Chapter 3: Network and Communication

 What is a network?
 What types of network are there?
 What networking standards are there?
 How do you represent information?
 What is communication protocol?
 What are communication models? (message-
passing, stream communication and RPC)
Distributed Systems 1
Anatomy of a network
 A set of interconnected
resources
 Hosts that run network
applications software
 Clients and servers
 Set of peers
 The network infrastructure that
interconnects the hosts
 The networking hardware
and software
 Network node devices

such as routers and

switches
 Links: cables,

connectors, network
interfaces
Distributed Systems 2
 Transmission links
 Convey bits, bytes, packets
 Physical medium
 Copper (or aluminium)
 Optical fibre
 Glass, plastic

 Free-space optical
 Laser

 Radio
 Satellite, microwave link, mobile, wireless LAN,

‘Bluetooth’
 Mode
 Point-to-point
 Shared medium (multicast)
 Broadcast
Distributed Systems 3
 Representing data: bits and bytes

 Bits
 Different codes used in different interface standards
 Images, multi-media
 Require special bit pattern as delimiter
 Bytes
 Text is usually ASCII or Unicode characters
 Text files, documents
 Character set includes special control characters

Bits Bytes

01100001011000111 01110101 00000010 10000000 10100001

Distributed Systems 4
 Representing data: Frames

 A block of data is called a frame

 Basic unit of transfer between switches
 Main purpose of frame is to carry packets from one point to another on a
network
 Header carries
 Addressing (usually rather low level)

 Control information for receiving network device (host/network

node)
 Trailer (if present) carries error check
 Used for detecting errors in received frame

 Block sizes restricted by buffer sizes in the network device interfaces

Frame: header Data or payload trailer

Distributed Systems 5
 Representing data: Packets

 Blocks of application data with some networking routing information

 Basic unit of transfer between routers
 Header carries
 Network-wide addressing information
 Control information for receiving network device (host, router)
 No information is appended to a packet
 There is no trailer, as there is with frames
 In theory, packets can be quite large

Packet: header Data or payload

Distributed Systems 6
 Types of network

 Main types:
 LAN, WAN, MAN, and Internet
 LAN (Local Area Network) is mainly private
 Ether net, Token ring
 Or interconnected
 WAN (Wide Area Network) can be private or public
 Interconnected
 MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) is mainly public
 Interconnected by Optical fibre
 Global Network is public
 The internet
 The telephone network

Distributed Systems 7
 Interconnecting LANs and WANs

 Host systems usually connect into a

LAN switch
– Number of hosts limited by the
switch
number of ports on the switch
 Routers have two main uses
 Interconnecting LANs
 Connecting to a WAN or to the
router
Internet To the
Internet
 Routers interconnect LANs
 To separate the users
 To separate the traffic To offsite
LANs

Distributed Systems 8
 OSI: The International Standards Model

 Created in the 1980s by the standards bodies

 ISO, ITU-T(Telecommunication Standardization Sector) , IEEE
 Contributors included people from all sectors of the industry,
government and academia
 Designed originally to overcome the problems of non-interoperability
between different manufacturers’ computers
 Is a protocol suite
 A set of interdependent layer functions
 A set of interdependent protocols
 Ten years of development rendered it too complex to be of real
practical use, however, we still use
 Most of the Layer names
 Some of the terminology

Distributed Systems 9
 OSI: A Seven Layer Protocol

high level application

Layer 7- Application
support tools
conversion between different application
Layer 6 - Presentation machine representations protocols
applications synchronization and
Layer 5 - Session connection management
last chance to correct network
Layer 4 - Transport errors before passing to application

Layer 3 - Network network addressing & routing

networking
link control & protocols
Layer 2 - Link: data transmission

Layer 1 - Physical physical medium control,

bit transmission & timing

Distributed Systems 10
 The OSI and IETF Protocol Suites

IETF: The Internet Engineering Task Force

OSI: Open System Interconnection Reference Model

IETF model OSI model

Layer 7- Application

application
layers 5/6/7: Layer 6 - Presentation protocols
Application
Layer 5 - Session

