Module 6

Introduction to Transport Layer

 Transport-Layer Services
• Transport layer is located between the
network layer and the application layer.
• The transport layer is responsible for
providing services to the application layer; it
receives services from the network layer
 Process-to-Process Communication

• The transport layer is responsible for process-

to-process delivery—the delivery of a packet,
part of a message, from one process to
another.
• Two processes communicate in a
client/server relationship.
Types of data deliveries
 Addressing: Port Numbers
• A process on the local host, called a client, needs services from a
process usually on the remote host, called a server.
• However, operating systems today support both multiuser and
multiprogramming environments.
• A remote computer can run several server programs at the same
time, just as several local computers can run one or more client
programs at the same time.
• For communication, we must define the local host, local process,
remote host, and remote process.
• The local host and the remote host are defined using IP addresses.
• To define the processes, we need second identifiers, called port
numbers. In the TCP/IP protocol suite, the port numbers are integers
between 0 and 65,535 (1M6itulbPaittels).
 Addressing: Port Numbers
• The client program defines itself with a port
number, called the ephemeral port number.
• The word ephemeral means “short-lived” and
is used because the life of a client is normally
short.
• TCP/IP has decided to use universal port
numbers for servers; these are called well-
known port numbers
Port numbers
IP addresses versus port numbers
ICANN Ranges
 Socket Address
• A transport-layer protocol in the TCP suite needs
both the IP address and the port number, at each
end, to make a connection. The combination of an
IP address and a port number is called a socket
address.
• The client socket address defines the client process
uniquely just as the server socket address defines
the server process uniquely.
Encapsulation and Decapsulation
 Multiplexing and Demultiplexing
• Whenever an entity accepts items from more
than one source, this is referred to as
multiplexing (many to one); whenever an
entity delivers items to more than one
source, this is referred to as demultiplexing
(one to many).
• The transport layer at the source performs
multiplexing; the transport layer at the
destination performs demultiplexing
Multiplexing and Demultiplexing
Flow Control at Transport Layer
 Buffers
• Although flow control can be implemented in
several ways, one of the solutions is normally
to use two buffers: one at the sending
transport layer and the other at the receiving
transport layer.
• A buffer is a set of memory locations that can
hold packets at the sender and receiver.
• The flow control communication can occur by
sending signals from the consumer to the
producer.
 Error Control
• Error control at the transport layer is
responsible for
1. Detecting and discarding corrupted packets.
2. Keeping track of lost and discarded packets
and resending them.
3. Recognizing duplicate packets and discarding
them.
4. Buffering out-of-order packets until the
missing packets arrive.
 Sequence Numbers
• Error control requires that the sending
transport layer knows which packet is to be
resent and the receiving transport layer
knows which packet is a duplicate, or which
packet has arrived out of order.
• This can be done if the packets are
numbered. We can add a field to the
transport-layer packet to hold the sequence
number of the packet.
 Sequence Numbers
• However, because we need to include the sequence
number of each packet in the header, we need to
set a limit. If the header of the packet allows m bits
for the sequence number, the sequence numbers
range from 0 to 2m − 1.
• If m is 4, the only sequence numbers are 0 through
15, inclusive. However, we can wrap around the
sequence. So the sequence numbers in this case are
Sliding Window
 Connectionless and Connection-
Oriented Protocols
• A transport-layer protocol, like a network-
layer protocol, can provide two types of
services: connectionless and connection-
oriented
• Connectionless service at the transport layer
means independency between packets;
connection-oriented means dependency.
Connectionless Service
 Connectionless Service
• We can say that no flow control, error
control, or congestion control can be
effectively implemented in a connectionless
service.
Connection-Oriented Service
 Connection-oriented service
• We can implement flow control, error control,
and congestion control in a connection
oriented protocol.
Transport-Layer Protocols
 Services
• UDP
• UDP is an unreliable connectionless transport-layer
protocol used for its simplicity and efficiency in
applications where error control can be provided by the
application-layer process.
• TCP
• TCP is a reliable connection-oriented protocol that can be
used in any application where reliability is important.
• SCTP
• SCTP is a new transport-layer protocol that combines the
features of UDP and T C P
Port Numbers

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Computer Networks B.Tech-Sem5
USER DATAGRAM PROTOCOL(UDP)

• connectionless, unreliable transport protocol.

