![SEC. 1.6 NETWORK STANDARDIZATION 79
other subjects one might not think were subject to standardization]. On issues of
telecommunication standards, ISO and ITU-T often cooperate (ISO is a member
of ITU-T) to avoid the irony of two official and mutually incompatible interna-
tional standards.
Over 17,000 standards have been issued, including the OSI standards. ISO
has over 200 Technical Committees (TCs), numbered in the order of their crea-
tion, each dealing with a specific subject. TC1 deals with the nuts and bolts (stan-
dardizing screw thread pitches). JTC1 deals with information technology, includ-
ing networks, computers, and software. It is the first (and so far only) Joint
Technical Committee, created in 1987 by merging TC97 with activities in IEC,
yet another standardization body. Each TC has subcommittees (SCs) divided into
working groups (WGs).
The real work is done largely in the WGs by over 100,000 volunteers world-
wide. Many of these ‘‘volunteers’’ are assigned to work on ISO matters by their
employers, whose products are being standardized. Others are government offi-
cials keen on having their country’s way of doing things become the international
standard. Academic experts also are active in many of the WGs.
The procedure used by ISO for adopting standards has been designed to
achieve as broad a consensus as possible. The process begins when one of the
national standards organizations feels the need for an international standard in
some area. A working group is then formed to come up with a CD (Committee
Draft). The CD is then circulated to all the member bodies, which get 6 months
to criticize it. If a substantial majority approves, a revised document, called a DIS
(Draft International Standard) is produced and circulated for comments and
voting. Based on the results of this round, the final text of the IS (International
Standard) is prepared, approved, and published. In areas of great controversy, a
CD or DIS may have to go through several versions before acquiring enough
votes, and the whole process can take years.
NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) is part of the U.S.
Department of Commerce. It used to be called the National Bureau of Standards.
It issues standards that are mandatory for purchases made by the U.S. Govern-
ment, except for those of the Department of Defense, which defines its own stan-
dards.
Another major player in the standards world is IEEE (Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers), the largest professional organization in the world.
In addition to publishing scores of journals and running hundreds of conferences
each year, IEEE has a standardization group that develops standards in the area of
electrical engineering and computing. IEEE’s 802 committee has standardized
many kinds of LANs. We will study some of its output later in this book. The ac-
tual work is done by a collection of working groups, which are listed in Fig. 1-38.
The success rate of the various 802 working groups has been low; having an 802.x
number is no guarantee of success. Still, the impact of the success stories (espe-
cially 802.3 and 802.11) on the industry and the world has been enormous.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/andrews-220725181506-51caed1b/85/Andrew-S-Tanenbaum-David-J-Wetherall-Computer-networks-Pearson-Prentice-Hall-2011-pdf-103-320.jpg)
![SEC. 2.1 THE THEORETICAL BASIS FOR DATA COMMUNICATION 91
voltage output by the transmitting computer. The Fourier analysis of this signal
yields the coefficients:
an =
πn
1
[cos(πn /4) − cos(3πn /4) + cos(6πn /4) − cos(7πn /4)]
bn =
πn
1
[sin(3πn /4) − sin(πn /4) + sin(7πn /4) − sin(6πn /4)]
c = 3/4
The root-mean-square amplitudes, √an
2
+ bn
2
, for the first few terms are shown on
the right-hand side of Fig. 2-1(a). These values are of interest because their
squares are proportional to the energy transmitted at the corresponding frequency.
No transmission facility can transmit signals without losing some power in the
process. If all the Fourier components were equally diminished, the resulting sig-
nal would be reduced in amplitude but not distorted [i.e., it would have the same
nice squared-off shape as Fig. 2-1(a)]. Unfortunately, all transmission facilities
diminish different Fourier components by different amounts, thus introducing dis-
tortion. Usually, for a wire, the amplitudes are transmitted mostly undiminished
from 0 up to some frequency fc [measured in cycles/sec or Hertz (Hz)], with all
frequencies above this cutoff frequency attenuated. The width of the frequency
range transmitted without being strongly attenuated is called the bandwidth. In
practice, the cutoff is not really sharp, so often the quoted bandwidth is from 0 to
the frequency at which the received power has fallen by half.
The bandwidth is a physical property of the transmission medium that de-
pends on, for example, the construction, thickness, and length of a wire or fiber.
Filters are often used to further limit the bandwidth of a signal. 802.11 wireless
channels are allowed to use up to roughly 20 MHz, for example, so 802.11 radios
filter the signal bandwidth to this size. As another example, traditional (analog)
television channels occupy 6 MHz each, on a wire or over the air. This filtering
lets more signals share a given region of spectrum, which improves the overall ef-
ficiency of the system. It means that the frequency range for some signals will
not start at zero, but this does not matter. The bandwidth is still the width of the
band of frequencies that are passed, and the information that can be carried de-
pends only on this width and not on the starting and ending frequencies. Signals
that run from 0 up to a maximum frequency are called baseband signals. Signals
that are shifted to occupy a higher range of frequencies, as is the case for all wire-
less transmissions, are called passband signals.
Now let us consider how the signal of Fig. 2-1(a) would look if the bandwidth
were so low that only the lowest frequencies were transmitted [i.e., if the function
were being approximated by the first few terms of Eq. (2-1)]. Figure 2-1(b)
shows the signal that results from a channel that allows only the first harmonic](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/andrews-220725181506-51caed1b/85/Andrew-S-Tanenbaum-David-J-Wetherall-Computer-networks-Pearson-Prentice-Hall-2011-pdf-115-320.jpg)
![106 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2
physicist Heinrich Hertz in 1887. The number of oscillations per second of a
wave is called its frequency, f, and is measured in Hz (in honor of Heinrich
Hertz). The distance between two consecutive maxima (or minima) is called the
wavelength, which is universally designated by the Greek letter λ (lambda).
When an antenna of the appropriate size is attached to an electrical circuit, the
electromagnetic waves can be broadcast efficiently and received by a receiver
some distance away. All wireless communication is based on this principle.
In a vacuum, all electromagnetic waves travel at the same speed, no matter
what their frequency. This speed, usually called the speed of light, c, is approxi-
mately 3 × 108
m/sec, or about 1 foot (30 cm) per nanosecond. (A case could be
made for redefining the foot as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1 nsec
rather than basing it on the shoe size of some long-dead king.) In copper or fiber
the speed slows to about 2/3 of this value and becomes slightly frequency depen-
dent. The speed of light is the ultimate speed limit. No object or signal can ever
move faster than it.
The fundamental relation between f, λ, and c (in a vacuum) is
λf = c (2-4)
Since c is a constant, if we know f, we can find λ, and vice versa. As a rule of
thumb, when λ is in meters and f is in MHz, λf ∼
∼ 300. For example, 100-MHz
waves are about 3 meters long, 1000-MHz waves are 0.3 meters long, and 0.1-
meter waves have a frequency of 3000 MHz.
The electromagnetic spectrum is shown in Fig. 2-10. The radio, microwave,
infrared, and visible light portions of the spectrum can all be used for transmitting
information by modulating the amplitude, frequency, or phase of the waves.
Ultraviolet light, X-rays, and gamma rays would be even better, due to their high-
er frequencies, but they are hard to produce and modulate, do not propagate well
through buildings, and are dangerous to living things. The bands listed at the bot-
tom of Fig. 2-10 are the official ITU (International Telecommunication Union)
names and are based on the wavelengths, so the LF band goes from 1 km to 10 km
(approximately 30 kHz to 300 kHz). The terms LF, MF, and HF refer to Low,
Medium, and High Frequency, respectively. Clearly, when the names were as-
signed nobody expected to go above 10 MHz, so the higher bands were later
named the Very, Ultra, Super, Extremely, and Tremendously High Frequency
bands. Beyond that there are no names, but Incredibly, Astonishingly, and Prodi-
giously High Frequency (IHF, AHF, and PHF) would sound nice.
We know from Shannon [Eq. (2-3)] that the amount of information that a sig-
nal such as an electromagnetic wave can carry depends on the received power and
is proportional to its bandwidth. From Fig. 2-10 it should now be obvious why
networking people like fiber optics so much. Many GHz of bandwidth are avail-
able to tap for data transmission in the microwave band, and even more in fiber
because it is further to the right in our logarithmic scale. As an example, consider
the 1.30-micron band of Fig. 2-7, which has a width of 0.17 microns. If we use](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/andrews-220725181506-51caed1b/85/Andrew-S-Tanenbaum-David-J-Wetherall-Computer-networks-Pearson-Prentice-Hall-2011-pdf-130-320.jpg)
![110 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2
In the VLF, LF, and MF bands, radio waves follow the ground, as illustrated
in Fig. 2-12(a). These waves can be detected for perhaps 1000 km at the lower
frequencies, less at the higher ones. AM radio broadcasting uses the MF band,
which is why the ground waves from Boston AM radio stations cannot be heard
easily in New York. Radio waves in these bands pass through buildings easily,
which is why portable radios work indoors. The main problem with using these
bands for data communication is their low bandwidth [see Eq. (2-4)].
e
r
e
h
p
s
o
n
o
I
Earth's surface Earth's surface
(a) (b)
Ground
wave
Figure 2-12. (a) In the VLF, LF, and MF bands, radio waves follow the curva-
ture of the earth. (b) In the HF band, they bounce off the ionosphere.
In the HF and VHF bands, the ground waves tend to be absorbed by the earth.
However, the waves that reach the ionosphere, a layer of charged particles cir-
cling the earth at a height of 100 to 500 km, are refracted by it and sent back to
earth, as shown in Fig. 2-12(b). Under certain atmospheric conditions, the signals
can bounce several times. Amateur radio operators (hams) use these bands to talk
long distance. The military also communicate in the HF and VHF bands.
2.3.3 Microwave Transmission
Above 100 MHz, the waves travel in nearly straight lines and can therefore be
narrowly focused. Concentrating all the energy into a small beam by means of a
parabolic antenna (like the familiar satellite TV dish) gives a much higher signal-
to-noise ratio, but the transmitting and receiving antennas must be accurately
aligned with each other. In addition, this directionality allows multiple trans-
mitters lined up in a row to communicate with multiple receivers in a row without
interference, provided some minimum spacing rules are observed. Before fiber
optics, for decades these microwaves formed the heart of the long-distance tele-
phone transmission system. In fact, MCI, one of AT&T’s first competitors after it
was deregulated, built its entire system with microwave communications passing
between towers tens of kilometers apart. Even the company’s name reflected this
(MCI stood for Microwave Communications, Inc.). MCI has since gone over to
fiber and through a long series of corporate mergers and bankruptcies in the
telecommunications shuffle has become part of Verizon.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/andrews-220725181506-51caed1b/85/Andrew-S-Tanenbaum-David-J-Wetherall-Computer-networks-Pearson-Prentice-Hall-2011-pdf-134-320.jpg)
![126 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2
(Clock that is XORed with bits)
(a) Bit stream
(b) Non-Return to Zero (NRZ)
(c) NRZ Invert (NRZI)
(d) Manchester
(e) Bipolar encoding
(also Alternate Mark
Inversion, AMI)
1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1
Figure 2-20. Line codes: (a) Bits, (b) NRZ, (c) NRZI, (d) Manchester, (e) Bi-
polar or AMI.
This signal will not look exactly like the signal that was sent. It will be attenuated
and distorted by the channel and noise at the receiver. To decode the bits, the re-
ceiver maps the signal samples to the closest symbols. For NRZ, a positive volt-
age will be taken to indicate that a 1 was sent and a negative voltage will be taken
to indicate that a 0 was sent.
NRZ is a good starting point for our studies because it is simple, but it is sel-
dom used by itself in practice. More complex schemes can convert bits to signals
that better meet engineering considerations. These schemes are called line codes.
Below, we describe line codes that help with bandwidth efficiency, clock recov-
ery, and DC balance.
Bandwidth Efficiency
With NRZ, the signal may cycle between the positive and negative levels up
to every 2 bits (in the case of alternating 1s and 0s). This means that we need a
bandwidth of at least B/2 Hz when the bit rate is B bits/sec. This relation comes
from the Nyquist rate [Eq. (2-2)]. It is a fundamental limit, so we cannot run NRZ
faster without using more bandwidth. Bandwidth is often a limited resource, even
for wired channels, Higher-frequency signals are increasingly attenuated, making
them less useful, and higher-frequency signals also require faster electronics.
One strategy for using limited bandwidth more efficiently is to use more than
two signaling levels. By using four voltages, for instance, we can send 2 bits at
once as a single symbol. This design will work as long as the signal at the re-
ceiver is sufficiently strong to distinguish the four levels. The rate at which the
signal changes is then half the bit rate, so the needed bandwidth has been reduced.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/andrews-220725181506-51caed1b/85/Andrew-S-Tanenbaum-David-J-Wetherall-Computer-networks-Pearson-Prentice-Hall-2011-pdf-150-320.jpg)
![SEC. 2.5 DIGITAL MODULATION AND MULTIPLEXING 137
In plain English, as many pairs are the same as are different. This orthogonality
property will prove crucial later. Note that if S T = 0, then S T is also 0. The
normalized inner product of any chip sequence with itself is 1:
S S =
m
1
i =1
Σ
m
SiSi =
m
1
i =1
Σ
m
Si
2
=
m
1
i =1
Σ
m
(±1)2
= 1
This follows because each of the m terms in the inner product is 1, so the sum is
m. Also note that S S = −1.
(b)
A = (–1 –1 –1 +1 +1 –1 +1 +1)
B = (–1 –1 +1 –1 +1 +1 +1 –1)
C = (–1 +1 –1 +1 +1 +1 –1 –1)
D = (–1 +1 –1 –1 –1 –1 +1 –1)
(a)
(c) (d)
S1 = C = (–1 +1 –1 +1 +1 +1 –1 –1)
S2 = B+C = (–2 0 0 0 +2 +2 0 –2)
S3 = A+B = ( 0 0 –2 +2 0 –2 0 +2)
S4 = A+B+C = (–1 +1 –3 +3 +1 –1 –1 +1)
S5 = A+B+C+D = (–4 0 –2 0 +2 0 +2 –2)
S6 = A+B+C+D = (–2 –2 0 –2 0 –2 +4 0)
S1 C = [1+1–1+1+1+1–1–1]/8 = 1
S2 C = [2+0+0+0+2+2+0+2]/8 = 1
S3 C = [0+0+2+2+0–2+0–2]/8 = 0
S4 C = [1+1+3+3+1–1+1–1]/8 = 1
S5 C = [4+0+2+0+2+0–2+2]/8 = 1
S6 C = [2–2+0–2+0–2–4+0]/8 = –1
Figure 2-28. (a) Chip sequences for four stations. (b) Signals the sequences
represent (c) Six examples of transmissions. (d) Recovery of station C’s signal.
During each bit time, a station can transmit a 1 (by sending its chip sequence),
it can transmit a 0 (by sending the negative of its chip sequence), or it can be
silent and transmit nothing. We assume for now that all stations are synchronized
in time, so all chip sequences begin at the same instant. When two or more sta-
tions transmit simultaneously, their bipolar sequences add linearly. For example,
if in one chip period three stations output +1 and one station outputs −1, +2 will
be received. One can think of this as signals that add as voltages superimposed on
the channel: three stations output +1 V and one station outputs −1 V, so that 2 V is
received. For instance, in Fig. 2-28(c) we see six examples of one or more sta-
tions transmitting 1 bit at the same time. In the first example, C transmits a 1 bit,
so we just get C’s chip sequence. In the second example, both B and C transmit 1
bits, so we get the sum of their bipolar chip sequences, namely:
(−1 −1 +1 −1 +1 +1 +1 −1) + (−1 +1 −1 +1 +1 +1 −1 −1) = (−2 0 0 0 +2 +2 0 −2)
To recover the bit stream of an individual station, the receiver must know that
station’s chip sequence in advance. It does the recovery by computing the nor-
malized inner product of the received chip sequence and the chip sequence of the
station whose bit stream it is trying to recover. If the received chip sequence is S
and the receiver is trying to listen to a station whose chip sequence is C, it just
computes the normalized inner product, S C.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/andrews-220725181506-51caed1b/85/Andrew-S-Tanenbaum-David-J-Wetherall-Computer-networks-Pearson-Prentice-Hall-2011-pdf-161-320.jpg)
![SEC. 2.7 THE MOBILE TELEPHONE SYSTEM 171
GSM and the other mobile phone systems we will study retain from 1G sys-
tems a design based on cells, frequency reuse across cells, and mobility with
handoffs as subscribers move. It is the details that differ. Here, we will briefly
discuss some of the main properties of GSM. However, the printed GSM stan-
dard is over 5000 [sic] pages long. A large fraction of this material relates to en-
gineering aspects of the system, especially the design of receivers to handle mul-
tipath signal propagation, and synchronizing transmitters and receivers. None of
this will be even mentioned here.
Fig. 2-46 shows that the GSM architecture is similar to the AMPS architec-
ture, though the components have different names. The mobile itself is now di-
vided into the handset and a removable chip with subscriber and account infor-
mation called a SIM card, short for Subscriber Identity Module. It is the SIM
card that activates the handset and contains secrets that let the mobile and the net-
work identify each other and encrypt conversations. A SIM card can be removed
and plugged into a different handset to turn that handset into your mobile as far as
the network is concerned.
VLR
MSC
Air
interface
Cell tower and
base station
PSTN
SIM
card
Handset
HLR
BSC
BSC
Figure 2-46. GSM mobile network architecture.
The mobile talks to cell base stations over an air interface that we will de-
scribe in a moment. The cell base stations are each connected to a BSC (Base
Station Controller) that controls the radio resources of cells and handles handoff.
The BSC in turn is connected to an MSC (as in AMPS) that routes calls and con-
nects to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network).
To be able to route calls, the MSC needs to know where mobiles can currently
be found. It maintains a database of nearby mobiles that are associated with the
cells it manages. This database is called the VLR (Visitor Location Register).
There is also a database in the mobile network that gives the last known location
of each mobile. It is called the HLR (Home Location Register). This database is
used to route incoming calls to the right locations. Both databases must be kept
up to date as mobiles move from cell to cell.
We will now describe the air interface in some detail. GSM runs on a range
of frequencies worldwide, including 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz. More spectrum is
allocated than for AMPS in order to support a much larger number of users. GSM](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/andrews-220725181506-51caed1b/85/Andrew-S-Tanenbaum-David-J-Wetherall-Computer-networks-Pearson-Prentice-Hall-2011-pdf-195-320.jpg)
![SEC. 3.2 ERROR DETECTION AND CORRECTION 213
the subtraction is again done modulo 2. A divisor is said ‘‘to go into’’ a dividend
if the dividend has as many bits as the divisor.
When the polynomial code method is employed, the sender and receiver must
agree upon a generator polynomial, G(x), in advance. Both the high- and low-
order bits of the generator must be 1. To compute the CRC for some frame with
m bits corresponding to the polynomial M(x), the frame must be longer than the
generator polynomial. The idea is to append a CRC to the end of the frame in
such a way that the polynomial represented by the checksummed frame is divisi-
ble by G(x). When the receiver gets the checksummed frame, it tries dividing it
by G(x). If there is a remainder, there has been a transmission error.
The algorithm for computing the CRC is as follows:
1. Let r be the degree of G(x). Append r zero bits to the low-order end
of the frame so it now contains m + r bits and corresponds to the
polynomial xr
M(x).
2. Divide the bit string corresponding to G(x) into the bit string corres-
ponding to xr
M(x), using modulo 2 division.
3. Subtract the remainder (which is always r or fewer bits) from the bit
string corresponding to xr
M(x) using modulo 2 subtraction. The re-
sult is the checksummed frame to be transmitted. Call its polynomial
T(x).
Figure 3-9 illustrates the calculation for a frame 1101011111 using the generator
G(x) = x4
+ x + 1.
It should be clear that T(x) is divisible (modulo 2) by G(x). In any division
problem, if you diminish the dividend by the remainder, what is left over is divisi-
ble by the divisor. For example, in base 10, if you divide 210,278 by 10,941, the
remainder is 2399. If you then subtract 2399 from 210,278, what is left over
(207,879) is divisible by 10,941.
Now let us analyze the power of this method. What kinds of errors will be de-
tected? Imagine that a transmission error occurs, so that instead of the bit string
for T(x) arriving, T(x) + E(x) arrives. Each 1 bit in E(x) corresponds to a bit that
has been inverted. If there are k 1 bits in E(x), k single-bit errors have occurred.
A single burst error is characterized by an initial 1, a mixture of 0s and 1s, and a
final 1, with all other bits being 0.
Upon receiving the checksummed frame, the receiver divides it by G(x); that
is, it computes [T(x) + E(x)]/G(x). T(x)/G(x) is 0, so the result of the computa-
tion is simply E(x)/G(x). Those errors that happen to correspond to polynomials
containing G(x) as a factor will slip by; all other errors will be caught.
If there has been a single-bit error, E(x) = xi
, where i determines which bit is
in error. If G(x) contains two or more terms, it will never divide into E(x), so all
single-bit errors will be detected.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/andrews-220725181506-51caed1b/85/Andrew-S-Tanenbaum-David-J-Wetherall-Computer-networks-Pearson-Prentice-Hall-2011-pdf-237-320.jpg)
![SEC. 3.3 ELEMENTARY DATA LINK PROTOCOLS 217
#define MAX PKT 1024 /* determines packet size in bytes */
typedef enum {false, true} boolean; /* boolean type */
typedef unsigned int seq nr; /* sequence or ack numbers */
typedef struct {unsigned char data[MAX PKT];} packet; /* packet definition */
typedef enum {data, ack, nak} frame kind; /* frame kind definition */
typedef struct { /* frames are transported in this layer */
frame kind kind; /* what kind of frame is it? */
seq nr seq; /* sequence number */
seq nr ack; /* acknowledgement number */
packet info; /* the network layer packet */
} frame;
/* Wait for an event to happen; return its type in event. */
void wait for event(event type *event);
/* Fetch a packet from the network layer for transmission on the channel. */
void from network layer(packet *p);
/* Deliver information from an inbound frame to the network layer. */
void to network layer(packet *p);
/* Go get an inbound frame from the physical layer and copy it to r. */
void from physical layer(frame *r);
/* Pass the frame to the physical layer for transmission. */
void to physical layer(frame *s);
/* Start the clock running and enable the timeout event. */
void start timer(seq nr k);
/* Stop the clock and disable the timeout event. */
void stop timer(seq nr k);
/* Start an auxiliary timer and enable the ack timeout event. */
void start ack timer(void);
/* Stop the auxiliary timer and disable the ack timeout event. */
void stop ack timer(void);
/* Allow the network layer to cause a network layer ready event. */
void enable network layer(void);
/* Forbid the network layer from causing a network layer ready event. */
void disable network layer(void);
/* Macro inc is expanded in-line: increment k circularly. */
#define inc(k) if (k < MAX SEQ) k = k + 1; else k = 0
Figure 3-11. Some definitions needed in the protocols to follow. These defini-
tions are located in the file protocol.h.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/andrews-220725181506-51caed1b/85/Andrew-S-Tanenbaum-David-J-Wetherall-Computer-networks-Pearson-Prentice-Hall-2011-pdf-241-320.jpg)
![236 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3
/* Protocol 5 (Go-back-n) allows multiple outstanding frames. The sender may transmit up
to MAX SEQ frames without waiting for an ack. In addition, unlike in the previous
protocols, the network layer is not assumed to have a new packet all the time. Instead,
the network layer causes a network layer ready event when there is a packet to send. */
#define MAX SEQ 7
typedef enum {frame arrival, cksum err, timeout, network layer ready} event type;
#include "protocol.h"
static boolean between(seq nr a, seq nr b, seq nr c)
{
/* Return true if a <= b < c circularly; false otherwise. */
if (((a <= b) && (b < c)) || ((c < a) && (a <= b)) || ((b < c) && (c < a)))
return(true);
else
return(false);
}
static void send data(seq nr frame nr, seq nr frame expected, packet buffer[ ])
{
/* Construct and send a data frame. */
frame s; /* scratch variable */
s.info = buffer[frame nr]; /* insert packet into frame */
s.seq = frame nr; /* insert sequence number into frame */
s.ack = (frame expected + MAX SEQ) % (MAX SEQ + 1);/* piggyback ack */
to physical layer(&s); /* transmit the frame */
start timer(frame nr); /* start the timer running */
}
void protocol5(void)
{
seq nr next frame to send; /* MAX SEQ > 1; used for outbound stream */
seq nr ack expected; /* oldest frame as yet unacknowledged */
seq nr frame expected; /* next frame expected on inbound stream */
frame r; /* scratch variable */
packet buffer[MAX SEQ + 1]; /* buffers for the outbound stream */
seq nr nbuffered; /* number of output buffers currently in use */
seq nr i; /* used to index into the buffer array */
event type event;
enable network layer(); /* allow network layer ready events */
ack expected = 0; /* next ack expected inbound */
next frame to send = 0; /* next frame going out */
frame expected = 0; /* number of frame expected inbound */
nbuffered = 0; /* initially no packets are buffered */
while (true) {
wait for event(&event); /* four possibilities: see event type above */](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/andrews-220725181506-51caed1b/85/Andrew-S-Tanenbaum-David-J-Wetherall-Computer-networks-Pearson-Prentice-Hall-2011-pdf-260-320.jpg)
![SEC. 3.4 SLIDING WINDOW PROTOCOLS 237
switch(event) {
case network layer ready: /* the network layer has a packet to send */
/* Accept, save, and transmit a new frame. */
from network layer(&buffer[next frame to send]); /* fetch new packet */
nbuffered = nbuffered + 1; /* expand the sender’s window */
send data(next frame to send, frame expected, buffer);/* transmit the frame */
inc(next frame to send); /* advance sender’s upper window edge */
break;
case frame arrival: /* a data or control frame has arrived */
from physical layer(&r); /* get incoming frame from physical layer */
if (r.seq == frame expected) {
/* Frames are accepted only in order. */
to network layer(&r.info); /* pass packet to network layer */
inc(frame expected); /* advance lower edge of receiver’s window */
}
/* Ack n implies n − 1, n − 2, etc. Check for this. */
while (between(ack expected, r.ack, next frame to send)) {
/* Handle piggybacked ack. */
nbuffered = nbuffered − 1; /* one frame fewer buffered */
stop timer(ack expected); /* frame arrived intact; stop timer */
inc(ack expected); /* contract sender’s window */
}
break;
case cksum err: break; /* just ignore bad frames */
case timeout: /* trouble; retransmit all outstanding frames */
next frame to send = ack expected; /* start retransmitting here */
for (i = 1; i <= nbuffered; i++) {
send data(next frame to send, frame expected, buffer);/* resend frame */
inc(next frame to send); /* prepare to send the next one */
}
}
if (nbuffered < MAX SEQ)
enable network layer();
else
disable network layer();
}
}
Figure 3-19. A sliding window protocol using go-back-n.
The question is this: did all eight frames belonging to the second batch arrive suc-
cessfully, or did all eight get lost (counting discards following an error as lost)?
In both cases the receiver would be sending frame 7 as the acknowledgement.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/andrews-220725181506-51caed1b/85/Andrew-S-Tanenbaum-David-J-Wetherall-Computer-networks-Pearson-Prentice-Hall-2011-pdf-261-320.jpg)
![240 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3
/* Protocol 6 (Selective repeat) accepts frames out of order but passes packets to the
network layer in order. Associated with each outstanding frame is a timer. When the timer
expires, only that frame is retransmitted, not all the outstanding frames, as in protocol 5. */
#define MAX SEQ 7 /* should be 2ˆn − 1 */
#define NR BUFS ((MAX SEQ + 1)/2)
typedef enum {frame arrival, cksum err, timeout, network layer ready, ack timeout} event type;
#include "protocol.h"
boolean no nak = true; /* no nak has been sent yet */
seq nr oldest frame = MAX SEQ + 1; /* initial value is only for the simulator */
static boolean between(seq nr a, seq nr b, seq nr c)
{
/* Same as between in protocol 5, but shorter and more obscure. */
return ((a <= b) && (b < c)) || ((c < a) && (a <= b)) || ((b < c) && (c < a));
}
static void send frame(frame kind fk, seq nr frame nr, seq nr frame expected, packet buffer[ ])
{
/* Construct and send a data, ack, or nak frame. */
frame s; /* scratch variable */
s.kind = fk; /* kind == data, ack, or nak */
if (fk == data) s.info = buffer[frame nr % NR BUFS];
s.seq = frame nr; /* only meaningful for data frames */
s.ack = (frame expected + MAX SEQ) % (MAX SEQ + 1);
if (fk == nak) no nak = false; /* one nak per frame, please */
to physical layer(&s); /* transmit the frame */
if (fk == data) start timer(frame nr % NR BUFS);
stop ack timer(); /* no need for separate ack frame */
}
void protocol6(void)
{
seq nr ack expected; /* lower edge of sender’s window */
seq nr next frame to send; /* upper edge of sender’s window + 1 */
seq nr frame expected; /* lower edge of receiver’s window */
seq nr too far; /* upper edge of receiver’s window + 1 */
int i; /* index into buffer pool */
frame r; /* scratch variable */
packet out buf[NR BUFS]; /* buffers for the outbound stream */
packet in buf[NR BUFS]; /* buffers for the inbound stream */
boolean arrived[NR BUFS]; /* inbound bit map */
seq nr nbuffered; /* how many output buffers currently used */
event type event;
enable network layer(); /* initialize */
ack expected = 0; /* next ack expected on the inbound stream */
next frame to send = 0; /* number of next outgoing frame */
frame expected = 0;
too far = NR BUFS;
nbuffered = 0; /* initially no packets are buffered */
for (i = 0; i < NR BUFS; i++) arrived[i] = false;](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/andrews-220725181506-51caed1b/85/Andrew-S-Tanenbaum-David-J-Wetherall-Computer-networks-Pearson-Prentice-Hall-2011-pdf-264-320.jpg)
![SEC. 3.4 SLIDING WINDOW PROTOCOLS 241
while (true) {
wait for event(&event); /* five possibilities: see event type above */
switch(event) {
case network layer ready: /* accept, save, and transmit a new frame */
nbuffered = nbuffered + 1; /* expand the window */
from network layer(&out buf[next frame to send % NR BUFS]); /* fetch new packet */
send frame(data, next frame to send, frame expected, out buf);/* transmit the frame */
inc(next frame to send); /* advance upper window edge */
break;
case frame arrival: /* a data or control frame has arrived */
from physical layer(&r); /* fetch incoming frame from physical layer */
if (r.kind == data) {
/* An undamaged frame has arrived. */
if ((r.seq != frame expected) && no nak)
send frame(nak, 0, frame expected, out buf); else start ack timer();
if (between(frame expected,r.seq,too far) && (arrived[r.seq%NR BUFS]==false)) {
/* Frames may be accepted in any order. */
arrived[r.seq % NR BUFS] = true; /* mark buffer as full */
in buf[r.seq % NR BUFS] = r.info; /* insert data into buffer */
while (arrived[frame expected % NR BUFS]) {
/* Pass frames and advance window. */
to network layer(&in buf[frame expected % NR BUFS]);
no nak = true;
arrived[frame expected % NR BUFS] = false;
inc(frame expected); /* advance lower edge of receiver’s window */
inc(too far); /* advance upper edge of receiver’s window */
start ack timer(); /* to see if a separate ack is needed */
}
}
}
if((r.kind==nak) && between(ack expected,(r.ack+1)%(MAX SEQ+1),next frame to send))
send frame(data, (r.ack+1) % (MAX SEQ + 1), frame expected, out buf);
while (between(ack expected, r.ack, next frame to send)) {
nbuffered = nbuffered − 1; /* handle piggybacked ack */
stop timer(ack expected % NR BUFS); /* frame arrived intact */
inc(ack expected); /* advance lower edge of sender’s window */
}
break;
case cksum err:
if (no nak) send frame(nak, 0, frame expected, out buf); /* damaged frame */
break;
case timeout:
send frame(data, oldest frame, frame expected, out buf); /* we timed out */
break;
case ack timeout:
send frame(ack,0,frame expected, out buf); /* ack timer expired; send ack */
}
if (nbuffered < NR BUFS) enable network layer(); else disable network layer();
}
}
Figure 3-21. A sliding window protocol using selective repeat.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/andrews-220725181506-51caed1b/85/Andrew-S-Tanenbaum-David-J-Wetherall-Computer-networks-Pearson-Prentice-Hall-2011-pdf-265-320.jpg)
![264 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4
shaded frame arrive undamaged? Let t be the time required to send one frame. If
any other user has generated a frame between time t0 and t0 + t, the end of that
frame will collide with the beginning of the shaded one. In fact, the shaded
frame’s fate was already sealed even before the first bit was sent, but since in pure
ALOHA a station does not listen to the channel before transmitting, it has no way
of knowing that another frame was already underway. Similarly, any other frame
started between t0 + t and t0 + 2t will bump into the end of the shaded frame.
Collides with
the start of
the shaded
frame
Collides with
the end of
the shaded
frame
t
t0 t0+ t t0+ 2t t0+ 3t Time
Vulnerable
Figure 4-2. Vulnerable period for the shaded frame.
The probability that k frames are generated during a given frame time, in
which G frames are expected, is given by the Poisson distribution
Pr[k ] =
k!
Gk
e−G
(4-2)
so the probability of zero frames is just e−G
. In an interval two frame times long,
the mean number of frames generated is 2G. The probability of no frames being
initiated during the entire vulnerable period is thus given by P0 = e−2G
. Using
S = GP0, we get
S = Ge−2G
The relation between the offered traffic and the throughput is shown in
Fig. 4-3. The maximum throughput occurs at G = 0.5, with S = 1/2e, which is
about 0.184. In other words, the best we can hope for is a channel utilization of
18%. This result is not very encouraging, but with everyone transmitting at will,
we could hardly have expected a 100% success rate.
Slotted ALOHA
Soon after ALOHA came onto the scene, Roberts (1972) published a method
for doubling the capacity of an ALOHA system. His proposal was to divide time
into discrete intervals called slots, each interval corresponding to one frame. This](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/andrews-220725181506-51caed1b/85/Andrew-S-Tanenbaum-David-J-Wetherall-Computer-networks-Pearson-Prentice-Hall-2011-pdf-288-320.jpg)
![274 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4
4.2.4 Limited-Contention Protocols
We have now considered two basic strategies for channel acquisition in a
broadcast network: contention, as in CSMA, and collision-free protocols. Each
strategy can be rated as to how well it does with respect to the two important per-
formance measures, delay at low load and channel efficiency at high load. Under
conditions of light load, contention (i.e., pure or slotted ALOHA) is preferable
due to its low delay (since collisions are rare). As the load increases, contention
becomes increasingly less attractive because the overhead associated with channel
arbitration becomes greater. Just the reverse is true for the collision-free proto-
cols. At low load, they have relatively high delay but as the load increases, the
channel efficiency improves (since the overheads are fixed).
Obviously, it would be nice if we could combine the best properties of the
contention and collision-free protocols, arriving at a new protocol that used con-
tention at low load to provide low delay, but used a collision-free technique at
high load to provide good channel efficiency. Such protocols, which we will call
limited-contention protocols, do in fact exist, and will conclude our study of car-
rier sense networks.
Up to now, the only contention protocols we have studied have been symmet-
ric. That is, each station attempts to acquire the channel with some probability, p,
with all stations using the same p. Interestingly enough, the overall system per-
formance can sometimes be improved by using a protocol that assigns different
probabilities to different stations.
Before looking at the asymmetric protocols, let us quickly review the per-
formance of the symmetric case. Suppose that k stations are contending for chan-
nel access. Each has a probability p of transmitting during each slot. The
probability that some station successfully acquires the channel during a given slot
is the probability that any one station transmits, with probability p, and all other
k − 1 stations defer, each with probability 1 − p. This value is kp(1 − p)k − 1
. To
find the optimal value of p, we differentiate with respect to p, set the result to
zero, and solve for p. Doing so, we find that the best value of p is 1/k. Substitut-
ing p = 1/k, we get
Pr[success with optimal p] =
⎧
⎪
⎩ k
k − 1 ⎫
⎪
⎭
k − 1
(4-4)
This probability is plotted in Fig. 4-9. For small numbers of stations, the chances
of success are good, but as soon as the number of stations reaches even five, the
probability has dropped close to its asymptotic value of 1/e.
From Fig. 4-9, it is fairly obvious that the probability of some station acquir-
ing the channel can be increased only by decreasing the amount of competition.
The limited-contention protocols do precisely that. They first divide the stations
into (not necessarily disjoint) groups. Only the members of group 0 are permitted](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/andrews-220725181506-51caed1b/85/Andrew-S-Tanenbaum-David-J-Wetherall-Computer-networks-Pearson-Prentice-Hall-2011-pdf-298-320.jpg)
![SEC. 5.2 ROUTING ALGORITHMS 369
#define MAX NODES 1024 /* maximum number of nodes */
#define INFINITY 1000000000 /* a number larger than every maximum path */
int n, dist[MAX NODES][MAX NODES]; /* dist[i][j] is the distance from i to j */
void shortest path(int s, int t, int path[])
{ struct state { /* the path being worked on */
int predecessor; /* previous node */
int length; /* length from source to this node */
enum {permanent, tentative} label; /* label state */
} state[MAX NODES];
int i, k, min;
struct state *p;
for (p = &state[0]; p < &state[n]; p++) { /* initialize state */
p->predecessor = −1;
p->length = INFINITY;
p->label = tentative;
}
state[t].length = 0; state[t].label = permanent;
k = t; /* k is the initial working node */
do { /* Is there a better path from k? */
for (i = 0; i < n; i++) /* this graph has n nodes */
if (dist[k][i] != 0 && state[i].label == tentative) {
if (state[k].length + dist[k][i] < state[i].length) {
state[i].predecessor = k;
state[i].length = state[k].length + dist[k][i];
}
}
/* Find the tentatively labeled node with the smallest label. */
k = 0; min = INFINITY;
for (i = 0; i < n; i++)
if (state[i].label == tentative && state[i].length < min) {
min = state[i].length;
k = i;
}
state[k].label = permanent;
} while (k != s);
/* Copy the path into the output array. */
i = 0; k = s;
do {path[i++] = k; k = state[k].predecessor; } while (k >= 0);
}
Figure 5-8. Dijkstra’s algorithm to compute the shortest path through a graph.
To prevent the list from growing without bound, each list should be aug-
mented by a counter, k, meaning that all sequence numbers through k have been
seen. When a packet comes in, it is easy to check if the packet has already been](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/andrews-220725181506-51caed1b/85/Andrew-S-Tanenbaum-David-J-Wetherall-Computer-networks-Pearson-Prentice-Hall-2011-pdf-393-320.jpg)
Andrew S. Tanenbaum, David J. Wetherall - Computer networks-Pearson Prentice Hall (2011).pdf
- 2. This page intentionally left blank
- 4. This page intentionally left blank
- 5. COMPUTER NETWORKS FIFTH EDITION ANDREW S. TANENBAUM Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands DAVID J. WETHERALL University of Washington Seattle, WA PRENTICE HALL Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Paris Montreal Toronto Delhi Mexico City Sao Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Tapei Tokyo
- 6. Editorial Director: Marcia Horton Editor-in-Chief: Michael Hirsch Executive Editor: Tracy Dunkelberger Assistant Editor: Melinda Haggerty Editorial Assistant: Allison Michael Vice President, Marketing: Patrice Jones Marketing Manager: Yezan Alayan Marketing Coordinator: Kathryn Ferranti Vice President, Production: Vince O’Brien Managing Editor: Jeff Holcomb Senior Operations Supervisor: Alan Fischer Manufacturing Buyer: Lisa McDowell Cover Direction: Andrew S. Tanenbaum, David J. Wetherall, Tracy Dunkelberger Art Director: Linda Knowles Cover Designer: Susan Paradise Cover Illustration: Jason Consalvo Interior Design: Andrew S. Tanenbaum AV Production Project Manager: Gregory L. Dulles Interior Illustrations: Laserwords, Inc. Media Editor: Daniel Sandin Composition: Andrew S. Tanenbaum Copyeditor: Rachel Head Proofreader: Joe Ruddick Printer/Binder: Courier/Westford Cover Printer: Lehigh-Phoenix Color/ Hagerstown Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with permission, in this textbook appear on appropriate page within text. Many of the designations by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in initial caps or all caps. Copyright © 2011, 2003, 1996, 1989, 1981 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice Hall. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. This publication is protected by Copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. To obtain permission(s) to use material from this work, please submit a written request to Pearson Education, Inc., Permissions Department, 501 Boylston Street, Suite 900, Boston, Massachusetts 02116. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tanenbaum, Andrew S., 1944- Computer networks / Andrew S. Tanenbaum, David J. Wetherall. -- 5th ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-13-212695-3 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-13-212695-8 (alk. paper) 1. Computer networks. I. Wetherall, D. (David) II. Title. TK5105.5.T36 2011 004.6--dc22 2010034366 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1—CRW—14 13 12 11 10
- 7. To Suzanne, Barbara, Daniel, Aron, Marvin, Matilde, and the memory of Bram, and Sweetie π (AST) To Katrin, Lucy, and Pepper (DJW)
- 8. This page intentionally left blank
- 9. CONTENTS PREFACE xix 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 USES OF COMPUTER NETWORKS, 3 1.1.1 Business Applications, 3 1.1.2 Home Applications, 6 1.1.3 Mobile Users, 10 1.1.4 Social Issues, 14 1.2 NETWORK HARDWARE, 17 1.2.1 Personal Area Networks, 18 1.2.2 Local Area Networks, 19 1.2.3 Metropolitan Area Networks, 23 1.2.4 Wide Area Networks, 23 1.2.5 Internetworks, 28 1.3 NETWORK SOFTWARE, 29 1.3.1 Protocol Hierarchies, 29 1.3.2 Design Issues for the Layers, 33 1.3.3 Connection-Oriented Versus Connectionless Service, 35 1.3.4 Service Primitives, 38 1.3.5 The Relationship of Services to Protocols, 40 1.4 REFERENCE MODELS, 41 1.4.1 The OSI Reference Model, 41 1.4.2 The TCP/IP Reference Model, 45 1.4.3 The Model Used in This Book, 48 vii
- 10. viii CONTENTS 1.4.4 A Comparison of the OSI and TCP/IP Reference Models*, 49 1.4.5 A Critique of the OSI Model and Protocols*, 51 1.4.6 A Critique of the TCP/IP Reference Model*, 53 1.5 EXAMPLE NETWORKS, 54 1.5.1 The Internet, 54 1.5.2 Third-Generation Mobile Phone Networks*, 65 1.5.3 Wireless LANs: 802.11*, 70 1.5.4 RFID and Sensor Networks*, 73 1.6 NETWORK STANDARDIZATION*, 75 1.6.1 Who’s Who in the Telecommunications World, 77 1.6.2 Who’s Who in the International Standards World, 78 1.6.3 Who’s Who in the Internet Standards World, 80 1.7 METRIC UNITS, 82 1.8 OUTLINE OF THE REST OF THE BOOK, 83 1.9 SUMMARY, 84 2 THE PHYSICAL LAYER 89 2.1 THE THEORETICAL BASIS FOR DATA COMMUNICATION, 90 2.1.1 Fourier Analysis, 90 2.1.2 Bandwidth-Limited Signals, 90 2.1.3 The Maximum Data Rate of a Channel, 94 2.2 GUIDED TRANSMISSION MEDIA, 95 2.2.1 Magnetic Media, 95 2.2.2 Twisted Pairs, 96 2.2.3 Coaxial Cable, 97 2.2.4 Power Lines, 98 2.2.5 Fiber Optics, 99 2.3 WIRELESS TRANSMISSION, 105 2.3.1 The Electromagnetic Spectrum, 105 2.3.2 Radio Transmission, 109 2.3.3 Microwave Transmission, 110 2.3.4 Infrared Transmission, 114 2.3.5 Light Transmission, 114
- 11. CONTENTS ix 2.4 COMMUNICATION SATELLITES*, 116 2.4.1 Geostationary Satellites, 117 2.4.2 Medium-Earth Orbit Satellites, 121 2.4.3 Low-Earth Orbit Satellites, 121 2.4.4 Satellites Versus Fiber, 123 2.5 DIGITAL MODULATION AND MULTIPLEXING, 125 2.5.1 Baseband Transmission, 125 2.5.2 Passband Transmission, 130 2.5.3 Frequency Division Multiplexing, 132 2.5.4 Time Division Multiplexing, 135 2.5.5 Code Division Multiplexing, 135 2.6 THE PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK, 138 2.6.1 Structure of the Telephone System, 139 2.6.2 The Politics of Telephones, 142 2.6.3 The Local Loop: Modems, ADSL, and Fiber, 144 2.6.4 Trunks and Multiplexing, 152 2.6.5 Switching, 161 2.7 THE MOBILE TELEPHONE SYSTEM*, 164 2.7.1 First-Generation (coco1G) Mobile Phones: Analog Voice, 166 2.7.2 Second-Generation (2G) Mobile Phones: Digital Voice, 170 2.7.3 Third-Generation (3G) Mobile Phones: Digital Voice and Data, 174 2.8 CABLE TELEVISION*, 179 2.8.1 Community Antenna Television, 179 2.8.2 Internet over Cable, 180 2.8.3 Spectrum Allocation, 182 2.8.4 Cable Modems, 183 2.8.5 ADSL Versus Cable, 185 2.9 SUMMARY, 186 3 THE DATA LINK LAYER 193 3.1 DATA LINK LAYER DESIGN ISSUES, 194 3.1.1 Services Provided to the Network Layer, 194 3.1.2 Framing, 197 3.1.3 Error Control, 200 3.1.4 Flow Control, 201
- 12. x CONTENTS 3.2 ERROR DETECTION AND CORRECTION, 202 3.2.1 Error-Correcting Codes, 204 3.2.2 Error-Detecting Codes, 209 3.3 ELEMENTARY DATA LINK PROTOCOLS, 215 3.3.1 A Utopian Simplex Protocol, 220 3.3.2 A Simplex Stop-and-Wait Protocol for an Error-Free Channel, 221 3.3.3 A Simplex Stop-and-Wait Protocol for a Noisy Channel, 222 3.4 SLIDING WINDOW PROTOCOLS, 226 3.4.1 A One-Bit Sliding Window Protocol, 229 3.4.2 A Protocol Using Go-Back-N, 232 3.4.3 A Protocol Using Selective Repeat, 239 3.5 EXAMPLE DATA LINK PROTOCOLS, 244 3.5.1 Packet over SONET, 245 3.5.2 ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Loop), 248 3.6 SUMMARY, 251 4 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER 257 4.1 THE CHANNEL ALLOCATION PROBLEM, 258 4.1.1 Static Channel Allocation, 258 4.1.2 Assumptions for Dynamic Channel Allocation, 260 4.2 MULTIPLE ACCESS PROTOCOLS, 261 4.2.1 ALOHA, 262 4.2.2 Carrier Sense Multiple Access Protocols, 266 4.2.3 Collision-Free Protocols, 269 4.2.4 Limited-Contention Protocols, 274 4.2.5 Wireless LAN Protocols, 277 4.3 ETHERNET, 280 4.3.1 Classic Ethernet Physical Layer, 281 4.3.2 Classic Ethernet MAC Sublayer Protocol, 282 4.3.3 Ethernet Performance, 286 4.3.4 Switched Ethernet, 288
- 13. CONTENTS xi 4.3.5 Fast Ethernet, 290 4.3.6 Gigabit Ethernet, 293 4.3.7 10-Gigabit Ethernet, 296 4.3.8 Retrospective on Ethernet, 298 4.4 WIRELESS LANS, 299 4.4.1 The 802.11 Architecture and Protocol Stack, 299 4.4.2 The 802.11 Physical Layer, 301 4.4.3 The 802.11 MAC Sublayer Protocol, 303 4.4.4 The 802.11 Frame Structure, 309 4.4.5 Services, 311 4.5 BROADBAND WIRELESS*, 312 4.5.1 Comparison of 802.16 with 802.11 and 3G, 313 4.5.2 The 802.16 Architecture and Protocol Stack, 314 4.5.3 The 802.16 Physical Layer, 316 4.5.4 The 802.16 MAC Sublayer Protocol, 317 4.5.5 The 802.16 Frame Structure, 319 4.6 BLUETOOTH*, 320 4.6.1 Bluetooth Architecture, 320 4.6.2 Bluetooth Applications, 321 4.6.3 The Bluetooth Protocol Stack, 322 4.6.4 The Bluetooth Radio Layer, 324 4.6.5 The Bluetooth Link Layers, 324 4.6.6 The Bluetooth Frame Structure, 325 4.7 RFID*, 327 4.7.1 EPC Gen 2 Architecture, 327 4.7.2 EPC Gen 2 Physical Layer, 328 4.7.3 EPC Gen 2 Tag Identification Layer, 329 4.7.4 Tag Identification Message Formats, 331 4.8 DATA LINK LAYER SWITCHING, 332 4.8.1 Uses of Bridges, 332 4.8.2 Learning Bridges, 334 4.8.3 Spanning Tree Bridges, 337 4.8.4 Repeaters, Hubs, Bridges, Switches, Routers, and Gateways, 340 4.8.5 Virtual LANs, 342 4.9 SUMMARY, 349
- 14. xii CONTENTS 5 THE NETWORK LAYER 355 5.1 NETWORK LAYER DESIGN ISSUES, 355 5.1.1 Store-and-Forward Packet Switching, 356 5.1.2 Services Provided to the Transport Layer, 356 5.1.3 Implementation of Connectionless Service, 358 5.1.4 Implementation of Connection-Oriented Service, 359 5.1.5 Comparison of Virtual-Circuit and Datagram Networks, 361 5.2 ROUTING ALGORITHMS, 362 5.2.1 The Optimality Principle, 364 5.2.2 Shortest Path Algorithm, 366 5.2.3 Flooding, 368 5.2.4 Distance Vector Routing, 370 5.2.5 Link State Routing, 373 5.2.6 Hierarchical Routing, 378 5.2.7 Broadcast Routing, 380 5.2.8 Multicast Routing, 382 5.2.9 Anycast Routing, 385 5.2.10 Routing for Mobile Hosts, 386 5.2.11 Routing in Ad Hoc Networks, 389 5.3 CONGESTION CONTROL ALGORITHMS, 392 5.3.1 Approaches to Congestion Control, 394 5.3.2 Traffic-Aware Routing, 395 5.3.3 Admission Control, 397 5.3.4 Traffic Throttling, 398 5.3.5 Load Shedding, 401 5.4 QUALITY OF SERVICE, 404 5.4.1 Application Requirements, 405 5.4.2 Traffic Shaping, 407 5.4.3 Packet Scheduling, 411 5.4.4 Admission Control, 415 5.4.5 Integrated Services, 418 5.4.6 Differentiated Services, 421 5.5 INTERNETWORKING, 424 5.5.1 How Networks Differ, 425 5.5.2 How Networks Can Be Connected, 426 5.5.3 Tunneling, 429
- 15. CONTENTS xiii 5.5.4 Internetwork Routing, 431 5.5.5 Packet Fragmentation, 432 5.6 THE NETWORK LAYER IN THE INTERNET, 436 5.6.1 The IP Version 4 Protocol, 439 5.6.2 IP Addresses, 442 5.6.3 IP Version 6, 455 5.6.4 Internet Control Protocols, 465 5.6.5 Label Switching and MPLS, 470 5.6.6 OSPF—An Interior Gateway Routing Protocol, 474 5.6.7 BGP—The Exterior Gateway Routing Protocol, 479 5.6.8 Internet Multicasting, 484 5.6.9 Mobile IP, 485 5.7 SUMMARY, 488 6 THE TRANSPORT LAYER 495 6.1 THE TRANSPORT SERVICE, 495 6.1.1 Services Provided to the Upper Layers, 496 6.1.2 Transport Service Primitives, 498 6.1.3 Berkeley Sockets, 500 6.1.4 An Example of Socket Programming: An Internet File Server, 503 6.2 ELEMENTS OF TRANSPORT PROTOCOLS, 507 6.2.1 Addressing, 509 6.2.2 Connection Establishment, 512 6.2.3 Connection Release, 517 6.2.4 Error Control and Flow Control, 522 6.2.5 Multiplexing, 527 6.2.6 Crash Recovery, 527 6.3 CONGESTION CONTROL, 530 6.3.1 Desirable Bandwidth Allocation, 531 6.3.2 Regulating the Sending Rate, 535 6.3.3 Wireless Issues, 539 6.4 THE INTERNET TRANSPORT PROTOCOLS: UDP, 541 6.4.1 Introduction to UDP, 541 6.4.2 Remote Procedure Call, 543 6.4.3 Real-Time Transport Protocols, 546
- 16. xiv CONTENTS 6.5 THE INTERNET TRANSPORT PROTOCOLS: TCP, 552 6.5.1 Introduction to TCP, 552 6.5.2 The TCP Service Model, 553 6.5.3 The TCP Protocol, 556 6.5.4 The TCP Segment Header, 557 6.5.5 TCP Connection Establishment, 560 6.5.6 TCP Connection Release, 562 6.5.7 TCP Connection Management Modeling, 562 6.5.8 TCP Sliding Window, 565 6.5.9 TCP Timer Management, 568 6.5.10 TCP Congestion Control, 571 6.5.11 The Future of TCP, 581 6.6 PERFORMANCE ISSUES*, 582 6.6.1 Performance Problems in Computer Networks, 583 6.6.2 Network Performance Measurement, 584 6.6.3 Host Design for Fast Networks, 586 6.6.4 Fast Segment Processing, 590 6.6.5 Header Compression, 593 6.6.6 Protocols for Long Fat Networks, 595 6.7 DELAY-TOLERANT NETWORKING*, 599 6.7.1 DTN Architecture, 600 6.7.2 The Bundle Protocol, 603 6.8 SUMMARY, 605 7 THE APPLICATION LAYER 611 7.1 DNS—THE DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM, 611 7.1.1 The DNS Name Space, 612 7.1.2 Domain Resource Records, 616 7.1.3 Name Servers, 619 7.2 ELECTRONIC MAIL*, 623 7.2.1 Architecture and Services, 624 7.2.2 The User Agent, 626 7.2.3 Message Formats, 630 7.2.4 Message Transfer, 637 7.2.5 Final Delivery, 643
- 17. CONTENTS xv 7.3 THE WORLD WIDE WEB, 646 7.3.1 Architectural Overview, 647 7.3.2 Static Web Pages, 662 7.3.3 Dynamic Web Pages and Web Applications, 672 7.3.4 HTTP—The HyperText Transfer Protocol, 683 7.3.5 The Mobile Web, 693 7.3.6 Web Search, 695 7.4 STREAMING AUDIO AND VIDEO, 697 7.4.1 Digital Audio, 699 7.4.2 Digital Video, 704 7.4.3 Streaming Stored Media, 713 7.4.4 Streaming Live Media, 721 7.4.5 Real-Time Conferencing, 724 7.5 CONTENT DELIVERY, 734 7.5.1 Content and Internet Traffic, 736 7.5.2 Server Farms and Web Proxies, 738 7.5.3 Content Delivery Networks, 743 7.5.4 Peer-to-Peer Networks, 748 7.6 SUMMARY, 757 8 NETWORK SECURITY 763 8.1 CRYPTOGRAPHY, 766 8.1.1 Introduction to Cryptography, 767 8.1.2 Substitution Ciphers, 769 8.1.3 Transposition Ciphers, 771 8.1.4 One-Time Pads, 772 8.1.5 Two Fundamental Cryptographic Principles, 776 8.2 SYMMETRIC-KEY ALGORITHMS, 778 8.2.1 DES—The Data Encryption Standard, 780 8.2.2 AES—The Advanced Encryption Standard, 783 8.2.3 Cipher Modes, 787 8.2.4 Other Ciphers, 792 8.2.5 Cryptanalysis, 792
- 18. xvi CONTENTS 8.3 PUBLIC-KEY ALGORITHMS, 793 8.3.1 RSA, 794 8.3.2 Other Public-Key Algorithms, 796 8.4 DIGITAL SIGNATURES, 797 8.4.1 Symmetric-Key Signatures, 798 8.4.2 Public-Key Signatures, 799 8.4.3 Message Digests, 800 8.4.4 The Birthday Attack, 804 8.5 MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC KEYS, 806 8.5.1 Certificates, 807 8.5.2 X.509, 809 8.5.3 Public Key Infrastructures, 810 8.6 COMMUNICATION SECURITY, 813 8.6.1 IPsec, 814 8.6.2 Firewalls, 818 8.6.3 Virtual Private Networks, 821 8.6.4 Wireless Security, 822 8.7 AUTHENTICATION PROTOCOLS, 827 8.7.1 Authentication Based on a Shared Secret Key, 828 8.7.2 Establishing a Shared Key: The Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange, 833 8.7.3 Authentication Using a Key Distribution Center, 835 8.7.4 Authentication Using Kerberos, 838 8.7.5 Authentication Using Public-Key Cryptography, 840 8.8 EMAIL SECURITY*, 841 8.8.1 PGP—Pretty Good Privacy, 842 8.8.2 S/MIME, 846 8.9 WEB SECURITY, 846 8.9.1 Threats, 847 8.9.2 Secure Naming, 848 8.9.3 SSL—The Secure Sockets Layer, 853 8.9.4 Mobile Code Security, 857 8.10 SOCIAL ISSUES, 860 8.10.1 Privacy, 860 8.10.2 Freedom of Speech, 863 8.10.3 Copyright, 867 8.11 SUMMARY, 869
- 19. CONTENTS xvii 9 READING LIST AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 877 9.1 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING*, 877 9.1.1 Introduction and General Works, 878 9.1.2 The Physical Layer, 879 9.1.3 The Data Link Layer, 880 9.1.4 The Medium Access Control Sublayer, 880 9.1.5 The Network Layer, 881 9.1.6 The Transport Layer, 882 9.1.7 The Application Layer, 882 9.1.8 Network Security, 883 9.2 ALPHABETICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY*, 884 INDEX 905
- 20. This page intentionally left blank
- 21. PREFACE This book is now in its fifth edition. Each edition has corresponded to a dif- ferent phase in the way computer networks were used. When the first edition ap- peared in 1980, networks were an academic curiosity. When the second edition appeared in 1988, networks were used by universities and large businesses. When the third edition appeared in 1996, computer networks, especially the Internet, had become a daily reality for millions of people. By the fourth edition, in 2003, wire- less networks and mobile computers had become commonplace for accessing the Web and the Internet. Now, in the fifth edition, networks are about content dis- tribution (especially videos using CDNs and peer-to-peer networks) and mobile phones are small computers on the Internet. New in the Fifth Edition Among the many changes in this book, the most important one is the addition of Prof. David J. Wetherall as a co-author. David brings a rich background in net- working, having cut his teeth designing metropolitan-area networks more than 20 years ago. He has worked with the Internet and wireless networks ever since and is a professor at the University of Washington, where he has been teaching and doing research on computer networks and related topics for the past decade. Of course, the book also has many changes to keep up with the: ever-changing world of computer networks. Among these are revised and new material on Wireless networks (802.12 and 802.16) The 3G networks used by smart phones RFID and sensor networks Content distribution using CDNs Peer-to-peer networks Real-time media (from stored, streaming, and live sources) Internet telephony (voice over IP) Delay-tolerant networks A more detailed chapter-by-chapter list follows. xix
- 22. xx PREFACE Chapter 1 has the same introductory function as in the fourth edition, but the contents have been revised and brought up to date. The Internet, mobile phone networks, 802.11, and RFID and sensor networks are discussed as examples of computer networks. Material on the original Ethernet—with its vampire taps— has been removed, along with the material on ATM. Chapter 2, which covers the physical layer, has expanded coverage of digital modulation (including OFDM as widely used in wireless networks) and 3G net- works (based on CDMA). New technologies are discussed, including Fiber to the Home and power-line networking. Chapter 3, on point-to-point links, has been improved in two ways. The mater- ial on codes for error detection and correction has been updated, and also includes a brief description of the modern codes that are important in practice (e.g., convo- lutional and LDPC codes). The examples of protocols now use Packet over SONET and ADSL. Sadly, the material on protocol verification has been removed as it is little used. In Chapter 4, on the MAC sublayer, the principles are timeless but the tech- nologies have changed. Sections on the example networks have been redone accordingly, including gigabit Ethernet, 802.11, 802.16, Bluetooth, and RFID. Also updated is the coverage of LAN switching, including VLANs. Chapter 5, on the network layer, covers the same ground as in the fourth edi- tion. The revisions have been to update material and add depth, particularly for quality of service (relevant for real-time media) and internetworking. The sec- tions on BGP, OSPF and CIDR have been expanded, as has the treatment of multicast routing. Anycast routing is now included. Chapter 6, on the transport layer, has had material added, revised, and re- moved. New material describes delay-tolerant networking and congestion control in general. The revised material updates and expands the coverage of TCP con- gestion control. The material removed described connection-oriented network lay- ers, something rarely seen any more. Chapter 7, on applications, has also been updated and enlarged. While mater- ial on DNS and email is similar to that in the fourth edition, in the past few years there have been many developments in the use of the Web, streaming media and content delivery. Accordingly, sections on the Web and streaming media have been brought up to date. A new section covers content distribution, including CDNs and peer-to-peer networks. Chapter 8, on security, still covers both symmetric and public-key crypto- graphy for confidentiality and authenticity. Material on the techniques used in practice, including firewalls and VPNs, has been updated, with new material on 802.11 security and Kerberos V5 added. Chapter 9 contains a renewed list of suggested readings and a comprehensive bibliography of over 300 citations to the current literature. More than half of these are to papers and books written in 2000 or later, and the rest are citations to classic papers.
- 23. PREFACE xxi List of Acronyms Computer books are full of acronyms. This one is no exception. By the time you are finished reading this one, the following should ring a bell: ADSL, AES, AJAX, AODV, AP, ARP, ARQ, AS, BGP, BOC, CDMA, CDN, CGI, CIDR, CRL, CSMA, CSS, DCT, DES, DHCP, DHT, DIFS, DMCA, DMT, DMZ, DNS, DOCSIS, DOM, DSLAM, DTN, FCFS, FDD, FDDI, FDM, FEC, FIFO, FSK, FTP, GPRS, GSM, HDTV, HFC, HMAC, HTTP, IAB, ICANN, ICMP, IDEA, IETF, IMAP, IMP, IP, IPTV, IRTF, ISO, ISP, ITU, JPEG, JSP, JVM, LAN, LATA, LEC, LEO, LLC, LSR, LTE, MAN, MFJ, MIME, MPEG, MPLS, MSC, MTSO, MTU, NAP, NAT, NRZ, NSAP, OFDM, OSI, OSPF, PAWS, PCM, PGP, PIM, PKI, POP, POTS, PPP, PSTN, QAM, QPSK, RED, RFC, RFID, RPC, RSA, RTSP, SHA, SIP, SMTP, SNR, SOAP, SONET, SPE, SSL, TCP, TDD, TDM, TSAP, UDP, UMTS, URL, VLAN, VSAT, WAN, WDM, and XML. But don’t worry. Each will appear in boldface type and be carefully defined before it is used. As a fun test, see how many you can identify before reading the book, write the number in the margin, then try again after reading the book. How to Use the Book To help instructors use this book as a text for courses ranging in length from quarters to semesters, we have structured the chapters into core and optional ma- terial. The sections marked with a ‘‘*’’ in the table of contents are the optional ones. If a major section (e.g., 2.7) is so marked, all of its subsections are optional. They provide material on network technologies that is useful but can be omitted from a short course without loss of continuity. Of course, students should be encouraged to read those sections as well, to the extent they have time, as all the material is up to date and of value. Instructors’ Resource Materials The following protected instructors’ resource materials are available on the publisher’s Web site at www.pearsonhighered.com/tanenbaum. For a username and password, please contact your local Pearson representative. Solutions manual PowerPoint lecture slides Students’ Resource Materials Resources for students are available through the open-access Companion Web site link on www.pearsonhighered.com/tanenbaum, including Web resources, links to tutorials, organizations, FAQs, and more Figures, tables, and programs from the book Steganography demo Protocol simulators
- 24. xxii PREFACE Acknowledgements Many people helped us during the course of the fifth edition. We would espe- cially like to thank Emmanuel Agu (Worcester Polytechnic Institute), Yoris Au (University of Texas at Antonio), Nikhil Bhargava (Aircom International, Inc.), Michael Buettner (University of Washington), John Day (Boston University), Kevin Fall (Intel Labs), Ronald Fulle (Rochester Institute of Technology), Ben Greenstein (Intel Labs), Daniel Halperin (University of Washington), Bob Kinicki (Worcester Polytechnic Institute), Tadayoshi Kohno (University of Washington), Sarvish Kulkarni (Villanova University), Hank Levy (University of Washington), Ratul Mahajan (Microsoft Research), Craig Partridge (BBN), Michael Piatek (University of Washington), Joshua Smith (Intel Labs), Neil Spring (University of Maryland), David Teneyuca (University of Texas at Antonio), Tammy VanDe- grift (University of Portland), and Bo Yuan (Rochester Institute of Technology), for providing ideas and feedback. Melody Kadenko and Julie Svendsen provided administrative support to David. Shivakant Mishra (University of Colorado at Boulder) and Paul Nagin (Chim- borazo Publishing, Inc.) thought of many new and challenging end-of-chapter problems. Our editor at Pearson, Tracy Dunkelberger, was her usual helpful self in many ways large and small. Melinda Haggerty and Jeff Holcomb did a good job of keeping things running smoothly. Steve Armstrong (LeTourneau Univer- sity) prepared the PowerPoint slides. Stephen Turner (University of Michigan at Flint) artfully revised the Web resources and the simulators that accompany the text. Our copyeditor, Rachel Head, is an odd hybrid: she has the eye of an eagle and the memory of an elephant. After reading all her corrections, both of us won- dered how we ever made it past third grade. Finally, we come to the most important people. Suzanne has been through this 19 times now and still has endless patience and love. Barbara and Marvin now know the difference between good textbooks and bad ones and are always an inspiration to produce good ones. Daniel and Matilde are welcome additions to our family. Aron is unlikely to read this book soon, but he likes the nice pictures on page 866 (AST). Katrin and Lucy provided endless support and always man- aged to keep a smile on my face. Thank you (DJW). ANDREW S. TANENBAUM DAVID J. WETHERALL
- 25. 1 INTRODUCTION Each of the past three centuries was dominated by a single new technology. The 18th century was the era of the great mechanical systems accompanying the Industrial Revolution. The 19th century was the age of the steam engine. During the 20th century, the key technology was information gathering, processing, and distribution. Among other developments, we saw the installation of worldwide telephone networks, the invention of radio and television, the birth and unpre- cedented growth of the computer industry, the launching of communication satel- lites, and, of course, the Internet. As a result of rapid technological progress, these areas are rapidly converging in the 21st century and the differences between collecting, transporting, storing, and processing information are quickly disappearing. Organizations with hun- dreds of offices spread over a wide geographical area routinely expect to be able to examine the current status of even their most remote outpost at the push of a button. As our ability to gather, process, and distribute information grows, the de- mand for ever more sophisticated information processing grows even faster. Although the computer industry is still young compared to other industries (e.g., automobiles and air transportation), computers have made spectacular pro- gress in a short time. During the first two decades of their existence, computer systems were highly centralized, usually within a single large room. Not infre- quently, this room had glass walls, through which visitors could gawk at the great electronic wonder inside. A medium-sized company or university might have had 1
- 26. 2 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 one or two computers, while very large institutions had at most a few dozen. The idea that within forty years vastly more powerful computers smaller than postage stamps would be mass produced by the billions was pure science fiction. The merging of computers and communications has had a profound influence on the way computer systems are organized. The once-dominant concept of the ‘‘computer center’’ as a room with a large computer to which users bring their work for processing is now totally obsolete (although data centers holding thou- sands of Internet servers are becoming common). The old model of a single com- puter serving all of the organization’s computational needs has been replaced by one in which a large number of separate but interconnected computers do the job. These systems are called computer networks. The design and organization of these networks are the subjects of this book. Throughout the book we will use the term ‘‘computer network’’ to mean a col- lection of autonomous computers interconnected by a single technology. Two computers are said to be interconnected if they are able to exchange information. The connection need not be via a copper wire; fiber optics, microwaves, infrared, and communication satellites can also be used. Networks come in many sizes, shapes and forms, as we will see later. They are usually connected together to make larger networks, with the Internet being the most well-known example of a network of networks. There is considerable confusion in the literature between a computer network and a distributed system. The key distinction is that in a distributed system, a collection of independent computers appears to its users as a single coherent sys- tem. Usually, it has a single model or paradigm that it presents to the users. Of- ten a layer of software on top of the operating system, called middleware, is responsible for implementing this model. A well-known example of a distributed system is the World Wide Web. It runs on top of the Internet and presents a model in which everything looks like a document (Web page). In a computer network, this coherence, model, and software are absent. Users are exposed to the actual machines, without any attempt by the system to make the machines look and act in a coherent way. If the machines have different hard- ware and different operating systems, that is fully visible to the users. If a user wants to run a program on a remote machine, he † has to log onto that machine and run it there. In effect, a distributed system is a software system built on top of a network. The software gives it a high degree of cohesiveness and transparency. Thus, the distinction between a network and a distributed system lies with the software (es- pecially the operating system), rather than with the hardware. Nevertheless, there is considerable overlap between the two subjects. For ex- ample, both distributed systems and computer networks need to move files around. The difference lies in who invokes the movement, the system or the user. † ‘‘He’’ should be read as ‘‘he or she’’ throughout this book.
