James F. Kurose & Keith W.

Ross
Computer Network
A Top-Down Approach

Chapter 2
Application Layer

Lecturer By: Hedayatullah ”Adel”

Application Layer
 The application layer is the topmost layer in the OSI
(Open Systems Interconnection) model and the TCP/IP
protocol stack. It is responsible for providing network
services directly to end-users and applications. This layer
interacts with software applications to provide
communication services.
Section 1. Principle of Network Application
 The principles of network applications encompass the
fundamental concepts and guidelines that govern the
design, development, and operation of software
applications that communicate over computer networks.
 At the core of network application development is writing
programs that run on different end systems and
communicate with each other over the network.
Cont.
 For example, in the Web application there are two
distinct programs that communicate with each other:
 browser program running in the user’s host (Desktop, Laptop)
 Web server program running in the Web server host.
 when developing your new application, you need to
write software that will run on multiple end systems.
This software could be written, for example, in C, Java, or
Python.
Cont.
 We discuses the following steps in the principle of
Network Application.
 Network Application Architectures
 Processing Communicating
 Transport Services Available to Applications
 Transport Services Provided by the Internet
 Application Layer Protocols
Network Application Architectures
 Network application architectures define the structure, design, and
components of software applications that communicate over
computer networks.
 There is a difference between network architecture and application
architecture.
 The predominant architectural paradigms are:
 Client-Server Architecture
 Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Architecture
• In the client-server architecture:
• An always-on host with fixed IP address which responding to client's requests.
• There is no way to make two clients talk to each other.
• In P2P architecture:
• There is not reliance on a dedicated server.
• The users share the content in a highly decentralized network
Processes Communicating
 Processes on two different end systems communicate
with each other by exchanging messages across the
computer network.
 processes communicating with each other reside in the
application layer of the five-layer protocol stack.
Client and Server Processes
 we typically label one of the two processes as the client
and the other process as the server. With the Web, a
browser is a client process and a Web server is a server
process. With P2P file sharing, the peer that is
downloading the file is labeled as the client, and the peer
that is uploading the file is labeled as the server.
The Interface Between the Process and the
Computer Network
• A socket is the interface between the application layer
and the transport layer within a host.
• The only control that the application developer has on the
transport- layer side is:
• the choice of transport protocol
• perhaps the ability to fix a few transport-layer parameters such
as maximum buffer and maximum segment sizes.
Cont.
• Application processes, sockets, and underlying transport
protocol.
Addressing Processes
• To identify the receiving process, two pieces of
information need to be specified:
• the address of the host
• an identifier that specifies the receiving process in the
destination host.
Transport Services Available to Applications
 The transport-layer protocol provides services that can be
categorized into:
 reliable data transfer
 throughput
 timing
 Security
Transport Services Provided by the Internet
 The Internet (TCP/IP networks) makes two transport
protocols available to applications, UDP and TCP.
 Each of these protocols offers a different set of services
to the invoking applications.
 The TCP service model includes a connection-oriented
service and a reliable data transfer service.
 It also has a congestion-control mechanism.
 UDP is a lightweight transport protocol, connectionless.
 It provides unreliable data transfer service.
Section 2. Application-Layer Protocols
• An application-layer protocol defines how an application’s
processes, running on different end systems, pass
messages to each other. In particular, an application-
layer protocol defines:
 The types of messages exchanged
 The syntax of the various message types
 The semantics of the fields
 Rules for determining when and how a process sends messages
and responds to messages
The Web and HTTP
 The Web: in the early 1990s, a major new application
arrived on the scene—the World Wide Web
 The Web was the first Internet application that caught the
general public’s eye.
 The Web was the first Internet application that caught the
general public’s eye. It dramatically changed, and
continues to change, how people interact inside and
outside their work environments.
HTTP
 1989-1991
 The Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the Web's
application-layer protocol, is at the heart of the Web.
 It is implemented in client and server program.
 End-Systems talk to each other using HTTP messages.
 A Web page consists of objects.
 An object is a file like: HTML file, JPEG file, etc.
 The object is addressable by a single URL.
 The URL consists of a hostname and the object's path.
 Web browsers implement the HTTP client.
 Web servers implement the HTTP server like Apache.
Cont.
 HTTP uses TCP as its underlying transport protocol.
 HTTP need not worry about lost data or the details of how TCP
recovers from loss or reordering of data within the network.
 HTTP is a stateless protocol as it doesn't maintain
information about the client.
 The Web uses the client-server architecture.
 HTTP request-response behavior
Non-Persistent and Persistent Connections
 HTTP clients and servers can be configured to use non-
persistent connections instead.
 Persistent HTTP uses one TCP connection while the non-
persistent uses sperate connection for each request.
HTTP with Non-Persistent Connections
 There can be at most one object that can be sent over a
single TCP connection
 In the non-persistent, users can configure some browsers
to control the degree of parallelism.
 Browsers may open multiple TCP connections and request
different parts of the web page over the multiple connections.
 Round-trip time (RTT) is the time it takes for a small
packet to travel from client to server and then back to the
client.
 It includes packet-propagation delays, packet-queuing delays,
and packet-processing delays.
Cont.
 Non-persistent
connections has
two shortcomings:
 A new connection
is maintained for
each requested
object.
 Each object suffers
a delivery delay of
2 RTTs.
HTTP with Persistent Connections

