Text Book and References

Text Book:
Communications Networks 2nd Edition, A. Leon-Garcia,
and I. Widjaja, McGraw Hill, 2003

Reference Books:
Communication Networks, Sharam Hekmat, PragSoft
Corporation, 2005; www.pragsoft.com/books/CommNetwork.pdf

Communication Networks A First Course, 2nd Edition, Jean

Walrand, Homewood, Aksen Associates, 1998

Computer Networks 4th Edition, A. Tanenbaum, Prentice Hall, 2002

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What do you need to study the Course?

Love the Network and Understand the Concept!

More than 50% of the midterm/final will test you conceptual understanding.
Please do not miss the concept or just memorize it!

Problem Solving:

If you will follow the tutorials with our excellent TAs, you will partially cover the practical
part! But you still need to practice your self! Please solve (as much as you can) the
problems in the book. If you have problems, please come to us.

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Is Communication Network Related to What
you Have Studied So Far?

Studying completely a new issue

The Communication is a Network? Or you can say, Network is a

Communication

And who said that it is not electronics? Actually it is!

Two ports network, Four ports network, N ports network? Mmmm! Don't
say that control has to do anything in it!

Don't we have a network systems that transmits signals? Does this

remind you of a very simple and funny course ?

Don't forget social networks (twitter and facebook) or better don't forget
what wasted your time :p)
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What is a communication network?

Communication
Network

1- What we feel: the equipment (hardware & software) and

facilities that provide the basic communication service

2- What we do not see is what represents the network cloud

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What is a communication network?

Communication
Network

Network Cloud: is a set of resources (hardware and

software) and Infrastructure that are delivered as a
service/applications over a network

Resources Infrastructure
Routers, servers (CPUs), Copper wires, coaxial
switches, multiplexers, cables, optical fiber
hubs, modems, Ducts, conduits, telephone
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poles
History!
Samuel Morse invented Telegraph 1837, which that sends electrical Impulses
over Copper Wires (Dots and Dashes)
Alexander Graham Bell's First Telephony in 1875 and patented 1876
Bell's first telephone company was founded 1867.
He succeeds in converting the analog voice into electrical signal (via mic)
Signal for ae as in cat

Microphone Loudspeaker
analog
electrical
signal
sound sound
Telephony digital age: using Bell's telephone cables (after twisting them and switching
them digitally) we succeeded to have:

Telephone modems (56 kpbs), ADSL (stops at 2 Mbps), ADSL2/+ (stops at 16

Mbps), and VDSL (which works normally at 50 Mbps)

Wireless started to compete the digital telephone networks and even it is winning 9

internet !!
Networks Design and Operation
Digital transmission
Digital voice and Digital data

Digitally share the medium (Time Division Multiplexing)

Circuit switching (Analog or digital?)

User signals for call-setup and call-end

Build an end-to-end connection across network

Hierarchical Network
Hierarchical structure, routing paths, and scalability

Signaling Network
Intelligence inside the network 10
What Does a Simple Telephone Network Need?

Voice Transmission CAT3

Transmitting voice either analog or
sampled through the cables

Signaling
Signaling required to establish a call, also transmitted via cables and has a
simple algorithm

Flashing and ringing devices to alert the called party of incoming call

Called party information to operator to establish calls

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Signaling + voice signal transfer
Note: Signaling is not mixed with voice in digital telephony!!
Simple Network Telephone Setup

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Telephone Pole Congestion

Where N users to be fully connected directly

Requires N(N 1)/2 connections
Requires too much space for cables
Inefficient & costly since connections not always
on
N = 1000
1 N(N 1)/2 = 499500

N 2

..
.

4 3
13
fully connected Network
Switching is a Solution !
Operator-Switches:
Patchcord panel switch invented in 1877
Operators connect users on demand

Circuit Switching (half

mechanically then full
electronically controlled):
circuits to allow automatically the
electrical current to flow (inlet outlet
Only N connections required to central
office 14
Network Components (Architectural Look)
Nodes: Typically handle the network protocols and provide switching capabilities.
A node is usually itself a computer (general or special) which runs specific
network software
Communication Lines may take many different shapes and forms, even in the
same network. Examples include: copper wire cables, optical fiber, radio channels,
and telephone lines.

Host: is connected to the network by a separate communication line which connects it

to one of the nodes. From a hosts point of view, the entire network may be viewed as a 15
black box, to which many other hosts are connected
Network Types (Network Classification)

Networks may be divided into different types and categories according to

four different criteria

1. Geographic spread of nodes and hosts (mainly the distance)

2. Access restrictions (who can access such a network?)

3. Communication model employed by the nodes (what is sent to whom?)

4. Switching model employed by the nodes (switching types will be

intensively discussed later!!)

