Computer Network

Application Layer

Protocols

Sejal M Chopra
Assistant Professor - Dept. of Computer Engineering
Don Bosco Institute of Technology, Mumbai
 Contents to be discussed
• Domain Name Space

• Hyper Text Transfer Protocol

• Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

• Telnet

• File Transfer Protocol

• Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

 Application Layer

• Sends and receives data from users

• Interface between user and the application
• Such as emails, file transfer, log on to remote host
 Domain Name Space
• A directory service that provides a mapping between the name of a
host on the network and its numerical address.
• DNS is required for the functioning of the internet.
• Each node in a tree has a domain name, and a full domain name is a
sequence of symbols specified by dots.
• DNS is a service that translates the domain name into IP addresses.
This allows the users of networks to utilize user-friendly names when
looking for other hosts instead of remembering the IP addresses.
• For example, suppose the FTP site at EduSoft had an IP address of
132.147.165.50, most people would reach this site by specifying
ftp.EduSoft.com. Therefore, the domain name is more reliable than IP
address.
 Domain Name Space
The domain name space is divided into three different sections: generic
domains, country domains, and inverse domain.
Generic Domains:
• It defines the registered hosts according to their generic behavior.
• Each node in a tree defines the domain name, which is an index to the
DNS database. E.g. .com, .edu
• It uses three-character labels that describe the organization type.
Country Domain:
• The format of country domain is same as a generic domain, but it uses
two-character country abbreviations (e.g., us for the United States) in
place of three character organizational abbreviations. E.g. .in, .us
Inverse Domain:
• The inverse domain is used for mapping an address to a name.
• When the server has received a request from the client, and the server
contains the files of only authorized clients.
• To determine whether the client is on the authorized list or not, it
sends a query to the DNS server and ask for mapping an address to
the name.
Domain Name Space
 Hyper Text Transfer Protocol
•A protocol used to access the data on the World Wide Web (www).
•The HTTP protocol can be used to transfer the data in the form of plain
text, hypertext, audio, video, and so on.
•This protocol is known as HyperText Transfer Protocol because of its
efficiency that allows us to use in a hypertext environment where there are
rapid jumps from one document to another document.
•HTTP is similar to the FTP as it also transfers the files from one host to
another host. But, HTTP is simpler than FTP as HTTP uses only one
connection, i.e., no control connection to transfer the files.
•HTTP messages are of two types:
Request Message: The request message is sent by the client that consists
of a request line, headers, and sometimes a body.
Response Message: The response message is sent by the server to the
client that consists of a status line, headers, and sometimes a body.the
files.
 Uniform Resource Locator
•The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a standard way of specifying any
kind of information on the internet.
•The URL defines four parts:
•Method: The method is the protocol used to retrieve the document from a
server. For example, HTTP.
•Host: The host is the computer where the information is stored, and the
computer is given an alias name. Web pages are mainly stored in the
computers and the computers are given an alias name that begins with the
characters "www". This field is not mandatory.
•Port: The URL can also contain the port number of the server, but it's an
optional field. If the port number is included, then it must come between the
host and path and it should be separated from the host by a colon.
•Path: Path is the pathname of the file where the information is stored. The
path itself contain slashes that separate the directories from the
subdirectories and files.
 Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
• SMTP is a set of communication guidelines that allow software to
transmit an electronic mail over the internet.
• It is a program used for sending messages to other computer users
based on e-mail addresses.
• It provides a mail exchange between users on the same or different
computers, and it also supports:
• It can send a single message to one or more recipients.
• Sending message can include text, voice, video or graphics.
• It can also send the messages on networks outside the internet.
• The main purpose of SMTP is used to set up communication rules
between servers.
• The servers have a way of identifying themselves and announcing
what kind of communication they are trying to perform.
• They also have a way of handling the errors such as incorrect email
address. For example, if the recipient address is wrong, then receiving
server reply with an error message of some kind.
 SMTP-Working
Composition of Mail:
• A user sends an e-mail by composing an electronic mail message
using a Mail User Agent (MUA).
• Mail User Agent is a program which is used to send and receive mail.
The message contains two parts: body and header.
• The body is the main part of the message while the header includes
information such as the sender and recipient address.
• The header also includes descriptive information such as the subject
of the message.
• In this case, the message body is like a letter and header is like an
envelope that contains the recipient's address.