TCP, UDP Layer 4 - Transport

IP Layer 3 - Network networking

protocols
Logical
PPP, 802.3,5,11, etc Layer 2 - Link:
MAC

Physical Layer 1 - Physical

Distributed Systems 11
 Protocol Data Encapsulation

Application Application data

Layer

Transport T hdr App data Transport header and

Layer payload (e.g. TCP segment)

Network N hdr Transport Network header and

Layer payload (e.g. IP packet)

Link Layer L hdr Network CRC

Link header and payload
(e.g. Ethernet frame)
Physical Layer

101011100101

Distributed Systems 12
A Typical Message on the Network

Distributed Systems 13
 Protocol Data Flow

Addresses Addresses

Web DNS URL

client client Web server
Source port Destination port
TCP UDP TCP UDP
Transport protocol Transport protocol
IP IP
Source IP Destination IP
Encapsulation Encapsulation
Source NIC
Physical network Physical network Destination NIC

Distributed Systems 14
 Communication Models

• Message Passing
lowest level of communication, e.g. sockets
unstructured peer-peer IPC
varieties of communication patterns
• Data Stream
continuous media
satisfy real time data services
• Request / Reply semantics
basis of Client-Server
RPC (Remote Procedure Call)
RMI (Remote Method Invocation)

Distributed Systems 15
 Message Passing Definitions(1)
 Procedures: send, receive, accept, create, connect, locate , reply,
acknowledge
 Multiplicity: point-to-point, broadcast, multicast
 Message Content: data or instruction, by value or by reference
(address)
 Channels:
 - link, port, mailbox
 - direction can be uni-diection or bi-direction
 - capacity can be unbounded (i.e. asynchronous, no
blocking)
 or null (implies synchronous) or fixed (implies
buffering)
 Message Receipt:
 explicit receive – receiver can select message
 implicit receive – receiver must receive from sender

Distributed Systems 16
 Message Passing Definitions(2)
 Synchronous/Asynchronous
 Synchronous – receiver waits ready for sender message and responds in
real time (e.g. phone call). Both sender and receiver return when transfer
is complete. No buffer is required.
 Asynchronous – sender sends message into buffer, message picked
up later at receivers convenience (e.g. mailbox). Sender process
returns whether or not a message is received. Receiver blocks until
the message is available
 Blocking/Non-Blocking
 Blocking – sender cannot proceed after sending message until receiver
picks up message
 Non Blocking – sender can continue as soon as message send is done
(e.g. added to buffer)
 Sender/Receiver Naming
 Static – sender and receiver names (location) fixed
 Dynamic – names may change (e.g. ask a static name server

Distributed Systems 17
 Message Passing Definitions(3)
 Connection Link
 Connection Oriented – link is established and held for duration of
service. Guaranteed link but bandwidth may be wasted.
 Connectionless – connection not established until message send
occurs e.g. different packets sent by different routes
 Transient
 message is only stored by system while sender and receiver are
executing (e.g. MSN messenger)
 Persistent
 message is stored and delivered by system, even if receiver is not
executing (e.g. email)

Distributed Systems 18
 Persistence and Synchronicity in Communication (1)

General organization of a communication system in

which hosts are connected through a network

Distributed Systems 19
 Persistence and Synchronicity in Communication (2)

(a) Persistent asynchronous communication

(b) Persistent synchronous communication

Distributed Systems 20
 Persistence and Synchronicity in Communication (3)

(c) Transient asynchronous communication

(d) Receipt-based transient synchronous communication

Distributed Systems 21
 Persistence and Synchronicity in Communication (4)

(e) Delivery-based transient synchronous communication

at message delivery
(f) Response-based transient synchronous communication

Distributed Systems 22