Application layer
1. Introduction
[Link]
3. HTTP
4. FTP
5. EMAIL (SMTP, MIME, IMAP, POP)
6. TELNET
7. SSH
8. DNS
9. SNMP
1) The application layer is the highest layer in the protocol suite.
2) The application layer provides services to the user.
3) The protocols in this layer do not provide services to any other
protocol in the suite; they only receive services from the protocols
in the transport layer.
4) Two application layers assume that there is an imaginary direct
connection through which they can send and receive messages.
5) The application layer is the only layer that provides services to the
Internet user
6) The flexibility of the application layer allows new application
protocols to be easily added to the Internet.
7) Applications need their own protocols.
8) These applications are part of network protocol.
EMAIL (SMTP, MIME,
IMAP, POP)
1. One of the most popular Internet
services is electronic mail (E-mail).
2. Email is one of the oldest network
applications.
3. When the sender and the receiver
of an e-mail are on the same
system, we need only two User
Agents and no Message Transfer
Agent
4. When the sender and the receiver
of an e-mail are on different
system, we need two UA, two pairs
of MTA (client and server), and two
MAA (client and server).
EMAIL (SMTP, MIME, IMAP, POP)
The three main components of an Email are
1. User Agent (UA)
2. Message Transfer Agent (MTA) – SMTP
3. Message Access Agent (MAA) - IMAP , POP
Alice Bob
1. When Alice needs to send a message to Bob, she runs a UA program to
prepare the message and send it to her mail server.
2. The mail server at her site uses a queue (spool) to store messages
waiting to be sent.
3. The message, however, needs to be sent through the Internet from
Alice’s site to Bob’s site using an MTA.
4. Here two message transfer agents are needed: one client and one server.
5. The server needs to run all the time because it does not know when a
client will ask for a connection.
6. The client can be triggered by the system when there is a message in the
queue to be sent.
7. The user agent at the Bob site allows Bob to read the received message.
8. Bob later uses an MAA client to retrieve the message from an MAA
server running on the second server.
A user agent is a software package
that composes, reads, replies to, and
forwards messages. It also handles
local mailboxes on the user
computers.
Command driven
1. Command driven user
agents belong to the early
days of electronic mail.
2. A command-driven user
agent normally accepts a
one character command
from the keyboard to
perform its task.
3. Some examples of
command driven user agents
are mail, pine, and elm.
GUI-based
1. Modern user agents are GUI-
based.
2. They allow the user to interact
with the software by using
both the keyboard and the
mouse.
3. They have graphical
components such as icons,
menu bars, and windows that
make the services easy to
access.
4. Some examples of GUI-based
user agents are Eudora and
Outlook.
Difference between IMAP & POP3
IMAP POP3
1. Clients are totally dependent on server. 1. It requires minimum use of server
resources.
2. Multiple mailboxes can be created on the 2. Only one mailbox can be created on
server. the server.
3. Designed to handle multiple clients. 3. Generally used to support single
client.
4. IMAP offers ability to search emails. 4. POP does not allow search facility.
5. It allows selective transfer of messages to 5. All the messages have to be
the client. downloaded.
6. Users can view the headings and sender 6. The e-mails are not downloaded
of e-mails and then decide to download. automatically.
IMAP POP3
7. Messages are accessed online [Link] are accessed offline.
although it also supports offline mode.
[Link] requires more internet usage time. [Link] requires less internet usage time.
9. Suitable for accessing non-mail data i.e. [Link] suitable for accessing non-mail
attachment. data.
10. Allows mails to be accessed from [Link] once downloaded cannot be
multiple locations. accessed from some other location.
11. IMAP commands are not abbreviated, [Link] commands are generally
they are full. Eg. STATUS abbreviated into codes of three or four
letters. Eg. STAT
