COMPUTER NETWORK

B.TECH CSE
3rd Year – 1st Sem

UNIT – III

Network Layer

DEPARTMENT OF CSE
VIGNAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE
DESHMUKHI
 Network Layer
The network layer is a crucial component of the OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) model
and the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) protocol suite. It operates
at Layer 3 of the OSI model and is responsible for routing packets of data between devices
across different networks.

The network layer is responsible for the source-to-destination delivery of a packet, possibly
across multiple networks (links). Whereas the data link layer oversees the delivery of the
packet between two systems on the same network (links), the network layer ensures that each
packet gets from its point of origin to its final destination. Communication at the network layer
is host-to-host (computer-to-computer); a computer somewhere in the world needs to
communicate with another computer somewhere else in the world.

The packet transmitted by the sending computer may pass through several LANs or WANs
before reaching the destination computer. The term IP address to mean a logical address in the
network layer of the TCP/IP protocol suite. The Internet addresses are 32 bits in length; this
gives us a maximum of 232 addresses.

These addresses are referred to as IPv4 (IP version 4) addresses or simply IP addresses if there
is no confusion.
As:- IPAddress: 117.149.29.2

 Network layer: Handles the routing and sending of data between different networks.
✓ The most important protocols at this layer are IP and ICMP.
 Network Protocol: A protocol is an agreed-upon way of formatting data so that two or
more devices are able to communicate with and understand each other.
 A number of different protocols make connections, testing, routing, and encryption
possible at the network layer, including IP, IPsec, ICMP, IGMP, GRE, OSPF, RIP, NAT,
VRRP.

Functions performed by the network layer:

 Logical Addressing: The network layer uses logical addressing (such as IP

addresses) to uniquely identify devices on a network. This is in contrast to
the data link layer, which deals with physical addressing (e.g., MAC
addresses).
  Routing: The network layer is responsible for determining the best path for
data packets to travel from the source to the destination across multiple
interconnected networks. This involves making decisions based on the
logical addresses of the source and destination.

 Packet Forwarding: Once the route is determined, the network layer is

responsible for forwarding packets of data from one router to another along
the chosen path until they reach their destination.

 Fragmentation and Reassembly: The network layer can fragment large

packets into smaller ones for transmission over networks that have a smaller
maximum frame size. At the destination, these fragments are reassembled
into the original packet.

 Quality of Service (QoS): The network layer can provide services to

optimize the performance of the network, including managing traffic
congestion, prioritizing certain types of traffic, and ensuring reliable and
timely delivery.

 Error Handling: While the network layer does not perform error detection
and correction like the data link layer, it may detect errors and initiate actions
to handle them, such as requesting packet retransmission.

Network Layer: Design issues

An introduction to some of the issues that the designers of the network layer must
grapple with.
A number of design issues exist for the layer to layer approach of computer networks.
Some of the main design issues are as follows –
i. Store-and-Forward Packet Switching
ii. Services Provided to the Transport Layer
iii. Implementation of Connectionless Service
iv. Implementation of Connection-Oriented Service
v. Comparison of Virtual-Circuit and Datagram Networks

Store-and-Forward Packet Switching

The host sends the packet to the nearest router.
✓ This packet is stored there until it has fully arrived once the link is fully processed by
verifying the checksum then it is forwarded to the next router till it reaches the destination.
✓ This mechanism is called “Store and Forward packet switching.
In packet-switched networks, store-and-forward is a fundamental technique where network
devices receive, store, process, and transmit data packets individually. It ensures reliable data
delivery by introducing several key steps:

1. Packet Reception: The network device (e.g., router) receives a data packet on an
incoming link.
2. Storage: The entire packet is buffered in memory, waiting for complete reception.
3. Error Checking: The packet's integrity is verified using error detection codes (e.g.,
CRC).
4. Routing: Based on the destination address, the next path or hop is determined.
5. Forwarding: If error-free, the packet is transmitted to the next device on the chosen
path.
6. Buffer Management: Buffers are monitored and packets may be discarded if storage
space becomes unavailable.

Services Provided to the Transport Layer

The network layer provides services to the transport layer at the network layer/transport layer
interface.
What kind of services the network layer provides to the transport layer?
 The services need to be carefully designed with the following goals in mind:
i The services should be independent of the router technology.
ii The transport layer should be shielded from the number, type, and topology of the
routers present.
iii The network addresses made available to the transport layer should use a uniform
numbering plan, even across LANs and WANs.

Based on the connections there are 2 types of services provided:

✓Connectionless – The routing and insertion of packets into subnet is done individually.
✓ No added setup is required.
 ✓Connection-Oriented – Subnet must offer reliable service and all the packets must be
transmitted over a single route.

Core Services provided to Transport Layer:

 Reliable Data Delivery: Guarantees data arrives intact and in the correct order, often
using protocols like TCP.
 Flow Control: Regulates data transmission rate to prevent overloading receivers,
typically managed by algorithms like sliding windows.
 Congestion Control: Dynamically adjusts data flow based on network conditions to
avoid congestion and packet loss.
 Error Detection and Correction: Identifies and corrects errors introduced during
transmission using checksums and retransmissions.
 Multiplexing and Demultiplexing: Allows multiple applications on a single device to
share the network connection efficiently.
 Connection Management: Establishes, maintains, and terminates connections
between applications, providing session-like communication.

Services Provided by the Network Layer

Services in Network Layer
• Guaranteed delivery: The service which guarantees that the packet will arrive at its
destination.
• Guaranteed delivery with bounded delay: The packet will be delivered within a
specified host-to-host delay bound.
• In-Order packets: The packet arrives at the destination in the order in which they are
sent.
• Guaranteed max jitter: The amount of time taken between two successive
transmissions at the sender is equal to the time between their receipt at the destination.
• Security services: The network layer provides security by using a session key between
the source and destination host.
 The source host encrypts the payloads of datagrams being sent to the destination host.
 The destination host would then decrypt the payload. In such a way, the network layer
maintains the data integrity and source authentication services.

