COS 461: Computer Networks

Jennifer Rexford
Princeton University

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Goals for Today’s Class
• COS 461 overview
– Goals of the course
– Structure of the course
– Learning the material
– Programming assignments
– Course grading
– Academic policies

• Key concepts in data networking

– Protocols
– Layering
– Resource allocation
– Naming
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What You Learn in This Course
• Skill: network programming
– Socket programming
– Designing and implementing protocols

• Knowledge: how the Internet works

– IP protocol suite
– Internet architecture
– Applications (Web, e-mail, P2P, VoIP, …)

• Insight: key concepts in networking

– Protocols
– Layering
– Resource allocation
– Naming 3
Structure of the Course (1st Half)
• Start at the top
– Sockets: how applications view the Internet
– Protocols: essential elements of a protocol

• Then study the “narrow waist” of IP

– IP best-effort packet-delivery service
– IP addressing and packet forwarding

• And how to build on top of the narrow waist

– Transport protocols (TCP, UDP)
– Domain Name System (DNS)
– Glue (ARP, DHCP, ICMP)
– End-system security and privacy (NAT, firewalls)

• Looking underneath IP
– Link technologies (Ethernet, wireless, …)
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Structure of the Course (2nd Half)
• And how to get the traffic from here to there
– Internet routing architecture (the “inter” in Internet)
– Intradomain and interdomain routing protocols

• Building applications
– Web and content-distribution networks
– E-mail
– Peer-to-peer file sharing
– Multimedia streaming and voice-over-IP

• Other approaching to building networks

– Circuit switching (e.g., ATM, MPLS, …)
– More on wireless networks, multicast, …
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Programming Assignments
• Stanford Virtual Network System
– Constructs virtual network topologies that integrate
directly into physical networks
– Traffic forwarded to your program, running in user space
– http://yuba.stanford.edu/vns/

• Sequence of three assignments

– File-transfer directory copy
– IP router
– Reliable transport protocol

• Some written questions in each assignment

– Based on material from lecture and the reading
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Policies: Write Your Own Code
Programming in an individual creative process much like
composition. You must reach your own understanding of
the problem and discover a path to its solution. During this
time, discussions with friends are encouraged. However,
when the time comes to write code that solves the problem,
such discussions are no longer appropriate - the program
must be your own work.
If you have a question about how to use some feature of C,
UNIX, etc., you can certainly ask your friends or the TA,
but do not, under any circumstances, copy another
person's program. Letting someone copy your program or
using someone else's code in any form is a violation of
academic regulations. "Using someone else's code"
includes using solutions or partial solutions to assignments
provided by commercial web sites, instructors, preceptors,
teaching assistants, friends, or students from any previous
offering of this course or any other course.
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Okay, so let’s get started… with a
crash course in data networking

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Key Concepts in Networking
• Protocols
– Speaking the same language
– Syntax and semantics
• Layering
– Standing on the shoulders of giants
– A key to managing complexity
• Resource allocation
– Dividing scare resources among competing parties
– Memory, link bandwidth, wireless spectrum, paths, …
– Distributed vs. centralized algorithms
• Naming
– What to call computers, services, protocols, …
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Protocols: Calendar Service
• Making an appointment with your advisor

Please
Pleasemeet with me for
Please meet
meet with
with me
me for
for
1.5
1.5hours starting at
1.5 hours
hours starting
starting atat
1:30pm
3:00pmon February 8, 2006?
4:30pm on
on February
February 8,
8, 2006?
2006?

I can’t.
I can’t.
Yes!

• Specifying the messages that go back and forth

– And an understanding of what each party is doing 10
Okay, So This is Getting Tedious
• You: When are you free to meet for 1.5 hours
during the next two weeks?
• Advisor: 10:30am on Feb 8 and 1:15pm on Feb 9.
• You: Book me for 1.5 hours at 10:30am on Feb 8.
• Advisor: Yes.