• providing process-to-process communication
instead of host-to-host communication
• If UDP is so powerless, why would a process
want to use it?
• “If a process wants to send a small message
and does not care much about reliability, it can
use UDP. Sending a small message using UDP
takes much less interaction between the
sender and receiver than using TCP”
User datagram packet format
Example
Solution
Exercise
 UDP Services
1. Process-to-Process Communication
– using socket addresses, a combination of IP addresses and
port numbers.
2. Connectionless Services
– Each user datagram sent by UDP is an independent
datagram.
– There is no relationship between the different user
datagrams even if they are coming from the same source
process and going to the same destination program.
– no connection establishment and no connection
termination
 UDP Services
3. Flow Control
– no flow control. the process using UDP should provide
for this service, if needed
4. Error Control
– no error control. the process using UDP should provide
for this service, if needed
5. Checksum
– UDP checksum calculation includes three sections: a
pseudoheader, the UDP header, and the data coming
from the application layer. The pseudoheader is the
part of the header of the IP packet.
Pseudoheader for checksum calculation
 UDP Services
6. Congestion Control
– does not provide congestion control.
7. Encapsulation and Decapsulation
8. Multiplexing and Demultiplexing
 UDP Applications
• The connectionless service provides less
delay; the connection-oriented service
creates more delay. If delay is an important
issue for the application, the connectionless
service is preferred.
• A client-server application such as DNS uses
the services of UDP because a client needs to
send a short request to a server and to
receive a quick response from it.
 UDP Applications
• A client-server application such as SMTP,
which is used in electronic mail, cannot use
the services of UDP because a user might
send a long e-mail message, which could
include multimedia (images, audio, or video).
 Examples
1. Downloading a very large text file from the
Internet? – can’t use UDP
2. Real-time interactive application, such as
Skype? – can use UDP
3. route updating protocols such as Routing
Information Protocol(RIP) – can use UDP
 TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL(TCP)

• connection-oriented, reliable protocol.

• TCP explicitly defines connection establishment,
data transfer, and connection teardown phases to
provide a connection-oriented service.
• To achieve this goal, TCP uses checksum (for error
detection), retransmission of lost or corrupted
packets, cumulative and selective
acknowledgments, and timers.
 TCP Services
• Process-to-Process Communication
– As with UDP, TCP provides process-to-process
communication using port numbers
• Stream Delivery Service
– allows the sending process to deliver data as a
stream of bytes and allows the receiving process to
obtain data as a stream of bytes
• Sending and Receiving Buffers
– Because the sending and the receiving processes
may not necessarily write or read data at the
same rate, TCP needs buffers for storage. There
are two buffers, the sending buffer and the
receiving buffer, one for each direction.
– One way to implement a buffer is to use a
circular array of 1-byte locations as shown in
Figure
Sending and receiving buffers
 TCP Segment
• At the transport layer, TCP groups a number
of bytes together into a packet called a
segment.
• TCP adds a header to each segment (for
control purposes) and delivers the segment
to the network layer for transmission.
• The segments are encapsulated in an IP
datagram and transmitted.
TCP segments
• Connection-Oriented Service
– TCP, unlike UDP, is a connection-oriented protocol. When
a process at site A wants to send to and receive data
from another process at site B, the following three
phases occur:
1. The two TCP’s establish a logical connection between
them.
2. Data are exchanged in both directions.
3. The connection is terminated.
• Full-Duplex Communication
– TCP offers full-duplex service, where data can
flow in both directions at the same time.
• Multiplexing and Demultiplexing
– Like UDP, TCP performs multiplexing at the sender
and demultiplexing at the receiver.
• Reliable Service
– TCP is a reliable transport protocol. It uses an
acknowledgment mechanism to check the safe
and sound arrival of data.
 Numbering System
• Sequence Number
• After the bytes have been numbered, TCP assigns a
sequence number to each segment that is being
sent. The sequence number, in each direction, is
defined as follows:
1. The sequence number of the first segment is the
ISN (initial sequence number),which is a random
number between 0 and 232 − 1.
2. The sequence number of any other segment is the
sequence number of the previous segment plus the
number of bytes (real or imaginary) carried by the
Mitul Patel SECE3011-
previous segment. Computer Networks B.Tech-Sem5
 Example
• Suppose a TCP connection is transferring a
file of 5000 bytes. The first byte is numbered
10001.
• What are the sequence numbers for each
segment if data are sent in five segments,
each carrying 1000 bytes?
 Example