 In HTTP Persistent Connections, multiple objects can be

sent over a single TCP Connection.
HTTP Message Format

 There are two types of HTTP messages.

 Request messages.
 Response messages.
HTTP Request Message
 An HTTP request message is a format used by a client to
request data from a web server. It consists of a request
line that specifies the HTTP method (such as GET, POST,
PUT, DELETE), the resource (URL) to which the request is
being made, and the HTTP version being used.
Additionally, it includes headers that provide additional
information about the request (like the type of content
being sent or accepted) and an optional body that can
contain data, such as form parameters or a payload for
POST requests.
 GET /somedir/page.html HTTP/1.1
 Host: www.someschool.edu
 Connection: close
HTTP Response Message
 has three sections: an initial status line, six header lines,
and then the entity body.
 HTTP Response Message
 HTTP/1.1 200 OK
 Connection: clos
 Date: Tue, 09 Aug 2011 15:44:04 GMT
 Server: Apache/2.2.3 (CentOS)
 Last-Modified: Tue, 09 Aug 2011 15:11:03 GMT
 Content-Length: 6821
 Content-Type: text/html
Cookies
 Cookies are small pieces of data stored on the user's
device by the web browser while browsing a website.
 allow sites to keep track of users. Most major commercial
Web sites use cookies today.
 A socket is the interface between the application layer
and the transport layer within a host.
Cont.
• cookie technology has four components
 a cookie header line in the HTTP response message.
 a cookie header line in the HTTP request message.
 a cookie file kept on the user’s end system and managed by the
user’s browser.
 a back-end database at the Web site.
Web Caching
 A Web cache—also called a proxy server—is a network
entity that satisfies HTTP requests on the behalf of an
origin Web server.
 a web cache is a mechanism used to temporarily store
web documents such as HTML pages, images, and other
content. The primary purpose of a web cache is to reduce
latency, network traffic, and server load by serving
cached content to users instead of requesting the content
from the origin server every time.
Cont.
Section 3. File Transfer: FTP
 File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard network protocol
used for the transfer of files between a client and a server
on a computer network.
 It operates within the application layer of the OSI model
and provides a straightforward way to upload, download,
and manage files on a remote server.
 In a typical FTP session, the user is sitting in front of one host (the local
host) and wants to transfer files to or from a remote host.
 In order for the user to access the remote account, the user must
provide a user identification and a password.
Cont.
 HTTP and FTP are both file transfer protocols and have
many common characteristic.
 they both run on top of TCP
 the two application-layer protocols have some important
differences.
 The most striking difference is that FTP uses two parallel TCP
connections to transfer a file, a control connection and a data
connection
 HTTP, sends request and response header lines into the same
TCP connection.
FTP Commands and Replies
 The commands, from client to server, and replies, from
server to client, are sent across the control connection in
7-bit ASCII format. Thus, like HTTP commands, FTP
commands are readable by people.
 Some of the more common commands are given below:
 USER username: Used to send the user identification to the
server.
 PASS password: Used to send the user password to the server.
 LIST: Used to ask the server to send back a list of all the files in
the current remote directory.
 RETR filename: Used to retrieve (that is, get) a file from the
current directory of the remote host.
 STOR filename: Used to store (that is, put) a file into the
current directory of the remote host.
Electronic Mail in the Internet
 Electronic mail, commonly known as email, plays a
fundamental role in communication on the Internet.
 Email operates within the application layer of the Internet
protocol suite and allows users to send and receive
messages electronically.
Cont.
 E-Mail Components:
 User agent: Also known as an email client, it is the software
used by the user to compose, send, receive, and manage email
messages. Microsoft Outlook and Apple Mail are examples of
user agents for e-mail
 Mail Server: Responsible for routing and transferring email
messages between servers. Examples include Postfix, Send mail,
and Microsoft Exchange.
 SMTP: Receives incoming messages from the MTA and stores
them in the recipient's mailbox until they are retrieved by the
MUA.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
 SMTP is the principal application-layer protocol for
Internet electronic mail.
 It uses reliable data transfer service of TCP to transfer mail from