- 27. SEC. 1.1 USES OF COMPUTER NETWORKS 3 Although this book primarily focuses on networks, many of the topics are also im- portant in distributed systems. For more information about distributed systems, see Tanenbaum and Van Steen (2007). 1.1 USES OF COMPUTER NETWORKS Before we start to examine the technical issues in detail, it is worth devoting some time to pointing out why people are interested in computer networks and what they can be used for. After all, if nobody were interested in computer net- works, few of them would be built. We will start with traditional uses at com- panies, then move on to home networking and recent developments regarding mobile users, and finish with social issues. 1.1.1 Business Applications Most companies have a substantial number of computers. For example, a company may have a computer for each worker and use them to design products, write brochures, and do the payroll. Initially, some of these computers may have worked in isolation from the others, but at some point, management may have decided to connect them to be able to distribute information throughout the com- pany. Put in slightly more general form, the issue here is resource sharing. The goal is to make all programs, equipment, and especially data available to anyone on the network without regard to the physical location of the resource or the user. An obvious and widespread example is having a group of office workers share a common printer. None of the individuals really needs a private printer, and a high-volume networked printer is often cheaper, faster, and easier to maintain than a large collection of individual printers. However, probably even more important than sharing physical resources such as printers, and tape backup systems, is sharing information. Companies small and large are vitally dependent on computerized information. Most companies have customer records, product information, inventories, financial statements, tax information, and much more online. If all of its computers suddenly went down, a bank could not last more than five minutes. A modern manufacturing plant, with a computer-controlled assembly line, would not last even 5 seconds. Even a small travel agency or three-person law firm is now highly dependent on computer net- works for allowing employees to access relevant information and documents instantly. For smaller companies, all the computers are likely to be in a single office or perhaps a single building, but for larger ones, the computers and employees may be scattered over dozens of offices and plants in many countries. Nevertheless, a sales person in New York might sometimes need access to a product inventory
- 28. 4 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 database in Singapore. Networks called VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) may be used to join the individual networks at different sites into one extended net- work. In other words, the mere fact that a user happens to be 15,000 km away from his data should not prevent him from using the data as though they were local. This goal may be summarized by saying that it is an attempt to end the ‘‘tyranny of geography.’’ In the simplest of terms, one can imagine a company’s information system as consisting of one or more databases with company information and some number of employees who need to access them remotely. In this model, the data are stor- ed on powerful computers called servers. Often these are centrally housed and maintained by a system administrator. In contrast, the employees have simpler machines, called clients, on their desks, with which they access remote data, for example, to include in spreadsheets they are constructing. (Sometimes we will refer to the human user of the client machine as the ‘‘client,’’ but it should be clear from the context whether we mean the computer or its user.) The client and server machines are connected by a network, as illustrated in Fig. 1-1. Note that we have shown the network as a simple oval, without any detail. We will use this form when we mean a network in the most abstract sense. When more detail is required, it will be provided. Client Server Network Figure 1-1. A network with two clients and one server. This whole arrangement is called the client-server model. It is widely used and forms the basis of much network usage. The most popular realization is that of a Web application, in which the server generates Web pages based on its data- base in response to client requests that may update the database. The client-server model is applicable when the client and server are both in the same building (and belong to the same company), but also when they are far apart. For example, when a person at home accesses a page on the World Wide Web, the same model is employed, with the remote Web server being the server and the user’s personal
- 29. SEC. 1.1 USES OF COMPUTER NETWORKS 5 computer being the client. Under most conditions, one server can handle a large number (hundreds or thousands) of clients simultaneously. If we look at the client-server model in detail, we see that two processes (i.e., running programs) are involved, one on the client machine and one on the server machine. Communication takes the form of the client process sending a message over the network to the server process. The client process then waits for a reply message. When the server process gets the request, it performs the requested work or looks up the requested data and sends back a reply. These messages are shown in Fig. 1-2. Client process Server process Client machine Network Reply Request Server machine Figure 1-2. The client-server model involves requests and replies. A second goal of setting up a computer network has to do with people rather than information or even computers. A computer network can provide a powerful communication medium among employees. Virtually every company that has two or more computers now has email (electronic mail), which employees gener- ally use for a great deal of daily communication. In fact, a common gripe around the water cooler is how much email everyone has to deal with, much of it quite meaningless because bosses have discovered that they can send the same (often content-free) message to all their subordinates at the push of a button. Telephone calls between employees may be carried by the computer network instead of by the phone company. This technology is called IP telephony or Voice over IP (VoIP) when Internet technology is used. The microphone and speaker at each end may belong to a VoIP-enabled phone or the employee’s com- puter. Companies find this a wonderful way to save on their telephone bills. Other, richer forms of communication are made possible by computer net- works. Video can be added to audio so that employees at distant locations can see and hear each other as they hold a meeting. This technique is a powerful tool for eliminating the cost and time previously devoted to travel. Desktop sharing lets remote workers see and interact with a graphical computer screen. This makes it easy for two or more people who work far apart to read and write a shared black- board or write a report together. When one worker makes a change to an online document, the others can see the change immediately, instead of waiting several days for a letter. Such a speedup makes cooperation among far-flung groups of people easy where it previously had been impossible. More ambitious forms of remote coordination such as telemedicine are only now starting to be used (e.g.,
- 30. 6 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 remote patient monitoring) but may become much more important. It is some- times said that communication and transportation are having a race, and which- ever wins will make the other obsolete. A third goal for many companies is doing business electronically, especially with customers and suppliers. This new model is called e-commerce (electronic commerce) and it has grown rapidly in recent years. Airlines, bookstores, and other retailers have discovered that many customers like the convenience of shop- ping from home. Consequently, many companies provide catalogs of their goods and services online and take orders online. Manufacturers of automobiles, air- craft, and computers, among others, buy subsystems from a variety of suppliers and then assemble the parts. Using computer networks, manufacturers can place orders electronically as needed. This reduces the need for large inventories and enhances efficiency. 1.1.2 Home Applications In 1977, Ken Olsen was president of the Digital Equipment Corporation, then the number two computer vendor in the world (after IBM). When asked why Dig- ital was not going after the personal computer market in a big way, he said: ‘‘There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.’’ History showed otherwise and Digital no longer exists. People initially bought computers for word processing and games. Recently, the biggest reason to buy a home com- puter was probably for Internet access. Now, many consumer electronic devices, such as set-top boxes, game consoles, and clock radios, come with embedded computers and computer networks, especially wireless networks, and home net- works are broadly used for entertainment, including listening to, looking at, and creating music, photos, and videos. Internet access provides home users with connectivity to remote computers. As with companies, home users can access information, communicate with other people, and buy products and services with e-commerce. The main benefit now comes from connecting outside of the home. Bob Metcalfe, the inventor of Ether- net, hypothesized that the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of users because this is roughly the number of different connections that may be made (Gilder, 1993). This hypothesis is known as ‘‘Metcalfe’s law.’’ It helps to explain how the tremendous popularity of the Internet comes from its size. Access to remote information comes in many forms. It can be surfing the World Wide Web for information or just for fun. Information available includes the arts, business, cooking, government, health, history, hobbies, recreation, sci- ence, sports, travel, and many others. Fun comes in too many ways to mention, plus some ways that are better left unmentioned. Many newspapers have gone online and can be personalized. For example, it is sometimes possible to tell a newspaper that you want everything about corrupt
- 31. SEC. 1.1 USES OF COMPUTER NETWORKS 7 politicians, big fires, scandals involving celebrities, and epidemics, but no foot- ball, thank you. Sometimes it is possible to have the selected articles downloaded to your computer while you sleep. As this trend continues, it will cause massive unemployment among 12-year-old paperboys, but newspapers like it because dis- tribution has always been the weakest link in the whole production chain. Of course, to make this model work, they will first have to figure out how to make money in this new world, something not entirely obvious since Internet users expect everything to be free. The next step beyond newspapers (plus magazines and scientific journals) is the online digital library. Many professional organizations, such as the ACM (www.acm.org) and the IEEE Computer Society (www.computer.org), already have all their journals and conference proceedings online. Electronic book read- ers and online libraries may make printed books obsolete. Skeptics should take note of the effect the printing press had on the medieval illuminated manuscript. Much of this information is accessed using the client-server model, but there is different, popular model for accessing information that goes by the name of peer-to-peer communication (Parameswaran et al., 2001). In this form, individu- als who form a loose group can communicate with others in the group, as shown in Fig. 1-3. Every person can, in principle, communicate with one or more other people; there is no fixed division into clients and servers. Figure 1-3. In a peer-to-peer system there are no fixed clients and servers. Many peer-to-peer systems, such BitTorrent (Cohen, 2003), do not have any central database of content. Instead, each user maintains his own database locally and provides a list of other nearby people who are members of the system. A new user can then go to any existing member to see what he has and get the names of other members to inspect for more content and more names. This lookup process can be repeated indefinitely to build up a large local database of what is out there. It is an activity that would get tedious for people but computers excel at it.
- 32. 8 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 Peer-to-peer communication is often used to share music and videos. It really hit the big time around 2000 with a music sharing service called Napster that was shut down after what was probably the biggest copyright infringement case in all of recorded history (Lam and Tan, 2001; and Macedonia, 2000). Legal applica- tions for peer-to-peer communication also exist. These include fans sharing pub- lic domain music, families sharing photos and movies, and users downloading public software packages. In fact, one of the most popular Internet applications of all, email, is inherently peer-to-peer. This form of communication is likely to grow considerably in the future. All of the above applications involve interactions between a person and a re- mote database full of information. The second broad category of network use is person-to-person communication, basically the 21st century’s answer to the 19th century’s telephone. E-mail is already used on a daily basis by millions of people all over the world and its use is growing rapidly. It already routinely contains audio and video as well as text and pictures. Smell may take a while. Any teenager worth his or her salt is addicted to instant messaging. This facility, derived from the UNIX talk program in use since around 1970, allows two people to type messages at each other in real time. There are multi-person mes- saging services too, such as the Twitter service that lets people send short text messages called ‘‘tweets’’ to their circle of friends or other willing audiences. The Internet can be used by applications to carry audio (e.g., Internet radio stations) and video (e.g., YouTube). Besides being a cheap way to call to distant friends, these applications can provide rich experiences such as telelearning, meaning attending 8 A.M. classes without the inconvenience of having to get out of bed first. In the long run, the use of networks to enhance human-to-human communication may prove more important than any of the others. It may become hugely important to people who are geographically challenged, giving them the same access to services as people living in the middle of a big city. Between person-to-person communications and accessing information are social network applications. Here, the flow of information is driven by the rela- tionships that people declare between each other. One of the most popular social networking sites is Facebook. It lets people update their personal profiles and shares the updates with other people who they have declared to be their friends. Other social networking applications can make introductions via friends of friends, send news messages to friends such as Twitter above, and much more. Even more loosely, groups of people can work together to create content. A wiki, for example, is a collaborative Web site that the members of a community edit. The most famous wiki is the Wikipedia, an encyclopedia anyone can edit, but there are thousands of other wikis. Our third category is electronic commerce in the broadest sense of the term. Home shopping is already popular and enables users to inspect the online catalogs of thousands of companies. Some of these catalogs are interactive, showing pro- ducts from different viewpoints and in configurations that can be personalized.
- 33. SEC. 1.1 USES OF COMPUTER NETWORKS 9 After the customer buys a product electronically but cannot figure out how to use it, online technical support may be consulted. Another area in which e-commerce is widely used is access to financial insti- tutions. Many people already pay their bills, manage their bank accounts, and handle their investments electronically. This trend will surely continue as net- works become more secure. One area that virtually nobody foresaw is electronic flea markets (e-flea?). Online auctions of second-hand goods have become a massive industry. Unlike traditional e-commerce, which follows the client-server model, online auctions are peer-to-peer in the sense that consumers can act as both buyers and sellers. Some of these forms of e-commerce have acquired cute little tags based on the fact that ‘‘to’’ and ‘‘2’’ are pronounced the same. The most popular ones are listed in Fig. 1-4. Tag Full name Example B2C Business-to-consumer Ordering books online B2B Business-to-business Car manufacturer ordering tires from supplier G2C Government-to-consumer Government distributing tax forms electronically C2C Consumer-to-consumer Auctioning second-hand products online P2P Peer-to-peer Music sharing Figure 1-4. Some forms of e-commerce. Our fourth category is entertainment. This has made huge strides in the home in recent years, with the distribution of music, radio and television programs, and movies over the Internet beginning to rival that of traditional mechanisms. Users can find, buy, and download MP3 songs and DVD-quality movies and add them to their personal collection. TV shows now reach many homes via IPTV (IP TeleVision) systems that are based on IP technology instead of cable TV or radio transmissions. Media streaming applications let users tune into Internet radio sta- tions or watch recent episodes of their favorite TV shows. Naturally, all of this content can be moved around your house between different devices, displays and speakers, usually with a wireless network. Soon, it may be possible to search for any movie or television program ever made, in any country, and have it displayed on your screen instantly. New films may become interactive, where the user is occasionally prompted for the story direction (should Macbeth murder Duncan or just bide his time?) with alternative scenarios provided for all cases. Live television may also become interactive, with the audience participating in quiz shows, choosing among contestants, and so on. Another form of entertainment is game playing. Already we have multiperson real-time simulation games, like hide-and-seek in a virtual dungeon, and flight
- 34. 10 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 simulators with the players on one team trying to shoot down the players on the opposing team. Virtual worlds provide a persistent setting in which thousands of users can experience a shared reality with three-dimensional graphics. Our last category is ubiquitous computing, in which computing is embedded into everyday life, as in the vision of Mark Weiser (1991). Many homes are al- ready wired with security systems that include door and window sensors, and there are many more sensors that can be folded in to a smart home monitor, such as energy consumption. Your electricity, gas and water meters could also report usage over the network. This would save money as there would be no need to send out meter readers. And your smoke detectors could call the fire department instead of making a big noise (which has little value if no one is home). As the cost of sensing and communication drops, more and more measurement and re- porting will be done with networks. Increasingly, consumer electronic devices are networked. For example, some high-end cameras already have a wireless network capability and use it to send photos to a nearby display for viewing. Professional sports photographers can also send their photos to their editors in real-time, first wirelessly to an access point then over the Internet. Devices such as televisions that plug into the wall can use power-line networks to send information throughout the house over the wires that carry electricity. It may not be very surprising to have these objects on the network, but objects that we do not think of as computers may sense and com- municate information too. For example, your shower may record water usage, give you visual feedback while you lather up, and report to a home environmental monitoring application when you are done to help save on your water bill. A technology called RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) will push this idea even further in the future. RFID tags are passive (i.e., have no battery) chips the size of stamps and they can already be affixed to books, passports, pets, credit cards, and other items in the home and out. This lets RFID readers locate and communicate with the items over a distance of up to several meters, depending on the kind of RFID. Originally, RFID was commercialized to replace barcodes. It has not succeeded yet because barcodes are free and RFID tags cost a few cents. Of course, RFID tags offer much more and their price is rapidly declining. They may turn the real world into the Internet of things (ITU, 2005). 1.1.3 Mobile Users Mobile computers, such as laptop and handheld computers, are one of the fastest-growing segments of the computer industry. Their sales have already overtaken those of desktop computers. Why would anyone want one? People on the go often want to use their mobile devices to read and send email, tweet, watch movies, download music, play games, or simply to surf the Web for information. They want to do all of the things they do at home and in the office. Naturally, they want to do them from anywhere on land, sea or in the air.
- 35. SEC. 1.1 USES OF COMPUTER NETWORKS 11 Connectivity to the Internet enables many of these mobile uses. Since having a wired connection is impossible in cars, boats, and airplanes, there is a lot of interest in wireless networks. Cellular networks operated by the telephone com- panies are one familiar kind of wireless network that blankets us with coverage for mobile phones. Wireless hotspots based on the 802.11 standard are another kind of wireless network for mobile computers. They have sprung up everywhere that people go, resulting in a patchwork of coverage at cafes, hotels, airports, schools, trains and planes. Anyone with a laptop computer and a wireless modem can just turn on their computer on and be connected to the Internet through the hotspot, as though the computer were plugged into a wired network. Wireless networks are of great value to fleets of trucks, taxis, delivery vehi- cles, and repairpersons for keeping in contact with their home base. For example, in many cities, taxi drivers are independent businessmen, rather than being em- ployees of a taxi company. In some of these cities, the taxis have a display the driver can see. When a customer calls up, a central dispatcher types in the pickup and destination points. This information is displayed on the drivers’ displays and a beep sounds. The first driver to hit a button on the display gets the call. Wireless networks are also important to the military. If you have to be able to fight a war anywhere on Earth at short notice, counting on using the local net- working infrastructure is probably not a good idea. It is better to bring your own. Although wireless networking and mobile computing are often related, they are not identical, as Fig. 1-5 shows. Here we see a distinction between fixed wireless and mobile wireless networks. Even notebook computers are sometimes wired. For example, if a traveler plugs a notebook computer into the wired net- work jack in a hotel room, he has mobility without a wireless network. Wireless Mobile Typical applications No No Desktop computers in offices No Yes A notebook computer used in a hotel room Yes No Networks in unwired buildings Yes Yes Store inventory with a handheld computer Figure 1-5. Combinations of wireless networks and mobile computing. Conversely, some wireless computers are not mobile. In the home, and in offices or hotels that lack suitable cabling, it can be more convenient to connect desktop computers or media players wirelessly than to install wires. Installing a wireless network may require little more than buying a small box with some elec- tronics in it, unpacking it, and plugging it in. This solution may be far cheaper than having workmen put in cable ducts to wire the building. Finally, there are also true mobile, wireless applications, such as people walk- ing around stores with a handheld computers recording inventory. At many busy
- 36. 12 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 airports, car rental return clerks work in the parking lot with wireless mobile com- puters. They scan the barcodes or RFID chips of returning cars, and their mobile device, which has a built-in printer, calls the main computer, gets the rental infor- mation, and prints out the bill on the spot. Perhaps the key driver of mobile, wireless applications is the mobile phone. Text messaging or texting is tremendously popular. It lets a mobile phone user type a short message that is then delivered by the cellular network to another mobile subscriber. Few people would have predicted ten years ago that having teenagers tediously typing short text messages on mobile phones would be an immense money maker for telephone companies. But texting (or Short Message Service as it is known outside the U.S.) is very profitable since it costs the carrier but a tiny fraction of one cent to relay a text message, a service for which they charge far more. The long-awaited convergence of telephones and the Internet has finally arrived, and it will accelerate the growth of mobile applications. Smart phones, such as the popular iPhone, combine aspects of mobile phones and mobile com- puters. The (3G and 4G) cellular networks to which they connect can provide fast data services for using the Internet as well as handling phone calls. Many ad- vanced phones connect to wireless hotspots too, and automatically switch between networks to choose the best option for the user. Other consumer electronics devices can also use cellular and hotspot networks to stay connected to remote computers. Electronic book readers can download a newly purchased book or the next edition of a magazine or today’s newspaper wherever they roam. Electronic picture frames can update their displays on cue with fresh images. Since mobile phones know their locations, often because they are equipped with GPS (Global Positioning System) receivers, some services are intentionally location dependent. Mobile maps and directions are an obvious candidate as your GPS-enabled phone and car probably have a better idea of where you are than you do. So, too, are searches for a nearby bookstore or Chinese restaurant, or a local weather forecast. Other services may record location, such as annotating photos and videos with the place at which they were made. This annotation is known as ‘‘geo-tagging.’’ An area in which mobile phones are now starting to be used is m-commerce (mobile-commerce) (Senn, 2000). Short text messages from the mobile are used to authorize payments for food in vending machines, movie tickets, and other small items instead of cash and credit cards. The charge then appears on the mobile phone bill. When equipped with NFC (Near Field Communication) technology the mobile can act as an RFID smartcard and interact with a nearby reader for payment. The driving forces behind this phenomenon are the mobile device makers and network operators, who are trying hard to figure out how to get a piece of the e-commerce pie. From the store’s point of view, this scheme may save them most of the credit card company’s fee, which can be several percent.
- 37. SEC. 1.1 USES OF COMPUTER NETWORKS 13 Of course, this plan may backfire, since customers in a store might use the RFID or barcode readers on their mobile devices to check out competitors’ prices before buying and use them to get a detailed report on where else an item can be pur- chased nearby and at what price. One huge thing that m-commerce has going for it is that mobile phone users are accustomed to paying for everything (in contrast to Internet users, who expect everything to be free). If an Internet Web site charged a fee to allow its customers to pay by credit card, there would be an immense howling noise from the users. If, however, a mobile phone operator its customers to pay for items in a store by waving the phone at the cash register and then tacked on a fee for this conveni- ence, it would probably be accepted as normal. Time will tell. No doubt the uses of mobile and wireless computers will grow rapidly in the future as the size of computers shrinks, probably in ways no one can now foresee. Let us take a quick look at some possibilities. Sensor networks are made up of nodes that gather and wirelessly relay information they sense about the state of the physical world. The nodes may be part of familiar items such as cars or phones, or they may be small separate devices. For example, your car might gather data on its location, speed, vibration, and fuel efficiency from its on-board diagnostic system and upload this information to a database (Hull et al., 2006). Those data can help find potholes, plan trips around congested roads, and tell you if you are a ‘‘gas guzzler’’ compared to other drivers on the same stretch of road. Sensor networks are revolutionizing science by providing a wealth of data on behavior that could not previously be observed. One example is tracking the migration of individual zebras by placing a small sensor on each animal (Juang et al., 2002). Researchers have packed a wireless computer into a cube 1 mm on edge (Warneke et al., 2001). With mobile computers this small, even small birds, rodents, and insects can be tracked. Even mundane uses, such as in parking meters, can be significant because they make use of data that were not previously available. Wireless parking meters can accept credit or debit card payments with instant verification over the wireless link. They can also report when they are in use over the wireless network. This would let drivers download a recent parking map to their car so they can find an available spot more easily. Of course, when a meter expires, it might also check for the presence of a car (by bouncing a signal off it) and report the expiration to parking enforcement. It has been estimated that city governments in the U.S. alone could collect an additional $10 billion this way (Harte et al., 2000). Wearable computers are another promising application. Smart watches with radios have been part of our mental space since their appearance in the Dick Tracy comic strip in 1946; now you can buy them. Other such devices may be implanted, such as pacemakers and insulin pumps. Some of these can be con- trolled over a wireless network. This lets doctors test and reconfigure them more easily. It could also lead to some nasty problems if the devices are as insecure as the average PC and can be hacked easily (Halperin et al., 2008).
- 38. 14 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 1.1.4 Social Issues Computer networks, like the printing press 500 years ago, allow ordinary citizens to distribute and view content in ways that were not previously possible. But along with the good comes the bad, as this new-found freedom brings with it many unsolved social, political, and ethical issues. Let us just briefly mention a few of them; a thorough study would require a full book, at least. Social networks, message boards, content sharing sites, and a host of other ap- plications allow people to share their views with like-minded individuals. As long as the subjects are restricted to technical topics or hobbies like gardening, not too many problems will arise. The trouble comes with topics that people actually care about, like politics, religion, or sex. Views that are publicly posted may be deeply offensive to some people. Worse yet, they may not be politically correct. Furthermore, opinions need not be limited to text; high-resolution color photographs and video clips are easily shared over computer networks. Some people take a live-and-let-live view, but others feel that posting certain material (e.g., verbal attacks on particular countries or religions, pornography, etc.) is simply unacceptable and that such content must be censored. Different countries have different and conflicting laws in this area. Thus, the debate rages. In the past, people have sued network operators, claiming that they are re- sponsible for the contents of what they carry, just as newspapers and magazines are. The inevitable response is that a network is like a telephone company or the post office and cannot be expected to police what its users say. It should now come only as a slight surprise to learn that some network opera- tors block content for their own reasons. Some users of peer-to-peer applications had their network service cut off because the network operators did not find it pro- fitable to carry the large amounts of traffic sent by those applications. Those same operators would probably like to treat different companies differently. If you are a big company and pay well then you get good service, but if you are a small-time player, you get poor service. Opponents of this practice argue that peer-to-peer and other content should be treated in the same way because they are all just bits to the network. This argument for communications that are not dif- ferentiated by their content or source or who is providing the content is known as network neutrality (Wu, 2003). It is probably safe to say that this debate will go on for a while. Many other parties are involved in the tussle over content. For instance, pi- rated music and movies fueled the massive growth of peer-to-peer networks, which did not please the copyright holders, who have threatened (and sometimes taken) legal action. There are now automated systems that search peer-to-peer networks and fire off warnings to network operators and users who are suspected of infringing copyright. In the United States, these warnings are known as DMCA takedown notices after the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This
- 39. SEC. 1.1 USES OF COMPUTER NETWORKS 15 search is an arms’ race because it is hard to reliably catch copyright infringement. Even your printer might be mistaken for a culprit (Piatek et al., 2008). Computer networks make it very easy to communicate. They also make it easy for the people who run the network to snoop on the traffic. This sets up con- flicts over issues such as employee rights versus employer rights. Many people read and write email at work. Many employers have claimed the right to read and possibly censor employee messages, including messages sent from a home com- puter outside working hours. Not all employees agree with this, especially the lat- ter part. Another conflict is centered around government versus citizen’s rights. The FBI has installed systems at many Internet service providers to snoop on all in- coming and outgoing email for nuggets of interest. One early system was origi- nally called Carnivore, but bad publicity caused it to be renamed to the more innocent-sounding DCS1000 (Blaze and Bellovin, 2000; Sobel, 2001; and Zacks, 2001). The goal of such systems is to spy on millions of people in the hope of perhaps finding information about illegal activities. Unfortunately for the spies, the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits government searches without a search warrant, but the government often ignores it. Of course, the government does not have a monopoly on threatening people’s privacy. The private sector does its bit too by profiling users. For example, small files called cookies that Web browsers store on users’ computers allow companies to track users’ activities in cyberspace and may also allow credit card numbers, social security numbers, and other confidential information to leak all over the Internet (Berghel, 2001). Companies that provide Web-based services may maintain large amounts of personal information about their users that allows them to study user activities directly. For example, Google can read your email and show you advertisements based on your interests if you use its email service, Gmail. A new twist with mobile devices is location privacy (Beresford and Stajano, 2003). As part of the process of providing service to your mobile device the net- work operators learn where you are at different times of day. This allows them to track your movements. They may know which nightclub you frequent and which medical center you visit. Computer networks also offer the potential to increase privacy by sending anonymous messages. In some situations, this capability may be desirable. Beyond preventing companies from learning your habits, it provides, for example, a way for students, soldiers, employees, and citizens to blow the whistle on illegal behavior on the part of professors, officers, superiors, and politicians without fear of reprisals. On the other hand, in the United States and most other democracies, the law specifically permits an accused person the right to confront and challenge his accuser in court so anonymous accusations cannot be used as evidence. The Internet makes it possible to find information quickly, but a great deal of it is ill considered, misleading, or downright wrong. That medical advice you
- 40. 16 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 plucked from the Internet about the pain in your chest may have come from a Nobel Prize winner or from a high-school dropout. Other information is frequently unwanted. Electronic junk mail (spam) has become a part of life because spammers have collected millions of email address- es and would-be marketers can cheaply send computer-generated messages to them. The resulting flood of spam rivals the flow messages from real people. Fortunately, filtering software is able to read and discard the spam generated by other computers, with lesser or greater degrees of success. Still other content is intended for criminal behavior. Web pages and email messages containing active content (basically, programs or macros that execute on the receiver’s machine) can contain viruses that take over your computer. They might be used to steal your bank account passwords, or to have your computer send spam as part of a botnet or pool of compromised machines. Phishing messages masquerade as originating from a trustworthy party, for example, your bank, to try to trick you into revealing sensitive information, for example, credit card numbers. Identity theft is becoming a serious problem as thieves collect enough information about a victim to obtain credit cards and other documents in the victim’s name. It can be difficult to prevent computers from impersonating people on the In- ternet. This problem has led to the development of CAPTCHAs, in which a com- puter asks a person to solve a short recognition task, for example, typing in the letters shown in a distorted image, to show that they are human (von Ahn, 2001). This process is a variation on the famous Turing test in which a person asks ques- tions over a network to judge whether the entity responding is human. A lot of these problems could be solved if the computer industry took com- puter security seriously. If all messages were encrypted and authenticated, it would be harder to commit mischief. Such technology is well established and we will study it in detail in Chap. 8. The problem is that hardware and software ven- dors know that putting in security features costs money and their customers are not demanding such features. In addition, a substantial number of the problems are caused by buggy software, which occurs because vendors keep adding more and more features to their programs, which inevitably means more code and thus more bugs. A tax on new features might help, but that might be a tough sell in some quarters. A refund for defective software might be nice, except it would bankrupt the entire software industry in the first year. Computer networks raise new legal problems when they interact with old laws. Electronic gambling provides an example. Computers have been simulating things for decades, so why not simulate slot machines, roulette wheels, blackjack dealers, and more gambling equipment? Well, because it is illegal in a lot of places. The trouble is, gambling is legal in a lot of other places (England, for ex- ample) and casino owners there have grasped the potential for Internet gambling. What happens if the gambler, the casino, and the server are all in different coun- tries, with conflicting laws? Good question.
- 41. SEC. 1.2 NETWORK HARDWARE 17 1.2 NETWORK HARDWARE It is now time to turn our attention from the applications and social aspects of networking (the dessert) to the technical issues involved in network design (the spinach). There is no generally accepted taxonomy into which all computer net- works fit, but two dimensions stand out as important: transmission technology and scale. We will now examine each of these in turn. Broadly speaking, there are two types of transmission technology that are in widespread use: broadcast links and point-to-point links. Point-to-point links connect individual pairs of machines. To go from the source to the destination on a network made up of point-to-point links, short mes- sages, called packets in certain contexts, may have to first visit one or more inter- mediate machines. Often multiple routes, of different lengths, are possible, so finding good ones is important in point-to-point networks. Point-to-point transmission with exactly one sender and exactly one receiver is sometimes called unicasting. In contrast, on a broadcast network, the communication channel is shared by all the machines on the network; packets sent by any machine are received by all the others. An address field within each packet specifies the intended recipient. Upon receiving a packet, a machine checks the address field. If the packet is in- tended for the receiving machine, that machine processes the packet; if the packet is intended for some other machine, it is just ignored. A wireless network is a common example of a broadcast link, with communi- cation shared over a coverage region that depends on the wireless channel and the transmitting machine. As an analogy, consider someone standing in a meeting room and shouting ‘‘Watson, come here. I want you.’’ Although the packet may actually be received (heard) by many people, only Watson will respond; the others just ignore it. Broadcast systems usually also allow the possibility of addressing a packet to all destinations by using a special code in the address field. When a packet with this code is transmitted, it is received and processed by every machine on the net- work. This mode of operation is called broadcasting. Some broadcast systems also support transmission to a subset of the machines, which known as multicast- ing. An alternative criterion for classifying networks is by scale. Distance is im- portant as a classification metric because different technologies are used at dif- ferent scales. In Fig. 1-6 we classify multiple processor systems by their rough physical size. At the top are the personal area networks, networks that are meant for one person. Beyond these come longer-range networks. These can be divided into local, metropolitan, and wide area networks, each with increasing scale. Finally, the connection of two or more networks is called an internetwork. The worldwide Internet is certainly the best-known (but not the only) example of an internetwork.
- 42. 18 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 Soon we will have even larger internetworks with the Interplanetary Internet that connects networks across space (Burleigh et al., 2003). 1 m Square meter 10 m Room 100 m Building Campus 1 km City 10 km Interprocessor distance Processors located in same Example 100 km Country Continent 1000 km Planet Personal area network The Internet Local area network Metropolitan area network Wide area network 10,000 km Figure 1-6. Classification of interconnected processors by scale. In this book we will be concerned with networks at all these scales. In the following sections, we give a brief introduction to network hardware by scale. 1.2.1 Personal Area Networks PANs (Personal Area Networks) let devices communicate over the range of a person. A common example is a wireless network that connects a computer with its peripherals. Almost every computer has an attached monitor, keyboard, mouse, and printer. Without using wireless, this connection must be done with cables. So many new users have a hard time finding the right cables and plugging them into the right little holes (even though they are usually color coded) that most computer vendors offer the option of sending a technician to the user’s home to do it. To help these users, some companies got together to design a short-range wireless network called Bluetooth to connect these components without wires. The idea is that if your devices have Bluetooth, then you need no cables. You just put them down, turn them on, and they work together. For many people, this ease of operation is a big plus. In the simplest form, Bluetooth networks use the master-slave paradigm of Fig. 1-7. The system unit (the PC) is normally the master, talking to the mouse, keyboard, etc., as slaves. The master tells the slaves what addresses to use, when they can broadcast, how long they can transmit, what frequencies they can use, and so on. Bluetooth can be used in other settings, too. It is often used to connect a headset to a mobile phone without cords and it can allow your digital music player
- 43. SEC. 1.2 NETWORK HARDWARE 19 Figure 1-7. Bluetooth PAN configuration. to connect to your car merely being brought within range. A completely different kind of PAN is formed when an embedded medical device such as a pacemaker, insulin pump, or hearing aid talks to a user-operated remote control. We will dis- cuss Bluetooth in more detail in Chap. 4. PANs can also be built with other technologies that communicate over short ranges, such as RFID on smartcards and library books. We will study RFID in Chap. 4. 1.2.2 Local Area Networks The next step up is the LAN (Local Area Network). A LAN is a privately owned network that operates within and nearby a single building like a home, of- fice or factory. LANs are widely used to connect personal computers and consu- mer electronics to let them share resources (e.g., printers) and exchange informa- tion. When LANs are used by companies, they are called enterprise networks. Wireless LANs are very popular these days, especially in homes, older office buildings, cafeterias, and other places where it is too much trouble to install cables. In these systems, every computer has a radio modem and an antenna that it uses to communicate with other computers. In most cases, each computer talks to a device in the ceiling as shown in Fig. 1-8(a). This device, called an AP (Access Point), wireless router, or base station, relays packets between the wireless computers and also between them and the Internet. Being the AP is like being the popular kid as school because everyone wants to talk to you. However, if other computers are close enough, they can communicate directly with one an- other in a peer-to-peer configuration. There is a standard for wireless LANs called IEEE 802.11, popularly known as WiFi, which has become very widespread. It runs at speeds anywhere from 11
- 44. 20 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 Ethernet switch Ports To rest of network To wired network Access point Figure 1-8. Wireless and wired LANs. (a) 802.11. (b) Switched Ethernet. to hundreds of Mbps. (In this book we will adhere to tradition and measure line speeds in megabits/sec, where 1 Mbps is 1,000,000 bits/sec, and gigabits/sec, where 1 Gbps is 1,000,000,000 bits/sec.) We will discuss 802.11 in Chap. 4. Wired LANs use a range of different transmission technologies. Most of them use copper wires, but some use optical fiber. LANs are restricted in size, which means that the worst-case transmission time is bounded and known in ad- vance. Knowing these bounds helps with the task of designing network protocols. Typically, wired LANs run at speeds of 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps, have low delay (microseconds or nanoseconds), and make very few errors. Newer LANs can op- erate at up to 10 Gbps. Compared to wireless networks, wired LANs exceed them in all dimensions of performance. It is just easier to send signals over a wire or through a fiber than through the air. The topology of many wired LANs is built from point-to-point links. IEEE 802.3, popularly called Ethernet, is, by far, the most common type of wired LAN. Fig. 1-8(b) shows a sample topology of switched Ethernet. Each com- puter speaks the Ethernet protocol and connects to a box called a switch with a point-to-point link. Hence the name. A switch has multiple ports, each of which can connect to one computer. The job of the switch is to relay packets between computers that are attached to it, using the address in each packet to determine which computer to send it to. To build larger LANs, switches can be plugged into each other using their ports. What happens if you plug them together in a loop? Will the network still work? Luckily, the designers thought of this case. It is the job of the protocol to sort out what paths packets should travel to safely reach the intended computer. We will see how this works in Chap. 4. It is also possible to divide one large physical LAN into two smaller logical LANs. You might wonder why this would be useful. Sometimes, the layout of the network equipment does not match the organization’s structure. For example, the
- 45. SEC. 1.2 NETWORK HARDWARE 21 engineering and finance departments of a company might have computers on the same physical LAN because they are in the same wing of the building but it might be easier to manage the system if engineering and finance logically each had its own network Virtual LAN or VLAN. In this design each port is tagged with a ‘‘color,’’ say green for engineering and red for finance. The switch then forwards packets so that computers attached to the green ports are separated from the com- puters attached to the red ports. Broadcast packets sent on a red port, for example, will not be received on a green port, just as though there were two different LANs. We will cover VLANs at the end of Chap. 4. There are other wired LAN topologies too. In fact, switched Ethernet is a modern version of the original Ethernet design that broadcast all the packets over a single linear cable. At most one machine could successfully transmit at a time, and a distributed arbitration mechanism was used to resolve conflicts. It used a simple algorithm: computers could transmit whenever the cable was idle. If two or more packets collided, each computer just waited a random time and tried later. We will call that version classic Ethernet for clarity, and as you suspected, you will learn about it in Chap. 4. Both wireless and wired broadcast networks can be divided into static and dynamic designs, depending on how the channel is allocated. A typical static al- location would be to divide time into discrete intervals and use a round-robin al- gorithm, allowing each machine to broadcast only when its time slot comes up. Static allocation wastes channel capacity when a machine has nothing to say dur- ing its allocated slot, so most systems attempt to allocate the channel dynamically (i.e., on demand). Dynamic allocation methods for a common channel are either centralized or decentralized. In the centralized channel allocation method, there is a single enti- ty, for example, the base station in cellular networks, which determines who goes next. It might do this by accepting multiple packets and prioritizing them accord- ing to some internal algorithm. In the decentralized channel allocation method, there is no central entity; each machine must decide for itself whether to transmit. You might think that this approach would lead to chaos, but it does not. Later we will study many algorithms designed to bring order out of the potential chaos. It is worth spending a little more time discussing LANs in the home. In the future, it is likely that every appliance in the home will be capable of communi- cating with every other appliance, and all of them will be accessible over the In- ternet. This development is likely to be one of those visionary concepts that nobody asked for (like TV remote controls or mobile phones), but once they arrived nobody can imagine how they lived without them. Many devices are already capable of being networked. These include com- puters, entertainment devices such as TVs and DVDs, phones and other consumer electronics such as cameras, appliances like clock radios, and infrastructure like utility meters and thermostats. This trend will only continue. For instance, the average home probably has a dozen clocks (e.g., in appliances), all of which could
- 46. 22 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 adjust to daylight savings time automatically if the clocks were on the Internet. Remote monitoring of the home is a likely winner, as many grown children would be willing to spend some money to help their aging parents live safely in their own homes. While we could think of the home network as just another LAN, it is more likely to have different properties than other networks. First, the networked de- vices have to be very easy to install. Wireless routers are the most returned con- sumer electronic item. People buy one because they want a wireless network at home, find that it does not work ‘‘out of the box,’’ and then return it rather than listen to elevator music while on hold on the technical helpline. Second, the network and devices have to be foolproof in operation. Air con- ditioners used to have one knob with four settings: OFF, LOW, MEDIUM, and HIGH. Now they have 30-page manuals. Once they are networked, expect the chapter on security alone to be 30 pages. This is a problem because only com- puter users are accustomed to putting up with products that do not work; the car-, television-, and refrigerator-buying public is far less tolerant. They expect pro- ducts to work 100% without the need to hire a geek. Third, low price is essential for success. People will not pay a $50 premium for an Internet thermostat because few people regard monitoring their home tem- perature from work that important. For $5 extra, though, it might sell. Fourth, it must be possible to start out with one or two devices and expand the reach of the network gradually. This means no format wars. Telling consumers to buy peripherals with IEEE 1394 (FireWire) interfaces and a few years later retracting that and saying USB 2.0 is the interface-of-the-month and then switch- ing that to 802.11g—oops, no, make that 802.11n—I mean 802.16 (different wire- less networks)—is going to make consumers very skittish. The network interface will have to remain stable for decades, like the television broadcasting standards. Fifth, security and reliability will be very important. Losing a few files to an email virus is one thing; having a burglar disarm your security system from his mobile computer and then plunder your house is something quite different. An interesting question is whether home networks will be wired or wireless. Convenience and cost favors wireless networking because there are no wires to fit, or worse, retrofit. Security favors wired networking because the radio waves that wireless networks use are quite good at going through walls. Not everyone is overjoyed at the thought of having the neighbors piggybacking on their Internet connection and reading their email. In Chap. 8 we will study how encryption can be used to provide security, but it is easier said than done with inexperienced users. A third option that may be appealing is to reuse the networks that are already in the home. The obvious candidate is the electric wires that are installed throughout the house. Power-line networks let devices that plug into outlets broadcast information throughout the house. You have to plug in the TV anyway, and this way it can get Internet connectivity at the same time. The difficulty is
- 47. SEC. 1.2 NETWORK HARDWARE 23 how to carry both power and data signals at the same time. Part of the answer is that they use different frequency bands. In short, home LANs offer many opportunities and challenges. Most of the latter relate to the need for the networks to be easy to manage, dependable, and secure, especially in the hands of nontechnical users, as well as low cost. 1.2.3 Metropolitan Area Networks A MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) covers a city. The best-known ex- amples of MANs are the cable television networks available in many cities. These systems grew from earlier community antenna systems used in areas with poor over-the-air television reception. In those early systems, a large antenna was placed on top of a nearby hill and a signal was then piped to the subscribers’ houses. At first, these were locally designed, ad hoc systems. Then companies began jumping into the business, getting contracts from local governments to wire up en- tire cities. The next step was television programming and even entire channels designed for cable only. Often these channels were highly specialized, such as all news, all sports, all cooking, all gardening, and so on. But from their inception until the late 1990s, they were intended for television reception only. When the Internet began attracting a mass audience, the cable TV network operators began to realize that with some changes to the system, they could pro- vide two-way Internet service in unused parts of the spectrum. At that point, the cable TV system began to morph from simply a way to distribute television to a metropolitan area network. To a first approximation, a MAN might look some- thing like the system shown in Fig. 1-9. In this figure we see both television sig- nals and Internet being fed into the centralized cable headend for subsequent dis- tribution to people’s homes. We will come back to this subject in detail in Chap. 2. Cable television is not the only MAN, though. Recent developments in high- speed wireless Internet access have resulted in another MAN, which has been standardized as IEEE 802.16 and is popularly known as WiMAX. We will look at it in Chap. 4. 1.2.4 Wide Area Networks A WAN (Wide Area Network) spans a large geographical area, often a country or continent. We will begin our discussion with wired WANs, using the example of a company with branch offices in different cities. The WAN in Fig. 1-10 is a network that connects offices in Perth, Melbourne, and Brisbane. Each of these offices contains computers intended for running user (i.e., application) programs. We will follow traditional usage and call these ma- chines hosts. The rest of the network that connects these hosts is then called the
- 48. 24 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 Internet Antenna Junction box Head end Figure 1-9. A metropolitan area network based on cable TV. communication subnet, or just subnet for short. The job of the subnet is to carry messages from host to host, just as the telephone system carries words (really just sounds) from speaker to listener. In most WANs, the subnet consists of two distinct components: transmission lines and switching elements. Transmission lines move bits between machines. They can be made of copper wire, optical fiber, or even radio links. Most com- panies do not have transmission lines lying about, so instead they lease the lines from a telecommunications company. Switching elements, or just switches, are specialized computers that connect two or more transmission lines. When data arrive on an incoming line, the switching element must choose an outgoing line on which to forward them. These switching computers have been called by various names in the past; the name router is now most commonly used. Unfortunately, some people pronounce it ‘‘rooter’’ while others have it rhyme with ‘‘doubter.’’ Determining the correct pronunciation will be left as an exercise for the reader. (Note: the perceived correct answer may depend on where you live.) A short comment about the term ‘‘subnet’’ is in order here. Originally, its only meaning was the collection of routers and communication lines that moved packets from the source host to the destination host. Readers should be aware that it has acquired a second, more recent meaning in conjunction with network ad- dressing. We will discuss that meaning in Chap. 5 and stick with the original meaning (a collection of lines and routers) until then. The WAN as we have described it looks similar to a large wired LAN, but there are some important differences that go beyond long wires. Usually in a WAN, the hosts and subnet are owned and operated by different people. In our
- 49. SEC. 1.2 NETWORK HARDWARE 25 Subnet Router Perth Brisbane Melbourne Transmission line Figure 1-10. WAN that connects three branch offices in Australia. example, the employees might be responsible for their own computers, while the company’s IT department is in charge of the rest of the network. We will see clearer boundaries in the coming examples, in which the network provider or tele- phone company operates the subnet. Separation of the pure communication aspects of the network (the subnet) from the application aspects (the hosts) greatly simplifies the overall network design. A second difference is that the routers will usually connect different kinds of networking technology. The networks inside the offices may be switched Ether- net, for example, while the long-distance transmission lines may be SONET links (which we will cover in Chap. 2). Some device needs to join them. The astute reader will notice that this goes beyond our definition of a network. This means that many WANs will in fact be internetworks, or composite networks that are made up of more than one network. We will have more to say about internet- works in the next section. A final difference is in what is connected to the subnet. This could be indivi- dual computers, as was the case for connecting to LANs, or it could be entire LANs. This is how larger networks are built from smaller ones. As far as the sub- net is concerned, it does the same job. We are now in a position to look at two other varieties of WANs. First, rather than lease dedicated transmission lines, a company might connect its offices to the Internet This allows connections to be made between the offices as virtual links
- 50. 26 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 that use the underlying capacity of the Internet. This arrangement, shown in Fig. 1-11, is called a VPN (Virtual Private Network). Compared to the dedi- cated arrangement, a VPN has the usual advantage of virtualization, which is that it provides flexible reuse of a resource (Internet connectivity). Consider how easy it is to add a fourth office to see this. A VPN also has the usual disadvantage of virtualization, which is a lack of control over the underlying resources. With a dedicated line, the capacity is clear. With a VPN your mileage may vary with your Internet service. Internet Perth Brisbane Melbourne Link via the internet Figure 1-11. WAN using a virtual private network. The second variation is that the subnet may be run by a different company. The subnet operator is known as a network service provider and the offices are its customers. This structure is shown in Fig. 1-12. The subnet operator will con- nect to other customers too, as long as they can pay and it can provide service. Since it would be a disappointing network service if the customers could only send packets to each other, the subnet operator will also connect to other networks that are part of the Internet. Such a subnet operator is called an ISP (Internet Service Provider) and the subnet is an ISP network. Its customers who connect to the ISP receive Internet service. We can use the ISP network to preview some key issues that we will study in later chapters. In most WANs, the network contains many transmission lines, each connecting a pair of routers. If two routers that do not share a transmission line wish to communicate, they must do this indirectly, via other routers. There
- 51. SEC. 1.2 NETWORK HARDWARE 27 ISP network Perth Brisbane Melbourne Transmission line Customer network Figure 1-12. WAN using an ISP network. may be many paths in the network that connect these two routers. How the net- work makes the decision as to which path to use is called the routing algorithm. Many such algorithms exist. How each router makes the decision as to where to send a packet next is called the forwarding algorithm. Many of them exist too. We will study some of both types in detail in Chap. 5. Other kinds of WANs make heavy use of wireless technologies. In satellite systems, each computer on the ground has an antenna through which it can send data to and receive data from to a satellite in orbit. All computers can hear the output from the satellite, and in some cases they can also hear the upward transmissions of their fellow computers to the satellite as well. Satellite networks are inherently broadcast and are most useful when the broadcast property is im- portant. The cellular telephone network is another example of a WAN that uses wire- less technology. This system has already gone through three generations and a fourth one is on the horizon. The first generation was analog and for voice only. The second generation was digital and for voice only. The third generation is dig- ital and is for both voice and data. Each cellular base station covers a distance much larger than a wireless LAN, with a range measured in kilometers rather than tens of meters. The base stations are connected to each other by a backbone net- work that is usually wired. The data rates of cellular networks are often on the order of 1 Mbps, much smaller than a wireless LAN that can range up to on the order of 100 Mbps. We will have a lot to say about these networks in Chap. 2.
- 52. 28 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 1.2.5 Internetworks Many networks exist in the world, often with different hardware and software. People connected to one network often want to communicate with people attached to a different one. The fulfillment of this desire requires that different, and fre- quently incompatible, networks be connected. A collection of interconnected net- works is called an internetwork or internet. These terms will be used in a gen- eric sense, in contrast to the worldwide Internet (which is one specific internet), which we will always capitalize. The Internet uses ISP networks to connect en- terprise networks, home networks, and many other networks. We will look at the Internet in great detail later in this book. Subnets, networks, and internetworks are often confused. The term ‘‘subnet’’ makes the most sense in the context of a wide area network, where it refers to the collection of routers and communication lines owned by the network operator. As an analogy, the telephone system consists of telephone switching offices connect- ed to one another by high-speed lines, and to houses and businesses by low-speed lines. These lines and equipment, owned and managed by the telephone com- pany, form the subnet of the telephone system. The telephones themselves (the hosts in this analogy) are not part of the subnet. A network is formed by the combination of a subnet and its hosts. However, the word ‘‘network’’ is often used in a loose sense as well. A subnet might be de- scribed as a network, as in the case of the ‘‘ISP network’’ of Fig. 1-12. An inter- network might also be described as a network, as in the case of the WAN in Fig. 1-10. We will follow similar practice, and if we are distinguishing a network from other arrangements, we will stick with our original definition of a collection of computers interconnected by a single technology. Let us say more about what constitutes an internetwork. We know that an in- ternet is formed when distinct networks are interconnected. In our view, connect- ing a LAN and a WAN or connecting two LANs is the usual way to form an inter- network, but there is little agreement in the industry over terminology in this area. There are two rules of thumb that are useful. First, if different organizations have paid to construct different parts of the network and each maintains its part, we have an internetwork rather than a single network. Second, if the underlying tech- nology is different in different parts (e.g., broadcast versus point-to-point and wired versus wireless), we probably have an internetwork. To go deeper, we need to talk about how two different networks can be con- nected. The general name for a machine that makes a connection between two or more networks and provides the necessary translation, both in terms of hardware and software, is a gateway. Gateways are distinguished by the layer at which they operate in the protocol hierarchy. We will have much more to say about lay- ers and protocol hierarchies starting in the next section, but for now imagine that higher layers are more tied to applications, such as the Web, and lower layers are more tied to transmission links, such as Ethernet.
- 53. SEC. 1.2 NETWORK HARDWARE 29 Since the benefit of forming an internet is to connect computers across net- works, we do not want to use too low-level a gateway or we will be unable to make connections between different kinds of networks. We do not want to use too high-level a gateway either, or the connection will only work for particular ap- plications. The level in the middle that is ‘‘just right’’ is often called the network layer, and a router is a gateway that switches packets at the network layer. We can now spot an internet by finding a network that has routers. 1.3 NETWORK SOFTWARE The first computer networks were designed with the hardware as the main concern and the software as an afterthought. This strategy no longer works. Net- work software is now highly structured. In the following sections we examine the software structuring technique in some detail. The approach described here forms the keystone of the entire book and will occur repeatedly later on. 1.3.1 Protocol Hierarchies To reduce their design complexity, most networks are organized as a stack of layers or levels, each one built upon the one below it. The number of layers, the name of each layer, the contents of each layer, and the function of each layer dif- fer from network to network. The purpose of each layer is to offer certain ser- vices to the higher layers while shielding those layers from the details of how the offered services are actually implemented. In a sense, each layer is a kind of vir- tual machine, offering certain services to the layer above it. This concept is actually a familiar one and is used throughout computer sci- ence, where it is variously known as information hiding, abstract data types, data encapsulation, and object-oriented programming. The fundamental idea is that a particular piece of software (or hardware) provides a service to its users but keeps the details of its internal state and algorithms hidden from them. When layer n on one machine carries on a conversation with layer n on anoth- er machine, the rules and conventions used in this conversation are collectively known as the layer n protocol. Basically, a protocol is an agreement between the communicating parties on how communication is to proceed. As an analogy, when a woman is introduced to a man, she may choose to stick out her hand. He, in turn, may decide to either shake it or kiss it, depending, for example, on wheth- er she is an American lawyer at a business meeting or a European princess at a formal ball. Violating the protocol will make communication more difficult, if not completely impossible. A five-layer network is illustrated in Fig. 1-13. The entities comprising the corresponding layers on different machines are called peers. The peers may be
- 54. 30 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 software processes, hardware devices, or even human beings. In other words, it is the peers that communicate by using the protocol to talk to each other. Layer 5 Layer 4 Layer 3 Layer 2 Layer 1 Host 1 Layer 4/5 interface Layer 3/4 interface Layer 2/3 interface Layer 1/2 interface Layer 5 protocol Layer 5 Layer 4 Layer 3 Layer 2 Layer 1 Host 2 Layer 4 protocol Layer 3 protocol Layer 2 protocol Layer 1 protocol Physical medium Figure 1-13. Layers, protocols, and interfaces. In reality, no data are directly transferred from layer n on one machine to layer n on another machine. Instead, each layer passes data and control infor- mation to the layer immediately below it, until the lowest layer is reached. Below layer 1 is the physical medium through which actual communication occurs. In Fig. 1-13, virtual communication is shown by dotted lines and physical communi- cation by solid lines. Between each pair of adjacent layers is an interface. The interface defines which primitive operations and services the lower layer makes available to the upper one. When network designers decide how many layers to include in a net- work and what each one should do, one of the most important considerations is defining clean interfaces between the layers. Doing so, in turn, requires that each layer perform a specific collection of well-understood functions. In addition to minimizing the amount of information that must be passed between layers, clear- cut interfaces also make it simpler to replace one layer with a completely different protocol or implementation (e.g., replacing all the telephone lines by satellite channels) because all that is required of the new protocol or implementation is that it offer exactly the same set of services to its upstairs neighbor as the old one did. It is common that different hosts use different implementations of the same protocol (often written by different companies). In fact, the protocol itself can change in some layer without the layers above and below it even noticing.
- 55. SEC. 1.3 NETWORK SOFTWARE 31 A set of layers and protocols is called a network architecture. The specif- ication of an architecture must contain enough information to allow an imple- menter to write the program or build the hardware for each layer so that it will correctly obey the appropriate protocol. Neither the details of the implementation nor the specification of the interfaces is part of the architecture because these are hidden away inside the machines and not visible from the outside. It is not even necessary that the interfaces on all machines in a network be the same, provided that each machine can correctly use all the protocols. A list of the protocols used by a certain system, one protocol per layer, is called a protocol stack. Network architectures, protocol stacks, and the protocols themselves are the principal sub- jects of this book. An analogy may help explain the idea of multilayer communication. Imagine two philosophers (peer processes in layer 3), one of whom speaks Urdu and English and one of whom speaks Chinese and French. Since they have no com- mon language, they each engage a translator (peer processes at layer 2), each of whom in turn contacts a secretary (peer processes in layer 1). Philosopher 1 wishes to convey his affection for oryctolagus cuniculus to his peer. To do so, he passes a message (in English) across the 2/3 interface to his translator, saying ‘‘I like rabbits,’’ as illustrated in Fig. 1-14. The translators have agreed on a neutral language known to both of them, Dutch, so the message is converted to ‘‘Ik vind konijnen leuk.’’ The choice of the language is the layer 2 protocol and is up to the layer 2 peer processes. The translator then gives the message to a secretary for transmission, for ex- ample, by email (the layer 1 protocol). When the message arrives at the other secretary, it is passed to the local translator, who translates it into French and passes it across the 2/3 interface to the second philosopher. Note that each proto- col is completely independent of the other ones as long as the interfaces are not changed. The translators can switch from Dutch to, say, Finnish, at will, provided that they both agree and neither changes his interface with either layer 1 or layer 3. Similarly, the secretaries can switch from email to telephone without disturb- ing (or even informing) the other layers. Each process may add some information intended only for its peer. This information is not passed up to the layer above. Now consider a more technical example: how to provide communication to the top layer of the five-layer network in Fig. 1-15. A message, M, is produced by an application process running in layer 5 and given to layer 4 for transmission. Layer 4 puts a header in front of the message to identify the message and passes the result to layer 3. The header includes control information, such as addresses, to allow layer 4 on the destination machine to deliver the message. Other ex- amples of control information used in some layers are sequence numbers (in case the lower layer does not preserve message order), sizes, and times. In many networks, no limit is placed on the size of messages transmitted in the layer 4 protocol but there is nearly always a limit imposed by the layer 3 pro- tocol. Consequently, layer 3 must break up the incoming messages into smaller
- 56. 32 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 I like rabbits Location A 3 2 1 3 2 1 Location B Message Philosopher Translator Secretary Information for the remote translator Information for the remote secretary L: Dutch Ik vind konijnen leuk Fax #--- L: Dutch Ik vind konijnen leuk J'aime bien les lapins L: Dutch Ik vind konijnen leuk Fax #--- L: Dutch Ik vind konijnen leuk Figure 1-14. The philosopher-translator-secretary architecture. units, packets, prepending a layer 3 header to each packet. In this example, M is split into two parts, M1 and M2, that will be transmitted separately. Layer 3 decides which of the outgoing lines to use and passes the packets to layer 2. Layer 2 adds to each piece not only a header but also a trailer, and gives the resulting unit to layer 1 for physical transmission. At the receiving machine the message moves upward, from layer to layer, with headers being stripped off as it progresses. None of the headers for layers below n are passed up to layer n. The important thing to understand about Fig. 1-15 is the relation between the virtual and actual communication and the difference between protocols and inter- faces. The peer processes in layer 4, for example, conceptually think of their communication as being ‘‘horizontal,’’ using the layer 4 protocol. Each one is likely to have procedures called something like SendToOtherSide and GetFrom- OtherSide, even though these procedures actually communicate with lower layers across the 3/4 interface, and not with the other side.
- 57. SEC. 1.3 NETWORK SOFTWARE 33 H2 H3 H4 M1 T2 H2 H3 M2 T2 H2 H3 H4 M1 T2 H2 H3 M2 T2 H3 H4 M1 H3 M2 H3 H4 M1 H3 M2 H4 M H4 M M M Layer 2 protocol 2 Layer 3 protocol Layer 4 protocol Layer 5 protocol 3 4 5 1 Layer Source machine Destination machine Figure 1-15. Example information flow supporting virtual communication in layer 5. The peer process abstraction is crucial to all network design. Using it, the unmanageable task of designing the complete network can be broken into several smaller, manageable design problems, namely, the design of the individual layers. Although Sec. 1.3 is called ‘‘Network Software,’’ it is worth pointing out that the lower layers of a protocol hierarchy are frequently implemented in hardware or firmware. Nevertheless, complex protocol algorithms are involved, even if they are embedded (in whole or in part) in hardware. 1.3.2 Design Issues for the Layers Some of the key design issues that occur in computer networks will come up in layer after layer. Below, we will briefly mention the more important ones. Reliability is the design issue of making a network that operates correctly even though it is made up of a collection of components that are themselves unreliable. Think about the bits of a packet traveling through the network. There is a chance that some of these bits will be received damaged (inverted) due to fluke electrical noise, random wireless signals, hardware flaws, software bugs and so on. How is it possible that we find and fix these errors? One mechanism for finding errors in received information uses codes for er- ror detection. Information that is incorrectly received can then be retransmitted
- 58. 34 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 until it is received correctly. More powerful codes allow for error correction, where the correct message is recovered from the possibly incorrect bits that were originally received. Both of these mechanisms work by adding redundant infor- mation. They are used at low layers, to protect packets sent over individual links, and high layers, to check that the right contents were received. Another reliability issue is finding a working path through a network. Often there are multiple paths between a source and destination, and in a large network, there may be some links or routers that are broken. Suppose that the network is down in Germany. Packets sent from London to Rome via Germany will not get through, but we could instead send packets from London to Rome via Paris. The network should automatically make this decision. This topic is called routing. A second design issue concerns the evolution of the network. Over time, net- works grow larger and new designs emerge that need to be connected to the exist- ing network. We have recently seen the key structuring mechanism used to sup- port change by dividing the overall problem and hiding implementation details: protocol layering. There are many other strategies as well. Since there are many computers on the network, every layer needs a mechan- ism for identifying the senders and receivers that are involved in a particular mes- sage. This mechanism is called addressing or naming, in the low and high lay- ers, respectively. An aspect of growth is that different network technologies often have dif- ferent limitations. For example, not all communication channels preserve the order of messages sent on them, leading to solutions that number messages. An- other example is differences in the maximum size of a message that the networks can transmit. This leads to mechanisms for disassembling, transmitting, and then reassembling messages. This overall topic is called internetworking. When networks get large, new problems arise. Cities can have traffic jams, a shortage of telephone numbers, and it is easy to get lost. Not many people have these problems in their own neighborhood, but citywide they may be a big issue. Designs that continue to work well when the network gets large are said to be scalable. A third design issue is resource allocation. Networks provide a service to hosts from their underlying resources, such as the capacity of transmission lines. To do this well, they need mechanisms that divide their resources so that one host does not interfere with another too much. Many designs share network bandwidth dynamically, according to the short- term needs of hosts, rather than by giving each host a fixed fraction of the band- width that it may or may not use. This design is called statistical multiplexing, meaning sharing based on the statistics of demand. It can be applied at low layers for a single link, or at high layers for a network or even applications that use the network. An allocation problem that occurs at every level is how to keep a fast sender from swamping a slow receiver with data. Feedback from the receiver to the
- 59. SEC. 1.3 NETWORK SOFTWARE 35 sender is often used. This subject is called flow control. Sometimes the problem is that the network is oversubscribed because too many computers want to send too much traffic, and the network cannot deliver it all. This overloading of the network is called congestion. One strategy is for each computer to reduce its de- mand when it experiences congestion. It, too, can be used in all layers. It is interesting to observe that the network has more resources to offer than simply bandwidth. For uses such as carrying live video, the timeliness of delivery matters a great deal. Most networks must provide service to applications that want this real-time delivery at the same time that they provide service to applications that want high throughput. Quality of service is the name given to mechanisms that reconcile these competing demands. The last major design issue is to secure the network by defending it against different kinds of threats. One of the threats we have mentioned previously is that of eavesdropping on communications. Mechanisms that provide confidentiality defend against this threat, and they are used in multiple layers. Mechanisms for authentication prevent someone from impersonating someone else. They might be used to tell fake banking Web sites from the real one, or to let the cellular net- work check that a call is really coming from your phone so that you will pay the bill. Other mechanisms for integrity prevent surreptitious changes to messages, such as altering ‘‘debit my account $10’’ to ‘‘debit my account $1000.’’ All of these designs are based on cryptography, which we shall study in Chap. 8. 1.3.3 Connection-Oriented Versus Connectionless Service Layers can offer two different types of service to the layers above them: con- nection-oriented and connectionless. In this section we will look at these two types and examine the differences between them. Connection-oriented service is modeled after the telephone system. To talk to someone, you pick up the phone, dial the number, talk, and then hang up. Simi- larly, to use a connection-oriented network service, the service user first estab- lishes a connection, uses the connection, and then releases the connection. The essential aspect of a connection is that it acts like a tube: the sender pushes objects (bits) in at one end, and the receiver takes them out at the other end. In most cases the order is preserved so that the bits arrive in the order they were sent. In some cases when a connection is established, the sender, receiver, and sub- net conduct a negotiation about the parameters to be used, such as maximum message size, quality of service required, and other issues. Typically, one side makes a proposal and the other side can accept it, reject it, or make a counter- proposal. A circuit is another name for a connection with associated resources, such as a fixed bandwidth. This dates from the telephone network in which a cir- cuit was a path over copper wire that carried a phone conversation. In contrast to connection-oriented service, connectionless service is modeled after the postal system. Each message (letter) carries the full destination address,
- 60. 36 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 and each one is routed through the intermediate nodes inside the system indepen- dent of all the subsequent messages. There are different names for messages in different contexts; a packet is a message at the network layer. When the inter- mediate nodes receive a message in full before sending it on to the next node, this is called store-and-forward switching. The alternative, in which the onward transmission of a message at a node starts before it is completely received by the node, is called cut-through switching. Normally, when two messages are sent to the same destination, the first one sent will be the first one to arrive. However, it is possible that the first one sent can be delayed so that the second one arrives first. Each kind of service can further be characterized by its reliability. Some ser- vices are reliable in the sense that they never lose data. Usually, a reliable service is implemented by having the receiver acknowledge the receipt of each message so the sender is sure that it arrived. The acknowledgement process introduces overhead and delays, which are often worth it but are sometimes undesirable. A typical situation in which a reliable connection-oriented service is appropri- ate is file transfer. The owner of the file wants to be sure that all the bits arrive correctly and in the same order they were sent. Very few file transfer customers would prefer a service that occasionally scrambles or loses a few bits, even if it is much faster. Reliable connection-oriented service has two minor variations: message se- quences and byte streams. In the former variant, the message boundaries are pre- served. When two 1024-byte messages are sent, they arrive as two distinct 1024- byte messages, never as one 2048-byte message. In the latter, the connection is simply a stream of bytes, with no message boundaries. When 2048 bytes arrive at the receiver, there is no way to tell if they were sent as one 2048-byte message, two 1024-byte messages, or 2048 1-byte messages. If the pages of a book are sent over a network to a phototypesetter as separate messages, it might be important to preserve the message boundaries. On the other hand, to download a DVD movie, a byte stream from the server to the user’s computer is all that is needed. Mes- sage boundaries within the movie are not relevant. For some applications, the transit delays introduced by acknowledgements are unacceptable. One such application is digitized voice traffic for voice over IP. It is less disruptive for telephone users to hear a bit of noise on the line from time to time than to experience a delay waiting for acknowledgements. Similarly, when transmitting a video conference, having a few pixels wrong is no problem, but having the image jerk along as the flow stops and starts to correct errors is irritat- ing. Not all applications require connections. For example, spammers send elec- tronic junk-mail to many recipients. The spammer probably does not want to go to the trouble of setting up and later tearing down a connection to a recipient just to send them one item. Nor is 100 percent reliable delivery essential, especially if it costs more. All that is needed is a way to send a single message that has a high
- 61. SEC. 1.3 NETWORK SOFTWARE 37 probability of arrival, but no guarantee. Unreliable (meaning not acknowledged) connectionless service is often called datagram service, in analogy with telegram service, which also does not return an acknowledgement to the sender. Despite it being unreliable, it is the dominant form in most networks for reasons that will become clear later In other situations, the convenience of not having to establish a connection to send one message is desired, but reliability is essential. The acknowledged datagram service can be provided for these applications. It is like sending a reg- istered letter and requesting a return receipt. When the receipt comes back, the sender is absolutely sure that the letter was delivered to the intended party and not lost along the way. Text messaging on mobile phones is an example. Still another service is the request-reply service. In this service the sender transmits a single datagram containing a request; the reply contains the answer. Request-reply is commonly used to implement communication in the client-server model: the client issues a request and the server responds to it. For example, a mobile phone client might send a query to a map server to retrieve the map data for the current location. Figure 1-16 summarizes the types of services discussed above. Reliable message stream Reliable byte stream Unreliable connection Unreliable datagram Acknowledged datagram Request-reply Service Connection- oriented Connection- less Sequence of pages Movie download Voice over IP Electronic junk mail Text messaging Database query Example Figure 1-16. Six different types of service. The concept of using unreliable communication may be confusing at first. After all, why would anyone actually prefer unreliable communication to reliable communication? First of all, reliable communication (in our sense, that is, acknowledged) may not be available in a given layer. For example, Ethernet does not provide reliable communication. Packets can occasionally be damaged in transit. It is up to higher protocol levels to recover from this problem. In particu- lar, many reliable services are built on top of an unreliable datagram service. Sec- ond, the delays inherent in providing a reliable service may be unacceptable, espe- cially in real-time applications such as multimedia. For these reasons, both reli- able and unreliable communication coexist.
