Byte

Ordering
UNIT - 2
BYTE ORDERING
• An arrangement of bytes when data is transmitted over
the network is called byte ordering.
• Different computers will use different byte ordering.
• When communication taking place between two machines
byte ordering should not make discomfort.
• Generally an Internet protocol will specify a common form
to allow different machines byte ordering. TCP/IP is the
Internet Protocol in use.
• Two ways to store bytes : Big endian and little endian
Big-endian
• High order byte is stored on starting address and low
order byte is stored on next address
Little-endian
• Low order byte is stored on starting address and high
order byte is stored on next address
Byte ordering functions
• Special functions are applied through routines to convert host’s
internal byte order representation to network byte order.
unsigned short htons()
• This function converts 16-bit (2-byte) data from host byte order to
network byte order.
unsigned long htonl()
• This function converts 32-bit (4-byte) data from host byte order to
network byte order.
unsigned short ntohs()
• This function converts 16-bit (2-byte) data from network byte order to
Byte Ordering Functions host byte order.
unsigned long ntohl()
• This function converts 32-bit (4- byte) data from network byte order to
host byte order.
SYSTEM CALLS & SOCKETS
System calls
• System Calls – An interface between process and operating systems.

It provides
• The services of the operating system to the user programs via Application Program
Interface(API).
• An interface to allow user-level processes to request services of the operating system.
• System calls are the only entry points into the kernel system.
SYSTEM CALLS & SOCKETS
Sockets
• Socket is an interface between applications and the network
services provided by operating systems.
APPLICATION

SOCKET – APPICATION INTERFACE(API)

• Applications use sockets to send and receive the data.
TCP/IPV4, TCP/IPV6, UNIX

• Socket provides IP address and port address

Socket Descriptors
To perform file I/O, file descriptor is used.

To perform network I/O, socket descriptor is used

Each active socket is identified by its socket descriptor.

The data type of a socket descriptor is SOCKET.

Hack into the header file winsock2.h:

typedef u_int SOCKET; /* u_int is defined as unsigned int */

In UNIX systems, socket is just a special file, and socket descriptors are kept in the file descriptor table.

The Windows operating system keeps a separate table of socket descriptors (named socket descriptor table, or
SDT) for each process.
Socket creation

• The socket API contains a function socket() that can be called to create a socket.
Types of Sockets
Under protocol family AF_INET
○ Stream socket
■ Uses TCP for connection-oriented reliable communication
■ Identified by SOCK_STREAM
■ s = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0) ;

○ Datagram socket
■ Uses UDP for connectionless communication
■ Identified by SOCK_DGRAM
■ s = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, 0) ;

○ RAW socket
■ Uses IP directly
■ Identified by SOCK_RAW
System Data Structures for Sockets
● When an application process calls socket(), the operating system allocates a
new data structure to hold the information needed for communication, and
fills in a new entry in the process’s socket descriptor table (SDT) with a pointer
to the data structure.

● A process may use multiple sockets at the same time. The socket descriptor
table is used to manage the sockets for this process.

● Different processes use different SDTs.

Data Structure for Sockets

● The internal data structure for a socket contains many fields, but the system
leaves most of them unfilled. The application must make additional procedure
calls to fill in the socket data structure before the socket can be used.

● The socket is used for data communication between two processes (which may
locate at different machines). So the socket data structure should at least contain
the address information, e.g., IP addresses, port numbers, etc.
Functions used in client program

• socket()- create the socket descriptor

• connect()- connect to the remote server

• read(),write()- communicate with the server

• close()- end communication by closing socket descriptor

Socket()
• int socket(int domain, int type, int protocol)
• Returns a descriptor (or handle) for the socket
Domain
• protocol family PF_INET for the Internet
Type
• semantics of the communication
• SOCK_STREAM: Connection oriented
• SOCK_DGRAM: Connectionless
Protocol
• specific protocol UNSPEC: unspecified (PF_INET and SOCK_STREAM already implies TCP)
E.g., TCP: sd = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
E.g., UDP: sd = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, 0);
Connect()

• int connect(int sockfd, struct sockaddr *server_address, socketlen_t addrlen)

Arguments
• socket descriptor, server address, and address size

• Remote address and port are in struct sockaddr

• Returns 0 on success, and -1 if an error occurs

Read(), Write() and Close()
Sending data
• write(int sockfd, void *buf, size_t len)
• Arguments: socket descriptor, pointer to buffer of data, and length of the buffer
• Returns the number of characters written, and -1 on error