Core Services:
 Logical Addressing: Assigns unique logical addresses (e.g., IP addresses) to devices
on the network, enabling identification and communication.
 Routing: Determines the best path for packets to take from source to destination,
using protocols like IP routing and BGP.
 Packet Forwarding: Receives packets from the data link layer, analyzes routing
information, and sends them towards the next hop on the chosen path.
  Error Handling: Detects and handles errors that might occur during transmission,
potentially using mechanisms like ICMP messages.
 Congestion Control: Implements mechanisms to prevent network congestion,
ensuring smooth data flow.
 Internetworking: Enables communication between different networks with varying
technologies and protocols.

Implementation of Connectionless Service

Packet are termed as “datagrams” and corresponding subnet as “datagram subnets”.
 When the message size that has to be transmitted is 4 times the size of the packet, then
the network layer divides into 4 packets and transmits each packet to router via. a few
protocol.
 Each data packet has destination address and is routed independently irrespective of the
packets.

Implementation of Connection-Oriented Service

A connection-oriented service, first establishes a connection, use it and then release it. The
data packets are delivered to the receiver in the same order in which they have been sent by the
sender.
• It can be done in either Two ways :
 Circuit Switched Connection – A dedicated physical path or a circuit is established
between the communicating nodes and then data stream is transferred.
 Virtual Circuit Switched Connection – The data stream is transferred over a
packet switched network, in such a way that it seems to the user that there is a
dedicated path from the sender to the receiver.
 A virtual path is established here.
  While, other connections may also be using the same path.

Comparison of Virtual-Circuit and Datagram Networks

Routing algorithms
A routing algorithm is a procedure that lays down the route or path to transfer data packets
from source to the destination. hey help in directing Internet traffic efficiently. After a data
packet leaves its source, it can choose among the many different paths to reach its destination.
Routing algorithm mathematically computes the best path, i.e. “least – cost path” that the
packet can be routed through. The main function of the network layer is routing packets from
the source machine to the destination machine.
In most networks, packets will require multiple hops to make the journey.
 The Routing protocol is a routing algorithm that provides the best path from the source
to the destination. The best path is the path that has the "least-cost path" from source to
the destination.
 Routing is the routing algorithm determines the process of forwarding the packets from
source to the destination but the best route to send the packets.
 The routing algorithm is that part of the network layer software responsible for deciding
which output line an incoming packet should be transmitted on.
 In this process, a routing table is created which contains information regarding routes
that data packets follow.
 Various routing algorithms are used for the purpose of deciding which route an incoming
data packet needs to be transmitted on to reach the destination efficiently.

Classification of Routing Algorithms

The routing algorithms can be classified as follows:
Adaptive Algorithms/ dynamic routing

The algorithms that change their routing decisions whenever network topology or traffic load
changes. These make use of dynamic information such as current topology, load, delay, etc. to
select routes. A router may select a new route for each packet (even packets belonging to the
same transmission) in response to changes in the condition and topology of the networks.
Optimization parameters are distance, number of hops, and estimated transit time.

Non-AdaptiveAlgorithms/ static routing

The algorithms that do not change their routing decisions once they have been selected, as a
route to be taken is computed in advance and downloaded to routers when a router is booted.
Once the pathway to the destination has been selected, the router sends all packets for that
destination along that one route. Non-adaptive algorithms do not base their routing decisions
on any measurements or estimates of the current topology and traffic.

Types of Routing Algorithms

1. Shortest path routing
2. Flooding
3. Hierarchical routing,
4. Broadcast,
5. Multicast,
6. Distance vector routing
 Shortest path routing
Shortest path routing finds the most efficient path (time, hops, distance) between two points in
a network. Think of it as GPS for data packets, optimizing delivery across wired, wireless, or
even transportation networks. It uses algorithms like Dijkstra's to analyze connections and
costs, ensuring smooth data flow and reducing congestion. Examples include internet routing
and traffic optimization.

 Dijkstra’s Shortest Path Algorithm which was developed by Dutch computer

scientist Edsger W. Dijkstra in 1956.
 Dijkstra’s algorithm is a popular algorithms for solving many single-source shortest
path problems having non-negative edge weight in the graphs i.e., it is to find the
shortest distance between two vertices on a graph.
 Finds shortest paths from given source nodes to all other nodes.
 The aim is to find the optimal paths between the network nodes so that routing cost is
minimized.

Graphs
Graph is non-linear data structures representing the "connections" between the vertices
through edges.
 Vertices: Vertices are the basic units of the graph used to represent real-life, objects,
persons, or entities. Sometimes, vertices are also known as Nodes.
 Edges: Edges are drawn or used to connect two vertices of the graph. Sometimes, edges
are also known as Arcs.
Example : Shortest path routing
Example

Step 1: Start from Node 0 and mark Node 0 as visited and check adjacent nodes

Step 2: Check for adjacent Nodes, (Either choose Node1 with distance 2 or either choose
Node 2 with distance 6 ) and choose Node with minimum distance.
Distance: Node 0 -> Node 1 = 2
Step 3: Then Move Forward and check for adjacent Node which is Node 3, so marked it as
visited and add up the distance, Now the distance will be: Distance: Node 0 -> Node 1 ->
Node 3 = 2 + 5 = 7

Step 4: Again two choices for adjacent Nodes (Either choose Node 4 with distance 10 or either
choose Node 5 with distance 15) so choose Node with minimum distance.
Node 4 is Minimum distance adjacent Node, so marked it as visited and add up the distance.
Distance: Node 0 -> Node 1 -> Node 3 -> Node 4 = 2 + 5 + 10 = 17
Step 5: Again, Move Forward and check for adjacent Node which is Node 6, so marked it as
visited and add up the distance, Now the distance will be:
Distance: Node 0 -> Node 1 -> Node 3 -> Node 4 -> Node 6 = 2 + 5 + 10 + 2 = 19

So, the Shortest Distance from the Source Vertex is 19 which is optimal one

Flooding
Flooding is a technique of routing in computer networking, in which a sender node transmits
packets via all the outgoing links. Flooding is similar to broadcasting in that it happens when
sender packets are transferred without routing data to each network node attached.