- 62. 38 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 1.3.4 Service Primitives A service is formally specified by a set of primitives (operations) available to user processes to access the service. These primitives tell the service to perform some action or report on an action taken by a peer entity. If the protocol stack is located in the operating system, as it often is, the primitives are normally system calls. These calls cause a trap to kernel mode, which then turns control of the ma- chine over to the operating system to send the necessary packets. The set of primitives available depends on the nature of the service being pro- vided. The primitives for connection-oriented service are different from those of connectionless service. As a minimal example of the service primitives that might provide a reliable byte stream, consider the primitives listed in Fig. 1-17. They will be familiar to fans of the Berkeley socket interface, as the primitives are a simplified version of that interface. Primitive Meaning LISTEN Block waiting for an incoming connection CONNECT Establish a connection with a waiting peer ACCEPT Accept an incoming connection from a peer RECEIVE Block waiting for an incoming message SEND Send a message to the peer DISCONNECT Terminate a connection Figure 1-17. Six service primitives that provide a simple connection-oriented service. These primitives might be used for a request-reply interaction in a client-ser- ver environment. To illustrate how, We sketch a simple protocol that implements the service using acknowledged datagrams. First, the server executes LISTEN to indicate that it is prepared to accept in- coming connections. A common way to implement LISTEN is to make it a block- ing system call. After executing the primitive, the server process is blocked until a request for connection appears. Next, the client process executes CONNECT to establish a connection with the server. The CONNECT call needs to specify who to connect to, so it might have a parameter giving the server’s address. The operating system then typically sends a packet to the peer asking it to connect, as shown by (1) in Fig. 1-18. The client process is suspended until there is a response. When the packet arrives at the server, the operating system sees that the pack- et is requesting a connection. It checks to see if there is a listener, and if so it unblocks the listener. The server process can then establish the connection with the ACCEPT call. This sends a response (2) back to the client process to accept the
- 63. SEC. 1.3 NETWORK SOFTWARE 39 Client machine (1) Connect request (2) Accept response System calls Kernel Operating system Client process Drivers Protocol stack Server machine System process Kernel Drivers Protocol stack (3) Request for data (4) Reply (5) Disconnect (6) Disconnect Figure 1-18. A simple client-server interaction using acknowledged datagrams. connection. The arrival of this response then releases the client. At this point the client and server are both running and they have a connection established. The obvious analogy between this protocol and real life is a customer (client) calling a company’s customer service manager. At the start of the day, the service manager sits next to his telephone in case it rings. Later, a client places a call. When the manager picks up the phone, the connection is established. The next step is for the server to execute RECEIVE to prepare to accept the first request. Normally, the server does this immediately upon being released from the LISTEN, before the acknowledgement can get back to the client. The RECEIVE call blocks the server. Then the client executes SEND to transmit its request (3) followed by the ex- ecution of RECEIVE to get the reply. The arrival of the request packet at the server machine unblocks the server so it can handle the request. After it has done the work, the server uses SEND to return the answer to the client (4). The arrival of this packet unblocks the client, which can now inspect the answer. If the client has additional requests, it can make them now. When the client is done, it executes DISCONNECT to terminate the connection (5). Usually, an initial DISCONNECT is a blocking call, suspending the client and sending a packet to the server saying that the connection is no longer needed. When the server gets the packet, it also issues a DISCONNECT of its own, ack- nowledging the client and releasing the connection (6). When the server’s packet gets back to the client machine, the client process is released and the connection is broken. In a nutshell, this is how connection-oriented communication works. Of course, life is not so simple. Many things can go wrong here. The timing can be wrong (e.g., the CONNECT is done before the LISTEN), packets can get lost, and much more. We will look at these issues in great detail later, but for the moment, Fig. 1-18 briefly summarizes how client-server communication might work with acknowledged datagrams so that we can ignore lost packets. Given that six packets are required to complete this protocol, one might wonder why a connectionless protocol is not used instead. The answer is that in a perfect world it could be, in which case only two packets would be needed: one
- 64. 40 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 for the request and one for the reply. However, in the face of large messages in either direction (e.g., a megabyte file), transmission errors, and lost packets, the situation changes. If the reply consisted of hundreds of packets, some of which could be lost during transmission, how would the client know if some pieces were missing? How would the client know whether the last packet actually received was really the last packet sent? Suppose the client wanted a second file. How could it tell packet 1 from the second file from a lost packet 1 from the first file that suddenly found its way to the client? In short, in the real world, a simple re- quest-reply protocol over an unreliable network is often inadequate. In Chap. 3 we will study a variety of protocols in detail that overcome these and other prob- lems. For the moment, suffice it to say that having a reliable, ordered byte stream between processes is sometimes very convenient. 1.3.5 The Relationship of Services to Protocols Services and protocols are distinct concepts. This distinction is so important that we emphasize it again here. A service is a set of primitives (operations) that a layer provides to the layer above it. The service defines what operations the layer is prepared to perform on behalf of its users, but it says nothing at all about how these operations are implemented. A service relates to an interface between two layers, with the lower layer being the service provider and the upper layer being the service user. A protocol, in contrast, is a set of rules governing the format and meaning of the packets, or messages that are exchanged by the peer entities within a layer. Entities use protocols to implement their service definitions. They are free to change their protocols at will, provided they do not change the service visible to their users. In this way, the service and the protocol are completely decoupled. This is a key concept that any network designer should understand well. To repeat this crucial point, services relate to the interfaces between layers, as illustrated in Fig. 1-19. In contrast, protocols relate to the packets sent between peer entities on different machines. It is very important not to confuse the two concepts. An analogy with programming languages is worth making. A service is like an abstract data type or an object in an object-oriented language. It defines opera- tions that can be performed on an object but does not specify how these operations are implemented. In contrast, a protocol relates to the implementation of the ser- vice and as such is not visible to the user of the service. Many older protocols did not distinguish the service from the protocol. In ef- fect, a typical layer might have had a service primitive SEND PACKET with the user providing a pointer to a fully assembled packet. This arrangement meant that all changes to the protocol were immediately visible to the users. Most network de- signers now regard such a design as a serious blunder.
- 65. SEC. 1.4 REFERENCE MODELS 41 Layer k Layer k + 1 Layer k - 1 Protocol Service provided by layer k Layer k Layer k + 1 Layer k - 1 Figure 1-19. The relationship between a service and a protocol. 1.4 REFERENCE MODELS Now that we have discussed layered networks in the abstract, it is time to look at some examples. We will discuss two important network architectures: the OSI reference model and the TCP/IP reference model. Although the protocols associ- ated with the OSI model are not used any more, the model itself is actually quite general and still valid, and the features discussed at each layer are still very im- portant. The TCP/IP model has the opposite properties: the model itself is not of much use but the protocols are widely used. For this reason we will look at both of them in detail. Also, sometimes you can learn more from failures than from successes. 1.4.1 The OSI Reference Model The OSI model (minus the physical medium) is shown in Fig. 1-20. This model is based on a proposal developed by the International Standards Organiza- tion (ISO) as a first step toward international standardization of the protocols used in the various layers (Day and Zimmermann, 1983). It was revised in 1995 (Day, 1995). The model is called the ISO OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) Ref- erence Model because it deals with connecting open systems—that is, systems that are open for communication with other systems. We will just call it the OSI model for short. The OSI model has seven layers. The principles that were applied to arrive at the seven layers can be briefly summarized as follows: 1. A layer should be created where a different abstraction is needed. 2. Each layer should perform a well-defined function. 3. The function of each layer should be chosen with an eye toward defining internationally standardized protocols.
- 66. 42 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 Layer Presentation Application Session Transport Network Data link Physical 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Interface Host A Name of unit exchanged APDU PPDU SPDU TPDU Packet Frame Bit Presentation Application Session Transport Network Data link Physical Host B Network Network Data link Data link Physical Physical Router Router Internal subnet protocol Application protocol Presentation protocol Transport protocol Session protocol Communication subnet boundary Network layer host-router protocol Data link layer host-router protocol Physical layer host-router protocol Figure 1-20. The OSI reference model. 4. The layer boundaries should be chosen to minimize the information flow across the interfaces. 5. The number of layers should be large enough that distinct functions need not be thrown together in the same layer out of necessity and small enough that the architecture does not become unwieldy. Below we will discuss each layer of the model in turn, starting at the bottom layer. Note that the OSI model itself is not a network architecture because it does not specify the exact services and protocols to be used in each layer. It just tells what each layer should do. However, ISO has also produced standards for all the layers, although these are not part of the reference model itself. Each one has been published as a separate international standard. The model (in part) is widely used although the associated protocols have been long forgotten.
- 67. SEC. 1.4 REFERENCE MODELS 43 The Physical Layer The physical layer is concerned with transmitting raw bits over a communi- cation channel. The design issues have to do with making sure that when one side sends a 1 bit it is received by the other side as a 1 bit, not as a 0 bit. Typical ques- tions here are what electrical signals should be used to represent a 1 and a 0, how many nanoseconds a bit lasts, whether transmission may proceed simultaneously in both directions, how the initial connection is established, how it is torn down when both sides are finished, how many pins the network connector has, and what each pin is used for. These design issues largely deal with mechanical, electrical, and timing interfaces, as well as the physical transmission medium, which lies below the physical layer. The Data Link Layer The main task of the data link layer is to transform a raw transmission facil- ity into a line that appears free of undetected transmission errors. It does so by masking the real errors so the network layer does not see them. It accomplishes this task by having the sender break up the input data into data frames (typically a few hundred or a few thousand bytes) and transmit the frames sequentially. If the service is reliable, the receiver confirms correct receipt of each frame by send- ing back an acknowledgement frame. Another issue that arises in the data link layer (and most of the higher layers as well) is how to keep a fast transmitter from drowning a slow receiver in data. Some traffic regulation mechanism may be needed to let the transmitter know when the receiver can accept more data. Broadcast networks have an additional issue in the data link layer: how to control access to the shared channel. A special sublayer of the data link layer, the medium access control sublayer, deals with this problem. The Network Layer The network layer controls the operation of the subnet. A key design issue is determining how packets are routed from source to destination. Routes can be based on static tables that are ‘‘wired into’’ the network and rarely changed, or more often they can be updated automatically to avoid failed components. They can also be determined at the start of each conversation, for example, a terminal session, such as a login to a remote machine. Finally, they can be highly dynam- ic, being determined anew for each packet to reflect the current network load. If too many packets are present in the subnet at the same time, they will get in one another’s way, forming bottlenecks. Handling congestion is also a responsi- bility of the network layer, in conjunction with higher layers that adapt the load
- 68. 44 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 they place on the network. More generally, the quality of service provided (delay, transit time, jitter, etc.) is also a network layer issue. When a packet has to travel from one network to another to get to its destina- tion, many problems can arise. The addressing used by the second network may be different from that used by the first one. The second one may not accept the packet at all because it is too large. The protocols may differ, and so on. It is up to the network layer to overcome all these problems to allow heterogeneous net- works to be interconnected. In broadcast networks, the routing problem is simple, so the network layer is often thin or even nonexistent. The Transport Layer The basic function of the transport layer is to accept data from above it, split it up into smaller units if need be, pass these to the network layer, and ensure that the pieces all arrive correctly at the other end. Furthermore, all this must be done efficiently and in a way that isolates the upper layers from the inevitable changes in the hardware technology over the course of time. The transport layer also determines what type of service to provide to the ses- sion layer, and, ultimately, to the users of the network. The most popular type of transport connection is an error-free point-to-point channel that delivers messages or bytes in the order in which they were sent. However, other possible kinds of transport service exist, such as the transporting of isolated messages with no guar- antee about the order of delivery, and the broadcasting of messages to multiple destinations. The type of service is determined when the connection is esta- blished. (As an aside, an error-free channel is completely impossible to achieve; what people really mean by this term is that the error rate is low enough to ignore in practice.) The transport layer is a true end-to-end layer; it carries data all the way from the source to the destination. In other words, a program on the source machine carries on a conversation with a similar program on the destination machine, using the message headers and control messages. In the lower layers, each protocols is between a machine and its immediate neighbors, and not between the ultimate source and destination machines, which may be separated by many routers. The difference between layers 1 through 3, which are chained, and layers 4 through 7, which are end-to-end, is illustrated in Fig. 1-20. The Session Layer The session layer allows users on different machines to establish sessions be- tween them. Sessions offer various services, including dialog control (keeping track of whose turn it is to transmit), token management (preventing two parties from attempting the same critical operation simultaneously), and synchronization
- 69. SEC. 1.4 REFERENCE MODELS 45 (checkpointing long transmissions to allow them to pick up from where they left off in the event of a crash and subsequent recovery). The Presentation Layer Unlike the lower layers, which are mostly concerned with moving bits around, the presentation layer is concerned with the syntax and semantics of the infor- mation transmitted. In order to make it possible for computers with different in- ternal data representations to communicate, the data structures to be exchanged can be defined in an abstract way, along with a standard encoding to be used ‘‘on the wire.’’ The presentation layer manages these abstract data structures and al- lows higher-level data structures (e.g., banking records) to be defined and exchanged. The Application Layer The application layer contains a variety of protocols that are commonly needed by users. One widely used application protocol is HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol), which is the basis for the World Wide Web. When a browser wants a Web page, it sends the name of the page it wants to the server hosting the page using HTTP. The server then sends the page back. Other appli- cation protocols are used for file transfer, electronic mail, and network news. 1.4.2 The TCP/IP Reference Model Let us now turn from the OSI reference model to the reference model used in the grandparent of all wide area computer networks, the ARPANET, and its suc- cessor, the worldwide Internet. Although we will give a brief history of the ARPANET later, it is useful to mention a few key aspects of it now. The ARPANET was a research network sponsored by the DoD (U.S. Department of Defense). It eventually connected hundreds of universities and government instal- lations, using leased telephone lines. When satellite and radio networks were added later, the existing protocols had trouble interworking with them, so a new reference architecture was needed. Thus, from nearly the beginning, the ability to connect multiple networks in a seamless way was one of the major design goals. This architecture later became known as the TCP/IP Reference Model, after its two primary protocols. It was first described by Cerf and Kahn (1974), and later refined and defined as a standard in the Internet community (Braden, 1989). The design philosophy behind the model is discussed by Clark (1988). Given the DoD’s worry that some of its precious hosts, routers, and internet- work gateways might get blown to pieces at a moment’s notice by an attack from the Soviet Union, another major goal was that the network be able to survive loss of subnet hardware, without existing conversations being broken off. In other
- 70. 46 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 words, the DoD wanted connections to remain intact as long as the source and destination machines were functioning, even if some of the machines or transmis- sion lines in between were suddenly put out of operation. Furthermore, since ap- plications with divergent requirements were envisioned, ranging from transferring files to real-time speech transmission, a flexible architecture was needed. The Link Layer All these requirements led to the choice of a packet-switching network based on a connectionless layer that runs across different networks. The lowest layer in the model, the link layer describes what links such as serial lines and classic Eth- ernet must do to meet the needs of this connectionless internet layer. It is not really a layer at all, in the normal sense of the term, but rather an interface be- tween hosts and transmission links. Early material on the TCP/IP model has little to say about it. The Internet Layer The internet layer is the linchpin that holds the whole architecture together. It is shown in Fig. 1-21 as corresponding roughly to the OSI network layer. Its job is to permit hosts to inject packets into any network and have them travel in- dependently to the destination (potentially on a different network). They may even arrive in a completely different order than they were sent, in which case it is the job of higher layers to rearrange them, if in-order delivery is desired. Note that ‘‘internet’’ is used here in a generic sense, even though this layer is present in the Internet. TCP/IP OSI Application Presentation Session Transport Network Data link Physical 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Application Transport Internet Link Not present in the model Figure 1-21. The TCP/IP reference model. The analogy here is with the (snail) mail system. A person can drop a se- quence of international letters into a mailbox in one country, and with a little luck,
- 71. SEC. 1.4 REFERENCE MODELS 47 most of them will be delivered to the correct address in the destination country. The letters will probably travel through one or more international mail gateways along the way, but this is transparent to the users. Furthermore, that each country (i.e., each network) has its own stamps, preferred envelope sizes, and delivery rules is hidden from the users. The internet layer defines an official packet format and protocol called IP (Internet Protocol), plus a companion protocol called ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) that helps it function. The job of the internet layer is to deliver IP packets where they are supposed to go. Packet routing is clearly a major issue here, as is congestion (though IP has not proven effective at avoiding congestion). The Transport Layer The layer above the internet layer in the TCP/IP model is now usually called the transport layer. It is designed to allow peer entities on the source and desti- nation hosts to carry on a conversation, just as in the OSI transport layer. Two end-to-end transport protocols have been defined here. The first one, TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), is a reliable connection-oriented protocol that allows a byte stream originating on one machine to be delivered without error on any other machine in the internet. It segments the incoming byte stream into discrete messages and passes each one on to the internet layer. At the destination, the receiving TCP process reassembles the received messages into the output stream. TCP also handles flow control to make sure a fast sender cannot swamp a slow receiver with more messages than it can handle. The second protocol in this layer, UDP (User Datagram Protocol), is an unreliable, connectionless protocol for applications that do not want TCP’s sequencing or flow control and wish to provide their own. It is also widely used for one-shot, client-server-type request-reply queries and applications in which prompt delivery is more important than accurate delivery, such as transmitting speech or video. The relation of IP, TCP, and UDP is shown in Fig. 1-22. Since the model was developed, IP has been implemented on many other networks. The Application Layer The TCP/IP model does not have session or presentation layers. No need for them was perceived. Instead, applications simply include any session and pres- entation functions that they require. Experience with the OSI model has proven this view correct: these layers are of little use to most applications. On top of the transport layer is the application layer. It contains all the high- er-level protocols. The early ones included virtual terminal (TELNET), file trans- fer (FTP), and electronic mail (SMTP). Many other protocols have been added to these over the years. Some important ones that we will study, shown in Fig. 1-22,
- 72. 48 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 Link Ethernet 802.11 SONET DSL IP ICMP HTTP RTP SMTP DNS TCP UDP Internet Transport Layers Protocols Application Figure 1-22. The TCP/IP model with some protocols we will study. include the Domain Name System (DNS), for mapping host names onto their net- work addresses, HTTP, the protocol for fetching pages on the World Wide Web, and RTP, the protocol for delivering real-time media such as voice or movies. 1.4.3 The Model Used in This Book As mentioned earlier, the strength of the OSI reference model is the model it- self (minus the presentation and session layers), which has proven to be ex- ceptionally useful for discussing computer networks. In contrast, the strength of the TCP/IP reference model is the protocols, which have been widely used for many years. Since computer scientists like to have their cake and eat it, too, we will use the hybrid model of Fig. 1-23 as the framework for this book. 5 Application 4 Transport 3 Network 2 Link 1 Physical Figure 1-23. The reference model used in this book. This model has five layers, running from the physical layer up through the link, network and transport layers to the application layer. The physical layer specifies how to transmit bits across different kinds of media as electrical (or other analog) signals. The link layer is concerned with how to send finite-length messages between directly connected computers with specified levels of reliabil- ity. Ethernet and 802.11 are examples of link layer protocols.
- 73. SEC. 1.4 REFERENCE MODELS 49 The network layer deals with how to combine multiple links into networks, and networks of networks, into internetworks so that we can send packets between distant computers. This includes the task of finding the path along which to send the packets. IP is the main example protocol we will study for this layer. The transport layer strengthens the delivery guarantees of the Network layer, usually with increased reliability, and provide delivery abstractions, such as a reliable byte stream, that match the needs of different applications. TCP is an important example of a transport layer protocol. Finally, the application layer contains programs that make use of the network. Many, but not all, networked applications have user interfaces, such as a Web browser. Our concern, however, is with the portion of the program that uses the network. This is the HTTP protocol in the case of the Web browser. There are also important support programs in the application layer, such as the DNS, that are used by many applications. Our chapter sequence is based on this model. In this way, we retain the value of the OSI model for understanding network architectures, but concentrate pri- marily on protocols that are important in practice, from TCP/IP and related proto- cols to newer ones such as 802.11, SONET, and Bluetooth. 1.4.4 A Comparison of the OSI and TCP/IP Reference Models The OSI and TCP/IP reference models have much in common. Both are based on the concept of a stack of independent protocols. Also, the functionality of the layers is roughly similar. For example, in both models the layers up through and including the transport layer are there to provide an end-to-end, net- work-independent transport service to processes wishing to communicate. These layers form the transport provider. Again in both models, the layers above tran- sport are application-oriented users of the transport service. Despite these fundamental similarities, the two models also have many dif- ferences. In this section we will focus on the key differences between the two ref- erence models. It is important to note that we are comparing the reference models here, not the corresponding protocol stacks. The protocols themselves will be dis- cussed later. For an entire book comparing and contrasting TCP/IP and OSI, see Piscitello and Chapin (1993). Three concepts are central to the OSI model: 1. Services. 2. Interfaces. 3. Protocols. Probably the biggest contribution of the OSI model is that it makes the distinction between these three concepts explicit. Each layer performs some services for the
- 74. 50 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 layer above it. The service definition tells what the layer does, not how entities above it access it or how the layer works. It defines the layer’s semantics. A layer’s interface tells the processes above it how to access it. It specifies what the parameters are and what results to expect. It, too, says nothing about how the layer works inside. Finally, the peer protocols used in a layer are the layer’s own business. It can use any protocols it wants to, as long as it gets the job done (i.e., provides the offered services). It can also change them at will without affecting software in higher layers. These ideas fit very nicely with modern ideas about object-oriented pro- gramming. An object, like a layer, has a set of methods (operations) that proc- esses outside the object can invoke. The semantics of these methods define the set of services that the object offers. The methods’ parameters and results form the object’s interface. The code internal to the object is its protocol and is not visible or of any concern outside the object. The TCP/IP model did not originally clearly distinguish between services, in- terfaces, and protocols, although people have tried to retrofit it after the fact to make it more OSI-like. For example, the only real services offered by the internet layer are SEND IP PACKET and RECEIVE IP PACKET. As a consequence, the proto- cols in the OSI model are better hidden than in the TCP/IP model and can be replaced relatively easily as the technology changes. Being able to make such changes transparently is one of the main purposes of having layered protocols in the first place. The OSI reference model was devised before the corresponding protocols were invented. This ordering meant that the model was not biased toward one particular set of protocols, a fact that made it quite general. The downside of this ordering was that the designers did not have much experience with the subject and did not have a good idea of which functionality to put in which layer. For example, the data link layer originally dealt only with point-to-point net- works. When broadcast networks came around, a new sublayer had to be hacked into the model. Furthermore, when people started to build real networks using the OSI model and existing protocols, it was discovered that these networks did not match the required service specifications (wonder of wonders), so convergence sublayers had to be grafted onto the model to provide a place for papering over the differences. Finally, the committee originally expected that each country would have one network, run by the government and using the OSI protocols, so no thought was given to internetworking. To make a long story short, things did not turn out that way. With TCP/IP the reverse was true: the protocols came first, and the model was really just a description of the existing protocols. There was no problem with the protocols fitting the model. They fit perfectly. The only trouble was that the model did not fit any other protocol stacks. Consequently, it was not especially useful for describing other, non-TCP/IP networks.
- 75. SEC. 1.4 REFERENCE MODELS 51 Turning from philosophical matters to more specific ones, an obvious dif- ference between the two models is the number of layers: the OSI model has seven layers and the TCP/IP model has four. Both have (inter)network, transport, and application layers, but the other layers are different. Another difference is in the area of connectionless versus connection-oriented communication. The OSI model supports both connectionless and connection- oriented communication in the network layer, but only connection-oriented com- munication in the transport layer, where it counts (because the transport service is visible to the users). The TCP/IP model supports only one mode in the network layer (connectionless) but both in the transport layer, giving the users a choice. This choice is especially important for simple request-response protocols. 1.4.5 A Critique of the OSI Model and Protocols Neither the OSI model and its protocols nor the TCP/IP model and its proto- cols are perfect. Quite a bit of criticism can be, and has been, directed at both of them. In this section and the next one, we will look at some of these criticisms. We will begin with OSI and examine TCP/IP afterward. At the time the second edition of this book was published (1989), it appeared to many experts in the field that the OSI model and its protocols were going to take over the world and push everything else out of their way. This did not hap- pen. Why? A look back at some of the reasons may be useful. They can be sum- marized as: 1. Bad timing. 2. Bad technology. 3. Bad implementations. 4. Bad politics. Bad Timing First let us look at reason one: bad timing. The time at which a standard is established is absolutely critical to its success. David Clark of M.I.T. has a theory of standards that he calls the apocalypse of the two elephants, which is illustrated in Fig. 1-24. This figure shows the amount of activity surrounding a new subject. When the subject is first discovered, there is a burst of research activity in the form of discussions, papers, and meetings. After a while this activity subsides, corpora- tions discover the subject, and the billion-dollar wave of investment hits. It is essential that the standards be written in the trough in between the two ‘‘elephants.’’ If they are written too early (before the research results are well
- 76. 52 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 Time Activity Research Standards Billion dollar investment Figure 1-24. The apocalypse of the two elephants. established), the subject may still be poorly understood; the result is a bad stan- dard. If they are written too late, so many companies may have already made ma- jor investments in different ways of doing things that the standards are effectively ignored. If the interval between the two elephants is very short (because everyone is in a hurry to get started), the people developing the standards may get crushed. It now appears that the standard OSI protocols got crushed. The competing TCP/IP protocols were already in widespread use by research universities by the time the OSI protocols appeared. While the billion-dollar wave of investment had not yet hit, the academic market was large enough that many vendors had begun cautiously offering TCP/IP products. When OSI came around, they did not want to support a second protocol stack until they were forced to, so there were no ini- tial offerings. With every company waiting for every other company to go first, no company went first and OSI never happened. Bad Technology The second reason that OSI never caught on is that both the model and the protocols are flawed. The choice of seven layers was more political than techni- cal, and two of the layers (session and presentation) are nearly empty, whereas two other ones (data link and network) are overfull. The OSI model, along with its associated service definitions and protocols, is extraordinarily complex. When piled up, the printed standards occupy a signifi- cant fraction of a meter of paper. They are also difficult to implement and ineffi- cient in operation. In this context, a riddle posed by Paul Mockapetris and cited by Rose (1993) comes to mind: Q: What do you get when you cross a mobster with an international standard? A: Someone who makes you an offer you can’t understand.
- 77. SEC. 1.4 REFERENCE MODELS 53 In addition to being incomprehensible, another problem with OSI is that some functions, such as addressing, flow control, and error control, reappear again and again in each layer. Saltzer et al. (1984), for example, have pointed out that to be effective, error control must be done in the highest layer, so that repeating it over and over in each of the lower layers is often unnecessary and inefficient. Bad Implementations Given the enormous complexity of the model and the protocols, it will come as no surprise that the initial implementations were huge, unwieldy, and slow. Everyone who tried them got burned. It did not take long for people to associate ‘‘OSI’’ with ‘‘poor quality.’’ Although the products improved in the course of time, the image stuck. In contrast, one of the first implementations of TCP/IP was part of Berkeley UNIX and was quite good (not to mention, free). People began using it quickly, which led to a large user community, which led to improvements, which led to an even larger community. Here the spiral was upward instead of downward. Bad Politics On account of the initial implementation, many people, especially in academia, thought of TCP/IP as part of UNIX, and UNIX in the 1980s in academia was not unlike parenthood (then incorrectly called motherhood) and apple pie. OSI, on the other hand, was widely thought to be the creature of the European telecommunication ministries, the European Community, and later the U.S. Gov- ernment. This belief was only partly true, but the very idea of a bunch of govern- ment bureaucrats trying to shove a technically inferior standard down the throats of the poor researchers and programmers down in the trenches actually develop- ing computer networks did not aid OSI’s cause. Some people viewed this de- velopment in the same light as IBM announcing in the 1960s that PL/I was the language of the future, or the DoD correcting this later by announcing that it was actually Ada. 1.4.6 A Critique of the TCP/IP Reference Model The TCP/IP model and protocols have their problems too. First, the model does not clearly distinguish the concepts of services, interfaces, and protocols. Good software engineering practice requires differentiating between the specif- ication and the implementation, something that OSI does very carefully, but TCP/IP does not. Consequently, the TCP/IP model is not much of a guide for de- signing new networks using new technologies. Second, the TCP/IP model is not at all general and is poorly suited to describ- ing any protocol stack other than TCP/IP. Trying to use the TCP/IP model to describe Bluetooth, for example, is completely impossible.
- 78. 54 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 Third, the link layer is not really a layer at all in the normal sense of the term as used in the context of layered protocols. It is an interface (between the network and data link layers). The distinction between an interface and a layer is crucial, and one should not be sloppy about it. Fourth, the TCP/IP model does not distinguish between the physical and data link layers. These are completely different. The physical layer has to do with the transmission characteristics of copper wire, fiber optics, and wireless communica- tion. The data link layer’s job is to delimit the start and end of frames and get them from one side to the other with the desired degree of reliability. A proper model should include both as separate layers. The TCP/IP model does not do this. Finally, although the IP and TCP protocols were carefully thought out and well implemented, many of the other protocols were ad hoc, generally produced by a couple of graduate students hacking away until they got tired. The protocol implementations were then distributed free, which resulted in their becoming widely used, deeply entrenched, and thus hard to replace. Some of them are a bit of an embarrassment now. The virtual terminal protocol, TELNET, for example, was designed for a ten-character-per-second mechanical Teletype terminal. It knows nothing of graphical user interfaces and mice. Nevertheless, it is still in use some 30 years later. 1.5 EXAMPLE NETWORKS The subject of computer networking covers many different kinds of networks, large and small, well known and less well known. They have different goals, scales, and technologies. In the following sections, we will look at some ex- amples, to get an idea of the variety one finds in the area of computer networking. We will start with the Internet, probably the best known network, and look at its history, evolution, and technology. Then we will consider the mobile phone network. Technically, it is quite different from the Internet, contrasting nicely with it. Next we will introduce IEEE 802.11, the dominant standard for wireless LANs. Finally, we will look at RFID and sensor networks, technologies that ex- tend the reach of the network to include the physical world and everyday objects. 1.5.1 The Internet The Internet is not really a network at all, but a vast collection of different networks that use certain common protocols and provide certain common ser- vices. It is an unusual system in that it was not planned by anyone and is not con- trolled by anyone. To better understand it, let us start from the beginning and see how it has developed and why. For a wonderful history of the Internet, John Naughton’s (2000) book is highly recommended. It is one of those rare books that is not only fun to read, but also has 20 pages of ibid.’s and op. cit.’s for the serious historian. Some of the material in this section is based on this book.
- 79. SEC. 1.5 EXAMPLE NETWORKS 55 Of course, countless technical books have been written about the Internet and its protocols as well. For more information, see, for example, Maufer (1999). The ARPANET The story begins in the late 1950s. At the height of the Cold War, the U.S. DoD wanted a command-and-control network that could survive a nuclear war. At that time, all military communications used the public telephone network, which was considered vulnerable. The reason for this belief can be gleaned from Fig. 1-25(a). Here the black dots represent telephone switching offices, each of which was connected to thousands of telephones. These switching offices were, in turn, connected to higher-level switching offices (toll offices), to form a national hierarchy with only a small amount of redundancy. The vulnerability of the system was that the destruction of a few key toll offices could fragment it into many isolated islands. (a) Toll office Switching office (b) Figure 1-25. (a) Structure of the telephone system. (b) Baran’s proposed dis- tributed switching system. Around 1960, the DoD awarded a contract to the RAND Corporation to find a solution. One of its employees, Paul Baran, came up with the highly distributed and fault-tolerant design of Fig. 1-25(b). Since the paths between any two switch- ing offices were now much longer than analog signals could travel without distor- tion, Baran proposed using digital packet-switching technology. Baran wrote sev- eral reports for the DoD describing his ideas in detail (Baran, 1964). Officials at the Pentagon liked the concept and asked AT&T, then the U.S.’ national tele- phone monopoly, to build a prototype. AT&T dismissed Baran’s ideas out of hand. The biggest and richest corporation in the world was not about to allow
- 80. 56 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 some young whippersnapper tell it how to build a telephone system. They said Baran’s network could not be built and the idea was killed. Several years went by and still the DoD did not have a better command-and- control system. To understand what happened next, we have to go back all the way to October 1957, when the Soviet Union beat the U.S. into space with the launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik. When President Eisenhower tried to find out who was asleep at the switch, he was appalled to find the Army, Navy, and Air Force squabbling over the Pentagon’s research budget. His immediate response was to create a single defense research organization, ARPA, the Advanced Research Projects Agency. ARPA had no scientists or laboratories; in fact, it had nothing more than an office and a small (by Pentagon standards) budget. It did its work by issuing grants and contracts to universities and com- panies whose ideas looked promising to it. For the first few years, ARPA tried to figure out what its mission should be. In 1967, the attention of Larry Roberts, a program manager at ARPA who was trying to figure out how to provide remote access to computers, turned to net- working. He contacted various experts to decide what to do. One of them, Wes- ley Clark, suggested building a packet-switched subnet, connecting each host to its own router. After some initial skepticism, Roberts bought the idea and presented a some- what vague paper about it at the ACM SIGOPS Symposium on Operating System Principles held in Gatlinburg, Tennessee in late 1967 (Roberts, 1967). Much to Roberts’ surprise, another paper at the conference described a similar system that had not only been designed but actually fully implemented under the direction of Donald Davies at the National Physical Laboratory in England. The NPL system was not a national system (it just connected several computers on the NPL campus), but it demonstrated that packet switching could be made to work. Fur- thermore, it cited Baran’s now discarded earlier work. Roberts came away from Gatlinburg determined to build what later became known as the ARPANET. The subnet would consist of minicomputers called IMPs (Interface Message Processors) connected by 56-kbps transmission lines. For high reliability, each IMP would be connected to at least two other IMPs. The subnet was to be a datagram subnet, so if some lines and IMPs were destroyed, messages could be automatically rerouted along alternative paths. Each node of the network was to consist of an IMP and a host, in the same room, connected by a short wire. A host could send messages of up to 8063 bits to its IMP, which would then break these up into packets of at most 1008 bits and forward them independently toward the destination. Each packet was received in its entirety before being forwarded, so the subnet was the first electronic store- and-forward packet-switching network. ARPA then put out a tender for building the subnet. Twelve companies bid for it. After evaluating all the proposals, ARPA selected BBN, a consulting firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in December 1968 awarded it a contract
- 81. SEC. 1.5 EXAMPLE NETWORKS 57 to build the subnet and write the subnet software. BBN chose to use specially modified Honeywell DDP-316 minicomputers with 12K 16-bit words of core memory as the IMPs. The IMPs did not have disks, since moving parts were con- sidered unreliable. The IMPs were interconnected by 56-kbps lines leased from telephone companies. Although 56 kbps is now the choice of teenagers who can- not afford DSL or cable, it was then the best money could buy. The software was split into two parts: subnet and host. The subnet software consisted of the IMP end of the host-IMP connection, the IMP-IMP protocol, and a source IMP to destination IMP protocol designed to improve reliability. The original ARPANET design is shown in Fig. 1-26. Host-IMP protocol Host-host protocol Source IMP to destination IMP protocol IMP-IMP protocol IMP-IMP protocol Host IMP Subnet Figure 1-26. The original ARPANET design. Outside the subnet, software was also needed, namely, the host end of the host-IMP connection, the host-host protocol, and the application software. It soon became clear that BBN was of the opinion that when it had accepted a message on a host-IMP wire and placed it on the host-IMP wire at the destination, its job was done. Roberts had a problem, though: the hosts needed software too. To deal with it, he convened a meeting of network researchers, mostly graduate students, at Snowbird, Utah, in the summer of 1969. The graduate students expected some network expert to explain the grand design of the network and its software to them and then assign each of them the job of writing part of it. They were astounded when there was no network expert and no grand design. They had to figure out what to do on their own. Nevertheless, somehow an experimental network went online in December 1969 with four nodes: at UCLA, UCSB, SRI, and the University of Utah. These four were chosen because all had a large number of ARPA contracts, and all had different and completely incompatible host computers (just to make it more fun). The first host-to-host message had been sent two months earlier from the UCLA
- 82. 58 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 node by a team led by Len Kleinrock (a pioneer of the theory of packet switching) to the SRI node. The network grew quickly as more IMPs were delivered and installed; it soon spanned the United States. Figure 1-27 shows how rapidly the ARPANET grew in the first 3 years. MIT BBN RAND UCLA UCLA SRI UTAH ILLINOIS MIT LINCOLN CASE CARN HARVARD BURROUGHS BBN RAND SDC STAN UCLA SRI UTAH UCSB SDC UCSB SRI UTAH UCSB NCAR GWC LINCOLN CASE MITRE ETAC HARVARD NBS BBN TINKER RAND SDC USC AMES STAN UCLA CARN SRI UTAH MCCLELLAN UCSB ILLINOIS LINC RADC MIT ILLINOIS MIT LINC RADC UTAH TINKER RAND MCCLELLAN LBL SRI AMES TIP AMES IMP X-PARC FNWC UCSB UCSD STANFORD CCA BBN HARVARD ABERDEEN NBS ETAC ARPA MITRE SAAC BELVOIR CMU GWC CASE NOAA USC SDC UCLA (a) (d) (b) (c) (e) Figure 1-27. Growth of the ARPANET. (a) December 1969. (b) July 1970. (c) March 1971. (d) April 1972. (e) September 1972. In addition to helping the fledgling ARPANET grow, ARPA also funded re- search on the use of satellite networks and mobile packet radio networks. In one now famous demonstration, a truck driving around in California used the packet radio network to send messages to SRI, which were then forwarded over the ARPANET to the East Coast, where they were shipped to University College in London over the satellite network. This allowed a researcher in the truck to use a computer in London while driving around in California. This experiment also demonstrated that the existing ARPANET protocols were not suitable for running over different networks. This observation led to more research on protocols, culminating with the invention of the TCP/IP model and protocols (Cerf and Kahn, 1974). TCP/IP was specifically designed to handle communication over internetworks, something becoming increasingly important as more and more networks were hooked up to the ARPANET.
- 83. SEC. 1.5 EXAMPLE NETWORKS 59 To encourage adoption of these new protocols, ARPA awarded several con- tracts to implement TCP/IP on different computer platforms, including IBM, DEC, and HP systems, as well as for Berkeley UNIX. Researchers at the Univer- sity of California at Berkeley rewrote TCP/IP with a new programming interface called sockets for the upcoming 4.2BSD release of Berkeley UNIX. They also wrote many application, utility, and management programs to show how con- venient it was to use the network with sockets. The timing was perfect. Many universities had just acquired a second or third VAX computer and a LAN to connect them, but they had no networking software. When 4.2BSD came along, with TCP/IP, sockets, and many network utilities, the complete package was adopted immediately. Furthermore, with TCP/IP, it was easy for the LANs to connect to the ARPANET, and many did. During the 1980s, additional networks, especially LANs, were connected to the ARPANET. As the scale increased, finding hosts became increasingly expen- sive, so DNS (Domain Name System) was created to organize machines into do- mains and map host names onto IP addresses. Since then, DNS has become a generalized, distributed database system for storing a variety of information relat- ed to naming. We will study it in detail in Chap. 7. NSFNET By the late 1970s, NSF (the U.S. National Science Foundation) saw the enor- mous impact the ARPANET was having on university research, allowing scien- tists across the country to share data and collaborate on research projects. How- ever, to get on the ARPANET a university had to have a research contract with the DoD. Many did not have a contract. NSF’s initial response was to fund the Computer Science Network (CSNET) in 1981. It connected computer science de- partments and industrial research labs to the ARPANET via dial-up and leased lines. In the late 1980s, the NSF went further and decided to design a successor to the ARPANET that would be open to all university research groups. To have something concrete to start with, NSF decided to build a backbone network to connect its six supercomputer centers, in San Diego, Boulder, Cham- paign, Pittsburgh, Ithaca, and Princeton. Each supercomputer was given a little brother, consisting of an LSI-11 microcomputer called a fuzzball. The fuzzballs were connected with 56-kbps leased lines and formed the subnet, the same hard- ware technology the ARPANET used. The software technology was different however: the fuzzballs spoke TCP/IP right from the start, making it the first TCP/IP WAN. NSF also funded some (eventually about 20) regional networks that connected to the backbone to allow users at thousands of universities, research labs, libraries, and museums to access any of the supercomputers and to communicate with one another. The complete network, including backbone and the regional networks, was called NSFNET. It connected to the ARPANET through a link between an
- 84. 60 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 IMP and a fuzzball in the Carnegie-Mellon machine room. The first NSFNET backbone is illustrated in Fig. 1-28 superimposed on a map of the U.S. NSF Supercomputer center NSF Midlevel network Both Figure 1-28. The NSFNET backbone in 1988. NSFNET was an instantaneous success and was overloaded from the word go. NSF immediately began planning its successor and awarded a contract to the Michigan-based MERIT consortium to run it. Fiber optic channels at 448 kbps were leased from MCI (since merged with WorldCom) to provide the version 2 backbone. IBM PC-RTs were used as routers. This, too, was soon overwhelmed, and by 1990, the second backbone was upgraded to 1.5 Mbps. As growth continued, NSF realized that the government could not continue financing networking forever. Furthermore, commercial organizations wanted to join but were forbidden by NSF’s charter from using networks NSF paid for. Consequently, NSF encouraged MERIT, MCI, and IBM to form a nonprofit cor- poration, ANS (Advanced Networks and Services), as the first step along the road to commercialization. In 1990, ANS took over NSFNET and upgraded the 1.5-Mbps links to 45 Mbps to form ANSNET. This network operated for 5 years and was then sold to America Online. But by then, various companies were offer- ing commercial IP service and it was clear the government should now get out of the networking business. To ease the transition and make sure every regional network could communi- cate with every other regional network, NSF awarded contracts to four different network operators to establish a NAP (Network Access Point). These operators were PacBell (San Francisco), Ameritech (Chicago), MFS (Washington, D.C.), and Sprint (New York City, where for NAP purposes, Pennsauken, New Jersey counts as New York City). Every network operator that wanted to provide back- bone service to the NSF regional networks had to connect to all the NAPs.
- 85. SEC. 1.5 EXAMPLE NETWORKS 61 This arrangement meant that a packet originating on any regional network had a choice of backbone carriers to get from its NAP to the destination’s NAP. Con- sequently, the backbone carriers were forced to compete for the regional net- works’ business on the basis of service and price, which was the idea, of course. As a result, the concept of a single default backbone was replaced by a commer- cially driven competitive infrastructure. Many people like to criticize the Federal Government for not being innovative, but in the area of networking, it was DoD and NSF that created the infrastructure that formed the basis for the Internet and then handed it over to industry to operate. During the 1990s, many other countries and regions also built national re- search networks, often patterned on the ARPANET and NSFNET. These in- cluded EuropaNET and EBONE in Europe, which started out with 2-Mbps lines and then upgraded to 34-Mbps lines. Eventually, the network infrastructure in Europe was handed over to industry as well. The Internet has changed a great deal since those early days. It exploded in size with the emergence of the World Wide Web (WWW) in the early 1990s. Recent data from the Internet Systems Consortium puts the number of visible In- ternet hosts at over 600 million. This guess is only a low-ball estimate, but it far exceeds the few million hosts that were around when the first conference on the WWW was held at CERN in 1994. The way we use the Internet has also changed radically. Initially, applications such as email-for-academics, newsgroups, remote login, and file transfer dom- inated. Later it switched to email-for-everyman, then the Web and peer-to-peer content distribution, such as the now-shuttered Napster. Now real-time media dis- tribution, social networks (e.g., Facebook), and microblogging (e.g., Twitter) are taking off. These switches brought richer kinds of media to the Internet and hence much more traffic. In fact, the dominant traffic on the Internet seems to change with some regularity as, for example, new and better ways to work with music or movies can become very popular very quickly. Architecture of the Internet The architecture of the Internet has also changed a great deal as it has grown explosively. In this section, we will attempt to give a brief overview of what it looks like today. The picture is complicated by continuous upheavals in the businesses of telephone companies (telcos), cable companies and ISPs that often make it hard to tell who is doing what. One driver of these upheavals is telecom- munications convergence, in which one network is used for previously different uses. For example, in a ‘‘triple play’’ one company sells you telephony, TV, and Internet service over the same network connection on the assumption that this will save you money. Consequently, the description given here will be of necessity somewhat simpler than reality. And what is true today may not be true tomorrow.
- 86. 62 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 The big picture is shown in Fig. 1-29. Let us examine this figure piece by piece, starting with a computer at home (at the edges of the figure). To join the Internet, the computer is connected to an Internet Service Provider, or simply ISP, from who the user purchases Internet access or connectivity. This lets the computer exchange packets with all of the other accessible hosts on the Internet. The user might send packets to surf the Web or for any of a thousand other uses, it does not matter. There are many kinds of Internet access, and they are usually distinguished by how much bandwidth they provide and how much they cost, but the most important attribute is connectivity. Data center Fiber (FTTH) DSL Dialup Cable 3G mobile phone Tier 1 ISP Other ISPs Peering at IXP POP Data path Router Cable modem CMTS Backbone DSLAM DSL modem Figure 1-29. Overview of the Internet architecture. A common way to connect to an ISP is to use the phone line to your house, in which case your phone company is your ISP. DSL, short for Digital Subscriber Line, reuses the telephone line that connects to your house for digital data transmission. The computer is connected to a device called a DSL modem that converts between digital packets and analog signals that can pass unhindered over the telephone line. At the other end, a device called a DSLAM (Digital Sub- scriber Line Access Multiplexer) converts between signals and packets. Several other popular ways to connect to an ISP are shown in Fig. 1-29. DSL is a higher-bandwidth way to use the local telephone line than to send bits over a traditional telephone call instead of a voice conversation. That is called dial-up and done with a different kind of modem at both ends. The word modem is short for ‘‘modulator demodulator’’ and refers to any device that converts between digi- tal bits and analog signals. Another method is to send signals over the cable TV system. Like DSL, this is a way to reuse existing infrastructure, in this case otherwise unused cable TV
- 87. SEC. 1.5 EXAMPLE NETWORKS 63 channels. The device at the home end is called a cable modem and the device at the cable headend is called the CMTS (Cable Modem Termination System). DSL and cable provide Internet access at rates from a small fraction of a megabit/sec to multiple megabit/sec, depending on the system. These rates are much greater than dial-up rates, which are limited to 56 kbps because of the nar- row bandwidth used for voice calls. Internet access at much greater than dial-up speeds is called broadband. The name refers to the broader bandwidth that is used for faster networks, rather than any particular speed. The access methods mentioned so far are limited by the bandwidth of the ‘‘last mile’’ or last leg of transmission. By running optical fiber to residences, fast- er Internet access can be provided at rates on the order of 10 to 100 Mbps. This design is called FTTH (Fiber to the Home). For businesses in commercial areas, it may make sense to lease a high-speed transmission line from the offices to the nearest ISP. For example, in North America, a T3 line runs at roughly 45 Mbps. Wireless is used for Internet access too. An example we will explore shortly is that of 3G mobile phone networks. They can provide data delivery at rates of 1 Mbps or higher to mobile phones and fixed subscribers in the coverage area. We can now move packets between the home and the ISP. We call the loca- tion at which customer packets enter the ISP network for service the ISP’s POP (Point of Presence). We will next explain how packets are moved between the POPs of different ISPs. From this point on, the system is fully digital and packet switched. ISP networks may be regional, national, or international in scope. We have already seen that their architecture is made up of long-distance transmission lines that interconnect routers at POPs in the different cities that the ISPs serve. This equipment is called the backbone of the ISP. If a packet is destined for a host served directly by the ISP, that packet is routed over the backbone and delivered to the host. Otherwise, it must be handed over to another ISP. ISPs connect their networks to exchange traffic at IXPs (Internet eXchange Points). The connected ISPs are said to peer with each other. There are many IXPs in cities around the world. They are drawn vertically in Fig. 1-29 because ISP networks overlap geographically. Basically, an IXP is a room full of routers, at least one per ISP. A LAN in the room connects all the routers, so packets can be forwarded from any ISP backbone to any other ISP backbone. IXPs can be large and independently owned facilities. One of the largest is the Amsterdam In- ternet Exchange, to which hundreds of ISPs connect and through which they exchange hundreds of gigabits/sec of traffic. The peering that happens at IXPs depends on the business relationships be- tween ISPs. There are many possible relationships. For example, a small ISP might pay a larger ISP for Internet connectivity to reach distant hosts, much as a customer purchases service from an Internet provider. In this case, the small ISP is said to pay for transit. Alternatively, two large ISPs might decide to exchange
- 88. 64 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 traffic so that each ISP can deliver some traffic to the other ISP without having to pay for transit. One of the many paradoxes of the Internet is that ISPs who pub- licly compete with one another for customers often privately cooperate to do peer- ing (Metz, 2001). The path a packet takes through the Internet depends on the peering choices of the ISPs. If the ISP delivering a packet peers with the destination ISP, it might deliver the packet directly to its peer. Otherwise, it might route the packet to the nearest place at which it connects to a paid transit provider so that provider can deliver the packet. Two example paths across ISPs are drawn in Fig. 1-29. Often, the path a packet takes will not be the shortest path through the Internet. At the top of the food chain are a small handful of companies, like AT&T and Sprint, that operate large international backbone networks with thousands of rout- ers connected by high-bandwidth fiber optic links. These ISPs do not pay for transit. They are usually called tier 1 ISPs and are said to form the backbone of the Internet, since everyone else must connect to them to be able to reach the en- tire Internet. Companies that provide lots of content, such as Google and Yahoo!, locate their computers in data centers that are well connected to the rest of the Internet. These data centers are designed for computers, not humans, and may be filled with rack upon rack of machines called a server farm. Colocation or hosting data centers let customers put equipment such as servers at ISP POPs so that short, fast connections can be made between the servers and the ISP backbones. The Internet hosting industry has become increasingly virtualized so that it is now common to rent a virtual machine that is run on a server farm instead of installing a physical computer. These data centers are so large (tens or hundreds of thousands of machines) that electricity is a major cost, so data centers are some- times built in areas where electricity is cheap. This ends our quick tour of the Internet. We will have a great deal to say about the individual components and their design, algorithms, and protocols in subsequent chapters. One further point worth mentioning here is that what it means to be on the Internet is changing. It used to be that a machine was on the Internet if it: (1) ran the TCP/IP protocol stack; (2) had an IP address; and (3) could send IP packets to all the other machines on the Internet. However, ISPs often reuse IP addresses depending on which computers are in use at the moment, and home networks often share one IP address between multiple computers. This practice undermines the second condition. Security measures such as firewalls can also partly block computers from receiving packets, undermining the third condition. Despite these difficulties, it makes sense to regard such machines as being on the Internet while they are connected to their ISPs. Also worth mentioning in passing is that some companies have interconnected all their existing internal networks, often using the same technology as the Inter- net. These intranets are typically accessible only on company premises or from company notebooks but otherwise work the same way as the Internet.
- 89. SEC. 1.5 EXAMPLE NETWORKS 65 1.5.2 Third-Generation Mobile Phone Networks People love to talk on the phone even more than they like to surf the Internet, and this has made the mobile phone network the most successful network in the world. It has more than four billion subscribers worldwide. To put this number in perspective, it is roughly 60% of the world’s population and more than the number of Internet hosts and fixed telephone lines combined (ITU, 2009). The architecture of the mobile phone network has changed greatly over the past 40 years along with its tremendous growth. First-generation mobile phone systems transmitted voice calls as continuously varying (analog) signals rather than sequences of (digital) bits. AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System), which was deployed in the United States in 1982, was a widely used first- generation system. Second-generation mobile phone systems switched to trans- mitting voice calls in digital form to increase capacity, improve security, and offer text messaging. GSM (Global System for Mobile communications), which was deployed starting in 1991 and has become the most widely used mobile phone system in the world, is a 2G system. The third generation, or 3G, systems were initially deployed in 2001 and offer both digital voice and broadband digital data services. They also come with a lot of jargon and many different standards to choose from. 3G is loosely defined by the ITU (an international standards body we will discuss in the next section) as providing rates of at least 2 Mbps for stationary or walking users and 384 kbps in a moving vehicle. UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), also called WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), is the main 3G system that is being rapidly deployed worldwide. It can provide up to 14 Mbps on the downlink and almost 6 Mbps on the uplink. Future releases will use multiple antennas and radios to provide even greater speeds for users. The scarce resource in 3G systems, as in 2G and 1G systems before them, is radio spectrum. Governments license the right to use parts of the spectrum to the mobile phone network operators, often using a spectrum auction in which network operators submit bids. Having a piece of licensed spectrum makes it easier to de- sign and operate systems, since no one else is allowed transmit on that spectrum, but it often costs a serious amount of money. In the UK in 2000, for example, five 3G licenses were auctioned for a total of about $40 billion. It is the scarcity of spectrum that led to the cellular network design shown in Fig. 1-30 that is now used for mobile phone networks. To manage the radio interference between users, the coverage area is divided into cells. Within a cell, users are assigned channels that do not interfere with each other and do not cause too much interference for adjacent cells. This allows for good reuse of the spec- trum, or frequency reuse, in the neighboring cells, which increases the capacity of the network. In 1G systems, which carried each voice call on a specific fre- quency band, the frequencies were carefully chosen so that they did not conflict with neighboring cells. In this way, a given frequency might only be reused once
- 90. 66 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 in several cells. Modern 3G systems allow each cell to use all frequencies, but in a way that results in a tolerable level of interference to the neighboring cells. There are variations on the cellular design, including the use of directional or sec- tored antennas on cell towers to further reduce interference, but the basic idea is the same. Cells Base station Figure 1-30. Cellular design of mobile phone networks. The architecture of the mobile phone network is very different than that of the Internet. It has several parts, as shown in the simplified version of the UMTS ar- chitecture in Fig. 1-31. First, there is the air interface. This term is a fancy name for the radio communication protocol that is used over the air between the mobile device (e.g., the cell phone) and the cellular base station. Advances in the air in- terface over the past decades have greatly increased wireless data rates. The UMTS air interface is based on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), a tech- nique that we will study in Chap. 2. The cellular base station together with its controller forms the radio access network. This part is the wireless side of the mobile phone network. The con- troller node or RNC (Radio Network Controller) controls how the spectrum is used. The base station implements the air interface. It is called Node B, a tem- porary label that stuck. The rest of the mobile phone network carries the traffic for the radio access network. It is called the core network. The UMTS core network evolved from the core network used for the 2G GSM system that came before it. However, something surprising is happening in the UMTS core network. Since the beginning of networking, a war has been going on between the peo- ple who support packet networks (i.e., connectionless subnets) and the people who support circuit networks (i.e., connection-oriented subnets). The main proponents of packets come from the Internet community. In a connectionless design, every packet is routed independently of every other packet. As a consequence, if some routers go down during a session, no harm will be done as long as the system can
- 91. SEC. 1.5 EXAMPLE NETWORKS 67 RNC RNC MSC / MGW GMSC / MGW SGSN GGSN Radio access network Core network Air interface (“Uu”) Node B PSTN Internet Packets Circuits (“Iu-CS”) Access / Core interface (“Iu”) Packets (“Iu-PS”) HSS Figure 1-31. Architecture of the UMTS 3G mobile phone network. dynamically reconfigure itself so that subsequent packets can find some route to the destination, even if it is different from that which previous packets used. The circuit camp comes from the world of telephone companies. In the tele- phone system, a caller must dial the called party’s number and wait for a connec- tion before talking or sending data. This connection setup establishes a route through the telephone system that is maintained until the call is terminated. All words or packets follow the same route. If a line or switch on the path goes down, the call is aborted, making it less fault tolerant than a connectionless design. The advantage of circuits is that they can support quality of service more easi- ly. By setting up a connection in advance, the subnet can reserve resources such as link bandwidth, switch buffer space, and CPU. If an attempt is made to set up a call and insufficient resources are available, the call is rejected and the caller gets a kind of busy signal. In this way, once a connection has been set up, the connection will get good service. With a connectionless network, if too many packets arrive at the same router at the same moment, the router will choke and probably lose packets. The sender will eventually notice this and resend them, but the quality of service will be jerky and unsuitable for audio or video unless the network is lightly loaded. Needless to say, providing adequate audio quality is something telephone companies care about very much, hence their preference for connections. The surprise in Fig. 1-31 is that there is both packet and circuit switched equipment in the core network. This shows the mobile phone network in transi- tion, with mobile phone companies able to implement one or sometimes both of
- 92. 68 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 the alternatives. Older mobile phone networks used a circuit-switched core in the style of the traditional phone network to carry voice calls. This legacy is seen in the UMTS network with the MSC (Mobile Switching Center), GMSC (Gate- way Mobile Switching Center), and MGW (Media Gateway) elements that set up connections over a circuit-switched core network such as the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). Data services have become a much more important part of the mobile phone network than they used to be, starting with text messaging and early packet data services such as GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) in the GSM system. These older data services ran at tens of kbps, but users wanted more. Newer mo- bile phone networks carry packet data at rates of multiple Mbps. For comparison, a voice call is carried at a rate of 64 kbps, typically 3–4x less with compression. To carry all this data, the UMTS core network nodes connect directly to a packet-switched network. The SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node) and the GGSN (Gateway GPRS Support Node) deliver data packets to and from mobiles and interface to external packet networks such as the Internet. This transition is set to continue in the mobile phone networks that are now being planned and deployed. Internet protocols are even used on mobiles to set up connections for voice calls over a packet data network, in the manner of voice- over-IP. IP and packets are used all the way from the radio access through to the core network. Of course, the way that IP networks are designed is also changing to support better quality of service. If it did not, then problems with chopped-up audio and jerky video would not impress paying customers. We will return to this subject in Chap. 5. Another difference between mobile phone networks and the traditional Inter- net is mobility. When a user moves out of the range of one cellular base station and into the range of another one, the flow of data must be re-routed from the old to the new cell base station. This technique is known as handover or handoff, and it is illustrated in Fig. 1-32. (a) (b) Figure 1-32. Mobile phone handover (a) before, (b) after. Either the mobile device or the base station may request a handover when the quality of the signal drops. In some cell networks, usually those based on CDMA
- 93. SEC. 1.5 EXAMPLE NETWORKS 69 technology, it is possible to connect to the new base station before disconnecting from the old base station. This improves the connection quality for the mobile be- cause there is no break in service; the mobile is actually connected to two base stations for a short while. This way of doing a handover is called a soft handover to distinguish it from a hard handover, in which the mobile disconnects from the old base station before connecting to the new one. A related issue is how to find a mobile in the first place when there is an in- coming call. Each mobile phone network has a HSS (Home Subscriber Server) in the core network that knows the location of each subscriber, as well as other profile information that is used for authentication and authorization. In this way, each mobile can be found by contacting the HSS. A final area to discuss is security. Historically, phone companies have taken security much more seriously than Internet companies for a long time because of the need to bill for service and avoid (payment) fraud. Unfortunately that is not saying much. Nevertheless, in the evolution from 1G through 3G technologies, mobile phone companies have been able to roll out some basic security mechan- isms for mobiles. Starting with the 2G GSM system, the mobile phone was divided into a handset and a removable chip containing the subscriber’s identity and account information. The chip is informally called a SIM card, short for Subscriber Identity Module. SIM cards can be switched to different handsets to activate them, and they provide a basis for security. When GSM customers travel to other countries on vacation or business, they often bring their handsets but buy a new SIM card for few dollars upon arrival in order to make local calls with no roaming charges. To reduce fraud, information on SIM cards is also used by the mobile phone network to authenticate subscribers and check that they are allowed to use the net- work. With UMTS, the mobile also uses the information on the SIM card to check that it is talking to a legitimate network. Another aspect of security is privacy. Wireless signals are broadcast to all nearby receivers, so to make it difficult to eavesdrop on conversations, crypto- graphic keys on the SIM card are used to encrypt transmissions. This approach provides much better privacy than in 1G systems, which were easily tapped, but is not a panacea due to weaknesses in the encryption schemes. Mobile phone networks are destined to play a central role in future networks. They are now more about mobile broadband applications than voice calls, and this has major implications for the air interfaces, core network architecture, and secu- rity of future networks. 4G technologies that are faster and better are on the draw- ing board under the name of LTE (Long Term Evolution), even as 3G design and deployment continues. Other wireless technologies also offer broadband In- ternet access to fixed and mobile clients, notably 802.16 networks under the com- mon name of WiMAX. It is entirely possible that LTE and WiMAX are on a col- lision course with each other and it is hard to predict what will happen to them.
- 94. 70 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 1.5.3 Wireless LANs: 802.11 Almost as soon as laptop computers appeared, many people had a dream of walking into an office and magically having their laptop computer be connected to the Internet. Consequently, various groups began working on ways to accomplish this goal. The most practical approach is to equip both the office and the laptop computers with short-range radio transmitters and receivers to allow them to talk. Work in this field rapidly led to wireless LANs being marketed by a variety of companies. The trouble was that no two of them were compatible. The prolifera- tion of standards meant that a computer equipped with a brand X radio would not work in a room equipped with a brand Y base station. In the mid 1990s, the indus- try decided that a wireless LAN standard might be a good idea, so the IEEE com- mittee that had standardized wired LANs was given the task of drawing up a wire- less LAN standard. The first decision was the easiest: what to call it. All the other LAN standards had numbers like 802.1, 802.2, and 802.3, up to 802.10, so the wireless LAN stan- dard was dubbed 802.11. A common slang name for it is WiFi but it is an impor- tant standard and deserves respect, so we will call it by its proper name, 802.11. The rest was harder. The first problem was to find a suitable frequency band that was available, preferably worldwide. The approach taken was the opposite of that used in mobile phone networks. Instead of expensive, licensed spectrum, 802.11 systems operate in unlicensed bands such as the ISM (Industrial, Scien- tific, and Medical) bands defined by ITU-R (e.g., 902-928 MHz, 2.4-2.5 GHz, 5.725-5.825 GHz). All devices are allowed to use this spectrum provided that they limit their transmit power to let different devices coexist. Of course, this means that 802.11 radios may find themselves competing with cordless phones, garage door openers, and microwave ovens. 802.11 networks are made up of clients, such as laptops and mobile phones, and infrastructure called APs (access points) that is installed in buildings. Access points are sometimes called base stations. The access points connect to the wired network, and all communication between clients goes through an access point. It is also possible for clients that are in radio range to talk directly, such as two com- puters in an office without an access point. This arrangement is called an ad hoc network. It is used much less often than the access point mode. Both modes are shown in Fig. 1-33. 802.11 transmission is complicated by wireless conditions that vary with even small changes in the environment. At the frequencies used for 802.11, radio sig- nals can be reflected off solid objects so that multiple echoes of a transmission may reach a receiver along different paths. The echoes can cancel or reinforce each other, causing the received signal to fluctuate greatly. This phenomenon is called multipath fading, and it is shown in Fig. 1-34. The key idea for overcoming variable wireless conditions is path diversity, or the sending of information along multiple, independent paths. In this way, the
- 95. SEC. 1.5 EXAMPLE NETWORKS 71 (a) (b) To wired network Access point Figure 1-33. (a) Wireless network with an access point. (b) Ad hoc network. information is likely to be received even if one of the paths happens to be poor due to a fade. These independent paths are typically built into the digital modula- tion scheme at the physical layer. Options include using different frequencies a- cross the allowed band, following different spatial paths between different pairs of antennas, or repeating bits over different periods of time. Faded signal Reflector Wireless transmitter Non-faded signal Multiple paths Wireless receiver Figure 1-34. Multipath fading. Different versions of 802.11 have used all of these techniques. The initial (1997) standard defined a wireless LAN that ran at either 1 Mbps or 2 Mbps by hopping between frequencies or spreading the signal across the allowed spectrum. Almost immediately, people complained that it was too slow, so work began on faster standards. The spread spectrum design was extended and became the (1999) 802.11b standard running at rates up to 11 Mbps. The 802.11a (1999) and 802.11g (2003) standards switched to a different modulation scheme called OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing). It divides a wide band of spectrum into many narrow slices over which different bits are sent in parallel. This improved scheme, which we will study in Chap. 2, boosted the 802.11a/g bit
- 96. 72 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 rates up to 54 Mbps. That is a significant increase, but people still wanted more throughput to support more demanding uses. The latest version is 802.11n (2009). It uses wider frequency bands and up to four antennas per computer to achieve rates up to 450 Mbps. Since wireless is inherently a broadcast medium, 802.11 radios also have to deal with the problem that multiple transmissions that are sent at the same time will collide, which may interfere with reception. To handle this problem, 802.11 uses a CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access) scheme that draws on ideas from classic wired Ethernet, which, ironically, drew from an early wireless network developed in Hawaii and called ALOHA. Computers wait for a short random interval before transmitting, and defer their transmissions if they hear that some- one else is already transmitting. This scheme makes it less likely that two com- puters will send at the same time. It does not work as well as in the case of wired networks, though. To see why, examine Fig. 1-35. Suppose that computer A is transmitting to computer B, but the radio range of A’s transmitter is too short to reach computer C. If C wants to transmit to B it can listen before starting, but the fact that it does not hear anything does not mean that its transmission will succeed. The inability of C to hear A before starting causes some collisions to oc- cur. After any collision, the sender then waits another, longer, random delay and retransmits the packet. Despite this and some other issues, the scheme works well enough in practice. A C B Range of A's radio Range of C's radio Figure 1-35. The range of a single radio may not cover the entire system. Another problem is that of mobility. If a mobile client is moved away from the access point it is using and into the range of a different access point, some way of handing it off is needed. The solution is that an 802.11 network can consist of multiple cells, each with its own access point, and a distribution system that con- nects the cells. The distribution system is often switched Ethernet, but it can use any technology. As the clients move, they may find another access point with a better signal than the one they are currently using and change their association. From the outside, the entire system looks like a single wired LAN.
- 97. SEC. 1.5 EXAMPLE NETWORKS 73 That said, mobility in 802.11 has been of limited value so far compared to mobility in the mobile phone network. Typically, 802.11 is used by nomadic cli- ents that go from one fixed location to another, rather than being used on-the-go. Mobility is not really needed for nomadic usage. Even when 802.11 mobility is used, it extends over a single 802.11 network, which might cover at most a large building. Future schemes will need to provide mobility across different networks and across different technologies (e.g., 802.21). Finally, there is the problem of security. Since wireless transmissions are broadcast, it is easy for nearby computers to receive packets of information that were not intended for them. To prevent this, the 802.11 standard included an en- cryption scheme known as WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy). The idea was to make wireless security like that of wired security. It is a good idea, but unfor- tunately the scheme was flawed and soon broken (Borisov et al., 2001). It has since been replaced with newer schemes that have different cryptographic details in the 802.11i standard, also called WiFi Protected Access, initially called WPA but now replaced by WPA2. 802.11 has caused a revolution in wireless networking that is set to continue. Beyond buildings, it is starting to be installed in trains, planes, boats, and automo- biles so that people can surf the Internet wherever they go. Mobile phones and all manner of consumer electronics, from game consoles to digital cameras, can com- municate with it. We will come back to it in detail in Chap. 4. 1.5.4 RFID and Sensor Networks The networks we have studied so far are made up of computing devices that are easy to recognize, from computers to mobile phones. With Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID), everyday objects can also be part of a computer network. An RFID tag looks like a postage stamp-sized sticker that can be affixed to (or embedded in) an object so that it can be tracked. The object might be a cow, a passport, a book or a shipping pallet. The tag consists of a small microchip with a unique identifier and an antenna that receives radio transmissions. RFID readers installed at tracking points find tags when they come into range and interrogate them for their information as shown in Fig. 1-36. Applications include checking identities, managing the supply chain, timing races, and replacing barcodes. There are many kinds of RFID, each with different properties, but perhaps the most fascinating aspect of RFID technology is that most RFID tags have neither an electric plug nor a battery. Instead, all of the energy needed to operate them is supplied in the form of radio waves by RFID readers. This technology is called passive RFID to distinguish it from the (less common) active RFID in which there is a power source on the tag. One common form of RFID is UHF RFID (Ultra-High Frequency RFID). It is used on shipping pallets and some drivers licenses. Readers send signals in
- 98. 74 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 RFID reader RFID tag Figure 1-36. RFID used to network everyday objects. the 902-928 MHz band in the United States. Tags communicate at distances of several meters by changing the way they reflect the reader signals; the reader is able to pick up these reflections. This way of operating is called backscatter. Another popular kind of RFID is HF RFID (High Frequency RFID). It operates at 13.56 MHz and is likely to be in your passport, credit cards, books, and noncontact payment systems. HF RFID has a short range, typically a meter or less, because the physical mechanism is based on induction rather than back- scatter. There are also other forms of RFID using other frequencies, such as LF RFID (Low Frequency RFID), which was developed before HF RFID and used for animal tracking. It is the kind of RFID likely to be in your cat. RFID readers must somehow solve the problem of dealing with multiple tags within reading range. This means that a tag cannot simply respond when it hears a reader, or the signals from multiple tags may collide. The solution is similar to the approach taken in 802.11: tags wait for a short random interval before re- sponding with their identification, which allows the reader to narrow down indivi- dual tags and interrogate them further. Security is another problem. The ability of RFID readers to easily track an ob- ject, and hence the person who uses it, can be an invasion of privacy. Unfor- tunately, it is difficult to secure RFID tags because they lack the computation and communication power to run strong cryptographic algorithms. Instead, weak measures like passwords (which can easily be cracked) are used. If an identity card can be remotely read by an official at a border, what is to stop the same card from being tracked by other people without your knowledge? Not much. RFID tags started as identification chips, but are rapidly turning into full- fledged computers. For example, many tags have memory that can be updated and later queried, so that information about what has happened to the tagged object can be stored with it. Rieback et al. (2006) demonstrated that this means that all of the usual problems of computer malware apply, only now your cat or your passport might be used to spread an RFID virus. A step up in capability from RFID is the sensor network. Sensor networks are deployed to monitor aspects of the physical world. So far, they have mostly been used for scientific experimentation, such as monitoring bird habitats, vol- canic activity, and zebra migration, but business applications including healthcare,
- 99. SEC. 1.5 EXAMPLE NETWORKS 75 monitoring equipment for vibration, and tracking of frozen, refrigerated, or other- wise perishable goods cannot be too far behind. Sensor nodes are small computers, often the size of a key fob, that have tem- perature, vibration, and other sensors. Many nodes are placed in the environment that is to be monitored. Typically, they have batteries, though they may scavenge energy from vibrations or the sun. As with RFID, having enough energy is a key challenge, and the nodes must communicate carefully to be able to deliver their sensor information to an external collection point. A common strategy is for the nodes to self-organize to relay messages for each other, as shown in Fig. 1-37. This design is called a multihop network. Data collection point Sensor node Wireless hop Figure 1-37. Multihop topology of a sensor network. RFID and sensor networks are likely to become much more capable and per- vasive in the future. Researchers have already combined the best of both technolo- gies by prototyping programmable RFID tags with light, movement, and other sensors (Sample et al., 2008). 1.6 NETWORK STANDARDIZATION Many network vendors and suppliers exist, each with its own ideas of how things should be done. Without coordination, there would be complete chaos, and users would get nothing done. The only way out is to agree on some network standards. Not only do good standards allow different computers to communicate, but they also increase the market for products adhering to the standards. A larger market leads to mass production, economies of scale in manufacturing, better im- plementations, and other benefits that decrease price and further increase ac- ceptance. In this section we will take a quick look at the important but little-known, world of international standardization. But let us first discuss what belongs in a
- 100. 76 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 standard. A reasonable person might assume that a standard tells you how a pro- tocol should work so that you can do a good job of implementing it. That person would be wrong. Standards define what is needed for interoperability: no more, no less. That lets the larger market emerge and also lets companies compete on the basis of how good their products are. For example, the 802.11 standard defines many transmission rates but does not say when a sender should use which rate, which is a key factor in good performance. That is up to whoever makes the product. Often getting to interoperability this way is difficult, since there are many imple- mentation choices and standards usually define many options. For 802.11, there were so many problems that, in a strategy that has become common practice, a trade group called the WiFi Alliance was started to work on interoperability with- in the 802.11 standard. Similarly, a protocol standard defines the protocol over the wire but not the service interface inside the box, except to help explain the protocol. Real service interfaces are often proprietary. For example, the way TCP interfaces to IP within a computer does not matter for talking to a remote host. It only matters that the re- mote host speaks TCP/IP. In fact, TCP and IP are commonly implemented toget- her without any distinct interface. That said, good service interfaces, like good APIs, are valuable for getting protocols used, and the best ones (such as Berkeley sockets) can become very popular. Standards fall into two categories: de facto and de jure. De facto (Latin for ‘‘from the fact’’) standards are those that have just happened, without any formal plan. HTTP, the protocol on which the Web runs, started life as a de facto stan- dard. It was part of early WWW browsers developed by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN, and its use took off with the growth of the Web. Bluetooth is another ex- ample. It was originally developed by Ericsson but now everyone is using it. De jure (Latin for ‘‘by law’’) standards, in contrast, are adopted through the rules of some formal standardization body. International standardization authori- ties are generally divided into two classes: those established by treaty among national governments, and those comprising voluntary, nontreaty organizations. In the area of computer network standards, there are several organizations of each type, notably ITU, ISO, IETF and IEEE, all of which we will discuss below. In practice, the relationships between standards, companies, and stan- dardization bodies are complicated. De facto standards often evolve into de jure standards, especially if they are successful. This happened in the case of HTTP, which was quickly picked up by IETF. Standards bodies often ratify each others’ standards, in what looks like patting one another on the back, to increase the market for a technology. These days, many ad hoc business alliances that are formed around particular technologies also play a significant role in developing and refining network standards. For example, 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) is a collaboration between telecommunications associations that drives the UMTS 3G mobile phone standards.