Receiving data
• read(int sockfd, void *buf, size_t len)
• Arguments: socket descriptor, pointer to buffer to place the data, size of the buffer
• Returns the number of characters read (where 0 implies “end of file”), and -1 on error

Closing the socket

• int close(int sockfd)
Functions used in server program
• socket()- create the socket descriptor
• bind()- associate the local address
• listen()- wait for incoming connections from clients
• accept()- accept incoming connection
• read(),write()- communicate with client
• close()- close the socket descriptor
Bind()

• Bind socket to the local address and port

• int bind (int sockfd, struct sockaddr *my_addr, socklen_t addrlen)

• Arguments: socket descriptor, server address, address length.

• Returns 0 on success, and -1 if an error occurs.

Listen()

•Define the number of pending connections

• int listen(int sockfd, int backlog)

• Arguments: socket descriptor and acceptable backlog

• Returns 0 on success, and -1 on error

Accept()
•int accept(int sockfd, struct sockaddr *addr, socketlen_t *addrlen)
•Arguments: socket descriptor, structure that will provide client address and port, and length of the
structure.
•Returns descriptor for a new socket for this connection

•What happens if no clients are around?

• The accept() call blocks waiting for a client
•What happens if too many clients are around?
• Some connection requests don’t get through
• But, that’s okay, because the Internet makes no promises
RPC – REMOTE PROCEDURE CALL
● A remote procedure call is an interprocess communication technique that
is used for client-server based applications. It is also known as a
subroutine call or a function call.

● RPC allows programs to call the procedure which is located on the other
machines.

● Message passing is not visible to the programmer , so it is called as

Remote Procedure call (RPC).

● RPC enables a procedure call that does not reside in the address space of
the calling process.

● In RPC, the caller and the callee has disjoint address space, hence there is
no access to data and variables in the callers environment.

● RPC performs a message passing scheme for information exchange

between the caller and the callee process.
RPC Model(Remote Procedure Call)

● A client has a request message that the RPC translates and sends to the server.

● This request may be a procedure or a function call to a remote server.

● When the server receives the request, it sends the required response back to the client.

● The client is blocked while the server is processing the call and only resumed execution
after the server is finished.
Client Server RPC Model
Sequence of events in a RPC
● The client stub is called by the client.

● The client stub makes a system call to send the message to the
server and puts the parameters in the message.

● The message is sent from the client to the server by the client’s
operating system.

● The message is passed to the server stub by the server operating

system.

● The parameters are removed from the message by the server stub.

● Then, the server procedure is called by the server stub.

RPC Features
● Remote procedure calls support process oriented and thread oriented models.

● The internal message passing mechanism of RPC is hidden from the user.

● The effort to re-write and re-develop the code is minimum in remote procedure calls.

● Remote procedure calls can be used in distributed environment as well as the local environment.

● Many of the protocol layers are omitted by RPC to improve performance.

● Ease of use, efficiency.

TCP CLIENT –SERVER Communication
Communication Using TCP
Accept function
• This function is a blocking function; when it is called, it is
blocked until the TCP receives a connection request (SYN
segment) from a client.
• The accept function then is unblocked and creates a new
socket called the connect socket that includes the socket
address of the client that sent the SYN segment.
• After the accept function is unblocked, the server knows
that a client needs its service.
• To provide concurrency, the server process (parent
process) calls the fork function.
• This function creates a new process (child process), which
is exactly the same as the parent process.
• After calling the fork function, the two processes are
running concurrently, but each can do different things

Flow diagram for connection-oriented, concurrent

communication
Sequence of function for client-server communication
Steps to create a client using TCP/IP API
• Create a socket using the socket() function.
• Initialize the socket address structure as per the server and
connect the socket to the address of the server using the
connect();
• Receive and send the data using the recv() and send() function
• Close the connection by calling the close() function.
Steps to create a server using TCP/IP API
• Create a socket using the socket() function.
• Initialize the socket address structure and bind the socket to
an address using the bind() function.
• Listen for connections with the listen() function.
• Accept a connection with the accept() function system call.
This call typically blocks until a client connects to the server.
• Receive and send data by using the recv() and send() function.
• Close the connection by using the close() function.
TCP Package - Input, Output Processing Module

TCP Package
● TCP is a stream-service, connection-oriented
protocol with an involved state transition diagram.

