Computer Networks:

Internet Infrastructure
Rajesh Palit, Ph.D.
North South University, Dhaka

•3-1
 What’s the Internet: “nuts and bolts” view
• millions of connected PC mobile network
computing devices: server
• hosts = end systems
• running network apps wireless global ISP
laptop
smartphone

home
 communication links network
regional ISP
wireless  fiber, copper,
links radio, satellite
wired
links  transmission rate:
bandwidth

 Packet switches:
router forward packets (chunks institutional
network
of data)
 routers andIntroduction
switches 1-2
 What’s the Internet: a service view

mobile network
• Infrastructure that provides
services to applications: global ISP
• Web, VoIP, email, games, e-
commerce, social nets, …
home
• provides programming network
regional ISP
interface to apps
• hooks that allow sending
and receiving app programs
to “connect” to Internet
• provides service options,
analogous to postal service
institutional
network

Introduction 1-3
 A closer look at network structure:
mobile network
• network edge:
• hosts: clients and servers global ISP
• servers often in data centers

home
network
 access networks, regional ISP
physical media:
wired, wireless
communication links
 network core:
 interconnected
routers institutional
network
 network of networks
Introduction 1-4
 Data Communication Networks

• Access Networks: The part of a network that connects directly to

the end users or customers. It needs to implements all layers of the
OSI model since it interfaces with end-devices. The transmission
medium may be wired or wireless.

• Transmission / Core Networks: The central part of a network.

Typically consists of high speed copper or fiber cables. Main
components are switches and routers. Core networks only
implements the bottom two or three layers of the OSI model.
Access Net: Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)

central office telephone

network

DSL splitter
modem DSLAM

ISP
voice, data transmitted
at different frequencies over DSL access
dedicated line to central office multiplexer

 use existing telephone line to central office DSLAM

 data over DSL phone line goes to Internet
 voice over DSL phone line goes to telephone net
 < 2.5 Mbps upstream transmission rate (typically < 1 Mbps)
 < 24 Mbps downstream transmission rate (typically < 10
Mbps) Introduction 1-6
 Access Net: Cable Network
cable headend

cable splitter cable modem

modem CMTS termination system

data, TV transmitted at different

frequencies over shared cable ISP
distribution network

 HFC: hybrid fiber coax

 asymmetric: up to 30Mbps downstream transmission
rate, 2 Mbps upstream transmission rate
 network of cable, fiber attaches homes to ISP router
 homes share access network to cable headend
 unlike DSL, which has dedicated access to central
Introduction 1-7
office
Access Net: Fiber Optic Cable
 Access net: home network

wireless
devices

to/from headend or
central office
often combined
in single box

Fiber, cable or DSL

modem
wireless access router, firewall, NAT
point (54 Mbps)
wired Ethernet (100 Mbps)

Introduction 1-9
Enterprise access networks (Ethernet)

institutional link to
ISP (Internet)
institutional router

Ethernet institutional mail,

switch web servers

• typically used in companies, universities, etc

 10 Mbps, 100Mbps, 1Gbps, 10Gbps transmission rates
 today, end systems typically connect into Ethernet switch

Introduction 1-10
 Wireless access networks
• shared wireless access network connects end system to router
• via base station aka “access point”

wireless LANs: wide-area wireless access

 within building (100 ft)  provided by telco (cellular)
 802.11b/g (WiFi): 11, 54 operator, 10’s km
Mbps transmission rate  between 1 and 10 Mbps
 3G, 4G: LTE

to Internet

to Internet
Introduction 1-11
 Physical media

• bit: propagates between

transmitter/receiver pairs
twisted pair (TP)
• physical link: what lies between
• two insulated copper wires
transmitter & receiver
• Category 5: 100 Mbps, 1
• guided media: Gpbs Ethernet
• signals propagate in solid • Category 6: 10Gbps
media: copper, fiber, coax
• unguided media:
• signals propagate freely,
e.g., radio

Introduction 1-12
 Physical media: coax, fiber
coaxial cable: fiber optic cable:
• two concentric copper  glass fiber carrying light
conductors pulses, each pulse a bit
• bidirectional  high-speed operation:
 high-speed point-to-point
• broadband: transmission (e.g., 10’s-
• multiple channels on cable 100’s Gpbs transmission
rate)
• HFC
 low error rate:
 repeaters spaced far apart
 immune to electromagnetic
noise