Submission of Mail:
After composing an email, the mail client then submits the completed e-
mail to the SMTP server by using SMTP on TCP port 25.
 SMTP-Working
Delivery of Mail:
• E-mail addresses contain two parts: username of the recipient and
domain name.
• If the domain name of the recipient's email address is different from
the sender's domain name, then MSA will send the mail to the Mail
Transfer Agent (MTA).
• To relay the email, the MTA will find the target domain.
• It checks the MX record from Domain Name System to obtain the
target domain. The MX record contains the domain name and IP
address of the recipient's domain.
• Once the record is located, MTA connects to the exchange server to
relay the message.
Receipt and Processing of Mail:
• Once the incoming message is received, the exchange server delivers
it to the incoming server (Mail Delivery Agent) which stores the e-mail
where it waits for the user to retrieve it.
Access and Retrieval of Mail:
• The stored email in MDA can be retrieved by using MUA (Mail User
Agent).
• MUA can be accessed by using login and password.
 Telnet
• The main task of the internet is to provide services to users.
• For example, users want to run different application programs at the
remote site and transfers a result to the local site. This requires a
client-server program such as FTP, SMTP.
• But this would not allow us to create a specific program for each
demand.
• The better solution is to provide a general client-server program that
lets the user access any application program on a remote computer.
Therefore, a program that allows a user to log on to a remote
computer. Telnet is an abbreviation for Terminal Network.
• Telnet provides a connection to the remote computer in such a way
that a local terminal appears to be at the remote side.
• When a user logs into a local computer, then it is known as local
login.
• When the user wants to access an application program on a remote
computer, then the user must perform remote login.
 Telnet
• Command line tool
• No GUI
• It is fast
• Commands are in simple text
• No authentication
• No not useful nowadays on the internet
• SSH (Secure Shell) is the substitute
 File Transfer Protocol
• FTP is a standard internet protocol provided by TCP/IP used for
transmitting the files from one host to another.
• It is mainly used for transferring the web page files from their creator
to the computer that acts as a server for other computers on the
internet.
• It is also used for downloading the files to computer from other
servers.
• The FTP client has three components: the user interface, control
process, and data transfer process.
• The server has two components: the server control process and the
server data transfer process.
 File Transfer Protocol

Control Connection:
• The control connection uses very simple rules for communication.
Through control connection, we can transfer a line of command or
line of response at a time.
• The control connection is made between the control processes.
• The control connection remains connected during the entire
interactive FTP session.
Data Connection:
• The Data Connection uses very complex rules as data types may
vary. The data connection is made between data transfer processes.
• The data connection opens when a command comes for transferring
the files and closes when the file is transferred.
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

• A network management protocol used to dynamically assign an IP

address to any device, or node, on a network so they can
communicate using IP (Internet Protocol).
• Automates and centrally manages these configurations.
• There is no need to manually assign IP addresses to new devices.
Therefore, there is no requirement for any user configuration to
connect to a DHCP based network.
• DHCP can be implemented on local networks as well as large
enterprise networks. DHCP is the default protocol used by the most
routers and networking equipment.
• DHCP is also called RFC (Request for comments)
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
DHCP does the following:
• DHCP manages the provision of all the nodes or devices added or
dropped from the network.
• DHCP maintains the unique IP address of the host using a DHCP
server.
• It sends a request to the DHCP server whenever a client/node/device,
which is configured to work with DHCP, connects to a network. The
server acknowledges by providing an IP address to the
client/node/device.
• DHCP is also used to configure the proper subnet mask, default
gateway and DNS server information on the node or device.
• There are many versions of DCHP are available for use in IPV4
(Internet Protocol Version 4) and IPV6 (Internet Protocol Version 6).
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
• DHCP runs at the application layer of the TCP/IP protocol stack to
dynamically assign IP addresses to DHCP clients/nodes and to
allocate TCP/IP configuration information to the DHCP clients.
Information includes subnet mask information, default gateway, IP
addresses and domain name system addresses.
• DHCP is based on client-server protocol in which servers manage a
pool of unique IP addresses, as well as information about client
configuration parameters, and assign addresses out of those address
pools.
The DHCP lease process works as follows:
• First of all, a client (network device) must be connected to the
internet.
• DHCP clients request an IP address. Typically, client broadcasts a
query for this information.
• DHCP server responds to the client request by providing IP server
address and other configuration information. This configuration
information also includes time period, called a lease, for which the
allocation is valid.
• When refreshing an assignment, a DHCP clients request the same
parameters, but the DHCP server may assign a new IP address. This
is based on the policies set by the administrator.
 References

• A.S. Tanenbaum, “Computer Networks”, Pearson

Education, Fourth Edition.
• B.A. Forouzan, “Data Communications and Networking”,
TMH, Fourth Edition.
• https://www.javatpoint.com/computer-network-dns
• https://www.javatpoint.com/computer-network-http
• https://www.javatpoint.com/simple-mail-transfer-protocol
• https://www.javatpoint.com/computer-network-telnet
• https://www.javatpoint.com/computer-network-ftp
• https://www.javatpoint.com/dynamic-host-configuration-
protocol
 Youtube Video Links
• DNS (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpQZVYPuDGU)
• HTTP(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hExRDVZHhig&l
ist=PL7zRJGi6nMRzg0LdsR7F3olyLGoBcIvvg&index=41)
• SMTP (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJo5yOtu7o8)
• Telnet(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZop-zjYkrU)
• FTP
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOj8MSEIbfA&list=PL7
zRJGi6nMRzg0LdsR7F3olyLGoBcIvvg&index=21)
• DHCP(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6-
TaH5bkjo&t=1s)
THANK YOU