Advanced Computer

Networks
(ECEg5193)

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 1

 Chapter Five
Application Layer

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 2

Outlines
• Application Layer
Application layer functions
Networking architecture
Devices
Protocols
• TCP/IP RM Summary
• WAN Technologies Summary

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 3

Application Layer
• Application layer is the fifth layer of the
TCP/IP RM which enables network
application software to communicate
over a network environment.
• It provides services that directly
support user network applications,
such as database access, e-mail, web
browsers and file transfers.
• It combines the functionalities of the
session layer, the presentation layer
and the application layer of the OSI
model.
Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 4
Application Layer Functions
• Makes sure necessary communication
interfaces exist. For example, is there Application Application
an Ethernet or Wi-Fi interface in the
sender's computer? Transport Transport

• Ensures agreement at both ends about

Network Network
error recovery procedures, data
integrity and privacy.
Data Link Data Link
• Determines protocol and data syntax
rules at the application level. Physical Physical

• Presents the data on the receiving end

to the user application.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 5

 Cont . . .
• Specifying data format and presentation
from the source device into a compatible
form for receipt by the destination device.
• Data Compression in a way that can be
decompressed by the destination device.
• Data Encryption for transmission and the
decryption of data upon receipt by the
destination.
• It facilitates the user to use the services of
the network.
• It is used to develop network-based
applications.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 6

Networking Architecture
• There are two types of networking architecture that can be
implemented while installing or updating exiting network.
1) Client-server networks
2) Peer-to-peer(P2P) networks
• Both peer-to-peer and client-server networks connect computers
so that resources like files and applications can be shared.
P2P networks connect computers so that each computer shares all or
part of its resources.
Client-server networks have one or more central computers, or servers,
that hold the data and manage resources.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 7

 Cont . . .
• A client-server network involves multiple clients, or workstations,
connecting to at least one central server.
• Most data and applications are installed on the server. When clients need access to
these resources, they access them from the server.
• Servers often have private user directories as well as multiple public directories.
• Client-server networks tend to have faster access speeds because of the large
number of clients they are designed to support.
• The clients are allowed to function as workstations without sharing any resources.
• It is easier to upgrade software applications and files because they are held on one
single computer.
• System-wide services can be provided through the server software. Security is
enhanced on a client server network because the security is handled by the server.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 8

 Cont . . .
• A P2P network involve two or more computers pooling individual
resources such as disk drives, DVD players and printers.
• These shared resources are available to every computer in the network.
• Each computer in the P2P network acts as both the client and the
server, communicating directly with the other computers.
• On P2P network, for example, a printer on one computer can be used
by any other computer on the network.
• P2P networks are inexpensive to set up. Networking this kind of
network is only connecting the computers to each other either using an
Ethernet cable or a Wi-Fi router.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 9

 Cont . . .

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 10

 Cont . . .
• Disadvantages and limitations
• P2P networks are typically less secure than a client-server network because security
is handled by the individual computers, not on the network as a whole.
• P2P network resources of the computers in the network can become overburdened
as they have to support not only the workstation user, but also the requests from
network users.
• P2P is also difficult to provide system-wide services because the desktop operating
system typically used in this type of network is incapable of hosting the service.
• Client-server networks have a higher initial setup cost. It is possible to set up a server
on a desktop computer, but it is recommended that businesses invest in enterprise-
class hardware and software. They also require a greater level of expertise to
configure and manage the server hardware and software.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 11

Devices
• Gateway
• Firewalls
• All end user devices like
Laptop
Desktop
Phones
 Feature phones
 Smartphones
Servers

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 12

Protocols
• Dynamic Host Configuration • Mail Protocols
Protocol(DHCP) Simple Mail Transfer
Protocol(SMTP)
• Domain Name System (DNS)
Post Office Protocol(POP3)
protocol.
Multipurpose Internet Mail
• Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Extensions(MIME)
• Hypertext Transfer Protocol Internet Message Access
Secure(HTTPS) Protocol (IMAP)
• Bootstrap Protocol(BooTP)
• File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
• Simple Network Management
• Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) Protocol (SNMP)

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 13

 Cont . . .
• DHCP is a protocol used to provide quick, automatic, and central
management for the distribution of IP addresses within a network.
DHCP is also used to configure the proper subnet mask, default gateway, and
DNS server information on the device.
Once a device is turned on and connected to a network that has a DHCP
server, it will send a request to the server, called a DHCPDISCOVER request.
After the DISCOVER packet reaches the DHCP server, the server attempts to
hold on to an IP address that the device can use, and then offers the client
the address with a DHCPOFFER packet.
The device takes the first IP address offer that comes along. It then
responds with a DHCP request message that verifies the IP address
that's been offered and accepted.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 14