 In a computer network, flooding occurs when a router uses a non-adaptive routing

algorithm to send an incoming packet to every outgoing link except the node on which
the packet arrived.
 Flooding is a way to distribute routing protocols updates quickly to every node in a large
network.

Working process of flooding algorithms?

Flooding algorithms can be configured in one of two ways:
i. Every node acts as a sender and a receiver;
ii. Every node tries to send the packet to each of its counterparts except for the source
node.
 Types of flooding
i. Controlled flooding: Use two algorithms to control the transmission of packets to the
neighbouring nodes.
a Sequence Number Controlled Flooding (SNCF) and
Each node maintains a list of the source address and sequence number of each
broadcast packet it has already received, duplicated, and forwarded.
b Reverse Path Forwarding (RPF).
Only know the next neighbour on its unicast shortest path to the sender
ii. Uncontrolled flooding: Each router unconditionally transmits the incoming data
packets to all its neighbours.
iii. Selective flooding: Nodes are configured to only send incoming packets to routers in
one direction.
This can help to prevent some of the mishaps that occur with uncontrolled flooding, but
is not as sophisticated as controlled flooding.

Hierarchical routing
Hierarchical routing algorithm is one of the adaptive algorithms used to reduce the size of
routing table. Drawback of this algorithm is that the reduced table size comes at the expense
of increased path length. Hierarchical routing is the procedure of arranging routers in a
hierarchical manner. As networks grow in size, the router routing tables grow proportionally.

 The routers are divided into regions.

 Each router has complete details about how to route packets to destinations within its
own region, but has no information about routers in other regions.
 When different networks are interconnected, it is natural to regard each one as a
separate region to free the routers in one network from having to know the topological
structure of the other ones.
 For huge networks, a two-level hierarchy may be insufficient:
 It may be necessary to group the regions into clusters, the clusters into zones, the zones
into groups, and so on.
Figure 5-14 gives a quantitative example of routing in a two-level hierarchy with five regions.
The full routing table for router 1A has 17 entries, as shown in Fig. 5-14(b). When routing
is done hierarchically, as in Fig. 5-14(c), there are entries for all the local routers, as before,
but all other regions are condensed into a single router, so all traffic for region 2 goes via the
1B-2A line, but the rest of the remote traffic goes via the 1C-3B line. Hierarchical routing
has reduced the table from 17 to 7 entries.

Broadcast Routing
Broadcast routing is a networking concept that facilitates the transmission of data, messages or
signals, from a source to destinations within a network. Unlike routing (one to one) or multicast
routing (one to many) broadcast routing ensures that information reaches all devices or nodes
in the network. Broadcast routing sends a single message to every device on a network segment,
like a group chat message. It uses a special address and routers forward it to all connected
devices.

Hosts need to send messages to many or all other hosts.

• Sending a packet to all destinations simultaneously is called broadcasting.

• Broadcast routing ensures that packets reaches all devices or nodes within the
network.
An improvement is multidestination routing, in which each packet contains either a list of
destinations or a bit map indicating the desired destinations. When a packet arrives at a router,
the router checks all the destinations to determine the set of output lines that will be needed.
 A spanning tree is a subset of the network that includes all the routers but
contains no loops. Sink trees are spanning trees.

Reverse path forwarding: a broadcast packet arrives at a router, the router checks to see if
the packet arrived on the link that is normally used for sending packets toward the source of
the broadcast.

Reverse path forwarding: a broadcast packet arrives at a router, the router checks to see if the
packet arrived on the link that is normally used for sending packets toward the source of the
broadcast.

Multicast routing
Multicast routing is a networking method for efficient distribution of one-to-many traffic.
A multicast source, such as a live video conference, sends traffic in one stream to a multicast
group. The multicast group contains receivers such as computers, devices, and IP phones.
 Multicast routing is a networking method for efficient distribution of one-to-many
traffic.
  Multicast routing begins by sending a select group of receivers the data, which they
filter out to other necessary receivers.
 Sending a message to such a group is called multicasting, and the routing algorithm
used is called multicast routing.

Multicast routing schemes build on the broadcast routing schemes we have already studied,
sending packets along spanning trees to deliver the packets to the members of the group while
making efficient use of bandwidth.
Difference between Broadcast and Multicast Routing
Distance vector routing
The distance vector routing algorithm is one of the most commonly used routing algorithms.
It is a distributed algorithm, meaning that it is run on each router in the network. The algorithm
works by each router sending updates to its neighbours about the best path to each destination.
A distance-vector protocol calculates the distance and direction of the vector of the next hop
from the information obtained by the neighboring router. Distant vector routing protocol also
called as Bellman-Ford algorithm or Ford Fulkerson algorithm used to calculate a path.
Historically known as the old ARPANET routing algorithm {or known as Bellman Ford
(BF) algorithm}.

Key points of distance vector routing protocol:

 Network Information: Every node in the network have information about its
neighboring node.
 Each node in the network is designed to share information with all the nodes in the
network.
 Routing Pattern: In DVR the data shared by the nodes are transmitted only to that node
that is linked directly to one or more nodes in the network.
 Data sharing: The nodes share the information with the neighboring node from time to
time as there is a change in network topology.

