Week 5: E-Business Infrastructure, Internet, and the Web

Lecture 1: Components of E-Business Infrastructure

●​ Goals for quality information services
○​ Performance: Response time can be affected by ISPs, Networks, and third-party
services.
○​ Scalability: Handling demand surges by scaling up (larger server) or scaling out
(more servers).
○​ Availability and maintainability: Includes identifying single points of failure,
minimum configuration needs, self-repairing capability, diagnostics, and
emergency procedures. Key metrics are MTTF (mean time to failure) and MTTR
(mean time to repair).
●​ Technology Platform for E-business
○​ Software Solutions: Web Languages and packaged solutions.
○​ Server Platforms
○​ Networking Infrastructure: Networking overview, communication protocols, and
network security.
○​ Digital Payment Systems
○​ Data Infrastructure
●​ Web System Architecture
○​ Web Client
○​ Web Server and Application Server
○​ Database Server
○​ Internet
●​ Web Server Elements
○​ HTTP Server
○​ TCP/IP
○​ Operating System
○​ Hardware: Processor, Disks, Network Interfaces, etc.
●​ Characteristics of a Web Server
○​ Also known as HTTP Server/ HTTP Daemon.
○​ Continuously listens to the client requests and returns the requested file.
○​ Handles more than one request at a time: Forking / Multithreading
●​ Performance metrics for the Web server
○​ Throughput: The rate at which the HTTP requests are serviced. Measured in HTTP
operations/second OR megabits per second (Mbps)
○​ Latency: The time required to complete a request. Average latency is the average
time for handling requests.
●​ Dynamic Load Balancing
○​ Splitting the traffic across the servers
○​ Mirroring the site
○​ Methods
■​ DNS Based: Mapping to a cluster of servers in a round-robin fashion during
address translation.
 ■​ Dispatcher based: Address of a special TCP router as the address of the
Web server. Router diverts the request to the server with less load
■​ Server based: Address redirection. Increase in client response time
●​ Application Server
○​ Handles all the transactions between the Web server and the backend database
○​ Supports different programming languages and/or scripting languages
●​ Database Server
○​ Database management system
○​ Structured query language
○​ Database connectivity
●​ Other important components and concepts in E-business infrastructure
○​ Mainframe and Legacy systems: Integration Technologies
○​ Proxies
■​ Network traffic reduction
■​ Privacy and security (Firewalls)
■​ Load balancing
○​ Caches
■​ Traffic reduction
■​ Levels of Caches
■​ Dedicated community proxy servers
○​ Third-party Services
■​ Security services, Ad servers, Trust services, Escrow services
■​ A source of additional delay in the Web servers’ response time
○​ Other data resources
■​ Data warehouses and data marts
■​ Online Analytical Processing Queries (OLAP)
■​ Business Intelligence
Lecture 2: Internet and the Web
●​ Features of the Internet
○​ Originated in 1960 as a result of research supported by the Advances Research
Project Agency by US DOD (ARPANET)
○​ A collection of networks
○​ Basic Features
■​ Data Centric
■​ Separation of communication from data processing
■​ Packet Switching
●​ Features of a packet-switched Network
○​ Network consists of two types of nodes
■​ Hosts: Originators and destinations of data packets
■​ Routers: Responsible for routing the packets
○​ A connectionless system
■​ No-fixed routing scheme between the hosts
■​ Routing tables change based on network state
 ○​ Congestion or link failure
■​ Packets arrive out of sequence packets
○​ A “Best-effort” delivery network
■​ In case of congestion or link failure, the packets are discarded
■​ Recognition of failure and the corrective action is the task of the host
computer.
●​ Connecting to the Internet
○​ To connect a computer to the internet, it must be connected to a router that is a
part of the Internet
○​ Routers are sponsored by a university, research centers, or commercial
companies (ISPs).
○​ ISPs Operate at many levels
■​ Local ISPs
■​ Lease Connections from the national or regional ISPs
■​ Provide dial-up access to the users and charge them
■​ National or regional ISPs
■​ Have their own backbone to carry traffic
■​ Charge local ISPs
●​ Domain Name System
○​ Converting IP addresses to human-readable form
○​ An application on which many other application-level protocols rely
○​ Includes a distributed database system responsible for storing domain names
●​ How DNS works
○​ Client enters a domain name (www.domainname.com) into his browser.
○​ The browser contacts the Client's ISP for the IP address of the domain name.
