Circuit Switching

  • Communication over one maintained path
  • Three phases
    • Circuit establishment
    • Data transfer
    • Circuit disconnection
  • Overhead for call set-up, no overhead for use
  • Connection breaks if any link or switch on route fails
  • Charging typically by time

 

Packet Switching

  • Communication path calculated for each packet
    • Packets arrive out of sequence
    • Switches may store and forward data
  • All data has addressing and control overhead
    • No initial overhead
    • Route discovery may have to occur, but rarely global
  • Failures accommodated transparently
    • But new route may have different properties
    • Packets may be lost / retransmitted due to failures
    • Charging typically by packet

 

 

Internet Protocol (IP)

  • Connectionless service
  • Framing
    • Version - Header Length - Service - Total Length - ID - Flags - Fragment - Of fs et - TTL - Protocol - Header Checksum - SA - DA - Options - Data
  • IP packets may be split or fragmented
  • Each packets has a Time-to-Live (TTL)
  • Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) allows routers to send control or error messages to other routers or hosts.

 

 

  • Network Mask (Class B) 255.255.0.0
  • Subnet Mask (Class B) 255.255.255.0
    • Allows for 254 subnets with 254 hosts each, (not 256 as alls 0s and all 1s reserved)
  • Classless InterDomain Routing (CIDR)
    • Partitions world into four zones and allocate Class C networks
      • Europe
      • North America
      • Central & South America
      • Asia & Pacific
      • Plus some reserved for future use
    • More efficient allocation
    • Works along side previous allocations without change
    • Geographical distribution may aid routing
  • IPv6
    • 128 bit addresses (vs. 32 in IPv4)
    • A lot of effect to implement
    • Not well supported yet, currently only within some organisations
  • Network Address Translation (NAT)
    • Popular way of hiding a large network in a small internet address range
    • Good when only a fraction of hosts in network require external access at any time
    • Requires gateway box that translates internal addresses to dynamically allocated external addresses
    • An external address may be shared by multiple hosts over time, which can lead to problems
  • Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
    • Network Layer Protocol
    • Hosts maintain a cache of IP to physical address mappings for other hosts on same LAN. 
    • If a host cannot find an entry in its ARP table then it sends an ARP request. When a host recognizes its own IP address it sends a reply.
  • Reverse ARP (RARP)
    • A machine may need to determine its own IP address when it is restarted.
    • It can issue a RARP request, specifying itself as Target as well as Sender.
    • One or more RARP servers may respond, 1st reply used others discarded
    • Limited broadcast of requests means a RARP server is required on each network. BOOTP (Boot Protocol) and DHCP (Dynamics Host Configuration Protocol) can solve this problem.
  • Mobile IP
    • Allows transparent routing of IP datagrams to roaming hosts
    • Transport and  higher layers not affected
    • Parties communicating with mobile nodes do not see any change

 

 

Hub / Repeater (Physical Layer)

Bridge / Switch (Data Link Layer)

  • Switch is wire speed Bridge
  • Isolates LANs
    • Separate collision domains
    • Reduce traffic
    • Separate data rates
  • Interconnect LANs
  • Source Routing Bridge

§         Issue discovery frame

o       Copies down every possible path

o       Two options

§         Destination chooses route

§         Destination returns discovery frame & source chooses route

§         Connection-oriented (routing in frame)

§         Not transparent at hosts

§         Requires manual configuration of bridges (LAN & Bridge ID)

§         Optimal routing

§         Overhead of discovery on first frame

§         Failures handled by host

§         Complexity in hosts

  • Transparent (Spanning Tree) Bridge

§         Stores table of addresses for each link

§         Over time receives packets from hosts and fills table (“backwards learning”)

§         Loops make determination impossible

§         Connectionless

§         Transparent at hosts

§         No manual configuration of bridges

§         Sub-optimal routing

§         Low overhead for one frame, high for multiple frames; overhead per frame

§         Failures handled by bridge

§         Complexity in bridge

Gateway / Router (Network Layer, IP)