Bellman-Ford algorithm
The Bellman–Ford algorithm is an algorithm that computes shortest paths from a single
source vertex to all of the other vertices in a weighted digraph.

 Bellman ford algorithm is a single-source shortest path algorithm.

 Used to find the shortest distance from the single vertex (node) to all the other vertices
(nodes) of a weighted network.
 It is similar to Dijkstra's algorithm but it can work with network in which edges can
have negative weights.

Step to calculates shortest distances used (V - 1) times/Iteration, where V is the number of nodes
in given network.

To calculate the distance between X and Y node using bellmen- ford equation.
where, dx(y) = The least distance from x to y
c(x,v) = Node x's cost from each of its neighbor
vdv(y) = Distance to each node from initial node
minv = Selecting shortest distance
Congestion Control Algorithms,
Congestion:
A state occurring in network layer when the message traffic is so heavy that it slows down
network response time. When too many packets are present in the network it causes packet
delay and loss of packet which degrades the performance of the system. This situation is called
congestion.
The network layer and transport layer share the responsibility for handling congestions. One
of the most effective ways to control congestion is trying to reduce the load that transport layer
is placing on the network.
Effects of Congestion
 ✓As delay increases, performance decreases.
 ✓If delay increases, retransmission occurs, making situation worse.

Congestion collapse

When the number of packets hosts send into the network is well within its carrying capacity,
the number delivered is proportional to the number sent. If twice as many are sent, twice as
many are delivered.

Causes of Congestion
If all of a sudden, streams of packets begin arriving on three or four input lines and all need
the same output line, a queue will build up.
✓ If there is insufficient memory to hold all of them, packets will be lost.
i Slow processors can also cause congestion.
i. If the routers’ CPUs are slow at performing the bookkeeping tasks
required of them (queueing buffers, updating tables, etc.) queues can
build up even though there is excess line capacity.
ii. Low-bandwidth lines can also cause congestion.
ii Low-bandwidth links or routers that process packets more slowly than the line rate can
also become congested.
Example:
Case 1: consider a network made up of 100-Gbps fiber optic links on which a supercomputer
is trying to force feed a large file to a personal computer that is capable of handling only 1
Gbps. Although there is no congestion (the network itself is not in trouble), flow control is
needed to force the supercomputer to stop frequently to give the personal computer a chance
to breathe.

Case 2: consider a network with 1-Mbps lines and 1000 large computers, half of which are
trying to transfer files at 100 kbps to the other half. Here, the problem is not that of fast senders
overpowering slow receivers, but that the total offered traffic exceeds what the network can
handle.

Congestion control algorithms

Congestion control in network layer occurs when a node or link carries data beyond its limit.
This often leads to the queuing of packets—and in the worst case, loss of packets—as well as
a decrease in the network’s Quality of Service (QoS).
 Congestion Control is a mechanism that controls the entry of data packets into the
network, enabling a better use of a shared network infrastructure and avoiding
congestive collapse.
 Congestive-Avoidance Algorithms (CAA) are implemented at the TCP layer as the
mechanism to avoid congestive collapse in a network.
 By detecting congestion and adjusting the data transmission rate to avoid it.

Approaches to Congestion Control

 The presence of congestion means that the load is greater than the resources can handle.
 Two solutions come to mind: increase the resources or decrease the load.

Network provisioning
Network provisioning is the process of setting up a network so that authorized users,
devices, and servers can access it. In practice, network provisioning primarily concerns
connectivity and security, which means a heavy focus on device and identity management.
 Sometimes resources can be added dynamically when there is serious congestion.
  More often, links and routers that are regularly heavily utilized are upgraded at the
earliest opportunity happens on a time scale of months, driven by long-term traffic
trends. Traffic-aware routing
 To make the most of the existing network capacity, routes can be tailored to traffic patterns
that change during the day as network users wake and sleep in different time zones.
 Splitting traffic across multiple paths is also helpful

Admission control
Admission control (AC) is a mechanism used in computer networks and telecommunications
to ensure that new connections or traffic do not exceed the network's capacity or cause a
degradation in the quality of service (QoS) provided to existing connections. Admission control
can be performed at different levels of the network, such as at the application, transport,
network, or link layer. In this article, we will focus on admission control at the network layer,
which is also known as network admission control (NAC).
 Sometimes it is not possible to increase capacity.
 New connections can be refused if they would cause the network to become congested.

Traffic throttling
Traffic Throttling is an approach used to avoid congestion. In networks and the internet, the
senders try to send as much traffic as possible as the network can readily deliver. In a network
when congestion is approaching it should tell the senders of packets to slow down them.
 Routers can monitor the average load, queueing delay, or packet loss. In all cases,
rising numbers indicate growing congestion.

Load shedding
Load shedding is one of the techniques used for congestion control. A network router consists
of a buffer. This buffer is used to store the packets and then route them to their destination.
Load shedding is defined as an approach of discarding the packets when the buffer is full
according to the strategy implemented in the data link layer. The selection of packets to discard
is an important task. Many times packets with less importance and old packets are discarded.
 When all else fails, the network is forced to discard packets that it cannot deliver.
 A good policy for choosing which packets to discard can help to prevent congestion
collapse

There are two congestion control algorithm which are under admission control approach
as follows:
i. Leaky Bucket Algorithm
ii. Token Bucket algorithm
 Congestion control algorithm under
Admission control

Leaky Bucket Algorithm Token Bucket Algorithm

Leaky Bucket Algorithm

A leaky bucket algorithm is primarily used to control the rate at which traffic enters the
network. It provides a mechanism for smoothing bursty input traffic in a flow to present a
steady stream into the network. Leaky Bucket Algorithm mainly controls the total amount and
the rate of the traffic sent to the network.
 The Leaky bucket algorithm is a “traffic shaping” algorithm to reduce the load, the
transport layer places on the network layer and reduce congestion in the network.
 Traffic shaping is a congestion management technique, It control the amount of traffic
sent to network and regulates the rate of data transmission.