○​ The ISP first tries to answer by itself using "cached" data.
○​ If the answer is found, it is returned. Since the ISP isn't in charge of the DNS and is
just acting as a "dns relay", the answer is marked "non-authoritative"
○​ If the answer isn't found, or it's too old, then the ISP DNS contacts the
nameservers for the domain directly for the answer.
○​ If the nameservers are not known, the ISP's looks for the information at the 'root
servers' or 'registry servers'.
●​ Getting a domain name
○​ ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is the private
(non-government) non-profit corporation with responsibility for IP address space
allocation, protocol parameter assignment, domain name system management,
and root server system management functions.
●​ Uniform Resource Locator
○​ Unique address of an Internet resource
○​ Protocol://domain-name:port/directory/resource
○​ Example: http://www.accd.edu/sac/lrc/john/wwwtest2.htm
○​ The port number can be deleted if its usage the standard port.
●​ HTTP Protocol
 ○​ An application-level protocol
○​ A client issues a request to a server, and the server returns a response
■​ Request is in ASCII format
■​ Response in MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension) format
■​ Text: HTML
■​ Image: JPEG/GIF
○​ A stateless protocol
●​ HTTP request-response model
○​ Web client makes a TCP connection to the server (at port 80).
○​ Sends HTTP request (header + data)
○​ Server returns HTTP response. (Status, header, requested resource)
●​ Static Web page generation
○​ HTML Tags
○​ Browser
●​ Dynamic Webpage Generation
○​ Server-side programming
■​ Database Connectivity
■​ Passing additional data to the Web server
■​ Java: Servlets, JSP
■​ Microsoft: ASP
■​ PHP, CGI Script
○​ Client-side programming
■​ Java scripts
●​ Cookies
○​ To cope with the stateless nature of HTTP
○​ Tracking a client
○​ Supporting applications like shopping cart
○​ Privacy issues
○​ Servers set cookies by sending a set-cookie header in HTTP response
■​ Set-cookie: Name=Value
○​ Whenever required by the server, the client includes the cookie in the request
header by using
■​ Cookie: Name=value
Lecture 3: Networking Resources
●​ Key Concepts
○​ ISO-OSI reference model
○​ TCP/IP protocol stack
○​ Computer Network: A set of communicating computing devices
○​ Consisting of the following building blocks
■​ The framework
■​ Standard Organizations
■​ ISO-OSI Reference Model
■​ Addressing
 ■​ Protocols
■​ Protocol suit
■​ Applications
■​ Hardware
■​ Physical Connectivity
●​ Standard Organizations
○​ ISO (International Standard Organization)
○​ IAB (Internet Advisory board)
○​ IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers)
●​ The ISO-OSI Reference Model
○​ Originally intended as the benchmark for the international standardization of
computer networking protocols.
○​ A divide-and-conquer approach
○​ Layers are used to isolate groups of related functions so that development and
flexibility are promoted through the use of well-defined interfaces.
○​ Each layer is insulated from the addressing details used by the layer below.
○​ Networking Protocols/ Protocol suits can be designed and compared in the
framework of this model.
○​ Today TCP/IP is the most important protocol suite
●​ TCP/IP – A Layered Model
○​ Application Layer: Provides a specific application
○​ Transport Layer: Provides end-to-end transport service between two hosts
○​ Network Layer: Forwards the packets across the network
○​ Link Layer: Provides interface or access to the network
●​ TCP/IP and the OSI Model in context
○​ OSI Layers: Physical, Data Link, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation,
Application
○​ TCP/IP Layers: Physical, LLC (Logical Link Control) – MAC (Medium Access
Control), IP ARP, TCP UDP, FTP HTTP Telnet SMTP
●​ Processing at Each Layer
○​ Encapsulation
○​ Headers: Link, IP, TCP, Application Headers added at corresponding layers
○​ Data Units: Frame (Link Layer), Datagram (IP Layer), Segment/Stream (TCP Layer)
●​ Transfer of Packet
○​ Packet moves through layers at each host (A and B).
○​ Encapsulation and decapsulation at each layer.
