Computer Networks

Lecture 2

Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,

10/19/2014 1
BUBT, Dhaka
 Circuit Switching and Packet
Switching
• There are two fundamental approaches to
moving data through a network of links and
switches:
– circuit switching and
– packet switching.

Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,

10/19/2014 2
BUBT, Dhaka
 Circuit Switching and Packet
Switching
• In circuit-switched networks, the resources
needed along a path (buffers, link transmission
rate) to provide for communication between the
end systems are reserved for the duration of the
communication session between the end systems.
• In packet-switched networks, these resources
are not reserved; a session’s messages use the
resources on demand, and as a consequence,
may have to wait (that is, queue) for access to a
communication link.
Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,
10/19/2014 3
BUBT, Dhaka
 Circuit Switching and Packet
Switching
• Traditional telephone networks are examples of circuit-
switched networks.
• Consider what happens when one person wants to send
information (voice or facsimile) to another over a telephone
network. Before the sender can send the information, the
network must establish a connection between the sender and
the receiver. This connection is called a circuit. When the
network
• establishes the circuit, it also reserves a constant transmission
rate in the network’s links (representing a fraction of each
link’s transmission capacity) for the duration of the
connection.
Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,
10/19/2014 4
BUBT, Dhaka
 Multiplexing in Circuit-Switched
Networks
• A circuit in a link is implemented with either-
• Frequency-division multiplexing(FDM) or
• Time-division multiplexing (TDM).

Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,

10/19/2014 5
BUBT, Dhaka
 Frequency-division multiplexing(FDM)
• With FDM, the frequency spectrum of a link is divided
up among the connections established across the link.
• Specifically, the link dedicates a frequency band to
each connection for the duration of the connection.
• In telephone networks, this frequency band typically
has a width of 4 kHz (that is, 4,000 hertz or 4,000 cycles
per second). The width of the band is called, not
surprisingly, the bandwidth.
• FM radio stations also use FDM to share the frequency
spectrum between 88 MHz and 108 MHz, with each
station being allocated a specific frequency band.
Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,
10/19/2014 6
BUBT, Dhaka
 Time-division multiplexing (TDM)
• For a TDM link, time is divided into frames of
fixed duration, and each frame is divided into a
fixed number of time slots.
• When the network establishes a connection
across a link, the network dedicates one time slot
in every frame to this connection.
• These slots are dedicated for the sole use of that
connection, with one time slot available for use
(in every frame) to transmit the connection’s
data.
Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,
10/19/2014 7
BUBT, Dhaka
 Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,
10/19/2014 8
BUBT, Dhaka
 Packet Switching Versus Circuit
Switching
• Packet switching is not suitable for real-time
services (for example, telephone calls and video
conference calls) because of its variable and
unpredictable end-to-end delays (due primarily to
variable and unpredictable queuing delays).
• It offers better sharing of transmission capacity
than circuit switching.
• It is simpler, more efficient, and less costly to
implement than circuit switching.
• Generally speaking, people who do not like to
hassle with restaurant reservations prefer packet
switching to circuit switching.
Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,
10/19/2014 9
BUBT, Dhaka
 Packet Switching Versus Circuit
Switching
• The performance of packet switching can be
superior to that of circuit switching.
• In Circuit switching pre-allocates use of the
transmission link regardless of demand, with
allocated but unneeded link time going
unused. Packet switching on the other hand
allocates link use on demand.

Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,

10/19/2014 10
BUBT, Dhaka
 Delay in Packet-Switched Networks
• Recall that a packet starts in a host (the
source), passes through a series of routers,
and ends its journey in another host (the
destination).
• As a packet travels from one node (host or
router) to the subsequent node (host or
router) along this path, the packet suffers
from several types of delays at each node
along the path.

Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,

10/19/2014 11
BUBT, Dhaka
 Delay in Packet-Switched Networks
• The most important of these delays are –
• The nodal processing delay
• Queuing delay
• Transmission delay and
• Propagation delay.
• Together these delays accumulate to give a
total nodal delay.

Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,

10/19/2014 12
BUBT, Dhaka
 Delay in Packet-Switched Networks

• The performance of many Internet applications—such

as search, Web browsing, email, maps, instant
messaging, and voice-over-IP—are greatly affected by
network delays.

Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,

10/19/2014 13
BUBT, Dhaka
 Processing Delay
• The time required to examine the packet’s header
and determine where to direct the packet is part
of the processing delay.
• The processing delay can also include other
factors, such as the time needed to check for bit-
level errors in the packet that occurred in
transmitting the packet’s bits from the upstream
node to router A.
• Processing delays in high-speed routers are
typically on the order of microseconds or less.
• After this nodal processing, the router directs the
packet to the queue that precedes the link to
router B.
Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,
10/19/2014 14
BUBT, Dhaka
 Queuing Delay
• At the queue, the packet experiences a queuing delay
as it waits to be transmitted onto the link.
• The length of the queuing delay of a specific packet will
depend on the number of earlier-arriving packets that
are queued and waiting for transmission onto the link.
• If the queue is empty and no other packet is currently
being transmitted, then our packet’s queuing delay will
be zero.
• On the other hand, if the traffic is heavy and many
other packets are also waiting to be transmitted, the
queuing delay will be long.
• Queuing delays can be on the order of microseconds to
milliseconds in practice.

Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,

10/19/2014 15
BUBT, Dhaka
 Transmission Delay
• Assuming that packets are transmitted in a first-come-
first-served manner, as is common in packet-switched
networks, our packet can be transmitted only after all
the packets that have arrived before it have been
transmitted.
• Denote the length of the packet by L bits, and denote
the transmission rate of the link from router A to router
B by R bits/sec. For example, for a 10 Mbps Ethernet
link, the rate is R = 10 Mbps; for a 100 Mbps Ethernet
link, the rate is R = 100 Mbps. The transmission delay
is L/R.
• Transmission delays are typically on the order of
microseconds to milliseconds in practice.

Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,

10/19/2014 16
BUBT, Dhaka
 Propagation Delay
• Once a bit is pushed into the link, it needs to
propagate to router B. The time required to
propagate from the beginning of the link to
router B is the propagation delay.
• The bit propagates at the propagation speed
of the link.
• The propagation speed depends on the
physical medium of the link (that is, fiber
optics, twisted-pair copper wire, and so on).

Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,

10/19/2014 17
BUBT, Dhaka
 Total nodal delay
• If we let dproc, dqueue, dtrans, and dprop denote the
processing, queuing, transmission, and
propagation delays.
• Then the total nodal delay is given by-
dnodal = dproc + dqueue + dtrans + dprop

Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,

10/19/2014 18
BUBT, Dhaka
 Packet Loss
• A packet can arrive to find a full queue. With
no place to store such a packet, a router will
drop that packet; that is, the packet will be
lost.
• From an end-system viewpoint, a packet loss
will look like a packet having been transmitted
into the network core but never emerging
from the network at the destination.

Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,

10/19/2014 19
BUBT, Dhaka
 End-to-End Delay
• Suppose there are N 1 routers between the
source host and the destination host.
• The queuing delays are negligible.
• The processing delay at each router and at the
source host is dproc,
• The transmission rate out of each router and out
of the source host is R bits/sec, and the
propagation on each link is dprop. The nodal delays
accumulate and give an end-to-end delay:
dend-end = N (dproc + dtrans + dprop)
Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,
10/19/2014 20
BUBT, Dhaka
 Throughput in Computer Networks

• Let Rs denote the rate of the link between the

server and the router; and
• Rc denote the rate of the link between the router
and the client.
Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,
10/19/2014 21
BUBT, Dhaka
 Throughput in Computer Networks
• The server cannot pump bits through its link at a
rate faster than Rs bps; and the route cannot
forward bits at a rate faster than Rc bps.
• If Rs < Rc, then the bits pumped by the server will
“flow” right through the router and arrive at the
client at a rate of Rs bps, giving a throughput of Rs
bps.
• If, on the other hand, Rc < Rs, then the router will
not be able to forward bits as quickly as it
receives them. In this case, bits will only leave the
router at rate Rc, giving an end-to-end throughput
of Rc.

Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,

10/19/2014 22
BUBT, Dhaka
 Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,
10/19/2014 23
BUBT, Dhaka
 Layered Architecture

Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,

10/19/2014 24
BUBT, Dhaka
 Layered Architecture

Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,

10/19/2014 25
BUBT, Dhaka
 Layered Architecture

Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,

10/19/2014 26
BUBT, Dhaka
 Encapsulation

Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,

10/19/2014 27
BUBT, Dhaka
 Encapsulation
• At the sending host, an application-layer message (M)
is passed to the transport layer.
• The transport layer takes the message and appends
additional information (so-called transport-layer
header information, Ht) that will be used by the
receiver-side transport layer.
• The application layer message and the transport-layer
header information together constitute the transport-
layer segment.
• The transport layer then passes the segment to the
network layer, which adds network-layer header
information (Hn) such as source and destination end
system addresses, creating a network-layer datagram.
Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,
10/19/2014 28
BUBT, Dhaka
 Encapsulation
• The datagram is then passed to the link layer,
which will add its own link-layer header
information and create a link-layer frame.
• A packet has two types of fields: header fields
and a payload field. The payload is typically a
packet from the layer above.

Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,

10/19/2014 29
BUBT, Dhaka
 End

Shamim Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of CSE,

10/19/2014 30
BUBT, Dhaka