Goal of Leaky Bucket

The goal is to reduce the load the transport layer places on the network to reduce congestion
and improve network performance. One commonly used method for traffic shaping is the leaky
bucket algorithm.
Example

Bursty traffic is sudden, unexpected network volume traffic, peak and depression in a network

Suppose data enters the network from various sources at different speed.
 Consider one bursty source that
 Sends data at 20 Mbps for 2 seconds for total of 40 Mb.
 Then it silent, sending no data for 5 seconds.
 Then it again transmits data at a rate of 10 Mbps for 3 seconds, thus sending a total
of 30 Mbps.
 So, in a time span of 10 seconds the source sends 70 Mb data.
 The network has only committed a bandwidth of 5 Mbps for this source.
 It uses the leaky bucket algorithm to output traffic at the rate of 5 Mbps during the
same time period of 10 Seconds, which smooths out the network traffic.
Token Bucket Algorithm
Token bucket algorithm is one of the techniques for congestion control algorithms. When too
many packets are present in the network it causes packet delay and loss of packet which
degrades the performance of the system. This situation is called congestion. Token bucket
algorithm is based on analogy of a fixed capacity bucket into which tokens, normally
representing a unit of bytes or a single packet of predetermined size, are added a fixed rate.

It employs a metaphorical "token bucket" that holds tokens at a fixed rate.

 Each token represents permission to perform a specific action or transmit a unit of data.
 Requests or events require a certain number of tokens to proceed, and the system
consumes tokens from the bucket accordingly.
 If there are insufficient tokens, the request may be delayed or denied.
 To control the rate of actions to prevent network congestion and ensure more predictable
resource usage.
QUALITY OF SERVICE
Quality of service (QoS) is the use of mechanisms or technologies that work on a network
to control traffic and ensure the performance of critical applications with limited network
capacity. It enables organizations to adjust their overall network traffic by prioritizing specific
high-performance applications.
Quality of service (QoS) is a set of technologies that work on a network to guarantee its ability
to dependably run high-priority applications and traffic under limited network capacity. QoS
technologies accomplish this by providing differentiated handling and capacity allocation to
specific flows in network traffic. This enables the network administrator to assign the order in
which packets are handled and the amount of bandwidth afforded to that application or traffic
flow.

A stream of packets from a source to a destination is called a flow.

 A flow might be all the packets of a connection in a connection-oriented network, or all
the packets sent from one process to another process in a connectionless network.
 The needs of each flow can be characterized by four primary parameters:
 Reliability, delay, jitter and Bandwidth.
 Together, these determine the QoS (Quality of Service) the flow requires.
Flow Characteristics
• Reliability
 Reliability is a characteristic that a flow needs.
• Delay
 Source-to-destination delay is another flow characteristic.
• Jitter
 Jitter is the variation in delay for packets belonging to the same flow.
• Bandwidth
 Different applications need different bandwidths.

Quality of Service (QoS) is an internetworking issue that has been discussed more than
defined.
Four issues must be addressed to ensure quality of service:
i. What applications need from the network
ii. How to regulate the traffic that enters the network. iii. How to reserve
resources at routers to guarantee performance.
iii. Whether the network can safely accept more traffic

Application
Requirements
Leaky Buckets
Traffic Shaping
Token Buckets
Packet Scheduling
QUALITY OF
SERVICE Admission Control
RSVP—The
Integrated Resource
Services reSerVation
Protocol
Expedited
Forwarding
Differentiated
Services
Assured
Forwarding

INTERNETWORKING
Internetworking is the practice of interconnecting multiple computer networks, such that
any pair of hosts in the connected networks can exchange messages irrespective of their
hardware-level networking technology. Connecting computer networks to additional
networks using gateways and routers is commonly known as internetworking. These
interconnected networks are called internetworks. It would be much simpler to join
networks together if everyone used a single networking technology, and it is often the case that
there is a dominant kind of network, such as Ethernet. A router that can handle multiple
network protocols is called a multiprotocol router.

Since networks often differ in important ways, getting packets from one network to another
is not always so easy. The problems of heterogeneity, and also problems of scale as the
resulting internet grows very large.

INTERNETWORKING

How Networks How Networks Can Tunneling Internetwork Packet

Differ Be Connected Routing Fragmentation

How Networks Differ

Networks can differ in many ways.
 Some of the differences, such as different modulation techniques or frame formats, are
internal to the physical and data link layers.
 When packets sent by a source on one network must transit one or more foreign
networks before reaching the destination network, many problems can occur at the
interfaces between networks.
 To start with, the source needs to be able to address the destination.

If the source is on an Ethernet network and the destination is on a WiMAX network?

 Assuming, even specify a WiMAX destination from an Ethernet network, packets
would cross from a connectionless network to a connection-oriented one.
  This may require that a new connection be set up on short notice, which injects a delay,
and much overhead if the connection is not used for many more packets.

How Networks Can Be Connected

There are two basic choices for connecting different networks:
 Can build devices that translate or convert packets from each kind of network into packets
for each other network.
 A router that can handle multiple network protocols is called a multiprotocol router.
Tunneling
Tunneling is a way to move packets from one network to another. Tunneling works via
encapsulation: wrapping a packet inside another packet. Networking basics. Network layer.
How Internet works. A technique of inter-networking called Tunneling is used when source
and destination networks of the same type are to be connected through a network of different
types. A tunneling protocol is a communication protocol which allows for the movement of
data from one network to another. Tunneling is a way for communication to be conducted over
a private network but tunneled through a public network. Tunneling uses a layered protocol
model such as those of the OSI or TCP/IP protocol suite.
 Handling the two different networks interwork is exceedingly difficult.
 However, there is a common special case that is manageable even for different network
protocols.
 This case is where the source and destination hosts are on the same type of network, but
there is a different network in between.