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Geographic Spread of Nodes and Host
Local Area Network (LAN):
when the physical distance between the hosts is within a few kilometers.

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

MANs cover distances of up to a few hundred kilometers (connecting cities)

Wide Area Network (WAN):

WANs are used to connect hosts spread across a country, a continent, or the globe

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LANs, MANs, and WANs usually coexist

Internetworking
Internetworking is part of network layer and provides transfer
of packets across multiple possibly dissimilar networks
Gateways (routers) direct packets across networks
ATM Network
ATM
Switch
ATM ATM
Switch
G = gateway H Switch

ATM
H = host Switch

H
Net
Net 33
G
Net 1
Net 1 G
G
Ethernet Switches/Hubs G
Net55
Net

Net
Net 22 G Net 4 G
H

H
Access Restrictions

Private Networks:
Most of our networks are private unless you decided to leave it public!

Public Networks:
are genearally accessible to the average user, but may require registration and
payment of connection fees

Note:
Internet is the most-widely known example of a public network. Technically, both
private and public networks may be of LAN, MAN, or WAN type, although public
networks, by their size and nature, tend to WANs.
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Model Employed by the Network
Point-to-point:
communication between nodes simultaneously, where the message follows a
specific route across the network in order to get from one node to another

Broadcast (or Point-to-multipoints)

all nodes share the same communication medium and the same transmitter!

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Layered (Protocol) Communication (1)
Protocol: refers to the rules, actually strict rules

and

Layer: in a networks, refers to a set of services/functions, which can be

implemented in hardware or software

Do not confuse your self! A layer stack is known to be a protocol stack ;-)

Why do we need layered communication:

1- Reliable: (as every layer protect it self against errors)

2- Organizing data: each layer prepare its data format and send it
encapsulated to the lower layer
3- Functionality splitting; each layer can understand similar layers in
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other devices !!!! LET US SEE a nice example, the OSI model
Layered (Protocol) Communication (2)

Layered Protocols will be studied:

Open System Interconnections (OSI) model

TCP/IP model

Open System Interconnections (OSI) model

The OSI, or Open System Interconnection, model defines a networking framework to

implement protocols in seven layers. Control is passed from one layer to the next,
starting at the application layer in one station, and proceeding to the bottom layer, over
the channel to the next station and back up the hierarchy.

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Layered Communication (2)

Application Application
One or More Network Nodes
Application Application
Layer Layer
End-to-End Protocols

Presentation Presentation
Layer Layer
Session Session
Layer Layer
Transport Transport
Layer Nodes X Nodes Y Layer
Network Network Network Network
Layer Layer Layer Layer
Data Link Data Link Data Link Data Link
Layer Layer Layer Layer
Physical Physical Physical Physical
Layer Layer Layer Layer 23

Communicating End Systems

Layered Communication (3)

Protocol Communication Characteristics :

Each layer can exactly translate the message from the same layer in other device

Each of the seven layers of the OSI model hides the implementation details of the lower
layers from the upper layers. (i.e., Network Layer does not inform the Data Link Layer
about its building blocks)

Well-defined protocols and interfaces for each of the layers make it possible for the layer
to be designed and implemented in isolation from the other layers (each layer can be
bought from a different vendor!!)

However, they CAN COMMUNICATE, HOW? Each of these layers may be implemented
as a set of routines which communicate with the layer above and the layer below it via
parameters passed in function calls.
calls

FOR Safety: each layer adds an additional piece of information to the message it is
transmitting. The same layer removes the additional piece of information on the receiving
end. The additional information appears in form of a header (e.g., TH = Transport Header).
The data link layer adds a header as well as a trailer to its data (DLH and DLT). 24

Let us see a drawing

Layered Communication Encapsulation (4)

DLT = CRC
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Physical Layer

Transfer of bits across communication link

Transmission Medium
Twisted-Pair cable,
Coaxial Cable,
Optical Fiber,
Radio,
Satellite,
Infrared

Aspects of a communications link
Physical: cable, plugs, pins, ...
Electrical/optical: modulation, signal strength, voltage levels, bit
times,
Functional/procedural: how to connect, activate, maintain, and
deactivate physical links

Technique
Ethernet, Wireless, DSL, cable modem, telephone modem 26
LAN WAN
Data Link Layer

