Internetworking Concept

And Architectural Model

 introduction
• The primary goal is a system that hides the
details of underlying network hardware while
providing universal communication services.
The primary result is a high-level abstraction
that provides the framework for all design
decisions.
Application-Level Interconnection
• Designers have taken two different approaches to hiding
network details, using application programs to handle
heterogeneity or hiding details in the operating system.
• Early heterogeneous network interconnections provided
uniformity through applicationlevel programs called
application gateways.
• In such systems, an application-level program, executing on
each computer in the network, understands the details of the
network connections for that computer, and interoperates
across those connections with application programs on other
computers. For example, some electronic mail systems
• consist of mail programs that are each
configured to forward a memo to a mail
program on the next computer. The path from
source to destination may involve many
different networks, but that does not matter
as long as the mail systems on all the
machines cooperate by forwarding each
message
• Using application programs to hide network details
may seem natural at first, but such an approach results
in limited, cumbersome communication. Adding new
functionality to the system means building a new
application program for each computer.
• Adding new network hardware means modifying
existing programs (or creating new programs) for each
possible application. On a given computer, each
application program must understand the network
connections for the computer, resulting in duplication
of code.
• Users who are experienced with networking
understand that once the interconnections grow
to hundreds or thousands of networks, no one can
possibly build all the necessary application
programs.
• When an intermediate program fails, the source
and destination remain unable to detect or control
the problem. Thus, systems that use intermediate
applications programs cannot guarantee reliable
communication
 Network-Level Interconnection
• The alternative to providing interconnection with
application-level programs is a system based on
network-level interconnection. A network-level
interconnection provides a mechanism that
delivers small packets of data from their original
source to their ultimate destination without
using intermediate application programs.
Switching small units of data instead of files or
large messages has several advantages
 advantages
• The scheme maps directly onto the underlying
network hardware, making it extremely
efficient.
• network-level interconnection separates data
communication activities from application
programs, permitting intermediate computers
to handle network traffic without the
applications that are sending or receiving it.
• Using network connections keeps the entire
system flexible, making it possible to build
general purpose communication facilities.
• The scheme allows network managers to add
new network technologies by modifying or
adding a single piece of new network level
software, while application programs remain
unchanged.
 internetworking
• The key to designing universal network-level
interconnection can be found in an
• abstract communication system concept known as
internetworking. The internetwork, or internet,
concept is an extremely powerful one. It detaches
the notions of communication from the details of
network technologies and hides low-level details
from the user. More important, it drives all
software design decisions and explains how to
handle physical addresses and routes.
 two fundamental observations about the design of
communication
systems:

• No single network hardware technology can

satisfy all constraints.
• Users desire universal interconnection
No single network hardware technology can
satisfy all constraints
• The first observation is an economic as well as
technical one. Inexpensive Local Area
Networks that provide high speed
communication only cover short distances;
wide area networks that span long distances
cannot supply local communication cheaply.
Because no single network technology
satisfies all needs, we are forced to consider
multiple underlying hardware technologies
 Users desire universal interconnection
• The second observation is self-evident.
Ultimately, users would like to be able to
communicate between any two points. In
particular, we desire a communication system
that is not constrained by the boundaries of
physical networks.
 goal
• to build a unified, cooperative interconnection
of networks that supports a universal
communication service.
• Within each network, computers will use
underlying technology-dependent
communication facilities
 internetwork or internet
• New software, inserted between the
technology-dependent communication
mechanisms and application programs, will
hide the low-level details and make the
collection of networks appear to be a single
large network. Such an interconnection
scheme is called an internetwork or internet
 Properties Of The Internet
• hide the underlying internet architecture from
the user.
• adding a new network to the internet should
not mean connecting to a centralized witching
point, nor should it mean adding direct
physical connections between the new
network and all existing networks.
• able to send data across intermediate
networks even though they are not directly
connected to the source or destination
computers.
• all computers in the internet to share a
universal set of machine identifiers (which can
be thought of as names or addresses).
 Internet Architecture
• Two physical networks interconnected by R, a
router (IP gateway).

Net 1 Net 2

R
• To have a viable internet, we need special
computers that are willing to transfer packets
from one network to another.
• Computers that interconnect two networks
and pass packets from one to the other are
• called internet gateways or internet router
• Consider an example consisting of two physical
networks shown in Figure.
• In the figure, router R connects to both network
I and network 2. For R to act as a router, it must
capture packets on network 1 that are bound
for machines on network 2 and transfer them.
• Similarly, R must capture packets on network 2
that are destined for machines on network I and
transfer them
• In the figure, boxes are used to denote
physical networks because the exact hardware
is unimportant. Each network can be a LAN or
a WAN, and each may have many computers
attached or a few computers attached.
 Interconnection Through IP Routers
• In an actual internet that includes many
networks and routers, each router needs to
• know about the topology of the internet
beyond the networks to which it connects. For
• example, Figure shows three networks
interconnected by two routers
Three networks interconnected by two
routers.

Net2 Net 3
Net 1
R1 R2
• In this example, router R, must transfer from
network I to network 2 all packets destined
• for computers on either network 2 or network
3. For a large internet composed of many
etworks, the router's task of making decisions
about where to send packets becomes more
complex
 Basic idea
• In a TCP/IP internet, special computers called
IP routers or IP gateways provide among
physical networks.
• routers used with TCPAP internets are usually
small computers. They often have little disk
storage and modest main memories. The trick
to building a small internet router lies in the
following concept:
• Routers use the destination network, not the
destination computer, when forwarding a
packet
 The User's View
• an internet as a single, virtual network to which all
machines connect despite their physical
connections.
• application programs that communicate over the
internet do not know the details of underlying
connections, they can be run without change on
any computer.
• it is possible to optimize the internal structure of
the internet by altering physical connections while
application programs are executing.
• users do not have to understand, remember, or
specify how networks connect or what traffic they
carry.
• Application programs can be written that
communicate independent of underlying physical
connectivity. In fact, network managers are free to
change interior parts of the underlying internet
architecture without changing application
software in most of the computers attached to the
internet
 All Networks Are Equal
• an internet as a collection of cooperative,
interconnected networks.
• any communication system capable of
transferring packets counts as a single
network, independent of its delay and
throughput characteristics, maximum packet
size, or geographic scale.
• The TCP/IP internet protocols treat all
networks equally. A Local Area Network like
an Ethernet, a Wide Area Network used as a
backbone, or a point-to-point link between
two computers each count as one network