Deployment of a network protocol with a new feature is a common reason, as our ‘‘IPv6 over
IPv4’’ example shows.

The limitation of tunnels is turned into an advantage with VPNs (Virtual Private Networks).
A VPN is simply an overlay that is used to provide a measure of security. Tunneling is widely
used to connect isolated hosts and networks using other networks. The network that results
is called an overlay since it has effectively been overlaid on the base network.
  Tunneling is a mechanism by which two or more same networks communicate with each
other, by passing intermediate networking complexities.
 Tunneling is configured at both ends.

Internetwork Routing
Routing between two networks is called internetworking. Networks can be considered
different based on various parameters such as, Protocol, topology, Layer-2 network and
addressing scheme. In internetworking, routers have knowledge of each other's address and
addresses beyond them. Routing through an internetwork is similar to routing within a single
subnet, but with some added complications.
In internetworking, routers have knowledge of each other’s address and addresses beyond
them. They can be statically configured go on different network or they can learn by using
internetworking routing protocol.
Routing protocols
A routing protocol specifies how routers exchange routing information with each other,
enabling them to determine routes between any two nodes on a computer network.
Within each network, an intradomain or interior gateway protocol is used for routing.
(‘‘Gateway’’ is an older term for ‘‘router’’). Across the networks that make up the internet, an
interdomain or exterior gateway protocol is used. The networks may all use different
intradomain protocols, but they must use the same interdomain protocol.
 Routing protocols which are used within an organization or administration are called
Interior Gateway Protocols (IGP).
 RIP, OSPF are examples of IGP.
 Routing between different organizations or administrations may have Exterior Gateway
Protocol and there is only one EGP i.e. Border Gateway Protocol.
 In the Internet, the interdomain routing protocol is called BGP (Border Gateway
Protocol).

Packet Fragmentation
Fragmentation dissects the packets into smaller pieces so that they can fit the smaller links
as they travel the network. Every packet based network has an MTU (Maximum
Transmission Unit) size. The MTU is the size of the largest packet that network can
transmit. Fragmentation: when the maximum size of datagram is greater than maximum
size of data that can be held in a frame i.e., its Maximum Transmission Unit, The network
layer divides the datagram received from the transport layer into fragments so that data flow
is not disrupted. Packets larger than the allowable MTU must be divided into smaller
packets or fragments to enable them to traverse the network.

These limits have various causes, among them:

i. Hardware (e.g., the size of an Ethernet frame).
 ii. Operating system (e.g., all buffers are 512 bytes).
iii. Protocols (e.g., the number of bits in the packet length field).
iv. Compliance with some (inter)national standard.
v. Desire to reduce error-induced retransmissions to some level.
vi. Desire to prevent one packet from occupying the channel too long.

IP fragmentation is an Internet Protocol (IP) process that breaks packets into smaller pieces
(fragments), so that the resulting pieces can pass through a link with a smaller maximum
transmission unit (MTU) than the original packet size. The fragments are reassembled by the
receiving host.

Packet Fragmentation
 Transparent fragmentation is straightforward but has some problems.
 Nontransparent fragmentation strategy is to refrain from recombining fragments
at any intermediate routers.

The main advantage of nontransparent fragmentation is that it requires routers to do less work.

THE NETWORK LAYER IN THE INTERNET

In the network layer, the Internet can be viewed as a collection of networks or ASes
(Autonomous Systems) that are interconnected. ISPs (Internet Service Providers) that provide
Internet access to homes and businesses, data centers and colocation facilities full of server
machines, and regional (mid-level) networks. The data centers serve much of the content that
is sent over the Internet. Attached to the regional networks are more ISPs, LANs at many
universities and companies, and other edge networks.
 The glue that holds the whole Internet together is the network layer protocol, IP
(Internet Protocol).
 The Network layer protocols, IP was designed from the beginning with internetworking
in mind.
To provide a best-effort (i.e., not guaranteed) way to transport packets from source to
destination, without regard to whether these machines are on the same network or whether
there are other networks in between them.

THE NETWORK LAYER IN THE INTERNET

i. The IP Version 4 Protocol,
ii. IP Addresses,
iii. IP Version 6,
iv. Internet Control Protocols,
v. Label Switching and MPLS,
vi. OSPF—An Interior Gateway Routing Protocol,
vii. BGP—The Exterior Gateway Routing Protocol,
viii. Internet Multicasting,
ix. Mobile IP,

The IP Version 4 Protocol

Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the fourth version of the Internet Protocol (IP). It is
one of the core protocols of standards-based internetworking methods in the Internet and other
packet-switched networks.
The network layer in the Internet is with the format of the IP datagrams themselves. An IPv4
datagram consists of a header part and a body or payload part. The header has a 20-byte
fixed part and a variable-length optional part. The bits are transmitted from left to right and
top to bottom, with the high-order bit of the Version field going first.
The IPv4 (Internet Protocol) header
 Version – The IP version number, 4.
 Header length – The length of the datagram header in 32-bit words.
 Type of service (Differentiated services) – Contains five subfields that specify the
precedence(priority 07), delay, throughput, reliability, and cost desired for a packet.
 Total length – The length of the datagram in bytes including the header, options, and
the appended transport protocol segment or packet. The maximum length is bytes.
 Identification – An integer that identifies the datagram.
 DF – Don’t fragment
 MF – More Fragments. All fragments except the last one have this bit set.
 Fragment offset – The relative position of this fragment measured from the beginning
of the original datagram in units of 8 bytes.
 Time to live – How many routers a datagram can pass through. Each router decrements
this value by 1 until it reaches 0 when the datagram is discarded.
 Protocol – The high-level protocol type.
 Header checksum – A number that is computed to ensure the integrity of the header
values.
 Source address – The 32-bit IPv4 address of the sending host.
 Destination address – The 32-bit IPv4 address of the receiving host.
 Options – A list of optional specifications for security restrictions, route recording,
and source routing. Not every datagram specifies an options field.
 Padding – Null bytes which are added to make the header length an integral multiple
of 32 bits as required by the header length field.
IP address (Internet Protocol address)
An Internet Protocol (IP) address is the unique identifying number assigned to every device
connected to the internet. An IP address definition is a numeric label assigned to devices that
use the internet to communicate. An IP address definition is a numeric label assigned to devices
that use the internet to communicate. Computers that communicate over the internet or via local
networks share information to a specific location using IP addresses.

