THE NETWORK LAYER

gobir@nitt.edu

OSI LAYERS

Agenda Unit - III

Network Layer Design Issues
Routing Algorithms
Congestion Control Algorithms
Quality of Service
Internet working
The Network Layer in the Internet

Agenda
Network Layer Design Issues
Routing Algorithms
Congestion Control Algorithms
Quality of Service
Internet working
The Network Layer in the Internet

Network Layer Design Issues

Store-and-Forward Packet Switching
Services Provided to the Transport Layer
Implementation of Connectionless Service
Implementation of Connection-oriented Service
Comparison of Virtual-Circuit and Datagram Networks

Network Layer
Network Layer Design Issues
Routing Algorithms
Congestion Control Algorithms
Quality of Service
Internet working
The Network Layer in the Internet

Routing Algorithms
The Optimality Principle

Shortest Path Algorithm

Flooding
Distance Vector Routing
Link State Routing

Network Layer
Network Layer Design Issues
Routing Algorithms
Congestion Control Algorithms
Quality of Service
Internet working
The Network Layer in the Internet

Congestion Control
Too many packets present in (a part of) the
network causes packet delay and loss that
degrades performance. This situation is called
congestion.

Network Layer
Network Layer Design Issues
Routing Algorithms
Congestion Control Algorithms
Quality of Service
Internet working
The Network Layer in the Internet

Quality of Service
To reduce congestion and improve network

performance.
However, there are applications (and customers)

that demand stronger performance guarantees

from the network than the best that could be
done under the circumstances.
Multimedia applications in particular, often need a

minimum throughput and maximum latency to

work.

To ensure QoS
Four issues must be addressed to ensure quality of

service:
1. What applications need from the network.

2. How to regulate the traffic that enters the network.

3. How to reserve resources at routers to guarantee
performance.
4. Whether the network can safely accept more traffic.

Addressed by QoS
Application Requirements

Traffic Shaping
Packet Scheduling

Admission Control
Integrated Services
Differentiated Services

Network Layer
Network Layer Design Issues
Routing Algorithms
Congestion Control Algorithms
Quality of Service
Internet working
The Network Layer in the Internet

Internetworking
When two or more networks are connected to form

an internetwork, or more simply an internet.

How Networks Differ

How Networks Can Be Connected

Tunneling

Internetwork Routing
Packet Fragmentation

Network Layer
Network Layer Design Issues
Routing Algorithms
Congestion Control Algorithms
Quality of Service
Internet working
The Network Layer in the Internet

The Network Layer in the Internet

IP Addresses

IPV4 & IPV6

Classes of IP Addresses

The Network Layer in the Internet

Internet Control Protocols

IMCP & ARP

Label Switching & MPLS

OSPF
BGP

Summary- UNIT-III
The network layer provides services to the transport

layer.
It can be based on either datagrams or virtual circuits.
In both cases, its main job is routing packets from the

source to the destination.

In datagram networks, a routing decision is made on

every packet.
In virtual-circuit networks, it is made when the virtual

circuit is set up.

Summary- UNIT-III
Many routing algorithms are used in computer networks.

Flooding is a simple algorithm to send a packet along all

paths.
Most algorithms find the shortest path and adapt to

changes in the network topology.

The main algorithms are distance vector routing and link

state routing. Most actual networks use one of these.

Other important routing topics are the use of hierarchy

in large networks, routing for mobile hosts, and

broadcast, multicast, and anycast routing.

Summary- UNIT-III
Networks can easily become congested, leading to

increased delay and lost packets.

Network designers attempt to avoid congestion

by designing the network to have enough capacity,

choosing uncongested routes, refusing to accept
more traffic, signaling sources to slow down, and
shedding load.

Summary- UNIT-III
The next step beyond just dealing with congestion is to actually

try to achieve a promised quality of service.

Some applications care more about throughput whereas others

care more about delay and jitter.

The methods that can be used to provide different qualities of

service include a combination of traffic shaping, reserving

resources at routers, and admission control.

Approaches that have been designed for good quality of service

include IETF integrated services and differentiated services.

Summary- UNIT-III
Networks differ in various ways, so when multiple

networks are interconnected, problems can occur.

When different networks have different maximum packet

sizes, fragmentation may be needed.

Different networks may run different routing protocols

internally but need to run a common protocol externally.

Sometimes the problems can be finessed by tunneling a

packet through a hostile network, but if the source and

destination networks are different, this approach fails.

Summary- UNIT-III
The Internet has a rich variety of protocols related to the

network layer.
These include the datagram protocol, IP, and associated
control protocols such as ICMP, ARP, and DHCP.
A connection-oriented protocol called MPLS carries IP
packets across some networks.
One of the main routing protocols used within networks is
OSPF, and the routing protocol used across networks is
BGP.
The Internet is rapidly running out of IP addresses, so a new
version of IP, IPv6, has been developed and is ever-so-slowly
being deployed.

CT Portions