Chapter 4: Transport and

Application Layer

CCNA Routing and Switching

Introduction to Networks v6.0
Chapter 4 - Sections & Objectives

 4.1 Transport Layer Protocols

• Explain the purpose of the transport layer in managing the
transportation of data in end-to-end communication.
• Explain characteristics of the TCP and UDP protocols,
including port numbers and their uses.
• Determine whether high-reliability TCP transmissions, or
non-guaranteed UDP transmissions, are best suited for
common applications.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 2
4.1 Transport Layer Protocols

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Transportation of Data
Role of the Transport Layer
 Responsible for establishing a
temporary communication session
between two applications and
delivering data between them.
 Link between the application layer
and the lower layers that are
responsible for network transmission.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 4
Transportation of Data
Transport Layer Responsibilities
 Tracking the Conversation -
Tracks each individual
conversation flowing between a
source and a destination
application.
 Segmentation - Divides the data
into segments that are easier to
manage and transport. Header
used for reassembly is used for
tracking.
 Identifying the Application -
Ensures that even with multiple
applications running on a device,
all applications receive the correct
data via port numbers.
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Transportation of Data
Conversation Multiplexing

 Segmenting the data into smaller chunks enables many different communications to be
multiplexed on the same network.

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Transportation of Data
Transport Layer Reliability
 TCP/IP provides two transport
layer protocols:
• Transmission Control Protocol
(TCP)
• Considered reliable which ensures
that all of the data arrives at the
destination.
• Additional fields needed in header
which increases size and delay.
• User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
• Does not provide for reliability.
• Fewer fields and is faster than TCP.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 7
Transportation of Data
TCP  TCP transport is similar to
sending tracked packages. If a
shipping order is broken up
into several packages, a
customer can check online to
see the order of the delivery.

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Transportation of Data
TCP (Cont.)

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Transportation of Data
TCP (Cont.) TCP Three Responsibilities:
 Numbering and tracking data segments

 Acknowledging received data

 Retransmitting any unacknowledged data

after a certain period of time

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 10
Transportation of Data
UDP Use UDP for less overhead and
to reduce possible delays.
 Best-effort delivery (unreliable)

 No acknowledgment

 Similar to a non-registered
letter

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 11
Transportation of Data
The Right Transport Layer Protocol for the Right Application

 TCP -  databases, web

browsers, and email
clients require that all
data that is sent arrives
at the destination in its
original condition.
 UDP - if one or two
segments of a live video
stream fail to arrive, if
disruption in the stream,
may not be noticeable
to the user.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 12
TCP and UDP Overview
TCP Features
 Establishing a Session
• Connection-oriented protocol
• Ensures the application is ready to receive the data
• Negotiate the amount of traffic that can be forwarded at a given time
 Reliable Delivery
• Ensuring that each segment that the source sends arrives at the destination
 Same-Order Delivery
• Numbering & Sequencing the segments guarantees reassembly into the proper order
 Flow Control
• Regulate the amount of data the source transmits

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 13
TCP and UDP Overview
TCP Header 20 Bytes Total
 Source and Destination Port used to identify
application
 Sequence number used for data reassembly

 Acknowledgement number indicates data

has been received and ready for next byte
from source
 Header length – length of TCP segment
header
 Control bits – purpose and function of TCP
segment
 Window size – number of bytes that can be
accepted at one time
 Checksum – Used for error checking of
segment header and data
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 14
TCP and UDP Overview
UDP Features

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TCP and UDP Overview
UDP Header

 UDP is a stateless protocol – no tracking

 Reliability handled by application

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TCP and UDP Overview
Multiple Separate Communications
 Users expect to simultaneously receive and send email, view websites and make a
VoIP phone call
 TCP and UDP manage multiple conversations by using unique identifiers called port
numbers

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 17
TCP and UDP Overview
Port Numbers
 Source Port
• Originating application port that is
dynamically generated by sending
device
• Example: Each separate HTTP
conversation is tracked based on the
source ports.
 Destination Port
• Tell the destination what service is
being requested
• Example: Port 80 web services are
being requested

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 18
TCP and UDP Overview
Socket Pairs
 Source and destination port
placed in segment
 Segments encapsulated in IP
packet
 IP and port number = socket

 Example: 192.168.1.7:80

 Sockets enable multiple

processes to be distinguished
 Source port acts as a return
address

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 19
TCP and UDP Overview
Port Number Groups

 Well-known Ports (Numbers 0 to 1023) - These numbers are reserved for

services and applications. 
 Registered Ports (Numbers 1024 to 49151) - These port numbers are
assigned by IANA to a requesting entity to use with specific processes or
applications.
 Dynamic or Private Ports (Numbers 49152 to 65535) - Usually assigned
dynamically by the client’s OS and used to identify the client application
during communication.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 20
TCP and UDP Overview
Port Number Groups (Cont.)