Public IP Address
A public IP address, or external-facing IP address, applies to the main device people use to
connect their business or home internet network to their internet service provider (ISP). In most
cases, this will be the router. All devices that connect to a router communicate with other IP
addresses using the router’s IP address.

Knowing an external-facing IP address is crucial for people to open ports used for online
gaming, email and web servers, media streaming, and creating remote connections.

Private IP Address
A private IP address, or internal-facing IP address, is assigned by an office or home intranet
(or local area network) to devices, or by the internet service provider (ISP). The home/office
router manages the private IP addresses to the devices that connect to it from within that local
network. Network devices are thus mapped from their private IP addresses to public IP
addresses by the router.

Private IP addresses are reused across multiple networks, thus preserving valuable IPv4 address
space and extending addressability beyond the simple limit of IPv4 addressing (4,294,967,296
or 2^32).

 An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a unique numerical identifier for every device or
network that connects to the internet.
 There are two versions of IP addresses that are commonly used on the internet:• IPv4
and IPv6.
  An IPv4 address is expressed as a set of four dotted decimal numbers, where each octet
is separated by a period, such as 192.168.35.4
 A full IP address ranges from 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255.
 An IPv6 address represents eight groups of four hexadecimal digits separated by colons,
such as 2620:cc:8000:1c82:544c:cc2e:f2fa:5a9b.

IPv4 IP Address format

IPv6 IP Address format

IPv4 Addresses
The IPv4 address consists of a network address and a host address. Within the Internet, a central
authority, the Network Information Center (NIC), assigns the network addresses. The class of
address determines the portion of the IPv4 address that is used for each of these addresses.
A defining feature of IPv4 is its 32-bit addresses. Every host and router on the Internet has an
IP address that can be used in the Source address and Destination address fields of IP packets.
An IPv4 address is a 32-bit address that uniquely and universally defines the connection of a
device to the Internet.
 In IPv4, a unique sequence of bits is assigned to a computer, a total of (2^32) devices
approximately = 4,294,967,296 can be assigned with IPv4.
An IP address is an online device address used for communicating across the internet. It really
refers to a network interface, so if a host is on two networks, it must have two IP addresses.
However, in practice, most hosts are on one network and thus have one IP address.
In contrast, routers have multiple interfaces and thus multiple IP addresses
 The 0.0.0.0 is a Non-routable address is that indicates an invalid, or inapplicable end-
user address.
 A loopback address is a distinct reserved IP address range that starts from 127.0.0.0
ends at 127.255.255.255.
 127.255.255.255 is the broadcast address for 127.0.0.0/8.
 The loopback addresses are built into the IP domain system, enabling devices to
transmit and receive the data packets.
 The loopback address 127.0.0.1 is generally known as localhost.

IP addresses are assigned and managed by a nonprofit corporation called ICANN (Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), to avoid conflicts. ICANN has delegated
parts of the address space to various regional authorities, which dole out IP addresses to ISPs
and other companies. This is the process by which a company is allocated a block of IP
addresses.
 Maximum number of
IP Class Address Range
networks

Class A 1-126 126 (27-2)

Class B 128-191 16384

Class C 192-223 2097152

Class D 224-239 Reserve for multitasking

Reserved for Research

Class E 240-254
and development

Subnetting is the process of creating a subnetwork. It is also known as a subnet within a

network. Network interfaces and devices within a subnet can communicate with each other
directly. Routers facilitate communication between different subnets.

IP Version 6
IPv6 or Internet Protocol Version 6 is a network layer protocol that allows communication to
take place over the network. Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) designed IPv6 in
December 1998 with the purpose of superseding the IPv4 due to the global exponentially
growing internet users.
Internet Protocol (IP) version 6 (IPv6 or IPng) is the next generation of IP and has been
designed to be an evolutionary step from IP version 4 (IPv4). An IPv6 address is a 128-bit
alphanumeric value that identifies an endpoint device in an Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)
network. IPv6 was developed by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to deal with the
problem of IPv4 exhaustion. IPv6 is a 128-bits address having an address space of 2128, which
is way bigger than IPv4. An IPv6 address is 128 bits long and is arranged in eight groups, each
of which is 16 bits. Each group is expressed as four hexadecimal digits and the groups are
separated by colons (:).

An IPv6 address is split into two parts: a network and a node component.
 The network component is the first 64 bits of the address and is used for routing.
 The node component is the later 64 bits and is used to identify the address of the
interface.
It is derived from the physical, or MAC address, using the 64-bit extended unique identifier
(EUI-64) format defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

The Main IPv6 Header

The IPv6 header is more streamlined: it contains 8 fields,
 The Version field is always 6 for IPv6.
 The Differentiated services field (originally called Traffic class) is used to distinguish
the class of service for packets with different real-time delivery.
 Flow label field provides a way for a source and destination to mark groups of packets
that forming a pseudo connection.
 Payload length field tells how many bytes follow the 40-byte header.
 Next header field lets the cat out of the bag.
 Hop limit field is used to keep packets from living forever.
 Source address and Destination address fields.
Internet Control Protocols
• The Internet has several companion control protocols that are used in the network layer.

