William Stallings

Data and Computer

Communications

Chapter 19
Distributed Applications
Abstract Syntax Notation One
ASN.1
 Used to define format of PDUs
 Representation of distributed information
 Representation of operations performed on
transmitted data
Terms Relevant to ANS.1
 Abstract Syntax
 Describes generic structure of data
 Data Type
 Named set of values
 Encoding
 Sequence of octets used to represent data value
 Encoding Rules
 Mapping from one syntax to another
 Transfer Syntax
 Way data represented in bit patterns while in transit
Use of Abstract and Transfer
Syntaxes
ASN.1 Concepts
 Module definition
 Structured definition of a data structure using ASN.1
 Name of module used as abstract syntax name
Form of Modules
 <modulereference>DEFINITIONS::=
BEGIN
EXPORTS
IMPORTS
AssignmentsList
End
 EXPORTS
 Definitions which may be imported by other modules
 IMPORTS
 Definitions to be imported from other modules
 AssignmentList
 Type assignments, value assignments, macro definitions
 <name>::=<description>
Lexical Conventions
 Layout not significant
 Comments delimited by pair of hyphens (--) at start
and pair of hyphens or end of line end of comment
 Identifiers, type references and module names
consist of upper and lower case letters, digits and
hyphens
 Identifier starts with lower case letter
 Type reference or module name begins with upper
case letter
 Built in type consists of all upper case letters
Abstract Data Types
 Collection of values
 Simple
 Atomic
 No components
 Structured
 Has components
 Tagged
 Derived from other types
 Other
 Include CHOICE and ANY types (see later)
Tag Classes (1)
 Every data type (except CHOICE and ANY) has
associated tag
 Universal
 Generally useful
 Application independent
 Defined in standard
 e.g. Boolean, Integer, Real
Tag Classes (2)
 Application wide
 Relevant to particular application
 Context specific
 Relevant to particular application
 Applicable in limited context
 Private
 User defined
CHOICE and ANY
 Data types without tags
 When value assigned, type also assigned
 Type assigned at run time
 CHOICE
 List of alternative known types
 Only one type used to create value
 ANY
 Arbitrary value
 Arbitrary type
Subtypes (1)
 Derived from parent type
 Restricted subset of values
 May be nested
 Single value subtype
 Explicit listing of all valid values
 Contained subtype
 Used to form new subtype from existing subtypes
 Includes all values of subtypes it contains
 Value range subtype
 Real and Integer only
 Specify endpoints of range
Subtypes (2)
 Permitted alphabet constraint
 Only character string
 All values that can be constructed using sub-alphabet
 Size constrained
 Limits number of items in type
 e.g. number of bits in bit type
 Inner type constraint
 Applied to SEQUENCE, SEQUENCE OF, SET, SET OF,
CHOICE
 Only values from parent that satisfy one or more
contraints
PDU Example (part 1)
PDU Example (part 2)
PDU Example (part 3)
Network Management - SNMP
 Simple Network Management Protocol
 Networks are becoming indispensable
 More complexity makes failure more likely
 Require automatic network management tools
 Standards required to allow multi-vendor networks
 Covering:
 Services
 Protocols
 Management information base (MIB)
Network Management Systems
 Collection of tools for network management
 Single operator interface
 Powerful, user friendly command set
 Performing most or all management tasks
 Minimal amount of separate equipment
 i.e. use existing equipment
 View entire network as unified architecture
 Active elements provide regular feedback
Key Elements
 Management station or manager
 Agent
 Management information base
 Network management protocol
Management Station
 Stand alone system or part of shared system
 Interface for human network manager
 Set of management applications
 Data analysis
 Fault recovery
 Interface to monitor and control network
 Translate manager’s requirements into monitoring
and control of remote elements
 Data base of network management information
extracted from managed entities
Agent
 Hosts, bridges, hubs, routers equipped with
agent software
 Allow them to be managed from management
station
 Respond to requests for information
 Respond to requests for action
 Asynchronously supply unsolicited information
Management Information Base
 MIB
 Representation of network resources as objects
 Each object a variable representing one aspect
of managed object
 MIB is collection of access points at agent for
management of station
 Objects standardized across class of system
 Bridge, router etc.
Network Management Protocol
 Link between management station and agent
 TCP/IP uses SNMP
 OSI uses Common Management Information
Protocol (CMIP)
 SNMPv2 (enhanced SNMP) for OSI and TCP/IP
Protocol Capabilities
 Get
 Set
 Notify
Management Layout
 May be centralized in simple network
 May be distributed in large, complex network
 Multiple management servers
 Each manages pool of agents
 Management may be delegated to intermediate
manager
Example of Distributed Network
Management Configuration
SNMP v1
 August 1988 SNMP specification issued
 Stand alone management stations and bridges,
routers workstations etc supplied with agents
 Defines limited, easily implemented MIB of scalar
variables and two dimensional tables
 Streamlined protocol
 Limited functionality
 Lack of security
 SNMP v2 1993, revised 1996
 RFC 1901-1908
SNMP v2 (1)
 Framework on which network management
applications can be built
 e.g fault management, performance monitoring,
accounting
 Protocol used to exchange management
information
 Each player maintains local MIB
 Structure defined in standard
 At least one system responsible for management
 Houses management applications
SNPM v2 (2)
 Support central or distributed management
 In distributes system, some elements operate as
manager and agent
 Exchanges use SNMP v2 protocol
 Simple request/response protocol
 Typically uses UDP
 Ongoing reliable connection not required
 Reduces management overhead
SNMP v2