● It uses flow and error control.

● It is so complex because actual code includes tens of

TCP package
thousands of lines.
Transmission Control Blocks (TCBs)
• TCP is a connection-oriented transport protocol.
• A connection may be open for a long period of time.
• To control the connection, TCP uses a structure to hold information
about each connection.

• This is called a transmission control block (TCB).

Fields in TCB
TCBs
✔ State Local window Buffer size
✔ Process Remote window Buffer pointer
✔ Local IP address Sending sequence number
✔ Local port number Receiving sequence number
✔ Remote IP address Sending ACK number
✔ Remote port number Round-trip time
✔ Interface Time-out values
TCP Package
Timers
• TCP needs to keep track of its operations.
• Three software modules
✔ Main module
✔ An input processing module
✔ An output processing module

Input Processing Module

• The Input processing module handles all the details which is required for the processing of data or an
acknowledgement received when TCP is in the ESTABLISHED STATE.

• This module sends an ACK if needed.

• Takes care of the window size

• Performs Error checking and so on.

TCP Package
Output Processing Module

• The output processing module handles all the details needed to send out data received from
application program when TCP is in the ESTABLISHED STATE.

• This module handles retransmission time-outs, persistent time-outs and so on.

UDP – USER DATAGRAM PROTOCOL
✔ Connectionless

✔ Unreliable transport protocol

✔ Located between application layer and network layer in the TCP/IP protocol suite

✔ Process to process communication using port numbers

Limitations of UDP
● There is no flow control mechanism.

● There is no acknowledgement for received packets.

● Does not provide error control to some extent.

 Why would a process want to use UDP when it is
powerless?

✔ It is simple protocol with minimum overhead.

✔ Application which use small messages to be sent without reliability in that case UDP is the best.

✔ For small messages less no. of interactions is required between sender and receiver for UDP compared
to TCP.
UDP Services
Process to Process communication
UDP provides process-to-process communication
using sockets, a combination of IP addresses and
port numbers. Several port numbers used by UDP.

Connectionless services

Each datagram is independent even it comes from same

source and delivered in same destination.

The datagrams are not numbered.

No connection establishments is done.

Well Known Ports used in UDP
Cannot send a stream of data to UDP, It will chop them into
different packets related user datagrams.
UDP Services
Flow control

• No Flow Control and no window mechanism.

• The receiver may overflow with incoming messages.

UDP should provide for this service, if needed.
Error Control
No Error control mechanism except for checksum.

Sender is unknown about the loss and duplication.

When error detects in receiver the datagram is discarded.

Congestion control

Does not provide congestion control and has an assumption that the packets are small and sporadic
so they cant create congestion.
UDP Services
Checksum
• Three sections: a pseudo header, the UDP header, and the
data coming from the application layer.

Pseudo header
▪ It is a part of the IP header

▪ Encapsulated with some fields with 0’s

▪ Protocol field to differentiate between UDP and TCP

▪ The value of the protocol field is 17. If it is changed then

the packet gets discarded at receiver end.

Pseudo header for checksum

calculation UDP header
Data
▪ communication from the application layer
UDP Services
Encapsulation and Decapsulation
Encapsulation

• A process send message through UDP

• Along with a pair of socket address and the length of data.
• UDP receives data and add UDP header then pass to IP with socket.
• IP add its own header using value 17 in protocol field.
• Indicating UDP protocol.
• The IP datagram is then passed to the data link layer.
• The data link layer receives the IP datagram and passes it to the physical layer.
• The physical layer encodes the bits into electrical or optical signals and sends it to the remote
machine.
Decapsulation

At the destination host

✔ The physical layer decodes
the signals and pass it to the
data link layer.
✔ The data link layer uses the
header (and the trailer) to
check the data.
If there is no error
✔ The header and trailer are dropped , datagram is passed to IP.
✔ The header is dropped and the user datagram is passed to UDP with the sender and receiver
IP addresses.
✔ Checksum is to check the entire user datagram.
✔ The header is dropped and the application data along with the sender socket address is
passed to the process.
✔ The sender socket address is passed to the process in case it needs to respond to the message
received.

