Course title : CSE3003

Course title : Computer Networks

Module :1
Topic :5

TCP/IP Networking Layers

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Objectives

This session will give the knowledge about

• Comparison between OSI and TCP/IP
• TCP/IP Networking Layers

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TCP/IP Protocol suite

The layers in the TCP/IP protocol suite do not exactly match those in the OSI
model.

The original TCP/IP protocol suite was defined as having four layers: host-to-
network, internet, transport, and application.

However, when TCP/IP is compared to OSI, we can say that the TCP/IP
protocol suite is made of five layers: physical, data link, network, transport,
and application.

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TCP/IP and OSI model

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TCP/IP Protocol Suite

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A Private internet

• When we study the purpose of each layer, it is easier to think of a private

internet, instead of the global Internet. Such an internet is made up of
several small networks called links.

• A link is a network that allows a set of computers to communicate with

each other. A link can be a LAN or WAN.

• Our imaginary internet that is used to show the purpose of each layer.

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A Private internet

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Physical Layer

• TCP/IP does not define any specific protocol for the physical layer. It
supports all of the standard and proprietary protocols.

• At this level, the communication is between two hops or nodes, either a

computer or router.

• The unit of communication is a single bit. When the connection is

established between the two nodes, a stream of bits is flowing between
them. The physical layer, however, treats each bit individually.

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Physical Layer

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Physical Layer

• We are assuming that at this moment the two computers have discovered
that the most efficient way to communicate with each other is via routers
R1, R3, and R4.

• Each bit to router R1 in the format of the protocol used by link 1. Router 1
sends each bit to router R3 in the format dictated by the protocol used by
link 3. And so on.

• Note that if a node is connected to n links, it needs n physical-layer

protocols, one for each link.

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Data Link Layer

• TCP/IP does not define any specific protocol for the data link layer either. It
supports all of the standard and proprietary protocols.

• At this level, the communication is also between two hops or nodes. The
unit of communication however, is a packet called a frame.

• A frame is a packet that encapsulates the data received from the network
layer with an added header and sometimes a trailer.

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Data Link Layer

• The head includes the

source and destination of
frame. The destination
address is needed to
define the right recipient of
the frame. The source
address is needed for
possible response or
acknowledgment as may
be required by some
protocols.
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Data Link Layer

• Note that the frame that is travelling between computer A and router R1
may be different from the one travelling between router R1 and R3.

• When the frame is received by router R1, passes the frame to the data link
layer protocol (left). The frame is opened, the data are removed.

• The data are then passed to the data link layer protocol (right) to create
a new frame to be sent to the router R3.

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Network Layer

• At the network layer (or, more accurately, the internetwork layer), TCP/IP
supports the Internet Protocol (IP).

• The Internet Protocol (IP) is the transmission mechanism used by the

TCP/IP protocols.

• IP transports data in packets called Datagrams, each of which is

transported separately. Datagrams can travel along different routes and
can arrive out of sequence or be duplicated.

• IP does not keep track of the routes and has no facility for reordering
datagrams once they arrive at their destination.
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Network Layer

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Network Layer

• Communication at the network layer is end to end while the

communication at the other two layers are node to node.

• The datagram started at computer A is the one that reaches computer B.

The network layers of the routers can inspect (check) the source and
destination of the packet for finding the best route, but they are not
allowed to change the contents of the packet.

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Transport Layer

• There is a main difference between the transport layer and the network
layer is: Although all nodes in a network need to have the network layer,
only the two end computers need to have the transport layer.

• The network layer is responsible for sending individual datagrams from

computer A to computer B; the transport layer is responsible for delivering
the whole message, which is called a Segment, a user datagram, or a
packet, from A to B.

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Transport Layer

• A segment may consist of a few or tens of datagrams. The segments need

to be broken into datagrams and each datagram has to be delivered to the
network layer for transmission.

• Since the Internet defines a different route for each datagram, the
datagrams may arrive out of order and may be lost.

• The transport layer at computer B needs to wait until all of these

datagrams to arrive, assemble and make segment.

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Transport Layer

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Transport Layer

Traditionally, the transport layer was represented in the TCP/IP suite by two
protocols:

1. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP): is a reliable connection-oriented

protocol that allows a byte stream originating on one machine to be
delivered without error on any other machine in the internet. TCP also
handles flow control to make sure a fast sender cannot swamp a slow
receiver with more messages than it can handle.