Managed
Configuration
Structure of
Management Information
 SMI
 Defines general framework with which MIB
defined and constructed
 Identifies data types
 How resources are represented and named
 Encourages simplicity and extensibility
 Scalars and two dimensional arrays of scalars
(tables) only
Protocol Operation
 Exchange of messages
 Outer message header deals with security
 Seven types of PDU
SNMP v2 PDU Formats
SNMP v3
 Addresses security issues of SNMP v1/2
 RFC 2570-2575
 Proposed standard January 1998
 Defines overall architecture and security
capability
 To be used with SNMP v2
SNMP v3 Services
 Authentication
 Part of User-Based Security (UBS)
 Assures that message:
 Came from identified source
 Has not been altered
 Has not been delayed or replayed
 Privacy
 Encrypted messages using DES
 Access control
 Can configure agents to provide a number of levels of access to
MIB
 Access to information
 Limit operations
Electronic Mail
 Most heavily used application on any network
 Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
 TCP/IP
 Delivery of simple text messages
 Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME)
 Delivery of other types of data
 Voice, images, video clips
SMTP
 RFC 821
 Not concerned with format of messages or data
 Covered in RFC 822 (see later)
 SMTP uses info written on envelope of mail
 Message header
 Does not look at contents
 Message body
 Except:
 Standardize message character set to 7 bit ASCII
 Add log info to start of message
 Shows path taken
Basic Operation
 Mail created by user agent program (mail client)
 Message consists of:
 Header containing recipient’s address and other info
 Body containing user data
 Messages queued and sent as input to SMTP
sender program
 Typically a server process (daemon on UNIX)
Mail Message Contents
 Each queued message has:
 Message text
 RFC 822 header with message envelope and list of recipients
 Message body, composed by user
 A list of mail destinations
 Derived by user agent from header
 May be listed in header
 May require expansion of mailing lists
 May need replacement of mnemonic names with mailbox
names
 If BCCs indicated, user agent needs to prepare
correct message format
SMTP Sender
 Takes message from queue
 Transmits to proper destination host
 Via SMTP transaction
 Over one or more TCP connections to port 25
 Host may have multiple senders active
 Host should be able to create receivers on demand
 When delivery complete, sender deletes
destination from list for that message
 When all destinations processed, message is
deleted
Optimization
 If message destined for multiple users on a
given host, it is sent only once
 Delivery to users handled at destination host
 If multiple messages ready for given host, a
single TCP connection can be used
 Saves overhead of setting up and dropping
connection
Possible Errors
 Host unreachable
 Host out of operation
 TCP connection fail during transfer
 Sender can re-queue mail
 Give up after a period
 Faulty destination address
 User error
 Target user changed address
 Redirect if possible
 Inform user if not
SMTP Protocol - Reliability
 Used to transfer messages from sender to
receiver over TCP connection
 Attempts to provide reliable service
 No guarantee to recover lost messages
 No end to end acknowledgement to originator
 Error indication delivery not guaranteed
 Generally considered reliable
SMTP Receiver
 Accepts arriving message
 Places in user mailbox or copies to outgoing queue
for forwarding
 Receiver must:
 Verify local mail destinations
 Deal with errors
 Transmission
 Lack of disk space
 Sender responsible for message until receiver
confirm complete transfer
 Indicates mail has arrived at host, not user
SMTP Forwarding
 Mostly direct transfer from sender host to
receiver host
 May go through intermediate machine via
forwarding capability
 Sender can specify route
 Target user may have moved
Conversation
 SMTP limited to conversation between sender
and receiver
 Main function is to transfer messages
 Rest of mail handling beyond scope of SMTP
 May differ between systems
SMTP Mail Flow
SMTP System Overview
 Commands and responses between sender and
receiver
 Initiative with sender
 Establishes TCP connection
 Sender sends commands to receiver
 e.g. HELO<SP><domain><CRLF>
 Each command generates exactly one reply
 e.g. 250 requested mail action ok; completed
SMTP Replies
 Leading digit indicates category
 Positive completion reply (2xx)
 Positive intermediate reply (3xx)
 Transient negative completion reply (4xx)
 Permanent negative completion reply (5xx)
Operation Phases
 Connection setup
 Exchange of command-response pairs
 Connection termination
Connection Setup
 Sender opens TCP connection with receiver
 Once connected, receiver identifies itself
 220 <domain> service ready
 Sender identifies itself
 HELO
 Receiver accepts sender’s identification
 250 OK
 If mail service not available, step 2 above
becomes:
 421 service not available
Mail Transfer
 Sender may send one or more messages to receiver
 MAIL command identifies originator
 Gives reverse path to used for error reporting
 Receiver returns 250 OK or appropriate fail/error message
 One or more RCPT commands identifies recipients
for the message
 Separate reply for each recipient
 DATA command transfers message text
 End of message indicated by line containing just period (.)
Closing Connection
 Two steps
 Sender sends QUIT and waits for reply
 Then initiate TCP close operation
 Receiver initiates TCP close after sending reply
to QUIT
Format for Text Messages
RFC 882
 Message viewed as having envelope and
contents
 Envelope contains information required to
transmit and deliver message
 Message is sequence of lines of text
 Uses general memo framework
 Header usually keyword followed by colon followed
by arguments
Example Message
Date:Tue, 16 Jan 1996 10:37:17 (EST)
From: “William Stallings” <ws@host.com>
Subject:The syntax of RFC 822
To: Smith@otherhost.com
Cc: Jones@Yet-another_host.com