IMCP — The Internet

Control Message Protocol

ARP — The Address

Internet Control Protocols
Resolution Protocol

DHCP — The Dynamic Host

Configuration Protocol

ICMP—Internet Control Message

Protocol
The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is a protocol that devices within a network
use to communicate problems with data transmission. It is used for error handling in the
network layer, and it is primarily used on network devices such as routers. The use of ICMP is
for reporting errors.
For example: extremely large packets of data may be too big for a router to manage.
In that case, the router will discard the data packet and transmit an ICMP message to the sender
informing it of the issue.

 Type: It is an 8-bit field. It defines the ICMP message type. The values range from
0 to 127 are defined for ICMPv6, and the values from 128 to 255 are the
informational messages.
 Code: It is an 8-bit field that defines the subtype of the ICMP message.
 Checksum: It is a 16-bit field to detect whether the error exists in the message or
not.

ICMP—The Internet Control Message Protocol

Each ICMP message type is carried encapsulated in an IP packet. The most important ones are
listed in Fig. 5-60.

ARP—The Address Resolution Protocol

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is a communication protocol used to find the MAC
(Media Access Control) address of a device from its IP address. This protocol is used when a
device wants to communicate with another device on a Local Area Network or Ethernet. It is
a layer 2 protocol used to map MAC addresses to IP addresses. All hosts on a network are
located by their IP address, but NICs do not have IP addresses, they have MAC addresses.
ARP is the protocol used to associate the IP address to a MAC address.

There are different versions and use cases of ARP.

i. Proxy ARP
 Proxy ARP is a technique by which a proxy device on a given network answers
the ARP request for an IP address that is not on that network.
 The proxy is aware of the location of the traffic's destination and offers its own
MAC address as the destination. ii. Gratuitous ARP
 Gratuitous ARP is an administrative procedure, carried out as a way for a host
on a network to simply announce or update its IP-to-MAC address.
ii. Reverse ARP (RARP)
 Host machines that do not know their own IP address can use the Reverse
Address Resolution Protocol (RARP) for discovery.
iii. Inverse ARP (IARP)
 Whereas ARP uses an IP address to find a MAC address, IARP uses a MAC
address to find an IP address.

ARP—The Address Resolution Protocol

The ARP program to find a MAC address that matches the IP address.
 The ARP cache keeps a list of each IP address and its matching MAC address.
 The ARP cache is dynamic, but users on a network can also configure a static
ARP table containing IP addresses and MAC addresses.
DHCP—The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a client/server protocol that automatically
provides an Internet Protocol (IP) host with its IP address and other related configuration
information such as the subnet mask and default gateway. DHCP helps enterprises to
smoothly manage the allocation of IP addresses to the end-user clients’ devices such as
desktops, laptops, cellphones, etc.

It is an application layer protocol that is used to provide:

 DHCP maintaining a unique IP Address for a host using the server.

 DHCP servers maintain information on TCP/IP configuration and provide
configuration of address to DHCP-enabled clients in the form of a lease offer.

How Does DHCP Work?

To fully understand the working of DHCP, we must look at the components of the DHCP
network:
 DHCP server: This is the central device that holds, assigns, and manages IP
addresses.
 It can be a server, router, or SD-WAN appliance.
 DHCP client: This is the endpoint that requests for IP addresses and can be installed
on any type of peripheral device, although most are part of the default settings.
 Subnets: These are parts of a more extensive network.
 DHCP relay: This refers to devices like routers that acts as a middleman between
clients and server, amplifying the messages to reach their destination goal.

Label Switching and MPLS

Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is an IP packet routing technique that routes IP
packet through paths via labels instead of looking at complex routing tables of routers. This
feature helps in increasing the delivery rate of IP packets. MPLS is a networking technology
that routes traffic using the shortest path based on “labels,” rather than network addresses, to
handle forwarding over private wide area networks. MPLS is multiprotocol, which means it
can handle multiple network protocols. MPLS is highly versatile and unifying, as it provides
mechanisms to carry a multitude of traffic, including Ethernet traffic. One of the key
differentiators between MPLS and traditional routers is it doesn't need specialized or additional
hardware.

A new MPLS header had to be added in front of the IP header.

 On a router-to-router line using PPP as the framing protocol, the frame format,
including the PPP, MPLS, IP, and TCP headers, is as shown in Fig. 5-62.

Label Switching and MPLS

The MPLS network, this label is used to forward the packet. At the other edge of the MPLS
network, the label has served its purpose and is removed, revealing the IP packet again for the
next network.
OSPF—An Interior Gateway Routing Protocol
The OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) protocol is a IP Routing protocols, and is an Interior
Gateway Protocol (IGP) for the Internet, used to distribute IP routing information
throughout a single Autonomous System (AS) in an IP network.

The protocol which aims at moving the packet within a large autonomous system or routing
domain. It is an intradomain protocol, which means that it is used within an area or a network.
It is based on a link-state routing algorithm in which each router contains the information of
every domain, and based on this information, it determines the shortest path. The goal of
routing is to learn routes.
The OSPF achieves by learning about every router and subnet within the entire network. OSPF
uses a link-state routing algorithm. Each router has information about every link and router in
the network. It finds the shortest path to each destination. OSPF learns about all routers and
subnets in the network to build a link-state database (LSDB). Routers exchange link-state
advertisements (LSAs) to share information about routers, subnets, and more.

BGP—The Exterior Gateway Routing Protocol

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is a standardized exterior gateway protocol designed to
exchange routing and reachability information among autonomous systems (AS) on the
Internet. BGP is one of a family of IP Routing protocols, and is an Exterior Gateway Protocol
(EGP) designed to distribute routing information between ASs.