Mrs.B.Ida Seraphim AP/CSE

 Queuing in UDP
• At the client site, when a process starts, it requests a port number
from the operating system. Some implementations create both an
incoming and an outgoing queue associated with each process.
Other implementations create only an incoming queue associated
with each process

• Process wants to communicate with multiple processes, it obtains

only one port number and eventually one outgoing and one
incoming queue. The queues opened by the client are, in most
cases, identified by ephemeral port numbers. The queues function
as long as the process is running. When the process terminates, the
queues are destroyed.
Queuing in UDP

• The client process can send messages to the outgoing queue by

using the source port number specified in the request

Mrs.B.Ida Seraphim AP/CSE

Queuing in UDP

The client process can send messages to the outgoing queue by using the source port number

specified in the request

UDP removes the messages one by one and, after adding the UDP header, delivers them to IP. An

outgoing queue can overflow

It happens the operating system can ask the client process to wait before sending any more

messages

Mrs.B.Ida Seraphim AP/CSE

Multiplexing & Demultiplexing
Multiplexing
✔ Many to one relationship.
✔ UDP accepts messages from different process and differentiate
by port numbers.
✔ Adds a header and then sends to the IP

Demultiplexing
✔ One to many relationship.
✔ UDP receives the user datagram from IP and drops the header
then sends the message to appropriate process based on port
numbers.
UDP Features

✔ Connectionless services

✔ Lack of error control

✔ Lack of congestion control

Connectionless service

✔ Preferable for small message which fits in a single datagram.

✔ The overhead to establish and close a connection may be significant whereas in TCP it takes
9 packets for exchanges between client and server to achieve the above goal.

✔ Provides less delay

Lack of error control

▪ UDP does not provide error control.

▪ Provides unreliable service.

▪ In reliable service the transport layer needs to take care of the lost packet by resending it.
So there will be a uneven delay between different parts of the message delivered.
Lack of congestion control

▪ UDP does not provide congestion control.

▪ UDP does not provide additional traffic in error prone network.

▪ TCP leads to creation of congestion or additional congestion in network by resending packets several
times when a packet are lost.
UDP Applications
❑ Used for simple request response communication when size of data is less hence there
is lesser concern about flow and error control.

❑ It is suitable protocol for multicasting as UDP supports packet switching.

❑ Following implementations uses UDP as a transport layer protocol

✔ NTP (Network Time Protocol)
✔ DNS (Domain Name Service)
✔ BOOTP, DHCP.
✔ NNP (Network News Protocol)
✔ Quote of the day protocol
✔ TFTP, RTSP, RIP, OSPF.
✔ UDP is null protocol if you remove checksum field.
UDP CLIENT – SERVER AND PACKAGES
Server Processing using UDP
1. Create UDP socket.
2. Bind the socket to server address.
3. Wait until datagram packet arrives from client.
4. Process the datagram packet and send a reply to client.
5. Go back to Step 3.

Client Processing using UDP

1. Create UDP socket.
2. Send message to server.
3. Wait until response from server is received.
4. Process reply and go back to step 2, if necessary.
5. Close socket descriptor and exit.
UDP Package
The UDP package involves five components
Control-Block Table

UDP has a control-block table to keep track of the

open ports.

Each entry in this table has a minimum of

four fields: the state, which can be FREE or
IN-USE, the process ID, the port number,
and the corresponding queue number.

UDP design Input Queues

UDP package uses a set of input queues, one for

each process. In this design, we do not use output
queues.

Mrs.B.Ida Seraphim AP/CSE

UDP Package
Control-Block Module
The control-block module is responsible for the
management of the control-block table.

When a process starts, it asks for a port number

from the operating system.

The operating system assigns well- known port

numbers to servers and ephemeral port numbers to
clients.

The process passes the process ID and the port

number to the control-block module to create an
entry in the table for the process.

Mrs.B.Ida Seraphim AP/CSE

UDP Package
Input Module
The input module receives a user datagram from the IP.
It searches the control-block table to find an entry
having the same port number as this user datagram.

If the entry is found, the module uses the information in

the entry to enqueue the data. If the entry is not found, it
generates an ICMP message.

Mrs.B.Ida Seraphim AP/CSE

UDP Package

Output module
• The output module is responsible for creating and sending
user datagrams.

