Course : 20IT502-Data Communications and

Computer Networks
Module : Data Link Layer and Network Layer
Topic : 2.11 ARP, DHCP and ICMP
 21-1 ADDRESS MAPPING

The delivery of a packet to a host or a router requires

two levels of addressing: logical and physical. We need
to be able to map a logical address to its corresponding
physical address and vice versa. This can be done by
using either static or dynamic mapping.

Topics discussed in this section:

Mapping Logical to Physical Address
Mapping Physical to Logical Address

21.2
Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
■ It is a communication protocol used for
discovering the link layer address, such as a
MAC address, associated with a given internet
layer address, typically an IPv4 address.
■ Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is a protocol
or procedure that connects an ever-changing
Internet Protocol (IP) address to a fixed physical
machine address, also known as a media
access control (MAC) address
 ■ It is a network protocol used to find out the
hardware (MAC) address of a device from an IP
address.
■ The sending device uses ARP to translate IP
addresses to MAC addresses.
■ The device sends an ARP request message
containing the IP address of the receiving device.
■ Two part protocol:
■ Request from source asking for hardware
address
■ Reply from destination carrying hardware
address
21.4
 Figure 21.1 ARP operation

21.5
 Figure 21.2 ARP packet

21.6
 Figure 21.3 Encapsulation of ARP packet

21.7
 Figure 21.4 Four cases using ARP

21.8
 Note

An ARP request is broadcast;

an ARP reply is unicast.

21.9
 Example
21.1
A host with IP address 130.23.43.20 and physical address
B2:34:55:10:22:10 has a packet to send to another host
with IP address 130.23.43.25 and physical address
A4:6E:F4:59:83:AB. The two hosts are on the same
Ethernet network. Show the ARP request and reply
packets encapsulated in Ethernet frames.

Solution
Figure 21.5 shows the ARP request and reply packets.
Note that the ARP data field in this case is 28 bytes, and
that the individual addresses do not fit in the 4-byte
boundary. That is why we do not show the regular 4-byte
boundaries for these addresses.
21.10
 Figure 21.5 Example 21.1, an ARP request and reply

21.11
 Figure 21.6 Proxy ARP

21.12
 DHCP
■ It is a method for assigning Internet Protocol
(IP) addresses permanently or to individual
computers in an organization’s network
■ DHCP lets a network administrator supervise
and distribute IP addresses from a central
point and automatically sends a new IP
address when a computer is plugged into a
different place in the network
■ Configuration parameters for network hosts
✔IP address , Router, Subnet Mask , Others

21.13
 DHCP provides static and dynamic
address allocation that can be
manual or automatic.

▪ Static
❖Is a number that is assigned to a computer by an
Internet service provider (ISP) to be its permanent
address on the Internet
✔Dynamic
❖The temporary IP address is called a dynamic IP
address

21.14
Why is DHCP Important?

■ Important when it comes to adding a machine

to a network
■ When computer requests an address, the
administrator would have to manually
configure the machine
✔ Mistakes are easily made
✔ Causes difficulty for both administrator as well as
neighbors on the network
■ DHCP solves all the hassle of manually adding
a machine to a network
How does DHCP work?

■ When a client needs to start up TCP/IP operations, it

broadcasts a request for address information

■ The DHCP server will not reallocate the address

during the lease period and will attempt to return the
same address every time the client requests an
address

■ The client can extend its lease or send a message to

the server before the lease expires it that it no longer
needs the address so it can be released and assigned
to another client on the network
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol - DHCP
▪ Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol is a protocol for assigning
dynamic IP addresses to devices on a network.
DHCP
223.1.1.0/24
server
223.1.1.1 223.1.2.1

223.1.1.2 arriving DHCP

223.1.1.4 223.1.2.9
client needs
address in
223.1.3.27
223.1.2.2 this
223.1.1.3
network
223.1.2.0/24

223.1.3.1 223.1.3.2

223.1.3.0/24
17
DHCP Client Server Interaction
DHCP server: 223.1.2.5 DHCP discover arriving
client
src : 0.0.0.0, 68
Broadcast: is there a
dest.: 255.255.255.255,67
DHCPyiaddr:
server 0.0.0.0
out there?
transaction ID: 654

DHCP offer
src: 223.1.2.5, 67
Broadcast: I’m a DHCP
dest: 255.255.255.255, 68
server!
yiaddrr:Here’s an IP
223.1.2.4
transaction
address youID:can
654use
lifetime: 3600 secs
DHCP request
src: 0.0.0.0, 68
dest:: 255.255.255.255, 67
Broadcast: OK. I’ll take
yiaddrr: 223.1.2.4
that IP address!
transaction ID: 655
lifetime: 3600 secs