  • Router-to-Router traffic uses Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)
  • Typically for connecting physical and administration boundaries
  • Not end-node transparent
    • Packets addressed to router’s hardware
    • Hosts need to know which router
    • Removes IP Datagram from LAN Frame then re-encapsulates in new LAN Frame for next hop (handles mixed LANs)
  • Changes IP fields
    • Stop packets circulating forever
      • Time to live
    • Changes in Maximum Transfer Units (MTUs)
      • Total Length / Flags / Fragment Of fs et
    • Every router recomputes checksum
  • Static Routing
    • Fixed (Directory of all hosts)
    • Flooding
    • Random
  • Dynamic Routing
    • Distance Vector Routing (DVR)
      • Internet until 1979
      • Slow to convergence
      • Prone to oscillations
      • Only considers delays and not bandwidth
    • Link State Routing (LSR)
      • More reliable
      • Less bandwidth intensive
      • More complex
      • More memory intensive
      • Compute shortest path to every router in given region
    • Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
      • Inside address spaces / Autonomous Systems (AS)
      • Successor to / form of LSR
      • Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP)
    • Exterior Gateway Routing Protocol
      • Between address spaces / AS
      • Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
      • Similar to IGP but allows for added rules
      • Allows for political boundaries i.e. never put Iraq on a route starting at the Pentagon

 

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

  • Connection oriented
  • Error free byte stream
  • Flow and sequence control
  • Handshake required to set up WIN, SEQ & ACK numbers for flow and error control
  • TCP Frame Fields
    • Sequence number
      • Increases depending on packet size
    • Acknowledgement number
      • Acknowledges last sequence number
    • Data Of fs et
      • Number of 32-bit words in header, indicates were data starts
    • Window
      • Used for flow control, indicates how much space left on buffers
    • Control
      • URG – Urgent
      • FIN – Finished
      • RST – Reset

 

User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

  • Connectionless
  • Unreliable
    • Loss
    • Out of order arrival
    • Duplicates
  • No flow or sequence control
  • Faster than TCP
  • Suitable where loss is acceptable or handled by application
  • No handshake required as no SEQ or ACK

 

Examples of TCP & UDP

  • UDP
    • Trivial FTP (TFTP)
  • UDP or TCP
    • SSH, DNS, WWW, POP3
  • TCP
    • FTP, SMTP

 

Ports and Sockets

  • Ports provide a set of abstract destination points for a given operating systems
    • Standard services usually run on well known ports so that other systems know which port to address, i.e. Port 80 for Web
    • Port number and IP address make up a complete address
  • Socket is a network communications endpoint
    • Active socket is connected to a remote active socket via an open data connection; closing the connection destroys active sockets at each endpoint
    • Passive socket is not connected
      • Waits for a incoming connection, which will spawn a new active socket
    • Two kinds of IP socket
      • Stream socket, for using TCP
      • Datagram socket, for using UDP

 

Domain Name System (DNS)

  • Internet partitioned into domains (autonomous systems)
  • Zones form areas of the naming structure, which may include multiple domains
  • IP packets are forwarded between these domains, with the final router being responsible for delivery to a specific host within that domain
  • Naming allows meaningful and user-friendly names for machine identification rather than numbers
  • DNS allows look-up of the IP address on a name server which contains a table of name-IP address pairs
  • The Domain Name System has a hierarchical structure, starting with several top-level domains to break up the depth of the entire tree.
  • Name can remain constant despite IP address changes
  • Alias names can identify services independent of the machine(s) providing that service
  • Server Redundancy in Zones
    • As DNS resolution is fundamental to normal operation there will usually be more that one name server per zone
      • Primary (with records on disk)
      • Secondary (one or more, which ask the primary)
      • Some may be located outside the network zone
      • The local database of names is maintained manually
  • Server Hierarchy
    • If the name cannot be resolved a new request is made to a server up the hierarchy – recursive lookup
    • When top level is reached go down to required domain
    • This is repeated until a server knows the required name or it is determined that the name is not resolvable
    • Top level domains are replicated round the world to make queries which reach these servers faster and gives load sharing
    • Servers cache responses as name are often needed again (locality of reference)
      • Cached answers are non-authorative and may be wrong
      • They are given time to live based on volatility