Mrs.B.Ida Seraphim AP/CSE

Example

Mrs.B.Ida Seraphim AP/CSE

Example

Mrs.B.Ida Seraphim AP/CSE

Example

Mrs.B.Ida Seraphim AP/CSE

Example

Mrs.B.Ida Seraphim AP/CSE

Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP)
SCTP is designed as a general-purpose transport layer protocol that can handle multimedia and
stream traffic, which are increasing every day on the Internet.

It is a new reliable, message-oriented transport-layer protocol.

Relationship of SCTP to the other protocols in the

Internet protocol suite
Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP)
Comparison between UDP, TCP, and SCTP

UDP TCP SCTP

Message - oriented
Byte-oriented protocol Best features of UDP and TCP
protocol
Preserves the message
UDP conserves the No preservation of the boundaries along with detection
message boundaries message boundaries of lost data, duplicate data, and
out-of-order data
SCTP is a reliable message
UDP is unreliable TCP is a reliable protocol
oriented Protocol
Lacks in congestion TCP has congestion control It has congestion control and flow
control and flow control and flow control control mechanisms
mechanisms

SCTP is a message-oriented, reliable protocol that combines the best features of UDP and TCP.
SCTP Services
Process-to-Process Communication
• SCTP uses all well-known ports in the TCP space

Some SCTP applications

Multiple Streams
• SCTP allows multi stream service in each connection called as
association

• If one of the streams is blocked, the other streams can still deliver
their data

Multiple-stream concept
SCTP Services Multihoming
• The sending and receiving host can define multiple IP addresses in
each end for an association.

• when one path fails, another interface can be used for data delivery
without interruption.

Multihoming concept • This fault-tolerant feature helps in sending and receiving a real-time
payload such as Internet telephony.

Full-Duplex Communication
• SCTP has sending and receiving buffer, hence packets are sent in both
directions.
SCTP Services
Connection-Oriented Service
• A connection is called an association in SCTP
• Steps to send and receive data in SCTP
1. The two SCTP’s establish an association between each other.
2. Data are exchanged in both directions.
3. The association is terminated.

Reliable Service
• It uses an acknowledgment mechanism to check the safe and sound arrival of data.
SCTP Services
Transmission Sequence Number (TSN)
• Unit of data in SCTP is called the data chunk.
• Data transfer in SCTP is controlled by numbering the data chunks.
• SCTP uses a TSN to number the data chunks with 32 bits long number which is randomly initialized
between 0 and 232− 1.
• Each data chunk carry their TSN in its header.

Stream Identifier (SI)

• Each stream in SCTP needs to be identified using a SI.
• Each data chunk carry SI in its header.
• when it arrives at the destination, it is placed in order in its stream.
• The SI is a 16-bit number starting from 0.
SCTP Services
Stream Sequence Number (SSN)
• When a data chunk arrives at the destination SCTP, it is delivered to
the appropriate stream in the proper order.
• In addition to an SI, SCTP defines a SSN in each data chunk in each
stream.

Packets
• Data are carried as data chunks, control information as control
Packet, data chunks, and streams chunks.
• Several control chunks and data chunks can be packed together in a
packet.
 SCTP Features
Comparison between a TCP segment and an SCTP packet

TCP segment SCTP packet

Control information is part of the header Control information is included in the
control chunks
Carry several data chunks, each can belong
Data is treated as one entity
to a
different stream
Options section exist separately Options are handled by defining new
chunk types
Mandatory part of header is 20 bytes General header is only 12 bytes
Checksum is 16 bits Checksum is 32 bits
Combination of IP and port
Verification tag is an association identifier
addresses define a connection
Includes one sequence number in the Includes several different data chunks
header
Control chunks never use a TSN, IS, or
Some segments carry control information
SSN number, they are used for data
chunks only
SCTP Features
Acknowledgment Number
• SCTP acknowledgment numbers are chunk-oriented refer to TSN
• Control information is carried by control chunks, which do not need a TSN
• Control chunks are acknowledged by another control chunk of the appropriate type

Flow Control
• SCTP implements flow control to avoid overwhelming receiver

Error Control
• TSN numbers and acknowledgment numbers are used for error control.

