture (1/3)

...

...

TL

TL

NL

NL

DL

DL

PHY

PHY

Layer
interfaces
Layer
protocols

The communication system in any network node is structured as a

hierarchy of modules with well defined functionality and interfaces.
Each module in the hierarchy extends the communication service
provided by the modules below.
In any node, a module only needs to interact directly with the lower
module and the upper module. They use standard interfaces.
A layer consists of the modules at the same level in the hierarchy.
Modules in the same layer and in different nodes must cooperate
in order to achieve the layers functions. They communicate using
the layers protocol.

Octavian Catrina

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Layered architecture (2/3)

Hierarchy of virtual machines

At each level in the hierarchy, the subsystem consisting of the

lower modules represents a virtual machine offering a certain
communication capability.
The upper module only needs to know the interface and can
ignore the structure and technology of the subsystem below.

Octavian Catrina

...

...

TL

TL

Layer
interfaces

NL

NL

Layer
protocols

DL

DL

PHY

PHY

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Layered architecture (3/3)

Summary of (expected) layered architecture benefits

Provides modularity and allows an independent design and

implementation of the modules.
Simplifies network design and implementation,
facilitates understanding of network operation,
provides the basis for the interoperability of devices produced
by different manufacturers.
Supports heterogeneity (various technologies at the same time,
e.g., for LAN/WAN, wired/wireless, real-time or not).
Supports the evolution of network technology (easier design
and deployment of new protocols and applications).

How shall we proceed?

Discover the principles of layered architectures and networking

devices while building a typical enterprise network.

Octavian Catrina

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Data transmission
Example:
Point-to-point link

PHY
NIC

1011010

Effects of attenuation,
distortion, noise, etc.

Physical transmission medium

Carries the data encoded in an

electromagnetic wave (signal).
Wired (cable) or wireless (e.g., radio).

NIC = Network Interface Card

...

...

PHY

PHY
Medium

Physical layer

Transfers bit streams over the physical medium:

data-to-signal encoding, signal transmission and propagation,
signal reception and signal-to-data decoding.

Octavian Catrina

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Shared media LANs

Shared media wired LAN
E.g., Ethernet LAN

Wireless LAN

1011010

Simple, cost-effective LAN technologies

Multi-access link using a shared transmission medium.

The signal transmitted by any device is received by all other
devices connected to the shared medium.

Wired LANs with various topologies: bus, star, ring

Wireless LANs using radio transmission

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Transmission range and repeaters

Example:
Ethernet LAN

Repeater

What limits the transmission range?

Signals are attenuated and distorted during propagation.
Beyond a certain distance, a receiver can no longer decode
the data correctly.
Repeater

Repeater
Amplifies/regenerates the signal to
extend the transmission range.
WANs and initial LANs.

Octavian Catrina

...

...
PHY

PHY

PHY

PHY

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Shared media LANs with repeaters

Ethernet LAN with

star topology

Hub

Hub
Hub

Multiport repeater
or (active) hub

Multiport repeaters (hubs)

Historical, LANs in 1980s,1990s:
Shared transmission media built
using multiport repeaters (active
hubs) that amplify/regenerate and
distribute the signal.

Octavian Catrina

...

...

PHY

PHY

PHY

PHY

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Physical layer: main functions

Data encoding and decoding

Transmitter encodes a bit string as a signal appropriate for

transmission on a given physical medium.
Receiver decodes the bit string from the received signal.
Does not guarantee error-free delivery - just a low error rate.

Multiplexing/demultiplexing

Use of the same physical transmission medium for multiple

simultaneous communications, by creating multiple physical
communication channels ("digital pipes").
(PHY function mainly for wireless networks and wide area networks).

Switching

Data forwarding between (typically multiplexed) physical links

on a path to the destination.
(PHY layer function mainly in certain WAN technologies).

Octavian Catrina

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Data Link

A simple case:
Point-to-point data link
12

...

...

