Computer Networks
Module 5-Subsection1
Principles of Networking Applications
By
Dr. Shahana Gajala Qureshi
Principles of Networking Applications
Overview
Internet (“service” view) provides a networking infrastructure for
software applications that run on different machines
such apps run on the top layer of the infrastructure, called application
layer
details of the lower layer(s) are encapsulated to apps
i.e., such apps just use services of the lower layer, through the
provided interfaces
Countless number of applications running on the Internet today
important are: : HTTP, FTP, DNS, and P2P.
More network apps
e-mail voice over IP (e.g., Skype) real-time video
conferencing
social networking search web text messaging remote login
P2P file sharing multi-user network games streaming stored video
(YouTube, Hulu, Netflix)
Apps architectures
Possible structure of applications:
client-server
peer-to-peer (P2P) and
Hybrid 2
Principles of Networking Applications
Cont...
List of the Application Layer Protocols
Protocols in each layer of the network model provide a
mechanism for devices to identify and connect. They also
contain formatting rules specifying how data is packaged when
the messages are sent and received.
There are several protocols in the application layer used for
different services like email services, file transfers, etc. We will
look at each one of them one by one.
1. DNS
A service that is used to translate domain names ([Link])
to their corresponding IP addresses ([Link]).
DNS stands for "domain name system". It is used for an
effective translation of internet domain names into internet
protocol addresses. What does this mean ? As humans, we
work with a name to identify a particular website. However,
that is not how computer networks understand. For viable
communication between humans and systems, we need DNS.
For example, the public IP address [Link] is used through which
the computer locates our desired website i.e. [Link].
An IP address is a 32-bit number similar in structure
to [Link]. 3
Principles of Networking Applications
Cont...
The following are some characteristics of DNS :
1. The port number used is number 53.
2. The domain name is usually contained in a URL.
3. The domain name system follows a hierarchy which is an
inverted tree-like structure to manage its distributed database
system.
Most activities on the web rely on DNS to quickly make a
connection between our computer & remote hosts of our desired
location on the internet. The DNS service can be mapped to a
phone book service where we receive the phone number using
the name of the person we are looking to communicate with.
As we can see, if we want to redirect to google, we will
type [Link] & DNS will translate it to [Link] for
connecting our local system to the remote host. 4
Principles of Networking Applications
Cont...
Note: A domain name can have multiple IP addresses. For
example, [Link] corresponds
to [Link], [Link], and many more IP
addresses.
2. TELNET
TELNET provides communication facilities between two hosts
using the CLI.
TELNET is used for communication through the command line
interface between remote device(s) or server(s). It stands for
teletype network & configures elements of networking
hardware.
Some characteristic features of TELNET are :
It is a client-server type of protocol.
It is a bidirectional and interactive communication feature for
terminals and terminal-oriented processes.
Information is distributed over an 8-bit byte-oriented data
connection.
On local machines, it is implemented as a program telnet. On
remote machines, it works as the daemon in .telnet.
A “daemon” is synonymous with a server or agent.
5
The port number used is number 23.
Principles of Networking Applications
Cont...
The two hosts can communicate over the TELNET user
interface through two means : line-by-line or character-by-
character basis.
It can be used for testing and diagnosing remote web/mail
servers. It is also used by other protocols like FTP to form
protocol control channels. Let us look at some advantages and
disadvantages of this protocol :
6
Principles of Networking Applications
Cont...
3. FTP
It models a protocol to download, upload, and transfer files
between two devices over the internet.
FTP stands for "File Transfer Protocol" and connects two
computer systems to transfer files over a network. Users need
to grant access using FTP to receive and send files.
Transferring files is a straightforward mechanism, so why do
we need FTP ? Because it overcomes these problems between
two systems :
Different file conventions.
Different ways to represent text and data in the files.
Different directory structures.
But how does it overcome these problems ? By establishing
two connections between the hosts :
7
Principles of Networking Applications
Cont...
1. Data Transfer : Data connections made during data transfer
processes that use complex rules as data types can vary
greatly.
2. Control Connection : It uses relatively simple rules for
communication and is used to transfer a line of command or
response at a time.
These are the common characteristics of FTP protocol :
3. Users require an internet connection to
accomplish FTP transfers.
4. It promotes remote transfers.
5. The Port number for FTP is 20 for data and 21 for control.
The basic client model of FTP contains three components :
the user interface, control process, and data transfer
process whereas the server model contains two units : the
server control process and the server data transfer process.