- 101. SEC. 1.6 NETWORK STANDARDIZATION 77 1.6.1 Who’s Who in the Telecommunications World The legal status of the world’s telephone companies varies considerably from country to country. At one extreme is the United States, which has over 2000 sep- arate, (mostly very small) privately owned telephone companies. A few more were added with the breakup of AT&T in 1984 (which was then the world’s larg- est corporation, providing telephone service to about 80 percent of America’s telephones), and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that overhauled regulation to foster competition. At the other extreme are countries in which the national government has a complete monopoly on all communication, including the mail, telegraph, tele- phone, and often radio and television. Much of the world falls into this category. In some cases the telecommunication authority is a nationalized company, and in others it is simply a branch of the government, usually known as the PTT (Post, Telegraph & Telephone administration). Worldwide, the trend is toward liberal- ization and competition and away from government monopoly. Most European countries have now (partially) privatized their PTTs, but elsewhere the process is still only slowly gaining steam. With all these different suppliers of services, there is clearly a need to provide compatibility on a worldwide scale to ensure that people (and computers) in one country can call their counterparts in another one. Actually, this need has existed for a long time. In 1865, representatives from many European governments met to form the predecessor to today’s ITU (International Telecommunication Union). Its job was to standardize international telecommunications, which in those days meant telegraphy. Even then it was clear that if half the countries used Morse code and the other half used some other code, there was going to be a prob- lem. When the telephone was put into international service, ITU took over the job of standardizing telephony (pronounced te-LEF-ony) as well. In 1947, ITU became an agency of the United Nations. ITU has about 200 governmental members, including almost every member of the United Nations. Since the United States does not have a PTT, somebody else had to represent it in ITU. This task fell to the State Department, probably on the grounds that ITU had to do with foreign countries, the State Department’s spe- cialty. ITU also has more than 700 sector and associate members. They include telephone companies (e.g., AT&T, Vodafone, Sprint), telecom equipment manu- facturers (e.g., Cisco, Nokia, Nortel), computer vendors (e.g., Microsoft, Agilent, Toshiba), chip manufacturers (e.g., Intel, Motorola, TI), and other interested com- panies (e.g., Boeing, CBS, VeriSign). ITU has three main sectors. We will focus primarily on ITU-T, the Telecom- munications Standardization Sector, which is concerned with telephone and data communication systems. Before 1993, this sector was called CCITT, which is an acronym for its French name, Comité Consultatif International Télégraphique et Téléphonique. ITU-R, the Radiocommunications Sector, is concerned with
- 102. 78 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 coordinating the use by competing interest groups of radio frequencies worldwide. The other sector is ITU-D, the Development Sector. It promotes the development of information and communication technologies to narrow the ‘‘digital divide’’ between countries with effective access to the information technologies and coun- tries with limited access. ITU-T’s task is to make technical recommendations about telephone, tele- graph, and data communication interfaces. These often become internationally recognized standards, though technically the recommendations are only sugges- tions that governments can adopt or ignore, as they wish (because governments are like 13-year-old boys—they do not take kindly to being given orders). In practice, a country that wishes to adopt a telephone standard different from that used by the rest of the world is free to do so, but at the price of cutting itself off from everyone else. This might work for North Korea, but elsewhere it would be a real problem. The real work of ITU-T is done in its Study Groups. There are currently 10 Study Groups, often as large as 400 people, that cover topics ranging from tele- phone billing to multimedia services to security. SG 15, for example, standardizes the DSL technologies popularly used to connect to the Internet. In order to make it possible to get anything at all done, the Study Groups are divided into Working Parties, which are in turn divided into Expert Teams, which are in turn divided into ad hoc groups. Once a bureaucracy, always a bureaucracy. Despite all this, ITU-T actually does get things done. Since its inception, it has produced more than 3000 recommendations, many of which are widely used in practice. For example, Recommendation H.264 (also an ISO standard known as MPEG-4 AVC) is widely used for video compression, and X.509 public key certificates are used for secure Web browsing and digitally signed email. As the field of telecommunications completes the transition started in the 1980s from being entirely national to being entirely global, standards will become increasingly important, and more and more organizations will want to become involved in setting them. For more information about ITU, see Irmer (1994). 1.6.2 Who’s Who in the International Standards World International standards are produced and published by ISO (International Standards Organization † ), a voluntary nontreaty organization founded in 1946. Its members are the national standards organizations of the 157 member countries. These members include ANSI (U.S.), BSI (Great Britain), AFNOR (France), DIN (Germany), and 153 others. ISO issues standards on a truly vast number of subjects, ranging from nuts and bolts (literally) to telephone pole coatings [not to mention cocoa beans (ISO 2451), fishing nets (ISO 1530), women’s underwear (ISO 4416) and quite a few † For the purist, ISO’s true name is the International Organization for Standardization.
- 103. SEC. 1.6 NETWORK STANDARDIZATION 79 other subjects one might not think were subject to standardization]. On issues of telecommunication standards, ISO and ITU-T often cooperate (ISO is a member of ITU-T) to avoid the irony of two official and mutually incompatible interna- tional standards. Over 17,000 standards have been issued, including the OSI standards. ISO has over 200 Technical Committees (TCs), numbered in the order of their crea- tion, each dealing with a specific subject. TC1 deals with the nuts and bolts (stan- dardizing screw thread pitches). JTC1 deals with information technology, includ- ing networks, computers, and software. It is the first (and so far only) Joint Technical Committee, created in 1987 by merging TC97 with activities in IEC, yet another standardization body. Each TC has subcommittees (SCs) divided into working groups (WGs). The real work is done largely in the WGs by over 100,000 volunteers world- wide. Many of these ‘‘volunteers’’ are assigned to work on ISO matters by their employers, whose products are being standardized. Others are government offi- cials keen on having their country’s way of doing things become the international standard. Academic experts also are active in many of the WGs. The procedure used by ISO for adopting standards has been designed to achieve as broad a consensus as possible. The process begins when one of the national standards organizations feels the need for an international standard in some area. A working group is then formed to come up with a CD (Committee Draft). The CD is then circulated to all the member bodies, which get 6 months to criticize it. If a substantial majority approves, a revised document, called a DIS (Draft International Standard) is produced and circulated for comments and voting. Based on the results of this round, the final text of the IS (International Standard) is prepared, approved, and published. In areas of great controversy, a CD or DIS may have to go through several versions before acquiring enough votes, and the whole process can take years. NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. It used to be called the National Bureau of Standards. It issues standards that are mandatory for purchases made by the U.S. Govern- ment, except for those of the Department of Defense, which defines its own stan- dards. Another major player in the standards world is IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), the largest professional organization in the world. In addition to publishing scores of journals and running hundreds of conferences each year, IEEE has a standardization group that develops standards in the area of electrical engineering and computing. IEEE’s 802 committee has standardized many kinds of LANs. We will study some of its output later in this book. The ac- tual work is done by a collection of working groups, which are listed in Fig. 1-38. The success rate of the various 802 working groups has been low; having an 802.x number is no guarantee of success. Still, the impact of the success stories (espe- cially 802.3 and 802.11) on the industry and the world has been enormous.
- 104. 80 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 Number Topic 802.1 Overview and architecture of LANs 802.2 ↓ Logical link control 802.3 * Ethernet 802.4 ↓ Token bus (was briefly used in manufacturing plants) 802.5 Token ring (IBM’s entry into the LAN world) 802.6 ↓ Dual queue dual bus (early metropolitan area network) 802.7 ↓ Technical advisory group on broadband technologies 802.8 † Technical advisory group on fiber optic technologies 802.9 ↓ Isochronous LANs (for real-time applications) 802.10 ↓ Virtual LANs and security 802.11 * Wireless LANs (WiFi) 802.12 ↓ Demand priority (Hewlett-Packard’s AnyLAN) 802.13 Unlucky number; nobody wanted it 802.14 ↓ Cable modems (defunct: an industry consortium got there first) 802.15 * Personal area networks (Bluetooth, Zigbee) 802.16 * Broadband wireless (WiMAX) 802.17 Resilient packet ring 802.18 Technical advisory group on radio regulatory issues 802.19 Technical advisory group on coexistence of all these standards 802.20 Mobile broadband wireless (similar to 802.16e) 802.21 Media independent handoff (for roaming over technologies) 802.22 Wireless regional area network Figure 1-38. The 802 working groups. The important ones are marked with *. The ones marked with ↓ are hibernating. The one marked with † gave up and disbanded itself. 1.6.3 Who’s Who in the Internet Standards World The worldwide Internet has its own standardization mechanisms, very dif- ferent from those of ITU-T and ISO. The difference can be crudely summed up by saying that the people who come to ITU or ISO standardization meetings wear suits, while the people who come to Internet standardization meetings wear jeans (except when they meet in San Diego, when they wear shorts and T-shirts). ITU-T and ISO meetings are populated by corporate officials and government civil servants for whom standardization is their job. They regard standardization as a Good Thing and devote their lives to it. Internet people, on the other hand, prefer anarchy as a matter of principle. However, with hundreds of millions of
- 105. SEC. 1.6 NETWORK STANDARDIZATION 81 people all doing their own thing, little communication can occur. Thus, standards, however regrettable, are sometimes needed. In this context, David Clark of M.I.T. once made a now-famous remark about Internet standardization consisting of ‘‘rough consensus and running code.’’ When the ARPANET was set up, DoD created an informal committee to oversee it. In 1983, the committee was renamed the IAB (Internet Activities Board) and was given a slighter broader mission, namely, to keep the researchers involved with the ARPANET and the Internet pointed more or less in the same direction, an activity not unlike herding cats. The meaning of the acronym ‘‘IAB’’ was later changed to Internet Architecture Board. Each of the approximately ten members of the IAB headed a task force on some issue of importance. The IAB met several times a year to discuss results and to give feedback to the DoD and NSF, which were providing most of the funding at this time. When a standard was needed (e.g., a new routing algorithm), the IAB members would thrash it out and then announce the change so the gradu- ate students who were the heart of the software effort could implement it. Com- munication was done by a series of technical reports called RFCs (Request For Comments). RFCs are stored online and can be fetched by anyone interested in them from www.ietf.org/rfc. They are numbered in chronological order of crea- tion. Over 5000 now exist. We will refer to many RFCs in this book. By 1989, the Internet had grown so large that this highly informal style no longer worked. Many vendors by then offered TCP/IP products and did not want to change them just because ten researchers had thought of a better idea. In the summer of 1989, the IAB was reorganized again. The researchers were moved to the IRTF (Internet Research Task Force), which was made subsidiary to IAB, along with the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). The IAB was repopu- lated with people representing a broader range of organizations than just the re- search community. It was initially a self-perpetuating group, with members serv- ing for a 2-year term and new members being appointed by the old ones. Later, the Internet Society was created, populated by people interested in the Internet. The Internet Society is thus in a sense comparable to ACM or IEEE. It is governed by elected trustees who appoint the IAB’s members. The idea of this split was to have the IRTF concentrate on long-term research while the IETF dealt with short-term engineering issues. The IETF was divided up into working groups, each with a specific problem to solve. The chairmen of these working groups initially met as a steering committee to direct the engineer- ing effort. The working group topics include new applications, user information, OSI integration, routing and addressing, security, network management, and stan- dards. Eventually, so many working groups were formed (more than 70) that they were grouped into areas and the area chairmen met as the steering committee. In addition, a more formal standardization process was adopted, patterned after ISOs. To become a Proposed Standard, the basic idea must be explained in an RFC and have sufficient interest in the community to warrant consideration.
- 106. 82 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 To advance to the Draft Standard stage, a working implementation must have been rigorously tested by at least two independent sites for at least 4 months. If the IAB is convinced that the idea is sound and the software works, it can declare the RFC to be an Internet Standard. Some Internet Standards have become DoD standards (MIL-STD), making them mandatory for DoD suppliers. For Web standards, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops pro- tocols and guidelines to facilitate the long-term growth of the Web. It is an indus- try consortium led by Tim Berners-Lee and set up in 1994 as the Web really begun to take off. W3C now has more than 300 members from around the world and has produced more than 100 W3C Recommendations, as its standards are called, covering topics such as HTML and Web privacy. 1.7 METRIC UNITS To avoid any confusion, it is worth stating explicitly that in this book, as in computer science in general, metric units are used instead of traditional English units (the furlong-stone-fortnight system). The principal metric prefixes are listed in Fig. 1-39. The prefixes are typically abbreviated by their first letters, with the units greater than 1 capitalized (KB, MB, etc.). One exception (for historical rea- sons) is kbps for kilobits/sec. Thus, a 1-Mbps communication line transmits 106 bits/sec and a 100-psec (or 100-ps) clock ticks every 10−10 seconds. Since milli and micro both begin with the letter ‘‘m,’’ a choice had to be made. Normally, ‘‘m’’ is used for milli and ‘‘μ’’ (the Greek letter mu) is used for micro. Exp. Explicit Prefix Exp. Explicit Prefix 10−3 0.001 milli 103 1,000 Kilo 10−6 0.000001 micro 106 1,000,000 Mega 10−9 0.000000001 nano 109 1,000,000,000 Giga 10−12 0.000000000001 pico 1012 1,000,000,000,000 Tera 10−15 0.000000000000001 femto 1015 1,000,000,000,000,000 Peta 10−18 0.0000000000000000001 atto 1018 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 Exa 10−21 0.0000000000000000000001 zepto 1021 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Zetta 10−24 0.0000000000000000000000001 yocto 1024 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Yotta Figure 1-39. The principal metric prefixes. It is also worth pointing out that for measuring memory, disk, file, and data- base sizes, in common industry practice, the units have slightly different mean- ings. There, kilo means 210 (1024) rather than 103 (1000) because memories are always a power of two. Thus, a 1-KB memory contains 1024 bytes, not 1000 bytes. Note also the capital ‘‘B’’ in that usage to mean ‘‘bytes’’ (units of eight
- 107. SEC. 1.7 METRIC UNITS 83 bits), instead of a lowercase ‘‘b’’ that means ‘‘bits.’’ Similarly, a 1-MB memory contains 220 (1,048,576) bytes, a 1-GB memory contains 230 (1,073,741,824) bytes, and a 1-TB database contains 240 (1,099,511,627,776) bytes. However, a 1-kbps communication line transmits 1000 bits per second and a 10-Mbps LAN runs at 10,000,000 bits/sec because these speeds are not powers of two. Unfor- tunately, many people tend to mix up these two systems, especially for disk sizes. To avoid ambiguity, in this book, we will use the symbols KB, MB, GB, and TB for 210 , 220 , 230 , and 240 bytes, respectively, and the symbols kbps, Mbps, Gbps, and Tbps for 103 , 106 , 109 , and 1012 bits/sec, respectively. 1.8 OUTLINE OF THE REST OF THE BOOK This book discusses both the principles and practice of computer networking. Most chapters start with a discussion of the relevant principles, followed by a number of examples that illustrate these principles. These examples are usually taken from the Internet and wireless networks such as the mobile phone network since these are both important and very different. Other examples will be given where relevant. The book is structured according to the hybrid model of Fig. 1-23. Starting with Chap. 2, we begin working our way up the protocol hierarchy beginning at the bottom. We provide some background in the field of data communication that covers both wired and wireless transmission systems. This material is concerned with how to deliver information over physical channels, although we cover only the architectural rather than the hardware aspects. Several examples of the physi- cal layer, such as the public switched telephone network, the mobile telephone network, and the cable television network are also discussed. Chapters 3 and 4 discuss the data link layer in two parts. Chap. 3 looks at the problem of how to send packets across a link, including error detection and cor- rection. We look at DSL (used for broadband Internet access over phone lines) as a real-world example of a data link protocol. In Chap. 4, we examine the medium access sublayer. This is the part of the data link layer that deals with how to share a channel between multiple com- puters. The examples we look at include wireless, such as 802.11 and RFID, and wired LANs such as classic Ethernet. Link layer switches that connect LANs, such as switched Ethernet, are also discussed here. Chapter 5 deals with the network layer, especially routing. Many routing algo- rithms, both static and dynamic, are covered. Even with good routing algorithms, though, if more traffic is offered than the network can handle, some packets will be delayed or discarded. We discuss this issue from how to prevent congestion to how to guarantee a certain quality of service. Connecting heterogeneous net- works to form internetworks also leads to numerous problems that are discussed here. The network layer in the Internet is given extensive coverage.
- 108. 84 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 Chapter 6 deals with the transport layer. Much of the emphasis is on connec- tion-oriented protocols and reliability, since many applications need these. Both Internet transport protocols, UDP and TCP, are covered in detail, as are their per- formance issues. Chapter 7 deals with the application layer, its protocols, and its applications. The first topic is DNS, which is the Internet’s telephone book. Next comes email, including a discussion of its protocols. Then we move on to the Web, with de- tailed discussions of static and dynamic content, and what happens on the client and server sides. We follow this with a look at networked multimedia, including streaming audio and video. Finally, we discuss content-delivery networks, includ- ing peer-to-peer technology. Chapter 8 is about network security. This topic has aspects that relate to all layers, so it is easiest to treat it after all the layers have been thoroughly explain- ed. The chapter starts with an introduction to cryptography. Later, it shows how cryptography can be used to secure communication, email, and the Web. The chapter ends with a discussion of some areas in which security collides with privacy, freedom of speech, censorship, and other social issues. Chapter 9 contains an annotated list of suggested readings arranged by chap- ter. It is intended to help those readers who would like to pursue their study of networking further. The chapter also has an alphabetical bibliography of all the references cited in this book. The authors’ Web site at Pearson: http://www.pearsonhighered.com/tanenbaum has a page with links to many tutorials, FAQs, companies, industry consortia, pro- fessional organizations, standards organizations, technologies, papers, and more. 1.9 SUMMARY Computer networks have many uses, both for companies and for individuals, in the home and while on the move. Companies use networks of computers to share corporate information, typically using the client-server model with employee desktops acting as clients accessing powerful servers in the machine room. For individuals, networks offer access to a variety of information and entertainment resources, as well as a way to buy and sell products and services. Individuals often access the Internet via their phone or cable providers at home, though increasingly wireless access is used for laptops and phones. Technology advances are enabling new kinds of mobile applications and networks with com- puters embedded in appliances and other consumer devices. The same advances raise social issues such as privacy concerns. Roughly speaking, networks can be divided into LANs, MANs, WANs, and internetworks. LANs typical cover a building and operate at high speeds. MANs
- 109. SEC. 1.9 SUMMARY 85 usually cover a city. An example is the cable television system, which is now used by many people to access the Internet. WANs may cover a country or a continent. Some of the technologies used to build these networks are point-to-point (e.g., a cable) while others are broadcast (e.g.,wireless). Networks can be interconnected with routers to form internetworks, of which the Internet is the largest and best known example. Wireless networks, for example 802.11 LANs and 3G mobile telephony, are also becoming extremely popular. Network software is built around protocols, which are rules by which proc- esses communicate. Most networks support protocol hierarchies, with each layer providing services to the layer above it and insulating them from the details of the protocols used in the lower layers. Protocol stacks are typically based either on the OSI model or on the TCP/IP model. Both have link, network, transport, and application layers, but they differ on the other layers. Design issues include reliability, resource allocation, growth, security, and more. Much of this book deals with protocols and their design. Networks provide various services to their users. These services can range from connectionless best-efforts packet delivery to connection-oriented guaran- teed delivery. In some networks, connectionless service is provided in one layer and connection-oriented service is provided in the layer above it. Well-known networks include the Internet, the 3G mobile telephone network, and 802.11 LANs. The Internet evolved from the ARPANET, to which other net- works were added to form an internetwork. The present-day Internet is actually a collection of many thousands of networks that use the TCP/IP protocol stack. The 3G mobile telephone network provides wireless and mobile access to the Internet at speeds of multiple Mbps, and, of course, carries voice calls as well. Wireless LANs based on the IEEE 802.11 standard are deployed in many homes and cafes and can provide connectivity at rates in excess of 100 Mbps. New kinds of net- works are emerging too, such as embedded sensor networks and networks based on RFID technology. Enabling multiple computers to talk to each other requires a large amount of standardization, both in the hardware and software. Organizations such as ITU-T, ISO, IEEE, and IAB manage different parts of the standardization process. PROBLEMS 1. Imagine that you have trained your St. Bernard, Bernie, to carry a box of three 8-mm tapes instead of a flask of brandy. (When your disk fills up, you consider that an emergency.) These tapes each contain 7 gigabytes. The dog can travel to your side, wherever you may be, at 18 km/hour. For what range of distances does Bernie have a higher data rate than a transmission line whose data rate (excluding overhead) is 150 Mbps? How does your answer change if (i) Bernie’s speed is doubled; (ii) each tape capacity is doubled; (iii) the data rate of the transmission line is doubled.
- 110. 86 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 2. An alternative to a LAN is simply a big timesharing system with terminals for all users. Give two advantages of a client-server system using a LAN. 3. The performance of a client-server system is strongly influenced by two major net- work characteristics: the bandwidth of the network (that is, how many bits/sec it can transport) and the latency (that is, how many seconds it takes for the first bit to get from the client to the server). Give an example of a network that exhibits high band- width but also high latency. Then give an example of one that has both low bandwidth and low latency. 4. Besides bandwidth and latency, what other parameter is needed to give a good charac- terization of the quality of service offered by a network used for (i) digitized voice traffic? (ii) video traffic? (iii) financial transaction traffic? 5. A factor in the delay of a store-and-forward packet-switching system is how long it takes to store and forward a packet through a switch. If switching time is 10 μsec, is this likely to be a major factor in the response of a client-server system where the cli- ent is in New York and the server is in California? Assume the propagation speed in copper and fiber to be 2/3 the speed of light in vacuum. 6. A client-server system uses a satellite network, with the satellite at a height of 40,000 km. What is the best-case delay in response to a request? 7. In the future, when everyone has a home terminal connected to a computer network, instant public referendums on important pending legislation will become possible. Ultimately, existing legislatures could be eliminated, to let the will of the people be expressed directly. The positive aspects of such a direct democracy are fairly obvious; discuss some of the negative aspects. 8. Five routers are to be connected in a point-to-point subnet. Between each pair of routers, the designers may put a high-speed line, a medium-speed line, a low-speed line, or no line. If it takes 100 ms of computer time to generate and inspect each topology, how long will it take to inspect all of them? 9. A disadvantage of a broadcast subnet is the capacity wasted when multiple hosts at- tempt to access the channel at the same time. As a simplistic example, suppose that time is divided into discrete slots, with each of the n hosts attempting to use the chan- nel with probability p during each slot. What fraction of the slots will be wasted due to collisions? 10. What are two reasons for using layered protocols? What is one possible disadvantage of using layered protocols? 11. The president of the Specialty Paint Corp. gets the idea to work with a local beer brewer to produce an invisible beer can (as an anti-litter measure). The president tells her legal department to look into it, and they in turn ask engineering for help. As a re- sult, the chief engineer calls his counterpart at the brewery to discuss the technical aspects of the project. The engineers then report back to their respective legal depart- ments, which then confer by telephone to arrange the legal aspects. Finally, the two corporate presidents discuss the financial side of the deal. What principle of a mul- tilayer protocol in the sense of the OSI model does this communication mechanism violate?
- 111. CHAP. 1 PROBLEMS 87 12. Two networks each provide reliable connection-oriented service. One of them offers a reliable byte stream and the other offers a reliable message stream. Are these identi- cal? If so, why is the distinction made? If not, give an example of how they differ. 13. What does ‘‘negotiation’’ mean when discussing network protocols? Give an example. 14. In Fig. 1-19, a service is shown. Are any other services implicit in this figure? If so, where? If not, why not? 15. In some networks, the data link layer handles transmission errors by requesting that damaged frames be retransmitted. If the probability of a frame’s being damaged is p, what is the mean number of transmissions required to send a frame? Assume that acknowledgements are never lost. 16. A system has an n-layer protocol hierarchy. Applications generate messages of length M bytes. At each of the layers, an h-byte header is added. What fraction of the net- work bandwidth is filled with headers? 17. What is the main difference between TCP and UDP? 18. The subnet of Fig. 1-25(b) was designed to withstand a nuclear war. How many bombs would it take to partition the nodes into two disconnected sets? Assume that any bomb wipes out a node and all of the links connected to it. 19. The Internet is roughly doubling in size every 18 months. Although no one really knows for sure, one estimate put the number of hosts on it at 600 million in 2009. Use these data to compute the expected number of Internet hosts in the year 2018. Do you believe this? Explain why or why not. 20. When a file is transferred between two computers, two acknowledgement strategies are possible. In the first one, the file is chopped up into packets, which are individu- ally acknowledged by the receiver, but the file transfer as a whole is not acknow- ledged. In the second one, the packets are not acknowledged individually, but the en- tire file is acknowledged when it arrives. Discuss these two approaches. 21. Mobile phone network operators need to know where their subscribers’ mobile phones (hence their users) are located. Explain why this is bad for users. Now give reasons why this is good for users. 22. How long was a bit in the original 802.3 standard in meters? Use a transmission speed of 10 Mbps and assume the propagation speed in coax is 2/3 the speed of light in vacuum. 23. An image is 1600 × 1200 pixels with 3 bytes/pixel. Assume the image is uncompressed. How long does it take to transmit it over a 56-kbps modem channel? Over a 1-Mbps cable modem? Over a 10-Mbps Ethernet? Over 100-Mbps Ethernet? Over gigabit Ethernet? 24. Ethernet and wireless networks have some similarities and some differences. One property of Ethernet is that only one frame at a time can be transmitted on an Ethernet. Does 802.11 share this property with Ethernet? Discuss your answer. 25. List two advantages and two disadvantages of having international standards for net- work protocols.
- 112. 88 INTRODUCTION CHAP. 1 26. When a system has a permanent part and a removable part (such as a CD-ROM drive and the CD-ROM), it is important that the system be standardized, so that different companies can make both the permanent and removable parts and everything still works together. Give three examples outside the computer industry where such inter- national standards exist. Now give three areas outside the computer industry where they do not exist. 27. Suppose the algorithms used to implement the operations at layer k is changed. How does this impact operations at layers k − 1 and k + 1? 28. Suppose there is a change in the service (set of operations) provided by layer k. How does this impact services at layers k-1 and k+1? 29. Provide a list of reasons for why the response time of a client may be larger than the best-case delay. 30. What are the disadvantages of using small, fixed-length cells in ATM? 31. Make a list of activities that you do every day in which computer networks are used. How would your life be altered if these networks were suddenly switched off? 32. Find out what networks are used at your school or place of work. Describe the net- work types, topologies, and switching methods used there. 33. The ping program allows you to send a test packet to a given location and see how long it takes to get there and back. Try using ping to see how long it takes to get from your location to several known locations. From these data, plot the one-way transit time over the Internet as a function of distance. It is best to use universities since the location of their servers is known very accurately. For example, berkeley.edu is in Berkeley, California; mit.edu is in Cambridge, Massachusetts; vu.nl is in Amsterdam; The Netherlands; www.usyd.edu.au is in Sydney, Australia; and www.uct.ac.za is in Cape Town, South Africa. 34. Go to IETF’s Web site, www.ietf.org, to see what they are doing. Pick a project you like and write a half-page report on the problem and the proposed solution. 35. The Internet is made up of a large number of networks. Their arrangement determines the topology of the Internet. A considerable amount of information about the Internet topology is available on line. Use a search engine to find out more about the Internet topology and write a short report summarizing your findings. 36. Search the Internet to find out some of the important peering points used for routing packets in the Internet at present. 37. Write a program that implements message flow from the top layer to the bottom layer of the 7-layer protocol model. Your program should include a separate protocol func- tion for each layer. Protocol headers are sequence up to 64 characters. Each protocol function has two parameters: a message passed from the higher layer protocol (a char buffer) and the size of the message. This function attaches its header in front of the message, prints the new message on the standard output, and then invokes the protocol function of the lower-layer protocol. Program input is an application message (a se- quence of 80 characters or less).
- 113. 2 THE PHYSICAL LAYER In this chapter we will look at the lowest layer in our protocol model, the physical layer. It defines the electrical, timing and other interfaces by which bits are sent as signals over channels. The physical layer is the foundation on which the network is built. The properties of different kinds of physical channels deter- mine the performance (e.g., throughput, latency, and error rate) so it is a good place to start our journey into networkland. We will begin with a theoretical analysis of data transmission, only to dis- cover that Mother (Parent?) Nature puts some limits on what can be sent over a channel. Then we will cover three kinds of transmission media: guided (copper wire and fiber optics), wireless (terrestrial radio), and satellite. Each of these technologies has different properties that affect the design and performance of the networks that use them. This material will provide background information on the key transmission technologies used in modern networks. Next comes digital modulation, which is all about how analog signals are con- verted into digital bits and back again. After that we will look at multiplexing schemes, exploring how multiple conversations can be put on the same transmis- sion medium at the same time without interfering with one another. Finally, we will look at three examples of communication systems used in practice for wide area computer networks: the (fixed) telephone system, the mobile phone system, and the cable television system. Each of these is important in practice, so we will devote a fair amount of space to each one. 89
- 114. 90 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 2.1 THE THEORETICAL BASIS FOR DATA COMMUNICATION Information can be transmitted on wires by varying some physical property such as voltage or current. By representing the value of this voltage or current as a single-valued function of time, f(t), we can model the behavior of the signal and analyze it mathematically. This analysis is the subject of the following sections. 2.1.1 Fourier Analysis In the early 19th century, the French mathematician Jean-Baptiste Fourier proved that any reasonably behaved periodic function, g(t) with period T, can be constructed as the sum of a (possibly infinite) number of sines and cosines: g(t) = 2 1 c + n =1 Σ ∞ an sin(2πnft) + n =1 Σ ∞ bn cos(2πnft) (2-1) where f = 1/T is the fundamental frequency, an and bn are the sine and cosine am- plitudes of the nth harmonics (terms), and c is a constant. Such a decomposition is called a Fourier series. From the Fourier series, the function can be recon- structed. That is, if the period, T, is known and the amplitudes are given, the orig- inal function of time can be found by performing the sums of Eq. (2-1). A data signal that has a finite duration, which all of them do, can be handled by just imagining that it repeats the entire pattern over and over forever (i.e., the interval from T to 2T is the same as from 0 to T, etc.). The an amplitudes can be computed for any given g(t) by multiplying both sides of Eq. (2-1) by sin(2πkft) and then integrating from 0 to T. Since 0 ∫ T sin(2πkft) sin(2πnft) dt = ⎧ ⎨ ⎩ T /2 for k = n 0 for k ≠ n only one term of the summation survives: an. The bn summation vanishes com- pletely. Similarly, by multiplying Eq. (2-1) by cos(2πkft) and integrating between 0 and T, we can derive bn. By just integrating both sides of the equation as it stands, we can find c. The results of performing these operations are as follows: an = T 2 0 ∫ T g(t) sin(2πnft) dt bn = T 2 0 ∫ T g(t) cos(2πnft) dt c = T 2 0 ∫ T g(t) dt 2.1.2 Bandwidth-Limited Signals The relevance of all of this to data communication is that real channels affect different frequency signals differently. Let us consider a specific example: the transmission of the ASCII character ‘‘b’’ encoded in an 8-bit byte. The bit pattern that is to be transmitted is 01100010. The left-hand part of Fig. 2-1(a) shows the
- 115. SEC. 2.1 THE THEORETICAL BASIS FOR DATA COMMUNICATION 91 voltage output by the transmitting computer. The Fourier analysis of this signal yields the coefficients: an = πn 1 [cos(πn /4) − cos(3πn /4) + cos(6πn /4) − cos(7πn /4)] bn = πn 1 [sin(3πn /4) − sin(πn /4) + sin(7πn /4) − sin(6πn /4)] c = 3/4 The root-mean-square amplitudes, √an 2 + bn 2 , for the first few terms are shown on the right-hand side of Fig. 2-1(a). These values are of interest because their squares are proportional to the energy transmitted at the corresponding frequency. No transmission facility can transmit signals without losing some power in the process. If all the Fourier components were equally diminished, the resulting sig- nal would be reduced in amplitude but not distorted [i.e., it would have the same nice squared-off shape as Fig. 2-1(a)]. Unfortunately, all transmission facilities diminish different Fourier components by different amounts, thus introducing dis- tortion. Usually, for a wire, the amplitudes are transmitted mostly undiminished from 0 up to some frequency fc [measured in cycles/sec or Hertz (Hz)], with all frequencies above this cutoff frequency attenuated. The width of the frequency range transmitted without being strongly attenuated is called the bandwidth. In practice, the cutoff is not really sharp, so often the quoted bandwidth is from 0 to the frequency at which the received power has fallen by half. The bandwidth is a physical property of the transmission medium that de- pends on, for example, the construction, thickness, and length of a wire or fiber. Filters are often used to further limit the bandwidth of a signal. 802.11 wireless channels are allowed to use up to roughly 20 MHz, for example, so 802.11 radios filter the signal bandwidth to this size. As another example, traditional (analog) television channels occupy 6 MHz each, on a wire or over the air. This filtering lets more signals share a given region of spectrum, which improves the overall ef- ficiency of the system. It means that the frequency range for some signals will not start at zero, but this does not matter. The bandwidth is still the width of the band of frequencies that are passed, and the information that can be carried de- pends only on this width and not on the starting and ending frequencies. Signals that run from 0 up to a maximum frequency are called baseband signals. Signals that are shifted to occupy a higher range of frequencies, as is the case for all wire- less transmissions, are called passband signals. Now let us consider how the signal of Fig. 2-1(a) would look if the bandwidth were so low that only the lowest frequencies were transmitted [i.e., if the function were being approximated by the first few terms of Eq. (2-1)]. Figure 2-1(b) shows the signal that results from a channel that allows only the first harmonic
- 116. 92 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 Time T 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 Time rms amplitude 1 15 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 10111213 14 8 0.50 0.25 Harmonic number 1 harmonic 2 harmonics 4 harmonics 8 harmonics 1 1 2 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Harmonic number (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) Figure 2-1. (a) A binary signal and its root-mean-square Fourier amplitudes. (b)–(e) Successive approximations to the original signal.
- 117. SEC. 2.1 THE THEORETICAL BASIS FOR DATA COMMUNICATION 93 (the fundamental, f) to pass through. Similarly, Fig. 2-1(c)–(e) show the spectra and reconstructed functions for higher-bandwidth channels. For digital transmis- sion, the goal is to receive a signal with just enough fidelity to reconstruct the se- quence of bits that was sent. We can already do this easily in Fig. 2-1(e), so it is wasteful to use more harmonics to receive a more accurate replica. Given a bit rate of b bits/sec, the time required to send the 8 bits in our ex- ample 1 bit at a time is 8/b sec, so the frequency of the first harmonic of this sig- nal is b /8 Hz. An ordinary telephone line, often called a voice-grade line, has an artificially introduced cutoff frequency just above 3000 Hz. The presence of this restriction means that the number of the highest harmonic passed through is roughly 3000/(b/8), or 24,000/b (the cutoff is not sharp). For some data rates, the numbers work out as shown in Fig. 2-2. From these numbers, it is clear that trying to send at 9600 bps over a voice-grade telephone line will transform Fig. 2-1(a) into something looking like Fig. 2-1(c), making accurate reception of the original binary bit stream tricky. It should be obvious that at data rates much higher than 38.4 kbps, there is no hope at all for binary sig- nals, even if the transmission facility is completely noiseless. In other words, lim- iting the bandwidth limits the data rate, even for perfect channels. However, cod- ing schemes that make use of several voltage levels do exist and can achieve high- er data rates. We will discuss these later in this chapter. Bps T (msec) First harmonic (Hz) # Harmonics sent 300 26.67 37.5 80 600 13.33 75 40 1200 6.67 150 20 2400 3.33 300 10 4800 1.67 600 5 9600 0.83 1200 2 19200 0.42 2400 1 38400 0.21 4800 0 Figure 2-2. Relation between data rate and harmonics for our example. There is much confusion about bandwidth because it means different things to electrical engineers and to computer scientists. To electrical engineers, (analog) bandwidth is (as we have described above) a quantity measured in Hz. To com- puter scientists, (digital) bandwidth is the maximum data rate of a channel, a quantity measured in bits/sec. That data rate is the end result of using the analog bandwidth of a physical channel for digital transmission, and the two are related, as we discuss next. In this book, it will be clear from the context whether we mean analog bandwidth (Hz) or digital bandwidth (bits/sec).
- 118. 94 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 2.1.3 The Maximum Data Rate of a Channel As early as 1924, an AT&T engineer, Henry Nyquist, realized that even a per- fect channel has a finite transmission capacity. He derived an equation expressing the maximum data rate for a finite-bandwidth noiseless channel. In 1948, Claude Shannon carried Nyquist’s work further and extended it to the case of a channel subject to random (that is, thermodynamic) noise (Shannon, 1948). This paper is the most important paper in all of information theory. We will just briefly sum- marize their now classical results here. Nyquist proved that if an arbitrary signal has been run through a low-pass fil- ter of bandwidth B, the filtered signal can be completely reconstructed by making only 2B (exact) samples per second. Sampling the line faster than 2B times per second is pointless because the higher-frequency components that such sampling could recover have already been filtered out. If the signal consists of V discrete levels, Nyquist’s theorem states: maximum data rate = 2B log2 V bits/sec (2-2) For example, a noiseless 3-kHz channel cannot transmit binary (i.e., two-level) signals at a rate exceeding 6000 bps. So far we have considered only noiseless channels. If random noise is pres- ent, the situation deteriorates rapidly. And there is always random (thermal) noise present due to the motion of the molecules in the system. The amount of thermal noise present is measured by the ratio of the signal power to the noise power, call- ed the SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio). If we denote the signal power by S and the noise power by N, the signal-to-noise ratio is S/N. Usually, the ratio is expressed on a log scale as the quantity 10 log10 S /N because it can vary over a tremendous range. The units of this log scale are called decibels (dB), with ‘‘deci’’ meaning 10 and ‘‘bel’’ chosen to honor Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the tele- phone. An S /N ratio of 10 is 10 dB, a ratio of 100 is 20 dB, a ratio of 1000 is 30 dB, and so on. The manufacturers of stereo amplifiers often characterize the bandwidth (frequency range) over which their products are linear by giving the 3- dB frequency on each end. These are the points at which the amplification factor has been approximately halved (because 10 log100.5 ∼ ∼ −3). Shannon’s major result is that the maximum data rate or capacity of a noisy channel whose bandwidth is B Hz and whose signal-to-noise ratio is S/N, is given by: maximum number of bits/sec = B log2 (1 + S/N) (2-3) This tells us the best capacities that real channels can have. For example, ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), which provides Internet access over nor- mal telephone lines, uses a bandwidth of around 1 MHz. The SNR depends strongly on the distance of the home from the telephone exchange, and an SNR of around 40 dB for short lines of 1 to 2 km is very good. With these characteristics,
- 119. SEC. 2.1 THE THEORETICAL BASIS FOR DATA COMMUNICATION 95 the channel can never transmit much more than 13 Mbps, no matter how many or how few signal levels are used and no matter how often or how infrequently sam- ples are taken. In practice, ADSL is specified up to 12 Mbps, though users often see lower rates. This data rate is actually very good, with over 60 years of com- munications techniques having greatly reduced the gap between the Shannon ca- pacity and the capacity of real systems. Shannon’s result was derived from information-theory arguments and applies to any channel subject to thermal noise. Counterexamples should be treated in the same category as perpetual motion machines. For ADSL to exceed 13 Mbps, it must either improve the SNR (for example by inserting digital repeaters in the lines closer to the customers) or use more bandwidth, as is done with the evolu- tion to ASDL2+. 2.2 GUIDED TRANSMISSION MEDIA The purpose of the physical layer is to transport bits from one machine to an- other. Various physical media can be used for the actual transmission. Each one has its own niche in terms of bandwidth, delay, cost, and ease of installation and maintenance. Media are roughly grouped into guided media, such as copper wire and fiber optics, and unguided media, such as terrestrial wireless, satellite, and lasers through the air. We will look at guided media in this section, and unguided media in the next sections. 2.2.1 Magnetic Media One of the most common ways to transport data from one computer to another is to write them onto magnetic tape or removable media (e.g., recordable DVDs), physically transport the tape or disks to the destination machine, and read them back in again. Although this method is not as sophisticated as using a geosyn- chronous communication satellite, it is often more cost effective, especially for applications in which high bandwidth or cost per bit transported is the key factor. A simple calculation will make this point clear. An industry-standard Ultrium tape can hold 800 gigabytes. A box 60 × 60 × 60 cm can hold about 1000 of these tapes, for a total capacity of 800 terabytes, or 6400 terabits (6.4 petabits). A box of tapes can be delivered anywhere in the United States in 24 hours by Federal Express and other companies. The effective bandwidth of this transmission is 6400 terabits/86,400 sec, or a bit over 70 Gbps. If the destination is only an hour away by road, the bandwidth is increased to over 1700 Gbps. No computer net- work can even approach this. Of course, networks are getting faster, but tape den- sities are increasing, too. If we now look at cost, we get a similar picture. The cost of an Ultrium tape is around $40 when bought in bulk. A tape can be reused at least 10 times, so the
- 120. 96 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 tape cost is maybe $4000 per box per usage. Add to this another $1000 for ship- ping (probably much less), and we have a cost of roughly $5000 to ship 800 TB. This amounts to shipping a gigabyte for a little over half a cent. No network can beat that. The moral of the story is: Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway. 2.2.2 Twisted Pairs Although the bandwidth characteristics of magnetic tape are excellent, the de- lay characteristics are poor. Transmission time is measured in minutes or hours, not milliseconds. For many applications an online connection is needed. One of the oldest and still most common transmission media is twisted pair. A twisted pair consists of two insulated copper wires, typically about 1 mm thick. The wires are twisted together in a helical form, just like a DNA molecule. Twisting is done because two parallel wires constitute a fine antenna. When the wires are twisted, the waves from different twists cancel out, so the wire radiates less effectively. A signal is usually carried as the difference in voltage between the two wires in the pair. This provides better immunity to external noise because the noise tends to affect both wires the same, leaving the differential unchanged. The most common application of the twisted pair is the telephone system. Nearly all telephones are connected to the telephone company (telco) office by a twisted pair. Both telephone calls and ADSL Internet access run over these lines. Twisted pairs can run several kilometers without amplification, but for longer dis- tances the signal becomes too attenuated and repeaters are needed. When many twisted pairs run in parallel for a substantial distance, such as all the wires coming from an apartment building to the telephone company office, they are bundled to- gether and encased in a protective sheath. The pairs in these bundles would inter- fere with one another if it were not for the twisting. In parts of the world where telephone lines run on poles above ground, it is common to see bundles several centimeters in diameter. Twisted pairs can be used for transmitting either analog or digital information. The bandwidth depends on the thickness of the wire and the distance traveled, but several megabits/sec can be achieved for a few kilometers in many cases. Due to their adequate performance and low cost, twisted pairs are widely used and are likely to remain so for years to come. Twisted-pair cabling comes in several varieties. The garden variety deployed in many office buildings is called Category 5 cabling, or ‘‘Cat 5.’’ A category 5 twisted pair consists of two insulated wires gently twisted together. Four such pairs are typically grouped in a plastic sheath to protect the wires and keep them together. This arrangement is shown in Fig. 2-3. Different LAN standards may use the twisted pairs differently. For example, 100-Mbps Ethernet uses two (out of the four) pairs, one pair for each direction.
- 121. SEC. 2.2 GUIDED TRANSMISSION MEDIA 97 Twisted pair Figure 2-3. Category 5 UTP cable with four twisted pairs. To reach higher speeds, 1-Gbps Ethernet uses all four pairs in both directions si- multaneously; this requires the receiver to factor out the signal that is transmitted locally. Some general terminology is now in order. Links that can be used in both di- rections at the same time, like a two-lane road, are called full-duplex links. In contrast, links that can be used in either direction, but only one way at a time, like a single-track railroad line. are called half-duplex links. A third category con- sists of links that allow traffic in only one direction, like a one-way street. They are called simplex links. Returning to twisted pair, Cat 5 replaced earlier Category 3 cables with a similar cable that uses the same connector, but has more twists per meter. More twists result in less crosstalk and a better-quality signal over longer distances, making the cables more suitable for high-speed computer communication, espe- cially 100-Mbps and 1-Gbps Ethernet LANs. New wiring is more likely to be Category 6 or even Category 7. These categories has more stringent specifications to handle signals with greater band- widths. Some cables in Category 6 and above are rated for signals of 500 MHz and can support the 10-Gbps links that will soon be deployed. Through Category 6, these wiring types are referred to as UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) as they consist simply of wires and insulators. In contrast to these, Category 7 cables have shielding on the individual twisted pairs, as well as around the entire cable (but inside the plastic protective sheath). Shielding reduces the susceptibility to external interference and crosstalk with other nearby cables to meet demanding performance specifications. The cables are reminiscent of the high-quality, but bulky and expensive shielded twisted pair cables that IBM intro- duced in the early 1980s, but which did not prove popular outside of IBM in- stallations. Evidently, it is time to try again. 2.2.3 Coaxial Cable Another common transmission medium is the coaxial cable (known to its many friends as just ‘‘coax’’ and pronounced ‘‘co-ax’’). It has better shielding and greater bandwidth than unshielded twisted pairs, so it can span longer distances at
- 122. 98 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 higher speeds. Two kinds of coaxial cable are widely used. One kind, 50-ohm cable, is commonly used when it is intended for digital transmission from the start. The other kind, 75-ohm cable, is commonly used for analog transmission and cable television. This distinction is based on historical, rather than technical, factors (e.g., early dipole antennas had an impedance of 300 ohms, and it was easy to use existing 4:1 impedance-matching transformers). Starting in the mid- 1990s, cable TV operators began to provide Internet access over cable, which has made 75-ohm cable more important for data communication. A coaxial cable consists of a stiff copper wire as the core, surrounded by an insulating material. The insulator is encased by a cylindrical conductor, often as a closely woven braided mesh. The outer conductor is covered in a protective plas- tic sheath. A cutaway view of a coaxial cable is shown in Fig. 2-4. Copper core Insulating material Braided outer conductor Protective plastic covering Figure 2-4. A coaxial cable. The construction and shielding of the coaxial cable give it a good combination of high bandwidth and excellent noise immunity. The bandwidth possible de- pends on the cable quality and length. Modern cables have a bandwidth of up to a few GHz. Coaxial cables used to be widely used within the telephone system for long-distance lines but have now largely been replaced by fiber optics on long- haul routes. Coax is still widely used for cable television and metropolitan area networks, however. 2.2.4 Power Lines The telephone and cable television networks are not the only sources of wir- ing that can be reused for data communication. There is a yet more common kind of wiring: electrical power lines. Power lines deliver electrical power to houses, and electrical wiring within houses distributes the power to electrical outlets. The use of power lines for data communication is an old idea. Power lines have been used by electricity companies for low-rate communication such as re- mote metering for many years, as well in the home to control devices (e.g., the X10 standard). In recent years there has been renewed interest in high-rate com- munication over these lines, both inside the home as a LAN and outside the home
- 123. SEC. 2.2 GUIDED TRANSMISSION MEDIA 99 for broadband Internet access. We will concentrate on the most common scenario: using electrical wires inside the home. The convenience of using power lines for networking should be clear. Simply plug a TV and a receiver into the wall, which you must do anyway because they need power, and they can send and receive movies over the electrical wiring. This configuration is shown in Fig. 2-5. There is no other plug or radio. The data sig- nal is superimposed on the low-frequency power signal (on the active or ‘‘hot’’ wire) as both signals use the wiring at the same time. Power signal Data signal Electric cable Figure 2-5. A network that uses household electrical wiring. The difficulty with using household electrical wiring for a network is that it was designed to distribute power signals. This task is quite different than distri- buting data signals, at which household wiring does a horrible job. Electrical sig- nals are sent at 50–60 Hz and the wiring attenuates the much higher frequency (MHz) signals needed for high-rate data communication. The electrical properties of the wiring vary from one house to the next and change as appliances are turned on and off, which causes data signals to bounce around the wiring. Transient cur- rents when appliances switch on and off create electrical noise over a wide range of frequencies. And without the careful twisting of twisted pairs, electrical wiring acts as a fine antenna, picking up external signals and radiating signals of its own. This behavior means that to meet regulatory requirements, the data signal must exclude licensed frequencies such as the amateur radio bands. Despite these difficulties, it is practical to send at least 100 Mbps over typical household electrical wiring by using communication schemes that resist impaired frequencies and bursts of errors. Many products use various proprietary standards for power-line networking, so international standards are actively under develop- ment. 2.2.5 Fiber Optics Many people in the computer industry take enormous pride in how fast com- puter technology is improving as it follows Moore’s law, which predicts a dou- bling of the number of transistors per chip roughly every two years (Schaller,
- 124. 100 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 1997). The original (1981) IBM PC ran at a clock speed of 4.77 MHz. Twenty- eight years later, PCs could run a four-core CPU at 3 GHz. This increase is a gain of a factor of around 2500, or 16 per decade. Impressive. In the same period, wide area communication links went from 45 Mbps (a T3 line in the telephone system) to 100 Gbps (a modern long distance line). This gain is similarly impressive, more than a factor of 2000 and close to 16 per decade, while at the same time the error rate went from 10−5 per bit to almost zero. Furthermore, single CPUs are beginning to approach physical limits, which is why it is now the number of CPUs that is being increased per chip. In contrast, the achievable bandwidth with fiber technology is in excess of 50,000 Gbps (50 Tbps) and we are nowhere near reaching these limits. The current practical limit of around 100 Gbps is due to our inability to convert between electrical and opti- cal signals any faster. To build higher-capacity links, many channels are simply carried in parallel over a single fiber. In this section we will study fiber optics to learn how that transmission tech- nology works. In the ongoing race between computing and communication, com- munication may yet win because of fiber optic networks. The implication of this would be essentially infinite bandwidth and a new conventional wisdom that com- puters are hopelessly slow so that networks should try to avoid computation at all costs, no matter how much bandwidth that wastes. This change will take a while to sink in to a generation of computer scientists and engineers taught to think in terms of the low Shannon limits imposed by copper. Of course, this scenario does not tell the whole story because it does not in- clude cost. The cost to install fiber over the last mile to reach consumers and bypass the low bandwidth of wires and limited availability of spectrum is tremen- dous. It also costs more energy to move bits than to compute. We may always have islands of inequities where either computation or communication is essen- tially free. For example, at the edge of the Internet we throw computation and storage at the problem of compressing and caching content, all to make better use of Internet access links. Within the Internet, we may do the reverse, with com- panies such as Google moving huge amounts of data across the network to where it is cheaper to store or compute on it. Fiber optics are used for long-haul transmission in network backbones, high- speed LANs (although so far, copper has always managed catch up eventually), and high-speed Internet access such as FttH (Fiber to the Home). An optical transmission system has three key components: the light source, the transmission medium, and the detector. Conventionally, a pulse of light indicates a 1 bit and the absence of light indicates a 0 bit. The transmission medium is an ultra-thin fiber of glass. The detector generates an electrical pulse when light falls on it. By attaching a light source to one end of an optical fiber and a detector to the other, we have a unidirectional data transmission system that accepts an electrical sig- nal, converts and transmits it by light pulses, and then reconverts the output to an electrical signal at the receiving end.
- 125. SEC. 2.2 GUIDED TRANSMISSION MEDIA 101 This transmission system would leak light and be useless in practice were it not for an interesting principle of physics. When a light ray passes from one medium to another—for example, from fused silica to air—the ray is refracted (bent) at the silica/air boundary, as shown in Fig. 2-6(a). Here we see a light ray incident on the boundary at an angle α1 emerging at an angle β1. The amount of refraction depends on the properties of the two media (in particular, their indices of refraction). For angles of incidence above a certain critical value, the light is refracted back into the silica; none of it escapes into the air. Thus, a light ray incident at or above the critical angle is trapped inside the fiber, as shown in Fig. 2-6(b), and can propagate for many kilometers with virtually no loss. Total internal reflection. Air/silica boundary Light source Silica Air (a) (b) β1 β2 β3 α1 α2 α3 Figure 2-6. (a) Three examples of a light ray from inside a silica fiber imping- ing on the air/silica boundary at different angles. (b) Light trapped by total inter- nal reflection. The sketch of Fig. 2-6(b) shows only one trapped ray, but since any light ray incident on the boundary above the critical angle will be reflected internally, many different rays will be bouncing around at different angles. Each ray is said to have a different mode, so a fiber having this property is called a multimode fiber. However, if the fiber’s diameter is reduced to a few wavelengths of light the fiber acts like a wave guide and the light can propagate only in a straight line, without bouncing, yielding a single-mode fiber. Single-mode fibers are more ex- pensive but are widely used for longer distances. Currently available single-mode fibers can transmit data at 100 Gbps for 100 km without amplification. Even higher data rates have been achieved in the laboratory for shorter distances. Transmission of Light Through Fiber Optical fibers are made of glass, which, in turn, is made from sand, an inex- pensive raw material available in unlimited amounts. Glassmaking was known to the ancient Egyptians, but their glass had to be no more than 1 mm thick or the
- 126. 102 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 light could not shine through. Glass transparent enough to be useful for windows was developed during the Renaissance. The glass used for modern optical fibers is so transparent that if the oceans were full of it instead of water, the seabed would be as visible from the surface as the ground is from an airplane on a clear day. The attenuation of light through glass depends on the wavelength of the light (as well as on some physical properties of the glass). It is defined as the ratio of input to output signal power. For the kind of glass used in fibers, the attenuation is shown in Fig. 2-7 in units of decibels per linear kilometer of fiber. For exam- ple, a factor of two loss of signal power gives an attenuation of 10 log10 2 = 3 dB. The figure shows the near-infrared part of the spectrum, which is what is used in practice. Visible light has slightly shorter wavelengths, from 0.4 to 0.7 microns. (1 micron is 10−6 meters.) The true metric purist would refer to these wave- lengths as 400 nm to 700 nm, but we will stick with traditional usage. 0.8 0 0.9 2.0 1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Wavelength (microns) 0.85μ Band 1.30μ Band 1.55μ Band Attenuation (dB/km) 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Figure 2-7. Attenuation of light through fiber in the infrared region. Three wavelength bands are most commonly used at present for optical com- munication. They are centered at 0.85, 1.30, and 1.55 microns, respectively. All three bands are 25,000 to 30,000 GHz wide. The 0.85-micron band was used first. It has higher attenuation and so is used for shorter distances, but at that wave- length the lasers and electronics could be made from the same material (gallium arsenide). The last two bands have good attenuation properties (less than 5% loss per kilometer). The 1.55-micron band is now widely used with erbium-doped amplifiers that work directly in the optical domain.
- 127. SEC. 2.2 GUIDED TRANSMISSION MEDIA 103 Light pulses sent down a fiber spread out in length as they propagate. This spreading is called chromatic dispersion. The amount of it is wavelength depen- dent. One way to keep these spread-out pulses from overlapping is to increase the distance between them, but this can be done only by reducing the signaling rate. Fortunately, it has been discovered that making the pulses in a special shape relat- ed to the reciprocal of the hyperbolic cosine causes nearly all the dispersion ef- fects cancel out, so it is possible to send pulses for thousands of kilometers with- out appreciable shape distortion. These pulses are called solitons. A considerable amount of research is going on to take solitons out of the lab and into the field. Fiber Cables Fiber optic cables are similar to coax, except without the braid. Figure 2-8(a) shows a single fiber viewed from the side. At the center is the glass core through which the light propagates. In multimode fibers, the core is typically 50 microns in diameter, about the thickness of a human hair. In single-mode fibers, the core is 8 to 10 microns. Jacket (plastic) Core Cladding Sheath Jacket Cladding (glass) Core (glass) (a) (b) Figure 2-8. (a) Side view of a single fiber. (b) End view of a sheath with three fibers. The core is surrounded by a glass cladding with a lower index of refraction than the core, to keep all the light in the core. Next comes a thin plastic jacket to protect the cladding. Fibers are typically grouped in bundles, protected by an outer sheath. Figure 2-8(b) shows a sheath with three fibers. Terrestrial fiber sheaths are normally laid in the ground within a meter of the surface, where they are occasionally subject to attacks by backhoes or gophers. Near the shore, transoceanic fiber sheaths are buried in trenches by a kind of seaplow. In deep water, they just lie on the bottom, where they can be snagged by fishing trawlers or attacked by giant squid. Fibers can be connected in three different ways. First, they can terminate in connectors and be plugged into fiber sockets. Connectors lose about 10 to 20% of the light, but they make it easy to reconfigure systems. Second, they can be spliced mechanically. Mechanical splices just lay the two carefully cut ends next to each other in a special sleeve and clamp them in
- 128. 104 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 place. Alignment can be improved by passing light through the junction and then making small adjustments to maximize the signal. Mechanical splices take train- ed personnel about 5 minutes and result in a 10% light loss. Third, two pieces of fiber can be fused (melted) to form a solid connection. A fusion splice is almost as good as a single drawn fiber, but even here, a small amount of attenuation occurs. For all three kinds of splices, reflections can occur at the point of the splice, and the reflected energy can interfere with the signal. Two kinds of light sources are typically used to do the signaling. These are LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) and semiconductor lasers. They have different properties, as shown in Fig. 2-9. They can be tuned in wavelength by inserting Fabry-Perot or Mach-Zehnder interferometers between the source and the fiber. Fabry-Perot interferometers are simple resonant cavities consisting of two parallel mirrors. The light is incident perpendicular to the mirrors. The length of the cav- ity selects out those wavelengths that fit inside an integral number of times. Mach-Zehnder interferometers separate the light into two beams. The two beams travel slightly different distances. They are recombined at the end and are in phase for only certain wavelengths. Item LED Semiconductor laser Data rate Low High Fiber type Multi-mode Multi-mode or single-mode Distance Short Long Lifetime Long life Short life Temperature sensitivity Minor Substantial Cost Low cost Expensive Figure 2-9. A comparison of semiconductor diodes and LEDs as light sources. The receiving end of an optical fiber consists of a photodiode, which gives off an electrical pulse when struck by light. The response time of photodiodes, which convert the signal from the optical to the electrical domain, limits data rates to about 100 Gbps. Thermal noise is also an issue, so a pulse of light must carry enough energy to be detected. By making the pulses powerful enough, the error rate can be made arbitrarily small. Comparison of Fiber Optics and Copper Wire It is instructive to compare fiber to copper. Fiber has many advantages. To start with, it can handle much higher bandwidths than copper. This alone would require its use in high-end networks. Due to the low attenuation, repeaters are needed only about every 50 km on long lines, versus about every 5 km for copper,
- 129. SEC. 2.2 GUIDED TRANSMISSION MEDIA 105 resulting in a big cost saving. Fiber also has the advantage of not being affected by power surges, electromagnetic interference, or power failures. Nor is it affect- ed by corrosive chemicals in the air, important for harsh factory environments. Oddly enough, telephone companies like fiber for a different reason: it is thin and lightweight. Many existing cable ducts are completely full, so there is no room to add new capacity. Removing all the copper and replacing it with fiber empties the ducts, and the copper has excellent resale value to copper refiners who see it as very high-grade ore. Also, fiber is much lighter than copper. One thousand twisted pairs 1 km long weigh 8000 kg. Two fibers have more capacity and weigh only 100 kg, which reduces the need for expensive mechanical support systems that must be maintained. For new routes, fiber wins hands down due to its much lower installation cost. Finally, fibers do not leak light and are difficult to tap. These properties give fiber good security against potential wiretappers. On the downside, fiber is a less familiar technology requiring skills not all en- gineers have, and fibers can be damaged easily by being bent too much. Since op- tical transmission is inherently unidirectional, two-way communication requires either two fibers or two frequency bands on one fiber. Finally, fiber interfaces cost more than electrical interfaces. Nevertheless, the future of all fixed data communication over more than short distances is clearly with fiber. For a dis- cussion of all aspects of fiber optics and their networks, see Hecht (2005). 2.3 WIRELESS TRANSMISSION Our age has given rise to information junkies: people who need to be online all the time. For these mobile users, twisted pair, coax, and fiber optics are of no use. They need to get their ‘‘hits’’ of data for their laptop, notebook, shirt pocket, palmtop, or wristwatch computers without being tethered to the terrestrial com- munication infrastructure. For these users, wireless communication is the answer. In the following sections, we will look at wireless communication in general. It has many other important applications besides providing connectivity to users who want to surf the Web from the beach. Wireless has advantages for even fixed devices in some circumstances. For example, if running a fiber to a building is difficult due to the terrain (mountains, jungles, swamps, etc.), wireless may be better. It is noteworthy that modern wireless digital communication began in the Hawaiian Islands, where large chunks of Pacific Ocean separated the users from their computer center and the telephone system was inadequate. 2.3.1 The Electromagnetic Spectrum When electrons move, they create electromagnetic waves that can propagate through space (even in a vacuum). These waves were predicted by the British physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1865 and first observed by the German
- 130. 106 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 physicist Heinrich Hertz in 1887. The number of oscillations per second of a wave is called its frequency, f, and is measured in Hz (in honor of Heinrich Hertz). The distance between two consecutive maxima (or minima) is called the wavelength, which is universally designated by the Greek letter λ (lambda). When an antenna of the appropriate size is attached to an electrical circuit, the electromagnetic waves can be broadcast efficiently and received by a receiver some distance away. All wireless communication is based on this principle. In a vacuum, all electromagnetic waves travel at the same speed, no matter what their frequency. This speed, usually called the speed of light, c, is approxi- mately 3 × 108 m/sec, or about 1 foot (30 cm) per nanosecond. (A case could be made for redefining the foot as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1 nsec rather than basing it on the shoe size of some long-dead king.) In copper or fiber the speed slows to about 2/3 of this value and becomes slightly frequency depen- dent. The speed of light is the ultimate speed limit. No object or signal can ever move faster than it. The fundamental relation between f, λ, and c (in a vacuum) is λf = c (2-4) Since c is a constant, if we know f, we can find λ, and vice versa. As a rule of thumb, when λ is in meters and f is in MHz, λf ∼ ∼ 300. For example, 100-MHz waves are about 3 meters long, 1000-MHz waves are 0.3 meters long, and 0.1- meter waves have a frequency of 3000 MHz. The electromagnetic spectrum is shown in Fig. 2-10. The radio, microwave, infrared, and visible light portions of the spectrum can all be used for transmitting information by modulating the amplitude, frequency, or phase of the waves. Ultraviolet light, X-rays, and gamma rays would be even better, due to their high- er frequencies, but they are hard to produce and modulate, do not propagate well through buildings, and are dangerous to living things. The bands listed at the bot- tom of Fig. 2-10 are the official ITU (International Telecommunication Union) names and are based on the wavelengths, so the LF band goes from 1 km to 10 km (approximately 30 kHz to 300 kHz). The terms LF, MF, and HF refer to Low, Medium, and High Frequency, respectively. Clearly, when the names were as- signed nobody expected to go above 10 MHz, so the higher bands were later named the Very, Ultra, Super, Extremely, and Tremendously High Frequency bands. Beyond that there are no names, but Incredibly, Astonishingly, and Prodi- giously High Frequency (IHF, AHF, and PHF) would sound nice. We know from Shannon [Eq. (2-3)] that the amount of information that a sig- nal such as an electromagnetic wave can carry depends on the received power and is proportional to its bandwidth. From Fig. 2-10 it should now be obvious why networking people like fiber optics so much. Many GHz of bandwidth are avail- able to tap for data transmission in the microwave band, and even more in fiber because it is further to the right in our logarithmic scale. As an example, consider the 1.30-micron band of Fig. 2-7, which has a width of 0.17 microns. If we use
- 131. SEC. 2.3 WIRELESS TRANSMISSION 107 100 102 104 106 108 1010 1012 1014 1016 1018 1020 1022 1024 Radio Microwave Infrared UV X-ray Gamma ray f (Hz) Visible light 104 105 106 107 108 109 1010 1011 1012 1013 1014 1015 1016 f (Hz) Twisted pair Coax Satellite TV Terrestrial microwave Fiber optics Maritime AM radio FM radio Band LF MF HF VHF UHF SHF EHF THF Figure 2-10. The electromagnetic spectrum and its uses for communication. Eq. (2-4) to find the start and end frequencies from the start and end wavelengths, we find the frequency range to be about 30,000 GHz. With a reasonable signal- to-noise ratio of 10 dB, this is 300 Tbps. Most transmissions use a relatively narrow frequency band (i.e., Δf / f < < 1). They concentrate their signals in this narrow band to use the spectrum efficiently and obtain reasonable data rates by transmitting with enough power. However, in some cases, a wider band is used, with three variations. In frequency hopping spread spectrum, the transmitter hops from frequency to frequency hundreds of times per second. It is popular for military communication because it makes transmissions hard to detect and next to impossible to jam. It also offers good resistance to multipath fading and narrowband interference because the receiver will not be stuck on an impaired frequency for long enough to shut down commu- nication. This robustness makes it useful for crowded parts of the spectrum, such as the ISM bands we will describe shortly. This technique is used commercially, for example, in Bluetooth and older versions of 802.11. As a curious footnote, the technique was coinvented by the Austrian-born sex goddess Hedy Lamarr, the first woman to appear nude in a motion picture (the 1933 Czech film Extase). Her first husband was an armaments manufacturer who told her how easy it was to block the radio signals then used to control torpedoes. When she discovered that he was selling weapons to Hitler, she was horrified, dis- guised herself as a maid to escape him, and fled to Hollywood to continue her career as a movie actress. In her spare time, she invented frequency hopping to help the Allied war effort. Her scheme used 88 frequencies, the number of keys
- 132. 108 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 (and frequencies) on the piano. For their invention, she and her friend, the mu- sical composer George Antheil, received U.S. patent 2,292,387. However, they were unable to convince the U.S. Navy that their invention had any practical use and never received any royalties. Only years after the patent expired did it be- come popular. A second form of spread spectrum, direct sequence spread spectrum, uses a code sequence to spread the data signal over a wider frequency band. It is widely used commercially as a spectrally efficient way to let multiple signals share the same frequency band. These signals can be given different codes, a method called CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) that we will return to later in this chap- ter. This method is shown in contrast with frequency hopping in Fig. 2-11. It forms the basis of 3G mobile phone networks and is also used in GPS (Global Positioning System). Even without different codes, direct sequence spread spec- trum, like frequency hopping spread spectrum, can tolerate narrowband inter- ference and multipath fading because only a fraction of the desired signal is lost. It is used in this role in older 802.11b wireless LANs. For a fascinating and de- tailed history of spread spectrum communication, see Scholtz (1982). Ultrawideband underlay (CDMA user with different code) Direct sequence spread spectrum Frequency hopping spread spectrum Frequency (CDMA user with different code) Figure 2-11. Spread spectrum and ultra-wideband (UWB) communication. A third method of communication with a wider band is UWB (Ultra- WideBand) communication. UWB sends a series of rapid pulses, varying their positions to communicate information. The rapid transitions lead to a signal that is spread thinly over a very wide frequency band. UWB is defined as signals that have a bandwidth of at least 500 MHz or at least 20% of the center frequency of their frequency band. UWB is also shown in Fig. 2-11. With this much band- width, UWB has the potential to communicate at high rates. Because it is spread across a wide band of frequencies, it can tolerate a substantial amount of relative- ly strong interference from other narrowband signals. Just as importantly, since UWB has very little energy at any given frequency when used for short-range transmission, it does not cause harmful interference to those other narrowband radio signals. It is said to underlay the other signals. This peaceful coexistence has led to its application in wireless PANs that run at up to 1 Gbps, although com- mercial success has been mixed. It can also be used for imaging through solid ob- jects (ground, walls, and bodies) or as part of precise location systems.