The following shows the sequence number for each

segment:
Note

The bytes of data being transferred in each

connection are numbered by TCP.
The numbering starts with a randomly
generated number.
 Acknowledgment Number
• The sequence number in each direction
shows the number of the first byte carried by
the segment.
• Each party also uses an acknowledgment
number to confirm the bytes it has received.
• However, the acknowledgment number
defines the number of the next byte that the
party expects to receive.
TCP segment format
Note

The value in the sequence number field of a

segment defines the
number of the first data byte
contained in that segment.
Note

The value of the acknowledgment field in a segment

defines
the number of the next byte a party expects to
receive.
Control field
Description of flags in the control field
 Urgent pointer
• This 16-bit field, which is valid only if the
urgent flag is set, is used when the segment
contains urgent data.
• It defines a value that must be added to the
sequence number to obtain the number of
the last urgent byte in the data section of the
segment.
 A TCP Connection
• In TCP, connection-oriented transmission
requires three phases:
– connection establishment
– data transfer, and
– connection termination.
 Connection Establishment
• The connection establishment in TCP is called
three-way handshaking. In our example, an
application program, called the client, wants
to make a connection with another
application program, called the server, using
TCP as the transport-layer protocol.
Connection establishment using three-way handshaking
Note

A SYN segment cannot carry data, but it

consumes one sequence number.
Note

A SYN + ACK segment cannot

carry data, but does consume one
sequence number.
Note

An ACK segment, if carrying no data,

consumes no sequence number.
 Data
Transfer

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Computer Networks B.Tech-Sem5
Connection termination using three-way handshaking
Note

The FIN segment consumes one sequence

number if it does
not carry data.
Note

The FIN + ACK segment consumes

one sequence number if it
does not carry data.
 Half-Close
• In TCP, one end can stop sending data while still receiving
data. This is called a halfclose
• It can occur when the server needs all the data before
processing can begin. A good example is sorting.
• The client sends data to the server to be sorted, the server
needs to receive all the data before sorting can start. This
means the client, after sending all data, can close the
connection in the client-to-server direction.
• However, the server-to-client direction must remain open to
return the sorted data. The server, after receiving the data,
still needs time for sorting; its outbound direction must
remain open
Half-close
 Summary
• UDP is an unreliable and connectionless
transport-layer protocol that creates a
process to process communication, which
means it requires little overhead and offers
fast delivery.
• The UDP packet is called a user datagram.
• UDP has no flow- or error-control
mechanism; its only attempt at error control
is the checksum
 Summary
• Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is
another transport-layer protocol in the
TCP/IP protocol suite.
• It provides process-to-process, full-duplex,
and connection oriented service.
• A TCP connection consists of three phases:
connection establishment, data transfer, and
connection termination.
Exercise
Congestion Control
 Congestion Control Mechanisms

•Types:

•Open-loop Control:
Prevents congestion before it occurs.

