CHAPTER 1 2.

Reliability - is measured by the frequency of

failure, the time it takes a link to recover from
Data communications are the exchange of data a failure, and the network's robustness in a
between two devices via some form of transmission catastrophe.
medium such as a wire cable. 3. Security - protects data from unauthorized
access, protects data from damage and
Effectiveness of a data communications system development, and implements policies and
1. Delivery - The system must deliver data to the procedures for recovery from breaches and
correct destination. data losses.
2. Accuracy - The system must deliver the data
accurately. Physical Structures
3. Timeliness - The system must deliver data in a  Type of Connection
timely manner. A network is two or more devices connected
4. Jitter – It refers to the variation in the packet through links. A link is a communications
arrival time. It is the uneven delay in the pathway that transfers data from one device
delivery of audio or video packets. to another.
1. Point-to-Point - provides a dedicated link
Five components: between two devices.
1. Message - The entire capacity of the link is reserved
2. Sender for transmission between those two
3. Receiver devices.
4. Transmission medium 2. Multipoint/Multidrop - connection is one
5. Protocol - a set of rules that govern data in which more than two specific devices
communications. It represents an agreement share a single link.
between the communicating devices. - If several devices can use the link
simultaneously, it is a spatially shared
Data Flow connection.
 Simplex - communication is unidirectional - If users must take turns, it is a timeshared
- only one of the two devices on a link can connection.
transmit, the other can only receive
- Examples: Keyboards and traditional  Physical Topology - the way in which a
monitor network is laid out physically. Two or more
 Half-Duplex - each station can both transmit devices connect to a link; two or more links
and receive, but not at the same time. When form a topology. The topology of a network
one device is sending, the other can only is the geometric representation of the
receive, and vice versa relationship of all the links and linking devices
- Examples: Walkie-talkies and CB (citizens to one another.
band) radios 1. Mesh - every device has a dedicated
 Full-Duplex - both stations can transmit and point-to-point link to every other device.
receive simultaneously - Advantages:
- Example: telephone network  The use of dedicated links
guarantees that each
A network is a set of devices (often referred to as connection can carry its own
nodes) connected by communication links. data load
Distributed Processing - a task is divided among  Robust - If one link becomes
multiple computers. unusable, it does not
incapacitate the entire
Network Criteria system.
1. Performance - depends on the number of  Security - When every
users, the type of transmission medium, the message travels along a
capabilities of the connected hardware, dedicated line, only the
and the efficiency of the software. intended recipient sees it.
- Transit time - amount of time required for  Point-to-point links make fault
a message to travel from one device to identification and fault
another. isolation easy.
- Response time - the elapsed time - Disadvantages:
between an inquiry and a response.  Because every device must
be connected to every other
 device, installation and
reconnection are difficult.
 The sheer bulk of the wiring
can be greater than the
available space can
accommodate.
 The hardware required to
connect each link (I/O ports
and cable) can be
prohibitively expensive.
- Example: connection of telephone
regional offices
2. Star - each device has a dedicated
point-to-point link only to a central
controller, usually called a hub.
- The controller acts as an exchange: If
one device wants to send data to
another, it sends the data to the
controller, which then relays the data to
the other connected device.
- Advantages:
 less cabling – less expensive than
a mesh topology
 easy to install and reconfigure
 Robust – If one link fails, only that
link is affected.
 easy fault identification and fault
isolation
- Disadvantage:
 Dependency of the whole
topology on one single point, the
hub
- Application: local-area networks (LANs)
3. Bus – a multipoint. One long cable acts
as a backbone to link all the devices in a
network.
- Nodes are connected to the bus cable
by drop lines and taps.
- A tap is a connector that either splices
into the main cable or punctures the
sheathing of a cable to create a contact
with the metallic core.
- Advantages:
 Ease of installation
 Less cabling than mesh or star
topologies
- Disadvantages:
 difficult reconnection and fault
isolation
4. Ring - each device has a dedicated
point-to-point connection with only the
two devices on either side of it. Each
device in the ring incorporates a
repeater. When a device receives a
signal intended for another device, its
repeater regenerates the bits and passes
them along.
- Advantages:
 easy to install and reconfigure
- Disadvantage:
 unidirectional traffic
Categories of Networks
 Local Area Network (LAN) - covers an area
less than 2 mi
- usually privately owned and links the
devices in a single office, building, or
campus
 Wide Area Network (WAN) - provides long-
distance transmission
 Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) - a
network with a size between a LAN and a
WAN.
Internetwork/Internet - when two or more networks
are connected
 International Internet Service Providers – at
the top of the hierarchy that connect nations
together.
 National Internet Service Providers -
backbone networks created and
maintained by specialized companies.
 Regional Internet Service Providers - are
smaller ISPs that are connected to one or
more national ISPs.
 Local Internet Service Providers - provide
direct service to the end users.
Protocols - a set of rules that govern data
communications.
- Key Elements:
 Syntax - structure or format of the
data, meaning the order in which
they are presented
 Semantics - meaning of each
section of bits
 Timing - when data should be
sent and how fast they can be
sent
Standards - provide guidelines to manufacturers,
vendors, government agencies, and other service
providers to ensure the kind of interconnectivity
necessary in today's marketplace and in
international communications.