 Cont . . .
• Benefits of DHCP
Reliable IP address configuration minimizes configuration errors caused by
manual IP address configuration, such as typographical errors, or address
conflicts caused by the assignment of an IP address to more than one
computer at the same time.
Reduced network administration
 Centralized and automated TCP/IP configuration.
 The efficient handling of IP address changes for clients that must be
updated frequently, such as those for portable devices that move to
different locations on a wireless network.
 The forwarding of initial DHCP messages by using a DHCP relay agent,
which eliminates the need for a DHCP server on every subnet.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 15

 Cont . . .
• DNS is a mapping system of IP
address to machine name; works DNS Database Example
much like a phone book by Name IP Address
managing the mapping between google.com 172.217.167.132
names and numbers.
facebook.com 157.240.25.35
 DNS servers translate requests for
names into IP addresses, controlling yahoo.com 106.10.250.10
which server an end user will reach
youtube.com 216.58.197.46
when they type a domain name into
their web browser. microsoft.com 23.53.160.151

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 16

 Cont . . .
• DNS uses a hierarchical system to create a
name database to provide name
resolution.
• DNS is a distributed database to maintain a
mapping from names to addresses and to
provide related information about hosts on
the Internet.
• At the top, the root servers maintain
records(or IP address) about how to reach
the top-level domain(TLD) servers, which in
turn the TLD have records(or IP address)
that point to the secondary-level domain
servers and so on.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 17

 Cont . . .
• Exploring to the domain name grouping:-
The .com domain level handles information(mapped domain name with it’s IP
address) of all websites or webservers named with postfix .com ; such as
google.com, yahoo.com, facebook.com or xyz.com where xyz is any value. .com
informs that the website is commercial.
The .org domain level handles information(mapped domain name with it’s IP
address) of all websites or webservers named with postfix .org ; such as xyz.org
where xyz is any value .org informs that the website is organizational.
The .edu domain level handles information(mapped domain name with it’s IP
address) of all websites or webservers named with postfix .edu ; such as xyz.edu
where xyz is any value .edu informs that the website is educational.
The .gov domain level handles information(mapped domain name with it’s IP
address) of all websites or webservers named with postfix .gov ; such as xyz.edu
where xyz is any value .gov informs that the website is governmental.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 18

 Cont . . .
• There exist two main types of TLDs; generic TLDs (gTLD) and country-
code TLDs (ccTLDs). Country-code TLDs consist of two letters, and
generic TLDs consist of three or more letters.
• Elements of DNS:-
1) Name Space establishes the syntactical rules for creating and
structuring legal DNS names.
2) Name Servers are server programs which hold information about the
domain tree's structure. It is globally distributed database.
3) Resolvers are programs that extract information from name servers
in response to client requests.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 19

 Cont . . .
• How DNS works(domain name to IP
address resolving process):-
Example:- let’s say a client device
browser wants to access a website
called yahoo.com for the first time.
And we all know that a remote
machine(server, or website) is only
accessible through it’s IP address.
106.10.250.10

How does the DNS server resolves a

client request with the domain name
yahoo.com into it’s actual IP address?
Solution:- the next diagram shows
the overall process of DNS resolvers.
Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 20
 Cont . . .
• DNS Lookup for yahoo.com
1) Web browser
The web browser asks the operating system for the IP address of
yahoo.com.
2) Operating system
The operating system checks its cache. If it has no cached entry for
yahoo.com, it asks a pre-configured resolving name server(to ISP) for the
IP address of yahoo.com.
3) Resolving name server(ISP’s DNS)
The resolving name servers knows one thing; the IP address of a root
name server. So, after checking its cache for an entry of yahoo.com, the
resolving name server asks the root name server for the IP address of
yahoo.com. The resolving name server knows each TLDs IP address.
Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 21
 Cont . . .
4) Root name server
A root server has to know one thing: the name of a top-level domain
(TLD) name server for each existing TLD.
The root server doesn’t know the IP address of yahoo.com, however,
it knows the IP address of .com TLD name server, which it returns to the
resolving name server.
This is going to allow the resolving name server to ask this .com TLD name
server for the IP address of yahoo.com.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 22

 Cont . . .
5) TLD Name Server
This name server contains the domain information by mapping domain
name with it’s IP address.
Finally, this name server returns the IP address of yahoo.com to the DNS
name resolver.
6) Back to the Web Browser
So, finally the resolving name server got the desired IP address of
yahoo.com. It passes it back to the operating system, which in turn passes
it back to the web browser.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 23

