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Unit – I Computer Networks Network Topologies & OSI Layers
INTRODUCTION
REFERENCE MODELS:
There are two important network architectures:
 OSI reference Model
 TCP/IP reference model
The OSI Reference Model:
The OSI model (minus the physical medium) is shown in Fig. 1.1. This model is based on a proposal
developed by the International Standards Organization (ISO) as a first step toward international
standardization of the protocols used in the various layers (Day and Zimmermann, 1983). It was revised in
1995 (Day, 1995). The model is called the ISO OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) Reference Model
because it deals with connecting open systems i.e. systems that are open for communication with other
systems.
The OSI model has seven layers. The principles that are applied to arrive at the seven layers can be briefly
summarized as follows:
1. A layer should be created where a different abstraction is needed.
2. Each layer should perform a well-defined function.
3. The function of each layer should be chosen with an eye toward defining internationally
standardized protocols.
4. The layer boundaries should be chosen to minimize the information flow across the interfaces.
5. The number of layers should be large enough that distinct functions need not be thrown together
in the same layer out of necessity and small enough that the architecture does not become
unwieldy.
Note: The OSI model itself is not network architecture because it does not specify the exact services and
protocols to be used in each layer. It just specifies what each layer should do.
Physical Layer:
The physical layer is concerned with transmitting raw bits over a communication channel. The design
issue must make sure that when one side sends a 1 bit it is received by the other side as a 1 bit, not as a 0
bit. Typical questions that arise in this layer are:
1. What electrical signals should be used to represent a 1 and a 0?
2. How many nanoseconds a bit lasts?
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3. Whether transmission may proceed simultaneously in both directions?

4. How the initial connection is established, how it is torn down when both sides are finished.
5. How many pins the network connector has and what each pin is used for?
These design issues largely deals with mechanical, electrical and timing interfaces, as well as the physical
transmission medium, which lies below the physical layer.
Fig 1.1: The OSI Reference Model

Fig 1.1: The OSI Reference Model
Fig 1.1.1: Physical Layer

The Data Link Layer:

The main task of the data link layer is to transform a raw transmission facility into a line that appears free
of undetected transmission errors. It does so by masking the real errors so the network layer does not see
them. It accomplishes this task by having the sender break up the input data into data frames (typically a
few hundred or a few thousand bytes) and transmits the frames sequentially. If the service is reliable, the
receiver confirms correct receipt of each frame by sending back an acknowledgement frame.
Another issue that arises in the data link layer (and most of the higher layers as well) is how to keep a fast
transmitter from drowning a slow receiver in data. Some traffic regulation mechanism may be needed to
let the transmitter know when the receiver can accept more data.
Broadcast networks have an additional issue in the data link layer: how to control access to the shared
channel. A special sub-layer of the data link layer, the medium access control sub-layer, deals with this
problem.
The Network Layer:
The network layer controls the operation of the subnet. A key design issue is determining how packets
are routed from source to destination. Routes can be based on static tables that are ‘‘wired into’’ the
network and rarely changed, or more often they can be updated automatically to avoid failed components.
They can also be determined at the start of each conversation, for example, a terminal session, such as a
login to a remote machine. Finally, they can be highly dynamic, being determined anew for each packet to
reflect the current network load.
If too many packets are present in the subnet at the same time, they will get in one another’s way, forming
bottlenecks. Handling congestion is also a responsibility of the network layer, in conjunction with higher
layers that adapt the load they place on the network.
When a packet has to travel from one network to another to get to its destination, many problems can
arise. The addressing used by the second network may be different from that used by the first one. The
second one may not accept the packet at all because it is too large. The protocols may differ, and so on. It
is up to the network layer to overcome all these problems to allow heterogeneous networks to be
interconnected.
In broadcast networks, the routing problem is simple, so the network layer is often thin or even
nonexistent.
The Transport Layer:
The basic function of the transport layer is to accept data from above it, split it up into smaller units, pass
these to the network layer, and ensure that the pieces all arrive correctly at the other end.