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Well, Not Quite Enough
• Student #1: When can you meet for 1.5 hours during the
next two weeks?
• Advisor: 10:30am on Feb 8 and 1:15pm on Feb 9.
• Student #2: When can you meet for 1.5 hours during the
next two weeks?
• Advisor: 10:30am on Feb 8 and 1:15pm on Feb 9.
• Student #1: Book me for 1.5 hours at 10:30am on Feb 8.
• Advisor: Yes.
• Student #2: Book me for 1.5 hours at 10:30am on Feb 8.
• Advisor: Uh… well… I can no longer can meet then. I’m
free at 1:15pm on Feb 9.
• Student #2: Book me for 1.5 hours at 1:15pm on Feb 9.
• Advisor: Yes. 12
Specifying the Details
• How to identify yourself?
– Name? Social security number?
• How to represent dates and time?
– Time, day, month, year? In what time zone?
– Number of seconds since Jan 1, 1970?
• What granularities of times to use?
– Any possible start time and meeting duration?
– Multiples of five minutes?
• How to represent the messages?
– Strings? Record with name, start time, and duration?
• What do you do if you don’t get a response?
– Ask again? Reply again? 13
Example: HyperText Transfer Protocol

GET /courses/archive/spring06/cos461/ HTTP/1.1

Host: www.cs.princeton.edu
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.03 Request
CRLF

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 13:09:03 GMT
Server: Netscape-Enterprise/3.5.1
Last-Modified: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 11:12:23 GMT
Response Content-Length: 21
CRLF
Site under construction
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Example: IP Packet

4-bit
4-bit Header 8-bit Type of 16-bit Total Length (Bytes)
Version Length Service (TOS)

3-bit
16-bit Identification 13-bit Fragment Offset
Flags

8-bit Time to 8-bit Protocol 16-bit Header Checksum 20-byte

Live (TTL) header

32-bit Source IP Address

32-bit Destination IP Address

Options (if any)

Payload
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 IP: Best-Effort Packet Delivery
• Packet switching
– Send data in packets
– Header with source & destination address

• Best-effort delivery
– Packets may be lost
– Packets may be corrupted
– Packets may be delivered out of order

source destination

IP network
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Example: Transmission Control Protocol
• Communication service (socket)
– Ordered, reliable byte stream
– Simultaneous transmission in both directions

• Key mechanisms at end hosts

– Retransmit lost and corrupted packets
– Discard duplicate packets and put packets in order
– Flow control to avoid overloading the receiver buffer
– Congestion control to adapt sending rate to network load
TCP connection

source network destination 17

Protocol Standardization
• Communicating hosts speaking the same protocol
– Standardization to enable multiple implementations
– Or, the same folks have to write all the software

• Standardization: Internet Engineering Task Force

– Based on working groups that focus on specific issues
– Produces “Request For Comments” (RFCs)
 Promoted to standards via rough consensus and running code
 E.g., RFC 959 on “File Transfer Protocol” for Assignment #1
– IETF Web site is http://www.ietf.org

• De facto standards: same folks writing the code

– P2P file sharing, Skype, <your protocol here>…
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Layering: A Modular Approach
• Sub-divide the problem
– Each layer relies on services from layer below
– Each layer exports services to layer above

• Interface between layers defines interaction

– Hides implementation details
– Layers can change without disturbing other layers

Application

Application-to-application channels
Host-to-host connectivity
Link hardware
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IP Suite: End Hosts vs. Routers
host host

HTTP message
HTTP HTTP

TCP segment
TCP TCP

router router

IP packet IP packet IP packet

IP IP IP IP

Ethernet Ethernet SONET SONET Ethernet Ethernet

interface interface interface interface interface interface

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The Internet Protocol Suite

FTP HTTP NV TFTP Applications

TCP UDP UDP TCP

Waist
IP
Data Link
NET1 NET2 … NETn
Physical

The Hourglass Model

The waist facilitates interoperability

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Layer Encapsulation

User A User B

Get index.html

Connection ID

Source/Destination

Link Address

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What if the Data Doesn’t Fit?
Problem: Packet size