- 133. SEC. 2.3 WIRELESS TRANSMISSION 109 We will now discuss how the various parts of the electromagnetic spectrum of Fig. 2-11 are used, starting with radio. We will assume that all transmissions use a narrow frequency band unless otherwise stated. 2.3.2 Radio Transmission Radio frequency (RF) waves are easy to generate, can travel long distances, and can penetrate buildings easily, so they are widely used for communication, both indoors and outdoors. Radio waves also are omnidirectional, meaning that they travel in all directions from the source, so the transmitter and receiver do not have to be carefully aligned physically. Sometimes omnidirectional radio is good, but sometimes it is bad. In the 1970s, General Motors decided to equip all its new Cadillacs with computer-con- trolled antilock brakes. When the driver stepped on the brake pedal, the computer pulsed the brakes on and off instead of locking them on hard. One fine day an Ohio Highway Patrolman began using his new mobile radio to call headquarters, and suddenly the Cadillac next to him began behaving like a bucking bronco. When the officer pulled the car over, the driver claimed that he had done nothing and that the car had gone crazy. Eventually, a pattern began to emerge: Cadillacs would sometimes go berserk, but only on major highways in Ohio and then only when the Highway Patrol was watching. For a long, long time General Motors could not understand why Cadil- lacs worked fine in all the other states and also on minor roads in Ohio. Only after much searching did they discover that the Cadillac’s wiring made a fine an- tenna for the frequency used by the Ohio Highway Patrol’s new radio system. The properties of radio waves are frequency dependent. At low frequencies, radio waves pass through obstacles well, but the power falls off sharply with dis- tance from the source—at least as fast as 1/r2 in air—as the signal energy is spread more thinly over a larger surface. This attenuation is called path loss. At high frequencies, radio waves tend to travel in straight lines and bounce off obsta- cles. Path loss still reduces power, though the received signal can depend strongly on reflections as well. High-frequency radio waves are also absorbed by rain and other obstacles to a larger extent than are low-frequency ones. At all frequencies, radio waves are subject to interference from motors and other electrical equip- ment. It is interesting to compare the attenuation of radio waves to that of signals in guided media. With fiber, coax and twisted pair, the signal drops by the same fraction per unit distance, for example 20 dB per 100m for twisted pair. With radio, the signal drops by the same fraction as the distance doubles, for example 6 dB per doubling in free space. This behavior means that radio waves can travel long distances, and interference between users is a problem. For this reason, all governments tightly regulate the use of radio transmitters, with few notable ex- ceptions, which are discussed later in this chapter.
- 134. 110 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 In the VLF, LF, and MF bands, radio waves follow the ground, as illustrated in Fig. 2-12(a). These waves can be detected for perhaps 1000 km at the lower frequencies, less at the higher ones. AM radio broadcasting uses the MF band, which is why the ground waves from Boston AM radio stations cannot be heard easily in New York. Radio waves in these bands pass through buildings easily, which is why portable radios work indoors. The main problem with using these bands for data communication is their low bandwidth [see Eq. (2-4)]. e r e h p s o n o I Earth's surface Earth's surface (a) (b) Ground wave Figure 2-12. (a) In the VLF, LF, and MF bands, radio waves follow the curva- ture of the earth. (b) In the HF band, they bounce off the ionosphere. In the HF and VHF bands, the ground waves tend to be absorbed by the earth. However, the waves that reach the ionosphere, a layer of charged particles cir- cling the earth at a height of 100 to 500 km, are refracted by it and sent back to earth, as shown in Fig. 2-12(b). Under certain atmospheric conditions, the signals can bounce several times. Amateur radio operators (hams) use these bands to talk long distance. The military also communicate in the HF and VHF bands. 2.3.3 Microwave Transmission Above 100 MHz, the waves travel in nearly straight lines and can therefore be narrowly focused. Concentrating all the energy into a small beam by means of a parabolic antenna (like the familiar satellite TV dish) gives a much higher signal- to-noise ratio, but the transmitting and receiving antennas must be accurately aligned with each other. In addition, this directionality allows multiple trans- mitters lined up in a row to communicate with multiple receivers in a row without interference, provided some minimum spacing rules are observed. Before fiber optics, for decades these microwaves formed the heart of the long-distance tele- phone transmission system. In fact, MCI, one of AT&T’s first competitors after it was deregulated, built its entire system with microwave communications passing between towers tens of kilometers apart. Even the company’s name reflected this (MCI stood for Microwave Communications, Inc.). MCI has since gone over to fiber and through a long series of corporate mergers and bankruptcies in the telecommunications shuffle has become part of Verizon.
- 135. SEC. 2.3 WIRELESS TRANSMISSION 111 Microwaves travel in a straight line, so if the towers are too far apart, the earth will get in the way (think about a Seattle-to-Amsterdam link). Thus, re- peaters are needed periodically. The higher the towers are, the farther apart they can be. The distance between repeaters goes up very roughly with the square root of the tower height. For 100-meter-high towers, repeaters can be 80 km apart. Unlike radio waves at lower frequencies, microwaves do not pass through buildings well. In addition, even though the beam may be well focused at the transmitter, there is still some divergence in space. Some waves may be refracted off low-lying atmospheric layers and may take slightly longer to arrive than the direct waves. The delayed waves may arrive out of phase with the direct wave and thus cancel the signal. This effect is called multipath fading and is often a serious problem. It is weather and frequency dependent. Some operators keep 10% of their channels idle as spares to switch on when multipath fading tem- porarily wipes out some frequency band. The demand for more and more spectrum drives operators to yet higher fre- quencies. Bands up to 10 GHz are now in routine use, but at about 4 GHz a new problem sets in: absorption by water. These waves are only a few centimeters long and are absorbed by rain. This effect would be fine if one were planning to build a huge outdoor microwave oven for roasting passing birds, but for communi- cation it is a severe problem. As with multipath fading, the only solution is to shut off links that are being rained on and route around them. In summary, microwave communication is so widely used for long-distance telephone communication, mobile phones, television distribution, and other pur- poses that a severe shortage of spectrum has developed. It has several key advan- tages over fiber. The main one is that no right of way is needed to lay down cables. By buying a small plot of ground every 50 km and putting a microwave tower on it, one can bypass the telephone system entirely. This is how MCI man- aged to get started as a new long-distance telephone company so quickly. (Sprint, another early competitor to the deregulated AT&T, went a completely different route: it was formed by the Southern Pacific Railroad, which already owned a large amount of right of way and just buried fiber next to the tracks.) Microwave is also relatively inexpensive. Putting up two simple towers (which can be just big poles with four guy wires) and putting antennas on each one may be cheaper than burying 50 km of fiber through a congested urban area or up over a mountain, and it may also be cheaper than leasing the telephone com- pany’s fiber, especially if the telephone company has not yet even fully paid for the copper it ripped out when it put in the fiber. The Politics of the Electromagnetic Spectrum To prevent total chaos, there are national and international agreements about who gets to use which frequencies. Since everyone wants a higher data rate, everyone wants more spectrum. National governments allocate spectrum for AM
- 136. 112 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 and FM radio, television, and mobile phones, as well as for telephone companies, police, maritime, navigation, military, government, and many other competing users. Worldwide, an agency of ITU-R (WRC) tries to coordinate this allocation so devices that work in multiple countries can be manufactured. However, coun- tries are not bound by ITU-R’s recommendations, and the FCC (Federal Commu- nication Commission), which does the allocation for the United States, has occa- sionally rejected ITU-R’s recommendations (usually because they required some politically powerful group to give up some piece of the spectrum). Even when a piece of spectrum has been allocated to some use, such as mobile phones, there is the additional issue of which carrier is allowed to use which frequencies. Three algorithms were widely used in the past. The oldest al- gorithm, often called the beauty contest, requires each carrier to explain why its proposal serves the public interest best. Government officials then decide which of the nice stories they enjoy most. Having some government official award prop- erty worth billions of dollars to his favorite company often leads to bribery, corr- uption, nepotism, and worse. Furthermore, even a scrupulously honest govern- ment official who thought that a foreign company could do a better job than any of the national companies would have a lot of explaining to do. This observation led to algorithm 2, holding a lottery among the interested companies. The problem with that idea is that companies with no interest in using the spectrum can enter the lottery. If, say, a fast food restaurant or shoe store chain wins, it can resell the spectrum to a carrier at a huge profit and with no risk. Bestowing huge windfalls on alert but otherwise random companies has been severely criticized by many, which led to algorithm 3: auction off the bandwidth to the highest bidder. When the British government auctioned off the frequencies needed for third-generation mobile systems in 2000, it expected to get about $4 billion. It actually received about $40 billion because the carriers got into a feed- ing frenzy, scared to death of missing the mobile boat. This event switched on nearby governments’ greedy bits and inspired them to hold their own auctions. It worked, but it also left some of the carriers with so much debt that they are close to bankruptcy. Even in the best cases, it will take many years to recoup the licensing fee. A completely different approach to allocating frequencies is to not allocate them at all. Instead, let everyone transmit at will, but regulate the power used so that stations have such a short range that they do not interfere with each other. Accordingly, most governments have set aside some frequency bands, called the ISM (Industrial, Scientific, Medical) bands for unlicensed usage. Garage door openers, cordless phones, radio-controlled toys, wireless mice, and numerous other wireless household devices use the ISM bands. To minimize interference between these uncoordinated devices, the FCC mandates that all devices in the ISM bands limit their transmit power (e.g., to 1 watt) and use other techniques to spread their signals over a range of frequencies. Devices may also need to take care to avoid interference with radar installations.
- 137. SEC. 2.3 WIRELESS TRANSMISSION 113 The location of these bands varies somewhat from country to country. In the United States, for example, the bands that networking devices use in practice without requiring a FCC license are shown in Fig. 2-13. The 900-MHz band was used for early versions of 802.11, but it is crowded. The 2.4-GHz band is avail- able in most countries and widely used for 802.11b/g and Bluetooth, though it is subject to interference from microwave ovens and radar installations. The 5-GHz part of the spectrum includes U-NII (Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure) bands. The 5-GHz bands are relatively undeveloped but, since they have the most bandwidth and are used by 802.11a, they are quickly gaining in popularity. 26 MHz 902 MHz 928 MHz 2.4 GHz 5.25 GHz 5.35 GHz 5.47 GHz 5.725 GHz U-NII bands 5.825 GHz 2.4835 GHz ISM band 83.5 MHz 100 MHz 255 MHz ISM band 100 MHz ISM band Figure 2-13. ISM and U-NII bands used in the United States by wireless devices. The unlicensed bands have been a roaring success over the past decade. The ability to use the spectrum freely has unleashed a huge amount of innovation in wireless LANs and PANs, evidenced by the widespread deployment of technolo- gies such as 802.11 and Bluetooth. To continue this innovation, more spectrum is needed. One exciting development in the U.S. is the FCC decision in 2009 to allow unlicensed use of white spaces around 700 MHz. White spaces are fre- quency bands that have been allocated but are not being used locally. The tran- sition from analog to all-digital television broadcasts in the U.S. in 2010 freed up white spaces around 700 MHz. The only difficulty is that, to use the white spaces, unlicensed devices must be able to detect any nearby licensed trans- mitters, including wireless microphones, that have first rights to use the frequency band. Another flurry of activity is happening around the 60-GHz band. The FCC opened 57 GHz to 64 GHz for unlicensed operation in 2001. This range is an enormous portion of spectrum, more than all the other ISM bands combined, so it can support the kind of high-speed networks that would be needed to stream high-definition TV through the air across your living room. At 60 GHz, radio
- 138. 114 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 waves are absorbed by oxygen. This means that signals do not propagate far, making them well suited to short-range networks. The high frequencies (60 GHz is in the Extremely High Frequency or ‘‘millimeter’’ band, just below infrared radiation) posed an initial challenge for equipment makers, but products are now on the market. 2.3.4 Infrared Transmission Unguided infrared waves are widely used for short-range communication. The remote controls used for televisions, VCRs, and stereos all use infrared com- munication. They are relatively directional, cheap, and easy to build but have a major drawback: they do not pass through solid objects. (Try standing between your remote control and your television and see if it still works.) In general, as we go from long-wave radio toward visible light, the waves behave more and more like light and less and less like radio. On the other hand, the fact that infrared waves do not pass through solid walls well is also a plus. It means that an infrared system in one room of a building will not interfere with a similar system in adjacent rooms or buildings: you cannot control your neighbor’s television with your remote control. Furthermore, securi- ty of infrared systems against eavesdropping is better than that of radio systems precisely for this reason. Therefore, no government license is needed to operate an infrared system, in contrast to radio systems, which must be licensed outside the ISM bands. Infrared communication has a limited use on the desktop, for ex- ample, to connect notebook computers and printers with the IrDA (Infrared Data Association) standard, but it is not a major player in the communication game. 2.3.5 Light Transmission Unguided optical signaling or free-space optics has been in use for centuries. Paul Revere used binary optical signaling from the Old North Church just prior to his famous ride. A more modern application is to connect the LANs in two build- ings via lasers mounted on their rooftops. Optical signaling using lasers is inherently unidirectional, so each end needs its own laser and its own photodetec- tor. This scheme offers very high bandwidth at very low cost and is relatively secure because it is difficult to tap a narrow laser beam. It is also relatively easy to install and, unlike microwave transmission, does not require an FCC license. The laser’s strength, a very narrow beam, is also its weakness here. Aiming a laser beam 1 mm wide at a target the size of a pin head 500 meters away requires the marksmanship of a latter-day Annie Oakley. Usually, lenses are put into the system to defocus the beam slightly. To add to the difficulty, wind and tempera- ture changes can distort the beam and laser beams also cannot penetrate rain or thick fog, although they normally work well on sunny days. However, many of these factors are not an issue when the use is to connect two spacecraft.
- 139. SEC. 2.3 WIRELESS TRANSMISSION 115 One of the authors (AST) once attended a conference at a modern hotel in Europe at which the conference organizers thoughtfully provided a room full of terminals to allow the attendees to read their email during boring presentations. Since the local PTT was unwilling to install a large number of telephone lines for just 3 days, the organizers put a laser on the roof and aimed it at their university’s computer science building a few kilometers away. They tested it the night before the conference and it worked perfectly. At 9 A.M. on a bright, sunny day, the link failed completely and stayed down all day. The pattern repeated itself the next two days. It was not until after the conference that the organizers discovered the problem: heat from the sun during the daytime caused convection currents to rise up from the roof of the building, as shown in Fig. 2-14. This turbulent air diverted the beam and made it dance around the detector, much like a shimmering road on a hot day. The lesson here is that to work well in difficult conditions as well as good conditions, unguided optical links need to be engineered with a sufficient margin of error. Laser beam misses the detector Laser Photodetector Region of turbulent seeing Heat rising off the building Figure 2-14. Convection currents can interfere with laser communication sys- tems. A bidirectional system with two lasers is pictured here. Unguided optical communication may seem like an exotic networking tech- nology today, but it might soon become much more prevalent. We are surrounded
- 140. 116 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 by cameras (that sense light) and displays (that emit light using LEDs and other technology). Data communication can be layered on top of these displays by en- coding information in the pattern at which LEDs turn on and off that is below the threshold of human perception. Communicating with visible light in this way is inherently safe and creates a low-speed network in the immediate vicinity of the display. This could enable all sorts of fanciful ubiquitous computing scenarios. The flashing lights on emergency vehicles might alert nearby traffic lights and vehicles to help clear a path. Informational signs might broadcast maps. Even fes- tive lights might broadcast songs that are synchronized with their display. 2.4 COMMUNICATION SATELLITES In the 1950s and early 1960s, people tried to set up communication systems by bouncing signals off metallized weather balloons. Unfortunately, the received signals were too weak to be of any practical use. Then the U.S. Navy noticed a kind of permanent weather balloon in the sky—the moon—and built an opera- tional system for ship-to-shore communication by bouncing signals off it. Further progress in the celestial communication field had to wait until the first communication satellite was launched. The key difference between an artificial satellite and a real one is that the artificial one can amplify the signals before sending them back, turning a strange curiosity into a powerful communication system. Communication satellites have some interesting properties that make them attractive for many applications. In its simplest form, a communication satellite can be thought of as a big microwave repeater in the sky. It contains several transponders, each of which listens to some portion of the spectrum, amplifies the incoming signal, and then rebroadcasts it at another frequency to avoid inter- ference with the incoming signal. This mode of operation is known as a bent pipe. Digital processing can be added to separately manipulate or redirect data streams in the overall band, or digital information can even be received by the sat- ellite and rebroadcast. Regenerating signals in this way improves performance compared to a bent pipe because the satellite does not amplify noise in the upward signal. The downward beams can be broad, covering a substantial fraction of the earth’s surface, or narrow, covering an area only hundreds of kilometers in diame- ter. According to Kepler’s law, the orbital period of a satellite varies as the radius of the orbit to the 3/2 power. The higher the satellite, the longer the period. Near the surface of the earth, the period is about 90 minutes. Consequently, low-orbit satellites pass out of view fairly quickly, so many of them are needed to provide continuous coverage and ground antennas must track them. At an altitude of about 35,800 km, the period is 24 hours. At an altitude of 384,000 km, the period is about one month, as anyone who has observed the moon regularly can testify.
- 141. SEC. 2.4 COMMUNICATION SATELLITES 117 A satellite’s period is important, but it is not the only issue in determining where to place it. Another issue is the presence of the Van Allen belts, layers of highly charged particles trapped by the earth’s magnetic field. Any satellite flying within them would be destroyed fairly quickly by the particles. These factors lead to three regions in which satellites can be placed safely. These regions and some of their properties are illustrated in Fig. 2-15. Below we will briefly describe the satellites that inhabit each of these regions. Altitude (km) Type 35,000 30,000 25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0 GEO MEO Upper Van Allen belt Lower Van Allen belt LEO Latency (ms) 270 35–85 1–7 Sats needed 3 10 50 Figure 2-15. Communication satellites and some of their properties, including altitude above the earth, round-trip delay time, and number of satellites needed for global coverage. 2.4.1 Geostationary Satellites In 1945, the science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke calculated that a satellite at an altitude of 35,800 km in a circular equatorial orbit would appear to remain motionless in the sky, so it would not need to be tracked (Clarke, 1945). He went on to describe a complete communication system that used these (manned) geo- stationary satellites, including the orbits, solar panels, radio frequencies, and launch procedures. Unfortunately, he concluded that satellites were impractical due to the impossibility of putting power-hungry, fragile vacuum tube amplifiers into orbit, so he never pursued this idea further, although he wrote some science fiction stories about it. The invention of the transistor changed all that, and the first artificial commu- nication satellite, Telstar, was launched in July 1962. Since then, communication satellites have become a multibillion dollar business and the only aspect of outer space that has become highly profitable. These high-flying satellites are often called GEO (Geostationary Earth Orbit) satellites.
- 142. 118 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 With current technology, it is unwise to have geostationary satellites spaced much closer than 2 degrees in the 360-degree equatorial plane, to avoid inter- ference. With a spacing of 2 degrees, there can only be 360/2 = 180 of these sat- ellites in the sky at once. However, each transponder can use multiple frequen- cies and polarizations to increase the available bandwidth. To prevent total chaos in the sky, orbit slot allocation is done by ITU. This process is highly political, with countries barely out of the stone age demanding ‘‘their’’ orbit slots (for the purpose of leasing them to the highest bidder). Other countries, however, maintain that national property rights do not extend up to the moon and that no country has a legal right to the orbit slots above its territory. To add to the fight, commercial telecommunication is not the only application. Tele- vision broadcasters, governments, and the military also want a piece of the orbit- ing pie. Modern satellites can be quite large, weighing over 5000 kg and consuming several kilowatts of electric power produced by the solar panels. The effects of solar, lunar, and planetary gravity tend to move them away from their assigned orbit slots and orientations, an effect countered by on-board rocket motors. This fine-tuning activity is called station keeping. However, when the fuel for the motors has been exhausted (typically after about 10 years) the satellite drifts and tumbles helplessly, so it has to be turned off. Eventually, the orbit decays and the satellite reenters the atmosphere and burns up (or very rarely crashes to earth). Orbit slots are not the only bone of contention. Frequencies are an issue, too, because the downlink transmissions interfere with existing microwave users. Consequently, ITU has allocated certain frequency bands to satellite users. The main ones are listed in Fig. 2-16. The C band was the first to be designated for commercial satellite traffic. Two frequency ranges are assigned in it, the lower one for downlink traffic (from the satellite) and the upper one for uplink traffic (to the satellite). To allow traffic to go both ways at the same time, two channels are required. These channels are already overcrowded because they are also used by the common carriers for terrestrial microwave links. The L and S bands were added by international agreement in 2000. However, they are narrow and also crowded. Band Downlink Uplink Bandwidth Problems L 1.5 GHz 1.6 GHz 15 MHz Low bandwidth; crowded S 1.9 GHz 2.2 GHz 70 MHz Low bandwidth; crowded C 4.0 GHz 6.0 GHz 500 MHz Terrestrial interference Ku 11 GHz 14 GHz 500 MHz Rain Ka 20 GHz 30 GHz 3500 MHz Rain, equipment cost Figure 2-16. The principal satellite bands.
- 143. SEC. 2.4 COMMUNICATION SATELLITES 119 The next-highest band available to commercial telecommunication carriers is the Ku (K under) band. This band is not (yet) congested, and at its higher fre- quencies, satellites can be spaced as close as 1 degree. However, another problem exists: rain. Water absorbs these short microwaves well. Fortunately, heavy storms are usually localized, so using several widely separated ground stations in- stead of just one circumvents the problem, but at the price of extra antennas, extra cables, and extra electronics to enable rapid switching between stations. Band- width has also been allocated in the Ka (K above) band for commercial satellite traffic, but the equipment needed to use it is expensive. In addition to these com- mercial bands, many government and military bands also exist. A modern satellite has around 40 transponders, most often with a 36-MHz bandwidth. Usually, each transponder operates as a bent pipe, but recent satellites have some on-board processing capacity, allowing more sophisticated operation. In the earliest satellites, the division of the transponders into channels was static: the bandwidth was simply split up into fixed frequency bands. Nowadays, each transponder beam is divided into time slots, with various users taking turns. We will study these two techniques (frequency division multiplexing and time divis- ion multiplexing) in detail later in this chapter. The first geostationary satellites had a single spatial beam that illuminated about 1/3 of the earth’s surface, called its footprint. With the enormous decline in the price, size, and power requirements of microelectronics, a much more sophisticated broadcasting strategy has become possible. Each satellite is equipped with multiple antennas and multiple transponders. Each downward beam can be focused on a small geographical area, so multiple upward and down- ward transmissions can take place simultaneously. Typically, these so-called spot beams are elliptically shaped, and can be as small as a few hundred km in diame- ter. A communication satellite for the United States typically has one wide beam for the contiguous 48 states, plus spot beams for Alaska and Hawaii. A recent development in the communication satellite world is the develop- ment of low-cost microstations, sometimes called VSATs (Very Small Aperture Terminals) (Abramson, 2000). These tiny terminals have 1-meter or smaller an- tennas (versus 10 m for a standard GEO antenna) and can put out about 1 watt of power. The uplink is generally good for up to 1 Mbps, but the downlink is often up to several megabits/sec. Direct broadcast satellite television uses this technol- ogy for one-way transmission. In many VSAT systems, the microstations do not have enough power to com- municate directly with one another (via the satellite, of course). Instead, a special ground station, the hub, with a large, high-gain antenna is needed to relay traffic between VSATs, as shown in Fig. 2-17. In this mode of operation, either the sender or the receiver has a large antenna and a powerful amplifier. The trade-off is a longer delay in return for having cheaper end-user stations. VSATs have great potential in rural areas. It is not widely appreciated, but over half the world’s population lives more than hour’s walk from the nearest
- 144. 120 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 Communication satellite 1 3 2 4 Hub VSAT Figure 2-17. VSATs using a hub. telephone. Stringing telephone wires to thousands of small villages is far beyond the budgets of most Third World governments, but installing 1-meter VSAT dishes powered by solar cells is often feasible. VSATs provide the technology that will wire the world. Communication satellites have several properties that are radically different from terrestrial point-to-point links. To begin with, even though signals to and from a satellite travel at the speed of light (nearly 300,000 km/sec), the long round-trip distance introduces a substantial delay for GEO satellites. Depending on the distance between the user and the ground station and the elevation of the satellite above the horizon, the end-to-end transit time is between 250 and 300 msec. A typical value is 270 msec (540 msec for a VSAT system with a hub). For comparison purposes, terrestrial microwave links have a propagation delay of roughly 3 μsec/km, and coaxial cable or fiber optic links have a delay of approximately 5 μsec/km. The latter are slower than the former because electro- magnetic signals travel faster in air than in solid materials. Another important property of satellites is that they are inherently broadcast media. It does not cost more to send a message to thousands of stations within a transponder’s footprint than it does to send to one. For some applications, this property is very useful. For example, one could imagine a satellite broadcasting popular Web pages to the caches of a large number of computers spread over a wide area. Even when broadcasting can be simulated with point-to-point lines,
- 145. SEC. 2.4 COMMUNICATION SATELLITES 121 satellite broadcasting may be much cheaper. On the other hand, from a privacy point of view, satellites are a complete disaster: everybody can hear everything. Encryption is essential when security is required. Satellites also have the property that the cost of transmitting a message is in- dependent of the distance traversed. A call across the ocean costs no more to ser- vice than a call across the street. Satellites also have excellent error rates and can be deployed almost instantly, a major consideration for disaster response and mili- tary communication. 2.4.2 Medium-Earth Orbit Satellites At much lower altitudes, between the two Van Allen belts, we find the MEO (Medium-Earth Orbit) satellites. As viewed from the earth, these drift slowly in longitude, taking something like 6 hours to circle the earth. Accordingly, they must be tracked as they move through the sky. Because they are lower than the GEOs, they have a smaller footprint on the ground and require less powerful transmitters to reach them. Currently they are used for navigation systems rather than telecommunications, so we will not examine them further here. The constel- lation of roughly 30 GPS (Global Positioning System) satellites orbiting at about 20,200 km are examples of MEO satellites. 2.4.3 Low-Earth Orbit Satellites Moving down in altitude, we come to the LEO (Low-Earth Orbit) satellites. Due to their rapid motion, large numbers of them are needed for a complete sys- tem. On the other hand, because the satellites are so close to the earth, the ground stations do not need much power, and the round-trip delay is only a few millisec- onds. The launch cost is substantially cheaper too. In this section we will exam- ine two examples of satellite constellations for voice service, Iridium and Glo- balstar. For the first 30 years of the satellite era, low-orbit satellites were rarely used because they zip into and out of view so quickly. In 1990, Motorola broke new ground by filing an application with the FCC asking for permission to launch 77 low-orbit satellites for the Iridium project (element 77 is iridium). The plan was later revised to use only 66 satellites, so the project should have been renamed Dysprosium (element 66), but that probably sounded too much like a disease. The idea was that as soon as one satellite went out of view, another would replace it. This proposal set off a feeding frenzy among other communication companies. All of a sudden, everyone wanted to launch a chain of low-orbit satellites. After seven years of cobbling together partners and financing, communication service began in November 1998. Unfortunately, the commercial demand for large, heavy satellite telephones was negligible because the mobile phone network had grown in a spectacular way since 1990. As a consequence, Iridium was not
- 146. 122 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 profitable and was forced into bankruptcy in August 1999 in one of the most spec- tacular corporate fiascos in history. The satellites and other assets (worth $5 bil- lion) were later purchased by an investor for $25 million at a kind of extraterres- trial garage sale. Other satellite business ventures promptly followed suit. The Iridium service restarted in March 2001 and has been growing ever since. It provides voice, data, paging, fax, and navigation service everywhere on land, air, and sea, via hand-held devices that communicate directly with the Iridium sat- ellites. Customers include the maritime, aviation, and oil exploration industries, as well as people traveling in parts of the world lacking a telecom infrastructure (e.g., deserts, mountains, the South Pole, and some Third World countries). The Iridium satellites are positioned at an altitude of 750 km, in circular polar orbits. They are arranged in north-south necklaces, with one satellite every 32 degrees of latitude, as shown in Fig. 2-18. Each satellite has a maximum of 48 cells (spot beams) and a capacity of 3840 channels, some of which are used for paging and navigation, while others are used for data and voice. Each satellite has four neighbors Figure 2-18. The Iridium satellites form six necklaces around the earth. With six satellite necklaces the entire earth is covered, as suggested by Fig. 2-18. An interesting property of Iridium is that communication between dis- tant customers takes place in space, as shown in Fig. 2-19(a). Here we see a call- er at the North Pole contacting a satellite directly overhead. Each satellite has four neighbors with which it can communicate, two in the same necklace (shown) and two in adjacent necklaces (not shown). The satellites relay the call across this grid until it is finally sent down to the callee at the South Pole. An alternative design to Iridium is Globalstar. It is based on 48 LEO satel- lites but uses a different switching scheme than that of Iridium. Whereas Iridium relays calls from satellite to satellite, which requires sophisticated switching equipment in the satellites, Globalstar uses a traditional bent-pipe design. The call originating at the North Pole in Fig. 2-19(b) is sent back to earth and picked
- 147. SEC. 2.4 COMMUNICATION SATELLITES 123 Bent-pipe satellite Satellite switches in space Switching on the ground (a) (b) Figure 2-19. (a) Relaying in space. (b) Relaying on the ground. up by the large ground station at Santa’s Workshop. The call is then routed via a terrestrial network to the ground station nearest the callee and delivered by a bent-pipe connection as shown. The advantage of this scheme is that it puts much of the complexity on the ground, where it is easier to manage. Also, the use of large ground station antennas that can put out a powerful signal and receive a weak one means that lower-powered telephones can be used. After all, the tele- phone puts out only a few milliwatts of power, so the signal that gets back to the ground station is fairly weak, even after having been amplified by the satellite. Satellites continue to be launched at a rate of around 20 per year, including ever-larger satellites that now weigh over 5000 kilograms. But there are also very small satellites for the more budget-conscious organization. To make space re- search more accessible, academics from Cal Poly and Stanford got together in 1999 to define a standard for miniature satellites and an associated launcher that would greatly lower launch costs (Nugent et al., 2008). CubeSats are satellites in units of 10 cm × 10 cm × 10 cm cubes, each weighing no more than 1 kilogram, that can be launched for as little as $40,000 each. The launcher flies as a sec- ondary payload on commercial space missions. It is basically a tube that takes up to three units of cubesats and uses springs to release them into orbit. Roughly 20 cubesats have launched so far, with many more in the works. Most of them com- municate with ground stations on the UHF and VHF bands. 2.4.4 Satellites Versus Fiber A comparison between satellite communication and terrestrial communication is instructive. As recently as 25 years ago, a case could be made that the future of communication lay with communication satellites. After all, the telephone system
- 148. 124 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 had changed little in the previous 100 years and showed no signs of changing in the next 100 years. This glacial movement was caused in no small part by the regulatory environment in which the telephone companies were expected to pro- vide good voice service at reasonable prices (which they did), and in return got a guaranteed profit on their investment. For people with data to transmit, 1200-bps modems were available. That was pretty much all there was. The introduction of competition in 1984 in the United States and somewhat later in Europe changed all that radically. Telephone companies began replacing their long-haul networks with fiber and introduced high-bandwidth services like ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line). They also stopped their long-time practice of charging artificially high prices to long-distance users to subsidize local service. All of a sudden, terrestrial fiber connections looked like the winner. Nevertheless, communication satellites have some major niche markets that fiber does not (and, sometimes, cannot) address. First, when rapid deployment is critical, satellites win easily. A quick response is useful for military communica- tion systems in times of war and disaster response in times of peace. Following the massive December 2004 Sumatra earthquake and subsequent tsunami, for ex- ample, communications satellites were able to restore communications to first re- sponders within 24 hours. This rapid response was possible because there is a de- veloped satellite service provider market in which large players, such as Intelsat with over 50 satellites, can rent out capacity pretty much anywhere it is needed. For customers served by existing satellite networks, a VSAT can be set up easily and quickly to provide a megabit/sec link to elsewhere in the world. A second niche is for communication in places where the terrestrial infra- structure is poorly developed. Many people nowadays want to communicate everywhere they go. Mobile phone networks cover those locations with good population density, but do not do an adequate job in other places (e.g., at sea or in the desert). Conversely, Iridium provides voice service everywhere on Earth, even at the South Pole. Terrestrial infrastructure can also be expensive to install, depending on the terrain and necessary rights of way. Indonesia, for example, has its own satellite for domestic telephone traffic. Launching one satellite was cheaper than stringing thousands of undersea cables among the 13,677 islands in the archipelago. A third niche is when broadcasting is essential. A message sent by satellite can be received by thousands of ground stations at once. Satellites are used to dis- tribute much network TV programming to local stations for this reason. There is now a large market for satellite broadcasts of digital TV and radio directly to end users with satellite receivers in their homes and cars. All sorts of other content can be broadcast too. For example, an organization transmitting a stream of stock, bond, or commodity prices to thousands of dealers might find a satellite system to be much cheaper than simulating broadcasting on the ground. In short, it looks like the mainstream communication of the future will be ter- restrial fiber optics combined with cellular radio, but for some specialized uses,
- 149. SEC. 2.4 COMMUNICATION SATELLITES 125 satellites are better. However, there is one caveat that applies to all of this: economics. Although fiber offers more bandwidth, it is conceivable that terres- trial and satellite communication could compete aggressively on price. If ad- vances in technology radically cut the cost of deploying a satellite (e.g., if some future space vehicle can toss out dozens of satellites on one launch) or low-orbit satellites catch on in a big way, it is not certain that fiber will win all markets. 2.5 DIGITAL MODULATION AND MULTIPLEXING Now that we have studied the properties of wired and wireless channels, we turn our attention to the problem of sending digital information. Wires and wire- less channels carry analog signals such as continuously varying voltage, light intensity, or sound intensity. To send digital information, we must devise analog signals to represent bits. The process of converting between bits and signals that represent them is called digital modulation. We will start with schemes that directly convert bits into a signal. These schemes result in baseband transmission, in which the signal occupies frequen- cies from zero up to a maximum that depends on the signaling rate. It is common for wires. Then we will consider schemes that regulate the amplitude, phase, or frequency of a carrier signal to convey bits. These schemes result in passband transmission, in which the signal occupies a band of frequencies around the fre- quency of the carrier signal. It is common for wireless and optical channels for which the signals must reside in a given frequency band. Channels are often shared by multiple signals. After all, it is much more con- venient to use a single wire to carry several signals than to install a wire for every signal. This kind of sharing is called multiplexing. It can be accomplished in several different ways. We will present methods for time, frequency, and code di- vision multiplexing. The modulation and multiplexing techniques we describe in this section are all widely used for wires, fiber, terrestrial wireless, and satellite channels. In the following sections, we will look at examples of networks to see them in action. 2.5.1 Baseband Transmission The most straightforward form of digital modulation is to use a positive volt- age to represent a 1 and a negative voltage to represent a 0. For an optical fiber, the presence of light might represent a 1 and the absence of light might represent a 0. This scheme is called NRZ (Non-Return-to-Zero). The odd name is for his- torical reasons, and simply means that the signal follows the data. An example is shown in Fig. 2-20(b). Once sent, the NRZ signal propagates down the wire. At the other end, the receiver converts it into bits by sampling the signal at regular intervals of time.
- 150. 126 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 (Clock that is XORed with bits) (a) Bit stream (b) Non-Return to Zero (NRZ) (c) NRZ Invert (NRZI) (d) Manchester (e) Bipolar encoding (also Alternate Mark Inversion, AMI) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 Figure 2-20. Line codes: (a) Bits, (b) NRZ, (c) NRZI, (d) Manchester, (e) Bi- polar or AMI. This signal will not look exactly like the signal that was sent. It will be attenuated and distorted by the channel and noise at the receiver. To decode the bits, the re- ceiver maps the signal samples to the closest symbols. For NRZ, a positive volt- age will be taken to indicate that a 1 was sent and a negative voltage will be taken to indicate that a 0 was sent. NRZ is a good starting point for our studies because it is simple, but it is sel- dom used by itself in practice. More complex schemes can convert bits to signals that better meet engineering considerations. These schemes are called line codes. Below, we describe line codes that help with bandwidth efficiency, clock recov- ery, and DC balance. Bandwidth Efficiency With NRZ, the signal may cycle between the positive and negative levels up to every 2 bits (in the case of alternating 1s and 0s). This means that we need a bandwidth of at least B/2 Hz when the bit rate is B bits/sec. This relation comes from the Nyquist rate [Eq. (2-2)]. It is a fundamental limit, so we cannot run NRZ faster without using more bandwidth. Bandwidth is often a limited resource, even for wired channels, Higher-frequency signals are increasingly attenuated, making them less useful, and higher-frequency signals also require faster electronics. One strategy for using limited bandwidth more efficiently is to use more than two signaling levels. By using four voltages, for instance, we can send 2 bits at once as a single symbol. This design will work as long as the signal at the re- ceiver is sufficiently strong to distinguish the four levels. The rate at which the signal changes is then half the bit rate, so the needed bandwidth has been reduced.
- 151. SEC. 2.5 DIGITAL MODULATION AND MULTIPLEXING 127 We call the rate at which the signal changes the symbol rate to distinguish it from the bit rate. The bit rate is the symbol rate multiplied by the number of bits per symbol. An older name for the symbol rate, particularly in the context of de- vices called telephone modems that convey digital data over telephone lines, is the baud rate. In the literature, the terms ‘‘bit rate’’ and ‘‘baud rate’’ are often used incorrectly. Note that the number of signal levels does not need to be a power of two. Often it is not, with some of the levels used for protecting against errors and sim- plifying the design of the receiver. Clock Recovery For all schemes that encode bits into symbols, the receiver must know when one symbol ends and the next symbol begins to correctly decode the bits. With NRZ, in which the symbols are simply voltage levels, a long run of 0s or 1s leaves the signal unchanged. After a while it is hard to tell the bits apart, as 15 zeros look much like 16 zeros unless you have a very accurate clock. Accurate clocks would help with this problem, but they are an expensive solu- tion for commodity equipment. Remember, we are timing bits on links that run at many megabits/sec, so the clock would have to drift less than a fraction of a microsecond over the longest permitted run. This might be reasonable for slow links or short messages, but it is not a general solution. One strategy is to send a separate clock signal to the receiver. Another clock line is no big deal for computer buses or short cables in which there are many lines in parallel, but it is wasteful for most network links since if we had another line to send a signal we could use it to send data. A clever trick here is to mix the clock signal with the data signal by XORing them together so that no extra line is needed. The results are shown in Fig. 2-20(d). The clock makes a clock tran- sition in every bit time, so it runs at twice the bit rate. When it is XORed with the 0 level it makes a low-to-high transition that is simply the clock. This transition is a logical 0. When it is XORed with the 1 level it is inverted and makes a high-to- low transition. This transition is a logical 1. This scheme is called Manchester encoding and was used for classic Ethernet. The downside of Manchester encoding is that it requires twice as much band- width as NRZ because of the clock, and we have learned that bandwidth often matters. A different strategy is based on the idea that we should code the data to ensure that there are enough transitions in the signal. Consider that NRZ will have clock recovery problems only for long runs of 0s and 1s. If there are fre- quent transitions, it will be easy for the receiver to stay synchronized with the in- coming stream of symbols. As a step in the right direction, we can simplify the situation by coding a 1 as a transition and a 0 as no transition, or vice versa. This coding is called NRZI (Non-Return-to-Zero Inverted), a twist on NRZ. An example is shown in
- 152. 128 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 Fig. 2-20(c). The popular USB (Universal Serial Bus) standard for connecting computer peripherals uses NRZI. With it, long runs of 1s do not cause a problem. Of course, long runs of 0s still cause a problem that we must fix. If we were the telephone company, we might simply require that the sender not transmit too many 0s. Older digital telephone lines in the U.S., called T1 lines, did in fact re- quire that no more than 15 consecutive 0s be sent for them to work correctly. To really fix the problem we can break up runs of 0s by mapping small groups of bits to be transmitted so that groups with successive 0s are mapped to slightly longer patterns that do not have too many consecutive 0s. A well-known code to do this is called 4B/5B. Every 4 bits is mapped into a5-bit pattern with a fixed translation table. The five bit patterns are chosen so that there will never be a run of more than three consecutive 0s. The mapping is shown in Fig. 2-21. This scheme adds 25% overhead, which is better than the 100% overhead of Manchester encoding. Since there are 16 input combinations and 32 output combinations, some of the output combinations are not used. Put- ting aside the combinations with too many successive 0s, there are still some codes left. As a bonus, we can use these nondata codes to represent physical layer control signals. For example, in some uses ‘‘11111’’ represents an idle line and ‘‘11000’’ represents the start of a frame. Data (4B) Codeword (5B) Data (4B) Codeword (5B) 0000 11110 1000 10010 0001 01001 1001 10011 0010 10100 1010 10110 0011 10101 1011 10111 0100 01010 1100 11010 0101 01011 1101 11011 0110 01110 1110 11100 0111 01111 1111 11101 Figure 2-21. 4B/5B mapping. An alternative approach is to make the data look random, known as scram- bling. In this case it is very likely that there will be frequent transitions. A scrambler works by XORing the data with a pseudorandom sequence before it is transmitted. This mixing will make the data as random as the pseudorandom se- quence (assuming it is independent of the pseudorandom sequence). The receiver then XORs the incoming bits with the same pseudorandom sequence to recover the real data. For this to be practical, the pseudorandom sequence must be easy to create. It is commonly given as the seed to a simple random number generator. Scrambling is attractive because it adds no bandwidth or time overhead. In fact, it often helps to condition the signal so that it does not have its energy in
- 153. SEC. 2.5 DIGITAL MODULATION AND MULTIPLEXING 129 dominant frequency components (caused by repetitive data patterns) that might radiate electromagnetic interference. Scrambling helps because random signals tend to be ‘‘white,’’ or have energy spread across the frequency components. However, scrambling does not guarantee that there will be no long runs. It is possible to get unlucky occasionally. If the data are the same as the pseudorandom sequence, they will XOR to all 0s. This outcome does not generally occur with a long pseudorandom sequence that is difficult to predict. However, with a short or predictable sequence, it might be possible for malicious users to send bit patterns that cause long runs of 0s after scrambling and cause links to fail. Early versions of the standards for sending IP packets over SONET links in the telephone system had this defect (Malis and Simpson, 1999). It was possible for users to send cer- tain ‘‘killer packets’’ that were guaranteed to cause problems. Balanced Signals Signals that have as much positive voltage as negative voltage even over short periods of time are called balanced signals. They average to zero, which means that they have no DC electrical component. The lack of a DC component is an advantage because some channels, such as coaxial cable or lines with transform- ers, strongly attenuate a DC component due to their physical properties. Also, one method of connecting the receiver to the channel called capacitive coupling passes only the AC portion of a signal. In either case, if we send a signal whose average is not zero, we waste energy as the DC component will be filtered out. Balancing helps to provide transitions for clock recovery since there is a mix of positive and negative voltages. It also provides a simple way to calibrate re- ceivers because the average of the signal can be measured and used as a decision threshold to decode symbols. With unbalanced signals, the average may be drift away from the true decision level due to a density of 1s, for example, which would cause more symbols to be decoded with errors. A straightforward way to construct a balanced code is to use two voltage lev- els to represent a logical 1, (say +1 V or −1 V) with 0 V representing a logical zero. To send a 1, the transmitter alternates between the +1 V and −1 V levels so that they always average out. This scheme is called bipolar encoding. In tele- phone networks it is called AMI (Alternate Mark Inversion), building on old terminology in which a 1 is called a ‘‘mark’’ and a 0 is called a ‘‘space.’’ An ex- ample is given in Fig. 2-20(e). Bipolar encoding adds a voltage level to achieve balance. Alternatively we can use a mapping like 4B/5B to achieve balance (as well as transitions for clock recovery). An example of this kind of balanced code is the 8B/10B line code. It maps 8 bits of input to 10 bits of output, so it is 80% efficient, just like the 4B/5B line code. The 8 bits are split into a group of 5 bits, which is mapped to 6 bits, and a group of 3 bits, which is mapped to 4 bits. The 6-bit and 4-bit symbols are
- 154. 130 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 then concatenated. In each group, some input patterns can be mapped to balanced output patterns that have the same number of 0s and 1s. For example, ‘‘001’’ is mapped to ‘‘1001,’’ which is balanced. But there are not enough combinations for all output patterns to be balanced. For these cases, each input pattern is mapped to two output patterns. One will have an extra 1 and the alternate will have an extra 0. For example, ‘‘000’’ is mapped to both ‘‘1011’’ and its complement ‘‘0100.’’ As input bits are mapped to output bits, the encoder remembers the disparity from the previous symbol. The disparity is the total number of 0s or 1s by which the signal is out of balance. The encoder then selects either an output pattern or its alternate to reduce the disparity. With 8B/10B, the disparity will be at most 2 bits. Thus, the signal will never be far from balanced. There will also never be more than five consecutive 1s or 0s, to help with clock recovery. 2.5.2 Passband Transmission Often, we want to use a range of frequencies that does not start at zero to send information across a channel. For wireless channels, it is not practical to send very low frequency signals because the size of the antenna needs to be a fraction of the signal wavelength, which becomes large. In any case, regulatory con- straints and the need to avoid interference usually dictate the choice of frequen- cies. Even for wires, placing a signal in a given frequency band is useful to let different kinds of signals coexist on the channel. This kind of transmission is call- ed passband transmission because an arbitrary band of frequencies is used to pass the signal. Fortunately, our fundamental results from earlier in the chapter are all in terms of bandwidth, or the width of the frequency band. The absolute frequency values do not matter for capacity. This means that we can take a baseband signal that occupies 0 to B Hz and shift it up to occupy a passband of S to S +B Hz with- out changing the amount of information that it can carry, even though the signal will look different. To process a signal at the receiver, we can shift it back down to baseband, where it is more convenient to detect symbols. Digital modulation is accomplished with passband transmission by regulating or modulating a carrier signal that sits in the passband. We can modulate the am- plitude, frequency, or phase of the carrier signal. Each of these methods has a cor- responding name. In ASK (Amplitude Shift Keying), two different amplitudes are used to represent 0 and 1. An example with a nonzero and a zero level is shown in Fig. 2-22(b). More than two levels can be used to represent more symb- ols. Similarly, with FSK (Frequency Shift Keying), two or more different tones are used. The example in Fig. 2-21(c) uses just two frequencies. In the simplest form of PSK (Phase Shift Keying), the carrier wave is systematically shifted 0 or 180 degrees at each symbol period. Because there are two phases, it is called BPSK (Binary Phase Shift Keying). ‘‘Binary’’ here refers to the two symbols, not that the symbols represent 2 bits. An example is shown in Fig. 2-22(c). A
- 155. SEC. 2.5 DIGITAL MODULATION AND MULTIPLEXING 131 better scheme that uses the channel bandwidth more efficiently is to use four shifts, e.g., 45, 135, 225, or 315 degrees, to transmit 2 bits of information per sym- bol. This version is called QPSK (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying). Phase changes 0 (a) (b) (c) (d) 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 Figure 2-22. (a) A binary signal. (b) Amplitude shift keying. (c) Frequency shift keying. (d) Phase shift keying. We can combine these schemes and use more levels to transmit more bits per symbol. Only one of frequency and phase can be modulated at a time because they are related, with frequency being the rate of change of phase over time. Usually, amplitude and phase are modulated in combination. Three examples are shown in Fig. 2-23. In each example, the points give the legal amplitude and phase combinations of each symbol. In Fig. 2-23(a), we see equidistant dots at 45, 135, 225, and 315 degrees. The phase of a dot is indicated by the angle a line from it to the origin makes with the positive x-axis. The amplitude of a dot is the distance from the origin. This figure is a representation of QPSK. This kind of diagram is called a constellation diagram. In Fig. 2-23(b) we see a modulation scheme with a denser constellation. Sixteen combinations of amplitudes and phase are used, so the modulation scheme can be used to transmit
- 156. 132 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 270 (a) 90 0 180 270 (b) 90 0 270 (c) 90 0 180 Figure 2-23. (a) QPSK. (b) QAM-16. (c) QAM-64. 4 bits per symbol. It is called QAM-16, where QAM stands for Quadrature Am- plitude Modulation. Figure 2-23(c) is a still denser modulation scheme with 64 different combinations, so 6 bits can be transmitted per symbol. It is called QAM-64. Even higher-order QAMs are used too. As you might suspect from these constellations, it is easier to build electronics to produce symbols as a com- bination of values on each axis than as a combination of amplitude and phase values. That is why the patterns look like squares rather than concentric circles. The constellations we have seen so far do not show how bits are assigned to symbols. When making the assignment, an important consideration is that a small burst of noise at the receiver not lead to many bit errors. This might happen if we assigned consecutive bit values to adjacent symbols. With QAM-16, for example, if one symbol stood for 0111 and the neighboring symbol stood for 1000, if the re- ceiver mistakenly picks the adjacent symbol it will cause all of the bits to be wrong. A better solution is to map bits to symbols so that adjacent symbols differ in only 1 bit position. This mapping is called a Gray code. Fig. 2-24 shows a QAM-16 constellation that has been Gray coded. Now if the receiver decodes the symbol in error, it will make only a single bit error in the expected case that the decoded symbol is close to the transmitted symbol. 2.5.3 Frequency Division Multiplexing The modulation schemes we have seen let us send one signal to convey bits along a wired or wireless link. However, economies of scale play an important role in how we use networks. It costs essentially the same amount of money to in- stall and maintain a high-bandwidth transmission line as a low-bandwidth line be- tween two different offices (i.e., the costs come from having to dig the trench and not from what kind of cable or fiber goes into it). Consequently, multiplexing schemes have been developed to share lines among many signals.
- 157. SEC. 2.5 DIGITAL MODULATION AND MULTIPLEXING 133 A B C D E When 1101 is sent: Point Decodes as Bit errors A 1101 0 B 1100 1 C 1001 1 D 1111 1 E 0101 1 1100 1000 1101 1001 1111 1011 1110 1010 0011 0111 0010 0110 0000 0100 0001 0101 Q I Figure 2-24. Gray-coded QAM-16. FDM (Frequency Division Multiplexing) takes advantage of passband trans- mission to share a channel. It divides the spectrum into frequency bands, with each user having exclusive possession of some band in which to send their signal. AM radio broadcasting illustrates FDM. The allocated spectrum is about 1 MHz, roughly 500 to 1500 kHz. Different frequencies are allocated to different logical channels (stations), each operating in a portion of the spectrum, with the interchannel separation great enough to prevent interference. For a more detailed example, in Fig. 2-25 we show three voice-grade tele- phone channels multiplexed using FDM. Filters limit the usable bandwidth to about 3100 Hz per voice-grade channel. When many channels are multiplexed to- gether, 4000 Hz is allocated per channel. The excess is called a guard band. It keeps the channels well separated. First the voice channels are raised in frequen- cy, each by a different amount. Then they can be combined because no two chan- nels now occupy the same portion of the spectrum. Notice that even though there are gaps between the channels thanks to the guard bands, there is some overlap between adjacent channels. The overlap is there because real filters do not have ideal sharp edges. This means that a strong spike at the edge of one channel will be felt in the adjacent one as nonthermal noise. This scheme has been used to multiplex calls in the telephone system for many years, but multiplexing in time is now preferred instead. However, FDM continues to be used in telephone networks, as well as cellular, terrestrial wireless, and satellite networks at a higher level of granularity. When sending digital data, it is possible to divide the spectrum efficiently without using guard bands. In OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multi- plexing), the channel bandwidth is divided into many subcarriers that indepen- dently send data (e.g., with QAM). The subcarriers are packed tightly together in the frequency domain. Thus, signals from each subcarrier extend into adjacent ones. However, as seen in Fig. 2-26, the frequency response of each subcarrier is
- 158. 134 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 300 3100 Channel 3 Channel 2 Channel 1 1 1 1 Attenuation factor 64 Frequency (kHz) (c) Channel 1 Channel 3 Channel 2 68 72 60 64 Frequency (kHz) (b) Frequency (Hz) (a) 68 72 60 Figure 2-25. Frequency division multiplexing. (a) The original bandwidths. (b) The bandwidths raised in frequency. (c) The multiplexed channel. designed so that it is zero at the center of the adjacent subcarriers. The subcarriers can therefore be sampled at their center frequencies without interference from their neighbors. To make this work, a guard time is needed to repeat a portion of the symbol signals in time so that they have the desired frequency response. However, this overhead is much less than is needed for many guard bands. Frequency Power f3 f4 f2 f1 f5 Separation f One OFDM subcarrier(shaded) Figure 2-26. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). The idea of OFDM has been around for a long time, but it is only in the last decade that it has been widely adopted, following the realization that it is possible
- 159. SEC. 2.5 DIGITAL MODULATION AND MULTIPLEXING 135 to implement OFDM efficiently in terms of a Fourier transform of digital data over all subcarriers (instead of separately modulating each subcarrier). OFDM is used in 802.11, cable networks and power line networking, and is planned for fourth-generation cellular systems. Usually, one high-rate stream of digital infor- mation is split into many low-rate streams that are transmitted on the subcarriers in parallel. This division is valuable because degradations of the channel are easi- er to cope with at the subcarrier level; some subcarriers may be very degraded and excluded in favor of subcarriers that are received well. 2.5.4 Time Division Multiplexing An alternative to FDM is TDM (Time Division Multiplexing). Here, the users take turns (in a round-robin fashion), each one periodically getting the entire bandwidth for a little burst of time. An example of three streams being multi- plexed with TDM is shown in Fig. 2-27. Bits from each input stream are taken in a fixed time slot and output to the aggregate stream. This stream runs at the sum rate of the individual streams. For this to work, the streams must be synchronized in time. Small intervals of guard time analogous to a frequency guard band may be added to accommodate small timing variations. 1 2 3 Round-robin TDM multiplexer 3 2 3 1 2 1 Guard time 2 Figure 2-27. Time Division Multiplexing (TDM). TDM is used widely as part of the telephone and cellular networks. To avoid one point of confusion, let us be clear that it is quite different from the alternative STDM (Statistical Time Division Multiplexing). The prefix ‘‘statistical’’ is added to indicate that the individual streams contribute to the multiplexed stream not on a fixed schedule, but according to the statistics of their demand. STDM is packet switching by another name. 2.5.5 Code Division Multiplexing There is a third kind of multiplexing that works in a completely different way than FDM and TDM. CDM (Code Division Multiplexing) is a form of spread spectrum communication in which a narrowband signal is spread out over a wider frequency band. This can make it more tolerant of interference, as well as allowing multiple signals from different users to share the same frequency band. Because code division multiplexing is mostly used for the latter purpose it is com- monly called CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access).
- 160. 136 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 CDMA allows each station to transmit over the entire frequency spectrum all the time. Multiple simultaneous transmissions are separated using coding theory. Before getting into the algorithm, let us consider an analogy: an airport lounge with many pairs of people conversing. TDM is comparable to pairs of people in the room taking turns speaking. FDM is comparable to the pairs of people speak- ing at different pitches, some high-pitched and some low-pitched such that each pair can hold its own conversation at the same time as but independently of the others. CDMA is comparable to each pair of people talking at once, but in a dif- ferent language. The French-speaking couple just hones in on the French, reject- ing everything that is not French as noise. Thus, the key to CDMA is to be able to extract the desired signal while rejecting everything else as random noise. A somewhat simplified description of CDMA follows. In CDMA, each bit time is subdivided into m short intervals called chips. Typically, there are 64 or 128 chips per bit, but in the example given here we will use 8 chips/bit for simplicity. Each station is assigned a unique m-bit code called a chip sequence. For pedagogical purposes, it is convenient to use a bipolar nota- tion to write these codes as sequences of −1 and +1. We will show chip se- quences in parentheses. To transmit a 1 bit, a station sends its chip sequence. To transmit a 0 bit, it sends the negation of its chip sequence. No other patterns are permitted. Thus, for m = 8, if station A is assigned the chip sequence (−1 −1 −1 +1 +1 −1 +1 +1), it can send a 1 bit by transmiting the chip sequence and a 0 by transmitting (+1 +1 +1 −1 −1 +1 −1 −1). It is really signals with these voltage levels that are sent, but it is sufficient for us to think in terms of the sequences. Increasing the amount of information to be sent from b bits/sec to mb chips/sec for each station means that the bandwidth needed for CDMA is greater by a factor of m than the bandwidth needed for a station not using CDMA (assum- ing no changes in the modulation or encoding techniques). If we have a 1-MHz band available for 100 stations, with FDM each one would have 10 kHz and could send at 10 kbps (assuming 1 bit per Hz). With CDMA, each station uses the full 1 MHz, so the chip rate is 100 chips per bit to spread the station’s bit rate of 10 kbps across the channel. In Fig. 2-28(a) and (b) we show the chip sequences assigned to four example stations and the signals that they represent. Each station has its own unique chip sequence. Let us use the symbol S to indicate the m-chip vector for station S, and S for its negation. All chip sequences are pairwise orthogonal, by which we mean that the normalized inner product of any two distinct chip sequences, S and T (written as S T), is 0. It is known how to generate such orthogonal chip se- quences using a method known as Walsh codes. In mathematical terms, ortho- gonality of the chip sequences can be expressed as follows: S T ≡ m 1 i =1 Σ m SiTi = 0 (2-5)
- 161. SEC. 2.5 DIGITAL MODULATION AND MULTIPLEXING 137 In plain English, as many pairs are the same as are different. This orthogonality property will prove crucial later. Note that if S T = 0, then S T is also 0. The normalized inner product of any chip sequence with itself is 1: S S = m 1 i =1 Σ m SiSi = m 1 i =1 Σ m Si 2 = m 1 i =1 Σ m (±1)2 = 1 This follows because each of the m terms in the inner product is 1, so the sum is m. Also note that S S = −1. (b) A = (–1 –1 –1 +1 +1 –1 +1 +1) B = (–1 –1 +1 –1 +1 +1 +1 –1) C = (–1 +1 –1 +1 +1 +1 –1 –1) D = (–1 +1 –1 –1 –1 –1 +1 –1) (a) (c) (d) S1 = C = (–1 +1 –1 +1 +1 +1 –1 –1) S2 = B+C = (–2 0 0 0 +2 +2 0 –2) S3 = A+B = ( 0 0 –2 +2 0 –2 0 +2) S4 = A+B+C = (–1 +1 –3 +3 +1 –1 –1 +1) S5 = A+B+C+D = (–4 0 –2 0 +2 0 +2 –2) S6 = A+B+C+D = (–2 –2 0 –2 0 –2 +4 0) S1 C = [1+1–1+1+1+1–1–1]/8 = 1 S2 C = [2+0+0+0+2+2+0+2]/8 = 1 S3 C = [0+0+2+2+0–2+0–2]/8 = 0 S4 C = [1+1+3+3+1–1+1–1]/8 = 1 S5 C = [4+0+2+0+2+0–2+2]/8 = 1 S6 C = [2–2+0–2+0–2–4+0]/8 = –1 Figure 2-28. (a) Chip sequences for four stations. (b) Signals the sequences represent (c) Six examples of transmissions. (d) Recovery of station C’s signal. During each bit time, a station can transmit a 1 (by sending its chip sequence), it can transmit a 0 (by sending the negative of its chip sequence), or it can be silent and transmit nothing. We assume for now that all stations are synchronized in time, so all chip sequences begin at the same instant. When two or more sta- tions transmit simultaneously, their bipolar sequences add linearly. For example, if in one chip period three stations output +1 and one station outputs −1, +2 will be received. One can think of this as signals that add as voltages superimposed on the channel: three stations output +1 V and one station outputs −1 V, so that 2 V is received. For instance, in Fig. 2-28(c) we see six examples of one or more sta- tions transmitting 1 bit at the same time. In the first example, C transmits a 1 bit, so we just get C’s chip sequence. In the second example, both B and C transmit 1 bits, so we get the sum of their bipolar chip sequences, namely: (−1 −1 +1 −1 +1 +1 +1 −1) + (−1 +1 −1 +1 +1 +1 −1 −1) = (−2 0 0 0 +2 +2 0 −2) To recover the bit stream of an individual station, the receiver must know that station’s chip sequence in advance. It does the recovery by computing the nor- malized inner product of the received chip sequence and the chip sequence of the station whose bit stream it is trying to recover. If the received chip sequence is S and the receiver is trying to listen to a station whose chip sequence is C, it just computes the normalized inner product, S C.
- 162. 138 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 To see why this works, just imagine that two stations, A and C, both transmit a 1 bit at the same time that B transmits a 0 bit, as is the case in the third example. The receiver sees the sum, S = A + B + C, and computes S C = (A + B + C) C = A C + B C + C C = 0 + 0 + 1 = 1 The first two terms vanish because all pairs of chip sequences have been carefully chosen to be orthogonal, as shown in Eq. (2-5). Now it should be clear why this property must be imposed on the chip sequences. To make the decoding process more concrete, we show six examples in Fig. 2-28(d). Suppose that the receiver is interested in extracting the bit sent by station C from each of the six signals S1 through S6. It calculates the bit by sum- ming the pairwise products of the received S and the C vector of Fig. 2-28(a) and then taking 1/8 of the result (since m = 8 here). The examples include cases where C is silent, sends a 1 bit, and sends a 0 bit, individually and in combination with other transmissions. As shown, the correct bit is decoded each time. It is just like speaking French. In principle, given enough computing capacity, the receiver can listen to all the senders at once by running the decoding algorithm for each of them in paral- lel. In real life, suffice it to say that this is easier said than done, and it is useful to know which senders might be transmitting. In the ideal, noiseless CDMA system we have studied here, the number of sta- tions that send concurrently can be made arbitrarily large by using longer chip se- quences. For 2n stations, Walsh codes can provide 2n orthogonal chip sequences of length 2n . However, one significant limitation is that we have assumed that all the chips are synchronized in time at the receiver. This synchronization is not even approximately true in some applications, such as cellular networks (in which CDMA has been widely deployed starting in the 1990s). It leads to different de- signs. We will return to this topic later in the chapter and describe how asynchro- nous CDMA differs from synchronous CDMA. As well as cellular networks, CDMA is used by satellites and cable networks. We have glossed over many complicating factors in this brief introduction. En- gineers who want to gain a deep understanding of CDMA should read Viterbi (1995) and Lee and Miller (1998). These references require quite a bit of back- ground in communication engineering, however. 2.6 THE PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK When two computers owned by the same company or organization and locat- ed close to each other need to communicate, it is often easiest just to run a cable between them. LANs work this way. However, when the distances are large or there are many computers or the cables have to pass through a public road or other public right of way, the costs of running private cables are usually prohibitive.
- 163. SEC. 2.6 THE PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK 139 Furthermore, in just about every country in the world, stringing private transmis- sion lines across (or underneath) public property is also illegal. Consequently, the network designers must rely on the existing telecommunication facilities. These facilities, especially the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Net- work), were usually designed many years ago, with a completely different goal in mind: transmitting the human voice in a more-or-less recognizable form. Their suitability for use in computer-computer communication is often marginal at best. To see the size of the problem, consider that a cheap commodity cable running be- tween two computers can transfer data at 1 Gbps or more. In contrast, typical ADSL, the blazingly fast alternative to a telephone modem, runs at around 1 Mbps. The difference between the two is the difference between cruising in an airplane and taking a leisurely stroll. Nonetheless, the telephone system is tightly intertwined with (wide area) computer networks, so it is worth devoting some time to study it in detail. The limiting factor for networking purposes turns out to be the ‘‘last mile’’ over which customers connect, not the trunks and switches inside the telephone network. This situation is changing with the gradual rollout of fiber and digital technology at the edge of the network, but it will take time and money. During the long wait, computer systems designers used to working with systems that give at least three orders of magnitude better performance have devoted much time and effort to fig- ure out how to use the telephone network efficiently. In the following sections we will describe the telephone system and show how it works. For additional information about the innards of the telephone system see Bellamy (2000). 2.6.1 Structure of the Telephone System Soon after Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876 (just a few hours ahead of his rival, Elisha Gray), there was an enormous demand for his new invention. The initial market was for the sale of telephones, which came in pairs. It was up to the customer to string a single wire between them. If a telephone owner wanted to talk to n other telephone owners, separate wires had to be strung to all n houses. Within a year, the cities were covered with wires passing over houses and trees in a wild jumble. It became immediately obvious that the model of connecting every telephone to every other telephone, as shown in Fig. 2-29(a), was not going to work. To his credit, Bell saw this problem early on and formed the Bell Telephone Company, which opened its first switching office (in New Haven, Connecticut) in 1878. The company ran a wire to each customer’s house or office. To make a call, the customer would crank the phone to make a ringing sound in the telephone company office to attract the attention of an operator, who would then manually connect the caller to the callee by using a short jumper cable to connect the caller to the callee. The model of a single switching office is illustrated in Fig. 2-29(b).
- 164. 140 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 (a) (b) (c) Figure 2-29. (a) Fully interconnected network. (b) Centralized switch. (c) Two-level hierarchy. Pretty soon, Bell System switching offices were springing up everywhere and people wanted to make long-distance calls between cities, so the Bell System began to connect the switching offices. The original problem soon returned: to connect every switching office to every other switching office by means of a wire between them quickly became unmanageable, so second-level switching offices were invented. After a while, multiple second-level offices were needed, as illus- trated in Fig. 2-29(c). Eventually, the hierarchy grew to five levels. By 1890, the three major parts of the telephone system were in place: the switching offices, the wires between the customers and the switching offices (by now balanced, insulated, twisted pairs instead of open wires with an earth return), and the long-distance connections between the switching offices. For a short technical history of the telephone system, see Hawley (1991). While there have been improvements in all three areas since then, the basic Bell System model has remained essentially intact for over 100 years. The fol- lowing description is highly simplified but gives the essential flavor nevertheless. Each telephone has two copper wires coming out of it that go directly to the tele- phone company’s nearest end office (also called a local central office). The dis- tance is typically 1 to 10 km, being shorter in cities than in rural areas. In the United States alone there are about 22,000 end offices. The two-wire connections between each subscriber’s telephone and the end office are known in the trade as the local loop. If the world’s local loops were stretched out end to end, they would extend to the moon and back 1000 times. At one time, 80% of AT&T’s capital value was the copper in the local loops. AT&T was then, in effect, the world’s largest copper mine. Fortunately, this fact was not well known in the investment community. Had it been known, some cor- porate raider might have bought AT&T, ended all telephone service in the United States, ripped out all the wire, and sold it to a copper refiner for a quick payback.
- 165. SEC. 2.6 THE PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK 141 If a subscriber attached to a given end office calls another subscriber attached to the same end office, the switching mechanism within the office sets up a direct electrical connection between the two local loops. This connection remains intact for the duration of the call. If the called telephone is attached to another end office, a different procedure has to be used. Each end office has a number of outgoing lines to one or more nearby switching centers, called toll offices (or, if they are within the same local area, tandem offices). These lines are called toll connecting trunks. The num- ber of different kinds of switching centers and their topology varies from country to country depending on the country’s telephone density. If both the caller’s and callee’s end offices happen to have a toll connecting trunk to the same toll office (a likely occurrence if they are relatively close by), the connection may be established within the toll office. A telephone network consisting only of telephones (the small dots), end offices (the large dots), and toll offices (the squares) is shown in Fig. 2-29(c). If the caller and callee do not have a toll office in common, a path will have to be established between two toll offices. The toll offices communicate with each other via high-bandwidth intertoll trunks (also called interoffice trunks). Prior to the 1984 breakup of AT&T, the U.S. telephone system used hierarchical rout- ing to find a path, going to higher levels of the hierarchy until there was a switch- ing office in common. This was then replaced with more flexible, nonhierarchical routing. Figure 2-30 shows how a long-distance connection might be routed. Telephone End office Toll office Intermediate switching office(s) Telephone End office Toll office Local loop Toll connecting trunk Very high bandwidth intertoll trunks Toll connecting trunk Local loop Figure 2-30. A typical circuit route for a long-distance call. A variety of transmission media are used for telecommunication. Unlike modern office buildings, where the wiring is commonly Category 5, local loops to homes mostly consist of Category 3 twisted pairs, with fiber just starting to appear. Between switching offices, coaxial cables, microwaves, and especially fiber optics are widely used. In the past, transmission throughout the telephone system was analog, with the actual voice signal being transmitted as an electrical voltage from source to destination. With the advent of fiber optics, digital electronics, and computers, all the trunks and switches are now digital, leaving the local loop as the last piece of
- 166. 142 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 analog technology in the system. Digital transmission is preferred because it is not necessary to accurately reproduce an analog waveform after it has passed through many amplifiers on a long call. Being able to correctly distinguish a 0 from a 1 is enough. This property makes digital transmission more reliable than analog. It is also cheaper and easier to maintain. In summary, the telephone system consists of three major components: 1. Local loops (analog twisted pairs going to houses and businesses). 2. Trunks (digital fiber optic links connecting the switching offices). 3. Switching offices (where calls are moved from one trunk to another). After a short digression on the politics of telephones, we will come back to each of these three components in some detail. The local loops provide everyone ac- cess to the whole system, so they are critical. Unfortunately, they are also the weakest link in the system. For the long-haul trunks, the main issue is how to col- lect multiple calls together and send them out over the same fiber. This calls for multiplexing, and we apply FDM and TDM to do it. Finally, there are two funda- mentally different ways of doing switching; we will look at both. 2.6.2 The Politics of Telephones For decades prior to 1984, the Bell System provided both local and long-dis- tance service throughout most of the United States. In the 1970s, the U.S. Federal Government came to believe that this was an illegal monopoly and sued to break it up. The government won, and on January 1, 1984, AT&T was broken up into AT&T Long Lines, 23 BOCs (Bell Operating Companies), and a few other pieces. The 23 BOCs were grouped into seven regional BOCs (RBOCs) to make them economically viable. The entire nature of telecommunication in the United States was changed overnight by court order (not by an act of Congress). The exact specifications of the divestiture were described in the so-called MFJ (Modified Final Judgment), an oxymoron if ever there was one—if the judgment could be modified, it clearly was not final. This event led to increased competition, better service, and lower long-distance rates for consumers and busi- nesses. However, prices for local service rose as the cross subsidies from long- distance calling were eliminated and local service had to become self supporting. Many other countries have now introduced competition along similar lines. Of direct relevance to our studies is that the new competitive framework caused a key technical feature to be added to the architecture of the telephone net- work. To make it clear who could do what, the United States was divided up into 164 LATAs (Local Access and Transport Areas). Very roughly, a LATA is about as big as the area covered by one area code. Within each LATA, there was one LEC (Local Exchange Carrier) with a monopoly on traditional telephone
- 167. SEC. 2.6 THE PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK 143 service within its area. The most important LECs were the BOCs, although some LATAs contained one or more of the 1500 independent telephone companies op- erating as LECs. The new feature was that all inter-LATA traffic was handled by a different kind of company, an IXC (IntereXchange Carrier). Originally, AT&T Long Lines was the only serious IXC, but now there are well-established competitors such as Verizon and Sprint in the IXC business. One of the concerns at the breakup was to ensure that all the IXCs would be treated equally in terms of line quality, tariffs, and the number of digits their customers would have to dial to use them. The way this is handled is illustrated in Fig. 2-31. Here we see three ex- ample LATAs, each with several end offices. LATAs 2 and 3 also have a small hierarchy with tandem offices (intra-LATA toll offices). 1 2 To local loops IXC #1’s toll office IXC #2’s toll office IXC POP Tandem office End office LATA 3 LATA 2 LATA 1 1 2 1 2 1 2 Figure 2-31. The relationship of LATAs, LECs, and IXCs. All the circles are LEC switching offices. Each hexagon belongs to the IXC whose number is in it. Any IXC that wishes to handle calls originating in a LATA can build a switching office called a POP (Point of Presence) there. The LEC is required to connect each IXC to every end office, either directly, as in LATAs 1 and 3, or indirectly, as in LATA 2. Furthermore, the terms of the connection, both techni- cal and financial, must be identical for all IXCs. This requirement enables, a sub- scriber in, say, LATA 1, to choose which IXC to use for calling subscribers in LATA 3. As part of the MFJ, the IXCs were forbidden to offer local telephone service and the LECs were forbidden to offer inter-LATA telephone service, although
- 168. 144 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 both were free to enter any other business, such as operating fried chicken restau- rants. In 1984, that was a fairly unambiguous statement. Unfortunately, technolo- gy has a funny way of making the law obsolete. Neither cable television nor mo- bile phones were covered by the agreement. As cable television went from one way to two way and mobile phones exploded in popularity, both LECs and IXCs began buying up or merging with cable and mobile operators. By 1995, Congress saw that trying to maintain a distinction between the vari- ous kinds of companies was no longer tenable and drafted a bill to preserve ac- cessibility for competition but allow cable TV companies, local telephone com- panies, long-distance carriers, and mobile operators to enter one another’s busi- nesses. The idea was that any company could then offer its customers a single integrated package containing cable TV, telephone, and information services and that different companies would compete on service and price. The bill was en- acted into law in February 1996 as a major overhaul of telecommunications regu- lation. As a result, some BOCs became IXCs and some other companies, such as cable television operators, began offering local telephone service in competition with the LECs. One interesting property of the 1996 law is the requirement that LECs imple- ment local number portability. This means that a customer can change local telephone companies without having to get a new telephone number. Portability for mobile phone numbers (and between fixed and mobile lines) followed suit in 2003. These provisions removed a huge hurdle for many people, making them much more inclined to switch LECs. As a result, the U.S. telecommunications landscape became much more competitive, and other countries have followed suit. Often other countries wait to see how this kind of experiment works out in the U.S. If it works well, they do the same thing; if it works badly, they try some- thing else. 2.6.3 The Local Loop: Modems, ADSL, and Fiber It is now time to start our detailed study of how the telephone system works. Let us begin with the part that most people are familiar with: the two-wire local loop coming from a telephone company end office into houses. The local loop is also frequently referred to as the ‘‘last mile,’’ although the length can be up to several miles. It has carried analog information for over 100 years and is likely to continue doing so for some years to come, due to the high cost of converting to digital. Much effort has been devoted to squeezing data networking out of the copper local loops that are already deployed. Telephone modems send digital data be- tween computers over the narrow channel the telephone network provides for a voice call. They were once widely used, but have been largely displaced by broadband technologies such as ADSL that. reuse the local loop to send digital data from a customer to the end office, where they are siphoned off to the Internet.