the sender’s mail server to the recipient’s mail server.
 SMTP transfers messages from senders’ mail servers to
the recipients’ mail servers.
 1982, SMTP is much older than HTTP.
Comparison with HTTP
 Both protocols are used to transfer files from one host to
another: HTTP transfers files from a Web server to a Web
client (typically a browser);
 SMTP transfers files from one mail server to another mail
server.
 SMTP operates over port 25.
 HTTP Operates over port 80.
 Involves the exchange of email messages between mail servers,
focusing on email delivery.
 Facilitates the transfer of web content (HTML pages, images,
scripts) between web servers and clients, enabling the browsing
of web pages.
Mail Access Protocols
 Mail Access Protocols are used to retrieve email
messages from a mail server to a client device.
 POP3 (Post Office Protocol Version 3)
 IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)
POP3 (Post Office Protocol Version 3)
 POP3 is one of the most widely used mail access
protocols.
 It allows an email client to download email messages
from a mail server to the local device.
 By default, POP3 downloads emails to the device and
typically deletes them from the server.
Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)
• IMAP is a more advanced mail access protocol compared
to POP.
• IMAP allows users to view emails stored on the server
without downloading them.
• It syncs the email client with the server, maintaining the
same mailbox structure across multiple devices.
• IMAP is suitable for users who access emails from
multiple devices.
Web-Based E-Mail
 Hotmail introduced Web-based access in the mid 1990s
 Web-based email, also known as webmail, refers to email
services that can be accessed via a web browser on any
device with an internet connection.
 Users can log in to their email accounts through a web
interface provided by the email service provider to send,
receive, and manage emails.
 Some popular web-based email services include Gmail,
Outlook.com, Yahoo Mail.
Section 4. DNS—The Internet’s Directory Service
 We human beings can be identified in many ways.
 For example,
 we can be identified by the names that appear on our birth
certificates.
 We can be identified by our social security numbers
 We can be identified by our driver’s license numbers
 Internet Host:
 One identifier for a host is its hostname.
 For Example: www.yahoo.com
 hosts are also identified by so-called IP addresses
 For Example: 192.168.0.1
con.t.
 The DNS is:
 a distributed database implemented in a hierarchy of DNS
servers
 an application-layer protocol that allows hosts to query the
distributed database
 The DNS protocol runs over UDP and uses port 53.
Services Provided by DNS
 Host aliasing: a complex hostname may have a more
simple alias and this converting process is provided by
the DNS.
 Mail server aliasing: the MX record permits a
company's mail server and Web server to have identical
(aliased) hostnames.
 Load distribution: DNS is used to perform load
distribution among replicated server
How DNS Works
 DNS is an Application Layer Protocol which is used
translate a hostname to an IP address.
 A centralized database in a single DNS server doesn't
scale. So, it is distributed by design.
A Distributed, Hierarchical Database
 In order to deal with the issue of scale, the DNS uses a
large number of servers, organized in a hierarchical
fashion and distributed around the world.
 No single DNS server has all of the mappings for all of
the hosts in the Internet.
 there are three classes of DNS server
1. Root DNS servers:
2. Top Level Domain (TLD) DNS Servers
3. Authoritative DNS servers
Portion of the hierarchy of DNS servers
 1. Root DNS servers:
 In the Internet there are 13 root DNS server (labeled A
through M), most of which are located in North America.
 For example, a.root-server.net, b.root-server.net, etc.
 Root servers are controlled by various organizations and
this control has been delegated to these organizations by
ICANN (Internet Assigned Names and Numbers).
 2. Top Level Domain (TLD) DNS Servers
 These domains are located one level below the root
domain. Names like af, us, uk, com, net, org, .... are the
top names. Today there are more than 800 domains on
the Internet. Top Level Domain will be divided into
different categories.
1. TLD General (.edu, .gov, .net, .com, .org...)
2. TLD affiliate countries (.af, .uk.,us...)
3. TLDs are specific brands (.microsoft, .linux...)
4. TLD Integrated Infrastructure (arpa.)
3.Authoritative DNS servers
 Authoritative DNS servers are the servers that store and
provide DNS information (such as IP addresses associated
with domain names) for a specific domain.
 They are the final authority on DNS information for a
given domain.
 Most universities and large companies implement and