Transfers frames across direct connections

Groups bits into frames

Detection of bit errors; Retransmission of frames

Activation, maintenance, & deactivation

of data link connections

Medium access control for local area

networks Network

Flow control

Two Sub-Layers
Logical link control (LLC) LLC
Medium access control (MAC)
MAC

Physical
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Data Link Layer

Medium Access Control (MAC)

Either Contention Based
Two or more nodes want to transmit over the same medium
at the same time

Or Contention Free
avoid collisions; MAC protocol should be able to bring the
network from an arbitrary state to a collision-free stable
state

What to do? Medium access control techniques
Defines the rules for accessing the medium
Common MAC Schemes

Carrier Sense Multiple Access (with Collision Detection)
CSMA/CD

Token Passing

Random Access
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Reservation
Error control in Logical Link Control (LLC)
Packets Packets

Data Link operates over
Data link Data link
wire-like,
layer Frames layer
A B directly-connected systems
Physical Physical
layer layer

Frames can be corrupted
or lost, but arrive in order
1

1
Data link performs
2

12 3 21 12 3 21 error-checking &
Medium retransmission
2
A B 1

Ensures error-free packet
transfer between two
systems
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LLC Simplest Error Detection

Simplest Error Detection: Parity Checks
Even Parity : Sum of 1s is even
Odd Parity : Sum of 1s is odd

Single Error Detected Double Error Goes

1011000 Ask for Retransmission 1011000 undetected

LLC LLC LLC LLC

10110001 10110101 10110001 10100101

Even Parity Even Parity 30
Assumed Assumed
Network Layer

Transfers packets across multiple links and/or multiple
networks (Routing ?! You know this ?)

Addressing must scale to large networks

Nodes jointly execute routing algorithm to determine paths
across the network

Forwarding transfers packet across a node

Congestion control to deal with traffic surges
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Connection setup, maintenance, and teardown
Routing Example
D
B 5
7
4 9

3 F
A
7 5
6
6
E
C
Route Cost

ABF 13

AB DF 16

ABEF 12

ACF 13
29 Nov. - 3 Dec. IEEE GLOBECOM 2004 32
ACEF 17
Network Layer

Efficient routing algorithms are needed to perform

Heavy computations of routes (especially for huge number of

nodes)

Cope with dynamic changes in costs (especially when nodes

fails or routing patterns changes suddenly)

Avoid congestion since a good route may attract a lot of traffic

and overload the computers on it

Keep QoS constant among users!!!

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Transport Layer

Transfers data error-free between
(point)end-to-(point)end from process in a machine to
process in another machine

Reliable stream transfer or quick-and-simple
single-block transfer (without guarantee of the order)

Port numbers enable multiplexing and broadcasting

Message segmentation and reassembly

Connection setup, maintenance, and release

Transport Transport
Layer Layer

Network Network Network Network

Layer Layer Layer Layer
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Communication Network
Connection Services in Transport Layer

The Transport Layer can also perform connection services such as:
Segment Sequencing - large messages are divided, the Transport
Layer reorders them once received before reassembling
Error Control - To prevents errors from lost or duplicate segments
the Transport Layer enables the following strategies:

Unique segment sequence numbers

Timeouts removed from the network segments that have been
misrouted and have remained on the network past a specified
time.


Corruption is detected by end-to-end error control by way of
checksums.

End-to-End Flow Control - Acknowledgments are used to manage
end-to-end flow control.

There are negative acknowledgments as well as 'go back n' n or
'selective repeat'
repeat acknowledgments
Go back n - request retransmission of packets starting at n.
Selective Repeat - request specific packets to be retransmitted.35
Application & Upper Layers

Application Layer: Provides
services that are frequently required
by applications: DNS, web acess, Application
file transfer, email Application

Presentation Layer: Application
Layer
Application
machine-independent Layer
representation of data Presentation
Transport
Layer

Session Layer: provides the Layer
mechanism for opening, closing and Session
Layer
managing a session between
end-user application processes. Transport
Layer

Rarely used and usually incorporated

into application layer
Questions and Tips!

DID YOU GET THE IDEA ?!

Questions:

1- What do we mean by encapsulation?

2- How can every layer in the OSI model understand the similar layer
in another node/host?
3- Why we don't have application layer at the nodes but we have at
the hosts? And why for the transport layer?
4- Name the three layers that can be combined in the OSI model and
say why?
5- Network layer and transport layer; which one is node-to-node and
which one is host-to-host? Which one cares about routing?
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