DL

DL

PHY

PHY
Medium

Data Link layer

Adds basic functions needed to control the data transfer, e.g.:
Multiplexes user data units from different sources on the
physical channel and demultiplexes them at the destination.
Defines a message ("frame") format to carry user data and
control information.
Ensures error-free data delivery.
Supports both connectionless or connection-oriented
communications.

Octavian Catrina

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Shared media LANs

Shared media LAN (wired, wireless)
Nodes are identified by addresses,
frames are delivered by flooding.

Examples:
Cabled: IEEE 802.3 (Ethernet)
Wireless: IEEE 802.11 (WiFi )

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14

Collision

Addresses

32

MAC + PHY
MAC address
NIC

To uniquely identify the devices attached

to a multi-access link.

Medium Access Control (MAC)

Coordinates the access to shared media.

Multi-access links: MAC sublayer of the
DL layer handles medium access,
framing, addressing, error detection.
Octavian Catrina

...

...

DL

DL

PHY

PHY
Medium

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Bridged LANs

Forwarding table
MAC addr. Port
1
p1
3
p1

8
p2
5
p2

25

p1

p2

Bridge

Shared media problems

All stations share the medium's
transmission capacity: limits
LAN growth and performance.

...

...
DL

DL

DL

DL

PHY

PHY

PHY

PHY

LAN-1

Bridge

13

Bridged LAN: Avoid flooding

local traffic of a LAN segment
to other LAN segments

LAN-2

Bridge ("transparent bridge")

Filter or forward based on destination MAC address in frame and
destination location in a table. Flood if destination location ignored.

Octavian Catrina

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Switched LANs
1

13

25
Switched
Ethernet LAN

Switch

Switch
Switch

LAN switch
Multiport bridge with high
performance parallel architecture
allowing multiple simultaneous
communications.

Octavian Catrina

LAN switch
...

...
DL

DL

DL

DL

PHY

PHY

PHY

PHY

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Wireless LANs
Wireless
LAN

Wireless
LAN

Limited transmission range

(limited transmitter power,
fast signal attenuation)

AP

AP

Wired LAN (e.g.,

switched Ethernet)

Wireless LAN (WLAN)

Radio transmission over a shared
radio channel. MAC to coordinate
the access to the shared channel.

WLAN Access Point (AP)

Communication between wireless
devices and bridge to wired LANs.

Octavian Catrina

WLAN Access Point

...

...
DL

DL

DL

DL

PHY

PHY

PHY

PHY

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Wide Area Networks (WANs)

WAN switches
(Layer 1 or 2)

LAN

LAN

LAN

LAN

SONET = Synchronous Optical Network (ANSI).

SDH = Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (ITU-T).
PSTN = Public Switched Telephone Network.
ISDN = Integrated Services Digital Network.
ATM = Asynchronous Transfer Mode.
MPLS = Multi-Protocol Label Switching.

WANs interconnect LANs using various, specific, layer 1 and layer 2

multiplexing and switching technologies:

Layer 1: SONET/SDH, ISDN, PSTN, etc.

Layer 2: ATM, Frame Relay, MPLS (layer 2.5), etc.

The WAN infrastructure is built and operated by network service

providers, which offer WAN connectivity services to LAN owners.

Octavian Catrina

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Data Link layer: main functions

Addressing

Framing

Detect/correct frames altered during transmission through the

physical medium.

Medium access control

Define a frame (message) format, permitting frame delimitation

in a bit string, addressing, error detection, etc.

Error control

Identify stations attached to the same (multi-access) link (flat

address space).

Coordinate the access to shared physical media.

Multiplexing and switching

Various technologies for LANs (e.g., switched Ethernet) and

WANs (e.g., Frame Relay, ATM).