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Transport Layer

2. User Datagram Protocol (UDP): UDP is an unreliable, connectionless

protocol for applications that do not want TCP’s sequencing or flow
control and wish to provide their own. It is also widely used for one-shot,
client-server-type request-reply queries and applications in which prompt
delivery is more important than accurate delivery, such as transmitting
speech or video. Its advantage low overhead.

3. A new protocol called Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) has

been introduced

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Transport Layer: process-to-process delivery

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Application Layer

• The application layer in TCP/IP is equivalent to the combined session,

presentation, and application layers in the OSI model. The application
layer allows a user to access the services of our private internet or the
global Internet. Many protocols are defined at this layer to provide services
such as electronic mail, file transfer, accessing the World Wide Web, and
so on.

• Note that the communication at the application layer, like the one at the
transport layer, is end to end. A message generated at computer A is sent
to computer B without being changed during the transmission.

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Application Layer

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Addressing

• Four levels of addresses are used in an internet employing the TCP/IP

protocols: physical address, logical address, port address, and
application-specific address.

• Each address is related to a one layer in the TCP/IP architecture, as

shown in Figure

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Addressing

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Physical Addressing

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Physical Addressing

• In Fig a node with physical address 10 sends a frame to a node with

physical address 87.

• The two nodes are connected by a link (a LAN). At the data link layer, this
frame contains physical (link) addresses in the header. These are the only
addresses needed. The rest of the header contains other information
needed at this level.

• As the figure shows, the computer with physical address 10 is the sender,
and the computer with physical address 87 is the receiver.

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Physical Addressing

• The data link layer at the sender receives data from an upper layer. It
encapsulates the data in a frame.

• The frame is propagated through the LAN. Each station with a physical
address other than 87 drops the frame because the destination address in
the frame does not match its own physical address.

• The intended destination computer, however, finds a match between the

destination address in the frame and its own physical address.

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Physical Addressing

• Most local area networks use a 48-bit (6-byte) physical address written as
12 hexadecimal digits; every byte (2 hexadecimal digits( Hexadecimal
numbers are represented by only 16 symbols. These symbols or values
are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E and F. Each digit represents a
decimal value.)) is separated by a colon, as shown below:

• 07:01:02:01:2C:4B
• A 6-byte (12 hexadecimal digits) physical address

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Logical Addressing

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Logical Addressing

• Figure shows a part of an internet with two routers connecting three LANs.
Each device (computer or router) has a pair of addresses (logical and
physical) for each connection.

• In this case, each computer is connected to only one link and therefore
has only one pair of addresses. Each router, however, is connected to
three networks. So each router has three pairs of addresses, one for each
connection.

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Logical Addressing

• Although it may be obvious that each router must have a separate

physical address for each connection, it may not be obvious why it needs
a logical address for each connection.

• The computer with logical address A and physical address 10 needs to

send a packet to the computer with logical address P and physical
address 95.

• We use letters to show the logical addresses and numbers for physical
addresses, but note that both are actually numbers, as we will see in later
chapters.

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Port Addressing

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Port Addressing

• Figure shows two computers communicating via the Internet. The sending
computer is running three processes at this time with port addresses a, b,
and c.

• The receiving computer is running two processes at this time with port
addresses j and k. Process a in the sending computer needs to
communicate with process j in the receiving computer.

• Note that although both computers are using the same application, FTP,
for example, the port addresses are different because one is a client
program and the other is a server program.

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Port Addressing

• A port address is a 16-bit address represented by one decimal number as

shown:

753
• A 16-bit port address represented as one single number

• The physical addresses change from hop to hop, but the logical and port
addresses usually remain the same.

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Specific Addressing

• E-mail address (user1@ksu.edu.sa)

• Universal Resource Locator (URL) (www.ksu.edu.sa)

• The Domain Name System (DNS) translates human-friendly computer

hostnames ( URL) into IP addresses. For example, www.example.com is
translated to 208.77.188.166

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Summary
At the end of this session we have learned about
• Comparison between OSI and TCP/IP
• TCP/IP Networking Layers

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