EE 400: Communication Networks (101)

Dr. Wajih A. Abu-Al-Saud

Latestupdateofthislecturewason27092010

Ref: A. Leon Garcia and I. Widjaja, Communication Networks, 2nd Ed. McGraw Hill, 2006

Lecture03:IntroductiontoCommunicationNetworks Evolution of Computer Networks and the Internet

Several networks were designed and used in the past but they were limited in use, scope, and coverage (they were designed to be used by some companies for specific tasks and they were limited in their coverage area)

ARPANET (Advanced Research Project Agency NETwork)

1. ARPANET was implemented in late 1960s as the first large-scale wide-area packet-switching network. Its architecture included most of the elements of modern packet switching networks. 2. Around 25 Different universities were connected to the network using packet switching over a Wide Area Network (WAN). The ARPANET spanned the whole geographical area of the US with participating universities form the East coast of the US all the way to the West coast. 3. Communication was connectionless (no connection was required before start of transmission). 4. ARPANET consisted of packet switches (implemented using dedicated minicomputers) with each switch connected to at least two other switches (to provide alternate path in case of failure of one path in the network). 5. Maximum message length was 8000 bits and packets maximum length was around 1000 bits (messages may require segmentation and reassembly). 6. Relatively high speed at the time (56kbps) digital transmission 7. Packets were transmitted inside frames along with destination address and error control information. If errors were detected in a frame, it would be discarded along with the information in it. The transmitting switch sets a timer to receive an acknowledgment of arrival for each of the fames that originated from it. If no acknowledgement is received after some time, the frame would be retransmitted. 8. Each packet switch maintained a routing table that would specify the output line that was to be used for each given destination. 9. Packets were buffered to await for transmission on the appropriate link (packets from different sources would be multiplexed on the same lines) 10. Destinations are identified by unique addresses that are used by routing tables to determine the next hop the packets will be sent over 11. Each switch had a routing table that was exchanged with neighboring switches and each switch calculated a set of routing tables to direct the transmission of packets from source to destination. So, routing tables were updated in response to changes in network (packets were re-routed around failing paths after failures were detected) 12. Due to limited buffering in each switch, end-to-end congestion control (between the originating and destination nodes) was implemented to limit the number of packets that each switch has in transit (congestion [which occurs in switches] happens because a switch receives more packets than it can forward to other switches. For example a switch is forwarding a lot of data that comes from three paths all through a single path that cannot accommodate all the data). 13. Flow control (or overflow control) was implemented to prevent a source computer from causing an overflow to a destination computer (overflow [which occurs at end machines] happens when a 1

EE 400: Communication Networks (101)

Dr. Wajih A. Abu-Al-Saud

Latestupdateofthislecturewason27092010

Ref: A. Leon Garcia and I. Widjaja, Communication Networks, 2nd Ed. McGraw Hill, 2006

Lecture03:IntroductiontoCommunicationNetworks
computer is the destination of a lot of traffic such that it cannot handle all of that traffic (meaning process it) in time). 14. Several applications were implemented on computers connected to the ARPANET including email, remote login, and file transfer. 15. The ARPANET implemented most of the components of modern networks.

Local Area Networks (LAN)

1. In 1980s, cheap personal computers became widespread and the need for sharing expensive devices such as printers and hard-disks was necessary. 2. Networks over relatively short distances (few hundreds of meters) were needed. 3. Because of short distances, low cost, high speed, and error free communication was possible (no error-control was needed). 4. To eliminate the need for administrative supervision resulting from continuously moving computers from one place to another, each Network Interface Card (NIC) was given a globally unique address and messages were broadcasted to all computers in the LAN. 5. A Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol became necessary to coordinate the access of computers to the medium of transmission to prevent collisions between frames. 6. Several network topologies were used including Ring, Bus, and Tree networks. 7. The most widely used LAN type is Ethernet.