Introduction 1-13
 Physical media: radio
• signal carried in radio link types:
electromagnetic spectrum  terrestrial microwave
• no physical “wire”  e.g. up to 45 Mbps channels
• bidirectional  LAN (e.g., WiFi)
 11Mbps, 54 Mbps
• propagation environment  wide-area (e.g., cellular)
effects:  3G cellular: ~ few Mbps
• reflection  satellite
• obstruction by objects  Kbps to 45Mbps channel (or
• interference multiple smaller channels)
 270 msec end-end delay
 geosynchronous versus low
altitude

Introduction
Switching Techniques
Circuit Switching
• Circuit switching:
• There is a dedicated communication path between two stations (end-to-end)
• The path is a connected sequence of links between network nodes. On each physical link, a
logical channel is dedicated to the connection.
• Communication via circuit switching has three phases:
• Circuit establishment (link by link)
• Routing & resource allocation (FDM or TDM)
• Data transfer
• Circuit disconnect
• Deallocate the dedicated resources
• The switches must know how to find the route to the destination and how to
allocate bandwidth (channel) to establish a connection.

16
Circuit Switching Properties
• Inefficiency
• Channel capacity is dedicated for the whole duration of a connection
• If no data, capacity is wasted
• Delay
• Long initial delay: circuit establishment takes time
• Low data delay: after the circuit establishment, information is transmitted at a fixed data rate
with no delay other than the propagation delay. The delay at each node is negligible.
• Developed for voice traffic (public telephone network) but can also applied to
data traffic.
• For voice connections, the resulting circuit will enjoy a high percentage of utilization because
most of the time one party or the other is talking.
• But how about data connections?

17
Public Circuit Switched Network

Subscribers: the devices that attach to the network.

Subscriber loop: the link between the subscriber and the network.
Exchanges: the switching centers in the network.
End office: the switching center that directly supports subscribers.
Trunks: the branches between exchanges. They carry multiple voice-frequency
circuits using either FDM or synchronous TDM.
18
Packet Switching Principles
• Problem of circuit switching • Data are transmitted in short packets
• designed for voice service • Typically at the order of 1000 bytes
• Resources dedicated to a particular • Longer messages are split into packets
call • Each packet contains a portion of user
• For data transmission, much of the data plus some control info (header)
time the connection is idle (say, • Control info contains at least
web browsing)
• Routing (addressing) info
• Data rate is fixed
• Recall the content of an IP header!
• Both ends must operate at the
same rate during the entire • Store and Forward
period of connection • On each switching node, packets are
• Packet switching is designed to address received, stored briefly (buffered) and
these problems. passed on to the next node.
19
CS vs PS
Advantages of Packet Switching

• Line efficiency
• Single node-to-node link can be dynamically shared by many packets over time
• Packets are queued up and transmitted as fast as possible
• Data rate conversion
• Each station connects to the local node at its own speed
• In circuit-switching, a connection could be blocked if there lacks free resources.
On a packet-switching network, even with heavy traffic, packets are still accepted,
by delivery delay increases.
• Priorities can be used
• On each node, packets with higher priority can be forwarded first. They will experience less
delay than lower-priority packets.

21
Internet structure: network of networks

 End systems connect to Internet via access ISPs

(Internet Service Providers)
 Residential, company and university ISPs
 Access ISPs in turn must be interconnected.
 So that any two hosts can send packets to each other
 Resulting network of networks is very complex
 Evolution was driven by economics and national
policies
 Let’s take a stepwise approach to describe current
Internet structure
Broadway and John St Manhattan 1890
Internet structure: network of networks
Option: connect each access ISP to every other access ISP?

access access
net net
access
net
access
access net
net
access
access net
net

connecting each access ISP

access
to each other directly doesn’t access
net
scale: O(N2) connections. net

access
net
access
net

access
net
access
net
access access
net access net
net
 Internet structure: network of networks

Tier 1 ISP Tier 1 ISP Google

IXP IXP IXP

Regional ISP Regional ISP

access access access access access access access access

ISP ISP ISP ISP ISP ISP ISP ISP

• at center: small # of well-connected large networks

• “tier-1” commercial ISPs (e.g., Level 3, Sprint, AT&T, NTT), national &
international coverage
• content provider network (e.g, Google): private network that connects it
1-25
data centers to Internet, often bypassing tier-1,Introduction
regional ISPs
 Internet structure: network of networks
 a packet passes through many networks!

local
ISP Tier 3 local
local local
ISP ISP
ISP ISP
Tier-2 ISP Tier-2 ISP

Tier 1 ISP
NAP

Tier 1 ISP Tier 1 ISP Tier-2 ISP

local
Tier-2 ISP Tier-2 ISP
ISP
local local local
ISP ISP ISP Introduction 1-26
World Wide Sub-marine Cable Map

Network Layer
4-27
South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4)