●​ Link Layer
○​ Provides access to the network
○​ Addresses physical characteristics
○​ Handles many access control protocols for each physical network standard
○​ Functions
■​ Encapsulation of IP datagrams into frames
■​ Mapping of IP addresses to physical address used by the network
●​ Network Layer
○​ Internet Protocol
■​ Defining datagram
■​ Defining Internet addressing scheme
■​ Moving data between Network layer and Transport layer
■​ Routing datagrams
■​ Performing segmentation and reassembling of datagrams
●​ IP Addresses
○​ IPv4 – 32-bit address
○​ IPv6 – 128-bit addresses
●​ Representation of IP Addresses
○​ Dot decimal format
■​ Ex. 128.0.0.1
■​ Binary equivalent of the above is
10000000.00000000.00000000.00000001
○​ Consists of two parts
■​ Network number
■​ Host number (within the network)
●​ Transport Layer
○​ TCP and UDP
○​ TCP (Transmission control protocol)
■​ Connection oriented
■​ Handshaking
■​ Source port, destination port, sequence number, and acknowledgment.
■​ Sliding window mechanism
○​ UDP (User datagram protocol)
■​ Connectionless
■​ No handshaking
■​ Source port and destination port
■​ No acknowledgment
■​ No retransmission
●​ TCP and UDP Header Formats
○​ [Diagrams of TCP and UDP headers]
●​ Application Layer
○​ Includes all the processes that use the transport layer protocol to deliver data.
○​ Example: HTTP, FTP, Telnet, SMTP
●​ Protocol Port and Socket
○​ Data multiplexing and demultiplexing
■​ Combining data from many sources for delivering to the network
■​ Dividing the data for delivery to multiple sources
○​ Protocol number: to identify transport protocol
○​ Port number: To identify application
■​ May be dynamically allocated by the system
 ○​ Socket: The combination of IP address and Port number
■​ Uniquely identifies a network process within the entire Internet
Lecture 4: Hardware and Software Resources
●​ Networking hardware in Context
○​ [Diagram relating hardware to OSI Model Layers]
●​ Transceivers (Media Attachment Units)
○​ Provide the means for encoding data into purely electrical or light signals ready
for transmission onto the physical media.
○​ Also responsible for converting the signal back into the data at the receiving
station.
○​ Ex. Network Adapter Card
●​ Repeaters
○​ Used to extend the LAN
○​ Regeneration of the Frames
○​ Must be compliant with maximum acceptable delay in the network (bit-budget
delay)
○​ Mostly dumb
○​ Some are semi-intelligent
■​ Memory
■​ Inhibit regeneration of error frames and collision frames
○​ Ex: 10/100 Base T (Ethernet)
●​ Bridges
○​ Offer filtering and forwarding capability based on Layer 2 fields and independent
of Layer 3 protocols.
○​ Filtering and forwarding capability on layer 2 fields to increase backbone
efficiency.
○​ Traffic management capability at Link level
■​ Associating node MAC addresses with particular interfaces and forwarding
them
○​ Responsible for preserving network topology integrity by stopping the formation
of loops
■​ Using protocols such as spanning tree or its variants
●​ Switches
○​ Used when there is a need for higher bandwidth in shared access LAN
○​ High-speed bridges
○​ Replacing the old bridges and repeaters
●​ Routers
○​ A special-purpose layer 3 device used instead of a host.
○​ Forwards network traffic based on IP addresses rather than the MAC address
○​ Communicate with one another, learning neighbours
●​ Gateways
○​ Generic term for any network device with protocol translation capability.
○​ Transport Relay devices.
 ○​ Older literature may refer to routers as gateways.
●​ Computer Hardware Platforms
○​ Client machines: Desktop PCs, mobile devices (PDAs, laptops).
○​ Servers: Blade servers (ultrathin, in racks), Mainframes (IBM, equivalent to
thousands of blade servers).
○​ Top chip producers: AMD, Intel, IBM.
○​ Top firms: IBM, HP, Dell, Sun Microsystems.
●​ Server Definition
○​ A computer or software that provides services to other computers.
○​ Examples: Application server, Communications server, Database server, Fax
server, File server, Game server, Standalone server, Web server.
●​ Factors Influencing Server Selection
○​ Applications Support, Cost, Ease of Administration, Familiarity, Homogeneity,
Interoperability, Reliability (MTBF), Scalability, Security, Vendor Support.
○​ Most to least important (according to an Advisory Council study).
●​ Execution Time Definition
○​ Response Time: Lapsed/Wall-clock/Execution Time/Latency to complete a task;
includes disk access, memory access, I/O, OS overhead.
○​ CPU Time: Time CPU is computing (user + system CPU time), excluding I/O wait.
○​ System performance: Elapsed time on unloaded system.
○​ CPU performance: User CPU time on unloaded system.
