Application Layer Protocol in Computer Network

1. TELNET

Telnet stands for the TELetype NETwork. It helps in terminal emulation. It

allows Telnet clients to access the resources of the Telnet server. It is used
for managing files on the internet. It is used for the initial setup of devices
like switches. The telnet command is a command that uses the Telnet
protocol to communicate with a remote device or system. Port number of
telnet is 23.

2. FTP

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It is the protocol that actually lets us
transfer files. It can facilitate this between any two machines using it. But
FTP is not just a protocol but it is also a program.FTP promotes sharing of
files via remote computers with reliable and efficient data transfer. The Port
number for FTP is 20 for data and 21 for control.

3. TFTP

The Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) is the stripped-down, stock version
of FTP, but it’s the protocol of choice if you know exactly what you want and
where to find it. It’s a technology for transferring files between network
devices and is a simplified version of FTP. The Port number for TFTP is 69.

4. NFS

It stands for a Network File System. It allows remote hosts to mount file
systems over a network and interact with those file systems as though they
are mounted locally. This enables system administrators to consolidate
resources onto centralized servers on the network. The Port number for
NFS is 2049.

5. SMTP

It stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. It is a part of the TCP/IP

protocol. Using a process called “store and forward,” SMTP moves your
email on and across networks. It works closely with something called the
Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) to send your communication to the right
computer and email inbox. The Port number for SMTP is 25.

6. SNMP

It stands for Simple Network Management Protocol. It gathers data by

polling the devices on the network from a management station at fixed or
random intervals, requiring them to disclose certain information. It is a way
that servers can share information about their current state, and also a
channel through which an administrate can modify pre-defined values. The
Port number of SNMP is 161(TCP) and 162(UDP).

7. DNS

It stands for Domain Name System. Every time you use a domain name,
therefore, a DNS service must translate the name into the corresponding
IP address. For example, the domain name www.abc.com might translate
to198.105.232.4.
The Port number for DNS is 53.

8. DHCP

It stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). It gives IP

addresses to hosts. There is a lot of information a DHCP server can provide
to a host when the host is registering for an IP address with the DHCP
server. Port number for DHCP is 67, 68.

9. HTTP/HTTPS

HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol and HTTPS is the more
secured version of HTTP, that’s why HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer
Protocol Secure. This protocol is used to access data from the World Wide
Web. The Hypertext is the well-organized documentation system that is
used to link pages in the text document.
 HTTP is based on the client-server model.
 It uses TCP for establishing connections.
 HTTP is a stateless protocol, which means the server doesn’t maintain
any information about the previous request from the client.
 HTTP uses port number 80 for establishing the connection.

Transport Layer Protocols

The transport layer is represented majorly by TCP and UDP protocols.
Today almost all operating systems support multiprocessing multi-user
environments. This transport layer protocol provides connections to the
individual ports. These ports are known as protocol ports. Transport layer
protocols work above the IP protocols and deliver the data packets from
IP serves to destination port and from the originating port to destination IP
services. Below are the protocols used at the transport layer.

1. UDP
UDP stands for User Datagram Protocol. User Datagram Protocol
provides a nonsequential transmission of data. It is a connectionless
transport protocol. UDP protocol is used in applications where the speed
and size of data transmitted is considered as more important than the
security and reliability. User Datagram is defined as a packet produced by
User Datagram Protocol. UDP protocol adds checksum error control,
transport level addresses, and information of length to the data received
from the layer above it. Services provided by User Datagram Protocol
(UDP) are connectionless service, faster delivery of messages,
checksum, and process-to-process communication.