maintain their own primary and secondary (backup)
authoritative DNS server.
local DNS server
 A local DNS server, also known as a caching DNS server
or a recursive DNS server, is a server that is typically set
up within a local network environment to handle DNS
queries from devices within that network.
 These servers help improve network performance,
security, and privacy by resolving domain names to IP
addresses for devices on the local network.
Interaction of the various DNS servers
DNS Caching
 DNS cache is a temporary database maintained by a
computer's operating system that stores records of
recent DNS lookups.
 When you visit a website, your computer needs to look up
the IP address associated with the domain name.
 This process can take some time, so to speed it up, the
operating system stores this information in the DNS
cache for future use.
 DNS exploits DNS caching in order to improve the delay
performance and to reduce the number of DNS messages
ricocheting around the Internet.
DNS Records and Messages
 A resource record is a four-tuple that contains the
following fields:
 Name: it depends on the type.
 Value: it depends on the type.
 Type: A, NS, CNAME, MX.
 TTL: it determines when a resource should be removed from a
cache.
Cont.
 If Type=A, then Name is a hostname and Value is the IP address for
the hostname. Thus, a Type A record provides the standard
hostname-to-IP address mapping.
 If Type=NS, then Name is a domain (such as foo.com) and Value is
the hostname of an authoritative DNS server that knows how to
obtain the IP addresses for hosts in the domain.
 If Type=CNAME, then Value is a canonical hostname for the alias
hostname Name. This record can provide querying hosts the
canonical name for a hostname.
 If Type=MX, then Value is the canonical name of a mail server that
has an alias hostname Name.
DNS Messages
 There are only two types of DNS messages:
 Query message.
 Reply message.
 both query and reply messages have the same format.
 header section: Contains important information such as the
operation code, response flag, number of questions, answer
records, authority records, and additional records
 question section: Contains one or more questions that the
client is asking the DNS server.
 answer section: Contains the records that answer the
questions in the query section.
Cont.
 authority section: Contains records that point to authoritative
name servers for the queried domain.
 additional section: Contains additional records that might be
useful to the client in processing the response, such as glue
records (IP addresses of authoritative name servers).
Inserting Records into the DNS Database
 Inserting records into a DNS database typically involves
configuring a DNS server with the necessary resource
records to map domain names to corresponding IP
addresses or other information.
 Here are the basic steps involved in inserting records into
a DNS database.
1. Access DNS Server Configuration: Access the configuration
interface of your DNS server. This could be a web-based
interface, a command-line tool, or a configuration file,
depending on the DNS server software you are using (e.g.,
BIND, Microsoft DNS, etc.).
2. Choose the Record Type: Determine the type of DNS record
you want to insert. Common types include:
 A record, AAAA record, CNAME record, MX record
Cont.
3. Add the Record: Depending on the DNS server
software, you will need to provide the following
information:
 Name: The domain name for which you are adding the record.
 Type: The type of DNS record being added (A, AAAA, CNAME,
MX, TXT, etc.).
 Data: The value associated with the record (e.g., IP address for
an A record, mail server address for an MX record).
 TTL: The Time to Live value for the record (how long the record
can be cached).
4. Save Changes: After adding the record, save the
changes in the DNS server configuration.
Peer-to-Peer Applications
 P2P architecture, there is minimal (or no) reliance on
always-on infrastructure servers.
 Instead, pairs of intermittently connected hosts, called
peers, communicate directly with each other.
 Two types of P2P Application:
1. File Distribution (BitTorrent system)
2. Database Distribution (Distributed Hash Table (DHT))
P2P File Distribution
 In P2Pfile distribution, each peer can redistribute any
portion of the file it has received to any other peers.
 the most popular P2P file distribution protocol is
BitTorrent.
 we first examine the self scalability of P2Parchitectures in
the context of file distribution. We then describe
BitTorrent in some detail,
Scalability of P2P Architectures
BitTorrent
 BitTorrent is a popular P2P protocol for file distribution.
 In BitTorrent lingo, the collection of all peers participating
in the distribution of a particular file is called a torrent.