- 169. SEC. 2.6 THE PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK 145 Both modems and ADSL must deal with the limitations of old local loops: rel- atively narrow bandwidth, attenuation and distortion of signals, and susceptibility to electrical noise such as crosstalk. In some places, the local loop has been modernized by installing optical fiber to (or very close to) the home. Fiber is the way of the future. These installations support computer networks from the ground up, with the local loop having ample bandwidth for data services. The limiting factor is what people will pay, not the physics of the local loop. In this section we will study the local loop, both old and new. We will cover telephone modems, ADSL, and fiber to the home. Telephone Modems To send bits over the local loop, or any other physical channel for that matter, they must be converted to analog signals that can be transmitted over the channel. This conversion is accomplished using the methods for digital modulation that we studied in the previous section. At the other end of the channel, the analog signal is converted back to bits. A device that converts between a stream of digital bits and an analog signal that represents the bits is called a modem, which is short for ‘‘modulator demodu- lator.’’ Modems come in many varieties: telephone modems, DSL modems, cable modems, wireless modems, etc. The modem may be built into the computer (which is now common for telephone modems) or be a separate box (which is common for DSL and cable modems). Logically, the modem is inserted between the (digital) computer and the (analog) telephone system, as seen in Fig. 2-32. End office Codec Modem Computer Local loop (analog) Trunk (digital, fiber) Digital line Analog line Codec Modem ISP 1 ISP 2 Figure 2-32. The use of both analog and digital transmission for a computer- to-computer call. Conversion is done by the modems and codecs. Telephone modems are used to send bits between two computers over a voice-grade telephone line, in place of the conversation that usually fills the line. The main difficulty in doing so is that a voice-grade telephone line is limited to 3100 Hz, about what is sufficient to carry a conversation. This bandwidth is more than four orders of magnitude less than the bandwidth that is used for Ethernet or
- 170. 146 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 802.11 (WiFi). Unsurprisingly, the data rates of telephone modems are also four orders of magnitude less than that of Ethernet and 802.11. Let us run the numbers to see why this is the case. The Nyquist theorem tells us that even with a perfect 3000-Hz line (which a telephone line is decidedly not), there is no point in sending symbols at a rate faster than 6000 baud. In practice, most modems send at a rate of 2400 symbols/sec, or 2400 baud, and focus on get- ting multiple bits per symbol while allowing traffic in both directions at the same time (by using different frequencies for different directions). The humble 2400-bps modem uses 0 volts for a logical 0 and 1 volt for a logi- cal 1, with 1 bit per symbol. One step up, it can use four different symbols, as in the four phases of QPSK, so with 2 bits/symbol it can get a data rate of 4800 bps. A long progression of higher rates has been achieved as technology has im- proved. Higher rates require a larger set of symbols or constellation. With many symbols, even a small amount of noise in the detected amplitude or phase can re- sult in an error. To reduce the chance of errors, standards for the higher-speed modems use some of the symbols for error correction. The schemes are known as TCM (Trellis Coded Modulation) (Ungerboeck, 1987). The V.32 modem standard uses 32 constellation points to transmit 4 data bits and 1 check bit per symbol at 2400 baud to achieve 9600 bps with error cor- rection. The next step above 9600 bps is 14,400 bps. It is called V.32 bis and transmits 6 data bits and 1 check bit per symbol at 2400 baud. Then comes V.34, which achieves 28,800 bps by transmitting 12 data bits/symbol at 2400 baud. The constellation now has thousands of points. The final modem in this series is V.34 bis which uses 14 data bits/symbol at 2400 baud to achieve 33,600 bps. Why stop here? The reason that standard modems stop at 33,600 is that the Shannon limit for the telephone system is about 35 kbps based on the average length of local loops and the quality of these lines. Going faster than this would violate the laws of physics (department of thermodynamics). However, there is one way we can change the situation. At the telephone company end office, the data are converted to digital form for transmission within the telephone network (the core of the telephone network converted from analog to digital long ago). The 35-kbps limit is for the situation in which there are two local loops, one at each end. Each of these adds noise to the signal. If we could get rid of one of these local loops, we would increase the SNR and the maximum rate would be doubled. This approach is how 56-kbps modems are made to work. One end, typically an ISP, gets a high-quality digital feed from the nearest end office. Thus, when one end of the connection is a high-quality signal, as it is with most ISPs now, the maximum data rate can be as high as 70 kbps. Between two home users with modems and analog lines, the maximum is still 33.6 kbps. The reason that 56-kbps modems (rather than 70-kbps modems) are in use has to do with the Nyquist theorem. A telephone channel is carried inside the tele- phone system as digital samples. Each telephone channel is 4000 Hz wide when
- 171. SEC. 2.6 THE PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK 147 the guard bands are included. The number of samples per second needed to reconstruct it is thus 8000. The number of bits per sample in the U.S. is 8, one of which may be used for control purposes, allowing 56,000 bits/sec of user data. In Europe, all 8 bits are available to users, so 64,000-bit/sec modems could have been used, but to get international agreement on a standard, 56,000 was chosen. The end result is the V.90 and V.92 modem standards. They provide for a 56-kbps downstream channel (ISP to user) and a 33.6-kbps and 48-kbps upstream channel (user to ISP), respectively. The asymmetry is because there is usually more data transported from the ISP to the user than the other way. It also means that more of the limited bandwidth can be allocated to the downstream channel to increase the chances of it actually working at 56 kbps. Digital Subscriber Lines When the telephone industry finally got to 56 kbps, it patted itself on the back for a job well done. Meanwhile, the cable TV industry was offering speeds up to 10 Mbps on shared cables. As Internet access became an increasingly important part of their business, the telephone companies (LECs) began to realize they need- ed a more competitive product. Their answer was to offer new digital services over the local loop. Initially, there were many overlapping high-speed offerings, all under the gen- eral name of xDSL (Digital Subscriber Line), for various x. Services with more bandwidth than standard telephone service are sometimes called broadband, al- though the term really is more of a marketing concept than a specific technical concept. Later, we will discuss what has become the most popular of these ser- vices, ADSL (Asymmetric DSL). We will also use the term DSL or xDSL as shorthand for all flavors. The reason that modems are so slow is that telephones were invented for car- rying the human voice and the entire system has been carefully optimized for this purpose. Data have always been stepchildren. At the point where each local loop terminates in the end office, the wire runs through a filter that attenuates all fre- quencies below 300 Hz and above 3400 Hz. The cutoff is not sharp—300 Hz and 3400 Hz are the 3-dB points—so the bandwidth is usually quoted as 4000 Hz even though the distance between the 3 dB points is 3100 Hz. Data on the wire are thus also restricted to this narrow band. The trick that makes xDSL work is that when a customer subscribes to it, the incoming line is connected to a different kind of switch, one that does not have this filter, thus making the entire capacity of the local loop available. The limiting factor then becomes the physics of the local loop, which supports roughly 1 MHz, not the artificial 3100 Hz bandwidth created by the filter. Unfortunately, the capacity of the local loop falls rather quickly with distance from the end office as the signal is increasingly degraded along the wire. It also depends on the thickness and general quality of the twisted pair. A plot of the
- 172. 148 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 potential bandwidth as a function of distance is given in Fig. 2-33. This figure as- sumes that all the other factors are optimal (new wires, modest bundles, etc.). 50 40 20 30 10 0 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 Meters 5000 6000 Mbps Figure 2-33. Bandwidth versus distance over Category 3 UTP for DSL. The implication of this figure creates a problem for the telephone company. When it picks a speed to offer, it is simultaneously picking a radius from its end offices beyond which the service cannot be offered. This means that when distant customers try to sign up for the service, they may be told ‘‘Thanks a lot for your interest, but you live 100 meters too far from the nearest end office to get this ser- vice. Could you please move?’’ The lower the chosen speed is, the larger the radius and the more customers are covered. But the lower the speed, the less attractive the service is and the fewer the people who will be willing to pay for it. This is where business meets technology. The xDSL services have all been designed with certain goals in mind. First, the services must work over the existing Category 3 twisted pair local loops. Sec- ond, they must not affect customers’ existing telephones and fax machines. Third, they must be much faster than 56 kbps. Fourth, they should be always on, with just a monthly charge and no per-minute charge. To meet the technical goals, the available 1.1 MHz spectrum on the local loop is divided into 256 independent channels of 4312.5 Hz each. This arrangement is shown in Fig. 2-34. The OFDM scheme, which we saw in the previous section, is used to send data over these channels, though it is often called DMT (Discrete MultiTone) in the context of ADSL. Channel 0 is used for POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service). Channels 1–5 are not used, to keep the voice and data sig- nals from interfering with each other. Of the remaining 250 channels, one is used for upstream control and one is used for downstream control. The rest are avail- able for user data. In principle, each of the remaining channels can be used for a full-duplex data stream, but harmonics, crosstalk, and other effects keep practical systems well
- 173. SEC. 2.6 THE PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK 149 Power Voice Upstream Downstream 256 4-kHz Channels 0 25 1100 kHz Figure 2-34. Operation of ADSL using discrete multitone modulation. below the theoretical limit. It is up to the provider to determine how many chan- nels are used for upstream and how many for downstream. A 50/50 mix of upstream and downstream is technically possible, but most providers allocate something like 80–90% of the bandwidth to the downstream channel since most users download more data than they upload. This choice gives rise to the ‘‘A’’ in ADSL. A common split is 32 channels for upstream and the rest downstream. It is also possible to have a few of the highest upstream channels be bidirectional for increased bandwidth, although making this optimization requires adding a special circuit to cancel echoes. The international ADSL standard, known as G.dmt, was approved in 1999. It allows speeds of as much as 8 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream. It was superseded by a second generation in 2002, called ADSL2, with various im- provements to allow speeds of as much as 12 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps up- stream. Now we have ADSL2+, which doubles the downstream speed to 24 Mbps by doubling the bandwidth to use 2.2 MHz over the twisted pair. However, the numbers quoted here are best-case speeds for good lines close (within 1 to 2 km) to the exchange. Few lines support these rates, and few pro- viders offer these speeds. Typically, providers offer something like 1 Mbps downstream and 256 kbps upstream (standard service), 4 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream (improved service), and 8 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps upstream (premium service). Within each channel, QAM modulation is used at a rate of roughly 4000 symbols/sec. The line quality in each channel is constantly monitored and the data rate is adjusted by using a larger or smaller constellation, like those in Fig. 2-23. Different channels may have different data rates, with up to 15 bits per symbol sent on a channel with a high SNR, and down to 2, 1, or no bits per sym- bol sent on a channel with a low SNR depending on the standard. A typical ADSL arrangement is shown in Fig. 2-35. In this scheme, a tele- phone company technician must install a NID (Network Interface Device) on the customer’s premises. This small plastic box marks the end of the telephone com- pany’s property and the start of the customer’s property. Close to the NID (or sometimes combined with it) is a splitter, an analog filter that separates the
- 174. 150 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 0–4000-Hz band used by POTS from the data. The POTS signal is routed to the existing telephone or fax machine. The data signal is routed to an ADSL modem, which uses digital signal processing to implement OFDM. Since most ADSL modems are external, the computer must be connected to them at high speed. Usually, this is done using Ethernet, a USB cable, or 802.11. DSLAM Splitter Codec Splitter Telephone To ISP ADSL modem Ethernet Computer Telephone line Telephone company end office Customer premises Voice switch NID Figure 2-35. A typical ADSL equipment configuration. At the other end of the wire, on the end office side, a corresponding splitter is installed. Here, the voice portion of the signal is filtered out and sent to the nor- mal voice switch. The signal above 26 kHz is routed to a new kind of device call- ed a DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer), which contains the same kind of digital signal processor as the ADSL modem. Once the bits have been recovered from the signal, packets are formed and sent off to the ISP. This complete separation between the voice system and ADSL makes it rel- atively easy for a telephone company to deploy ADSL. All that is needed is buy- ing a DSLAM and splitter and attaching the ADSL subscribers to the splitter. Other high-bandwidth services (e.g., ISDN) require much greater changes to the existing switching equipment. One disadvantage of the design of Fig. 2-35 is the need for a NID and splitter on the customer’s premises. Installing these can only be done by a telephone company technician, necessitating an expensive ‘‘truck roll’’ (i.e., sending a tech- nician to the customer’s premises). Therefore, an alternative, splitterless design, informally called G.lite, has also been standardized. It is the same as Fig. 2-35 but without the customer’s splitter. The existing telephone line is used as is. The only difference is that a microfilter has to be inserted into each telephone jack
- 175. SEC. 2.6 THE PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK 151 between the telephone or ADSL modem and the wire. The microfilter for the telephone is a low-pass filter eliminating frequencies above 3400 Hz; the microfil- ter for the ADSL modem is a high-pass filter eliminating frequencies below 26 kHz. However, this system is not as reliable as having a splitter, so G.lite can be used only up to 1.5 Mbps (versus 8 Mbps for ADSL with a splitter). For more information about ADSL, see Starr (2003). Fiber To The Home Deployed copper local loops limit the performance of ADSL and telephone modems. To let them provide faster and better network services, telephone com- panies are upgrading local loops at every opportunity by installing optical fiber all the way to houses and offices. The result is called FttH (Fiber To The Home). While FttH technology has been available for some time, deployments only began to take off in 2005 with growth in the demand for high-speed Internet from cus- tomers used to DSL and cable who wanted to download movies. Around 4% of U.S. houses are now connected to FttH with Internet access speeds of up to 100 Mbps. Several variations of the form ‘‘FttX’’ (where X stands for the basement, curb, or neighborhood) exist. They are used to note that the fiber deployment may reach close to the house. In this case, copper (twisted pair or coaxial cable) pro- vides fast enough speeds over the last short distance. The choice of how far to lay the fiber is an economic one, balancing cost with expected revenue. In any case, the point is that optical fiber has crossed the traditional barrier of the ‘‘last mile.’’ We will focus on FttH in our discussion. Like the copper wires before it, the fiber local loop is passive. This means no powered equipment is required to amplify or otherwise process signals. The fiber simply carries signals between the home and the end office. This in turn reduces cost and improves reliability. Usually, the fibers from the houses are joined together so that only a single fiber reaches the end office per group of up to 100 houses. In the downstream di- rection, optical splitters divide the signal from the end office so that it reaches all the houses. Encryption is needed for security if only one house should be able to decode the signal. In the upstream direction, optical combiners merge the signals from the houses into a single signal that is received at the end office. This architecture is called a PON (Passive Optical Network), and it is shown in Fig. 2-36. It is common to use one wavelength shared between all the houses for downstream transmission, and another wavelength for upstream transmission. Even with the splitting, the tremendous bandwidth and low attenuation of fiber mean that PONs can provide high rates to users over distances of up to 20 km. The actual data rates and other details depend on the type of PON. Two kinds are common. GPONs (Gigabit-capable PONs) come from the world of telecom- munications, so they are defined by an ITU standard. EPONs (Ethernet PONs)
- 176. 152 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 Fiber Optical splitter/combiner End office Rest of network Figure 2-36. Passive optical network for Fiber To The Home. are more in tune with the world of networking, so they are defined by an IEEE standard. Both run at around a gigabit and can carry traffic for different services, including Internet, video, and voice. For example, GPONs provide 2.4 Gbps downstream and 1.2 or 2.4 Gbps upstream. Some protocol is needed to share the capacity of the single fiber at the end office between the different houses. The downstream direction is easy. The end office can send messages to each different house in whatever order it likes. In the upstream direction, however, messages from different houses cannot be sent at the same time, or different signals would collide. The houses also cannot hear each other’s transmissions so they cannot listen before transmitting. The solution is that equipment at the houses requests and is granted time slots to use by equip- ment in the end office. For this to work, there is a ranging process to adjust the transmission times from the houses so that all the signals received at the end office are synchronized. The design is similar to cable modems, which we cover later in this chapter. For more information on the future of PONs, see Grobe and Elbers (2008). 2.6.4 Trunks and Multiplexing Trunks in the telephone network are not only much faster than the local loops, they are different in two other respects. The core of the telephone network carries digital information, not analog information; that is, bits not voice. This necessi- tates a conversion at the end office to digital form for transmission over the long- haul trunks. The trunks carry thousands, even millions, of calls simultaneously. This sharing is important for achieving economies of scale, since it costs essen- tially the same amount of money to install and maintain a high-bandwidth trunk as a low-bandwidth trunk between two switching offices. It is accomplished with versions of TDM and FDM multiplexing. Below we will briefly examine how voice signals are digitized so that they can be transported by the telephone network. After that, we will see how TDM is used to carry bits on trunks, including the TDM system used for fiber optics
- 177. SEC. 2.6 THE PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK 153 (SONET). Then we will turn to FDM as it is applied to fiber optics, which is call- ed wavelength division multiplexing. Digitizing Voice Signals Early in the development of the telephone network, the core handled voice calls as analog information. FDM techniques were used for many years to multi- plex 4000-Hz voice channels (comprised of 3100 Hz plus guard bands) into larger and larger units. For example, 12 calls in the 60 kHz–to–108 kHz band is known as a group and five groups (a total of 60 calls) are known as a supergroup, and so on. These FDM methods are still used over some copper wires and microwave channels. However, FDM requires analog circuitry and is not amenable to being done by a computer. In contrast, TDM can be handled entirely by digital elec- tronics, so it has become far more widespread in recent years. Since TDM can only be used for digital data and the local loops produce analog signals, a conver- sion is needed from analog to digital in the end office, where all the individual local loops come together to be combined onto outgoing trunks. The analog signals are digitized in the end office by a device called a codec (short for ‘‘coder-decoder’’). The codec makes 8000 samples per second (125 μsec/sample) because the Nyquist theorem says that this is sufficient to capture all the information from the 4-kHz telephone channel bandwidth. At a lower sam- pling rate, information would be lost; at a higher one, no extra information would be gained. Each sample of the amplitude of the signal is quantized to an 8-bit number. This technique is called PCM (Pulse Code Modulation). It forms the heart of the modern telephone system. As a consequence, virtually all time intervals within the telephone system are multiples of 125 μsec. The standard uncompressed data rate for a voice-grade telephone call is thus 8 bits every 125 μsec, or 64 kbps. At the other end of the call, an analog signal is recreated from the quantized samples by playing them out (and smoothing them) over time. It will not be ex- actly the same as the original analog signal, even though we sampled at the Nyquist rate, because the samples were quantized. To reduce the error due to quantization, the quantization levels are unevenly spaced. A logarithmic scale is used that gives relatively more bits to smaller signal amplitudes and relatively fewer bits to large signal amplitudes. In this way the error is proportional to the signal amplitude. Two versions of quantization are widely used: μ-law, used in North America and Japan, and A-law, used in Europe and the rest of the world. Both versions are specified in standard ITU G.711. An equivalent way to think about this process is to imagine that the dynamic range of the signal (or the ratio between the largest and smallest possible values) is compressed before it is (evenly) quantized, and then expanded when the analog signal is recreated. For this reason it is called
- 178. 154 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 companding. It is also possible to compress the samples after they are digitized so that they require much less than 64 kbps. However, we will leave this topic for when we explore audio applications such as voice over IP. Time Division Multiplexing TDM based on PCM is used to carry multiple voice calls over trunks by send- ing a sample from each call every 125 μsec. When digital transmission began emerging as a feasible technology, ITU (then called CCITT) was unable to reach agreement on an international standard for PCM. Consequently, a variety of incompatible schemes are now in use in different countries around the world. The method used in North America and Japan is the T1 carrier, depicted in Fig. 2-37. (Technically speaking, the format is called DS1 and the carrier is call- ed T1, but following widespread industry tradition, we will not make that subtle distinction here.) The T1 carrier consists of 24 voice channels multiplexed toget- her. Each of the 24 channels, in turn, gets to insert 8 bits into the output stream. Channel 1 Channel 2 Channel 3 Channel 4 Channel 24 193-bit frame (125 μsec) 7 Data bits per channel per sample Bit 1 is a framing code Bit 8 is for signaling 0 1 Figure 2-37. The T1 carrier (1.544 Mbps). A frame consists of 24 × 8 = 192 bits plus one extra bit for control purposes, yielding 193 bits every 125 μsec. This gives a gross data rate of 1.544 Mbps, of which 8 kbps is for signaling. The 193rd bit is used for frame synchronization and signaling. In one variation, the 193rd bit is used across a group of 24 frames call- ed an extended superframe. Six of the bits, in the 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, 20th, and 24th positions, take on the alternating pattern 001011 . . . . Normally, the receiver keeps checking for this pattern to make sure that it has not lost synchronization. Six more bits are used to send an error check code to help the receiver confirm that it is synchronized. If it does get out of sync, the receiver can scan for the pat- tern and validate the error check code to get resynchronized. The remaining 12
- 179. SEC. 2.6 THE PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK 155 bits are used for control information for operating and maintaining the network, such as performance reporting from the remote end. The T1 format has several variations. The earlier versions sent signaling information in-band, meaning in the same channel as the data, by using some of the data bits. This design is one form of channel-associated signaling, because each channel has its own private signaling subchannel. In one arrangement, the least significant bit out of an 8-bit sample on each channel is used in every sixth frame. It has the colorful name of robbed-bit signaling. The idea is that a few stolen bits will not matter for voice calls. No one will hear the difference. For data, however, it is another story. Delivering the wrong bits is unhelpful, to say the least. If older versions of T1 are used to carry data, only 7 of 8 bits, or 56 kbps can be used in each of the 24 channels. Instead, newer versions of T1 provide clear channels in which all of the bits may be used to send data. Clear channels are what businesses who lease a T1 line want when they send data across the telephone network in place of voice samples. Signaling for any voice calls is then handled out-of-band, meaning in a separate channel from the data. Often, the signaling is done with common-channel signaling in which there is a shared signaling channel. One of the 24 channels may be used for this purpose. Outside North America and Japan, the 2.048-Mbps E1 carrier is used instead of T1. This carrier has 32 8-bit data samples packed into the basic 125-μsec frame. Thirty of the channels are used for information and up to two are used for signaling. Each group of four frames provides 64 signaling bits, half of which are used for signaling (whether channel-associated or common-channel) and half of which are used for frame synchronization or are reserved for each country to use as it wishes. Time division multiplexing allows multiple T1 carriers to be multiplexed into higher-order carriers. Figure 2-38 shows how this can be done. At the left we see four T1 channels being multiplexed into one T2 channel. The multiplexing at T2 and above is done bit for bit, rather than byte for byte with the 24 voice channels that make up a T1 frame. Four T1 streams at 1.544 Mbps should generate 6.176 Mbps, but T2 is actually 6.312 Mbps. The extra bits are used for framing and re- covery in case the carrier slips. T1 and T3 are widely used by customers, whereas T2 and T4 are only used within the telephone system itself, so they are not well known. At the next level, seven T2 streams are combined bitwise to form a T3 stream. Then six T3 streams are joined to form a T4 stream. At each step a small amount of overhead is added for framing and recovery in case the synchronization be- tween sender and receiver is lost. Just as there is little agreement on the basic carrier between the United States and the rest of the world, there is equally little agreement on how it is to be multi- plexed into higher-bandwidth carriers. The U.S. scheme of stepping up by 4, 7, and 6 did not strike everyone else as the way to go, so the ITU standard calls for multiplexing four streams into one stream at each level. Also, the framing and
- 180. 156 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 5 1 4 0 6 2 7 3 6:1 7:1 4:1 4 T1 streams in 1 T2 stream out 6.312 Mbps T2 1.544 Mbps T1 44.736 Mbps T3 274.176 Mbps T4 7 T2 streams in 6 T3 streams in Figure 2-38. Multiplexing T1 streams into higher carriers. recovery data are different in the U.S. and ITU standards. The ITU hierarchy for 32, 128, 512, 2048, and 8192 channels runs at speeds of 2.048, 8.848, 34.304, 139.264, and 565.148 Mbps. SONET/SDH In the early days of fiber optics, every telephone company had its own proprietary optical TDM system. After AT&T was broken up in 1984, local tele- phone companies had to connect to multiple long-distance carriers, all with dif- ferent optical TDM systems, so the need for standardization became obvious. In 1985, Bellcore, the RBOC’s research arm, began working on a standard, called SONET (Synchronous Optical NETwork). Later, ITU joined the effort, which resulted in a SONET standard and a set of parallel ITU recommendations (G.707, G.708, and G.709) in 1989. The ITU recommendations are called SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) but differ from SONET only in minor ways. Virtually all the long-distance telephone traffic in the United States, and much of it elsewhere, now uses trunks running SONET in the physical layer. For additional information about SONET, see Bellamy (2000), Goralski (2002), and Shepard (2001). The SONET design had four major goals. First and foremost, SONET had to make it possible for different carriers to interwork. Achieving this goal required defining a common signaling standard with respect to wavelength, timing, fram- ing structure, and other issues. Second, some means was needed to unify the U.S., European, and Japanese digital systems, all of which were based on 64-kbps PCM channels but combined them in different (and incompatible) ways. Third, SONET had to provide a way to multiplex multiple digital channels. At the time SONET was devised, the highest-speed digital carrier actually used widely in the United States was T3, at 44.736 Mbps. T4 was defined, but not used
- 181. SEC. 2.6 THE PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK 157 much, and nothing was even defined above T4 speed. Part of SONET’s mission was to continue the hierarchy to gigabits/sec and beyond. A standard way to mul- tiplex slower channels into one SONET channel was also needed. Fourth, SONET had to provide support for operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM), which are needed to manage the network. Previous systems did not do this very well. An early decision was to make SONET a traditional TDM system, with the entire bandwidth of the fiber devoted to one channel containing time slots for the various subchannels. As such, SONET is a synchronous system. Each sender and receiver is tied to a common clock. The master clock that controls the system has an accuracy of about 1 part in 109 . Bits on a SONET line are sent out at extreme- ly precise intervals, controlled by the master clock. The basic SONET frame is a block of 810 bytes put out every 125 μsec. Since SONET is synchronous, frames are emitted whether or not there are any useful data to send. Having 8000 frames/sec exactly matches the sampling rate of the PCM channels used in all digital telephony systems. The 810-byte SONET frames are best described as a rectangle of bytes, 90 columns wide by 9 rows high. Thus, 8 × 810 = 6480 bits are transmitted 8000 times per second, for a gross data rate of 51.84 Mbps. This layout is the basic SONET channel, called STS-1 (Synchronous Transport Signal-1). All SONET trunks are multiples of STS-1. The first three columns of each frame are reserved for system management information, as illustrated in Fig. 2-39. In this block, the first three rows contain the section overhead; the next six contain the line overhead. The section overhead is generated and checked at the start and end of each section, whereas the line overhead is generated and checked at the start and end of each line. A SONET transmitter sends back-to-back 810-byte frames, without gaps be- tween them, even when there are no data (in which case it sends dummy data). From the receiver’s point of view, all it sees is a continuous bit stream, so how does it know where each frame begins? The answer is that the first 2 bytes of each frame contain a fixed pattern that the receiver searches for. If it finds this pattern in the same place in a large number of consecutive frames, it assumes that it is in sync with the sender. In theory, a user could insert this pattern into the payload in a regular way, but in practice it cannot be done due to the multiplexing of multiple users into the same frame and other reasons. The remaining 87 columns of each frame hold 87 × 9 × 8 × 8000 = 50.112 Mbps of user data. This user data could be voice samples, T1 and other carriers swallowed whole, or packets. SONET is simply a convenient container for tran- sporting bits. The SPE (Synchronous Payload Envelope), which carries the user data does not always begin in row 1, column 4. The SPE can begin anywhere within the frame. A pointer to the first byte is contained in the first row of the line overhead. The first column of the SPE is the path overhead (i.e., the header for the end-to-end path sublayer protocol).
- 182. 158 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 Sonet frame (125 μsec) Sonet frame (125 μsec) 9 Rows . . . . . . 87 Columns 3 Columns for overhead SPE Section overhead Line overhead Path overhead Figure 2-39. Two back-to-back SONET frames. The ability to allow the SPE to begin anywhere within the SONET frame and even to span two frames, as shown in Fig. 2-39, gives added flexibility to the sys- tem. For example, if a payload arrives at the source while a dummy SONET frame is being constructed, it can be inserted into the current frame instead of being held until the start of the next one. The SONET/SDH multiplexing hierarchy is shown in Fig. 2-40. Rates from STS-1 to STS-768 have been defined, ranging from roughly a T3 line to 40 Gbps. Even higher rates will surely be defined over time, with OC-3072 at 160 Gbps being the next in line if and when it becomes technologically feasible. The opti- cal carrier corresponding to STS-n is called OC-n but is bit for bit the same except for a certain bit reordering needed for synchronization. The SDH names are dif- ferent, and they start at OC-3 because ITU-based systems do not have a rate near 51.84 Mbps. We have shown the common rates, which proceed from OC-3 in multiples of four. The gross data rate includes all the overhead. The SPE data rate excludes the line and section overhead. The user data rate excludes all over- head and counts only the 87 payload columns. As an aside, when a carrier, such as OC-3, is not multiplexed, but carries the data from only a single source, the letter c (for concatenated) is appended to the designation, so OC-3 indicates a 155.52-Mbps carrier consisting of three separate OC-1 carriers, but OC-3c indicates a data stream from a single source at 155.52 Mbps. The three OC-1 streams within an OC-3c stream are interleaved by column—first column 1 from stream 1, then column 1 from stream 2, then column 1 from stream 3, followed by column 2 from stream 1, and so on—leading to a frame 270 columns wide and 9 rows deep.
- 183. SEC. 2.6 THE PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK 159 SONET SDH Data rate (Mbps) Electrical Optical Optical Gross SPE User STS-1 OC-1 51.84 50.112 49.536 STS-3 OC-3 STM-1 155.52 150.336 148.608 STS-12 OC-12 STM-4 622.08 601.344 594.432 STS-48 OC-48 STM-16 2488.32 2405.376 2377.728 STS-192 OC-192 STM-64 9953.28 9621.504 9510.912 STS-768 OC-768 STM-256 39813.12 38486.016 38043.648 Figure 2-40. SONET and SDH multiplex rates. Wavelength Division Multiplexing A form of frequency division multiplexing is used as well as TDM to harness the tremendous bandwidth of fiber optic channels. It is called WDM (Wave- length Division Multiplexing). The basic principle of WDM on fibers is dep- icted in Fig. 2-41. Here four fibers come together at an optical combiner, each with its energy present at a different wavelength. The four beams are combined onto a single shared fiber for transmission to a distant destination. At the far end, the beam is split up over as many fibers as there were on the input side. Each out- put fiber contains a short, specially constructed core that filters out all but one wavelength. The resulting signals can be routed to their destination or recombin- ed in different ways for additional multiplexed transport. There is really nothing new here. This way of operating is just frequency di- vision multiplexing at very high frequencies, with the term WDM owing to the description of fiber optic channels by their wavelength or ‘‘color’’ rather than fre- quency. As long as each channel has its own frequency (i.e., wavelength) range and all the ranges are disjoint, they can be multiplexed together on the long-haul fiber. The only difference with electrical FDM is that an optical system using a diffraction grating is completely passive and thus highly reliable. The reason WDM is popular is that the energy on a single channel is typically only a few gigahertz wide because that is the current limit of how fast we can con- vert between electrical and optical signals. By running many channels in parallel on different wavelengths, the aggregate bandwidth is increased linearly with the number of channels. Since the bandwidth of a single fiber band is about 25,000 GHz (see Fig. 2-7), there is theoretically room for 2500 10-Gbps channels even at 1 bit/Hz (and higher rates are also possible). WDM technology has been progressing at a rate that puts computer technolo- gy to shame. WDM was invented around 1990. The first commercial systems had eight channels of 2.5 Gbps per channel. By 1998, systems with 40 channels
- 184. 160 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 Spectrum on the shared fiber Power λ Fiber 4 spectrum Power λ Fiber 3 spectrum Power λ Fiber 2 spectrum Power λ λ1 λ1+λ2+λ3+λ4 Fiber 1 spectrum Power λ Fiber 1 λ2 Fiber 2 λ3 Fiber 3 Combiner Splitter Long-haul shared fiber λ4 λ2 λ4 λ1 λ3 Fiber 4 Filter Figure 2-41. Wavelength division multiplexing. of 2.5 Gbps were on the market. By 2006, there were products with 192 channels of 10 Gbps and 64 channels of 40 Gbps, capable of moving up to 2.56 Tbps. This bandwidth is enough to transmit 80 full-length DVD movies per second. The channels are also packed tightly on the fiber, with 200, 100, or as little as 50 GHz of separation. Technology demonstrations by companies after bragging rights have shown 10 times this capacity in the lab, but going from the lab to the field usually takes at least a few years. When the number of channels is very large and the wavelengths are spaced close together, the system is referred to as DWDM (Dense WDM). One of the drivers of WDM technology is the development of all-optical com- ponents. Previously, every 100 km it was necessary to split up all the channels and convert each one to an electrical signal for amplification separately before reconverting them to optical signals and combining them. Nowadays, all-optical amplifiers can regenerate the entire signal once every 1000 km without the need for multiple opto-electrical conversions. In the example of Fig. 2-41, we have a fixed-wavelength system. Bits from input fiber 1 go to output fiber 3, bits from input fiber 2 go to output fiber 1, etc. However, it is also possible to build WDM systems that are switched in the opti- cal domain. In such a device, the output filters are tunable using Fabry-Perot or Mach-Zehnder interferometers. These devices allow the selected frequencies to be changed dynamically by a control computer. This ability provides a large amount of flexibility to provision many different wavelength paths through the telephone network from a fixed set of fibers. For more information about optical networks and WDM, see Ramaswami et al. (2009).
- 185. SEC. 2.6 THE PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK 161 2.6.5 Switching From the point of view of the average telephone engineer, the phone system is divided into two principal parts: outside plant (the local loops and trunks, since they are physically outside the switching offices) and inside plant (the switches, which are inside the switching offices). We have just looked at the outside plant. Now it is time to examine the inside plant. Two different switching techniques are used by the network nowadays: circuit switching and packet switching. The traditional telephone system is based on cir- cuit switching, but packet switching is beginning to make inroads with the rise of voice over IP technology. We will go into circuit switching in some detail and contrast it with packet switching. Both kinds of switching are important enough that we will come back to them when we get to the network layer. Circuit Switching Conceptually, when you or your computer places a telephone call, the switch- ing equipment within the telephone system seeks out a physical path all the way from your telephone to the receiver’s telephone. This technique is called circuit switching. It is shown schematically in Fig. 2-42(a). Each of the six rectangles represents a carrier switching office (end office, toll office, etc.). In this example, each office has three incoming lines and three outgoing lines. When a call passes through a switching office, a physical connection is (conceptually) established be- tween the line on which the call came in and one of the output lines, as shown by the dotted lines. In the early days of the telephone, the connection was made by the operator plugging a jumper cable into the input and output sockets. In fact, a surprising lit- tle story is associated with the invention of automatic circuit switching equipment. It was invented by a 19th-century Missouri undertaker named Almon B. Strowger. Shortly after the telephone was invented, when someone died, one of the survivors would call the town operator and say ‘‘Please connect me to an undertaker.’’ Un- fortunately for Mr. Strowger, there were two undertakers in his town, and the other one’s wife was the town telephone operator. He quickly saw that either he was going to have to invent automatic telephone switching equipment or he was going to go out of business. He chose the first option. For nearly 100 years, the circuit-switching equipment used worldwide was known as Strowger gear. (His- tory does not record whether the now-unemployed switchboard operator got a job as an information operator, answering questions such as ‘‘What is the phone num- ber of an undertaker?’’) The model shown in Fig. 2-42(a) is highly simplified, of course, because parts of the physical path between the two telephones may, in fact, be microwave or fiber links onto which thousands of calls are multiplexed. Nevertheless, the basic idea is valid: once a call has been set up, a dedicated path between both ends exists and will continue to exist until the call is finished.
- 186. 162 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 (a) (b) Switching office Physical (copper) connection set up when call is made Packets queued for subsequent transmission Computer Computer Figure 2-42. (a) Circuit switching. (b) Packet switching. An important property of circuit switching is the need to set up an end-to-end path before any data can be sent. The elapsed time between the end of dialing and the start of ringing can easily be 10 sec, more on long-distance or international calls. During this time interval, the telephone system is hunting for a path, as shown in Fig. 2-43(a). Note that before data transmission can even begin, the call request signal must propagate all the way to the destination and be acknowledged. For many computer applications (e.g., point-of-sale credit verification), long setup times are undesirable. As a consequence of the reserved path between the calling parties, once the setup has been completed, the only delay for data is the propagation time for the electromagnetic signal, about 5 msec per 1000 km. Also as a consequence of the established path, there is no danger of congestion—that is, once the call has been put through, you never get busy signals. Of course, you might get one before the connection has been established due to lack of switching or trunk capacity. Packet Switching The alternative to circuit switching is packet switching, shown in Fig. 2- 42(b) and described in Chap. 1. With this technology, packets are sent as soon as they are available. There is no need to set up a dedicated path in advance, unlike
- 187. SEC. 2.6 THE PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK 163 Call request signal Data AB trunk A B C (a) D A B C (b) D BC trunk CD trunk Call accept signal Propagation delay Queuing delay Pkt 1 Pkt 2 Pkt 3 Pkt 1 Pkt 2 Pkt 3 Pkt 1 Pkt 2 Pkt 3 Time spent hunting for an outgoing trunk Time Figure 2-43. Timing of events in (a) circuit switching, (b) packet switching. with circuit switching. It is up to routers to use store-and-forward transmission to send each packet on its way to the destination on its own. This procedure is unlike circuit switching, in which the result of the connection setup is the reserva- tion of bandwidth all the way from the sender to the receiver. All data on the cir- cuit follows this path. Among other properties, having all the data follow the same path means that it cannot arrive out of order. With packet switching there is no fixed path, so different packets can follow different paths, depending on net- work conditions at the time they are sent, and they may arrive out of order. Packet-switching networks place a tight upper limit on the size of packets. This ensures that no user can monopolize any transmission line for very long (e.g., many milliseconds), so that packet-switched networks can handle interactive traf- fic. It also reduces delay since the first packet of a long message can be for- warded before the second one has fully arrived. However, the store-and-forward delay of accumulating a packet in the router’s memory before it is sent on to the
- 188. 164 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 next router exceeds that of circuit switching. With circuit switching, the bits just flow through the wire continuously. Packet and circuit switching also differ in other ways. Because no bandwidth is reserved with packet switching, packets may have to wait to be forwarded. This introduces queuing delay and congestion if many packets are sent at the same time. On the other hand, there is no danger of getting a busy signal and being unable to use the network. Thus, congestion occurs at different times with circuit switching (at setup time) and packet switching (when packets are sent). If a circuit has been reserved for a particular user and there is no traffic, its bandwidth is wasted. It cannot be used for other traffic. Packet switching does not waste bandwidth and thus is more efficient from a system perspective. Under- standing this trade-off is crucial for comprehending the difference between circuit switching and packet switching. The trade-off is between guaranteed service and wasting resources versus not guaranteeing service and not wasting resources. Packet switching is more fault tolerant than circuit switching. In fact, that is why it was invented. If a switch goes down, all of the circuits using it are termi- nated and no more traffic can be sent on any of them. With packet switching, packets can be routed around dead switches. A final difference between circuit and packet switching is the charging algo- rithm. With circuit switching, charging has historically been based on distance and time. For mobile phones, distance usually does not play a role, except for in- ternational calls, and time plays only a coarse role (e.g., a calling plan with 2000 free minutes costs more than one with 1000 free minutes and sometimes nights or weekends are cheap). With packet switching, connect time is not an issue, but the volume of traffic is. For home users, ISPs usually charge a flat monthly rate be- cause it is less work for them and their customers can understand this model, but backbone carriers charge regional networks based on the volume of their traffic. The differences are summarized in Fig. 2-44. Traditionally, telephone net- works have used circuit switching to provide high-quality telephone calls, and computer networks have used packet switching for simplicity and efficiency. However, there are notable exceptions. Some older computer networks have been circuit switched under the covers (e.g., X.25) and some newer telephone networks use packet switching with voice over IP technology. This looks just like a stan- dard telephone call on the outside to users, but inside the network packets of voice data are switched. This approach has let upstarts market cheap international calls via calling cards, though perhaps with lower call quality than the incumbents. 2.7 THE MOBILE TELEPHONE SYSTEM The traditional telephone system, even if it someday gets multigigabit end-to- end fiber, will still not be able to satisfy a growing group of users: people on the go. People now expect to make phone calls and to use their phones to check
- 189. SEC. 2.7 THE MOBILE TELEPHONE SYSTEM 165 Item Circuit switched Packet switched Call setup Required Not needed Dedicated physical path Yes No Each packet follows the same route Yes No Packets arrive in order Yes No Is a switch crash fatal Yes No Bandwidth available Fixed Dynamic Time of possible congestion At setup time On every packet Potentially wasted bandwidth Yes No Store-and-forward transmission No Yes Charging Per minute Per packet Figure 2-44. A comparison of circuit-switched and packet-switched networks. email and surf the Web from airplanes, cars, swimming pools, and while jogging in the park. Consequently, there is a tremendous amount of interest in wireless telephony. In the following sections we will study this topic in some detail. The mobile phone system is used for wide area voice and data communica- tion. Mobile phones (sometimes called cell phones) have gone through three distinct generations, widely called 1G, 2G, and 3G. The generations are: 1. Analog voice. 2. Digital voice. 3. Digital voice and data (Internet, email, etc.). (Mobile phones should not be confused with cordless phones that consist of a base station and a handset sold as a set for use within the home. These are never used for networking, so we will not examine them further.) Although most of our discussion will be about the technology of these sys- tems, it is interesting to note how political and tiny marketing decisions can have a huge impact. The first mobile system was devised in the U.S. by AT&T and mandated for the whole country by the FCC. As a result, the entire U.S. had a single (analog) system and a mobile phone purchased in California also worked in New York. In contrast, when mobile phones came to Europe, every country de- vised its own system, which resulted in a fiasco. Europe learned from its mistake and when digital came around, the govern- ment-run PTTs got together and standardized on a single system (GSM), so any European mobile phone will work anywhere in Europe. By then, the U.S. had de- cided that government should not be in the standardization business, so it left digi- tal to the marketplace. This decision resulted in different equipment manufact- urers producing different kinds of mobile phones. As a consequence, in the U.S.
- 190. 166 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 two major—and completely incompatible—digital mobile phone systems were deployed, as well as other minor systems. Despite an initial lead by the U.S., mobile phone ownership and usage in Europe is now far greater than in the U.S. Having a single system that works any- where in Europe and with any provider is part of the reason, but there is more. A second area where the U.S. and Europe differed is in the humble matter of phone numbers. In the U.S., mobile phones are mixed in with regular (fixed) telephones. Thus, there is no way for a caller to see if, say, (212) 234-5678 is a fixed tele- phone (cheap or free call) or a mobile phone (expensive call). To keep people from getting nervous about placing calls, the telephone companies decided to make the mobile phone owner pay for incoming calls. As a consequence, many people hesitated buying a mobile phone for fear of running up a big bill by just re- ceiving calls. In Europe, mobile phone numbers have a special area code (analo- gous to 800 and 900 numbers) so they are instantly recognizable. Consequently, the usual rule of ‘‘caller pays’’ also applies to mobile phones in Europe (except for international calls, where costs are split). A third issue that has had a large impact on adoption is the widespread use of prepaid mobile phones in Europe (up to 75% in some areas). These can be pur- chased in many stores with no more formality than buying a digital camera. You pay and you go. They are preloaded with a balance of, for example, 20 or 50 euros and can be recharged (using a secret PIN code) when the balance drops to zero. As a consequence, practically every teenager and many small children in Europe have (usually prepaid) mobile phones so their parents can locate them, without the danger of the child running up a huge bill. If the mobile phone is used only occasionally, its use is essentially free since there is no monthly charge or charge for incoming calls. 2.7.1 First-Generation (1G) Mobile Phones: Analog Voice Enough about the politics and marketing aspects of mobile phones. Now let us look at the technology, starting with the earliest system. Mobile radiotele- phones were used sporadically for maritime and military communication during the early decades of the 20th century. In 1946, the first system for car-based tele- phones was set up in St. Louis. This system used a single large transmitter on top of a tall building and had a single channel, used for both sending and receiving. To talk, the user had to push a button that enabled the transmitter and disabled the receiver. Such systems, known as push-to-talk systems, were installed in several cities beginning in the late 1950s. CB radio, taxis, and police cars often use this technology. In the 1960s, IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone System) was installed. It, too, used a high-powered (200-watt) transmitter on top of a hill but it had two frequencies, one for sending and one for receiving, so the push-to-talk button was
- 191. SEC. 2.7 THE MOBILE TELEPHONE SYSTEM 167 no longer needed. Since all communication from the mobile telephones went inbound on a different channel than the outbound signals, the mobile users could not hear each other (unlike the push-to-talk system used in taxis). IMTS supported 23 channels spread out from 150 MHz to 450 MHz. Due to the small number of channels, users often had to wait a long time before getting a dial tone. Also, due to the large power of the hilltop transmitters, adjacent sys- tems had to be several hundred kilometers apart to avoid interference. All in all, the limited capacity made the system impractical. Advanced Mobile Phone System All that changed with AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System), invented by Bell Labs and first installed in the United States in 1982. It was also used in England, where it was called TACS, and in Japan, where it was called MCS-L1. AMPS was formally retired in 2008, but we will look at it to understand the con- text for the 2G and 3G systems that improved on it. In all mobile phone systems, a geographic region is divided up into cells, which is why the devices are sometimes called cell phones. In AMPS, the cells are typically 10 to 20 km across; in digital systems, the cells are smaller. Each cell uses some set of frequencies not used by any of its neighbors. The key idea that gives cellular systems far more capacity than previous systems is the use of relatively small cells and the reuse of transmission frequencies in nearby (but not adjacent) cells. Whereas an IMTS system 100 km across can have only one call on each frequency, an AMPS system might have 100 10-km cells in the same area and be able to have 10 to 15 calls on each frequency, in widely separated cells. Thus, the cellular design increases the system capacity by at least an order of magnitude, more as the cells get smaller. Furthermore, smaller cells mean that less power is needed, which leads to smaller and cheaper transmitters and handsets. The idea of frequency reuse is illustrated in Fig. 2-45(a). The cells are nor- mally roughly circular, but they are easier to model as hexagons. In Fig. 2-45(a), the cells are all the same size. They are grouped in units of seven cells. Each letter indicates a group of frequencies. Notice that for each frequency set, there is a buffer about two cells wide where that frequency is not reused, providing for good separation and low interference. Finding locations high in the air to place base station antennas is a major issue. This problem has led some telecommunication carriers to forge alliances with the Roman Catholic Church, since the latter owns a substantial number of exalted potential antenna sites worldwide, all conveniently under a single man- agement. In an area where the number of users has grown to the point that the system is overloaded, the power can be reduced and the overloaded cells split into smaller
- 192. 168 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 G F A B C D E G F A B C D E G F A B C D E (a) (b) Figure 2-45. (a) Frequencies are not reused in adjacent cells. (b) To add more users, smaller cells can be used. microcells to permit more frequency reuse, as shown in Fig. 2-45(b). Telephone companies sometimes create temporary microcells, using portable towers with satellite links at sporting events, rock concerts, and other places where large num- bers of mobile users congregate for a few hours. At the center of each cell is a base station to which all the telephones in the cell transmit. The base station consists of a computer and transmitter/receiver connected to an antenna. In a small system, all the base stations are connected to a single device called an MSC (Mobile Switching Center) or MTSO (Mobile Telephone Switching Office). In a larger one, several MSCs may be needed, all of which are connected to a second-level MSC, and so on. The MSCs are essen- tially end offices as in the telephone system, and are in fact connected to at least one telephone system end office. The MSCs communicate with the base stations, each other, and the PSTN using a packet-switching network. At any instant, each mobile telephone is logically in one specific cell and un- der the control of that cell’s base station. When a mobile telephone physically leaves a cell, its base station notices the telephone’s signal fading away and asks all the surrounding base stations how much power they are getting from it. When the answers come back, the base station then transfers ownership to the cell get- ting the strongest signal; under most conditions that is the cell where the tele- phone is now located. The telephone is then informed of its new boss, and if a call is in progress, it is asked to switch to a new channel (because the old one is not reused in any of the adjacent cells). This process, called handoff, takes about 300 msec. Channel assignment is done by the MSC, the nerve center of the sys- tem. The base stations are really just dumb radio relays.
- 193. SEC. 2.7 THE MOBILE TELEPHONE SYSTEM 169 Channels AMPS uses FDM to separate the channels. The system uses 832 full-duplex channels, each consisting of a pair of simplex channels. This arrangement is known as FDD (Frequency Division Duplex). The 832 simplex channels from 824 to 849 MHz are used for mobile to base station transmission, and 832 simplex channels from 869 to 894 MHz are used for base station to mobile transmission. Each of these simplex channels is 30 kHz wide. The 832 channels are divided into four categories. Control channels (base to mobile) are used to manage the system. Paging channels (base to mobile) alert mobile users to calls for them. Access channels (bidirectional) are used for call setup and channel assignment. Finally, data channels (bidirectional) carry voice, fax, or data. Since the same frequencies cannot be reused in nearby cells and 21 channels are reserved in each cell for control, the actual number of voice channels available per cell is much smaller than 832, typically about 45. Call Management Each mobile telephone in AMPS has a 32-bit serial number and a 10-digit telephone number in its programmable read-only memory. The telephone number is represented as a 3-digit area code in 10 bits and a 7-digit subscriber number in 24 bits. When a phone is switched on, it scans a preprogrammed list of 21 control channels to find the most powerful signal. The phone then broadcasts its 32-bit serial number and 34-bit telephone number. Like all the control information in AMPS, this packet is sent in digital form, multiple times, and with an error-cor- recting code, even though the voice channels themselves are analog. When the base station hears the announcement, it tells the MSC, which records the existence of its new customer and also informs the customer’s home MSC of his current location. During normal operation, the mobile telephone reregisters about once every 15 minutes. To make a call, a mobile user switches on the phone, enters the number to be called on the keypad, and hits the SEND button. The phone then transmits the number to be called and its own identity on the access channel. If a collision oc- curs there, it tries again later. When the base station gets the request, it informs the MSC. If the caller is a customer of the MSC’s company (or one of its partners), the MSC looks for an idle channel for the call. If one is found, the channel number is sent back on the control channel. The mobile phone then auto- matically switches to the selected voice channel and waits until the called party picks up the phone. Incoming calls work differently. To start with, all idle phones continuously listen to the paging channel to detect messages directed at them. When a call is placed to a mobile phone (either from a fixed phone or another mobile phone), a packet is sent to the callee’s home MSC to find out where it is. A packet is then
- 194. 170 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 sent to the base station in its current cell, which sends a broadcast on the paging channel of the form ‘‘Unit 14, are you there?’’ The called phone responds with a ‘‘Yes’’ on the access channel. The base then says something like: ‘‘Unit 14, call for you on channel 3.’’ At this point, the called phone switches to channel 3 and starts making ringing sounds (or playing some melody the owner was given as a birthday present). 2.7.2 Second-Generation (2G) Mobile Phones: Digital Voice The first generation of mobile phones was analog; the second generation is digital. Switching to digital has several advantages. It provides capacity gains by allowing voice signals to be digitized and compressed. It improves security by al- lowing voice and control signals to be encrypted. This in turn deters fraud and eavesdropping, whether from intentional scanning or echoes of other calls due to RF propagation. Finally, it enables new services such as text messaging. Just as there was no worldwide standardization during the first generation, there was also no worldwide standardization during the second, either. Several different systems were developed, and three have been widely deployed. D- AMPS (Digital Advanced Mobile Phone System) is a digital version of AMPS that coexists with AMPS and uses TDM to place multiple calls on the same fre- quency channel. It is described in International Standard IS-54 and its successor IS-136. GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) has emerged as the dominant system, and while it was slow to catch on in the U.S. it is now used vir- tually everywhere in the world. Like D-AMPS, GSM is based on a mix of FDM and TDM. CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), described in International Standard IS-95, is a completely different kind of system and is based on neither FDM mor TDM. While CDMA has not become the dominant 2G system, its technology has become the basis for 3G systems. Also, the name PCS (Personal Communications Services) is sometimes used in the marketing literature to indicate a second-generation (i.e., digital) sys- tem. Originally it meant a mobile phone using the 1900 MHz band, but that dis- tinction is rarely made now. We will now describe GSM, since it is the dominant 2G system. In the next section we will have more to say about CDMA when we describe 3G systems. GSM—The Global System for Mobile Communications GSM started life in the 1980s as an effort to produce a single European 2G standard. The task was assigned to a telecommunications group called (in French) Groupe Specialé Mobile. The first GSM systems were deployed starting in 1991 and were a quick success. It soon became clear that GSM was going to be more than a European success, with uptake stretching to countries as far away as Aus- tralia, so GSM was renamed to have a more worldwide appeal.
- 195. SEC. 2.7 THE MOBILE TELEPHONE SYSTEM 171 GSM and the other mobile phone systems we will study retain from 1G sys- tems a design based on cells, frequency reuse across cells, and mobility with handoffs as subscribers move. It is the details that differ. Here, we will briefly discuss some of the main properties of GSM. However, the printed GSM stan- dard is over 5000 [sic] pages long. A large fraction of this material relates to en- gineering aspects of the system, especially the design of receivers to handle mul- tipath signal propagation, and synchronizing transmitters and receivers. None of this will be even mentioned here. Fig. 2-46 shows that the GSM architecture is similar to the AMPS architec- ture, though the components have different names. The mobile itself is now di- vided into the handset and a removable chip with subscriber and account infor- mation called a SIM card, short for Subscriber Identity Module. It is the SIM card that activates the handset and contains secrets that let the mobile and the net- work identify each other and encrypt conversations. A SIM card can be removed and plugged into a different handset to turn that handset into your mobile as far as the network is concerned. VLR MSC Air interface Cell tower and base station PSTN SIM card Handset HLR BSC BSC Figure 2-46. GSM mobile network architecture. The mobile talks to cell base stations over an air interface that we will de- scribe in a moment. The cell base stations are each connected to a BSC (Base Station Controller) that controls the radio resources of cells and handles handoff. The BSC in turn is connected to an MSC (as in AMPS) that routes calls and con- nects to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). To be able to route calls, the MSC needs to know where mobiles can currently be found. It maintains a database of nearby mobiles that are associated with the cells it manages. This database is called the VLR (Visitor Location Register). There is also a database in the mobile network that gives the last known location of each mobile. It is called the HLR (Home Location Register). This database is used to route incoming calls to the right locations. Both databases must be kept up to date as mobiles move from cell to cell. We will now describe the air interface in some detail. GSM runs on a range of frequencies worldwide, including 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz. More spectrum is allocated than for AMPS in order to support a much larger number of users. GSM
- 196. 172 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 is a frequency division duplex cellular system, like AMPS. That is, each mobile transmits on one frequency and receives on another, higher frequency (55 MHz higher for GSM versus 80 MHz higher for AMPS). However, unlike with AMPS, with GSM a single frequency pair is split by time-division multiplexing into time slots. In this way it is shared by multiple mobiles. To handle multiple mobiles, GSM channels are much wider than the AMPS channels (200-kHz versus 30 kHz). One 200-kHz channel is shown in Fig. 2-47. A GSM system operating in the 900-MHz region has 124 pairs of simplex chan- nels. Each simplex channel is 200 kHz wide and supports eight separate con- nections on it, using time division multiplexing. Each currently active station is assigned one time slot on one channel pair. Theoretically, 992 channels can be supported in each cell, but many of them are not available, to avoid frequency conflicts with neighboring cells. In Fig. 2-47, the eight shaded time slots all be- long to the same connection, four of them in each direction. Transmitting and re- ceiving does not happen in the same time slot because the GSM radios cannot transmit and receive at the same time and it takes time to switch from one to the other. If the mobile device assigned to 890.4/935.4 MHz and time slot 2 wanted to transmit to the base station, it would use the lower four shaded slots (and the ones following them in time), putting some data in each slot until all the data had been sent. 959.8 MHz 935.4 MHz 935.2 MHz 914.8 MHz 890.4 MHz 890.2 MHz Frequency Base to mobile Mobile to base 124 2 1 124 2 1 Channel TDM frame Time Figure 2-47. GSM uses 124 frequency channels, each of which uses an eight- slot TDM system. The TDM slots shown in Fig. 2-47 are part of a complex framing hierarchy. Each TDM slot has a specific structure, and groups of TDM slots form mul- tiframes, also with a specific structure. A simplified version of this hierarchy is shown in Fig. 2-48. Here we can see that each TDM slot consists of a 148-bit data frame that occupies the channel for 577 μsec (including a 30-μsec guard time
- 197. SEC. 2.7 THE MOBILE TELEPHONE SYSTEM 173 after each slot). Each data frame starts and ends with three 0 bits, for frame del- ineation purposes. It also contains two 57-bit Information fields, each one having a control bit that indicates whether the following Information field is for voice or data. Between the Information fields is a 26-bit Sync (training) field that is used by the receiver to synchronize to the sender’s frame boundaries. C T L 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 32,500-Bit multiframe sent in 120 msec 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1250-Bit TDM frame sent in 4.615 msec 8.25–bit (30 μsec) guard time Reserved for future use 000 000 Information Information Sync 148-Bit data frame sent in 547 μsec Bits 3 3 57 57 26 Voice/data bit Figure 2-48. A portion of the GSM framing structure. A data frame is transmitted in 547 μsec, but a transmitter is only allowed to send one data frame every 4.615 msec, since it is sharing the channel with seven other stations. The gross rate of each channel is 270,833 bps, divided among eight users. However, as with AMPS, the overhead eats up a large fraction of the band- width, ultimately leaving 24.7 kbps worth of payload per user before error cor- rection. After error correction, 13 kbps is left for speech. While this is substan- tially less than 64 kbps PCM for uncompressed voice signals in the fixed tele- phone network, compression on the mobile device can reach these levels with lit- tle loss of quality. As can be seen from Fig. 2-48, eight data frames make up a TDM frame and 26 TDM frames make up a 120-msec multiframe. Of the 26 TDM frames in a multiframe, slot 12 is used for control and slot 25 is reserved for future use, so only 24 are available for user traffic. However, in addition to the 26-slot multiframe shown in Fig. 2-48, a 51-slot multiframe (not shown) is also used. Some of these slots are used to hold several control channels used to manage the system. The broadcast control channel is a continuous stream of output from the base station containing the base station’s identity and the channel status. All mobile stations monitor their signal strength to see when they have moved into a new cell.
- 198. 174 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 The dedicated control channel is used for location updating, registration, and call setup. In particular, each BSC maintains a database of mobile stations currently under its jurisdiction, the VLR. Information needed to maintain the VLR is sent on the dedicated control channel. Finally, there is the common control channel, which is split up into three logical subchannels. The first of these subchannels is the paging channel, which the base station uses to announce incoming calls. Each mobile station monitors it continuously to watch for calls it should answer. The second is the random ac- cess channel, which allows users to request a slot on the dedicated control chan- nel. If two requests collide, they are garbled and have to be retried later. Using the dedicated control channel slot, the station can set up a call. The assigned slot is announced on the third subchannel, the access grant channel. Finally, GSM differs from AMPS in how handoff is handled. In AMPS, the MSC manages it completely without help from the mobile devices. With time slots in GSM, the mobile is neither sending nor receiving most of the time. The idle slots are an opportunity for the mobile to measure signal quality to other nearby base stations. It does so and sends this information to the BSC. The BSC can use it to determine when a mobile is leaving one cell and entering another so it can perform the handoff. This design is called MAHO (Mobile Assisted HandOff). 2.7.3 Third-Generation (3G) Mobile Phones: Digital Voice and Data The first generation of mobile phones was analog voice, and the second gen- eration was digital voice. The third generation of mobile phones, or 3G as it is called, is all about digital voice and data. A number of factors are driving the industry. First, data traffic already exceeds voice traffic on the fixed network and is growing exponentially, whereas voice traffic is essentially flat. Many industry experts expect data traffic to dom- inate voice on mobile devices as well soon. Second, the telephone, entertainment, and computer industries have all gone digital and are rapidly converging. Many people are drooling over lightweight, portable devices that act as a telephone, mu- sic and video player, email terminal, Web interface, gaming machine, and more, all with worldwide wireless connectivity to the Internet at high bandwidth. Apple’s iPhone is a good example of this kind of 3G device. With it, people get hooked on wireless data services, and AT&T wireless data volumes are rising steeply with the popularity of iPhones. The trouble is, the iPhone uses a 2.5G net- work (an enhanced 2G network, but not a true 3G network) and there is not enough data capacity to keep users happy. 3G mobile telephony is all about pro- viding enough wireless bandwidth to keep these future users happy. ITU tried to get a bit more specific about this vision starting back around 1992. It issued a blueprint for getting there called IMT-2000, where IMT stood
- 199. SEC. 2.7 THE MOBILE TELEPHONE SYSTEM 175 for International Mobile Telecommunications. The basic services that the IMT-2000 network was supposed to provide to its users are: 1. High-quality voice transmission. 2. Messaging (replacing email, fax, SMS, chat, etc.). 3. Multimedia (playing music, viewing videos, films, television, etc.). 4. Internet access (Web surfing, including pages with audio and video). Additional services might be video conferencing, telepresence, group game play- ing, and m-commerce (waving your telephone at the cashier to pay in a store). Furthermore, all these services are supposed to be available worldwide (with automatic connection via a satellite when no terrestrial network can be located), instantly (always on), and with quality of service guarantees. ITU envisioned a single worldwide technology for IMT-2000, so manufact- urers could build a single device that could be sold and used anywhere in the world (like CD players and computers and unlike mobile phones and televisions). Having a single technology would also make life much simpler for network opera- tors and would encourage more people to use the services. Format wars, such as the Betamax versus VHS battle with videorecorders, are not good for business. As it turned out, this was a bit optimistic. The number 2000 stood for three things: (1) the year it was supposed to go into service, (2) the frequency it was supposed to operate at (in MHz), and (3) the bandwidth the service should have (in kbps). It did not make it on any of the three counts. Nothing was imple- mented by 2000. ITU recommended that all governments reserve spectrum at 2 GHz so devices could roam seamlessly from country to country. China reserved the required bandwidth but nobody else did. Finally, it was recognized that 2 Mbps is not currently feasible for users who are too mobile (due to the difficulty of performing handoffs quickly enough). More realistic is 2 Mbps for stationary indoor users (which will compete head-on with ADSL), 384 kbps for people walk- ing, and 144 kbps for connections in cars. Despite these initial setbacks, much has been accomplished since then. Sev- eral IMT proposals were made and, after some winnowing, it came down to two main ones. The first one, WCDMA (Wideband CDMA), was proposed by Ericsson and was pushed by the European Union, which called it UMTS (Univer- sal Mobile Telecommunications System). The other contender was CDMA2000, proposed by Qualcomm. Both of these systems are more similar than different in that they are based on broadband CDMA; WCDMA uses 5-MHz channels and CDMA2000 uses 1.25- MHz channels. If the Ericsson and Qualcomm engineers were put in a room and told to come to a common design, they probably could find one fairly quickly. The trouble is that the real problem is not engineering, but politics (as usual). Europe wanted a system that interworked with GSM, whereas the U.S. wanted a
- 200. 176 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 system that was compatible with one already widely deployed in the U.S. (IS-95). Each side also supported its local company (Ericsson is based in Sweden; Qual- comm is in California). Finally, Ericsson and Qualcomm were involved in num- erous lawsuits over their respective CDMA patents. Worldwide, 10–15% of mobile subscribers already use 3G technologies. In North America and Europe, around a third of mobile subscribers are 3G. Japan was an early adopter and now nearly all mobile phones in Japan are 3G. These figures include the deployment of both UMTS and CDMA2000, and 3G continues to be one great cauldron of activity as the market shakes out. To add to the confu- sion, UMTS became a single 3G standard with multiple incompatible options, in- cluding CDMA2000. This change was an effort to unify the various camps, but it just papers over the technical differences and obscures the focus of ongoing efforts. We will use UMTS to mean WCDMA, as distinct from CDMA2000. We will focus our discussion on the use of CDMA in cellular networks, as it is the distinguishing feature of both systems. CDMA is neither FDM nor TDM but a kind of mix in which each user sends on the same frequency band at the same time. When it was first proposed for cellular systems, the industry gave it approximately the same reaction that Columbus first got from Queen Isabella when he proposed reaching India by sailing in the wrong direction. However, through the persistence of a single company, Qualcomm, CDMA succeeded as a 2G system (IS-95) and matured to the point that it became the technical basis for 3G. To make CDMA work in the mobile phone setting requires more than the basic CDMA technique that we described in the previous section. Specifically, we described synchronous CDMA, in which the chip sequences are exactly orthogonal. This design works when all users are synchronized on the start time of their chip sequences, as in the case of the base station transmitting to mobiles. The base station can transmit the chip sequences starting at the same time so that the signals will be orthogonal and able to be separated. However, it is difficult to synchronize the transmissions of independent mobile phones. Without care, their transmissions would arrive at the base station at different times, with no guarantee of orthogonality. To let mobiles send to the base station without synchronization, we want code sequences that are orthogonal to each other at all possible offsets, not simply when they are aligned at the start. While it is not possible to find sequences that are exactly orthogonal for this general case, long pseudorandom sequences come close enough. They have the property that, with high probability, they have a low cross-correlation with each other at all offsets. This means that when one sequence is multiplied by another sequence and summed up to compute the inner product, the result will be small; it would be zero if they were orthogonal. (Intuitively, random sequences should al- ways look different from each other. Multiplying them together should then pro- duce a random signal, which will sum to a small result.) This lets a receiver filter unwanted transmissions out of the received signal. Also, the auto-correlation of
- 201. SEC. 2.7 THE MOBILE TELEPHONE SYSTEM 177 pseudorandom sequences is also small, with high probability, except at a zero off- set. This means that when one sequence is multiplied by a delayed copy of itself and summed, the result will be small, except when the delay is zero. (Intuitively, a delayed random sequence looks like a different random sequence, and we are back to the cross-correlation case.) This lets a receiver lock onto the beginning of the wanted transmission in the received signal. The use of pseudorandom sequences lets the base station receive CDMA mes- sages from unsynchronized mobiles. However, an implicit assumption in our dis- cussion of CDMA is that the power levels of all mobiles are the same at the re- ceiver. If they are not, a small cross-correlation with a powerful signal might overwhelm a large auto-correlation with a weak signal. Thus, the transmit power on mobiles must be controlled to minimize interference between competing sig- nals. It is this interference that limits the capacity of CDMA systems. The power levels received at a base station depend on how far away the trans- mitters are as well as how much power they transmit. There may be many mobile stations at varying distances from the base station. A good heuristic to equalize the received power is for each mobile station to transmit to the base station at the inverse of the power level it receives from the base station. In other words, a mobile station receiving a weak signal from the base station will use more power than one getting a strong signal. For more accuracy, the base station also gives each mobile feedback to increase, decrease, or hold steady its transmit power. The feedback is frequent (1500 times per second) because good power control is im- portant to minimize interference. Another improvement over the basic CDMA scheme we described earlier is to allow different users to send data at different rates. This trick is accomplished naturally in CDMA by fixing the rate at which chips are transmitted and assigning users chip sequences of different lengths. For example, in WCDMA, the chip rate is 3.84 Mchips/sec and the spreading codes vary from 4 to 256 chips. With a 256- chip code, around 12 kbps is left after error correction, and this capacity is suffi- cient for a voice call. With a 4-chip code, the user data rate is close to 1 Mbps. Intermediate-length codes give intermediate rates; to get to multiple Mbps, the mobile must use more than one 5-MHz channel at once. Now let us describe the advantages of CDMA, given that we have dealt with the problems of getting it to work. It has three main advantages. First, CDMA can improve capacity by taking advantage of small periods when some trans- mitters are silent. In polite voice calls, one party is silent while the other talks. On average, the line is busy only 40% of the time. However, the pauses may be small and are difficult to predict. With TDM or FDM systems, it is not possible to reas- sign time slots or frequency channels quickly enough to benefit from these small silences. However, in CDMA, by simply not transmitting one user lowers the in- terference for other users, and it is likely that some fraction of users will not be transmitting in a busy cell at any given time. Thus CDMA takes advantage of ex- pected silences to allow a larger number of simultaneous calls.
