Packets
● A packet is a small segment of a larger message.
● Data sent over computer networks, such as the Internet, is divided into packets.
● These packets are then recombined by the computer or device that receives them.
● Datagram is an alternative term for "packet."
Parts of a Network Packet
● Header
● Payload
● Trailer
Packet header
A packet header is a "label“, which provides information about the packet’s
contents, origin, and destination. The header contains the source address, a
destination address, protocol, and packet number.
● Source address indicates where the packet is coming from
● Destination address points to the receiving IP address
● The protocol helps identify what type of packet is being transferred, whether it is an
email, a web page, a video, etc.
● The packet number – each packet has two identifying numbers; the first indicating
how many packets a piece of information was split into, and the second indicates the
place of the individual packet as a part of the complete information.
Packet payload
● The payload is oftentimes referred to as data. This refers to the actual
data being transported by the packet.
● Depending on the network, the size can vary between 48 bytes to 4 kb
range. It can vary in length but the network protocol as well as equipment
used on route will usually set a maximum length.
● If necessary, some networks will break larger packets up into smaller
packets if the payload is too large.
● The payload is the only data that is received by the source and
destination, as the header information is stripped from the packet when it
reaches the destination.
Packet Trailer
● Contents of a packet trailer (footer) differ with each network type.
● A trailer contains a few bits that inform the recipient device that it has
reached to the end of the packet, as well as a Cyclic Redundancy Check
(CRC).
● It may also have some type of error checking. The most common error
checking used in packets is Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC). which
enables the computer to determine if all the packets were received
completely.
Packet Structure and Content
All packets have a basic architecture or a header, payload and footer but depending on the
protocol being used they may also contain some further information, such as that listed below:
● Addresses
● Error Handling
● Hop Counts
● Length
● Priority
Packet Switching
Packet switching is a networking communication method used in telecommunications systems,
whereby data is grouped into blocks called packets and routed through a network using a destination
address contained within each packet. Packet switching is the transfer of small pieces of data across
various networks. These data chunks or “packets” allow for faster, more efficient data transfer.
Advantage of Packet Switching over Circuit Switching :
· More efficient in terms of bandwidth, since the concept of reserving circuit is not
there.
· Minimal transmission latency
.
· More reliable as destination can detect the missing packet.
· More fault tolerant because packets may follow different path in case any link is down,
Unlike Circuit Switching.
· Cost effective and comparatively cheaper to implement.
Disadvantage of Packet Switching over Circuit Switching :
· Packet Switching don’t give packets in order, whereas Circuit Switching provides
ordered delivery of packets because all the packets follow the same path.
· Since the packets are unordered, we need to provide sequence numbers to each packet.
· Complexity is more at each node because of the facility to follow multiple path.
· Transmission delay is more because of rerouting.
· Packet Switching is beneficial only for small messages, but for bursty data (large
messages) Circuit Switching is better.
Modes of Packet Switching
1. Connection-oriented Packet Switching (Virtual Circuit) :
● Before starting the transmission, it establishes a logical path or virtual connection using
signalling protocol, between sender and receiver and all packets belongs to this flow will
follow this predefined route.
● Virtual Circuit ID is provided by switches/routers to uniquely identify this virtual
connection. Data is divided into small units and all these small units are appended with
help of sequence number.
Connectionless Packet Switching (datagram)
● In Connectionless Packet Switching each packet contains all necessary addressing
information such as source address, destination address and port numbers etc.
● Each packet is treated independently.
● Packets belonging to one flow may take different routes because routing decisions are
made dynamically, so the packets arrived at destination might be out of order. It has no
connection setup and teardown phase, like Virtual Circuits.
● Packet delivery is not guaranteed in connectionless packet switching, so the reliable
delivery must be provided by end systems using additional protocols.
What is Packet Loss?
● Occasionally, packets might bounce from router to router many times before reaching their
destination IP address. Enough of these kinds of “lost” data packets in the network can congest
it, leading to poor performance. Data packets that bounce around in the network too many times
may get lost.
● The hop count addresses this problem, setting a maximum number of bounce times per packet.
“Bouncing” simply refers to the inability to locate the final destination IP address, and the
resulting transfer from one router to another instead. If a certain packet reaches its maximum
hop count, or maximum number of hops it is permitted before reaching its destination, the router
it is bouncing from deletes it. This causes packet loss.
● To overcome this problem, hopping is used. A hop number is added to the header of the packet.
And this numner is reduced by 1 everytime it leaves a router.
● Each packet has a maximum hop number to start with. Once a hop number eraches zero, and the
packet hasn’t reached its destination, then the packet is deleted when it reaches the next router.
The missing packets will thenmn be flaged by the receiving computer and a request to resend
these packets will be made.
USB flash drive ( Universal Serial Bus)
● USB is a form of asynchronous serial data transmission
● Uses both half-duplex and full-duplex transmission
● When USB is plugged, the computer automatically identifies that device is present
● The drive is small and convenient, and more likely to be carried off-site for safety
● The drives are less fragile mechanically and magnetically than tapes
● The capacity is often large enough for several backup images of critical data
● Flash drives are cheaper than many other backup systems
Uses
● Flash drives are used to store any type of data file, or to move data from one computer to
another.
● USB flash drives have a lot of storage space.
1 A socket (USB Connector)
2 USB mass storage controller device
3 Test points
4 Flash memory chip
5 Crystal oscillator
6 LED
7 Write-protect switch
8 Unpopulated space for second flash memory chip