This is the main text, delimited from the header by

a blank line.
Multipurpose Internet Mail
Extension (MIME)
 Extension to RFC822
 SMTP can not transmit executables
 Uuencode and other schemes are available
 Not standardized
 Can not transmit text including international characters (e.g. â,
å, ä, è, é, ê, ë)
 Need 8 bit ASCII
 Servers may reject mail over certain size
 Translation between ASCII and EBCDIC not standard
 SMTP gateways to X.400 can not handle none text data in X.400
messages
 Some SMTP implementations do not adhere to standard
 CRLF, truncate or wrap long lines, removal of white space, etc.
Overview of MIME
 Five new message header fields
 MIME version
 Content type
 Content transfer encoding
 Content Id
 Content Description
 Number of content formats defines
 Transfer encoding defined
Content Types
 Text body
 Multipart
 Mixed, Parallel, Alternative, Digest
 Message
 RFC 822, Partial, External-body
 Image
 jpeg, gif
 Video
 mpeg
 Audio
 Basic
 Application
 Postscript
 octet stream
MIME Transfer Encodings
 Reliable delivery across wide largest range of environments
 Content transfer encoding field
 Six values
 Three (7bit, 8bit, binary) no encoding done
 Provide info about nature of data
 Quoted-printable
 Data largely printable ASCII characters
 Non-printing characters represented by hex code
 Base64
 Maps arbitrary binary input onto printable output
 X-token
 Named nonstandard encoding
Base 64 Encoding
Hypertext Transfer Protocol
HTTP
 Underlying protocol of the World Wide Web
 Not a protocol for transferring hypertext
 For transmitting information with efficiency necessary
for hypertext jumps
 Can transfer plain text, hypertext, audio,
images, and Internet accessible information
HTTP Overview
 Transaction oriented client/server protocol
 Usually between Web browser (clinet) and Web
server
 Uses TCP connections
 Stateless
 Each transaction treated independently
 Each new TCP connection for each transaction
 Terminate connection when transaction complete
Key Terms
 Cache
 Client
 Connection
 Entity
 Gateway
 Message
 Origin server
 Proxy
 Resource
 Server
 Tunnel
 User agent
Examples of HTTP Operation
Intermediate HTTP Systems
HTTP Messages
 Requests
 Client to server
 Responses
 Server to client
 Request line
 Response line
 General header
 Request header
 Response header
 Entity header
 Entity body
HTTP Message Structure
General Header Fields
 Cache control
 Connection
 Data
 Forwarded
 Keep alive
 MIME version
 Pragma
 Upgrade
Request Methods
 Request-Line = Method <SP> Request_URL <SP> HTTP-Version <CRLF>
 Methods:
 Options
 Get
 Head
 Post
 Put
 Patch
 Copy
 Move
 Delete
 Link
 Unlink
 Trace
 Wrapped
 Extension-method
Request Header Field
 Accept
 Accept charset
 Accept encoding
 Accept language
 Authorization
 From
 Host
 If modified since
 Proxy authentication
 Range
 Referrer
 Unless
 User agent
Response Messages
 Status line followed by one or more general,
response and entity headers, followed by
optional entity body

 Status-Line = HTTP-Version <SP> Status-Code

<SP> Reason-Phrase <CRLF>
Status Codes
 Informational
 Successful
 Redirection
 Client error
 Server error
Response Header Fields
 Location
 Proxy authentication
 Public
 Retry after
 Server
 WWW-Authenticate
Entity Header Fields
 Allow  Expires
 Content encoding  Last modified
 Content language  Link
 Content length  Title
 Content MD5  Transfer encoding
 Content range  URL header
 Content type  Extension header
 Content version
 Derived from
Entity Body
 Arbitrary sequence of octets
 HTTP transfers any type of data including:
 text
 binary data
 audio
 images
 video
 Interpretation of data determined by header
fields
 Content encoding, content type, transfer encoding
Required Reading
 Stallings chapter 19
 WWW Consortium
 ASN.1 Web site