UDP Segment
While the TCP header can range from 20 to 60 bytes, the UDP header is
a fixed, basic 8 bytes. All required header information is contained in the
first 8 bytes, with data making up the remaining portion. Because UDP
port number fields are 16 bits long, the range of possible port numbers is
defined as 0 to 65535, with port 0 being reserved.
 UDP

 Source Port: Source Port is a 2 Byte long field used to identify the port
number of the source.
 Destination Port: This 2-byte element is used to specify the packet’s
destination port.
 Length: The whole length of a UDP packet, including the data and
header. The field has sixteen bits.
 Cheksum: The checksum field is two bytes long. The data is padded
with zero octets at the end (if needed) to create a multiple of two
octets. It is the 16-bit one’s complement of the one’s complement sum
of the UDP header, the pseudo-header containing information from the
IP header, and the data.
Advantages of UDP
 UDP also provides multicast and broadcast transmission of data.
 UDP protocol is preferred more for small transactions such as DNS
lookup.
 It is a connectionless protocol, therefore there is no compulsion to have
a connection-oriented network.
 UDP provides fast delivery of messages.
Disadvantages of UDP
 In UDP protocol there is no guarantee that the packet is delivered.
 UDP protocol suffers from worse packet loss.
 UDP protocol has no congestion control mechanism.
 UDP protocol does not provide the sequential transmission of data.

2. TCP
TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol. TCP protocol provides
transport layer services to applications. TCP protocol is a connection-
oriented protocol. A secured connection is being established between the
sender and the receiver. For a generation of a secured connection, a virtual
circuit is generated between the sender and the receiver. The data
transmitted by TCP protocol is in the form of continuous byte streams. A
unique sequence number is assigned to each byte. With the help of this
unique number, a positive acknowledgment is received from receipt. If the
acknowledgment is not received within a specific period the data is
retransmitted to the specified destination.

TCP Segment
A TCP segment’s header may have 20–60 bytes. The options take about
40 bytes. A header consists of 20 bytes by default, although it can contain
up to 60 bytes.
 Source Port Address: The port address of the programme sending
the data segment is stored in the 16-bit field known as the source port
address.
 Destination Port Address: The port address of the application
running on the host receiving the data segment is stored in the
destination port address, a 16-bit field.
 Sequence Number: The sequence number, or the byte number of the
first byte sent in that specific segment, is stored in a 32-bit field. At the
receiving end, it is used to put the message back together once it has
been received out of sequence.
 Acknowledgement Number : The acknowledgement number, or the
byte number that the recipient anticipates receiving next, is stored in a
32-bit field called the acknowledgement number. It serves as a
confirmation that the earlier bytes were successfully received.
 Header Length (HLEN): This 4-bit field stores the number of 4-byte
words in the TCP header, indicating how long the header is. For
example, if the header is 20 bytes (the minimum length of the TCP
 header), this field will store 5 because 5 x 4 = 20, and if the header is
60 bytes (the maximum length), it will store 15 because 15 x 4 = 60. As
a result, this field’s value is always between 5 and 15.
 Control flags: These are six 1-bit control bits that regulate flow
control, method of transfer, connection abortion, termination, and
establishment. They serve the following purposes:
 Urgent: This pointer is legitimate
 ACK: The acknowledgement number (used in cumulative
acknowledgement cases) is valid.
 PSH: Push request
 RST: Restart the link.
 SYN: Sequence number synchronisation
 FIN: Cut off the communication
 Window size: This parameter provides the sender TCP’s
window size in bytes.
 Checksum: The checksum for error control is stored in this field.
Unlike UDP, it is required for TCP.
 Urgent pointer: This field is used to point to data that must urgently
reach the receiving process as soon as possible. It is only valid if the
URG control flag is set. To obtain the byte number of the final urgent
byte, the value of this field is appended to the sequence number.

Advantages of TCP
 TCP supports multiple routing protocols.
 TCP protocol operates independently of that of the operating system.
 TCP protocol provides the features of error control and flow control.
 TCP provides a connection-oriented protocol and provides the delivery
of data.
Disadvantages of TCP
 TCP protocol cannot be used for broadcast or multicast transmission.
 TCP protocol has no block boundaries.
 No clear separation is being offered by TCP protocol between its
interface, services, and protocols.
 In TCP/IP replacement of protocol is difficult.