•Closed-loop Control:
Detects and resolves congestion when it occurs.
Open-Loop Congestion Control

• Open-loop control mechanisms work by designing the

system in a way that minimizes the chances of
congestion occurring. These mechanisms do not rely
on feedback from the network but instead use pre-
defined policies to regulate traffic.
• Common Open-Loop Congestion Control Techniques:
• Traffic Shaping: Limits the rate at which data is
transmitted (e.g., Leaky Bucket and Token Bucket
algorithms).
• Admission Control: Determines whether a new
connection request should be accepted based on
current network capacity.
Open-Loop Congestion Control

Resource Reservation: Allocates bandwidth and

buffer resources before data transmission begins.

Packet Discarding: Prevents excessive packet

buildup by discarding low-priority packets when
congestion is likely.
Closed-Loop Congestion Control

• Closed-loop congestion control is a method used

in network systems to detect congestion when it
occurs and take corrective actions to mitigate its
effects.
• Unlike open-loop control, which focuses on
prevention, closed-loop control monitors the
system in real-time and dynamically adjusts
network behavior to resolve congestion.
 Key Steps in Closed-Loop
Congestion Control
Congestion Detection: The system monitors
network performance using metrics like packet
loss, queue length, or delay.
Feedback Mechanism: Once congestion is
detected, feedback is sent to the sender or
network nodes to take corrective actions.
Congestion Resolution: The system applies control
techniques to reduce congestion, such as reducing
transmission rates or rerouting traffic.
 Closed-Loop Congestion Control
Techniques
▪ Backpressure: A technique used in virtual circuit networks
where a congested node signals upstream nodes to slow
down data transmission.
▪ Choke Packets: Special control packets sent by a
congested router to notify the sender to reduce the
transmission rate.
• Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN): A mechanism
where routers mark packets instead of dropping them to
indicate congestion.
▪ TCP Congestion Control: Uses algorithms like AIMD
(Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease), Slow Start,
Congestion Avoidance, and Fast Recovery to adjust the
sender’s transmission rate.
 Quality of Service (QoS)
▪ Quality of Service (QoS) refers to the ability of a
network to prioritize, manage, and optimize
traffic flow to meet performance requirements
for different applications. It ensures that latency,
bandwidth, packet loss, and jitter are controlled
to provide a better user experience, especially for
real-time applications like video calls, VoIP, and
online gaming.
 Quality of Service (QoS)
▪ Key QoS Parameters in the Transport Layer

The transport layer plays a crucial role in ensuring

QoS by managing end-to-end communication. The
key performance metrics include:
Bandwidth – The maximum data rate a network
connection can support.
Latency (Delay) – The time taken for a packet to
travel from source to destination.
Jitter – Variation in packet delay, which affects real-
time applications.
Packet Loss – The percentage of packets lost during
transmission, impacting data integrity.
Reliability – Ensuring data is delivered accurately and
in sequence.
 Quality of Service (QoS)
▪ How to Improve QoS at the Transport Layer?

1. Traffic Prioritization

Some transport protocols prioritize critical data

packets (e.g., VoIP packets over normal web traffic).
Solution: Use Differentiated Services (DiffServ)
and Integrated Services (IntServ) models to classify
and manage traffic priority.

2. Congestion Control Mechanisms

TCP Congestion Control: Helps manage network

congestion using Slow Start, Congestion
Avoidance, and Fast Recovery algorithms.
 Quality of Service (QoS)
▪ How to Improve QoS at the Transport Layer?

3. Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN): Allows

routers to inform senders about congestion without
dropping packets.

4. Bandwidth Management & Traffic Shaping

• Leaky Bucket Algorithm: Controls data

transmission rate to avoid congestion.
• Token Bucket Algorithm: Ensures fair bandwidth
distribution and allows bursty traffic when
necessary.
 Quality of Service (QoS)
▪ How to Improve QoS at the Transport Layer?

5. Transport Layer Protocol Selection

• TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) provides

reliable delivery and congestion control but may
introduce delay.

• UDP (User Datagram Protocol) is faster but lacks

reliability. Used for real-time applications where
speed is critical.

• QUIC (Quick UDP Internet Connections)

enhances QoS by combining UDP’s speed with
TCP-like reliability while reducing latency.
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