The transport layer also determines what type of service to provide to the session layer, and, ultimately, to
the users of the network. The most popular type of transport connection is an error-free point-to-point
channel that delivers messages or bytes in the order in which they were sent. However, other possible
kinds of transport service exist, such as the transporting of isolated messages with no guarantee about the
order of delivery, and the broadcasting of messages to multiple destinations. The type of service is
determined when the connection is established.
The transport layer is a true end-to-end layer; it carries data all the way from the source to the destination.
In other words, a program on the source machine carries on a conversation with a similar program on the
destination machine, using the message headers and control messages. In the lower layers, each protocol is
between a machine and its immediate neighbors, and not between the ultimate source and destination
machines, which may be separated by many routers. The difference between layers 1 through 3, which are
chained, and layers 4 through 7, which are end-to-end, is illustrated in Fig. 1.1.
The Session Layer:
The session layer allows users on different machines to establish sessions between them. Sessions offer
various services including:
1. Dialog Control: It keeps track of whose turn it is to transmit.
2. Token Management: It prevents two parties from attempting the same critical operation
simultaneously.
3. Synchronization: It checkpoints long transmissions to allow them to pick up from where they
left off in the event of a crash and subsequent recovery.
The Presentation Layer:
Unlike the lower layers, which are mostly concerned with moving bits around, the presentation layer is
concerned with the syntax and semantics of the information transmitted. In order to make it possible for
computers with different internal data representations to communicate, the data structures to be exchanged
can be defined in an abstract way, along with a standard encoding to be used ‘‘on the wire.’’ The
presentation layer manages these abstract data structures and allows higher-level data structures (e.g.,
banking records) to be defined and exchanged.

Fig
The Application Layer:
The Application Layer contains a variety of protocols that are commonly needed by users. One widely
used application protocol is HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol), which is the basis for the World
Wide Web. When a browser wants a Web page, it sends the name of the page it wants to the server
hosting the page using HTTP. The server then sends the page back. Other application protocols are used
for file transfer, electronic mail, and network news.
The TCP/IP Reference Model:
The TCP/IP model was derived from ARPANET and its successor, the worldwide internet. The
ARPANET was a research network sponsored by the DoD (U.S. Department of Defense). It eventually
connected hundreds of universities and government installations, using leased telephone lines. When
satellite and radio networks were added later, the existing protocols had trouble interworking with them,
so new reference architecture was needed. Thus, from nearly the beginning, the ability to connect multiple
networks in a seamless way was one of the major design goals. This architecture was later known as
TCP/IP Reference Model, after its two primary protocols. It was first described by Cerf and Kahn
(1974), and later refined and defined as a standard in the Internet community (Braden, 1989). The
The Systematic diagram for this model is illustrated in the figure 1.2:

Fig 1.2: The TCP/IP Reference Model

The Link Layer:
The lowest layer in the model, the link layer describes which links such as serial lines and classic Ethernet
must do to meet the needs of this connectionless internet layer. It is not really a layer rather it’s an
interface between hosts and transmission links.
The Internet Layer:
It is the linchpin that holds the whole architecture together. Its job is to permit hosts to inject packets into
any network and have them travel independently to the destination (potentially on a different network).
They may even arrive in a completely different order than they were sent, in which case it is the job of
higher layers to rearrange them.
The internet layer defines an official packet format and protocol called IP (Internet Protocol), plus a
companion protocol called ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) that helps it function. The job of
the internet layer is to deliver IP packets where they are supposed to go. Packet routing is clearly a major
issue here, as is congestion (though IP has not proven effective at avoiding congestion).
The Transport Layer:
The layer above the internet layer in the TCP/IP model is the transport layer. It is designed to allow peer
entities on the source and destination hosts to carry on a conversation, just as in the OSI transport layer.
Two end-to-end transport protocols are defines:
 TCP (Transmission Control Protocol): It 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. It segments the incoming byte stream into discrete messages and passes each one on
to the internet layer. At the destination, the receiving TCP process reassembles the received
messages into the output stream. TCP also handles flow control to make sure a fast sender cannot
swamp a slow receiver with more messages than it can handle.
 UDP (User Datagram Protocol): It 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.
The relation of IP, TCP, and UDP is shown in Fig. 1.3