Network Layer Protocols

There are various protocols used in the network layer. Each protocol is used
for a different task. Below are the protocols used in the network layer:

1. IP (Internet Protocol)
IP stands for Internet Protocol. Internet Protocol helps to uniquely identify
each device on the network. Internet protocol is responsible for transferring
the data from one node to another node in the network. Internet protocol is
a connectionless protocol therefore it does not guarantee the delivery of
data. For the successful delivery higher level protocols such as TCP are
used to guarantee the data transmission. The Internet Protocol is divided in
two types. They are:
 IPv4: IPv4 provides with the 32 bit address scheme. IPv4 addressing
has four numeric fields and are separated by dot. IPv4 can be
configured either using DHCP or manually. IPv4 does not provide with
more security features as it does not support authentication or
encryption techniques. IPv4 is further divided into five classes as Class
A, Class B, Class C, Class D and Class E.
 IPv6: IPv6 is the most recent version of IP. If provided with a 128 but
addressing scheme. IP address has eight fields that are separated by
colon, and these fields are alphanumeric. The IPv6 address is
represented in hexadecimal. IPv6 provides with more security features
such as authentication and encryption. IPv6 supports end-to-end
connection integrity. IPv6 provides with more range of IP address as
compared to IPv4.

2. ARP (Address Resolution Protocol)

ARP stands for Address Resolution Protocol. ARP is used to convert the
logical address i.e. IP address into physical address i.e. MAC address.
While communicating with other nodes, it is necessary to know the MAC
address or physical address of the destination node. If any of the node in a
network wants to know the physical address of another node in the same
network, the host then sends an ARP query packet. This ARP query packet
consists of IP address and MAC address of source host and only the IP
address of destination host. This ARP packet is then received to every node
present in the network. The node with its own IP address recognises it and
sends it MAC address to the requesting node. But sending and receiving
such packets to know the MAC address of destination node it increases the
traffic load. Therefore, in order to reduce this traffic and improve the
performance, the systems that makes use of ARP maintain a cache of
recently acquired IP into MAC address bindings.
How Does ARP Work?
 The host broadcasts an ARP inquiry packet containing the IP address
over the network in order to find out the physical address of another
computer on its network.
 The ARP packet is received and processed by all hosts on the network;
however, only the intended recipient can identify the IP address and
reply with the physical address.
 After adding the physical address to the datagram header and cache
memory, the host storing the datagram transmits it back to the sender.
 ARP

Types of ARP Entries

 Static Entry: This type of entry is created when a user uses the ARP
command utility to manually enter the IP to MAC address association.
 Dynamic Entry: A dynamic entry is one that is automatically formed
when a sender broadcasts their message to the whole network.
Dynamic entries are periodically removed and are not permanent.

3. RARP
RARP stands for Reverse Address Resolution Protocol. RARP works
opposite of ARP. Reverse Address Resolution Protocol is used to convert
MAC address i.e. physical address into IP address i.e. logical address.
RARP provides with a feature for the systems and applications to get their
own IP address from a DNS (Domain Name System) or router. This type of
resolution is required for various tasks such as executing reverse DNS
lookup. As Reverse Address Resolution Protocol works at low level it
requires direct network addresses. The reply from the server mostly carries
a small information but the 32 bit internet address is used and it does not
exploit the full potential of a network such as ethernet.
How Does RARP Work?
 Data is sent between two places in a network using the RARP, which is
on the Network Access Layer.
 Every user on the network has two distinct addresses: their MAC
(physical) address and their IP (logical) address.
 Software assigns the IP address, and the hardware then builds the
MAC address into the device.
 Any regular computer connected to the network can function as the
RARP server, answering to RARP queries. It must, however, store all
of the MAC addresses’ associated IP addresses. Only these RARP
servers are able to respond to RARP requests that are received by the
network. The information package must be transmitted over the
network’s lowest tiers.
 Using both its physical address and Ethernet broadcast address, the
client transmits a RARP request. In response, the server gives the
client its IP address.

