Communication Protocols
Communication Protocols
When we are designing a communication network, we must deal with the inherent complexity of coordinating asynchronous operations communicating in a potentially slow and error-prone environment. In addition, the systems on the network must agree on a protocol or a set of protocols for determining host names, locating hosts on the network, establishing connections, and so on.
We can simplify the design problem (and related implementation) by partitioning the problem into multiple layers. Each layer on one system communicates with the equivalent layer on other systems. Typically, each layer has its own protocols, and communication takes place between peer layers using a specific protocol. The protocols may be implemented in hardware or software.
For instance, Figure 16.6 shows the logical communications between two computers, with the three lowest-level layers implemented in hardware. Following the International Standards Organization (ISO), we refer to the layers as follows:
- Physical layer. The physical layer is responsible for handling both the mechanical and the electrical details of the physical transmission of a bit stream. At the physical layer, the communicating systems must agree on the electrical representation of a binary 0 and 1, so that when data are
Figure 16.7 summarizes the ISO protocol stack—a set of cooperating protocols—showing the physical flow of data. As mentioned, logically each layer of a protocol stack communicates with the equivalent layer on other systems. But physically, a message starts at or above the application layer and is passed through each lower level in turn. Each layer may modify the message and include message-header data for the equivalent layer on the receiving side. Ultimately, the message reaches the data-network layer and is transferred as one or more packets (Figure 16.8).
The data-link layer of the target system receives these data, and the message is moved up through the protocol stack; it is analyzed, modified, and stripped of headers as it progresses. It finally reaches the application layer for use by the receiving process.
The ISO model formalizes some of the earlier work done in network protocols but was developed in the late 1970s and is currently not in widespread use. Perhaps the most widely adopted protocol stack is the TCP/IP model, which has been adopted by virtually all Internet sites. The TCP/IP protocol stack has fewer layers than does the ISO model. Theoretically, because it combines several functions in each layer, it is more difficult to implement but more efficient than ISO networking. The relationship between the ISO and TCP/IP models is shown in Figure 16.9.
The TCP/IP application layer identifies several protocols in widespread use in the Internet, including HTTP, FTP, Telnet, DNS, and SMTP. The transport layer identifies the unreliable, connectionless user datagram protocol (UDP) and the reliable, connection-oriented transmission control protocol (TCP). The Internet protocol (IP) is responsible for routing IP datagrams through the Internet. The TCP/IP model does not formally identify a link or physical layer, allowing TCP/IP traffic to run across any physical network. In Section 16.9, we consider the TCP/IP model running over an Ethernet network.
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