CSE2029: Data Communication & Computer Networks
Lecture-4: Application Layer
Faculty: Dr. Sandeep Kumar
Outline
Application Layer
Network Application Architectures
Client-Server Architecture
P2P Architecture
Socket/Application Programming Interface
Addressing of the Processes
Functions of Application Layer Protocols
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Application Layer
• The application layer is where network applications and
their application-layer protocols reside.
• The Internet’s application layer includes many
protocols, such as the HTTP, SMTP, FTP and DNS etc.
• The packet of information at the application layer as a
message.
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Network Application Architectures
• Before starting the application development (software coding), we should have a
broad architectural plan for our application.
• Application’s architecture is very different from the network architecture.
• The network architecture is a five-layer Internet architecture to provide specific set of
services whereas the application architecture, on the other hand, is designed by the
application developer and it decides how the application is structured over the
various end systems.
• Two types of application architectures are: (1) client-server architecture, (2) peer-to-
peer (P2P) architecture.
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Client-Server Architecture
• In this architecture, there is an ALWAYS-ON host called the server which gets service
requests from many other hosts which are called the clients. (Example: Web server
services the requests from many browsers running on client hosts).
• The clients do not directly communicate with each other, rather one or more clients
communicate with a server. (e.g. in web browsing, two browsers do not directly
communicate).
• The server has a fixed, well-known address, called an IP address and server is always on,
so, a client can always contact the server by sending a packet to the server’s IP address.
• Some of the well-known applications with a client-server architecture are Web, FTP,
Telnet, and e-mail. The client-server architecture is shown in Figure (=>)
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Client-Server Architecture
• Often in a client-server
application, a single-server host is
incapable of keeping up with all
the requests from clients. So, a
data center, housing the large
number of servers, is often used
to create a powerful virtual
server.
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Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Architecture
• In a P2P architecture, there is no dependency on the dedicated servers (data
centers), Instead the applications use the direct communications between
pairs of intermittently connected hosts, called peers.
• These peers are the desktops and laptops controlled by users, with most of
the peers residing in homes, universities, and offices.
• Because the peers communicate without taking any dedicated server in-
between, this type of architecture is called the peer-to-peer architecture.
• An example of a popular P2P application is the file-sharing application
BitTorrent.
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Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Architecture
• One of the most compelling features of P2P architectures is their self scalability. For
example, in a P2P file-sharing application, although each peer generates workload by
requesting files, each peer also adds service capacity to the system by distributing files to
other peers.
• P2P architectures are also cost effective, since they normally don’t require significant
server infrastructure.
• However, P2P applications face challenges of security, performance, and reliability due to
their highly decentralized structure.
• The Peer-to-Peer (P2P) architecture is shown in Figure (=>)
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(Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Architecture)
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Interfacing our application program (process) with computer network
• Most of the applications consist of pairs of communicating processes (programs)
sending messages to each other.
• Any message sent from one process to other process must go through the
underlying network.
• A process sends messages into, and receives messages from, the network through
a software interface called a socket.
• Figure (on next slide) illustrates socket communication between two processes
that communicate over the Internet.
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Interfacing our application program (process) with computer network
• Here we assume that the
underlying transport layer
protocol used by the
processes is TCP protocol.
• A socket is the interface
between the application layer
and the transport layer within
a host. So, it is also referred to
as the Application
Programming Interface (API)
between the application and
the network.
• The application developer has
control of everything on the
application-layer side of the
socket but has a little control
of the transport-layer side of
the socket. 11
Addressing of the Processes (programs/applications)
• In order to send postal mail to a particular destination, the destination needs to have an address. Similarly,
in order for a process (program) running on one host to send packets to another process running on other
host, the receiving process needs to have an address.
• To identify the receiving process, two pieces of information need to be specified: (1) the address of the
host and (2) an identifier that specifies the receiving process in the destination host.
• The designation (receiving) host can be uniquely identified by its IP address.
• However, in addition to knowing the IP address of the destination host to which a message is to be sent,
the sending process must also identify the receiving process (more specifically, the receiving socket)
running in that host. This information is needed because in general a host could be running many network
applications (processes/programs). A destination port number serves this purpose. Popular applications
have been assigned specific port numbers. For example, a Web server is identified by port number 80. A
mail server process (using the SMTP protocol) is identified by port number 25.
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Functions of Application Layer Protocols
• An application-layer protocol defines how an application’s processes, running on different
end systems, pass messages to each other. In particular, an application-layer protocol defines:
1. The types of messages exchanged, for example, request messages and response
messages.
2. The syntax of the various message types, such as the fields in the message and how the
fields are defined.
3. The semantics of the fields, that is, the meaning of the information in the fields.
4. Rules for determining when and how a process sends messages and responds to
messages.
• Example: The Web’s application-layer protocol, HTTP, defines the format and sequence of
messages exchanged between browser and Web server.
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Thank you.
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