Fig: 1.3: The TCP/IP model with some protocols

The Application Layer:
On top of the transport layer is the application layer. It contains all the higher- level protocols. The early
ones included:
 Virtual Terminal (TELNET): The virtual terminal protocol allows the user on one machine to
log onto a distant machine and work there.
 File Transfer (FTP): The FTP provides a way to move data efficiently from one machine to
another.
 Electronic Mail (SMTP): it’s a kind of file transfer, but later a specialized protocol (SMTP) was
developed for it.
Later many other protocols were developed such as:
 Domain Name System (DNS): It is used for mapping host names onto their network address.
 NNTP: The protocol for moving USENET news articles around.
 HTTP: The protocol for fetching pages onto the World Wide Web.
COMPARISION OF OSI AND TCP/IP REFERENCE MODEL:

The OSI and TCP/IP reference models are based on the concept of a stack of independent protocols. The
functionality of the layers is similar. Despite the functional similarities, these two models have many
differences. The comparison is done for the reference model but not the corresponding protocol stack.
Three concepts are central for the OSI Model:

 Services: Each layer performs some services for the layer above it. The service definition tells
what the layer does, not how the entities above it access it or how the layer works. It defines the
layer semantics.
 Interfaces: A layer’s interface tells the processes above it how to access it. It specifies what the
parameters are and what result to expect.
 Protocols: The peer protocols used in the layer are the layer’s own business. It can use any
protocols it wants to, as long as it gets the job done. It can also change them at will without
affecting software in higher layers.
1. The TCP/IP model did not originally clearly distinguish between service, interface, and protocol,
although tried to retrofit it after the fact to make it more OSI-like. For example, the only real services
offered by the internet layer are SEND IP PACKET and RECEIVE IP PACKET. As a
consequence, the protocols in the OSI model are better hidden than in the TCP/IP model and can be
replaced relatively easily as the technology changes.
2. The OSI reference model was devised before the corresponding protocols were invented. This
ordering means that the model was not biased toward one particular set of protocols. The drawback of
this ordering is that the designers did not have much experience with the subject and did not have a
good idea of which functionality to put in which layer. With TCP/IP the reverse was true: the
protocols came first, and the model was really just a description of the existing protocols. There was
no problem with the protocols fitting the model. They fit perfectly. The only trouble was that the
model did not fit any other protocol stacks. Consequently, it was not especially useful for describing
other, non-TCP/IP networks.
3. The obvious difference between the two models is the number of layers: the OSI model has seven
layers and the TCP/IP has four layers. Both have (inter) network, transport, and application layers but
the other layers are different.
4. Another difference is in the area of connectionless versus connection-oriented communication. The
OSI model supports both connectionless and connection-oriented communication in the network layer,
but only connection-oriented communication in the transport layer, where it counts (because the
transport service is visible to the users). The TCP/IP model has only one mode in the network layer
(connectionless) but supports both modes in the transport layer, giving the users a choice. This choice
is especially important for simple request-response protocols.