4. ICMP
ICMP stands for Internet Control Message Protocol. ICMP is a part of IP
protocol suite. ICMP is an error reporting and network diagnostic protocol.
Feedback in the network is reported to the designated host. Meanwhile, if
any kind of error occur it is then reported to ICMP. ICMP protocol consists
of many error reporting and diagnostic messages. ICMP protocol handles
various kinds of errors such as time exceeded, redirection, source quench,
destination unreachable, parameter problems etc. The messages in ICMP
are divided into two types. They are given below:
 Error Message: Error message states about the issues or problems
that are faced by the host or routers during processing of IP packet.
 Query Message: Query messages are used by the host in order to get
information from a router or another host.
How Does ICMP Work?
 The main and most significant protocol in the IP suite is called ICMP.
However, unlike TCP and UDP, ICMP is a connectionless protocol,
meaning it doesn’t require a connection to be established with the
target device in order to transmit a message.
 TCP and ICMP operate differently from one another; TCP is a
connection-oriented protocol, while ICMP operates without a
connection. Every time a connection is made prior to a message being
sent, a TCP Handshake is required of both devices.
 Datagrams including an IP header containing ICMP data are used to
transmit ICMP packets. An independent data item like a packet is
comparable to an ICMP datagram.
 ICMP

5. IGMP
IGMP stands for Internet Group Message Protocol. ICMP is a multicasting
communication protocol. It utilizes the resources efficiently while
broadcasting the messages and data packets. ICMP is also a protocol used
by TCP/IP. Other hosts connected in the network and routers makes use of
ICMP for multicasting communication that have IP networks. In many
networks multicast routers are used in order to transmit the messages to all
the nodes. Multicast routers therefore receives large number of packets that
needs to be sent. But to broadcast this packets is difficult as it would
increase the overall network load. Therefore ICMP helps the multicast
routers by addressing them while broadcasting. As multicast
communication consists of more than one senders and receivers the
Internet Group Message Protocol is majorly used in various applications
such as streaming media, web conference tools, games, etc.
How Does IGMP Work?
 Devices that can support dynamic multicasting and multicast groups
can use IGMP.
 The host has the ability to join or exit the multicast group using these
devices. It is also possible to add and remove customers from the
group using these devices.
 The host and local multicast router use this communication protocol.
Upon creation of a multicast group, the packet’s destination IP address
is changed to the multicast group address, which falls inside the class
D IP address range.
Data Link Protocols:
There are various data link protocols that are required for Wide Area
Network (WAN) and modem connections. Logical Link Control (LLC) is a
data link protocol of Local Area Network (LAN). Some of data link
protocols are given below:

1. Synchronous Data Link Protocol (SDLC) –

SDLC is basically a communication protocol of computer. It usually
supports multipoint links even error recovery or error correction also. It
is usually used to carry SNA (Systems Network Architecture) traffic and
is present precursor to HDLC. It is also designed and developed by
IBM in 1975. It is also used to connect all of the remote devices to
mainframe computers at central locations may be in point-to-point
(one-to-one) or point-to-multipoint (one-to-many) connections. It is also
used to make sure that the data units should arrive correctly and with
right flow from one network point to next network point.

2. High-Level Data Link Protocol (HDLC) –

HDLC is basically a protocol that is now assumed to be an umbrella
under which many Wide Area protocols sit. It is also adopted as a part
of X.25 network. It was originally created and developed by ISO in
1979. This protocol is generally based on SDLC. It also provides best-
effort unreliable service and also reliable service. HDLC is a bit-
oriented protocol that is applicable for point-to-point and multipoint
communications both.

3. Point to Point Protocol (PPP) –

PPP is a protocol that is basically used to provide same functionality as
SLIP. It is most robust protocol that is used to transport other types of
packets also along with IP Packets. It can also be required for dial-up
and leased router-router lines. It basically provides framing method to
describe frames. It is a character-oriented protocol that is also used for
error detection. It is also used to provides two protocols i.e. NCP and
LCP. LCP is used for bringing lines up, negotiation of options, bringing
them down whereas NCP is used for negotiating network-layer
protocols. It is required for same serial interfaces like that of HDLC.

4. Link Control Protocol (LCP) –

It was originally developed and created by IEEE 802.2. It is also used
to provide HDLC style services on LAN (Local Area Network). LCP is
basically a PPP protocol that is used for establishing, configuring,
testing, maintenance, and ending or terminating links for transmission
of data frames.