• On Ethernet, max IP packet is 1500 bytes

• Typical Web page is 10 kbytes

Solution: Split the data across multiple packets

ml x.ht inde GET

GET index.html

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Protocol Demultiplexing
• Multiple choices at each layer

FTP HTTP NV TFTP

TCP UDP
Network IP TCP/UDP
IP
Type Protocol Port
Field Field Number
NET1 NET2 … NETn

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Demultiplexing: Port Numbers
• Differentiate between multiple transfers
– Knowing source and destination host is not enough
– Need an id for each transfer between the hosts

• Specify a particular service running on a host

– E.g., HTTP server running on port 80
– E.g., FTP server running on port 21

HTTP transfers

FTP transfer
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Is Layering Harmful?
• Layer N may duplicate lower level functionality
– E.g., error recovery to retransmit lost data
• Layers may need same information
– E.g., timestamps, maximum transmission unit size
• Strict adherence to layering may hurt performance
– E.g., hiding details about what is really going on
• Some layers are not always cleanly separated
– Inter-layer dependencies for performance reasons
– Some dependencies in standards (header checksums)
• Headers start to get really big
– Sometimes more header bytes than actual content
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Resource Allocation: Queues

• Sharing access to limited resources

– E.g., a link with fixed service rate

• Simplest case: first-in-first out queue

– Serve packets in the order they arrive
– When busy, store arriving packets in a buffer
– Drop packets when the queue is full
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What if the Data gets Dropped?
Problem: Lost Data

GET index.html
Internet

Solution: Timeout and Retransmit

GET index.html
GET index.html
Internet
GET index.html

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What if the Data is Out of Order?
Problem: Out of Order

ml inde x.ht GET

GET x.htindeml

Solution: Add Sequence Numbers

ml 4 inde 2 x.ht 3 GET 1

GET index.html

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Resource Allocation: Congestion Control

• What if too many folks are sending data?

– Senders agree to slow down their sending rates
– … in response to their packets getting dropped

• The essence of TCP congestion control

– Key to preventing congestion collapse of the Internet

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Transmission Control Protocol
• Flow control: window-based
– Sender limits number of outstanding bytes (window size)
– Receiver window ensures data does not overflow receiver
• Congestion control: adapting to packet losses
– Congestion window tries to avoid overloading the network (increase
with successful delivery, decrease with loss)
– TCP connection starts with small initial congestion window
congestion window

congestion avoidance
slow start
time
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Naming: Domain Name System (DNS)
• Properties of DNS
– Hierarchical name space divided into zones
– Translation of names to/from IP addresses
– Distributed over a collection of DNS servers

• Client application
– Extract server name (e.g., from the URL)
– Invoke system call to trigger DNS resolver code
 E.g., gethostbyname() on “www.cs.princeton.edu”

• Server application
– Extract client IP address from socket
– Optionally invoke system call to translate into name
 E.g., gethostbyaddr() on “12.34.158.5”
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Domain Name System
unnamed root

com edu org ac uk zw arpa

generic domains country domains

in-
bar ac addr

west east cam 12

foo my usr 34
my.east.bar.edu usr.cam.ac.uk
56
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12.34.56.0/24
DNS Resolver and Local DNS Server
Root server

3
4
Application DNS cache
5
Top-level
DNS query
1 10 Local DNS 6 domain server
2
server
DNS resolver 7
DNS response 9
8
Second-level
domain server

Caching based on a time-to-live (TTL) assigned by the DNS server

responsible for the host name to reduce latency in DNS translation. 34
Conclusions
• Course objectives
– Network programming, how the Internet works, and key
concepts in networking

• Key concepts in networking

– Protocols, layers, resource allocation, and naming

• Next lecture: network programming

– Socket abstraction (important for assignment #1)
– Read Chapter 1 of the Peterson/Davie book
– Skim the online reference material on sockets
– (Re)familiarize yourself with C programming on “hats”

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