NETWORK HARDWARE:
In general there are two types of transmission technology that are in widespread use:
 Broadcast Links
 Point-to-Point links.
Broadcast networks have a single communication channel that is shared by all the machines on the
network. Short messages, called packets sent by any machine are received by all the others. An address
field within the packet specifies the intended recipient. Upon receiving the packet, a machine checks the
address field. If the packet is intended for the receiving machine, that machine processes the packet; if the
packet is intended for some other machine, it is just ignored.
Broadcast systems allow the possibility of addressing a packet to all destinations by using a special code
in the address field. When a packet with this code is transmitted, it is received and processed by every
machine on the network. This mode of operation is called broadcasting. Some broadcast systems also
support transmission to a subset of the machines, which known as multicasting.
In contrast, point-to-point network consists of many connections between individual pair of machines. To
go from source to the destination, a packet on this type of network may have to first visit one or more
individual machines. Point-to-Point transmission with one sender and one receiver is called as unicasting.
In fig 1.4 multiple processor systems are classified by their physical size. At the top are the personal area
network, networks that are meant for one person. Beyond these are long range networks. They are divided
into local, metropolitan, and wide area networks, each with increasing scale. Finally the connection of two
or more networks is called an internetwork.
Fig 1.4: Classification of interconnected processors by scale

Local Area Network:

A LAN is a privately owned network that operates within and nearby a single building like a home, office
or factory. LANs are widely used to connect personal computers for sharing resources (e.g., printers) and
exchange information. When LANs are used by companies, they are called enterprise networks.
LANs are distinguished from other kinds of network by three characteristics:
 Size: LANs are restricted in size, which means that the worst-case transmission time is bounded
and known in advance. Knowing these bounds helps with the task of designing network
protocols.
 Transmission Technology: LANs may use a transmission technology consisting of cables to
which all the machines are attached. Most of them use copper wires, but some use optical fiber.
Typically, wired LANs run at speeds of 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps, have low delay (microseconds or
nanoseconds), and make very few errors. Newer LANs can operate at up to 10 Gbps.
 Topology: The topology of many wired LANs is built from point-to-point links. IEEE 802.3,
popularly called Ethernet, is a bus based broadcast network with decentralized control, usually
operating at 10Mbps to 10 Gbps. Fig 1.5 (b) shows a sample topology of Switched Ethernet.
Each computer speaks the Ethernet protocol and connects to a box called a switch with a point-
to-point link. A switch has multiple ports, each of which can connect to one computer. The job
of the switch is to relay packets between computers that are attached to it, using the address in
each packet to determine which computer to send it to.
Fig 1.5 Wireless and Wired LANs, (a) 802.11 (b) Switched Ethernet
In wireless LANs system, every computer has a radio modem and an antenna that it uses to communicate
with other computers. In most cases, each computer talks to a device in the ceiling as shown in the fig 1.5
(a). This device is called an AP (Access Point), wireless router, or base station, relays packets between
the wireless computers and also between them and the Internet. There is a standard for wireless LANs
called IEEE 802.11, popularly known as WiFi. It runs at speed from 11 to hundred of Mbps

Metropolitan Area Network:

A metropolitan area network, or MAN, covers a city. The best-known example of a MAN is the cable
television network available in many cities. These systems grew from earlier community antenna systems
used in areas with poor over-the-air television reception. In those early systems, a large antenna was
placed on top of a nearby hill and a signal was then piped to the subscriber’s houses.
At first, these were locally designed, ad hoc systems. The next step was television programming and even
entire channels designed for cable only. To a first approximation, a MAN might look something like the
system shown in Fig. 1.6. In this figure we see both television signals and Internet being fed into the
centralized cable head end for subsequent distribution to people’s homes.
Cable television is not the only MAN, though. Recent developments in high speed wireless Internet access
have resulted in another MAN, which has been standardized as IEEE 802.16 and is popularly known as
WiMAX.
Fig 1.6: A metropolitan area network based on cable TV

Wide Area Network:
A wide area network, or WAN, spans a large geographical area, often a country or continent. It contains a
collection of machines intended for running user (i.e., application) programs called as host. The hosts are
connected by a communication subnet. The hosts are owned by the customers, where as the
communication subnet is typically owned and operated by the Telephone Company or Internet Service
Provider. The job of the subnet is to carry the messages from host to host.
In most wide area networks, the subnet consists of two distinct components:
 Transmission lines and
 Switching elements
Transmission Lines move bits between machines. They can be made of copper wire, optical fiber, or
even radio links. Switching elements are specialized computers that connect three or more transmission

lines. When data arrive on an incoming line, the switching element must choose an outgoing line on which
to forward them. These switching computers have been called as router.
In this model, shown in Fig. 1.7, each host is frequently connected to a LAN, on which a router is present,
although in some cases a host can be connected directly to a router. The collection of communication lines
and routers (but not the hosts) form the subnet.
Fig 1.7: Relation between hosts on LANs and the subnet.