●​ Performance Considerations
○​ Response time depends on CPU and I/O time.
○​ Neglecting I/O can lead to diminishing returns when improving CPU speed.
○​ I/O performance can limit CPU performance.
●​ Purchasing Decisions
○​ Cost is often a constant (system/commercial requirements).
○​ Speed and storage capacity are adjusted to meet the cost target.
●​ Memory Hierarchy Concept
○​ Smaller is faster due to signal propagation delays in larger memories.
○​ Faster memories are smaller and more expensive per byte.
○​ Principle of locality.
●​ Levels in a Typical Memory Hierarchy
○​ Registers, Cache, Memory, I/O Devices (with increasing slowness).
●​ Cache Memory
○​ A small, fast memory near the CPU holding recently accessed code/data.
○​ Cache hit/miss.
○​ Temporal and spatial locality.
○​ Cache miss time depends on memory latency and bandwidth.
○​ Cache misses cause CPU stalls.
●​ Main Memory:
○​ Programs reside in main memory.
○​ Virtual memory, pages, page fault.
 ○​ CPU switches tasks during disk access for page faults.
●​ Types of Storage Devices:
○​ Magnetic storage
○​ Semiconductor storage
○​ Optical disc storage
●​ Magnetic Storage:
○​ Non-volatile, stores information using magnetic patterns.
○​ Accessed via read/write heads.
○​ Sequential access (seek, cycle).
○​ Examples: Floppy disk, Hard disk, Magnetic tape.
●​ Semiconductor Memory:
○​ Uses integrated circuits to store information (transistors, capacitors).
○​ Volatile and non-volatile forms.
○​ Primary storage: Dynamic volatile semiconductor memory (DRAM).
○​ Flash memory: Non-volatile, for off-line storage.
○​ Non-volatile semiconductor memory: Secondary storage in devices/computers.
●​ Optical Disc Storage:
○​ Stores information in pits on a disc surface, read by laser reflection.
○​ Non-volatile, sequential access.
○​ Examples: CD/CD-ROM/DVD (read-only), CD-R/DVD-R/DVD+R (write-once),
CD-RW/DVD-RW/DVD+RW/DVD-RAM (rewritable).
●​ Network Storage:
○​ Accessing information over a computer network.
○​ Centralizes information management and reduces duplication.
○​ Examples: Direct Attached Storage (DAS), Network Access Storage (NAS), Storage
Area Networks (SAN).
●​ Direct-Attached Storage (DAS):
○​ Storage devices are part of the host computer or directly connected to a single
server.
○​ Network workstations access storage via the server.
○​ Contrasts with NAS/SAN, which connect over a network.
○​ Large installed base.
●​ Network Access Storage (NAS):
○​ Computing-storage devices accessed over a network (TCP/IP).
○​ Enables multiple computers to share storage, centrally managing hard disks.
○​ Often uses RAID arrays.
○​ Access via NFS, CIFS, or HTTP, allowing sharing between different OS.
●​ Storage Area Networks (SAN):
○​ Similar to NAS but uses a block-based protocol over a specialized storage
network.
○​ Server-class devices with SCSI Fiber Channel connect to SAN.
○​ File sharing is OS-dependent.
○​ Fiber Channel has distance limits (around 10km).
 ○​ Faster data transfer than NAS.
●​ Comparison of NAS and SAN:
○​ NAS: Scalable, long-distance data transfer, slower, congestion-prone, inefficient
backup/recovery.
○​ SAN: Efficient data integrity/backup, faster, no congestion, less scalable, limited
distance.
●​ Software Resources:
○​ The Operating System:
■​ Manages system resources (memory, processors, devices, information).
■​ Keeps track of resources, allocates, and reclaims them.
○​ Functions of Operating Systems.
Lecture 5: Data Resources
●​ Types of data resources.
●​ Logical data elements in information systems.
●​ Entities and relationships.
●​ Entity Relationship Diagram.
●​ Relational database structure.
●​ Logical User Views vs. Physical Data Views in a database management system.
●​ Structured Query Language.
●​ Major types of databases.
●​ Components of a data warehouse system.
●​ Data mining process.
●​ Multi-dimensional view of data.
●​ Online analytical processing (OLAP):
○​ Consolidation: Aggregation of data (roll-ups, complex groupings).
○​ Drill-down: Displaying detailed data comprising consolidated data.
○​ Slicing and Dicing: Looking at the database from different viewpoints (e.g., sales
by product type or sales chan