Network Layer
4-28
Telecommunications Network in Bangladesh

Submarine cable
Intl terrestrial cable
Satellite Link

International International Internet

Gateway (IGW) Gateway (IIG)

Nationwide Telecom
Transmission
Nationwide Telecom Network (NTTN)
Transmission Internet Service
Network (NTTN) Provider (ISP)

Inter-connection
Exchange (ICX)

Public Switched IP Telephony

Mobile Network
Telephone Network Service Providers
Operator (MNO)
(PSTN) (IPTSP)

Network Layer
4-29
 How do loss and delay occur?
packets queue in router buffers
• packet arrival rate to link (temporarily) exceeds output link
capacity
• packets queue, wait for turn
packet being transmitted (delay)

B
packets queueing (delay)
free (available) buffers: arriving packets
dropped (loss) if no free buffers
Introduction 1-30
 Four sources of packet delay
transmission
A propagation

B
nodal
processing queueing

dnodal = dproc + dqueue + dtrans + dprop

dproc: nodal processing dqueue: queueing delay

 check bit errors  time waiting at output
 determine output link link for transmission
 typically < msec  depends on congestion
level of router
Introduction 1-31
Four sources of packet delay
transmission
A propagation

B
nodal
processing queueing

dnodal = dproc + dqueue + dtrans + dprop

dtrans: transmission delay: dprop: propagation delay:

 L: packet length (bits)  d: length of physical link
 R: link bandwidth (bps)  s: propagation speed in medium
 dtrans = L/R (~2x108 m/sec)
dtrans and dprop  dprop = d/s
very different
Introduction
* Check out the Java applet for an interactive animation on trans vs. prop delay 1-32
 Queueing delay (revisited)

average queueing
• R: link bandwidth (bps)

delay
• L: packet length (bits)
• a: average packet arrival
rate
traffic intensity
= La/R
 La/R ~ 0: avg. queueing delay small La/R ~ 0

 La/R -> 1: avg. queueing delay large

 La/R > 1: more “work” arriving
than can be serviced, average delay infinite!

* Check out the Java applet for an interactive animation on queuing and loss La/R -> 1
Introduction
 • throughput: rate (bits/time unit) at which bits
Throughput transferred between sender/receiver
• instantaneous: rate at given point in time
• average: rate over longer period of time

• Rs < Rc What is average end-end throughput?

Rs bits/sec Rc bits/sec

 Rs > Rc What is average end-end throughput?

Rs bits/sec Rc bits/sec

bottleneck link
link on end-end path that constrains end-end throughput
1-34
 Protocol “layers”
Networks are complex,
with many “pieces”: Question:
• hosts is there any hope of
• routers organizing structure of
network?
• links of various media
• applications …. or at least our discussion
• protocols of networks?
• hardware, software

Introduction 1-35
Layering of airline functionality

ticket (purchase) ticket (complain) ticket

baggage (check) baggage (claim baggage

gates (load) gates (unload) gate

runway (takeoff) runway (land) takeoff/landing

airplane routing airplane routing airplane routing airplane routing airplane routing

departure intermediate air-traffic arrival

airport control centers airport

layers: each layer implements a service

• via its own internal-layer actions
• relying on services provided by layer below

Introduction 1-36
 Why layering?
dealing with complex systems:
• explicit structure allows identification, relationship
of complex system’s pieces
• layered reference model for discussion
• modularization eases maintenance, updating of
system
• change of implementation of layer’s service
transparent to rest of system
• e.g., change in gate procedure doesn’t affect rest of
system
• layering considered harmful?

Introduction 1-37
 Internet protocol stack
• application: supporting network
applications
• FTP, SMTP, HTTP, SIP, RTP, Skype application
• transport: process-process data
transfer transport
• TCP, UDP
• network: routing of datagrams network
from source to destination
• IP, routing protocols link
• link: data transfer between
neighboring network elements physical
• Ethernet, 802.111 (WiFi), PPP
• physical: bits “on the wire”

Introduction 1-38
 ISO/OSI Reference Model
• presentation: allow applications
to interpret meaning of data, application
e.g., encryption, compression,
machine-specific conventions presentation
• session: synchronization, session
checkpointing, recovery of data transport
exchange
network
• Internet stack “missing” these
layers! link
• these services, if needed, must be physical
implemented in application
• needed?

Introduction 1-39
 message M
source
application
Encapsulation
segment Ht M transport
datagram Hn Ht M network
frame Hl Hn Ht M link
physical
link
physical

switch

destination Hn Ht M network
M application Hl Hn Ht M link Hn Ht M
Ht M transport physical
Hn Ht M network
Hl Hn Ht M link router
physical

Introduction 1-40