 Cont . . .
• HTTP is an application protocol that runs on top of the TCP/IP suite of
protocols (the foundation protocols for the Internet).
HTTP connections uses port 80 to transfer its information.
• HTTPS is a protocol which uses HTTP on a connection encrypted by
transport layer security.
HTTPS is used to protect transmitted data from eavesdropping.
It is the default protocol for conducting financial transactions on the
web, and can protect a website's users from censorship by a
government or an ISP.
HTTPS uses port 443 to transfer its information.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 24

 Cont . . .
• HTTP works with the World Wide Web, which is the fastest growing
and most used part of the Internet.
• A Web browser is a client-server application, which means that it
requires both a client and a server component in order to function.
A Web browser presents data in multimedia formats on Web pages that use
text, graphics, sound, and video.
The Web pages are created with a format language called Hypertext Markup
Language (HTML).
Hyperlinks make the World Wide Web easy to navigate. A hyperlink is an
object, word, phrase, or picture, on a Web page that links to a new Web page.
The Web page contains an address location known as a Uniform Resource
Locator (URL).

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 25

 Cont . . .
• World Wide Web(WWW) is an
architectural framework for accessing
linked documents spread out over
millions of machines all over the
Internet.
• In this framework, there are two actors
which enables the web to work it’s
expected operation, such as client and
server. It follows like client-server
architecture.
• Web pages are designed based on
client-server architecture.
Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 26
 Cont . . .
• FTP is the commonly used protocol for exchanging files over the
Internet. FTP uses the Internet's TCP/IP protocols to enable data
transfer.
FTP uses a client-server architecture, often secured with SSL/TLS.
FTP promotes sharing of files via remote computers with reliable and
efficient data transfer.
• TFTP is a technology for transferring files between network devices and is a
simplified version of the more robust FTP.
TFTP uses client and server software to make connections between two
devices; from a TFTP client, individual files can be copied (uploaded) to or
downloaded from the server.
TFTP relies on UDP for transporting data.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 27

 Cont . . .
• TFTP vs FTP
Original versions of TFTP only allowed transferring files up to 32 MB in size.
Some newer TFTP servers remove this restriction or might cap it at 4 GB.
Unlike FTP, TFTP protocol does not support any authentication or encryption
mechanism, and as such can introduce a security risk. Avoid using TFTP to
share sensitive files — you can't protect them or audit their access.
Listing, renaming, and deleting files over TFTP is usually not allowed.
TFTP uses UDP port 69 to establish network connections while FTP uses TCP
ports 20 and 21.
Because TFTP is implemented using UDP, it generally works only on local area
networks.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 28

 Cont . . .
• IMAP(Internet Message Access Protocol) is a standard email protocol
that stores email messages on a mail server, but allows the end user
to view and manipulate the messages as though they were stored
locally on the end user's computing device(s).
This allows users to organize messages into folders, have multiple client
applications know which messages have been read, flag messages for urgency
or follow-up and save draft messages on the server.
IMAP can be contrasted with another client/server email protocol, Post Office
Protocol 3 (POP3). With POP3, mail is saved for the end user in a single
mailbox on the server and moved to the end user's device when the mail
client opens. While POP3 can be thought of as a "store-and-forward" service,
IMAP can be thought of as a remote file server.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 29

 Cont . . .
• SMTP(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is the standard protocol for
transferring mail between hosts in the TCP/IP RM. It is usually used by
client side’s email application to send messages to the email server.
• POP3(Post Office Protocol) allows email clients to retrieve email messages
from a remote mail server.
It works with SMTP for end-to-end email communication. POP and IMAP is
responsible to “Pull” the messages from the server and SMTP will “Push” the
messages to the server.
• MIME(Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) is a protocol or an extension
of SMTP which allows users to use the protocol to send different kinds of
data files on the Internet
For example:- audio file, image file (PNG, GIF, JPEG), video or even application
programs.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 30

 Cont . . .
SMTP Used only for sending mail to mail server.
POP Used only for retrieving mail from mail server, and after retrieving the mail list, it
removes the contents from the mail server. Both are not synchronized.

IMAP Used only for retrieving mail from mail server, and after retrieving the mail list. NB:- it
do not remove the contents from the mail server. Both are synchronized.

MIME It is the same as SMTP but has also extended feature for sending multimedia content.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 31

 Cont . . .
• BOOTP is a protocol that lets a network user be automatically
configured (receive an IP address) and have an operating system
booted (initiated) without user involvement.
The BOOTP server, managed by a network administrator, automatically
assigns the IP address from a pool of addresses for a certain duration of
time.
BOOTP is the basis for a more advanced network manager protocol, the
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).
• Telnet stands for telephone network; It allows Telnet client to access
the resources of Telnet server(a remote machine).