Octavian Catrina

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Internetworking
Scalable network interconnection:
towards the global Internet

Network 1
1.1.2

1.2.2

1.1.3

R2

1.2.1

Sub-network 1.2

R3

Sub-network 1.1
R1

1.2.2 2.1.2

1.1.1

1.1.4

1.3.1

Network 2

R4

1.3.2

Sub-network 1.3

R1 Routing table 2.1.1

DA Interface/NH
2.*.* 1.1.3 / 1.1.1
1.1.* 1.1.3 / 1.2.* 1.2.1 / 1.3.* 1.1.3 / 1.1.4

2.1.2
R5

2.1.3

2.2.1

2.2.2

Sub-network 2.2

Network layer
Provides scalable mechanisms
for connectivity and path finding.

Sub-network 2.1

Router

Router

...

Routes packets on the paths to

destinations, based on network
addresses and directions in its
routing table.

NL

NL

NL

NL

DL

DL

DL

DL

Octavian Catrina

...

PHY
PHY
Network-x

PHY
PHY
Network-y
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Network layer: main functions

Network addresses

Routing

To forward packets on network paths to their destinations.

Congestion control

Find a path across an inter-network from source to destination,

based on network topology, addresses, and other attributes.

Multiplexing and switching

Identify stations attached to large inter-networks.

Hierarchically structured address space.

Keep an internetwork operational at heavy load.

Segmentation(fragmentation)/reassembly

Fragment a large packet, transmit the fragments as a

sequence of packets, and restore it at the destination.

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End-to-end data transport

File transfer
FTP

Web apps

Other
apps

Other
apps

E-mail

File transfer

E-mail

SMTP,
POP, IMAP

FTP

SMTP,
POP, IMAP

Web apps

HTTP

HTTP
Endpoint address:
Network address
+ port number

Endpoint address:
Network address
+ port number

Host

Transport layer
Controls the end-to-end data
transfer: end-to-end addressing,
error control, flow control, etc.

Octavian Catrina

...
TL
NL
DL
PHY

Host

Router(s)
NL
DL
PHY

NL
DL
PHY

...
TL
NL
DL
PHY

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Transport layer: main functions

Transport addresses

Identify communication endpoints.

Multiple endpoints at the same host (for different apps, or
multiple communications of the same app).
Transport address =
Network address + Transport selector (port number).

Error control (end-to-end)

Flow control (end-to-end, on TL connections)

Detect/recover packets lost or damaged in the network.

Adapt the transmission rate to reception rate.

Congestion control.

Adapt the transmission rate to available network resources.

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Upper layers

Upper layers
to support applications.
Possible structure:
Session (5):
control of the communication
session.
Presentation (6):
information representation.
Application (7):
protocols supporting particular
communication services:
www, e-mail, file transfer,
telnet, network file system,
network management, ...

Octavian Catrina

Application
processes

Application
processes

Upper
layers

Upper
layers

TL

TL

NL

NL

DL

DL

PHY

PHY

Interconnection network

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OSI-RM

Open System Interconnection - Reference Model

ISO/ITU-T standard from the early '80s (ISO 7498).
Objective: provide a foundation for open networking technology
(standards), to replace proprietary technologies.

Defines the principles and concepts of

layered architectures

Widely used template for network standards.

(Except for the Internet )

Specifies an architecture with 7 layers

ISO/ITU-T standards were issued for each

layer, but were eventually abandoned.
Redundant, complex, difficult to adapt to the
evolution of networking technology ....
Octavian Catrina

Application
processes
7

Application

Presentation
Session

Transport

Network

Data Link

Physical

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OSI-RM: layer service and protocol

Layer service

Service interface

Functionality that a layer offers at the

interface with the upper layer.

Rules for communication between entities in

adjacent layers, in the same station:
set of messages: service primitives.
sequence of primitives to get a service.

Peer entities

Transport entity
N- SAP
N-service
N-SDU
primitives
Network entity
DL- SAP
DL-service DL-SDU
primitives
Data Link entity

Communication entities within the

same layer, in different stations.
Cooperate to provide the service.

SAP: Service Access Point.

SDU: Service Data Unit.

Layer protocol

Rules for communication between peer entities:

set of messages: protocol data units (PDU) (frames/packets ...).
rules for using them to achieve the services.