- 202. 178 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 Second, with CDMA each cell uses the same frequencies. Unlike GSM and AMPS, FDM is not needed to separate the transmissions of different users. This eliminates complicated frequency planning tasks and improves capacity. It also makes it easy for a base station to use multiple directional antennas, or sectored antennas, instead of an omnidirectional antenna. Directional antennas concen- trate a signal in the intended direction and reduce the signal, and hence inter- ference, in other directions. This in turn increases capacity. Three sector designs are common. The base station must track the mobile as it moves from sector to sector. This tracking is easy with CDMA because all frequencies are used in all sectors. Third, CDMA facilitates soft handoff, in which the mobile is acquired by the new base station before the previous one signs off. In this way there is no loss of continuity. Soft handoff is shown in Fig. 2-49. It is easy with CDMA because all frequencies are used in each cell. The alternative is a hard handoff, in which the old base station drops the call before the new one acquires it. If the new one is unable to acquire it (e.g., because there is no available frequency), the call is disconnected abruptly. Users tend to notice this, but it is inevitable occasionally with the current design. Hard handoff is the norm with FDM designs to avoid the cost of having the mobile transmit or receive on two frequencies simultaneously. (a) (b) (c) Figure 2-49. Soft handoff (a) before, (b) during, and (c) after. Much has been written about 3G, most of it praising it as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Meanwhile, many operators have taken cautious steps in the direction of 3G by going to what is sometimes called 2.5G, although 2.1G might be more accurate. One such system is EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution), which is just GSM with more bits per symbol. The trouble is, more bits per symbol also means more errors per symbol, so EDGE has nine different schemes for modulation and error correction, differing in terms of how much of the bandwidth is devoted to fixing the errors introduced by the higher speed. EDGE is one step along an evolutionary path that is defined from GSM to WCDMA. Similarly, there is an evolutionary path defined for operators to upgrade from IS-95 to CDMA2000 networks. Even though 3G networks are not fully deployed yet, some researchers regard 3G as a done deal. These people are already working on 4G systems under the
- 203. SEC. 2.7 THE MOBILE TELEPHONE SYSTEM 179 name of LTE (Long Term Evolution). Some of the proposed features of 4G in- clude: high bandwidth; ubiquity (connectivity everywhere); seamless integration with other wired and wireless IP networks, including 802.11 access points; adap- tive resource and spectrum management; and high quality of service for multi- media. For more information see Astely et al. (2009) and Larmo et al. (2009). Meanwhile, wireless networks with 4G levels of performance are already available. The main example is 802.16, also known as WiMAX. For an overview of mobile WiMAX see Ahmadi (2009). To say the industry is in a state of flux is a huge understatement. Check back in a few years to see what has happened. 2.8 CABLE TELEVISION We have now studied both the fixed and wireless telephone systems in a fair amount of detail. Both will clearly play a major role in future networks. But there is another major player that has emerged over the past decade for Internet access: cable television networks. Many people nowadays get their telephone and Internet service over cable. In the following sections we will look at cable tele- vision as a network in more detail and contrast it with the telephone systems we have just studied. Some relevant references for more information are Donaldson and Jones (2001), Dutta-Roy (2001), and Fellows and Jones (2001). 2.8.1 Community Antenna Television Cable television was conceived in the late 1940s as a way to provide better reception to people living in rural or mountainous areas. The system initially con- sisted of a big antenna on top of a hill to pluck the television signal out of the air, an amplifier, called the headend, to strengthen it, and a coaxial cable to deliver it to people’s houses, as illustrated in Fig. 2-50. Tap Coaxial cable Drop cable Headend Antenna for picking up distant signals Figure 2-50. An early cable television system. In the early years, cable television was called Community Antenna Televis- ion. It was very much a mom-and-pop operation; anyone handy with electronics
- 204. 180 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 could set up a service for his town, and the users would chip in to pay the costs. As the number of subscribers grew, additional cables were spliced onto the origi- nal cable and amplifiers were added as needed. Transmission was one way, from the headend to the users. By 1970, thousands of independent systems existed. In 1974, Time Inc. started a new channel, Home Box Office, with new content (movies) distributed only on cable. Other cable-only channels followed, focusing on news, sports, cooking, and many other topics. This development gave rise to two changes in the industry. First, large corporations began buying up existing cable systems and laying new cable to acquire new subscribers. Second, there was now a need to connect multiple systems, often in distant cities, in order to dis- tribute the new cable channels. The cable companies began to lay cable between the cities to connect them all into a single system. This pattern was analogous to what happened in the telephone industry 80 years earlier with the connection of previously isolated end offices to make long-distance calling possible. 2.8.2 Internet over Cable Over the course of the years the cable system grew and the cables between the various cities were replaced by high-bandwidth fiber, similar to what happened in the telephone system. A system with fiber for the long-haul runs and coaxial cable to the houses is called an HFC (Hybrid Fiber Coax) system. The electro- optical converters that interface between the optical and electrical parts of the sys- tem are called fiber nodes. Because the bandwidth of fiber is so much greater than that of coax, a fiber node can feed multiple coaxial cables. Part of a modern HFC system is shown in Fig. 2-51(a). Over the past decade, many cable operators decided to get into the Internet access business, and often the telephony business as well. Technical differences between the cable plant and telephone plant had an effect on what had to be done to achieve these goals. For one thing, all the one-way amplifiers in the system had to be replaced by two-way amplifiers to support upstream as well as down- stream transmissions. While this was happening, early Internet over cable sys- tems used the cable television network for downstream transmissions and a dial- up connection via the telephone network for upstream transmissions. It was a clever workaround, but not much of a network compared to what it could be. However, there is another difference between the HFC system of Fig. 2-51(a) and the telephone system of Fig. 2-51(b) that is much harder to remove. Down in the neighborhoods, a single cable is shared by many houses, whereas in the tele- phone system, every house has its own private local loop. When used for televis- ion broadcasting, this sharing is a natural fit. All the programs are broadcast on the cable and it does not matter whether there are 10 viewers or 10,000 viewers. When the same cable is used for Internet access, however, it matters a lot if there are 10 users or 10,000. If one user decides to download a very large file, that bandwidth is potentially being taken away from other users. The more users there
- 205. SEC. 2.8 CABLE TELEVISION 181 Copper twisted pair Switch Toll office Head- end High-bandwidth fiber trunk End office Local loop (a) (b) House High-bandwidth fiber trunk Coaxial cable House Tap Fiber node Fiber Fiber Figure 2-51. (a) Cable television. (b) The fixed telephone system. are, the more competition there is for bandwidth. The telephone system does not have this particular property: downloading a large file over an ADSL line does not reduce your neighbor’s bandwidth. On the other hand, the bandwidth of coax is much higher than that of twisted pairs, so you can get lucky if your neighbors do not use the Internet much. The way the cable industry has tackled this problem is to split up long cables and connect each one directly to a fiber node. The bandwidth from the headend to each fiber node is effectively infinite, so as long as there are not too many sub- scribers on each cable segment, the amount of traffic is manageable. Typical
- 206. 182 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 cables nowadays have 500–2000 houses, but as more and more people subscribe to Internet over cable, the load may become too great, requiring more splitting and more fiber nodes. 2.8.3 Spectrum Allocation Throwing off all the TV channels and using the cable infrastructure strictly for Internet access would probably generate a fair number of irate customers, so cable companies are hesitant to do this. Furthermore, most cities heavily regulate what is on the cable, so the cable operators would not be allowed to do this even if they really wanted to. As a consequence, they needed to find a way to have tele- vision and Internet peacefully coexist on the same cable. The solution is to build on frequency division multiplexing. Cable television channels in North America occupy the 54–550 MHz region (except for FM radio, from 88 to 108 MHz). These channels are 6-MHz wide, including guard bands, and can carry one traditional analog television channel or several digital television channels. In Europe the low end is usually 65 MHz and the channels are 6–8 MHz wide for the higher resolution required by PAL and SECAM, but otherwise the allocation scheme is similar. The low part of the band is not used. Modern cables can also operate well above 550 MHz, often at up to 750 MHz or more. The solution chosen was to introduce upstream channels in the 5–42 MHz band (slightly higher in Europe) and use the frequencies at the high end for the down- stream signals. The cable spectrum is illustrated in Fig. 2-52. 0 108 TV TV Downstream data Downstream frequencies Upstream data Upstream frequencies FM 550 750 MHz 5 42 54 88 Figure 2-52. Frequency allocation in a typical cable TV system used for Inter- net access. Note that since the television signals are all downstream, it is possible to use upstream amplifiers that work only in the 5–42 MHz region and downstream amplifiers that work only at 54 MHz and up, as shown in the figure. Thus, we get an asymmetry in the upstream and downstream bandwidths because more spec- trum is available above television than below it. On the other hand, most users want more downstream traffic, so cable operators are not unhappy with this fact
- 207. SEC. 2.8 CABLE TELEVISION 183 of life. As we saw earlier, telephone companies usually offer an asymmetric DSL service, even though they have no technical reason for doing so. In addition to upgrading the amplifiers, the operator has to upgrade the headend, too, from a dumb amplifier to an intelligent digital computer system with a high-bandwidth fiber interface to an ISP. Often the name gets upgraded as well, from ‘‘headend’’ to CMTS (Cable Modem Termination System). In the following text, we will refrain from doing a name upgrade and stick with the tra- ditional ‘‘headend.’’ 2.8.4 Cable Modems Internet access requires a cable modem, a device that has two interfaces on it: one to the computer and one to the cable network. In the early years of cable In- ternet, each operator had a proprietary cable modem, which was installed by a cable company technician. However, it soon became apparent that an open stan- dard would create a competitive cable modem market and drive down prices, thus encouraging use of the service. Furthermore, having the customers buy cable modems in stores and install them themselves (as they do with wireless access points) would eliminate the dreaded truck rolls. Consequently, the larger cable operators teamed up with a company called CableLabs to produce a cable modem standard and to test products for compli- ance. This standard, called DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Spe- cification), has mostly replaced proprietary modems. DOCSIS version 1.0 came out in 1997, and was soon followed by DOCSIS 2.0 in 2001. It increased up- stream rates to better support symmetric services such as IP telephony. The most recent version of the standard is DOCSIS 3.0, which came out in 2006. It uses more bandwidth to increase rates in both directions. The European version of these standards is called EuroDOCSIS. Not all cable operators like the idea of a standard, however, since many of them were making good money leasing their modems to their captive customers. An open standard with dozens of manufact- urers selling cable modems in stores ends this lucrative practice. The modem-to-computer interface is straightforward. It is normally Ethernet, or occasionally USB. The other end is more complicated as it uses all of FDM, TDM, and CDMA to share the bandwidth of the cable between subscribers. When a cable modem is plugged in and powered up, it scans the downstream channels looking for a special packet periodically put out by the headend to pro- vide system parameters to modems that have just come online. Upon finding this packet, the new modem announces its presence on one of the upstream channels. The headend responds by assigning the modem to its upstream and downstream channels. These assignments can be changed later if the headend deems it neces- sary to balance the load. The use of 6-MHz or 8-MHz channels is the FDM part. Each cable modem sends data on one upstream and one downstream channel, or multiple channels
- 208. 184 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 under DOCSIS 3.0. The usual scheme is to take each 6 (or 8) MHz downstream channel and modulate it with QAM-64 or, if the cable quality is exceptionally good, QAM-256. With a 6-MHz channel and QAM-64, we get about 36 Mbps. When the overhead is subtracted, the net payload is about 27 Mbps. With QAM- 256, the net payload is about 39 Mbps. The European values are 1/3 larger. For upstream, there is more RF noise because the system was not originally designed for data, and noise from multiple subscribers is funneled to the headend, so a more conservative scheme is used. This ranges from QPSK to QAM-128, where some of the symbols are used for error protection with Trellis Coded Mod- ulation. With fewer bits per symbol on the upstream, the asymmetry between upstream and downstream rates is much more than suggested by Fig. 2-52. TDM is then used to share bandwidth on the upstream across multiple sub- scribers. Otherwise their transmissions would collide at the headend. Time is di- vided into minislots and different subscribers send in different minislots. To make this work, the modem determines its distance from the headend by sending it a special packet and seeing how long it takes to get the response. This process is called ranging. It is important for the modem to know its distance to get the timing right. Each upstream packet must fit in one or more consecutive minislots at the headend when it is received. The headend announces the start of a new round of minislots periodically, but the starting gun is not heard at all modems si- multaneously due to the propagation time down the cable. By knowing how far it is from the headend, each modem can compute how long ago the first minislot really started. Minislot length is network dependent. A typical payload is 8 bytes. During initialization, the headend assigns each modem to a minislot to use for requesting upstream bandwidth. When a computer wants to send a packet, it transfers the packet to the modem, which then requests the necessary number of minislots for it. If the request is accepted, the headend puts an acknowledgement on the downstream channel telling the modem which minislots have been reserved for its packet. The packet is then sent, starting in the minislot allocated to it. Ad- ditional packets can be requested using a field in the header. As a rule, multiple modems will be assigned the same minislot, which leads to contention. Two different possibilities exist for dealing with it. The first is that CDMA is used to share the minislot between subscribers. This solves the con- tention problem because all subscribers with a CDMA code sequence can send at the same time, albeit at a reduced rate. The second option is that CDMA is not used, in which case there may be no acknowledgement to the request because of a collision. In this case, the modem just waits a random time and tries again. After each successive failure, the randomization time is doubled. (For readers already somewhat familiar with networking, this algorithm is just slotted ALOHA with bi- nary exponential backoff. Ethernet cannot be used on cable because stations can- not sense the medium. We will come back to these issues in Chap. 4.) The downstream channels are managed differently from the upstream chan- nels. For starters, there is only one sender (the headend), so there is no contention
- 209. SEC. 2.8 CABLE TELEVISION 185 and no need for minislots, which is actually just statistical time division multi- plexing. For another, the amount of traffic downstream is usually much larger than upstream, so a fixed packet size of 204 bytes is used. Part of that is a Reed- Solomon error-correcting code and some other overhead, leaving a user payload of 184 bytes. These numbers were chosen for compatibility with digital television using MPEG-2, so the TV and downstream data channels are formatted the same way. Logically, the connections are as depicted in Fig. 2-53. Figure 2-53. Typical details of the upstream and downstream channels in North America. 2.8.5 ADSL Versus Cable Which is better, ADSL or cable? That is like asking which operating system is better. Or which language is better. Or which religion. Which answer you get depends on whom you ask. Let us compare ADSL and cable on a few points. Both use fiber in the backbone, but they differ on the edge. Cable uses coax; ADSL uses twisted pair. The theoretical carrying capacity of coax is hundreds of times more than twisted pair. However, the full capacity of the cable is not avail- able for data users because much of the cable’s bandwidth is wasted on useless stuff such as television programs. In practice, it is hard to generalize about effective capacity. ADSL providers give specific statements about the bandwidth (e.g., 1 Mbps downstream, 256 kbps upstream) and generally achieve about 80% of it consistently. Cable providers may artificially cap the bandwidth to each user to help them make performance predictions, but they cannot really give guarantees because the effective capacity depends on how many people are currently active on the user’s cable segment. Sometimes it may be better than ADSL and sometimes it may be worse. What can be annoying, though, is the unpredictability. Having great service one minute does not guarantee great service the next minute since the biggest bandwidth hog in town may have just turned on his computer.
- 210. 186 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 As an ADSL system acquires more users, their increasing numbers have little effect on existing users, since each user has a dedicated connection. With cable, as more subscribers sign up for Internet service, performance for existing users will drop. The only cure is for the cable operator to split busy cables and connect each one to a fiber node directly. Doing so costs time and money, so there are business pressures to avoid it. As an aside, we have already studied another system with a shared channel like cable: the mobile telephone system. Here, too, a group of users—we could call them cellmates—share a fixed amount of bandwidth. For voice traffic, which is fairly smooth, the bandwidth is rigidly divided in fixed chunks among the active users using FDM and TDM. But for data traffic, this rigid division is very ineffi- cient because data users are frequently idle, in which case their reserved band- width is wasted. As with cable, a more dynamic means is used to allocate the shared bandwidth. Availability is an issue on which ADSL and cable differ. Everyone has a tele- phone, but not all users are close enough to their end offices to get ADSL. On the other hand, not everyone has cable, but if you do have cable and the company pro- vides Internet access, you can get it. Distance to the fiber node or headend is not an issue. It is also worth noting that since cable started out as a television distrib- ution medium, few businesses have it. Being a point-to-point medium, ADSL is inherently more secure than cable. Any cable user can easily read all the packets going down the cable. For this rea- son, any decent cable provider will encrypt all traffic in both directions. Never- theless, having your neighbor get your encrypted messages is still less secure than having him not get anything at all. The telephone system is generally more reliable than cable. For example, it has backup power and continues to work normally even during a power outage. With cable, if the power to any amplifier along the chain fails, all downstream users are cut off instantly. Finally, most ADSL providers offer a choice of ISPs. Sometimes they are even required to do so by law. Such is not always the case with cable operators. The conclusion is that ADSL and cable are much more alike than they are dif- ferent. They offer comparable service and, as competition between them heats up, probably comparable prices. 2.9 SUMMARY The physical layer is the basis of all networks. Nature imposes two funda- mental limits on all channels, and these determine their bandwidth. These limits are the Nyquist limit, which deals with noiseless channels, and the Shannon limit, which deals with noisy channels.
- 211. SEC. 2.9 SUMMARY 187 Transmission media can be guided or unguided. The principal guided media are twisted pair, coaxial cable, and fiber optics. Unguided media include terres- trial radio, microwaves, infrared, lasers through the air, and satellites. Digital modulation methods send bits over guided and unguided media as ana- log signals. Line codes operate at baseband, and signals can be placed in a passband by modulating the amplitude, frequency, and phase of a carrier. Chan- nels can be shared between users with time, frequency and code division multi- plexing. A key element in most wide area networks is the telephone system. Its main components are the local loops, trunks, and switches. ADSL offers speeds up to 40 Mbps over the local loop by dividing it into many subcarriers that run in paral- lel. This far exceeds the rates of telephone modems. PONs bring fiber to the home for even greater access rates than ADSL. Trunks carry digital information. They are multiplexed with WDM to provi- sion many high capacity links over individual fibers, as well as with TDM to share each high rate link between users. Both circuit switching and packet switching are important. For mobile applications, the fixed telephone system is not suitable. Mobile phones are currently in widespread use for voice, and increasingly for data. They have gone through three generations. The first generation, 1G, was analog and dominated by AMPS. 2G was digital, with GSM presently the most widely de- ployed mobile phone system in the world. 3G is digital and based on broadband CDMA, with WCDMA and also CDMA2000 now being deployed. An alternative system for network access is the cable television system. It has gradually evolved from coaxial cable to hybrid fiber coax, and from television to television and Internet. Potentially, it offers very high bandwidth, but the band- width in practice depends heavily on the other users because it is shared. PROBLEMS 1. Compute the Fourier coefficients for the function f(t) = t (0 ≤ t ≤ 1). 2. A noiseless 4-kHz channel is sampled every 1 msec. What is the maximum data rate? How does the maximum data rate change if the channel is noisy, with a signal-to-noise ratio of 30 dB? 3. Television channels are 6 MHz wide. How many bits/sec can be sent if four-level dig- ital signals are used? Assume a noiseless channel. 4. If a binary signal is sent over a 3-kHz channel whose signal-to-noise ratio is 20 dB, what is the maximum achievable data rate? 5. What signal-to-noise ratio is needed to put a T1 carrier on a 50-kHz line? 6. What are the advantages of fiber optics over copper as a transmission medium? Is there any downside of using fiber optics over copper?
- 212. 188 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 7. How much bandwidth is there in 0.1 microns of spectrum at a wavelength of 1 micron? 8. It is desired to send a sequence of computer screen images over an optical fiber. The screen is 2560 × 1600 pixels, each pixel being 24 bits. There are 60 screen images per second. How much bandwidth is needed, and how many microns of wavelength are needed for this band at 1.30 microns? 9. Is the Nyquist theorem true for high-quality single-mode optical fiber or only for copper wire? 10. Radio antennas often work best when the diameter of the antenna is equal to the wave- length of the radio wave. Reasonable antennas range from 1 cm to 5 meters in diame- ter. What frequency range does this cover? 11. A laser beam 1 mm wide is aimed at a detector 1 mm wide 100 m away on the roof of a building. How much of an angular diversion (in degrees) does the laser have to have before it misses the detector? 12. The 66 low-orbit satellites in the Iridium project are divided into six necklaces around the earth. At the altitude they are using, the period is 90 minutes. What is the average interval for handoffs for a stationary transmitter? 13. Calculate the end-to-end transit time for a packet for both GEO (altitude: 35,800 km), MEO (altitude: 18,000 km) and LEO (altitude: 750 km) satellites. 14. What is the latency of a call originating at the North Pole to reach the South Pole if the call is routed via Iridium satellites? Assume that the switching time at the satellites is 10 microseconds and earth’s radius is 6371 km. 15. What is the minimum bandwidth needed to achieve a data rate of B bits/sec if the sig- nal is transmitted using NRZ, MLT-3, and Manchester encoding? Explain your answer. 16. Prove that in 4B/5B encoding, a signal transition will occur at least every four bit times. 17. How many end office codes were there pre-1984, when each end office was named by its three-digit area code and the first three digits of the local number? Area codes started with a digit in the range 2–9, had a 0 or 1 as the second digit, and ended with any digit. The first two digits of a local number were always in the range 2–9. The third digit could be any digit. 18. A simple telephone system consists of two end offices and a single toll office to which each end office is connected by a 1-MHz full-duplex trunk. The average telephone is used to make four calls per 8-hour workday. The mean call duration is 6 min. Ten percent of the calls are long distance (i.e., pass through the toll office). What is the maximum number of telephones an end office can support? (Assume 4 kHz per cir- cuit.) Explain why a telephone company may decide to support a lesser number of telephones than this maximum number at the end office. 19. A regional telephone company has 10 million subscribers. Each of their telephones is connected to a central office by a copper twisted pair. The average length of these twisted pairs is 10 km. How much is the copper in the local loops worth? Assume
- 213. CHAP. 2 PROBLEMS 189 that the cross section of each strand is a circle 1 mm in diameter, the density of copper is 9.0 grams/cm3 , and that copper sells for $6 per kilogram. 20. Is an oil pipeline a simplex system, a half-duplex system, a full-duplex system, or none of the above? What about a river or a walkie-talkie-style communication? 21. The cost of a fast microprocessor has dropped to the point where it is now possible to put one in each modem. How does that affect the handling of telephone line errors? Does it negate the need for error checking/correction in layer 2? 22. A modem constellation diagram similar to Fig. 2-23 has data points at the following coordinates: (1, 1), (1, −1), (−1, 1), and (−1, −1). How many bps can a modem with these parameters achieve at 1200 symbols/second? 23. What is the maximum bit rate achievable in a V.32 standard modem if the baud rate is 1200 and no error correction is used? 24. How many frequencies does a full-duplex QAM-64 modem use? 25. Ten signals, each requiring 4000 Hz, are multiplexed onto a single channel using FDM. What is the minimum bandwidth required for the multiplexed channel? As- sume that the guard bands are 400 Hz wide. 26. Why has the PCM sampling time been set at 125 μsec? 27. What is the percent overhead on a T1 carrier? That is, what percent of the 1.544 Mbps are not delivered to the end user? How does it relate to the percent overhead in OC-1 or OC-768 lines? 28. Compare the maximum data rate of a noiseless 4-kHz channel using (a) Analog encoding (e.g., QPSK) with 2 bits per sample. (b) The T1 PCM system. 29. If a T1 carrier system slips and loses track of where it is, it tries to resynchronize using the first bit in each frame. How many frames will have to be inspected on average to resynchronize with a probability of 0.001 of being wrong? 30. What is the difference, if any, between the demodulator part of a modem and the coder part of a codec? (After all, both convert analog signals to digital ones.) 31. SONET clocks have a drift rate of about 1 part in 109 . How long does it take for the drift to equal the width of 1 bit? Do you see any practical implications of this calcula- tion? If so, what? 32. How long will it take to transmit a 1-GB file from one VSAT to another using a hub as shown in Figure 2-17? Assume that the uplink is 1 Mbps, the downlink is 7 Mbps, and circuit switching is used with 1.2 sec circuit setup time. 33. Calculate the transmit time in the previous problem if packet switching is used instead. Assume that the packet size is 64 KB, the switching delay in the satellite and hub is 10 microseconds, and the packet header size is 32 bytes. 34. In Fig. 2-40, the user data rate for OC-3 is stated to be 148.608 Mbps. Show how this number can be derived from the SONET OC-3 parameters. What will be the gross, SPE, and user data rates of an OC-3072 line?
- 214. 190 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 35. To accommodate lower data rates than STS-1, SONET has a system of virtual tribu- taries (VTs). A VT is a partial payload that can be inserted into an STS-1 frame and combined with other partial payloads to fill the data frame. VT1.5 uses 3 columns, VT2 uses 4 columns, VT3 uses 6 columns, and VT6 uses 12 columns of an STS-1 frame. Which VT can accommodate (a) A DS-1 service (1.544 Mbps)? (b) European CEPT-1 service (2.048 Mbps)? (c) A DS-2 service (6.312 Mbps)? 36. What is the available user bandwidth in an OC-12c connection? 37. Three packet-switching networks each contain n nodes. The first network has a star topology with a central switch, the second is a (bidirectional) ring, and the third is fully interconnected, with a wire from every node to every other node. What are the best-, average-, and worst-case transmission paths in hops? 38. Compare the delay in sending an x-bit message over a k-hop path in a circuit-switched network and in a (lightly loaded) packet-switched network. The circuit setup time is s sec, the propagation delay is d sec per hop, the packet size is p bits, and the data rate is b bps. Under what conditions does the packet network have a lower delay? Also, ex- plain the conditions under which a packet-switched network is preferable to a circuit- switched network. 39. Suppose that x bits of user data are to be transmitted over a k-hop path in a packet- switched network as a series of packets, each containing p data bits and h header bits, with x > > p + h. The bit rate of the lines is b bps and the propagation delay is negligi- ble. What value of p minimizes the total delay? 40. In a typical mobile phone system with hexagonal cells, it is forbidden to reuse a fre- quency band in an adjacent cell. If 840 frequencies are available, how many can be used in a given cell? 41. The actual layout of cells is seldom as regular that as shown in Fig. 2-45. Even the shapes of individual cells are typically irregular. Give a possible reason why this might be. How do these irregular shapes affect frequency assignment to each cell? 42. Make a rough estimate of the number of PCS microcells 100 m in diameter it would take to cover San Francisco (120 square km). 43. Sometimes when a mobile user crosses the boundary from one cell to another, the cur- rent call is abruptly terminated, even though all transmitters and receivers are func- tioning perfectly. Why? 44. Suppose that A, B, and C are simultaneously transmitting 0 bits, using a CDMA sys- tem with the chip sequences of Fig. 2-28(a). What is the resulting chip sequence? 45. Consider a different way of looking at the orthogonality property of CDMA chip se- quences. Each bit in a pair of sequences can match or not match. Express the ortho- gonality property in terms of matches and mismatches. 46. A CDMA receiver gets the following chips: (−1 +1 −3 +1 −1 −3 +1 +1). Assuming the chip sequences defined in Fig. 2-28(a), which stations transmitted, and which bits did each one send?
- 215. CHAP. 2 PROBLEMS 191 47. In Figure 2-28, there are four stations that can transmit. Suppose four more stations are added. Provide the chip sequences of these stations. 48. At the low end, the telephone system is star shaped, with all the local loops in a neigh- borhood converging on an end office. In contrast, cable television consists of a single long cable snaking its way past all the houses in the same neighborhood. Suppose that a future TV cable were 10-Gbps fiber instead of copper. Could it be used to simulate the telephone model of everybody having their own private line to the end office? If so, how many one-telephone houses could be hooked up to a single fiber? 49. A cable company decides to provide Internet access over cable in a neighborhood con- sisting of 5000 houses. The company uses a coaxial cable and spectrum allocation al- lowing 100 Mbps downstream bandwidth per cable. To attract customers, the com- pany decides to guarantee at least 2 Mbps downstream bandwidth to each house at any time. Describe what the cable company needs to do to provide this guarantee. 50. Using the spectral allocation shown in Fig. 2-52 and the information given in the text, how many Mbps does a cable system allocate to upstream and how many to down- stream? 51. How fast can a cable user receive data if the network is otherwise idle? Assume that the user interface is (a) 10-Mbps Ethernet (b) 100-Mbps Ethernet (c) 54-Mbps Wireless. 52. Multiplexing STS-1 multiple data streams, called tributaries, plays an important role in SONET. A 3:1 multiplexer multiplexes three input STS-1 tributaries onto one out- put STS-3 stream. This multiplexing is done byte for byte. That is, the first three out- put bytes are the first bytes of tributaries 1, 2, and 3, respectively. the next three out- put bytes are the second bytes of tributaries 1, 2, and 3, respectively, and so on. Write a program that simulates this 3:1 multiplexer. Your program should consist of five processes. The main process creates four processes, one each for the three STS-1 tri- butaries and one for the multiplexer. Each tributary process reads in an STS-1 frame from an input file as a sequence of 810 bytes. They send their frames (byte by byte) to the multiplexer process. The multiplexer process receives these bytes and outputs an STS-3 frame (byte by byte) by writing it to standard output. Use pipes for communi- cation among processes. 53. Write a program to implement CDMA. Assume that the length of a chip sequence is eight and the number of stations transmitting is four. Your program consists of three sets of processes: four transmitter processes (t0, t1, t2, and t3), one joiner process, and four receiver processes (r0, r1, r2, and r3). The main program, which also acts as the joiner process first reads four chip sequences (bipolar notation) from the standard input and a sequence of 4 bits (1 bit per transmitter process to be transmitted), and forks off four pairs of transmitter and receiver processes. Each pair of transmitter/re- ceiver processes (t0,r0; t1,r1; t2,r2; t3,r3) is assigned one chip sequence and each transmitter process is assigned 1 bit (first bit to t0, second bit to t1, and so on). Next, each transmitter process computes the signal to be transmitted (a sequence of 8 bits) and sends it to the joiner process. After receiving signals from all four transmitter processes, the joiner process combines the signals and sends the combined signal to
- 216. 192 THE PHYSICAL LAYER CHAP. 2 the four receiver processes. Each receiver process then computes the bit it has re- ceived and prints it to standard output. Use pipes for communication between proc- esses.
- 217. 3 THE DATA LINK LAYER In this chapter we will study the design principles for the second layer in our model, the data link layer. This study deals with algorithms for achieving re- liable, efficient communication of whole units of information called frames (rath- er than individual bits, as in the physical layer) between two adjacent machines. By adjacent, we mean that the two machines are connected by a communication channel that acts conceptually like a wire (e.g., a coaxial cable, telephone line, or wireless channel). The essential property of a channel that makes it ‘‘wire-like’’ is that the bits are delivered in exactly the same order in which they are sent. At first you might think this problem is so trivial that there is nothing to study—machine A just puts the bits on the wire, and machine B just takes them off. Unfortunately, communication channels make errors occasionally. Fur- thermore, they have only a finite data rate, and there is a nonzero propagation delay between the time a bit is sent and the time it is received. These limitations have important implications for the efficiency of the data transfer. The protocols used for communications must take all these factors into consideration. These protocols are the subject of this chapter. After an introduction to the key design issues present in the data link layer, we will start our study of its protocols by looking at the nature of errors and how they can be detected and corrected. Then we will study a series of increasingly com- plex protocols, each one solving more and more of the problems present in this layer. Finally, we will conclude with some examples of data link protocols. 193
- 218. 194 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 3.1 DATA LINK LAYER DESIGN ISSUES The data link layer uses the services of the physical layer to send and receive bits over communication channels. It has a number of functions, including: 1. Providing a well-defined service interface to the network layer. 2. Dealing with transmission errors. 3. Regulating the flow of data so that slow receivers are not swamped by fast senders. To accomplish these goals, the data link layer takes the packets it gets from the network layer and encapsulates them into frames for transmission. Each frame contains a frame header, a payload field for holding the packet, and a frame trailer, as illustrated in Fig. 3-1. Frame management forms the heart of what the data link layer does. In the following sections we will examine all the above- mentioned issues in detail. Trailer Header Payload field Frame Sending machine Packet Packet Receiving machine Trailer Header Payload field Figure 3-1. Relationship between packets and frames. Although this chapter is explicitly about the data link layer and its protocols, many of the principles we will study here, such as error control and flow control, are found in transport and other protocols as well. That is because reliability is an overall goal, and it is achieved when all the layers work together. In fact, in many networks, these functions are found mostly in the upper layers, with the data link layer doing the minimal job that is ‘‘good enough.’’ However, no matter where they are found, the principles are pretty much the same. They often show up in their simplest and purest forms in the data link layer, making this a good place to examine them in detail. 3.1.1 Services Provided to the Network Layer The function of the data link layer is to provide services to the network layer. The principal service is transferring data from the network layer on the source ma- chine to the network layer on the destination machine. On the source machine is
- 219. SEC. 3.1 DATA LINK LAYER DESIGN ISSUES 195 an entity, call it a process, in the network layer that hands some bits to the data link layer for transmission to the destination. The job of the data link layer is to transmit the bits to the destination machine so they can be handed over to the net- work layer there, as shown in Fig. 3-2(a). The actual transmission follows the path of Fig. 3-2(b), but it is easier to think in terms of two data link layer proc- esses communicating using a data link protocol. For this reason, we will impli- citly use the model of Fig. 3-2(a) throughout this chapter. 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 Host 1 Host 2 Host 1 Host 2 Virtual data path Actual data path (a) (b) Figure 3-2. (a) Virtual communication. (b) Actual communication. The data link layer can be designed to offer various services. The actual ser- vices that are offered vary from protocol to protocol. Three reasonable possibili- ties that we will consider in turn are: 1. Unacknowledged connectionless service. 2. Acknowledged connectionless service. 3. Acknowledged connection-oriented service. Unacknowledged connectionless service consists of having the source ma- chine send independent frames to the destination machine without having the destination machine acknowledge them. Ethernet is a good example of a data link layer that provides this class of service. No logical connection is established be- forehand or released afterward. If a frame is lost due to noise on the line, no
- 220. 196 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 attempt is made to detect the loss or recover from it in the data link layer. This class of service is appropriate when the error rate is very low, so recovery is left to higher layers. It is also appropriate for real-time traffic, such as voice, in which late data are worse than bad data. The next step up in terms of reliability is acknowledged connectionless ser- vice. When this service is offered, there are still no logical connections used, but each frame sent is individually acknowledged. In this way, the sender knows whether a frame has arrived correctly or been lost. If it has not arrived within a specified time interval, it can be sent again. This service is useful over unreliable channels, such as wireless systems. 802.11 (WiFi) is a good example of this class of service. It is perhaps worth emphasizing that providing acknowledgements in the data link layer is just an optimization, never a requirement. The network layer can al- ways send a packet and wait for it to be acknowledged by its peer on the remote machine. If the acknowledgement is not forthcoming before the timer expires, the sender can just send the entire message again. The trouble with this strategy is that it can be inefficient. Links usually have a strict maximum frame length imposed by the hardware, and known propagation delays. The network layer does not know these parameters. It might send a large packet that is broken up into, say, 10 frames, of which 2 are lost on average. It would then take a very long time for the packet to get through. Instead, if individual frames are acknowledged and retransmitted, then errors can be corrected more directly and more quickly. On reliable channels, such as fiber, the overhead of a heavyweight data link protocol may be unnecessary, but on (inherently unreliable) wireless channels it is well worth the cost. Getting back to our services, the most sophisticated service the data link layer can provide to the network layer is connection-oriented service. With this service, the source and destination machines establish a connection before any data are transferred. Each frame sent over the connection is numbered, and the data link layer guarantees that each frame sent is indeed received. Furthermore, it guaran- tees that each frame is received exactly once and that all frames are received in the right order. Connection-oriented service thus provides the network layer proc- esses with the equivalent of a reliable bit stream. It is appropriate over long, unre- liable links such as a satellite channel or a long-distance telephone circuit. If acknowledged connectionless service were used, it is conceivable that lost ac- knowledgements could cause a frame to be sent and received several times, wast- ing bandwidth. When connection-oriented service is used, transfers go through three distinct phases. In the first phase, the connection is established by having both sides ini- tialize variables and counters needed to keep track of which frames have been re- ceived and which ones have not. In the second phase, one or more frames are ac- tually transmitted. In the third and final phase, the connection is released, freeing up the variables, buffers, and other resources used to maintain the connection.
- 221. SEC. 3.1 DATA LINK LAYER DESIGN ISSUES 197 3.1.2 Framing To provide service to the network layer, the data link layer must use the ser- vice provided to it by the physical layer. What the physical layer does is accept a raw bit stream and attempt to deliver it to the destination. If the channel is noisy, as it is for most wireless and some wired links, the physical layer will add some redundancy to its signals to reduce the bit error rate to a tolerable level. However, the bit stream received by the data link layer is not guaranteed to be error free. Some bits may have different values and the number of bits received may be less than, equal to, or more than the number of bits transmitted. It is up to the data link layer to detect and, if necessary, correct errors. The usual approach is for the data link layer to break up the bit stream into discrete frames, compute a short token called a checksum for each frame, and in- clude the checksum in the frame when it is transmitted. (Checksum algorithms will be discussed later in this chapter.) When a frame arrives at the destination, the checksum is recomputed. If the newly computed checksum is different from the one contained in the frame, the data link layer knows that an error has oc- curred and takes steps to deal with it (e.g., discarding the bad frame and possibly also sending back an error report). Breaking up the bit stream into frames is more difficult than it at first appears. A good design must make it easy for a receiver to find the start of new frames while using little of the channel bandwidth. We will look at four methods: 1. Byte count. 2. Flag bytes with byte stuffing. 3. Flag bits with bit stuffing. 4. Physical layer coding violations. The first framing method uses a field in the header to specify the number of bytes in the frame. When the data link layer at the destination sees the byte count, it knows how many bytes follow and hence where the end of the frame is. This technique is shown in Fig. 3-3(a) for four small example frames of sizes 5, 5, 8, and 8 bytes, respectively. The trouble with this algorithm is that the count can be garbled by a transmis- sion error. For example, if the byte count of 5 in the second frame of Fig. 3-3(b) becomes a 7 due to a single bit flip, the destination will get out of synchroniza- tion. It will then be unable to locate the correct start of the next frame. Even if the checksum is incorrect so the destination knows that the frame is bad, it still has no way of telling where the next frame starts. Sending a frame back to the source asking for a retransmission does not help either, since the destination does not know how many bytes to skip over to get to the start of the retransmission. For this reason, the byte count method is rarely used by itself.
- 222. 198 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 (b) (a) 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 8 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 5 1 2 3 4 7 6 7 8 9 8 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 Byte count One byte Error Frame 1 5 bytes Frame 1 Frame 2 5 bytes Frame 2 (Wrong) Frame 3 8 bytes Frame 4 8 bytes Now a byte count Figure 3-3. A byte stream. (a) Without errors. (b) With one error. The second framing method gets around the problem of resynchronization after an error by having each frame start and end with special bytes. Often the same byte, called a flag byte, is used as both the starting and ending delimiter. This byte is shown in Fig. 3-4(a) as FLAG. Two consecutive flag bytes indicate the end of one frame and the start of the next. Thus, if the receiver ever loses syn- chronization it can just search for two flag bytes to find the end of the current frame and the start of the next frame. However, there is a still a problem we have to solve. It may happen that the flag byte occurs in the data, especially when binary data such as photographs or songs are being transmitted. This situation would interfere with the framing. One way to solve this problem is to have the sender’s data link layer insert a special escape byte (ESC) just before each ‘‘accidental’’ flag byte in the data. Thus, a framing flag byte can be distinguished from one in the data by the absence or presence of an escape byte before it. The data link layer on the receiving end re- moves the escape bytes before giving the data to the network layer. This techni- que is called byte stuffing. Of course, the next question is: what happens if an escape byte occurs in the middle of the data? The answer is that it, too, is stuffed with an escape byte. At the receiver, the first escape byte is removed, leaving the data byte that follows it (which might be another escape byte or the flag byte). Some examples are shown in Fig. 3-4(b). In all cases, the byte sequence delivered after destuffing is exactly the same as the original byte sequence. We can still search for a frame boundary by looking for two flag bytes in a row, without bothering to undo escapes. The byte-stuffing scheme depicted in Fig. 3-4 is a slight simplification of the one used in PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol), which is used to carry packets over communications links. We will discuss PPP near the end of this chapter.
- 223. SEC. 3.1 DATA LINK LAYER DESIGN ISSUES 199 A B ESC FLAG A B ESC ESC A ESC B ESC ESC FLAG A ESC B ESC ESC ESC B A FLAG B A ESC FLAG A ESC B ESC A ESC B FLAG Trailer FLAG Header Payload field Original bytes After stuffing (a) (b) Figure 3-4. (a) A frame delimited by flag bytes. (b) Four examples of byte se- quences before and after byte stuffing. The third method of delimiting the bit stream gets around a disadvantage of byte stuffing, which is that it is tied to the use of 8-bit bytes. Framing can be also be done at the bit level, so frames can contain an arbitrary number of bits made up of units of any size. It was developed for the once very popular HDLC (High- level Data Link Control) protocol. Each frame begins and ends with a special bit pattern, 01111110 or 0x7E in hexadecimal. This pattern is a flag byte. When- ever the sender’s data link layer encounters five consecutive 1s in the data, it automatically stuffs a 0 bit into the outgoing bit stream. This bit stuffing is anal- ogous to byte stuffing, in which an escape byte is stuffed into the outgoing charac- ter stream before a flag byte in the data. It also ensures a minimum density of transitions that help the physical layer maintain synchronization. USB (Universal Serial Bus) uses bit stuffing for this reason. When the receiver sees five consecutive incoming 1 bits, followed by a 0 bit, it automatically destuffs (i.e., deletes) the 0 bit. Just as byte stuffing is completely transparent to the network layer in both computers, so is bit stuffing. If the user data contain the flag pattern, 01111110, this flag is transmitted as 011111010 but stored in the receiver’s memory as 01111110. Figure 3-5 gives an example of bit stuffing. With bit stuffing, the boundary between two frames can be unambiguously recognized by the flag pattern. Thus, if the receiver loses track of where it is, all it has to do is scan the input for flag sequences, since they can only occur at frame boundaries and never within the data.
- 224. 200 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 Stuffed bits (a) (b) (c) 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 Figure 3-5. Bit stuffing. (a) The original data. (b) The data as they appear on the line. (c) The data as they are stored in the receiver’s memory after destuf- fing. With both bit and byte stuffing, a side effect is that the length of a frame now depends on the contents of the data it carries. For instance, if there are no flag bytes in the data, 100 bytes might be carried in a frame of roughly 100 bytes. If, however, the data consists solely of flag bytes, each flag byte will be escaped and the frame will become roughly 200 bytes long. With bit stuffing, the increase would be roughly 12.5% as 1 bit is added to every byte. The last method of framing is to use a shortcut from the physical layer. We saw in Chap. 2 that the encoding of bits as signals often includes redundancy to help the receiver. This redundancy means that some signals will not occur in reg- ular data. For example, in the 4B/5B line code 4 data bits are mapped to 5 signal bits to ensure sufficient bit transitions. This means that 16 out of the 32 signal possibilities are not used. We can use some reserved signals to indicate the start and end of frames. In effect, we are using ‘‘coding violations’’ to delimit frames. The beauty of this scheme is that, because they are reserved signals, it is easy to find the start and end of frames and there is no need to stuff the data. Many data link protocols use a combination of these methods for safety. A common pattern used for Ethernet and 802.11 is to have a frame begin with a well-defined pattern called a preamble. This pattern might be quite long (72 bits is typical for 802.11) to allow the receiver to prepare for an incoming packet. The preamble is then followed by a length (i.e., count) field in the header that is used to locate the end of the frame. 3.1.3 Error Control Having solved the problem of marking the start and end of each frame, we come to the next problem: how to make sure all frames are eventually delivered to the network layer at the destination and in the proper order. Assume for the moment that the receiver can tell whether a frame that it receives contains correct or faulty information (we will look at the codes that are used to detect and correct transmission errors in Sec. 3.2). For unacknowledged connectionless service it might be fine if the sender just kept outputting frames without regard to whether
- 225. SEC. 3.1 DATA LINK LAYER DESIGN ISSUES 201 they were arriving properly. But for reliable, connection-oriented service it would not be fine at all. The usual way to ensure reliable delivery is to provide the sender with some feedback about what is happening at the other end of the line. Typically, the pro- tocol calls for the receiver to send back special control frames bearing positive or negative acknowledgements about the incoming frames. If the sender receives a positive acknowledgement about a frame, it knows the frame has arrived safely. On the other hand, a negative acknowledgement means that something has gone wrong and the frame must be transmitted again. An additional complication comes from the possibility that hardware troubles may cause a frame to vanish completely (e.g., in a noise burst). In this case, the receiver will not react at all, since it has no reason to react. Similarly, if the ac- knowledgement frame is lost, the sender will not know how to proceed. It should be clear that a protocol in which the sender transmits a frame and then waits for an acknowledgement, positive or negative, will hang forever if a frame is ever lost due to, for example, malfunctioning hardware or a faulty communication channel. This possibility is dealt with by introducing timers into the data link layer. When the sender transmits a frame, it generally also starts a timer. The timer is set to expire after an interval long enough for the frame to reach the destination, be processed there, and have the acknowledgement propagate back to the sender. Normally, the frame will be correctly received and the acknowledgement will get back before the timer runs out, in which case the timer will be canceled. However, if either the frame or the acknowledgement is lost, the timer will go off, alerting the sender to a potential problem. The obvious solution is to just transmit the frame again. However, when frames may be transmitted multiple times there is a danger that the receiver will accept the same frame two or more times and pass it to the network layer more than once. To prevent this from hap- pening, it is generally necessary to assign sequence numbers to outgoing frames, so that the receiver can distinguish retransmissions from originals. The whole issue of managing the timers and sequence numbers so as to ensure that each frame is ultimately passed to the network layer at the destination exactly once, no more and no less, is an important part of the duties of the data link layer (and higher layers). Later in this chapter, we will look at a series of increasingly sophisticated examples to see how this management is done. 3.1.4 Flow Control Another important design issue that occurs in the data link layer (and higher layers as well) is what to do with a sender that systematically wants to transmit frames faster than the receiver can accept them. This situation can occur when the sender is running on a fast, powerful computer and the receiver is running on a slow, low-end machine. A common situation is when a smart phone requests a Web page from a far more powerful server, which then turns on the fire hose and
- 226. 202 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 blasts the data at the poor helpless phone until it is completely swamped. Even if the transmission is error free, the receiver may be unable to handle the frames as fast as they arrive and will lose some. Clearly, something has to be done to prevent this situation. Two approaches are commonly used. In the first one, feedback-based flow control, the receiver sends back information to the sender giving it permission to send more data, or at least telling the sender how the receiver is doing. In the second one, rate-based flow control, the protocol has a built-in mechanism that limits the rate at which senders may transmit data, without using feedback from the receiver. In this chapter we will study feedback-based flow control schemes, primarily because rate-based schemes are only seen as part of the transport layer (Chap. 5). Feedback-based schemes are seen at both the link layer and higher layers. The latter is more common these days, in which case the link layer hardware is de- signed to run fast enough that it does not cause loss. For example, hardware im- plementations of the link layer as NICs (Network Interface Cards) are some- times said to run at ‘‘wire speed,’’ meaning that they can handle frames as fast as they can arrive on the link. Any overruns are then not a link problem, so they are handled by higher layers. Various feedback-based flow control schemes are known, but most of them use the same basic principle. The protocol contains well-defined rules about when a sender may transmit the next frame. These rules often prohibit frames from being sent until the receiver has granted permission, either implicitly or ex- plicitly. For example, when a connection is set up the receiver might say: ‘‘You may send me n frames now, but after they have been sent, do not send any more until I have told you to continue.’’ We will examine the details shortly. 3.2 ERROR DETECTION AND CORRECTION We saw in Chap. 2 that communication channels have a range of charac- teristics. Some channels, like optical fiber in telecommunications networks, have tiny error rates so that transmission errors are a rare occurrence. But other chan- nels, especially wireless links and aging local loops, have error rates that are ord- ers of magnitude larger. For these links, transmission errors are the norm. They cannot be avoided at a reasonable expense or cost in terms of performance. The conclusion is that transmission errors are here to stay. We have to learn how to deal with them. Network designers have developed two basic strategies for dealing with er- rors. Both add redundant information to the data that is sent. One strategy is to include enough redundant information to enable the receiver to deduce what the transmitted data must have been. The other is to include only enough redundancy to allow the receiver to deduce that an error has occurred (but not which error)
- 227. SEC. 3.2 ERROR DETECTION AND CORRECTION 203 and have it request a retransmission. The former strategy uses error-correcting codes and the latter uses error-detecting codes. The use of error-correcting codes is often referred to as FEC (Forward Error Correction). Each of these techniques occupies a different ecological niche. On channels that are highly reliable, such as fiber, it is cheaper to use an error-detecting code and just retransmit the occasional block found to be faulty. However, on channels such as wireless links that make many errors, it is better to add redundancy to each block so that the receiver is able to figure out what the originally transmitted block was. FEC is used on noisy channels because retransmissions are just as likely to be in error as the first transmission. A key consideration for these codes is the type of errors that are likely to oc- cur. Neither error-correcting codes nor error-detecting codes can handle all pos- sible errors since the redundant bits that offer protection are as likely to be re- ceived in error as the data bits (which can compromise their protection). It would be nice if the channel treated redundant bits differently than data bits, but it does not. They are all just bits to the channel. This means that to avoid undetected er- rors the code must be strong enough to handle the expected errors. One model is that errors are caused by extreme values of thermal noise that overwhelm the signal briefly and occasionally, giving rise to isolated single-bit er- rors. Another model is that errors tend to come in bursts rather than singly. This model follows from the physical processes that generate them—such as a deep fade on a wireless channel or transient electrical interference on a wired channel/ Both models matter in practice, and they have different trade-offs. Having the errors come in bursts has both advantages and disadvantages over isolated single- bit errors. On the advantage side, computer data are always sent in blocks of bits. Suppose that the block size was 1000 bits and the error rate was 0.001 per bit. If errors were independent, most blocks would contain an error. If the errors came in bursts of 100, however, only one block in 100 would be affected, on average. The disadvantage of burst errors is that when they do occur they are much harder to correct than isolated errors. Other types of errors also exist. Sometimes, the location of an error will be known, perhaps because the physical layer received an analog signal that was far from the expected value for a 0 or 1 and declared the bit to be lost. This situation is called an erasure channel. It is easier to correct errors in erasure channels than in channels that flip bits because even if the value of the bit has been lost, at least we know which bit is in error. However, we often do not have the benefit of eras- ures. We will examine both error-correcting codes and error-detecting codes next. Please keep two points in mind, though. First, we cover these codes in the link layer because this is the first place that we have run up against the problem of reli- ably transmitting groups of bits. However, the codes are widely used because reliability is an overall concern. Error-correcting codes are also seen in the physi- cal layer, particularly for noisy channels, and in higher layers, particularly for
- 228. 204 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 real-time media and content distribution. Error-detecting codes are commonly used in link, network, and transport layers. The second point to bear in mind is that error codes are applied mathematics. Unless you are particularly adept at Galois fields or the properties of sparse matrices, you should get codes with good properties from a reliable source rather than making up your own. In fact, this is what many protocol standards do, with the same codes coming up again and again. In the material below, we will study a simple code in detail and then briefly describe advanced codes. In this way, we can understand the trade-offs from the simple code and talk about the codes that are used in practice via the advanced codes. 3.2.1 Error-Correcting Codes We will examine four different error-correcting codes: 1. Hamming codes. 2. Binary convolutional codes. 3. Reed-Solomon codes. 4. Low-Density Parity Check codes. All of these codes add redundancy to the information that is sent. A frame con- sists of m data (i.e., message) bits and r redundant (i.e. check) bits. In a block code, the r check bits are computed solely as a function of the m data bits with which they are associated, as though the m bits were looked up in a large table to find their corresponding r check bits. In a systematic code, the m data bits are sent directly, along with the check bits, rather than being encoded themselves be- fore they are sent. In a linear code, the r check bits are computed as a linear function of the m data bits. Exclusive OR (XOR) or modulo 2 addition is a popu- lar choice. This means that encoding can be done with operations such as matrix multiplications or simple logic circuits. The codes we will look at in this section are linear, systematic block codes unless otherwise noted. Let the total length of a block be n (i.e., n = m + r). We will describe this as an (n,m) code. An n-bit unit containing data and check bits is referred to as an n- bit codeword. The code rate, or simply rate, is the fraction of the codeword that carries information that is not redundant, or m/n. The rates used in practice vary widely. They might be 1/2 for a noisy channel, in which case half of the received information is redundant, or close to 1 for a high-quality channel, with only a small number of check bits added to a large message. To understand how errors can be handled, it is necessary to first look closely at what an error really is. Given any two codewords that may be transmitted or received—say, 10001001 and 10110001—it is possible to determine how many
- 229. SEC. 3.2 ERROR DETECTION AND CORRECTION 205 corresponding bits differ. In this case, 3 bits differ. To determine how many bits differ, just XOR the two codewords and count the number of 1 bits in the result. For example: 10001001 10110001 00111000 The number of bit positions in which two codewords differ is called the Ham- ming distance (Hamming, 1950). Its significance is that if two codewords are a Hamming distance d apart, it will require d single-bit errors to convert one into the other. Given the algorithm for computing the check bits, it is possible to construct a complete list of the legal codewords, and from this list to find the two codewords with the smallest Hamming distance. This distance is the Hamming distance of the complete code. In most data transmission applications, all 2m possible data messages are legal, but due to the way the check bits are computed, not all of the 2n possible codewords are used. In fact, when there are r check bits, only the small fraction of 2m /2n or 1/2r of the possible messages will be legal codewords. It is the sparseness with which the message is embedded in the space of codewords that al- lows the receiver to detect and correct errors. The error-detecting and error-correcting properties of a block code depend on its Hamming distance. To reliably detect d errors, you need a distance d + 1 code because with such a code there is no way that d single-bit errors can change a valid codeword into another valid codeword. When the receiver sees an illegal codeword, it can tell that a transmission error has occurred. Similarly, to correct d errors, you need a distance 2d + 1 code because that way the legal codewords are so far apart that even with d changes the original codeword is still closer than any other codeword. This means the original codeword can be uniquely determined based on the assumption that a larger number of errors are less likely. As a simple example of an error-correcting code, consider a code with only four valid codewords: 0000000000, 0000011111, 1111100000, and 1111111111 This code has a distance of 5, which means that it can correct double errors or detect quadruple errors. If the codeword 0000000111 arrives and we expect only single- or double-bit errors, the receiver will know that the original must have been 0000011111. If, however, a triple error changes 0000000000 into 0000000111, the error will not be corrected properly. Alternatively, if we expect all of these errors, we can detect them. None of the received codewords are legal codewords so an error must have occurred. It should be apparent that in this ex- ample we cannot both correct double errors and detect quadruple errors because this would require us to interpret a received codeword in two different ways.
- 230. 206 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 In our example, the task of decoding by finding the legal codeword that is closest to the received codeword can be done by inspection. Unfortunately, in the most general case where all codewords need to be evaluated as candidates, this task can be a time-consuming search. Instead, practical codes are designed so that they admit shortcuts to find what was likely the original codeword. Imagine that we want to design a code with m message bits and r check bits that will allow all single errors to be corrected. Each of the 2m legal messages has n illegal codewords at a distance of 1 from it. These are formed by systematically inverting each of the n bits in the n-bit codeword formed from it. Thus, each of the 2m legal messages requires n + 1 bit patterns dedicated to it. Since the total number of bit patterns is 2n , we must have (n + 1)2m ≤ 2n . Using n = m + r, this requirement becomes (m + r + 1) ≤ 2r (3-1) Given m, this puts a lower limit on the number of check bits needed to correct sin- gle errors. This theoretical lower limit can, in fact, be achieved using a method due to Hamming (1950). In Hamming codes the bits of the codeword are numbered consecutively, starting with bit 1 at the left end, bit 2 to its immediate right, and so on. The bits that are powers of 2 (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc.) are check bits. The rest (3, 5, 6, 7, 9, etc.) are filled up with the m data bits. This pattern is shown for an (11,7) Hamming code with 7 data bits and 4 check bits in Fig. 3-6. Each check bit forces the modulo 2 sum, or parity, of some collection of bits, including itself, to be even (or odd). A bit may be included in several check bit computations. To see which check bits the data bit in position k contributes to, rewrite k as a sum of powers of 2. For example, 11 = 1 + 2 + 8 and 29 = 1 + 4 + 8 + 16. A bit is checked by just those check bits occurring in its expansion (e.g., bit 11 is checked by bits 1, 2, and 8). In the example, the check bits are computed for even parity sums for a message that is the ASCII letter ‘‘A.’’ Sent codeword Received codeword 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 p1 p2 m3 p4 m5 m6 m7 p8 m9 m10 m11 Check bits Channel 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 bit error Syndrome 0 1 0 1 Check results A 1000001 Flip bit 5 A 1000001 Message Message Figure 3-6. Example of an (11, 7) Hamming code correcting a single-bit error. This construction gives a code with a Hamming distance of 3, which means that it can correct single errors (or detect double errors). The reason for the very careful numbering of message and check bits becomes apparent in the decoding
- 231. SEC. 3.2 ERROR DETECTION AND CORRECTION 207 process. When a codeword arrives, the receiver redoes the check bit computa- tions including the values of the received check bits. We call these the check re- sults. If the check bits are correct then, for even parity sums, each check result should be zero. In this case the codeword is accepted as valid. If the check results are not all zero, however, an error has been detected. The set of check results forms the error syndrome that is used to pinpoint and correct the error. In Fig. 3-6, a single-bit error occurred on the channel so the check re- sults are 0, 1, 0, and 1 for k = 8, 4, 2, and 1, respectively. This gives a syndrome of 0101 or 4 + 1=5. By the design of the scheme, this means that the fifth bit is in error. Flipping the incorrect bit (which might be a check bit or a data bit) and dis- carding the check bits gives the correct message of an ASCII ‘‘A.’’ Hamming distances are valuable for understanding block codes, and Ham- ming codes are used in error-correcting memory. However, most networks use stronger codes. The second code we will look at is a convolutional code. This code is the only one we will cover that is not a block code. In a convolutional code, an encoder processes a sequence of input bits and generates a sequence of output bits. There is no natural message size or encoding boundary as in a block code. The output depends on the current and previous input bits. That is, the encoder has memory. The number of previous bits on which the output depends is called the constraint length of the code. Convolutional codes are specified in terms of their rate and constraint length. Convolutional codes are widely used in deployed networks, for example, as part of the GSM mobile phone system, in satellite communications, and in 802.11. As an example, a popular convolutional code is shown in Fig. 3-7. This code is known as the NASA convolutional code of r = 1/2 and k = 7, since it was first used for the Voyager space missions starting in 1977. Since then it has been liberally reused, for example, as part of 802.11. Input bit Output bit 1 S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 Output bit 2 Figure 3-7. The NASA binary convolutional code used in 802.11. In Fig. 3-7, each input bit on the left-hand side produces two output bits on the right-hand side that are XOR sums of the input and internal state. Since it deals with bits and performs linear operations, this is a binary, linear convolutional code. Since 1 input bit produces 2 output bits, the code rate is 1/2. It is not sys- tematic since none of the output bits is simply the input bit.
- 232. 208 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 The internal state is kept in six memory registers. Each time another bit is in- put the values in the registers are shifted to the right. For example, if 111 is input and the initial state is all zeros, the internal state, written left to right, will become 100000, 110000, and 111000 after the first, second, and third bits have been input. The output bits will be 11, followed by 10, and then 01. It takes seven shifts to flush an input completely so that it does not affect the output. The constraint length of this code is thus k = 7. A convolutional code is decoded by finding the sequence of input bits that is most likely to have produced the observed sequence of output bits (which includes any errors). For small values of k, this is done with a widely used algorithm de- veloped by Viterbi (Forney, 1973). The algorithm walks the observed sequence, keeping for each step and for each possible internal state the input sequence that would have produced the observed sequence with the fewest errors. The input se- quence requiring the fewest errors at the end is the most likely message. Convolutional codes have been popular in practice because it is easy to factor the uncertainty of a bit being a 0 or a 1 into the decoding. For example, suppose −1V is the logical 0 level and +1V is the logical 1 level, we might receive 0.9V and −0.1V for 2 bits. Instead of mapping these signals to 1 and 0 right away, we would like to treat 0.9V as ‘‘very likely a 1’’ and −0.1V as ‘‘maybe a 0’’ and cor- rect the sequence as a whole. Extensions of the Viterbi algorithm can work with these uncertainties to provide stronger error correction. This approach of working with the uncertainty of a bit is called soft-decision decoding. Conversely, decid- ing whether each bit is a 0 or a 1 before subsequent error correction is called hard-decision decoding. The third kind of error-correcting code we will describe is the Reed-Solomon code. Like Hamming codes, Reed-Solomon codes are linear block codes, and they are often systematic too. Unlike Hamming codes, which operate on individ- ual bits, Reed-Solomon codes operate on m bit symbols. Naturally, the mathemat- ics are more involved, so we will describe their operation by analogy. Reed-Solomon codes are based on the fact that every n degree polynomial is uniquely determined by n + 1 points. For example, a line having the form ax + b is determined by two points. Extra points on the same line are redundant, which is helpful for error correction. Imagine that we have two data points that represent a line and we send those two data points plus two check points chosen to lie on the same line. If one of the points is received in error, we can still recover the data points by fitting a line to the received points. Three of the points will lie on the line, and one point, the one in error, will not. By finding the line we have cor- rected the error. Reed-Solomon codes are actually defined as polynomials that operate over finite fields, but they work in a similar manner. For m bit symbols, the codewords are 2m −1 symbols long. A popular choice is to make m = 8 so that symbols are bytes. A codeword is then 255 bytes long. The (255, 233) code is widely used; it adds 32 redundant symbols to 233 data symbols. Decoding with error correction
- 233. SEC. 3.2 ERROR DETECTION AND CORRECTION 209 is done with an algorithm developed by Berlekamp and Massey that can effi- ciently perform the fitting task for moderate-length codes (Massey, 1969). Reed-Solomon codes are widely used in practice because of their strong error-correction properties, particularly for burst errors. They are used for DSL, data over cable, satellite communications, and perhaps most ubiquitously on CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs. Because they are based on m bit symbols, a single-bit error and an m-bit burst error are both treated simply as one symbol error. When 2t redundant symbols are added, a Reed-Solomon code is able to correct up to t errors in any of the transmitted symbols. This means, for example, that the (255, 233) code, which has 32 redundant symbols, can correct up to 16 symbol errors. Since the symbols may be consecutive and they are each 8 bits, an error burst of up to 128 bits can be corrected. The situation is even better if the error model is one of erasures (e.g., a scratch on a CD that obliterates some symbols). In this case, up to 2t errors can be corrected. Reed-Solomon codes are often used in combination with other codes such as a convolutional code. The thinking is as follows. Convolutional codes are effective at handling isolated bit errors, but they will fail, likely with a burst of errors, if there are too many errors in the received bit stream. By adding a Reed-Solomon code within the convolutional code, the Reed-Solomon decoding can mop up the error bursts, a task at which it is very good. The overall code then provides good protection against both single and burst errors. The final error-correcting code we will cover is the LDPC (Low-Density Parity Check) code. LDPC codes are linear block codes that were invented by Robert Gallagher in his doctoral thesis (Gallagher, 1962). Like most theses, they were promptly forgotten, only to be reinvented in 1995 when advances in comput- ing power had made them practical. In an LDPC code, each output bit is formed from only a fraction of the input bits. This leads to a matrix representation of the code that has a low density of 1s, hence the name for the code. The received codewords are decoded with an approximation algorithm that iteratively improves on a best fit of the received data to a legal codeword. This corrects errors. LDPC codes are practical for large block sizes and have excellent error-cor- rection abilities that outperform many other codes (including the ones we have looked at) in practice. For this reason they are rapidly being included in new pro- tocols. They are part of the standard for digital video broadcasting, 10 Gbps Ethernet, power-line networks, and the latest version of 802.11. Expect to see more of them in future networks. 3.2.2 Error-Detecting Codes Error-correcting codes are widely used on wireless links, which are notori- ously noisy and error prone when compared to optical fibers. Without error-cor- recting codes, it would be hard to get anything through. However, over fiber or
- 234. 210 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 high-quality copper, the error rate is much lower, so error detection and retrans- mission is usually more efficient there for dealing with the occasional error. We will examine three different error-detecting codes. They are all linear, systematic block codes: 1. Parity. 2. Checksums. 3. Cyclic Redundancy Checks (CRCs). To see how they can be more efficient than error-correcting codes, consider the first error-detecting code, in which a single parity bit is appended to the data. The parity bit is chosen so that the number of 1 bits in the codeword is even (or odd). Doing this is equivalent to computing the (even) parity bit as the modulo 2 sum or XOR of the data bits. For example, when 1011010 is sent in even parity, a bit is added to the end to make it 10110100. With odd parity 1011010 becomes 10110101. A code with a single parity bit has a distance of 2, since any single-bit error produces a codeword with the wrong parity. This means that it can detect single-bit errors. Consider a channel on which errors are isolated and the error rate is 10−6 per bit. This may seem a tiny error rate, but it is at best a fair rate for a long wired cable that is challenging for error detection. Typical LAN links provide bit error rates of 10−10. Let the block size be 1000 bits. To provide error correction for 1000-bit blocks, we know from Eq. (3-1) that 10 check bits are needed. Thus, a megabit of data would require 10,000 check bits. To merely detect a block with a single 1-bit error, one parity bit per block will suffice. Once every 1000 blocks, a block will be found to be in error and an extra block (1001 bits) will have to be transmitted to repair the error. The total overhead for the error detection and re- transmission method is only 2001 bits per megabit of data, versus 10,000 bits for a Hamming code. One difficulty with this scheme is that a single parity bit can only reliably detect a single-bit error in the block. If the block is badly garbled by a long burst error, the probability that the error will be detected is only 0.5, which is hardly ac- ceptable. The odds can be improved considerably if each block to be sent is regarded as a rectangular matrix n bits wide and k bits high. Now, if we compute and send one parity bit for each row, up to k bit errors will be reliably detected as long as there is at most one error per row. However, there is something else we can do that provides better protection against burst errors: we can compute the parity bits over the data in a different order than the order in which the data bits are transmitted. Doing so is called interleaving. In this case, we will compute a parity bit for each of the n columns and send all the data bits as k rows, sending the rows from top to bottom and the bits in each row from left to right in the usual manner. At the last row, we send the n parity bits. This transmission order is shown in Fig. 3-8 for n = 7 and k = 7.
- 235. SEC. 3.2 ERROR DETECTION AND CORRECTION 211 Burst error Channel Transmit order Parity bits 1011110 N c l w o r k Parity errors 1011110 N e t w o r k 1001110 1100101 1110100 1110111 1101111 1110010 1101011 1001110 1100011 1101100 1110111 1101111 1110010 1101011 Figure 3-8. Interleaving of parity bits to detect a burst error. Interleaving is a general technique to convert a code that detects (or corrects) isolated errors into a code that detects (or corrects) burst errors. In Fig. 3-8, when a burst error of length n = 7 occurs, the bits that are in error are spread across dif- ferent columns. (A burst error does not imply that all the bits are wrong; it just implies that at least the first and last are wrong. In Fig. 3-8, 4 bits were flipped over a range of 7 bits.) At most 1 bit in each of the n columns will be affected, so the parity bits on those columns will detect the error. This method uses n parity bits on blocks of kn data bits to detect a single burst error of length n or less. A burst of length n + 1 will pass undetected, however, if the first bit is inverted, the last bit is inverted, and all the other bits are correct. If the block is badly garbled by a long burst or by multiple shorter bursts, the probability that any of the n columns will have the correct parity by accident is 0.5, so the probability of a bad block being accepted when it should not be is 2−n . The second kind of error-detecting code, the checksum, is closely related to groups of parity bits. The word ‘‘checksum’’ is often used to mean a group of check bits associated with a message, regardless of how are calculated. A group of parity bits is one example of a checksum. However, there are other, stronger checksums based on a running sum of the data bits of the message. The checksum is usually placed at the end of the message, as the complement of the sum func- tion. This way, errors may be detected by summing the entire received codeword, both data bits and checksum. If the result comes out to be zero, no error has been detected. One example of a checksum is the 16-bit Internet checksum used on all Inter- net packets as part of the IP protocol (Braden et al., 1988). This checksum is a sum of the message bits divided into 16-bit words. Because this method operates on words rather than on bits, as in parity, errors that leave the parity unchanged can still alter the sum and be detected. For example, if the lowest order bit in two different words is flipped from a 0 to a 1, a parity check across these bits would fail to detect an error. However, two 1s will be added to the 16-bit checksum to produce a different result. The error can then be detected.