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 32

 Cont . . .
• SNMP is used as a network management tool for networks and
internetworks operating TCP/IP.
SNMP is collection of specifications for network management that
include the protocol itself, the definition of a database, and associated
concepts.
SNMP enables network administrators to manage network
performance, find and solve network problems, and plan for network
growth.
There are three types of SNMP, such as SNMP1, SNMP2 SNMP3.
SNMP3 is the latest protocols which includes security enhancements
that authenticate and encrypt SNMP messages as well as protect
packets during transit.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 33

 Cont . . .
SNMP is supported on an extensive range of hardware; from
conventional network equipment like routers, switches and wireless
access points to endpoints like printers, scanners and internet of things
(IoT) devices.
In addition to hardware, SNMP can be used to monitor services such as
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).
SNMP has four components, such as SNMP Agent, SNMP Resources,
SNMP Manager(Network Management System), and
Management Database(MIB)

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 34

 Cont . . .
• SNMP agent is a program which runs on the hardware or service
being monitored, collecting data about various metrics like bandwidth
use or disk space.
SNMP resources are the nodes on which an agent runs. Sometimes
called network elements, can be routers, access servers, switches, and
bridges, hubs, computer hosts, or printers.
SNMP manager is software platform functions as a centralized console
to which agents feed information. It will actively request agents send
updates via SNMP at regular intervals.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 35

 Cont . . .
• Management Database(MB) is
database that specifies and
describes all objects used by a
particular device that can be queried
or controlled using SNMP.
 When queried by the SNMP
manager, the agent sends this
information back to the
management system.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 36

 Cont . . .
• Multimedia refers to the use of multiple forms information including
text, images, audio, and video. Some examples of popular multimedia
files include the .mp3 audio file, .mp4, video, and .avi video, and
.wmv files.
Multimedia transportation is performed using application layer of the
TCPI/IP protocol suite. This data transportation is performed using data
compression.
Data compression is the process of modifying, encoding or converting
the bits structure of data in such a way that it consumes less space on
disk or network bandwidth.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 37

 Cont . . .
• Data compression falls into two broad categories called lossless and
lossy.
In lossless compression, no information is lost and the decompressed
data are identical to the original uncompressed data.
In lossy compression, the decompressed data may be an acceptable
approximation (according to some fidelity criterion) to the original
uncompressed data. It is suitable with graphics, audio, video and
images, where the deletion of some data bits has little or no
apparent effect on the illustration of the content.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 38

 Cont . . .
• MPEG(Moving Picture Experts Group) is standards for encoding digital
audio and video.
Using MPEG compression, the file size of a multimedia file can be
significantly reduced with little noticeable loss in quality. This makes
transferring files over the Internet more efficient, which helps conserve
Internet bandwidth.
MPEG compression is so universal that the term "MPEG" is commonly
used to refer to a video file saved in an MPEG file format rather than
the organization itself. These files usually have a ".mpg" or ".mpeg" file
extension.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 39

 Cont . . .
• GIF(Graphics Interchange Format) is an image file format commonly
used for images on the web and sprites in software programs. Unlike
the JPEG image format, GIFs uses lossless compression that does not
degrade the quality of the image.
• Torrent is a file sent via the BitTorrent protocol. It can be just about
any type of file, such as a movie, song, game, or application. During
the transmission, the file is incomplete and therefore is referred to as
a torrent.
Torrents are different from regular downloads in that they are usually
downloaded from more than one server at a time.
The BitTorrent protocol uses multiple computers to transfer a single
file, thereby reducing the bandwidth required by each server.
Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 40
 Cont . . .
• JPEG(Joint Photographic Experts Group) compression algorithm may
reduce the file size of a bitmap (BMP) image by ten times with almost
no degradation in quality.
• Still, the compression algorithm is lossy, meaning some image quality is
lost during the compression process.
• PNG(Portable Network Graphics) uses lossless compression like GIF
files, so they do not have any blurring or other artifacts that may
appear in JPEG images.
• MP3(MPEG Audio Layer-3) is a compressed audio file format, the
MP3 file may sound similar to the original recording, but requires
significantly less disk space.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 41

TCP/IP RM Summary

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 42

WAN Technologies Summary
• WAN is a data communications network that covers a relatively broad
geographic area and often uses transmission facilities provided by common
carriers, such as telephone companies.
• WAN technologies function at the first three layers of the TCP/IP RM.
• All switched-networks and leased-line connections are WAN technologies.
• All protocols which work are on the first three layers of TCP/IP RM, including
switched-networks protocols are protocols of WAN.
• All devices of the first three layers of TCP/IP RM, including switched-networks
devices and also WAN switches, access servers, modems, CSU/DSUs(Channel
Service Unit/Data Service Unit), and ISDN terminal adapters, routers, ATM
switches, and multiplexers are devices of WAN.

Thursday, May 16, 2019 By Kelele G. 43