 

Open Systems Interconnect (OSI)

  • Physical Layer
  • Data Link Layer
    • Medium Access Control (MAC) sub-layer
      • Static
        • Guaranteed access
        • Efficient for high traffic rates (no arbitration)
        • Bounded delay
        • Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM)
          • Continuous signal but low bandwidth
          • Lose overall bandwidth to guard bands
        • Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)
          • Full bandwidth but only for a time slot
          • Requires synchronization of time slots
        • Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
          • Only practical for communication with central station which must control interference
          • Requires power management
      • Dynamic
        • Allocate on demand
        • Connectionless service
        • Fair
        • Efficient for low traffic rates
        • Unbounded delay
        • ALOHA
          • 18% maximum channel utilisation
        • Slotted ALOHA
          • 37% maximum channel utilisation
        • Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA)
          • If channel busy wait until idle
        • Collision Detection (CD)
          • If collision wait random time and try again
          • Ethernet CSMA/CD
        • CD & CA Comparison
          • Both back off
            • CD after collision
            • CA before transition
          • CD
            • Less delay
            • Higher peak rate for bursty traffic
            • Less attractive for high load due to arbitration
          • CA
            • More practical where collision can not be detected (Wireless LAN)
            • Tokens / TDMA / FDMA give bounded delay
    • Logical Link Control (LLC) sub-layer
      • Control flow and sequencing
    • Data-Link Layer Services
      • Unacknowledged Connectionless (Ethernet LAN)
      • Acknowledged Connectionless (Wireless LAN)
      • Acknowledged Connection-oriented
    • Framing
      • Serial
        • FLAG-Header-Data-Tail-FLAG
      • Ethernet
        • Preamble-SD-DA-SA-Length-Data-Pad-FCS
      • Token Ring
        • SD-AC-ED
        • SD-AC-FC-DA-SA-Data-FCS-ED-FS
      • GSM
  • Network Layer
  • Transport Layer
  • Session Layer
  • Presentation Layer
  • Application Layer

 

Internet (ARPANET)

  • Host-to-Host Layer (Physical & Data Link Layers)
  • Internet (Network) Layer
  • Transport Layer

§         TCP

§         UDP

§         Transport Layer Security (TLS)

o       IEEE Standardized modern version of SSL

§         Secure Socket Layer (SSL)

o       Uses X.509 certificates and

o       Triple Data Encryption Standard (DES)

§         128 bit key

§         Only 44 bits allowed to be secret outside US

  • Application Layer (includes Session & Presentation Layers)
    • HyperText Markup Language (HTML)
    • HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
      • HTTP is a stateless, transaction-oriented protocol
        • Client contacts server at port 80, using TCP
        • Request from client to server
        • Reply from server to client
          • Status line (status code, text phrase)
          • Header (additional info)
          • Body
        • TCP connection closed
      • To maintain state cookies are used
      • HTTP 1.0 opens a new connection for every transaction (i.e file)
        • If web page contains 10 images HTTP 1.0 opens 11 TCP connections
        • Particularly problem as TCP connections have “slow-start” algorithm, necessary for proper connections
        • TCP is required to maintain “state” information about closed connections for 240 seconds, to ensure stray packets are handled, but requires large buffers on server
      • HTTP 1.1
        • Backwards compatible
        • Allows document caching
        • Only open one persistent TCP connection, then can pipeline HTTP requests
          • Can send several requests before existing requests have been satisfied
    • Secure HTTP (HTTPS)
    • File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
    • Secure FTP (SFTP)
    • Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
      • Two parties
        • Sender (client)
        • Receiver (server)
      • Three steps
        • Start
          • Open TCP connection
          • Server responds with “Service Ready” message
          • Client replies identifying its domain
        • Data exchange
          • Client sends one or more message
            • First giving identity information
              • MAIL-FROM
              • RCPT-TO
            • The sends DATA message including subject
          • Serve responds to each message
        • Complete
      • Mail-servers only deal with mail in the same domain if they deal with mail outside domain then they are blacklisted by other mail-servers
      • Mail Relays
        • These are used to spool mail when destination is not reachable, usually in the same domain as sender
    • Post Office Protocol (POP)
      • Designed to allow mail to be delivered to a mailbox on user desktop system, rather than mainframe mail agent as with SMTP i.e. Unix host using SMTP and later (at the recipient's convenience) download the contents of the mailbox to own system
    • Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)
      • Extends SMTP to allow attachments
      • Can be arbitrary data not just text, but always encoded as ASCII text for transfer