Well Known
Port
Numbers

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TCP and UDP Overview
The netstat Command
 Network utility that can
be used to verify
connections
 By default, will attempt
to resolve IP
addresses to domain
names and port
numbers to well-known
applications
 -n option used to
display IPs and ports
in numerical form
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 22
TCP Communication Process
TCP Server Process

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TCP Communication Process
TCP Server Process (Cont.)

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TCP Communication Process
TCP Connection Establishment

 Step 3 – Client acknowledges

communication session with
server.
 Step 1 – Initiating
client requests a
session with server.

 Step 2 – Server
acknowledges and
requests a session with
client. © 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 25
TCP Communication Process
TCP Session Termination

 To close a connection, the Finish (FIN) control flag must

be set in the segment header.
 To end each one-way TCP session, a two-way handshake,
consisting of a FIN segment and an Acknowledgment
(ACK) segment, is used.
 To terminate a single conversation supported by TCP, four
exchanges are needed to end both sessions.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 26
TCP Communication Process
TCP Three-way Handshake Analysis
 The three-way handshake:
• Establishes that the destination device is present on
the network.
• Verifies that the destination device has an active
service and is accepting requests on the destination
port number that the initiating client intends to use.
• Informs the destination device that the source client
intends to establish a communication session on that
port number.
 The six bits in the Control Bits field of the TCP
segment header are also known as flags. 
• RST flag is used to reset a connection when an error
or timeout occurs

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 27
TCP Communication Process
Video Demonstration - Video Demonstration - TCP 3-Way
Handshake
SYN
SYN, ACK
ACK

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Reliability and Flow Control
TCP Reliability – Ordered Delivery
 Sequence numbers are assigned
in the header of each packet.
 Represents the first data byte of
the TCP segment.
 During session setup, an initial
sequence number (ISN) is set -
represents the starting value of the
bytes.
 As data is transmitted during the
session, the sequence number is
incremented by the number of
bytes that have been transmitted.
 Missing segments can then be
identified.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 29
Reliability and Flow Control
Video Demonstration - TCP Reliability – Sequence Numbers and
Acknowledgments

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Reliability and Flow Control
Video Demonstration – Data Loss and Retransmission

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 31
Reliability and Flow Control
TCP Flow Control – Window Size and Acknowledgments
 In the figure, the source is
transmitting 1,460 bytes of
data within each segment.
 Window size agreed on
during 3-way handshake.
 Typically, PC B will not wait
for 10,000 bytes before
sending an
acknowledgment.
 PC A can adjust its send
window as it receives
acknowledgments from PC
B.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 32
Reliability and Flow Control
TCP Flow Control – Congestion Avoidance
 Congestion causes
retransmission of lost TCP
segments
 Retransmission of segments
can make the congestion
worse
 To avoid and control
congestion, TCP employs
several congestion handling
mechanisms, timers, and
algorithms
 Example: Reduce the number
of bytes it sends before
receiving an acknowledgment
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 33
UDP Communication
UDP Low Overhead versus Reliability

 UDP not connection-

oriented
 No retransmission,
sequencing, and flow
control
 Functions not
provided by the
transport layer
implemented
elsewhere

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 34
UDP Communication
UDP Datagram Reassembly

 UDP reassembles
data in order received
and forwards to
application
 Application must
identify the proper
sequence

UDP: Connectionless and Unreliable

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 35
UDP Communication
UDP Server Processes and Requests
Note: The Remote
Authentication Dial-in
User Service
(RADIUS) server
shown in the figure
provides
authentication,
authorization, and
accounting services to
manage user access.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 36
UDP Communication
UDP Client Processes

Clients Sending UDP Requests

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UDP Communication
UDP Client Processes (Cont.)

Clients Sending UDP Requests

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TCP or UDP
Applications that use TCP

TCP frees
applications
from having to
manage
reliability

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 39
TCP or UDP
Applications that use UDP

Three types of
applications best
suited for UDP:
 Live video and
multimedia
 Simple request
and reply
 Handle reliability
themselves

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 40
4.2 Application Layer
Protocols

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 41
Chapter 4 - Sections & Objectives

 4.2 Application Layer Protocols

• Explain how the functions of the application layer, session layer, and
presentation layer work together to provide network services to end
user applications
• Explain how web and email protocols operate.
• Explain how DNS and DHCP operate.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 42
Application, Presentation, and Session
Application Layer
 Application Layer:
• Closest to the end user.
• Used to exchange data between
programs running on the source and
destination hosts.