In most WANs, the network contains numerous transmission lines, each one connecting a pair of routers.
If two routers that do not share a transmission line wish to communicate, they must do this indirectly, via
other routers. When a packet is sent from one router to another via one or more intermediate routers, the
packet is received at each intermediate router in its entirety, stored there until the required output line is
free, and then forwarded. A subnet organized according to this principle is called a store-and-forward or
packet-switched subnet. Nearly all wide area networks (except those using satellites) have store-and-
forward subnets. When the packets are small and all the same size, they are often called cells.
The principle of packet switched network WAN is: when a process on some host has a message to be sent
to a process on some other host, the sending host first cuts the message into packets, each one bearing its
number in the sequence. These packets are then injected into the network one at a time in quick
succession. The packets are transported individually over the network and deposited at the receiving host,
where they are reassembled into the original message and delivered to the receiving process. It is
illustrated in the figure 1.8:

Difference between WAN and Large Wired LAN:

The WAN as we have described it looks similar to a large wired LAN, but there are some important
differences that go beyond long wires. Usually in a WAN, the hosts and subnet are owned and operated by
different people. The telephone company or the network providers operates the subnet. Separation of pure
communication aspects of the network from the application aspects greatly simplifies the overall network
design.
The second difference is that the routers will usually connect different kinds of networking technology.
The networks inside the offices may be switched Ethernet, for example, while the long-distance
transmission lines may be SONET links.
A final difference is in what is connected to the subnet. This could be individual computers, as was the
case for connecting to LANs, or it could be entire LANs. This is how larger networks are built from
smaller ones.
Varieties of WANS:
In general there are two varieties of WANs:
 First, rather than lease dedicated transmission lines, a company might connect offices to the
Internet. This allows the connection to be made between the offices as virtual links that use the
underlying capacity of the Internet. The arrangements shown in the figure 1.8, is called a VPN
(Virtual Private Network). Compared to the dedicated arrangements, a VPN has the usual
advantage of virtualization i.e. it provides flexible reuse of a resource. A VPN also has the usual
disadvantage of virtualization, which is a lack of control over the underlying resources. With a
dedicated line, the capacity is clear. With a VPN your mileage may vary with your Internet service.

Fig 1.8: WAN using a virtual private network.

 The second variation is that the subnet may be run by a different company. The subnet operator is
known as a network service provider and the offices are its customers. This structure is shown in
Fig. 1-12. The subnet operator will connect to other customers too, as long as they can pay and it
can provide service. Since it would be a disappointing network service if the customers could only
send packets to each other, the subnet operator will also connect to other networks that are part of
the Internet. Such a subnet operator is called an ISP (Internet Service Provider) and the subnet is
an ISP network. Its customers who connect to the ISP receive Internet service.
Fig 1.9: WAN using an ISP network.

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Unit – I Computer Networks Network Topologies & OSI Layers

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3. Whether transmission may proceed simultaneously in both directions?

Fig 1.1: The OSI Reference Model

Fig 1.1.1: Physical Layer

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Fig 1.2: The TCP/IP Reference Model

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Fig: 1.3: The TCP/IP model with some protocols

COMPARISION OF OSI AND TCP/IP REFERENCE MODEL:

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Fig 1.4: Classification of interconnected processors by scale

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Metropolitan Area Network:

Fig 1.6: A metropolitan area network based on cable TV

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Fig 1.7: Relation between hosts on LANs and the subnet.

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Difference between WAN and Large Wired LAN:

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Fig 1.8: WAN using a virtual private network.

Fig 1.9: WAN using an ISP network.

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