 

Security

  • Secret Keys
    • Same algorithm applied for encryption and decryption
    • Data Encryption Standard (DES)
      • 56 bit key
    • Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
      • Improvement on DES
      • 128, 192, 256 bit keys
  • Rivest, Shalmir & Adleman (RSA)
    • Public key for encryption
    • Private key for decryption
    • Key generated using prime numbers
    • No key management required
    • 1000x more computationally intensive than secret keys; therefore often used at top of key hierarchy
  • Public Key Signatures
    • Encrypt with senders private key for signing
    • Encrypt with receivers public key for secrecy
  • Message Digests
    • Faster than Public Key Signatures
    • Detects message modifications but does not provide security
    • Secure Hashing Algorithm (SHA)
      • Secure Hashing Function
    • Message Digest (MD5)
      • Fifth version by Ronald Rivest
      • Hashing function
  • X.509 certificates
    • Associate public key with user or service that us signed by Certificate Authority (CA)
    • Issuer can revoke
    • Not forgeable
  • Notarised Signatures
    • Non repudiation of origin
    • Verify author, date and time
    • Signature is verified by third party, i.e. Notarisation Service
    • A ® Notary ® B
      • A ® N                       

§      A, B, Kab(m), Kan (A, Ta, H{Kab(m)} )

      •          N ® B

§      N, Kbn(A, Ta, Tn), Kab(m), Kan (A, Ta, Tn, H{Kab(m)} )

      •          N ¬ B

§      B, Kbn(A, Tb, H{Kab(m)} )

      • A ¬ N

§      B, Kbn(A, B, Tb, Tn, H{Kab(m)} )

    • When dispute
      • A ® N                       

§      B, Kbn(A, B, Tb, Tn, H{Kab(m)} )  

      •          N ¬ B

§      B, Kbn(A, Ta, Kab(m)), Kan (A, Ta, Tn, H{Kab(m)} )

  • Kerberos Authentication Service
    • Three servers
      • Authentication Server (AS)
        • Verifies user during logon
      • Ticket Granting Server (TGS)
        • Issues “proof of ID” tickets
      • Sever that does actual work
    • Authentication but no authorisation
    • Separated by realms, local TGS will give ticket to talk to TGS in other realm

 

Digital Signals

  • Bit rate – rate of transfer of bits
  • Baud rate – rate of changes of signal i.e. 1® 0
  • Data rate – rate of transfer of useful data
  • FSK – Frequency Shift Keying
  • ASK – Amplitude Shift Keying
  • PSK – Phase Shift Keying

 

Transistor-Transistor Logic

  • High Voltage 1
  • Low Voltage 0
  • Word synchronous only (bit asynchronous)
  • If signal week
    • 1® undefined ® 0
    • Very problematic

 

Differential Signal

  • Positive Voltage 1
  • Negative Voltage 0
  • Word synchronous only (bit asynchronous)

 

Manchester Encoding

  • Low-to-High 1
  • High-to-Low 0
  • Half data rate for same Baud (compared to TTL or Differential Signal)
  • Bit & Word synchronous
  • Ethernet

 

Differential Manchester Encoding

  • No transition at start 1
  • Transition at start 0
  • Half data rate for same Baud (compared to TTL or Differential Signal)
  • Bit & Word synchronous
  • More complex equipment but better noise immunity (compared to Manchester Encoding)
  • Token Ring

 

Wireless LAN

  • MB/s
  • Directional (Point-to-Point)
  • Omni-Directional (Broadcast)

 