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Application, Presentation, and Session
Presentation and Session Layer
 Presentation Layer function:
• Formatting data at the source device
into a compatible form for the
receiving device.
• Compressing data.
• Encrypting data.
 Session Layer Function
• Create and maintain dialogs between
source and destination applications.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 44
Application, Presentation, and Session
TCP/IP Application Layer Protocols • Post Office Protocol (POP) TCP 110 - Enables
clients to retrieve email from a mail server.
• Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) TCP
143 - Enables clients to retrieve email from a
mail server, maintains email on server.
• File Transfer Protocol (FTP) TCP 20 and 21 -
Reliable, connection-oriented, and
acknowledged file delivery protocol.
• Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) UDP 69 –
• Domain Name Server (DNS) TCP,UDP 53 - Translates
domain names, such as cisco.com, into IP addresses. simple connectionless file transfer protocol.
• (BOOTP) – Bootstrap Protocol - BOOTP is being • Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) TCP 80,
superseded by DHCP. 8080 - Set of rules for exchanging text, graphic
images, etc. on the World Wide Web.
• Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) UDP client
68, server 67 – Dynamically assigns IP addresses to client • Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS)
stations at start-up. TCP, UDP 443 – Uses encryption and
• Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) TCP 25 - Enables authentication to secure communication.
clients to send email to a mail server.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 45
How Application Protocols Interact with End-User Applications
Client-Server Model
 Client and server processes are
considered to be in the application
layer.
 Application layer protocols
describe the format of the
requests and responses between
clients and servers.
 Example of a client-server network
is using an ISP’s email service to
send, receive and store email.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 46
How Application Protocols Interact with End-User Applications
Peer-to-Peer Networks
 Data is accessed from a peer
device without the use of a
dedicated server.
 Each device (known as a peer)
can function as both a server and
a client.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 47
How Application Protocols Interact with End-User Applications
Peer-to-Peer Applications
 A P2P application allows a device
to act as both a client and a server
within the same communication.
 P2P applications require that each
end device provide a user
interface and run a background
service.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 48
How Application Protocols Interact with End-User Applications
Common P2P Applications
 Common P2P networks include:
• G2
• Bitcoin
• BitTorrent
• eDonkey
 Some P2P applications are based on
the Gnutella protocol, where each user
shares whole files with other users.
 Many P2P applications allow users to
share pieces of many files with each
other at the same time –this is
BitTorrent technology.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 49
Web and Email Protocols
Hypertext Transfer Protocol and Hypertext Markup Language
 When a web address or uniform resource
locator (URL) is typed into a web browser,
the web browser establishes a connection
to the web service running on the server,
using the HTTP protocol.

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Web and Email Protocols
HTTP and HTTPS
 HTTP is a request/response protocol.

 Three common HTTP message types

are:
• GET - A client request for data.
• POST - Uploads data files to the web
server.
• PUT - Uploads resources or content to the
web server.
 HTTP Secure (HTTPS) protocol uses
encryption and authentication to secure
data.

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Web and Email Protocols
Email Protocols
 Email clients communicate with mail
servers to send and receive email.
 Mail servers communicate with other
mail servers to transport messages from
one domain to another.
 Three protocols for email:
• Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to
send email.
• Post Office Protocol (POP) to retrieve
email.
• Internet Message Access Protocol
(IMAP) to retrieve email.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 52
Web and Email Protocols
SMTP Operation
 SMTP is used to send email

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Web and Email Protocols
POP Operation
 POP is used to retrieve
email from a mail server.
 Email is downloaded from
the server to the client and
then deleted on the server.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 54
Web and Email Protocols
IMAP Operation
 IMAP is used to retrieve mail
from a mail server.
 Copies of messages are
downloaded from the server
to the client and the original
messages are stored on the
server.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 55
IP Addressing Services
Domain Name Service
 Domain names convert the
numeric address into a
simple, recognizable name.
 The DNS protocol defines
an automated service that
matches resource names
with the required numeric
network address.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 56
IP Addressing Services
DNS Message Format
 When a client makes a query, the
server’s DNS process first looks at its
own records to resolve the name.
 If unable to resolve, it contacts other
servers to resolve the name.
 The server temporarily stores the
numbered address in the event that
the same name is requested again.
 The ipconfig /displaydns command
displays all of the cached DNS
entries on a Windows PC.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 57
IP Addressing Services
DNS Hierarchy

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IP Addressing Services
The nslookup Command
 Nslookup - a utility that allows a user
to manually query the name servers
to resolve a given host.
• Can also be used to troubleshoot name
resolution issues and to verify the
current status of the name servers.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 59
IP Addressing Services
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
 The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
(DHCP) for IPv4 automates the
assignment of IPv4 addresses, subnet
masks, gateways, and other parameters.
 DHCP-distributed addresses are leased
for a set period of time, then returned to
pool for reuse.
 DHCP is usually employed for end user
devices. Static addressing is used for
network devices, such as gateways,
switches, servers, and printers.
 DHCPv6 (DHCP for IPv6) provides similar
services for IPv6 clients.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 60
IP Addressing Services
DHCP Operation

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