UCCN 1004

Data Communications & Networks

(Lecture 2a)

Introduction to Network Devices &

Addressing Schemes
 Network As
Communication Platform

Elements of a Network
 Network as a Platform
• The function of a network is to serve as a platform
for communications between end users.
• End users can be in the form of:
– Servers & clients
– Smart phones & other mobile devices
– PCs and webcam
 Elements of a Network
• All networks have four basic elements in two categories:
– Hardware: (i) Devices, (ii) Medium,
– Software: (iii) Message, (iv) Rules/Agreement.
 Hardware: Devices & Medium
• Devices
– will be explained in the later slides
• Medium
– this is the channel over which a message travels
– the following diagram shows some examples of a network
medium
 Software: Message & Rules
• Message:
– Generic term that encompasses web pages,
emails, instant messages, telephone calls, video,
multimedia streaming, etc.

• Rules:
– Addressing schemes (IP, MAC address, port
numbers)
• will be explained in the later slides
– Protocols
• won’t discuss now
• topics towards to end of semester
 End-Devices & Networking Devices
• There are two big classification of devices in the
Internet/network:
– End-Devices & Networking Devices.
• End devices:
– Devices that a person can use for communication
purposes.
– End-devices normally attached to a network.
• Networking devices:
– Equipment that form the network and help to mediate
and transfer data between end-devices.
 Example of the Devices
• End-devices:

• Networking devices:
 Relationship between
End-Devices & Networking Devices
• A person use end-devices to communicate with another
person with another end-devices via the network formed by
networking-devices.
– Servers and clients are end-devices.
 Other Networking Devices

Network Appliance NetCache F5 Networks BIG-IP LoadBalancer

Web server load balancer
Packeteer PacketShaper Localized content delivery platform
Traffic monitor and shaper

Ingrian i225 Cisco SN 5420

SSL offload appliance Nortel Alteon Switched Firewall
IP-SAN storage gateway
CheckPoint firewall and L7 switch

NetScreen 500 Extreme Networks SummitPx1

Firewall and VPN L2-L7 application switch Cisco IDS 4250-XL
Intrusion detection system
Rules of Network: Introduction to
Addressing Scheme

Port Number – Network services

IP address – Targeted host
Physical Address – Hardware Address
 The “Addresses” in Network
• “Address” emphasizes the location of certain elements (both
software and hardware) in the network.
– meaning, where to find certain “things” in the network
• These are the three sets of addresses that are very
important to the network and end-devices
– Network “location” address => IP Address
– Network “application” address => Port Number
– Network “hardware” address => Physical Address (MAC address)
• These addresses are operating-system or platform
independent.
– They are used in Windows XP, Linux, Solaris, Unix, and Apple
computers
IP ADDRESS
 Locating the PCs in the Network

• Question: how does the network identifying

and differentiate the left PC from other PCs?
 Locating the PCs in the Network
• Answer: By giving each PC an unique and
yet standardized number called IP address.
 The standard format of IP address - 1
• There are two types of IP address
– IPv4 (32 bits) and IPv6 (128 bits)
• We will only focus on IPv4 in this class
– Whenever we talk about IP address, it is IPv4 (IP version 4)
• IP address has a standardized format that is recognized
throughout the world.
 The standard format of IP address - 2
• The size of an IP address = 4 bytes = 32 bits
• It is written in a “dotted-decimal notation”.
– 4 numbers with 3 dots.
• Each of these 4 numbers is 1 byte
– The value range is 0 to 255 only
• Valid IP address: 199.200.45.78
• Invalid IP address: 800.354.7.432
 Source IP and Destination IP
• There are two sides of the IP address Source IP
– Source IP (you)
– Destination IP (where you want to go)
• Your PC MUST have a source IP
before you can communicate with the
Internet.
Destination IP
 IP Address in End Devices
• The following are some of the end devices
that require IP address in order to
communicate via the network.
– Almost all of the end devices require IP address.
 IP Address in Networking Device

• Not all networking devices require IP address

– Switches, hubs, modems, repeaters.
• Routers (including wireless router) requires IP
address in order to function in the network.

Require IP address DOES NOT require

IP address
PORT NUMBER
 Identifying Network Application
• If the server send data back to PC1 (using IP
address), and PC1 is running a few network
applications, does PC1 know which network
application it should direct this data to?

• How can PC1 tell that the data is directed to

the Web browser, or Tera Term?

PC1 is running these network applications

 What is a Port Number?
• A port number is a way to identify a specific process to which
an Internet or other network message is to be forwarded
when it arrives at an end-device.
– Treat process = program = application

• Port number is unique within an end-device.

• The size of a port number is 2 bytes.

– Range => 0 to 65535

• Typically (and at this level of your study), the port numbers

are categorized into:
– Server port numbers: 0 to 1023
– Client port numbers: 1024 to 65535
 Server Port Numbers - 1
• Server port numbers are the standardized 2-byte numbers
that identify the well-known network services such as HTTP,
FTP, DNS, etc..

• IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) is responsible

for assigning these server port numbers (they are
standardized for network services)
– http://www.iana.org/assignments/port-numbers
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_number

• These server port numbers have been assigned with a

dedicated fixed value to describe a network service, e.g:
– Port number = 80 (HTTP)
– Port number = 53 (DNS)
– Port number = 23 (telnet)
 Server Port Number - 2
• Again, network services are identified via port numbers inside
the servers
• In the range of 0-1023, a particular value have already been
assigned and associated with a particular network services.
• Server ports are also called listening ports.
• Well known port numbers.
– 20 (FTP data), 21 (FTP control), 22 (ssh), 23 (telnet)
– 25 (smtp, email), 53 (DNS),
– 67 (BOOTP, DHCP server), 68 (BOOTP, DHCP client)
– 69 (tftp), 80 (HTTP, web),
– 109 (POP2, email), 110 (POP3, email)
• Port number = 80 is ALWAYS a web (HTTP) service.
 Client Port numbers
• Client port numbers are not fixed.
• The value of client port number is not standardized
by IANA.
– It is normally larger than 1023
• Assigned by operating system randomly.
• Client ports are sometimes called connection ports

• The notation [IP:port_number] is called a socket.

• Socket can identify any network application/service
in the Internet.
– For example: 157.166.255.18:80 identify the web service
of www.cnn.com
MAC ADDRESS
 Hardware Address: MAC Address
• Media Access Control address (MAC address) is a unique
identifier attached to most network adapters or network
interface card (NICs).
– Used in both wired and wireless NICs
– Unique throughout the world
• No two NIC will have the same MAC address
• Burned in the NIC chips and can’t be changed
– Contain 6 bytes (or 6 octet or 48 bits)
• First 3 bytes identify the manufacturer (OUI)
• 00-00-00 XEROX CORPORATION
• 00-00-0B MATRIX CORPORATION
• 00-00-0C CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.
• http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/oui.txt
– Also known as Hardware Address or Physical Address
• Usually shown in hexadecimal format, with each octet
separated by a dash or colon.
– An example of a MAC address would be "00-08-74-4C-7F-1D".