Congestion Control
• SCTP implements congestion control to determine how many data chunks can be injected into the
network
SCTP Features

Main Parts are

• General header
• Chunks – set of blocks

Types of chunks
• Control chunks - controls and maintains the association
• Data chunks - carries user data
SCTP packet format
SCTP Packet Format
General Header
• Defines the end points of each association to which the
packet belongs.
• Guarantees for a packet belongs to a particular association.
• Preserves the integrity of the contents of the packet.
There are four fields in the general header
• Source port address: 16-bit field defines the port number
of the sender process
• Destination port address: 16-bit field defines the port
General header number of the receiving process
• Verification tag: Number that matches a packet to an
association
• It serves as an identifier for the association
• Separate verification used for each direction in the
association.
• Checksum: 32-bit field contains a CRC-32 checksum
SCTP Packet Format
Chunks
• Control information or user data are carried
• First three fields are common to all chunks
• Type: 8-bit field define up to 256 types of chunks(few
have been defined, rest are reserved for future use)
• Flag: 8-bit field defines special flags that a particular
chunk may need.
• Length: 16-bit field defines the total size of the chunk, in
Types of Chunks bytes, including the type, flag, and length fields

• Information field depends on the type of chunk.

• SCTP requires the information section to be multiples of 4

Common layout of a chunk bytes
• If not, padding bytes (eight 0s) are added at the end of the
section
SCTP Packet Format
Data Chunk
• Carries the user data
• A packet may contain zero or more data chunks
• Common fields
• Type field has a value of 0
• Flag field has 5 reserved bits and 3 defined bits
• U - signals unordered data
• B - beginning bit of fragmented message
• E - end bit of fragmented message

• TSN - Sequence number initialized in an INIT chunk for one direction and in the
INIT ACK chunk for the opposite direction

• SI - all chunks of same stream in one direction have same stream identifier
DATA
chunk • Protocol identifier: 32-bit field used by the application program to define the
type of data which is ignored by SCTP

• User data: carries the actual user data

• No chunk can carry data belonging to more than one message
• A message can be spread over several data chunks
• Must have at least one byte of user data, can’t be empty
• If the data cannot end at a 32-bit boundary, padding must be added
SCTP Packet Format

INIT chunk
SCTP Packet Format
INIT ack(initiation acknowledgment chunk)
• Second chunk sent during association establishment

• Value of the verification tag is the value of the initiation tag of INIT
chunk.

• The parameter of type 7 defines the state cookie sent by the sender of
this chunk

INIT ACK
chunk • Initiation tag field in this chunk initiates the value of the
verification tag for future packets traveling from the opposite
direction.
SCTP Packet Format
Cookie echo
• Third chunk sent during association establishment that carry
user data too.
• Sent by the end point that receives an INIT ACK chunk.
COOKIE ECHO chunk • Chunk of type 10.

COOKIE ACK
• fourth and last chunk sent during association establishment
with data chunk too.
COOKIE ACK • sent by an end point that receives a COOKIE ECHO chunk.
• chunk of type 11.
SCTP Packet Format
SACK(selective ACK chunk)
• Acknowledges the receipt of data packets
• Common fields
• Type field has 3
• Flag bits are set to 0s
• Cumulative tsn acknowledgment: 32-bit field defines the tsn of the last data chunk
received in sequence
• Advertised receiver window credit: 32-bit field that have updated value for the
receiver window size
• Number of gap ACK blocks: 16-bit field defines the number of gaps in the data chunk
received after the cumulative
TSN
• Number of duplicates: 16-bit field defines the number of duplicate chunks following
the cumulative TSN
SACK chunk • Gap ACK block start offset: 16-bit field gives the starting TSN relative to the cumulative
TSN
• Gap ACK block end offset: 16-bit field gives the ending TSN relative to the cumulative
TSN
• Duplicate tsn: 32-bit field gives the tsn of the duplicate chunk.
SCTP Packet Format
HEARTBEAT and HEARTBEAT ACK
• First has a type of 4 and the second a type of 5
• Used to periodically probe the condition of an association
• An end point sends a HEARTBEAT chunk, peer responds HEARTBEAT ACK if it is
alive
• Parameter fields provide sender-specific information like address and local time
HEARTBEAT and HEARTBEAT ACK
chunks • Same is copied into the HEARTBEAT ACK chunk.

SHUTDOWN, SHUTDOWN ACK, and SHUTDOWN COMPLETE

• Used for closing an association
• Shutdown
• Type 7 is eight bytes in length
• Second four bytes define the cumulative TSN
• SHUTDOWN ACK: type 8 is four bytes in length.
• Shutdown complete
• Type 14 is 4 bytes long
• T flag is 1 bit flag shows that the sender does not have a TCB table
SHUTDOWN, SHUTDOWN ACK, and
SHUTDOWN COMPLETE chunks
SCTP Packet Format
ERROR
• Sent when an end point finds some error in a received packet.
• It does not imply the aborting of the association.