DHCP ACK
src: 223.1.2.5, 67
dest: 255.255.255.255,
Broadcast: 68
OK. You’ve
yiaddrr: 223.1.2.4
got that IPID:
transaction address!
655
lifetime: 3600 secs

18
Advantages of DHCP
▪  DHCP minimizes the administrative burden

▪ By using DHCP there is no chance to conflict IP address

▪ By using DHCP relay agent you provide IP address to

another network

19
Disadvantages of DHCP
▪ When DHCP server is unavailable, client is unable to
access enterprises network

▪ Your machine name does not change when you get a

new IP address

20
 21-2
ICMP
The IP protocol has no error-reporting or error-
correcting mechanism. The IP protocol also lacks a
mechanism for host and management queries. The
Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) has been
designed to compensate for the above two deficiencies.
It is a companion to the IP protocol.
Topics discussed in this section:
Types of Messages
Message Format
Error Reporting and Query
Debugging Tools

21.21
 ICMP Protocol
■ It is a classic example of a client server
application.
■ Part of the Internet protocol suite.
■ The ICMP server executes on all IP end
system computers and all IP intermediate
systems (i.e routers).
■ Protocol for the exchange of error messages
and other vital information between
Internet entities such as hosts and routers.

21.22
■ The protocol is used to report problems with
delivery of IP datagrams within an IP network.
■ when a particular End system is not responding
■ when an IP network is not reachable
■ when a node is overloaded
■ when error occurs in IP header information, etc.
❑The protocol is also frequently used by Internet
managers to
❑ verify correct operations of End Systems and
❑ to check that routers are correctly routing packets to
the specified destinations.

21.23
 Figure 21.8 General format of ICMP
messages

21.24
 Code Definition
0 Net Unreachable
1 Host Unreachable
2 Protocol Unreachable
3 Port Unreachable
4 Fragmentation needed & Don’t Fragment was set
5 Source Route failed
6 Destination Network Unknown
7 Destination Host Unknown
8 Source Host Isolated
9 Communication Destination Network is Administratively
Prohibited
10 Communication Destination Host is Administratively
Prohibited
11 Destination Network Unreachable for Type of Service
12 Destination Host Unreachable for Type of Service
13 Communication Administratively Prohibited
14 Host Precedence Violation
15 Precedence Cutoff Violation
21.25
 ■ ICMP functions
■ Announce network errors: such as a host or
entire portion of the network being
unreachable, due to some type of failure.
■ Announce network congestion: When a router
begins buffering too many packets, due to an
inability to transmit them as fast as they are
being received, it will generate ICMP Source
Quench messages. Directed at the sender,
these messages should cause the rate of
packet transmission to be slowed.

21.26
 ■ Assist Troubleshooting: ICMP supports an Echo
function, which just sends a packet on a round--
trip between two hosts. Ping, a common network
management tool, is based on this feature. Ping
will transmit a series of packets, measuring
average round-- trip times and computing loss
percentages.
■ Announce Timeouts: If an IP packet's TTL field
drops to zero, the router discarding the packet will
often generate an ICMP packet announcing this
fact. TraceRoute is a tool which maps network
routes by sending packets with small TTL values
and watching the ICMP timeout announcements.

21.27
 ICMP Applications
■ There are two simple and widely used applications which
are based on ICMP:
■ Ping
■ The ping utility checks whether a host is alive &
reachable or not. This is done by sending an ICMP
Echo Request packet to the host, and waiting for
an ICMP Echo Reply from the host
■ Traceroute.
■ Trace route is a utility that records the route
through the Internet between your computer and a
specified destination computer. It also calculates
and displays the amount of time each hop took

21.28
 Figure 21.9 Error-reporting
messages

21.29
 Note

Important points about ICMP error messages:

❏ No ICMP error message will be generated in
response to a datagram carrying an ICMP error
message.
❏ No ICMP error message will be generated for a
fragmented datagram that is not the first fragment.
❏ No ICMP error message will be generated for a
datagram having a multicast address.
❏ No ICMP error message will be generated for a
datagram having a special address such as
127.0.0.0 or 0.0.0.0.

21.30
 Figure 21.10 Contents of data field for the error
messages

21.31
 Figure 21.12 Query
messages

21.32