8
Principles of Networking Applications
Cont...
FTP is one of the fastest ways to transfer files, is efficient, and
needs a username & password to access the server which makes
it secure. However, it is not compatible with every system and
doesn’t allow running concurrent transfers to multiple receivers.
4. World Wide Web (WWW)
The World Wide Web is abbreviated as WWW and is commonly
known as the web.
WWW can be defined as the collection of different websites
around the world, containing different information shared via local
servers(or computers).
System Architecture:
From the user’s point of view, the web consists of a vast,
worldwide connection of documents or web pages.
Each page may contain links to other pages anywhere in the
world.
The pages can be retrieved and viewed by using browsers of
which internet explorer, Netscape Navigator, Google Chrome, etc
are the popular ones.
The browser fetches the page requested interprets the text and
formatting commands on it, and displays the page, properly
formatted, on the screen. 9
Principles of Networking Applications
Cont...
The basic model of how the web works are shown in the figure
below.
Here the browser is displaying a web page on the client
machine. When the user clicks on a line of text that is linked to
a page on the [Link] server, the browser follows the
hyperlink by sending a message to the [Link] server asking
it for the page.
Here the browser displays a web page on the client machine
when the user clicks on a line of text that is linked to a page on
[Link], the browser follows the hyperlink by sending a
message to the [Link] server asking for the page.
10
Principles of Networking Applications
Cont...
Features of WWW:
HyperText Information System
Cross-Platform
Distributed
Open Standards and Open Source
Uses Web Browsers to provide a single interface for many
services
Dynamic, Interactive and Evolving.
“Web 2.0”
Components of the Web: There are 3 components of the web:
1. Uniform Resource Locator (URL): serves as a system for
resources on the web.
2. Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP): specifies
communication of browser and server.
3. Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML): defines the
structure, organisation and content of a webpage.
11
Principles of Networking Applications
Cont...
5. E-mail:
Electronic Mail (e-mail) is one of most widely used services
of Internet. This service allows an Internet user to send
a message in formatted manner (mail) to the other Internet
user in any part of world. Message in mail not only contain text,
but it also contains images, audio and videos data. The person who
is sending mail is called sender and person who receives mail is
called recipient. It is just like postal mail service. Components of
E-Mail.
System : The basic components of an email system are : User
Agent (UA), Message Transfer Agent (MTA), Mail Box, and Spool
file. These are explained as following below.
1. User Agent (UA) : The UA is normally a program which is used to
send and receive mail. Sometimes, it is called as mail reader. It
accepts variety of commands for composing, receiving and
replying to messages as well as for manipulation of the mailboxes.
2. Message Transfer Agent (MTA) : MTA is actually responsible for
transfer of mail from one system to another. To send a mail, a
system must have client MTA and system MTA. It transfer mail to
mailboxes of recipients if they are connected in the same
machine. It delivers mail to peer MTA if destination mailbox is in
another machine. The delivery from one MTA to another MTA is
12
done by Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.
Principles of Networking Applications
Cont...
Mailbox : It is a file on local hard drive to collect mails. Delivered
mails are present in this file. The user can read it delete it according
to his/her requirement. To use e-mail system each user must have a
mailbox . Access to mailbox is only to owner of mailbox.
Spool file : This file contains mails that are to be sent. User agent
appends outgoing mails in this file using SMTP. MTA extracts pending
mail from spool file for their delivery. E-mail allows one name,
an alias, to represent several different e-mail addresses. It is known
as mailing list, Whenever user have to sent a message, system
checks recipient’s name against alias database. If mailing list is
present for defined alias, separate messages, one for each entry in
the list, must be prepared and handed to MTA. If for defined alias,
there is no such mailing list is present, name itself becomes naming
address and a single message is delivered to mail transfer entity. 13
Principles of Networking Applications
Cont...
Services provided by E-mail system :
1. Composition – The composition refer to process that creates
messages and answers. For composition any kind of text
editor can be used.
2. Transfer – Transfer means sending procedure of mail i.e. from
the sender to recipient.
3. Reporting – Reporting refers to confirmation for delivery of
mail. It help user to check whether their mail is delivered, lost
or rejected.
4. Displaying – It refers to present mail in form that is
understand by the user.
5. Disposition – This step concern with recipient that what will
recipient do after receiving mail i.e save mail, delete before
reading or delete after reading.
14
Thank you
15