 De facto ("by fact" or "by convention")
- Standards that have not been approved by
an organized body but have been adopted
as standards through widespread use
 De jure ("by law" or "by regulation")
- Standards that have been legislated by
an officially recognized body
Standards Organizations
 Standards Creation Committees
1. International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) - a multinational body
whose membership is drawn mainly from the
standards creation committees of various
governments throughout the world
2. International Telecommunication Union-
Telecommunication Standards Sector (ITU-T)
- was devoted to the research and
establishment of standards for
telecommunications in general and for
phone and data systems in particular
3. American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
- a completely private, nonprofit corporation
not affiliated with the U.S. federal
government
4. Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE) - the largest professional
engineering society in the world.
5. Electronic Industries Association (EIA) - a
nonprofit organization devoted to the
promotion of electronics manufacturing
concerns
 Forums - work with universities and users to
test, evaluate, and standardize new
technologies.
 Regulatory Agencies (Federal
Communications Commission (FCC)) -
protect the public interest by regulating
radio, television, and wire/cable
communications.
Internet Standard - a thoroughly tested specification
that is useful to and adhered to by those who work
with the Internet.
Internet draft - a working document with no official
status and a 6-month lifetime
Upon recommendation from the Internet authorities,
a draft may be published as a Request for Comment
(RFC).
CHAPTER 2
Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) MODEL
- A seven- layer framework for the design
of network systems that allows
communication between all types of
computer systems.
Peer-to-Peer Process - Communication between
machines using the protocols appropriate to a given
layer.
Layers in the OSI Model
1. Physical Layer - transmits bits over a medium;
to provide mechanical and electrical
specification
- Is responsible for movements of individual
bits from one hop (node) to the next.
- Concerns:
 Physical characteristics of
interfaces and transmission
medium
 Representation of bits - defines
the type of encoding
 Data rate - the number of bits sent
each second
 Synchronization of bits
 Line configuration - connection of
devices to the media: point-to-
point or multipoint
 Physical topology
 Transmission mode - direction of
transmission between two
devices: simplex, half-duplex, or
full-duplex
2. Data Link Layer - Is responsible for moving
frames from one hop (node) to the next.
- organizes bits into frames; to provide hop-
to-hop delivery
- Responsibilities:
 Divides the stream of bits
received from the network layer
into manageable data units
called frames.
 Physical addressing
 Flow control - If the rate at which
the data are absorbed by the
receiver is less than the rate at
which data are produced in the
sender
 Error control - adds reliability to
the physical layer by adding
mechanisms to detect and
retransmit damaged or lost
frames
 Access control
3. Network Layer - is responsible for the source-
to-destination delivery of a packet, possibly
across multiple networks (links)
- is responsible for the delivery of individual
packets from the source host to the
destination host
- Responsibilities:
 Logical addressing
 Routing
4. Transport Layer - is responsible for process-to-
process delivery of the entire message
- Responsibilities:
 Service-point addressing
 Segmentation and reassembly
 Connection control
 Flow control - is performed end to
end rather than across a single
link
  Error control - is performed
process-to-process rather than
across a single link
5. Session Layer - is responsible for dialog
control and synchronization
- establish, manage, and terminate
sessions
- Responsibilities:
 Dialog control – allows two
systems to enter into a dialog
 Synchronization
6. Presentation Layer - is concerned with the
syntax and semantics of the information
exchanged between two systems
- Responsibilities:
 Translation
 Encryption - the sender transforms
the original information to
another form and sends the
resulting message out over the
network
 Compression - reduces the
number of bits contained in the
information
7. Application Layer - enables the user, whether
human or software, to access the network
- Responsibilities:
 Network virtual terminal - a
software version of a physical
terminal, and it allows a user to
log on to a remote host
 File transfer, access, and
management - allows a user to
access files in a remote host (to
make changes or read data), to
retrieve files from a remote
computer for use in the local
computer, and to manage or
control files in a remote computer
locally
 Mail services - provides the basis
for e-mail forwarding and storage
 Directory services - provides
distributed database sources and
access for global information
about various objects and
services
TCP/IP Protocol Suite
1. Physical and Data Link Layers – supports all
the standard and proprietary protocols
2. Network Layer - supports the Internetworking
Protocol
 Internetworking Protocol (IP) - a host-
to-host protocol that it can deliver a
packet from one physical device to
another
- transports data in packets called
datagrams
 Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) -
used to associate a logical address
with a physical address
 Reverse Address Resolution Protocol
(RARP) - allows a host to discover its
Inter- net address when it knows only
its physical address
 Internet Control Message Protocol
(ICMP) - sends notification of
datagram problems back to the
sender
 Internet Group Message Protocol
(IGMP) - used to facilitate the
simultaneous transmission of a
message to a group of recipients
3. Transport Layer
 User Datagram Protocol (UDP) - a
process-to-process protocol that
adds only port addresses, checksum
error control, and length information
to the data from the upper layer
 Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) -
provides full transport-layer services
to applications.
- a reliable stream transport protocol
 Stream Control Transmission Protocol
(SCTP) - provides support for newer
applications such as voice over the
Internet
4. Application Layer - equivalent to the
combined session, presentation, and
application layers in the OSI model
Addressing
1. Physical Address/Link Address - the address
of a node as defined by its LAN or WAN
- lowest-level address
- a host on the Internet
2. Logical address - necessary for universal
communications that are independent of
underlying physical networks
NOTE: The physical addresses will change from hop
to hop, but the logical addresses usually remain the
same.
3. Port Address - identifies a process on a host
4. Specific Address - a user-friendly address