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Example: OSI services and protocols

Network entity
DL-Service.request
DL- SAP

The DL layer provides to the NL layer a

connection-oriented communication
service, which includes connection
management services (establish, release)
and a reliable data transfer service, using
an unreliable PHY layer service.

DL-Service.confirm
Data Link entity

Network entity

DL protocol

Data Link entity

DL-CONNECT
Request

CC(...)

DT(seq, d)

DR(...)
DC(...)

Octavian Catrina

Network entity

DL-CONNECT
Indication

AK(seq)

DL-DISCONNECT
Request

DL- SAP

Data Link entity

Timer

DL-DATA
Request (d)

DL-Service.response

DL-Service.indication
Data Link entity

CR(...)

DL-CONNECT
Confirm

Network entity

DL-CONNECT
Response

DL-DATA
Indication (d)

DL-DISCONNECT
Indication

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TCP/IP protocol stack

First and most widespread open protocol stack

Origins: DARPA project (US DoD) in the late '70s.
DARPA network evolved into the current Internet.

Standardization
RFC (Request For Comments) from
IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force).
(See: http://www.ietf.org)

TCP/IP model versus OSI-RM

Simpler, more pragmatic protocol stack.
Layered model is not rigorously defined.
Different sources use different layer
names. Well use the OSI layer names.

Octavian Catrina

TCP/IP
OSI-RM

Applications

Application 7
Presentation 6

Application

Session 5
Transport 4

Transport

Network 3

Internet

Data Link 2

Link

Physical 1

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TCP/IP protocols graph

IP Hourglass Model
HTTP

SMTP

DNS

FTP

SNMP

Transport
layer

UDP

Transmission
Control Protocol

User Datagram
Protocol

(OSPF, ...)

Data Link
layer

Application protocols
SMTP HTTP RTP ...

Everything
on IP

ICMP
Internet Control
Message

IP
Internet Protocol

Address
Resolution

(v4/v6)

Transport
TCP UDP ...

IP
IP on
Everything
Data link
Ethernet PPP ATM ...

Physical
Ethernet PHY, SONET, ...

DL protocols
LAN/WAN

HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol

SMTP Simple Mail Transport Protocol
FTP File Transfer Protocol
Octavian Catrina

Applications
Email WWW Voice ...

TCP

Routing
information

Network
layer

Application
layer

Copper Fiber Radio

DNS Domain Name System

SNMP Simple Network Management Prot.
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Data flow & encapsulation

Web server
www.fun.com

user data

AL (HTTP)

A user data

User data (joke.html)

user data

Hypertext Transfer Protocol:

A user data
Reply to Request: get joke.html
TL protocol
T A user data
T A user data

TL

NL protocol

NL

N T A user data

DL

D N T A user data

PHY

1011010

DL protocol

Web client
(browser)

AL (HTTP)

TL

N T A user data

NL

D N T A user data

DL

1011010

PHY

Scenario:
The Web client has just requested an HTML
document from the Web server. The Web server
is delivering the document to the client.

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Example: HTTP request

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Example: HTTP response

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The global Internet

ISP-1

ISP-2
Backbone

Enterprise
networks

ISP-3

ISP: Internet Service Provider

Global federation of IP
networks

User networks connected

to ISP networks.
Several ISP tiers: access,
regional backbone, global
backbone.
Octavian Catrina

AT&T US backbone

40

IP on everything, everything on IP
Enterprise networks
Communication infrastructure
of the IT system. E-business ...

Home networks
Info, entertainment. Home
office. Internet appliances.

Web news, info,

publishing, ...
E-commerce,
e-banking, ...

IP(v4/v6)
Tele-education. Telemedicine ...

Mobile communications
Internet-enabled multiservice mobile devices.

Goal: Common infrastructure for

computer communications and
personal communication services
(message, voice/video/telephony).

Towards a global multi-services network, using IP as the core

transport technology.

Octavian Catrina

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