28-05-2024

Module - 4
(Network Layer in the Internet)

Module - 4
(Network Layer in the Internet)
• IPv4 protocol, IP addresses, IPv6,
• Internet Control Protocols - Internet
Control Message Protocol (ICMP), Address
Resolution Protocol (ARP), Dynamic Host
Configuration Protocol (DHCP).
• Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) Protocol,
Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), Internet
multicasting.

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Network Layer in the Internet

• In the network layer, the Internet can be
viewed as a collection of networks
• The glue that holds the whole Internet
together is the network layer protocol, IP
(Internet Protocol).
• IP was designed from the beginning with
internetworking in mind

Network Layer in the Internet

• Communication in the Internet :
– The transport layer takes data streams and breaks them up
so that they may be sent as IP packets.
• In theory, packets can be up to 64KB each, but in practice they are
usually not more than 1500 bytes (so they fit in one Ethernet
frame).
– IP routers forward each packet through the Internet, along
a path from one router to the next, until the destination is
reached.
– When all the pieces finally get to the destination machine,
they are reassembled by the network layer into the
original datagram and handed over to transport layer.
– The Transport layer handover the data to the receiving
process.

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The IP Version 4 Protocol

• An IPv4 datagram consists of a header part and a body or
payload part.
• The header has a 20-byte fixed part and a variable-length
optional part.

The IP Version 4 Protocol Header

• Version field - keeps track of which version of the
protocol the datagram belongs to.
– IPV4 or IPV6
– By including the version at the start of each datagram, it
becomes possible to have a transition between versions.
• IHL - -provided to tell how long the header is, in 32-
bit words.
– The minimum value is 5, which applies when no options
are present.
– The maximum value of this 4-bit field is 15 which limits
the header to 60 bytes, and thus the Options field to 40
bytes.

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The IP Version 4 Protocol Header

• Differentiated services field -
– Originally called Type of service (TOS) field – 8 bits,
intended to distinguish between different classes of
service. Various combinations of reliability and speed
are possible.
– For digitized voice, fast delivery is more important
than accurate delivery.
– For file transfer, error-free transmission is more
important than fast transmission.
– The ‘Type of service’ field provided 3 bits to indicate
priority and 3 bits to indicate whether a host cared
more about delay, throughput, or reliability.
– They were left unused for many years.

The IP Version 4 Protocol Header

• Differentiated services field -
– It was changed to ‘differentiated services’ field by
IETF, which reused this field.
– Now, the top 6 bits are used to mark the packet
with its service class.
– The bottom 2 bits are used to carry explicit
congestion notification Information, such as
whether the packet has experienced congestion

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The IP Version 4 Protocol Header

• Total length - includes everything in the
datagram - both header and data.
– The maximum length is 65,535 bytes.
• Identification field - is needed to allow the
destination host to determine which packet a
newly arrived fragment belongs to.
– All the fragments of a packet contain the same
Identification value.

The IP Version 4 Protocol Header

• Unused bit - proposed to detect malicious traffic.
– Unfortunately, network security is not this simple
• Then come two 1-bit fields related to fragmentation.
• DF bit
– DF stands for Don’t Fragment. It is an order to the routers not
to fragment the packet.
– Originally, it was intended to support hosts incapable of putting
the pieces back together again.
– By marking the datagram with the DF bit, the sender knows it
will either arrive in one piece, or an error message will be
returned to the sender.
• MF bit - stands for More Fragments.
– All fragments except the last one have this bit set. It is needed
to know when all fragments of a datagram have arrived.

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The IP Version 4 Protocol Header

• Fragment offset - tells where in the current
packet this fragment belongs.
– All fragments except the last one in a datagram
must be a multiple of 8 bytes, the elementary
fragment unit.
– Since 13 bits are provided, there is a maximum of
8192 fragments per datagram, supporting a
maximum packet length up to the limit of the total
length field.
– Working together, the Identification, MF, and
Fragment offset fields are used to implement
fragmentation.

The IP Version 4 Protocol Header

• TTL (Time to live) field - is a counter used to limit
packet lifetimes.
– It was originally supposed to count time in seconds,
allowing a maximum lifetime of 255 sec.
• It must be decremented on each hop and is supposed
to be decremented multiple times when a packet is
queued for a long time in a router.
• In practice, it just counts hops. When it hits zero, the
packet is discarded and a warning packet is sent back
to the source host.
• This feature prevents packets from wandering around
forever.

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The IP Version 4 Protocol Header

• Protocol field – stores the protocol number –
which tells the network layer to which
transport process to give the packet to.
– TCP or UDP or some other protocol.
– The numbering of protocols is global across the
entire Internet.
– Protocol numbers are contained in [Link].

The IP Version 4 Protocol Header Num.

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The IP Version 4 Protocol Header

• Header Checksum - Since the header carries
vital information such as addresses, it
computes the header information checksum
for protection.
– The checksum is useful for detecting errors while
the packet travels through the network.
– Note that it must be recomputed at each hop
because at least one field always changes (eg the
Time to live field).

The IP Version 4 Protocol Header

• Source address and Destination address
indicate the IP address of the source and
destination network interfaces.
• Options field - was designed to test
subsequent versions of the protocol to include
information not present in the original design,
to permit experimenters to try out new ideas.

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IP addresses
• IPv4 is 32-bit address.
• Every host and router on the Internet has an IP
address that can be used in the Source address
and Destination address fields of IP packets.
• IP address does not actually refer to a host. It
really refers to a network interface, so if a host is
on two networks, it must have two IP addresses.
• However, in practice, most hosts are on one
network and thus have one IP address.
• In contrast, routers have multiple interfaces and
thus multiple IP addresses.