Twisted-Pair

  • Category 3: ~MB/s
  • Category 5: ~10MB/s
  • Cheep and reasonable interference resistance, due to twisted pair layout

 

Baseband

  • ~100Mb/s
    • Compared to Twisted Pair
      • Higher data rate
      • More expensive
      • Better shielding

 

Parallel

  • Transistor-Transistor Logic
  • 8 bits at a time 100kB/s

 

Serial (RS 232)

  • Differential Signal
  • 32 kB/s
  • Word synchronous / Bit asynchronous

 

USB

  • ~MB/s

 

SCSI

  • ~40MB/s

 

IEEE 1394 FireWire

  • ~60MB/s

 

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)

  • Slower sending than receiving

 

Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)

  • Basic Rate Interface
  • Primary Rate Interface (T1)

 

Modem

  • For internet connections to Internet Service Provider (ISP)
  • Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) for “home user”-to-ISP traffic

 

IEEE 802.4 / 802.5 Token Ring

  • Avoids collision through tokens but need to manage tokens
  • Not instantaneous access, but bounded and allows access priorities
  • Framing
    • Token: SD-AC-ED
    • SD-AC-FC-DA-SA-Data-FCS-ED-FS

 

IEEE 802.3 Ethernet

  • (min frame 64 bytes / max 1526 bytes / pad ≤ 46 bytes / overhead 18 bytes)
  • CSMA / CD
    • Interval between frames (InterFrame Spacing) allows other hosts to get a chance
  • Manchester Encoding
  • Framing
    • Preamble-SD-DA-SA-Length-Data-Pad-FCS

 

IEEE 802.11b Wireless LAN

  • Industrial Science & Medicine (ISM) band - 2.4 GHz - unlicensed radio band
    • Interferes with other 2.4 GHz transmitters
      • Bluetooth (IEEE 802.15)
        • Short range ≤ 1m
      • Microwave Ovens
  • CSMA / CA but no CD (not possible)
    • Hidden station problem
    • Stations not always in range of each other
    • Most stations are only half duplex
  • Distributed Access Control
    • Good for ad-hoc peer networks with bursty traffic
  • Centralised Access Control (GSM)
    • Good where data is time sensitive or priorities required
    • Suffers limitation of centralisation
  • Basic Service Set (BSS) c.f. subnet
    • “Cell”
    • Shares one MAC
  • Extended Service Set (ESS) c.f. LAN
    • Two or more BSS, appears as a single LAN
  • Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)
    • Similar to CDMA
  • Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)
    • Provides some security, if dwell time and hopping sequence secret
  • Distributed Foundation Wireless MAC (DFWMAC)
    • Distributed Coordination Function (DCF)
      • CSMA/CA
        • Stay quite until next ACK indicated by RTS or CTS
    • Point Coordination Function (PCF)
      • Use base station to coordinate
    • DCF & PCF
      • Short InterFrame Spacing (SIFS)
        • Continue dialog
          • Next fragment
          • ACK
        • Poll response
        • Clear-to-Send (CTS) response to previous RTS
      • PCF  InterFrame Spacing (PIFS)
        • Point Coordination Function frame
        • Beacon or Poll
      • DCF  InterFrame Spacing (DIFS)
        • Distributed Coordination Function frame
        • CSMA / CA
        • Any station can try to acquire medium, i.e. send RTS
        • Request-to-Send (RTS)
      • Extended InterFrame Spacing (EIFS)
        • Bad frame recovery

 

 

Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) 2G

  • TDM & FDM
  • Mobile (SIM) – BTS – BSC – MSC
  • Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)
  • Base Transceiver Station (BTS)
    • Defines cell
  • Base Station Controller (BSC)
    • Manages several BTSs
      • Channels
      • Frequency hopping
      • Handovers
  • Mobile services Switching Centre (MSC)
    • Acts like Public Switch Telephone Network
    • Handle subscription
      • Registration
      • Authentication
      • Handovers
  • Error Detection / Correction
    • Three levels of correction gives usable voice most of the time
      • Bottom level - no error detection or correction
      • Top level - forward error correction