ABORT
• Sent when an end point finds a fatal error and needs to abort the
Errors association.

FORWARD TSN
ERROR chunk
• This is a chunk recently added to the standard to inform the
receiver to adjust its cumulative TSN

ABORT chunk
SCTP Client/Server(Association)
Association Establishment
• Four-way handshake
1. First packet has INIT chunk sent by client
• Verification tag is 0
• Rwnd is advertised in a SACK chunk
• Inclusion of a DATA chunk in the third and fourth
packets
2. Second packet has INIT ACK chunk sent by server
• Verification tag is the initial tag field in the INIT chunk
• Initiates the tag to be used in the other direction
• Defines the initial TSN and sets the servers’ rwnd
3. Third packet has COOKIE ECHO chunk sent by client
• Echoes the cookie sent by the server
Four-way handshaking • Data chunks are included in this packet
4. Fourth packet has COOKIE ACK chunk sent by server
• Acknowledges the receipt of the COOKIE ECHO chunk
• Data chunks are included with this packet.
SCTP Client/Server(Association)
Number of Packets Exchanged
• Number of packets exchanged is four(3 for TCP)
• Allows the exchange of data in the third and fourth packets, so it is efficient

Verification tag
• It is a common value carried in all packets traveling in one direction in an association
• Blind attacker cannot inject a random packet into an association
• A packet from an old association cannot show up in an incarnation

Cookie
• Cookie is sent with the second packet to the address received in the first packet
• If the sender of the first packet is an attacker, the server never receives the third packet
• If the sender of the first packet is an honest client, it receives the second packet, with the cookie
SCTP Client/Server(Association)
Data transfer
• Purpose of an association is to transfer data between two ends.

• Once association is established, bidirectional data transfer can

take place.

• SCTP supports piggybacking.

• Each message coming from the process is treated as one unit

and inserted into a DATA chunk.

Simple data transfer

• Each DATA chunk formed by a message or a fragment has one
TSN and acknowledged by SACK chunks.
SCTP Client/Server(Association)
Multihoming Data Transfer
• Allows both ends to define multiple IP addresses for communication.
• One address is primary address, rest are alternative addresses.
• The primary address is defined during association establishment.
• Primary address of the destination is used by default for data transfer, if it is not available, one of the
alternative addresses is used.
• SACK is sent to the address from which the corresponding SCTP packet originated.

Multistream delivery
• TSN numbers are used to handle data transfer whereas delivery of the data chunks are controlled by SIs
and SSNs.
• Two types of data delivery in each stream
• Ordered: SSNs define the order of data chunks in the stream.
• Unordered: U flag is set, it delivers the message carrying the chunk to the
destination application without waiting for the other messages.
SCTP Client/Server(Association)
Fragmentation
• SCTP preserves the boundaries of the message when creating DATA chunk from a message

• If the total size exceeds the MTU, the message needs to be fragmented

• Steps for fragmentation

• Message is broken into smaller fragments to meet the size requirement
• DATA chunk header is added to each fragment that carries a different TSN
• All header chunks carry the same SI, SSN, payload protocol identifier and U flag
• B and E are assigned as
A. First fragment: 10
B. Middle fragments: 00
C. Last fragment: 01

• Fragments are reassembled at the destination

SCTP Client/Server(Association)
Association Termination (Graceful termination)
• Either client or server involved in exchanging data can
close the connection

• SCTP does not allow a “half closed” association, i.e. if one

end closes the association, the other end must stop
sending new data

• If not, the data in the queue are sent and the association
is closed
Association termination

• Association termination uses three packets

• SHUTDOWN
• SHUTDOWN ACK
• SHUTDOWN COMPLETE
SCTP Client/Server(Association)
Association abortion
• Association in SCTP can be aborted based on request by the process at
either end or by SCTP

• A process may wish to abort the association if the process receives

wrong data from the other end, going into an infinite loop etc.

• Server may wish to abort since it has received an INIT chunk with
Association abortion
wrong parameters, requested resources are not available after
receiving the cookie, the operating system needs to shut down etc.

• For abortion process either end can send an abort chunk to abort the
association