- 236. 212 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 The Internet checksum is computed in one’s complement arithmetic instead of as the modulo 216 sum. In one’s complement arithmetic, a negative number is the bitwise complement of its positive counterpart. Modern computers run two’s complement arithmetic, in which a negative number is the one’s complement plus one. On a two’s complement computer, the one’s complement sum is equivalent to taking the sum modulo 216 and adding any overflow of the high order bits back into the low-order bits. This algorithm gives a more uniform coverage of the data by the checksum bits. Otherwise, two high-order bits can be added, overflow, and be lost without changing the sum. There is another benefit, too. One’s comple- ment has two representations of zero, all 0s and all 1s. This allows one value (e.g., all 0s) to indicate that there is no checksum, without the need for another field. For decades, it has always been assumed that frames to be checksummed con- tain random bits. All analyses of checksum algorithms have been made under this assumption. Inspection of real data by Partridge et al. (1995) has shown this as- sumption to be quite wrong. As a consequence, undetected errors are in some cases much more common than had been previously thought. The Internet checksum in particular is efficient and simple but provides weak protection in some cases precisely because it is a simple sum. It does not detect the deletion or addition of zero data, nor swapping parts of the message, and it provides weak protection against message splices in which parts of two packets are put together. These errors may seem very unlikely to occur by random proc- esses, but they are just the sort of errors that can occur with buggy hardware. A better choice is Fletcher’s checksum (Fletcher, 1982). It includes a posi- tional component, adding the product of the data and its position to the running sum. This provides stronger detection of changes in the position of data. Although the two preceding schemes may sometimes be adequate at higher layers, in practice, a third and stronger kind of error-detecting code is in wide- spread use at the link layer: the CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check), also known as a polynomial code. Polynomial codes are based upon treating bit strings as representations of polynomials with coefficients of 0 and 1 only. A k-bit frame is regarded as the coefficient list for a polynomial with k terms, ranging from xk − 1 to x0 . Such a polynomial is said to be of degree k − 1. The high-order (leftmost) bit is the coefficient of xk − 1 , the next bit is the coefficient of xk − 2 , and so on. For example, 110001 has 6 bits and thus represents a six-term polynomial with coefficients 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, and 1: 1x5 + 1x4 + 0x3 + 0x2 + 0x1 + 1x0 . Polynomial arithmetic is done modulo 2, according to the rules of algebraic field theory. It does not have carries for addition or borrows for subtraction. Both addition and subtraction are identical to exclusive OR. For example: 10011011 00110011 11110000 01010101 + 11001010 + 11001101 − 10100110 − 10101111 01010001 11111110 01010110 11111010 Long division is carried out in exactly the same way as it is in binary except that
- 237. SEC. 3.2 ERROR DETECTION AND CORRECTION 213 the subtraction is again done modulo 2. A divisor is said ‘‘to go into’’ a dividend if the dividend has as many bits as the divisor. When the polynomial code method is employed, the sender and receiver must agree upon a generator polynomial, G(x), in advance. Both the high- and low- order bits of the generator must be 1. To compute the CRC for some frame with m bits corresponding to the polynomial M(x), the frame must be longer than the generator polynomial. The idea is to append a CRC to the end of the frame in such a way that the polynomial represented by the checksummed frame is divisi- ble by G(x). When the receiver gets the checksummed frame, it tries dividing it by G(x). If there is a remainder, there has been a transmission error. The algorithm for computing the CRC is as follows: 1. Let r be the degree of G(x). Append r zero bits to the low-order end of the frame so it now contains m + r bits and corresponds to the polynomial xr M(x). 2. Divide the bit string corresponding to G(x) into the bit string corres- ponding to xr M(x), using modulo 2 division. 3. Subtract the remainder (which is always r or fewer bits) from the bit string corresponding to xr M(x) using modulo 2 subtraction. The re- sult is the checksummed frame to be transmitted. Call its polynomial T(x). Figure 3-9 illustrates the calculation for a frame 1101011111 using the generator G(x) = x4 + x + 1. It should be clear that T(x) is divisible (modulo 2) by G(x). In any division problem, if you diminish the dividend by the remainder, what is left over is divisi- ble by the divisor. For example, in base 10, if you divide 210,278 by 10,941, the remainder is 2399. If you then subtract 2399 from 210,278, what is left over (207,879) is divisible by 10,941. Now let us analyze the power of this method. What kinds of errors will be de- tected? Imagine that a transmission error occurs, so that instead of the bit string for T(x) arriving, T(x) + E(x) arrives. Each 1 bit in E(x) corresponds to a bit that has been inverted. If there are k 1 bits in E(x), k single-bit errors have occurred. A single burst error is characterized by an initial 1, a mixture of 0s and 1s, and a final 1, with all other bits being 0. Upon receiving the checksummed frame, the receiver divides it by G(x); that is, it computes [T(x) + E(x)]/G(x). T(x)/G(x) is 0, so the result of the computa- tion is simply E(x)/G(x). Those errors that happen to correspond to polynomials containing G(x) as a factor will slip by; all other errors will be caught. If there has been a single-bit error, E(x) = xi , where i determines which bit is in error. If G(x) contains two or more terms, it will never divide into E(x), so all single-bit errors will be detected.
- 238. 214 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 Remainder Quotient (thrown away) Frame with four zeros appended 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Frame with four zeros appended minus remainder Transmitted frame: 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 Frame: 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 Generator: Figure 3-9. Example calculation of the CRC. If there have been two isolated single-bit errors, E(x) = xi + x j , where i > j. Alternatively, this can be written as E(x) = x j (xi − j + 1). If we assume that G(x) is not divisible by x, a sufficient condition for all double errors to be detected is that G(x) does not divide xk + 1 for any k up to the maximum value of i − j (i.e., up to the maximum frame length). Simple, low-degree polynomials that give pro- tection to long frames are known. For example, x15 + x14 + 1 will not divide xk + 1 for any value of k below 32,768. If there are an odd number of bits in error, E(X) contains an odd number of terms (e.g., x5 + x2 + 1, but not x2 + 1). Interestingly, no polynomial with an odd number of terms has x + 1 as a factor in the modulo 2 system. By making x + 1 a factor of G(x), we can catch all errors with an odd number of inverted bits. Finally, and importantly, a polynomial code with r check bits will detect all burst errors of length ≤ r. A burst error of length k can be represented by xi (xk − 1 + . . . + 1), where i determines how far from the right-hand end of the re- ceived frame the burst is located. If G(x) contains an x0 term, it will not have xi as a factor, so if the degree of the parenthesized expression is less than the degree of G(x), the remainder can never be zero.
- 239. SEC. 3.2 ERROR DETECTION AND CORRECTION 215 If the burst length is r + 1, the remainder of the division by G(x) will be zero if and only if the burst is identical to G(x). By definition of a burst, the first and last bits must be 1, so whether it matches depends on the r − 1 intermediate bits. If all combinations are regarded as equally likely, the probability of such an incor- rect frame being accepted as valid is ½r − 1 . It can also be shown that when an error burst longer than r + 1 bits occurs or when several shorter bursts occur, the probability of a bad frame getting through unnoticed is ½r , assuming that all bit patterns are equally likely. Certain polynomials have become international standards. The one used in IEEE 802 followed the example of Ethernet and is x32 + x26 + x23 + x22 + x16 + x12 + x11 + x10 + x8 + x7 + x5 + x4 + x2 + x1 + 1 Among other desirable properties, it has the property that it detects all bursts of length 32 or less and all bursts affecting an odd number of bits. It has been used widely since the 1980s. However, this does not mean it is the best choice. Using an exhaustive computational search, Castagnoli et al. (1993) and Koopman (2002) found the best CRCs. These CRCs have a Hamming distance of 6 for typical message sizes, while the IEEE standard CRC-32 has a Hamming distance of only 4. Although the calculation required to compute the CRC may seem complicat- ed, it is easy to compute and verify CRCs in hardware with simple shift register circuits (Peterson and Brown, 1961). In practice, this hardware is nearly always used. Dozens of networking standards include various CRCs, including virtually all LANs (e.g., Ethernet, 802.11) and point-to-point links (e.g., packets over SONET). 3.3 ELEMENTARY DATA LINK PROTOCOLS To introduce the subject of protocols, we will begin by looking at three proto- cols of increasing complexity. For interested readers, a simulator for these and subsequent protocols is available via the Web (see the preface). Before we look at the protocols, it is useful to make explicit some of the assumptions underlying the model of communication. To start with, we assume that the physical layer, data link layer, and network layer are independent processes that communicate by passing messages back and forth. A common implementation is shown in Fig. 3-10. The physical layer proc- ess and some of the data link layer process run on dedicate hardware called a NIC (Network Interface Card). The rest of the link layer process and the network layer process run on the main CPU as part of the operating system, with the soft- ware for the link layer process often taking the form of a device driver. Howev- er, other implementations are also possible (e.g., three processes offloaded to ded- icated hardware called a network accelerator, or three processes running on the
- 240. 216 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 main CPU on a software-defined ratio). Actually, the preferred implementation changes from decade to decade with technology trade-offs. In any event, treating the three layers as separate processes makes the discussion conceptually cleaner and also serves to emphasize the independence of the layers. Network Cable (medium) PHY Link Link Application Network Interface Card (NIC) Driver Operating system Computer Figure 3-10. Implementation of the physical, data link, and network layers. Another key assumption is that machine A wants to send a long stream of data to machine B, using a reliable, connection-oriented service. Later, we will consid- er the case where B also wants to send data to A simultaneously. A is assumed to have an infinite supply of data ready to send and never has to wait for data to be produced. Instead, when A’s data link layer asks for data, the network layer is al- ways able to comply immediately. (This restriction, too, will be dropped later.) We also assume that machines do not crash. That is, these protocols deal with communication errors, but not the problems caused by computers crashing and rebooting. As far as the data link layer is concerned, the packet passed across the inter- face to it from the network layer is pure data, whose every bit is to be delivered to the destination’s network layer. The fact that the destination’s network layer may interpret part of the packet as a header is of no concern to the data link layer. When the data link layer accepts a packet, it encapsulates the packet in a frame by adding a data link header and trailer to it (see Fig. 3-1). Thus, a frame consists of an embedded packet, some control information (in the header), and a checksum (in the trailer). The frame is then transmitted to the data link layer on the other machine. We will assume that there exist suitable library procedures to physical layer to send a frame and from physical layer to receive a frame. These procedures compute and append or check the checksum (which is usually done in hardware) so that we do not need to worry about it as part of the protocols we develop in this section. They might use the CRC algorithm discussed in the previous section, for example. Initially, the receiver has nothing to do. It just sits around waiting for some- thing to happen. In the example protocols throughout this chapter we will indicate that the data link layer is waiting for something to happen by the procedure call
- 241. SEC. 3.3 ELEMENTARY DATA LINK PROTOCOLS 217 #define MAX PKT 1024 /* determines packet size in bytes */ typedef enum {false, true} boolean; /* boolean type */ typedef unsigned int seq nr; /* sequence or ack numbers */ typedef struct {unsigned char data[MAX PKT];} packet; /* packet definition */ typedef enum {data, ack, nak} frame kind; /* frame kind definition */ typedef struct { /* frames are transported in this layer */ frame kind kind; /* what kind of frame is it? */ seq nr seq; /* sequence number */ seq nr ack; /* acknowledgement number */ packet info; /* the network layer packet */ } frame; /* Wait for an event to happen; return its type in event. */ void wait for event(event type *event); /* Fetch a packet from the network layer for transmission on the channel. */ void from network layer(packet *p); /* Deliver information from an inbound frame to the network layer. */ void to network layer(packet *p); /* Go get an inbound frame from the physical layer and copy it to r. */ void from physical layer(frame *r); /* Pass the frame to the physical layer for transmission. */ void to physical layer(frame *s); /* Start the clock running and enable the timeout event. */ void start timer(seq nr k); /* Stop the clock and disable the timeout event. */ void stop timer(seq nr k); /* Start an auxiliary timer and enable the ack timeout event. */ void start ack timer(void); /* Stop the auxiliary timer and disable the ack timeout event. */ void stop ack timer(void); /* Allow the network layer to cause a network layer ready event. */ void enable network layer(void); /* Forbid the network layer from causing a network layer ready event. */ void disable network layer(void); /* Macro inc is expanded in-line: increment k circularly. */ #define inc(k) if (k < MAX SEQ) k = k + 1; else k = 0 Figure 3-11. Some definitions needed in the protocols to follow. These defini- tions are located in the file protocol.h.
- 242. 218 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 wait for event(&event). This procedure only returns when something has hap- pened (e.g., a frame has arrived). Upon return, the variable event tells what hap- pened. The set of possible events differs for the various protocols to be described and will be defined separately for each protocol. Note that in a more realistic situation, the data link layer will not sit in a tight loop waiting for an event, as we have suggested, but will receive an interrupt, which will cause it to stop whatever it was doing and go handle the incoming frame. Nevertheless, for simplicity we will ignore all the details of parallel activity within the data link layer and assume that it is dedicated full time to handling just our one channel. When a frame arrives at the receiver, the checksum is recomputed. If the checksum in the frame is incorrect (i.e., there was a transmission error), the data link layer is so informed (event = cksum err). If the inbound frame arrived undamaged, the data link layer is also informed (event = frame arrival) so that it can acquire the frame for inspection using from physical layer. As soon as the receiving data link layer has acquired an undamaged frame, it checks the control information in the header, and, if everything is all right, passes the packet portion to the network layer. Under no circumstances is a frame header ever given to a network layer. There is a good reason why the network layer must never be given any part of the frame header: to keep the network and data link protocols completely sepa- rate. As long as the network layer knows nothing at all about the data link proto- col or the frame format, these things can be changed without requiring changes to the network layer’s software. This happens whenever a new NIC is installed in a computer. Providing a rigid interface between the network and data link layers greatly simplifies the design task because communication protocols in different layers can evolve independently. Figure 3-11 shows some declarations (in C) common to many of the protocols to be discussed later. Five data structures are defined there: boolean, seq nr, packet, frame kind, and frame. A boolean is an enumerated type and can take on the values true and false. A seq nr is a small integer used to number the frames so that we can tell them apart. These sequence numbers run from 0 up to and in- cluding MAX SEQ, which is defined in each protocol needing it. A packet is the unit of information exchanged between the network layer and the data link layer on the same machine, or between network layer peers. In our model it always contains MAX PKT bytes, but more realistically it would be of variable length. A frame is composed of four fields: kind, seq, ack, and info, the first three of which contain control information and the last of which may contain actual data to be transferred. These control fields are collectively called the frame header. The kind field tells whether there are any data in the frame, because some of the protocols distinguish frames containing only control information from those containing data as well. The seq and ack fields are used for sequence numbers and acknowledgements, respectively; their use will be described in more detail later. The info field of a data frame contains a single packet; the info field of a
- 243. SEC. 3.3 ELEMENTARY DATA LINK PROTOCOLS 219 control frame is not used. A more realistic implementation would use a variable- length info field, omitting it altogether for control frames. Again, it is important to understand the relationship between a packet and a frame. The network layer builds a packet by taking a message from the transport layer and adding the network layer header to it. This packet is passed to the data link layer for inclusion in the info field of an outgoing frame. When the frame ar- rives at the destination, the data link layer extracts the packet from the frame and passes the packet to the network layer. In this manner, the network layer can act as though machines can exchange packets directly. A number of procedures are also listed in Fig. 3-11. These are library rou- tines whose details are implementation dependent and whose inner workings will not concern us further in the following discussions. The procedure wait for event sits in a tight loop waiting for something to happen, as mentioned earlier. The procedures to network layer and from network layer are used by the data link layer to pass packets to the network layer and accept packets from the network layer, respectively. Note that from physical layer and to physical layer pass frames between the data link layer and the physical layer. In other words, to net- work layer and from network layer deal with the interface between layers 2 and 3, whereas from physical layer and to physical layer deal with the interface be- tween layers 1 and 2. In most of the protocols, we assume that the channel is unreliable and loses entire frames upon occasion. To be able to recover from such calamities, the sending data link layer must start an internal timer or clock whenever it sends a frame. If no reply has been received within a certain predetermined time interval, the clock times out and the data link layer receives an interrupt signal. In our protocols this is handled by allowing the procedure wait for event to return event = timeout. The procedures start timer and stop timer turn the timer on and off, respectively. Timeout events are possible only when the timer is run- ning and before stop timer is called. It is explicitly permitted to call start timer while the timer is running; such a call simply resets the clock to cause the next timeout after a full timer interval has elapsed (unless it is reset or turned off). The procedures start ack timer and stop ack timer control an auxiliary timer used to generate acknowledgements under certain conditions. The procedures enable network layer and disable network layer are used in the more sophisticated protocols, where we no longer assume that the network layer always has packets to send. When the data link layer enables the network layer, the network layer is then permitted to interrupt when it has a packet to be sent. We indicate this with event = network layer ready. When the network layer is disabled, it may not cause such events. By being careful about when it enables and disables its network layer, the data link layer can prevent the network layer from swamping it with packets for which it has no buffer space. Frame sequence numbers are always in the range 0 to MAX SEQ (inclusive), where MAX SEQ is different for the different protocols. It is frequently necessary
- 244. 220 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 to advance a sequence number by 1 circularly (i.e., MAX SEQ is followed by 0). The macro inc performs this incrementing. It has been defined as a macro be- cause it is used in-line within the critical path. As we will see later, the factor limiting network performance is often protocol processing, so defining simple op- erations like this as macros does not affect the readability of the code but does im- prove performance. The declarations of Fig. 3-11 are part of each of the protocols we will discuss shortly. To save space and to provide a convenient reference, they have been extracted and listed together, but conceptually they should be merged with the protocols themselves. In C, this merging is done by putting the definitions in a special header file, in this case protocol.h, and using the #include facility of the C preprocessor to include them in the protocol files. 3.3.1 A Utopian Simplex Protocol As an initial example we will consider a protocol that is as simple as it can be because it does not worry about the possibility of anything going wrong. Data are transmitted in one direction only. Both the transmitting and receiving network layers are always ready. Processing time can be ignored. Infinite buffer space is available. And best of all, the communication channel between the data link lay- ers never damages or loses frames. This thoroughly unrealistic protocol, which we will nickname ‘‘Utopia,’’ is simply to show the basic structure on which we will build. It’s implementation is shown in Fig. 3-12. The protocol consists of two distinct procedures, a sender and a receiver. The sender runs in the data link layer of the source machine, and the receiver runs in the data link layer of the destination machine. No sequence numbers or acknowl- edgements are used here, so MAX SEQ is not needed. The only event type pos- sible is frame arrival (i.e., the arrival of an undamaged frame). The sender is in an infinite while loop just pumping data out onto the line as fast as it can. The body of the loop consists of three actions: go fetch a packet from the (always obliging) network layer, construct an outbound frame using the variable s, and send the frame on its way. Only the info field of the frame is used by this protocol, because the other fields have to do with error and flow control and there are no errors or flow control restrictions here. The receiver is equally simple. Initially, it waits for something to happen, the only possibility being the arrival of an undamaged frame. Eventually, the frame arrives and the procedure wait for event returns, with event set to frame arrival (which is ignored anyway). The call to from physical layer removes the newly arrived frame from the hardware buffer and puts it in the variable r, where the re- ceiver code can get at it. Finally, the data portion is passed on to the network layer, and the data link layer settles back to wait for the next frame, effectively suspending itself until the frame arrives.
- 245. SEC. 3.3 ELEMENTARY DATA LINK PROTOCOLS 221 /* Protocol 1 (Utopia) provides for data transmission in one direction only, from sender to receiver. The communication channel is assumed to be error free and the receiver is assumed to be able to process all the input infinitely quickly. Consequently, the sender just sits in a loop pumping data out onto the line as fast as it can. */ typedef enum {frame arrival} event type; #include "protocol.h" void sender1(void) { frame s; /* buffer for an outbound frame */ packet buffer; /* buffer for an outbound packet */ while (true) { from network layer(&buffer); /* go get something to send */ s.info = buffer; /* copy it into s for transmission */ to physical layer(&s); /* send it on its way */ } /* Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time. – Macbeth, V, v */ } void receiver1(void) { frame r; event type event; /* filled in by wait, but not used here */ while (true) { wait for event(&event); /* only possibility is frame arrival */ from physical layer(&r); /* go get the inbound frame */ to network layer(&r.info); /* pass the data to the network layer */ } } Figure 3-12. A utopian simplex protocol. The utopia protocol is unrealistic because it does not handle either flow con- trol or error correction. Its processing is close to that of an unacknowledged con- nectionless service that relies on higher layers to solve these problems, though even an unacknowledged connectionless service would do some error detection. 3.3.2 A Simplex Stop-and-Wait Protocol for an Error-Free Channel Now we will tackle the problem of preventing the sender from flooding the receiver with frames faster than the latter is able to process them. This situation can easily happen in practice so being able to prevent it is of great importance.
- 246. 222 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 The communication channel is still assumed to be error free, however, and the data traffic is still simplex. One solution is to build the receiver to be powerful enough to process a con- tinuous stream of back-to-back frames (or, equivalently, define the link layer to be slow enough that the receiver can keep up). It must have sufficient buffering and processing abilities to run at the line rate and must be able to pass the frames that are received to the network layer quickly enough. However, this is a worst-case solution. It requires dedicated hardware and can be wasteful of resources if the utilization of the link is mostly low. Moreover, it just shifts the problem of deal- ing with a sender that is too fast elsewhere; in this case to the network layer. A more general solution to this problem is to have the receiver provide feed- back to the sender. After having passed a packet to its network layer, the receiver sends a little dummy frame back to the sender which, in effect, gives the sender permission to transmit the next frame. After having sent a frame, the sender is re- quired by the protocol to bide its time until the little dummy (i.e., acknowledge- ment) frame arrives. This delay is a simple example of a flow control protocol. Protocols in which the sender sends one frame and then waits for an acknowl- edgement before proceeding are called stop-and-wait. Figure 3-13 gives an ex- ample of a simplex stop-and-wait protocol. Although data traffic in this example is simplex, going only from the sender to the receiver, frames do travel in both directions. Consequently, the communica- tion channel between the two data link layers needs to be capable of bidirectional information transfer. However, this protocol entails a strict alternation of flow: first the sender sends a frame, then the receiver sends a frame, then the sender sends another frame, then the receiver sends another one, and so on. A half- duplex physical channel would suffice here. As in protocol 1, the sender starts out by fetching a packet from the network layer, using it to construct a frame, and sending it on its way. But now, unlike in protocol 1, the sender must wait until an acknowledgement frame arrives before looping back and fetching the next packet from the network layer. The sending data link layer need not even inspect the incoming frame as there is only one pos- sibility. The incoming frame is always an acknowledgement. The only difference between receiver1 and receiver2 is that after delivering a packet to the network layer, receiver2 sends an acknowledgement frame back to the sender before entering the wait loop again. Because only the arrival of the frame back at the sender is important, not its contents, the receiver need not put any particular information in it. 3.3.3 A Simplex Stop-and-Wait Protocol for a Noisy Channel Now let us consider the normal situation of a communication channel that makes errors. Frames may be either damaged or lost completely. However, we assume that if a frame is damaged in transit, the receiver hardware will detect this
- 247. SEC. 3.3 ELEMENTARY DATA LINK PROTOCOLS 223 /* Protocol 2 (Stop-and-wait) also provides for a one-directional flow of data from sender to receiver. The communication channel is once again assumed to be error free, as in protocol 1. However, this time the receiver has only a finite buffer capacity and a finite processing speed, so the protocol must explicitly prevent the sender from flooding the receiver with data faster than it can be handled. */ typedef enum {frame arrival} event type; #include "protocol.h" void sender2(void) { frame s; /* buffer for an outbound frame */ packet buffer; /* buffer for an outbound packet */ event type event; /* frame arrival is the only possibility */ while (true) { from network layer(&buffer); /* go get something to send */ s.info = buffer; /* copy it into s for transmission */ to physical layer(&s); /* bye-bye little frame */ wait for event(&event); /* do not proceed until given the go ahead */ } } void receiver2(void) { frame r, s; /* buffers for frames */ event type event; /* frame arrival is the only possibility */ while (true) { wait for event(&event); /* only possibility is frame arrival */ from physical layer(&r); /* go get the inbound frame */ to network layer(&r.info); /* pass the data to the network layer */ to physical layer(&s); /* send a dummy frame to awaken sender */ } } Figure 3-13. A simplex stop-and-wait protocol. when it computes the checksum. If the frame is damaged in such a way that the checksum is nevertheless correct—an unlikely occurrence—this protocol (and all other protocols) can fail (i.e., deliver an incorrect packet to the network layer). At first glance it might seem that a variation of protocol 2 would work: adding a timer. The sender could send a frame, but the receiver would only send an ac- knowledgement frame if the data were correctly received. If a damaged frame ar- rived at the receiver, it would be discarded. After a while the sender would time out and send the frame again. This process would be repeated until the frame finally arrived intact. This scheme has a fatal flaw in it though. Think about the problem and try to discover what might go wrong before reading further.
- 248. 224 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 To see what might go wrong, remember that the goal of the data link layer is to provide error-free, transparent communication between network layer proc- esses. The network layer on machine A gives a series of packets to its data link layer, which must ensure that an identical series of packets is delivered to the net- work layer on machine B by its data link layer. In particular, the network layer on B has no way of knowing that a packet has been lost or duplicated, so the data link layer must guarantee that no combination of transmission errors, however unlike- ly, can cause a duplicate packet to be delivered to a network layer. Consider the following scenario: 1. The network layer on A gives packet 1 to its data link layer. The packet is correctly received at B and passed to the network layer on B. B sends an acknowledgement frame back to A. 2. The acknowledgement frame gets lost completely. It just never ar- rives at all. Life would be a great deal simpler if the channel man- gled and lost only data frames and not control frames, but sad to say, the channel is not very discriminating. 3. The data link layer on A eventually times out. Not having received an acknowledgement, it (incorrectly) assumes that its data frame was lost or damaged and sends the frame containing packet 1 again. 4. The duplicate frame also arrives intact at the data link layer on B and is unwittingly passed to the network layer there. If A is sending a file to B, part of the file will be duplicated (i.e., the copy of the file made by B will be incorrect and the error will not have been detected). In other words, the protocol will fail. Clearly, what is needed is some way for the receiver to be able to distinguish a frame that it is seeing for the first time from a retransmission. The obvious way to achieve this is to have the sender put a sequence number in the header of each frame it sends. Then the receiver can check the sequence number of each arriving frame to see if it is a new frame or a duplicate to be discarded. Since the protocol must be correct and the sequence number field in the head- er is likely to be small to use the link efficiently, the question arises: what is the minimum number of bits needed for the sequence number? The header might pro- vide 1 bit, a few bits, 1 byte, or multiple bytes for a sequence number depending on the protocol. The important point is that it must carry sequence numbers that are large enough for the protocol to work correctly, or it is not much of a protocol. The only ambiguity in this protocol is between a frame, m, and its direct suc- cessor, m + 1. If frame m is lost or damaged, the receiver will not acknowledge it, so the sender will keep trying to send it. Once it has been correctly received, the receiver will send an acknowledgement to the sender. It is here that the potential
- 249. SEC. 3.3 ELEMENTARY DATA LINK PROTOCOLS 225 trouble crops up. Depending upon whether the acknowledgement frame gets back to the sender correctly or not, the sender may try to send m or m + 1. At the sender, the event that triggers the transmission of frame m + 1 is the ar- rival of an acknowledgement for frame m. But this situation implies that m − 1 has been correctly received, and furthermore that its acknowledgement has also been correctly received by the sender. Otherwise, the sender would not have begun with m, let alone have been considering m + 1. As a consequence, the only ambiguity is between a frame and its immediate predecessor or successor, not be- tween the predecessor and successor themselves. A 1-bit sequence number (0 or 1) is therefore sufficient. At each instant of time, the receiver expects a particular sequence number next. When a frame con- taining the correct sequence number arrives, it is accepted and passed to the net- work layer, then acknowledged. Then the expected sequence number is incre- mented modulo 2 (i.e., 0 becomes 1 and 1 becomes 0). Any arriving frame con- taining the wrong sequence number is rejected as a duplicate. However, the last valid acknowledgement is repeated so that the sender can eventually discover that the frame has been received. An example of this kind of protocol is shown in Fig. 3-14. Protocols in which the sender waits for a positive acknowledgement before advancing to the next data item are often called ARQ (Automatic Repeat reQuest) or PAR (Positive Acknowledgement with Retransmission). Like protocol 2, this one also trans- mits data only in one direction. Protocol 3 differs from its predecessors in that both sender and receiver have a variable whose value is remembered while the data link layer is in the wait state. The sender remembers the sequence number of the next frame to send in next frame to send; the receiver remembers the sequence number of the next frame expected in frame expected. Each protocol has a short initialization phase before entering the infinite loop. After transmitting a frame, the sender starts the timer running. If it was al- ready running, it will be reset to allow another full timer interval. The interval should be chosen to allow enough time for the frame to get to the receiver, for the receiver to process it in the worst case, and for the acknowledgement frame to propagate back to the sender. Only when that interval has elapsed is it safe to as- sume that either the transmitted frame or its acknowledgement has been lost, and to send a duplicate. If the timeout interval is set too short, the sender will transmit unnecessary frames. While these extra frames will not affect the correctness of the protocol, they will hurt performance. After transmitting a frame and starting the timer, the sender waits for some- thing exciting to happen. Only three possibilities exist: an acknowledgement frame arrives undamaged, a damaged acknowledgement frame staggers in, or the timer expires. If a valid acknowledgement comes in, the sender fetches the next packet from its network layer and puts it in the buffer, overwriting the previous packet. It also advances the sequence number. If a damaged frame arrives or the
- 250. 226 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 timer expires, neither the buffer nor the sequence number is changed so that a duplicate can be sent. In all cases, the contents of the buffer (either the next pack- et or a duplicate) are then sent. When a valid frame arrives at the receiver, its sequence number is checked to see if it is a duplicate. If not, it is accepted, passed to the network layer, and an acknowledgement is generated. Duplicates and damaged frames are not passed to the network layer, but they do cause the last correctly received frame to be acknowledged to signal the sender to advance to the next frame or retransmit a damaged frame. 3.4 SLIDING WINDOW PROTOCOLS In the previous protocols, data frames were transmitted in one direction only. In most practical situations, there is a need to transmit data in both directions. One way of achieving full-duplex data transmission is to run two instances of one of the previous protocols, each using a separate link for simplex data traffic (in different directions). Each link is then comprised of a ‘‘forward’’ channel (for data) and a ‘‘reverse’’ channel (for acknowledgements). In both cases the capaci- ty of the reverse channel is almost entirely wasted. A better idea is to use the same link for data in both directions. After all, in protocols 2 and 3 it was already being used to transmit frames both ways, and the reverse channel normally has the same capacity as the forward channel. In this model the data frames from A to B are intermixed with the acknowledgement frames from A to B. By looking at the kind field in the header of an incoming frame, the receiver can tell whether the frame is data or an acknowledgement. Although interleaving data and control frames on the same link is a big im- provement over having two separate physical links, yet another improvement is possible. When a data frame arrives, instead of immediately sending a separate control frame, the receiver restrains itself and waits until the network layer passes it the next packet. The acknowledgement is attached to the outgoing data frame (using the ack field in the frame header). In effect, the acknowledgement gets a free ride on the next outgoing data frame. The technique of temporarily delaying outgoing acknowledgements so that they can be hooked onto the next outgoing data frame is known as piggybacking. The principal advantage of using piggybacking over having distinct acknowl- edgement frames is a better use of the available channel bandwidth. The ack field in the frame header costs only a few bits, whereas a separate frame would need a header, the acknowledgement, and a checksum. In addition, fewer frames sent generally means a lighter processing load at the receiver. In the next protocol to be examined, the piggyback field costs only 1 bit in the frame header. It rarely costs more than a few bits. However, piggybacking introduces a complication not present with separate acknowledgements. How long should the data link layer wait for a packet onto
- 251. SEC. 3.4 SLIDING WINDOW PROTOCOLS 227 /* Protocol 3 (PAR) allows unidirectional data flow over an unreliable channel. */ #define MAX SEQ 1 /* must be 1 for protocol 3 */ typedef enum {frame arrival, cksum err, timeout} event type; #include "protocol.h" void sender3(void) { seq nr next frame to send; /* seq number of next outgoing frame */ frame s; /* scratch variable */ packet buffer; /* buffer for an outbound packet */ event type event; next frame to send = 0; /* initialize outbound sequence numbers */ from network layer(&buffer); /* fetch first packet */ while (true) { s.info = buffer; /* construct a frame for transmission */ s.seq = next frame to send; /* insert sequence number in frame */ to physical layer(&s); /* send it on its way */ start timer(s.seq); /* if answer takes too long, time out */ wait for event(&event); /* frame arrival, cksum err, timeout */ if (event == frame arrival) { from physical layer(&s); /* get the acknowledgement */ if (s.ack == next frame to send) { stop timer(s.ack); /* turn the timer off */ from network layer(&buffer); /* get the next one to send */ inc(next frame to send); /* invert next frame to send */ } } } } void receiver3(void) { seq nr frame expected; frame r, s; event type event; frame expected = 0; while (true) { wait for event(&event); /* possibilities: frame arrival, cksum err */ if (event == frame arrival) { /* a valid frame has arrived */ from physical layer(&r); /* go get the newly arrived frame */ if (r.seq == frame expected) { /* this is what we have been waiting for */ to network layer(&r.info); /* pass the data to the network layer */ inc(frame expected); /* next time expect the other sequence nr */ } s.ack = 1 − frame expected; /* tell which frame is being acked */ to physical layer(&s); /* send acknowledgement */ } } } Figure 3-14. A positive acknowledgement with retransmission protocol.
- 252. 228 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 which to piggyback the acknowledgement? If the data link layer waits longer than the sender’s timeout period, the frame will be retransmitted, defeating the whole purpose of having acknowledgements. If the data link layer were an oracle and could foretell the future, it would know when the next network layer packet was going to come in and could decide either to wait for it or send a separate ac- knowledgement immediately, depending on how long the projected wait was going to be. Of course, the data link layer cannot foretell the future, so it must resort to some ad hoc scheme, such as waiting a fixed number of milliseconds. If a new packet arrives quickly, the acknowledgement is piggybacked onto it. Otherwise, if no new packet has arrived by the end of this time period, the data link layer just sends a separate acknowledgement frame. The next three protocols are bidirectional protocols that belong to a class cal- led sliding window protocols. The three differ among themselves in terms of ef- ficiency, complexity, and buffer requirements, as discussed later. In these, as in all sliding window protocols, each outbound frame contains a sequence number, ranging from 0 up to some maximum. The maximum is usually 2n − 1 so the se- quence number fits exactly in an n-bit field. The stop-and-wait sliding window protocol uses n = 1, restricting the sequence numbers to 0 and 1, but more sophis- ticated versions can use an arbitrary n. The essence of all sliding window protocols is that at any instant of time, the sender maintains a set of sequence numbers corresponding to frames it is permit- ted to send. These frames are said to fall within the sending window. Similarly, the receiver also maintains a receiving window corresponding to the set of frames it is permitted to accept. The sender’s window and the receiver’s window need not have the same lower and upper limits or even have the same size. In some protocols they are fixed in size, but in others they can grow or shrink over the course of time as frames are sent and received. Although these protocols give the data link layer more freedom about the order in which it may send and receive frames, we have definitely not dropped the requirement that the protocol must deliver packets to the destination network layer in the same order they were passed to the data link layer on the sending machine. Nor have we changed the requirement that the physical communication channel is ‘‘wire-like,’’ that is, it must deliver all frames in the order sent. The sequence numbers within the sender’s window represent frames that have been sent or can be sent but are as yet not acknowledged. Whenever a new packet arrives from the network layer, it is given the next highest sequence number, and the upper edge of the window is advanced by one. When an acknowledgement comes in, the lower edge is advanced by one. In this way the window continu- ously maintains a list of unacknowledged frames. Figure 3-15 shows an example. Since frames currently within the sender’s window may ultimately be lost or damaged in transit, the sender must keep all of these frames in its memory for possible retransmission. Thus, if the maximum window size is n, the sender needs n buffers to hold the unacknowledged frames. If the window ever grows to its
- 253. SEC. 3.4 SLIDING WINDOW PROTOCOLS 229 Sender Receiver 7 6 1 5 2 0 4 3 7 6 1 5 2 0 4 3 7 6 1 5 2 0 4 3 7 6 1 5 2 0 4 3 7 6 1 5 2 0 4 3 7 6 1 5 2 0 4 3 7 6 1 5 2 0 4 3 7 6 1 5 2 0 4 3 (a) (b) (c) (d) Figure 3-15. A sliding window of size 1, with a 3-bit sequence number. (a) Ini- tially. (b) After the first frame has been sent. (c) After the first frame has been received. (d) After the first acknowledgement has been received. maximum size, the sending data link layer must forcibly shut off the network layer until another buffer becomes free. The receiving data link layer’s window corresponds to the frames it may ac- cept. Any frame falling within the window is put in the receiver’s buffer. When a frame whose sequence number is equal to the lower edge of the window is re- ceived, it is passed to the network layer and the window is rotated by one. Any frame falling outside the window is discarded. In all of these cases, a subsequent acknowledgement is generated so that the sender may work out how to proceed. Note that a window size of 1 means that the data link layer only accepts frames in order, but for larger windows this is not so. The network layer, in contrast, is al- ways fed data in the proper order, regardless of the data link layer’s window size. Figure 3-15 shows an example with a maximum window size of 1. Initially, no frames are outstanding, so the lower and upper edges of the sender’s window are equal, but as time goes on, the situation progresses as shown. Unlike the send- er’s window, the receiver’s window always remains at its initial size, rotating as the next frame is accepted and delivered to the network layer. 3.4.1 A One-Bit Sliding Window Protocol Before tackling the general case, let us examine a sliding window protocol with a window size of 1. Such a protocol uses stop-and-wait since the sender transmits a frame and waits for its acknowledgement before sending the next one.
- 254. 230 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 Figure 3-16 depicts such a protocol. Like the others, it starts out by defining some variables. Next frame to send tells which frame the sender is trying to send. Similarly, frame expected tells which frame the receiver is expecting. In both cases, 0 and 1 are the only possibilities. /* Protocol 4 (Sliding window) is bidirectional. */ #define MAX SEQ 1 /* must be 1 for protocol 4 */ typedef enum {frame arrival, cksum err, timeout} event type; #include "protocol.h" void protocol4 (void) { seq nr next frame to send; /* 0 or 1 only */ seq nr frame expected; /* 0 or 1 only */ frame r, s; /* scratch variables */ packet buffer; /* current packet being sent */ event type event; next frame to send = 0; /* next frame on the outbound stream */ frame expected = 0; /* frame expected next */ from network layer(&buffer); /* fetch a packet from the network layer */ s.info = buffer; /* prepare to send the initial frame */ s.seq = next frame to send; /* insert sequence number into frame */ s.ack = 1 − frame expected; /* piggybacked ack */ to physical layer(&s); /* transmit the frame */ start timer(s.seq); /* start the timer running */ while (true) { wait for event(&event); /* frame arrival, cksum err, or timeout */ if (event == frame arrival) { /* a frame has arrived undamaged */ from physical layer(&r); /* go get it */ if (r.seq == frame expected) { /* handle inbound frame stream */ to network layer(&r.info); /* pass packet to network layer */ inc(frame expected); /* invert seq number expected next */ } if (r.ack == next frame to send) { /* handle outbound frame stream */ stop timer(r.ack); /* turn the timer off */ from network layer(&buffer); /* fetch new pkt from network layer */ inc(next frame to send); /* invert sender’s sequence number */ } } s.info = buffer; /* construct outbound frame */ s.seq = next frame to send; /* insert sequence number into it */ s.ack = 1 − frame expected; /* seq number of last received frame */ to physical layer(&s); /* transmit a frame */ start timer(s.seq); /* start the timer running */ } } Figure 3-16. A 1-bit sliding window protocol.
- 255. SEC. 3.4 SLIDING WINDOW PROTOCOLS 231 Under normal circumstances, one of the two data link layers goes first and transmits the first frame. In other words, only one of the data link layer programs should contain the to physical layer and start timer procedure calls outside the main loop. The starting machine fetches the first packet from its network layer, builds a frame from it, and sends it. When this (or any) frame arrives, the receiv- ing data link layer checks to see if it is a duplicate, just as in protocol 3. If the frame is the one expected, it is passed to the network layer and the receiver’s win- dow is slid up. The acknowledgement field contains the number of the last frame received without error. If this number agrees with the sequence number of the frame the sender is trying to send, the sender knows it is done with the frame stored in buff- er and can fetch the next packet from its network layer. If the sequence number disagrees, it must continue trying to send the same frame. Whenever a frame is received, a frame is also sent back. Now let us examine protocol 4 to see how resilient it is to pathological scen- arios. Assume that computer A is trying to send its frame 0 to computer B and that B is trying to send its frame 0 to A. Suppose that A sends a frame to B, but A’s timeout interval is a little too short. Consequently, A may time out repeatedly, sending a series of identical frames, all with seq = 0 and ack = 1. When the first valid frame arrives at computer B, it will be accepted and frame expected will be set to a value of 1. All the subsequent frames received will be rejected because B is now expecting frames with sequence number 1, not 0. Furthermore, since all the duplicates will have ack = 1 and B is still waiting for an acknowledgement of 0, B will not go and fetch a new packet from its network layer. After every rejected duplicate comes in, B will send A a frame containing seq = 0 and ack = 0. Eventually, one of these will arrive correctly at A, causing A to begin sending the next packet. No combination of lost frames or premature timeouts can cause the protocol to deliver duplicate packets to either network layer, to skip a packet, or to deadlock. The protocol is correct. However, to show how subtle protocol interactions can be, we note that a pe- culiar situation arises if both sides simultaneously send an initial packet. This synchronization difficulty is illustrated by Fig. 3-17. In part (a), the normal opera- tion of the protocol is shown. In (b) the peculiarity is illustrated. If B waits for A’s first frame before sending one of its own, the sequence is as shown in (a), and every frame is accepted. However, if A and B simultaneously initiate communication, their first frames cross, and the data link layers then get into situation (b). In (a) each frame arrival brings a new packet for the network layer; there are no duplicates. In (b) half of the frames contain duplicates, even though there are no transmission errors. Simi- lar situations can occur as a result of premature timeouts, even when one side clearly starts first. In fact, if multiple premature timeouts occur, frames may be sent three or more times, wasting valuable bandwidth.
- 256. 232 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 A sends (0, 1, A0) A gets (0, 0, B0)* A sends (1, 0, A1) B gets (0, 1, A0)* B sends (0, 0, B0) B gets (1, 0, A1)* B sends (1, 1, B1) B gets (0, 1, A2)* B sends (0, 0, B2) B gets (1, 0, A3)* B sends (1, 1, B3) A gets (1, 1, B1)* A sends (0, 1, A2) A gets (0, 0, B2)* A sends (1, 0, A3) A sends (0, 1, A0) A gets (0, 1, B0)* A sends (0, 0, A0) B gets (0, 0, A0) B sends (1, 0, B1) B sends (0, 1, B0) B gets (0, 1, A0)* B sends (0, 0, B0) B gets (1, 0, A1)* B sends (1, 1, B1) B gets (1, 1, A1) B sends (0, 1, B2) A gets (0, 0, B0) A sends (1, 0, A1) A gets (1, 0, B1)* A sends (1, 1, A1) Time (a) (b) Figure 3-17. Two scenarios for protocol 4. (a) Normal case. (b) Abnormal case. The notation is (seq, ack, packet number). An asterisk indicates where a network layer accepts a packet. 3.4.2 A Protocol Using Go-Back-N Until now we have made the tacit assumption that the transmission time re- quired for a frame to arrive at the receiver plus the transmission time for the ac- knowledgement to come back is negligible. Sometimes this assumption is clearly false. In these situations the long round-trip time can have important implications for the efficiency of the bandwidth utilization. As an example, consider a 50-kbps satellite channel with a 500-msec round-trip propagation delay. Let us imagine trying to use protocol 4 to send 1000-bit frames via the satellite. At t = 0 the sender starts sending the first frame. At t = 20 msec the frame has been com- pletely sent. Not until t = 270 msec has the frame fully arrived at the receiver, and not until t = 520 msec has the acknowledgement arrived back at the sender, under the best of circumstances (of no waiting in the receiver and a short ac- knowledgement frame). This means that the sender was blocked 500/520 or 96% of the time. In other words, only 4% of the available bandwidth was used. Clear- ly, the combination of a long transit time, high bandwidth, and short frame length is disastrous in terms of efficiency. The problem described here can be viewed as a consequence of the rule re- quiring a sender to wait for an acknowledgement before sending another frame. If we relax that restriction, much better efficiency can be achieved. Basically, the solution lies in allowing the sender to transmit up to w frames before blocking, in- stead of just 1. With a large enough choice of w the sender will be able to con- tinuously transmit frames since the acknowledgements will arrive for previous frames before the window becomes full, preventing the sender from blocking.
- 257. SEC. 3.4 SLIDING WINDOW PROTOCOLS 233 To find an appropriate value for w we need to know how many frames can fit inside the channel as they propagate from sender to receiver. This capacity is de- termined by the bandwidth in bits/sec multiplied by the one-way transit time, or the bandwidth-delay product of the link. We can divide this quantity by the number of bits in a frame to express it as a number of frames. Call this quantity BD. Then w should be set to 2BD + 1. Twice the bandwidth-delay is the number of frames that can be outstanding if the sender continuously sends frames when the round-trip time to receive an acknowledgement is considered. The ‘‘+1’’ is because an acknowledgement frame will not be sent until after a complete frame is received. For the example link with a bandwidth of 50 kbps and a one-way transit time of 250 msec, the bandwidth-delay product is 12.5 kbit or 12.5 frames of 1000 bits each. 2BD + 1 is then 26 frames. Assume the sender begins sending frame 0 as before and sends a new frame every 20 msec. By the time it has finished sending 26 frames, at t = 520 msec, the acknowledgement for frame 0 will have just arri- ved. Thereafter, acknowledgements will arrive every 20 msec, so the sender will always get permission to continue just when it needs it. From then onwards, 25 or 26 unacknowledged frames will always be outstanding. Put in other terms, the sender’s maximum window size is 26. For smaller window sizes, the utilization of the link will be less than 100% since the sender will be blocked sometimes. We can write the utilization as the fraction of time that the sender is not blocked: link utilization ≤ 1 + 2BD w This value is an upper bound because it does not allow for any frame processing time and treats the acknowledgement frame as having zero length, since it is usually short. The equation shows the need for having a large window w when- ever the bandwidth-delay product is large. If the delay is high, the sender will ra- pidly exhaust its window even for a moderate bandwidth, as in the satellite ex- ample. If the bandwidth is high, even for a moderate delay the sender will exhaust its window quickly unless it has a large window (e.g., a 1-Gbps link with 1-msec delay holds 1 megabit). With stop-and-wait for which w = 1, if there is even one frame’s worth of propagation delay the efficiency will be less than 50%. This technique of keeping multiple frames in flight is an example of pipelin- ing. Pipelining frames over an unreliable communication channel raises some serious issues. First, what happens if a frame in the middle of a long stream is damaged or lost? Large numbers of succeeding frames will arrive at the receiver before the sender even finds out that anything is wrong. When a damaged frame arrives at the receiver, it obviously should be discarded, but what should the re- ceiver do with all the correct frames following it? Remember that the receiving data link layer is obligated to hand packets to the network layer in sequence.
- 258. 234 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 Two basic approaches are available for dealing with errors in the presence of pipelining, both of which are shown in Fig. 3-18. 0 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 E D D D D D D 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Timeout interval Error Frames discarded by data link layer Frames buffered by data link layer A c k 0 A c k 1 Time (a) (b) 0 1 0 1 9 10 11 12 13 14 E 2 3 4 5 2 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 8 Error A c k 0 A c k 1 N a k 2 4 5 2 3 6 A c k 5 A c k 6 7 A c k 7 A c k 8 A c k 9 A c k 1 1 A c k 1 2 A c k 1 3 A c k 1 0 A c k 2 A c k 3 A c k 4 A c k 5 A c k 6 A c k 7 Figure 3-18. Pipelining and error recovery. Effect of an error when (a) receiver’s window size is 1 and (b) receiver’s window size is large. One option, called go-back-n, is for the receiver simply to discard all subsequent frames, sending no acknowledgements for the discarded frames. This strategy corresponds to a receive window of size 1. In other words, the data link layer refuses to accept any frame except the next one it must give to the network layer. If the sender’s window fills up before the timer runs out, the pipeline will begin to empty. Eventually, the sender will time out and retransmit all unacknowledged frames in order, starting with the damaged or lost one. This approach can waste a lot of bandwidth if the error rate is high. In Fig. 3-18(b) we see go-back-n for the case in which the receiver’s window is large. Frames 0 and 1 are correctly received and acknowledged. Frame 2, however, is damaged or lost. The sender, unaware of this problem, continues to send frames until the timer for frame 2 expires. Then it backs up to frame 2 and starts over with it, sending 2, 3, 4, etc. all over again. The other general strategy for handling errors when frames are pipelined is called selective repeat. When it is used, a bad frame that is received is discarded, but any good frames received after it are accepted and buffered. When the sender times out, only the oldest unacknowledged frame is retransmitted. If that frame
- 259. SEC. 3.4 SLIDING WINDOW PROTOCOLS 235 arrives correctly, the receiver can deliver to the network layer, in sequence, all the frames it has buffered. Selective repeat corresponds to a receiver window larger than 1. This approach can require large amounts of data link layer memory if the window is large. Selective repeat is often combined with having the receiver send a negative acknowledgement (NAK) when it detects an error, for example, when it receives a checksum error or a frame out of sequence. NAKs stimulate retransmission be- fore the corresponding timer expires and thus improve performance. In Fig. 3-18(b), frames 0 and 1 are again correctly received and acknowledged and frame 2 is lost. When frame 3 arrives at the receiver, the data link layer there notices that it has missed a frame, so it sends back a NAK for 2 but buffers 3. When frames 4 and 5 arrive, they, too, are buffered by the data link layer instead of being passed to the network layer. Eventually, the NAK 2 gets back to the sender, which immediately resends frame 2. When that arrives, the data link layer now has 2, 3, 4, and 5 and can pass all of them to the network layer in the correct order. It can also acknowledge all frames up to and including 5, as shown in the figure. If the NAK should get lost, eventually the sender will time out for frame 2 and send it (and only it) of its own accord, but that may be a quite a while later. These two alternative approaches are trade-offs between efficient use of band- width and data link layer buffer space. Depending on which resource is scarcer, one or the other can be used. Figure 3-19 shows a go-back-n protocol in which the receiving data link layer only accepts frames in order; frames following an error are discarded. In this protocol, for the first time we have dropped the as- sumption that the network layer always has an infinite supply of packets to send. When the network layer has a packet it wants to send, it can cause a net- work layer ready event to happen. However, to enforce the flow control limit on the sender window or the number of unacknowledged frames that may be out- standing at any time, the data link layer must be able to keep the network layer from bothering it with more work. The library procedures enable network layer and disable network layer do this job. The maximum number of frames that may be outstanding at any instant is not the same as the size of the sequence number space. For go-back-n, MAX SEQ frames may be outstanding at any instant, even though there are MAX SEQ + 1 distinct sequence numbers (which are 0, 1, . . . , MAX SEQ). We will see an even tighter restriction for the next protocol, selective repeat. To see why this res- triction is required, consider the following scenario with MAX SEQ = 7: 1. The sender sends frames 0 through 7. 2. A piggybacked acknowledgement for 7 comes back to the sender. 3. The sender sends another eight frames, again with sequence numbers 0 through 7. 4. Now another piggybacked acknowledgement for frame 7 comes in.
- 260. 236 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 /* Protocol 5 (Go-back-n) allows multiple outstanding frames. The sender may transmit up to MAX SEQ frames without waiting for an ack. In addition, unlike in the previous protocols, the network layer is not assumed to have a new packet all the time. Instead, the network layer causes a network layer ready event when there is a packet to send. */ #define MAX SEQ 7 typedef enum {frame arrival, cksum err, timeout, network layer ready} event type; #include "protocol.h" static boolean between(seq nr a, seq nr b, seq nr c) { /* Return true if a <= b < c circularly; false otherwise. */ if (((a <= b) && (b < c)) || ((c < a) && (a <= b)) || ((b < c) && (c < a))) return(true); else return(false); } static void send data(seq nr frame nr, seq nr frame expected, packet buffer[ ]) { /* Construct and send a data frame. */ frame s; /* scratch variable */ s.info = buffer[frame nr]; /* insert packet into frame */ s.seq = frame nr; /* insert sequence number into frame */ s.ack = (frame expected + MAX SEQ) % (MAX SEQ + 1);/* piggyback ack */ to physical layer(&s); /* transmit the frame */ start timer(frame nr); /* start the timer running */ } void protocol5(void) { seq nr next frame to send; /* MAX SEQ > 1; used for outbound stream */ seq nr ack expected; /* oldest frame as yet unacknowledged */ seq nr frame expected; /* next frame expected on inbound stream */ frame r; /* scratch variable */ packet buffer[MAX SEQ + 1]; /* buffers for the outbound stream */ seq nr nbuffered; /* number of output buffers currently in use */ seq nr i; /* used to index into the buffer array */ event type event; enable network layer(); /* allow network layer ready events */ ack expected = 0; /* next ack expected inbound */ next frame to send = 0; /* next frame going out */ frame expected = 0; /* number of frame expected inbound */ nbuffered = 0; /* initially no packets are buffered */ while (true) { wait for event(&event); /* four possibilities: see event type above */
- 261. SEC. 3.4 SLIDING WINDOW PROTOCOLS 237 switch(event) { case network layer ready: /* the network layer has a packet to send */ /* Accept, save, and transmit a new frame. */ from network layer(&buffer[next frame to send]); /* fetch new packet */ nbuffered = nbuffered + 1; /* expand the sender’s window */ send data(next frame to send, frame expected, buffer);/* transmit the frame */ inc(next frame to send); /* advance sender’s upper window edge */ break; case frame arrival: /* a data or control frame has arrived */ from physical layer(&r); /* get incoming frame from physical layer */ if (r.seq == frame expected) { /* Frames are accepted only in order. */ to network layer(&r.info); /* pass packet to network layer */ inc(frame expected); /* advance lower edge of receiver’s window */ } /* Ack n implies n − 1, n − 2, etc. Check for this. */ while (between(ack expected, r.ack, next frame to send)) { /* Handle piggybacked ack. */ nbuffered = nbuffered − 1; /* one frame fewer buffered */ stop timer(ack expected); /* frame arrived intact; stop timer */ inc(ack expected); /* contract sender’s window */ } break; case cksum err: break; /* just ignore bad frames */ case timeout: /* trouble; retransmit all outstanding frames */ next frame to send = ack expected; /* start retransmitting here */ for (i = 1; i <= nbuffered; i++) { send data(next frame to send, frame expected, buffer);/* resend frame */ inc(next frame to send); /* prepare to send the next one */ } } if (nbuffered < MAX SEQ) enable network layer(); else disable network layer(); } } Figure 3-19. A sliding window protocol using go-back-n. The question is this: did all eight frames belonging to the second batch arrive suc- cessfully, or did all eight get lost (counting discards following an error as lost)? In both cases the receiver would be sending frame 7 as the acknowledgement.
- 262. 238 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 The sender has no way of telling. For this reason the maximum number of out- standing frames must be restricted to MAX SEQ. Although protocol 5 does not buffer the frames arriving after an error, it does not escape the problem of buffering altogether. Since a sender may have to retransmit all the unacknowledged frames at a future time, it must hang on to all transmitted frames until it knows for sure that they have been accepted by the re- ceiver. When an acknowledgement comes in for frame n, frames n − 1, n − 2, and so on are also automatically acknowledged. This type of acknowledgement is called a cumulative acknowledgement. This property is especially important when some of the previous acknowledgement-bearing frames were lost or gar- bled. Whenever any acknowledgement comes in, the data link layer checks to see if any buffers can now be released. If buffers can be released (i.e., there is some room available in the window), a previously blocked network layer can now be al- lowed to cause more network layer ready events. For this protocol, we assume that there is always reverse traffic on which to piggyback acknowledgements. Protocol 4 does not need this assumption since it sends back one frame every time it receives a frame, even if it has already sent that frame. In the next protocol we will solve the problem of one-way traffic in an elegant way. Because protocol 5 has multiple outstanding frames, it logically needs multi- ple timers, one per outstanding frame. Each frame times out independently of all the other ones. However, all of these timers can easily be simulated in software using a single hardware clock that causes interrupts periodically. The pending timeouts form a linked list, with each node of the list containing the number of clock ticks until the timer expires, the frame being timed, and a pointer to the next node. 10:00:00.000 10:00:00.005 5 1 8 2 6 3 6 3 8 2 Real time Pointer to next timeout Frame being timed Ticks to go (a) (b) Figure 3-20. Simulation of multiple timers in software. (a) The queued time- outs. (b) The situation after the first timeout has expired. As an illustration of how the timers could be implemented, consider the ex- ample of Fig. 3-20(a). Assume that the clock ticks once every 1 msec. Initially,
- 263. SEC. 3.4 SLIDING WINDOW PROTOCOLS 239 the real time is 10:00:00.000; three timeouts are pending, at 10:00:00.005, 10:00:00.013, and 10:00:00.019. Every time the hardware clock ticks, the real time is updated and the tick counter at the head of the list is decremented. When the tick counter becomes zero, a timeout is caused and the node is removed from the list, as shown in Fig. 3-20(b). Although this organization requires the list to be scanned when start timer or stop timer is called, it does not require much work per tick. In protocol 5, both of these routines have been given a parameter indicating which frame is to be timed. 3.4.3 A Protocol Using Selective Repeat The go-back-n protocol works well if errors are rare, but if the line is poor it wastes a lot of bandwidth on retransmitted frames. An alternative strategy, the selective repeat protocol, is to allow the receiver to accept and buffer the frames following a damaged or lost one. In this protocol, both sender and receiver maintain a window of outstanding and acceptable sequence numbers, respectively. The sender’s window size starts out at 0 and grows to some predefined maximum. The receiver’s window, in con- trast, is always fixed in size and equal to the predetermined maximum. The re- ceiver has a buffer reserved for each sequence number within its fixed window. Associated with each buffer is a bit (arrived) telling whether the buffer is full or empty. Whenever a frame arrives, its sequence number is checked by the function between to see if it falls within the window. If so and if it has not already been re- ceived, it is accepted and stored. This action is taken without regard to whether or not the frame contains the next packet expected by the network layer. Of course, it must be kept within the data link layer and not passed to the network layer until all the lower-numbered frames have already been delivered to the network layer in the correct order. A protocol using this algorithm is given in Fig. 3-21. Nonsequential receive introduces further constraints on frame sequence num- bers compared to protocols in which frames are only accepted in order. We can illustrate the trouble most easily with an example. Suppose that we have a 3-bit sequence number, so that the sender is permitted to transmit up to seven frames before being required to wait for an acknowledgement. Initially, the sender’s and receiver’s windows are as shown in Fig. 3-22(a). The sender now transmits frames 0 through 6. The receiver’s window allows it to accept any frame with a sequence number between 0 and 6 inclusive. All seven frames arrive correctly, so the receiver acknowledges them and advances its window to allow receipt of 7, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, as shown in Fig. 3-22(b). All seven buffers are marked empty. It is at this point that disaster strikes in the form of a lightning bolt hitting the telephone pole and wiping out all the acknowledgements. The protocol should operate correctly despite this disaster. The sender eventually times out and re- transmits frame 0. When this frame arrives at the receiver, a check is made to see if it falls within the receiver’s window. Unfortunately, in Fig. 3-22(b) frame 0 is
- 264. 240 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 /* Protocol 6 (Selective repeat) accepts frames out of order but passes packets to the network layer in order. Associated with each outstanding frame is a timer. When the timer expires, only that frame is retransmitted, not all the outstanding frames, as in protocol 5. */ #define MAX SEQ 7 /* should be 2ˆn − 1 */ #define NR BUFS ((MAX SEQ + 1)/2) typedef enum {frame arrival, cksum err, timeout, network layer ready, ack timeout} event type; #include "protocol.h" boolean no nak = true; /* no nak has been sent yet */ seq nr oldest frame = MAX SEQ + 1; /* initial value is only for the simulator */ static boolean between(seq nr a, seq nr b, seq nr c) { /* Same as between in protocol 5, but shorter and more obscure. */ return ((a <= b) && (b < c)) || ((c < a) && (a <= b)) || ((b < c) && (c < a)); } static void send frame(frame kind fk, seq nr frame nr, seq nr frame expected, packet buffer[ ]) { /* Construct and send a data, ack, or nak frame. */ frame s; /* scratch variable */ s.kind = fk; /* kind == data, ack, or nak */ if (fk == data) s.info = buffer[frame nr % NR BUFS]; s.seq = frame nr; /* only meaningful for data frames */ s.ack = (frame expected + MAX SEQ) % (MAX SEQ + 1); if (fk == nak) no nak = false; /* one nak per frame, please */ to physical layer(&s); /* transmit the frame */ if (fk == data) start timer(frame nr % NR BUFS); stop ack timer(); /* no need for separate ack frame */ } void protocol6(void) { seq nr ack expected; /* lower edge of sender’s window */ seq nr next frame to send; /* upper edge of sender’s window + 1 */ seq nr frame expected; /* lower edge of receiver’s window */ seq nr too far; /* upper edge of receiver’s window + 1 */ int i; /* index into buffer pool */ frame r; /* scratch variable */ packet out buf[NR BUFS]; /* buffers for the outbound stream */ packet in buf[NR BUFS]; /* buffers for the inbound stream */ boolean arrived[NR BUFS]; /* inbound bit map */ seq nr nbuffered; /* how many output buffers currently used */ event type event; enable network layer(); /* initialize */ ack expected = 0; /* next ack expected on the inbound stream */ next frame to send = 0; /* number of next outgoing frame */ frame expected = 0; too far = NR BUFS; nbuffered = 0; /* initially no packets are buffered */ for (i = 0; i < NR BUFS; i++) arrived[i] = false;
- 265. SEC. 3.4 SLIDING WINDOW PROTOCOLS 241 while (true) { wait for event(&event); /* five possibilities: see event type above */ switch(event) { case network layer ready: /* accept, save, and transmit a new frame */ nbuffered = nbuffered + 1; /* expand the window */ from network layer(&out buf[next frame to send % NR BUFS]); /* fetch new packet */ send frame(data, next frame to send, frame expected, out buf);/* transmit the frame */ inc(next frame to send); /* advance upper window edge */ break; case frame arrival: /* a data or control frame has arrived */ from physical layer(&r); /* fetch incoming frame from physical layer */ if (r.kind == data) { /* An undamaged frame has arrived. */ if ((r.seq != frame expected) && no nak) send frame(nak, 0, frame expected, out buf); else start ack timer(); if (between(frame expected,r.seq,too far) && (arrived[r.seq%NR BUFS]==false)) { /* Frames may be accepted in any order. */ arrived[r.seq % NR BUFS] = true; /* mark buffer as full */ in buf[r.seq % NR BUFS] = r.info; /* insert data into buffer */ while (arrived[frame expected % NR BUFS]) { /* Pass frames and advance window. */ to network layer(&in buf[frame expected % NR BUFS]); no nak = true; arrived[frame expected % NR BUFS] = false; inc(frame expected); /* advance lower edge of receiver’s window */ inc(too far); /* advance upper edge of receiver’s window */ start ack timer(); /* to see if a separate ack is needed */ } } } if((r.kind==nak) && between(ack expected,(r.ack+1)%(MAX SEQ+1),next frame to send)) send frame(data, (r.ack+1) % (MAX SEQ + 1), frame expected, out buf); while (between(ack expected, r.ack, next frame to send)) { nbuffered = nbuffered − 1; /* handle piggybacked ack */ stop timer(ack expected % NR BUFS); /* frame arrived intact */ inc(ack expected); /* advance lower edge of sender’s window */ } break; case cksum err: if (no nak) send frame(nak, 0, frame expected, out buf); /* damaged frame */ break; case timeout: send frame(data, oldest frame, frame expected, out buf); /* we timed out */ break; case ack timeout: send frame(ack,0,frame expected, out buf); /* ack timer expired; send ack */ } if (nbuffered < NR BUFS) enable network layer(); else disable network layer(); } } Figure 3-21. A sliding window protocol using selective repeat.
- 266. 242 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 within the new window, so it is accepted as a new frame. The receiver also sends a (piggybacked) acknowledgement for frame 6, since 0 through 6 have been re- ceived. The sender is happy to learn that all its transmitted frames did actually arrive correctly, so it advances its window and immediately sends frames 7, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Frame 7 will be accepted by the receiver and its packet will be passed di- rectly to the network layer. Immediately thereafter, the receiving data link layer checks to see if it has a valid frame 0 already, discovers that it does, and passes the old buffered packet to the network layer as if it were a new packet. Conse- quently, the network layer gets an incorrect packet, and the protocol fails. The essence of the problem is that after the receiver advanced its window, the new range of valid sequence numbers overlapped the old one. Consequently, the following batch of frames might be either duplicates (if all the acknowledgements were lost) or new ones (if all the acknowledgements were received). The poor re- ceiver has no way of distinguishing these two cases. The way out of this dilemma lies in making sure that after the receiver has ad- vanced its window there is no overlap with the original window. To ensure that there is no overlap, the maximum window size should be at most half the range of the sequence numbers. This situation is shown in Fig. 3-22(c) and Fig. 3-22(d). With 3 bits, the sequence numbers range from 0 to 7. Only four unacknowledged frames should be outstanding at any instant. That way, if the receiver has just ac- cepted frames 0 through 3 and advanced its window to permit acceptance of frames 4 through 7, it can unambiguously tell if subsequent frames are retransmis- sions (0 through 3) or new ones (4 through 7). In general, the window size for protocol 6 will be (MAX SEQ + 1)/2. An interesting question is: how many buffers must the receiver have? Under no conditions will it ever accept frames whose sequence numbers are below the lower edge of the window or frames whose sequence numbers are above the upper edge of the window. Consequently, the number of buffers needed is equal to the window size, not to the range of sequence numbers. In the preceding example of a 3-bit sequence number, four buffers, numbered 0 through 3, are needed. When frame i arrives, it is put in buffer i mod 4. Notice that although i and (i + 4) mod 4 are ‘‘competing’’ for the same buffer, they are never within the window at the same time, because that would imply a window size of at least 5. For the same reason, the number of timers needed is equal to the number of buffers, not to the size of the sequence space. Effectively, a timer is associated with each buffer. When the timer runs out, the contents of the buffer are retrans- mitted. Protocol 6 also relaxes the implicit assumption that the channel is heavily loaded. We made this assumption in protocol 5 when we relied on frames being sent in the reverse direction on which to piggyback acknowledgements. If the re- verse traffic is light, the acknowledgements may be held up for a long period of time, which can cause problems. In the extreme, if there is a lot of traffic in one
- 267. SEC. 3.4 SLIDING WINDOW PROTOCOLS 243 Sender Receiver 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (a) (b) (c) (d) Figure 3-22. (a) Initial situation with a window of size7. (b) After 7 frames have been sent and received but not acknowledged. (c) Initial situation with a window size of 4. (d) After 4 frames have been sent and received but not acknowledged. direction and no traffic in the other direction, the protocol will block when the sender window reaches its maximum. To relax this assumption, an auxiliary timer is started by start ack timer after an in-sequence data frame arrives. If no reverse traffic has presented itself before this timer expires, a separate acknowledgement frame is sent. An interrupt due to the auxiliary timer is called an ack timeout event. With this arrangement, traffic flow in only one direction is possible because the lack of reverse data frames onto which acknowledgements can be piggybacked is no longer an obstacle. Only one auxiliary timer exists, and if start ack timer is called while the timer is running, it has no effect. The timer is not reset or extended since its purpose is to provide some minimum rate of acknowledgements. It is essential that the timeout associated with the auxiliary timer be appreci- ably shorter than the timeout used for timing out data frames. This condition is required to ensure that a correctly received frame is acknowledged early enough that the frame’s retransmission timer does not expire and retransmit the frame. Protocol 6 uses a more efficient strategy than protocol 5 for dealing with er- rors. Whenever the receiver has reason to suspect that an error has occurred, it sends a negative acknowledgement (NAK) frame back to the sender. Such a frame is a request for retransmission of the frame specified in the NAK. In two cases, the receiver should be suspicious: when a damaged frame arrives or a frame other than the expected one arrives (potential lost frame). To avoid making multi- ple requests for retransmission of the same lost frame, the receiver should keep track of whether a NAK has already been sent for a given frame. The variable no nak in protocol 6 is true if no NAK has been sent yet for frame expected. If the NAK gets mangled or lost, no real harm is done, since the sender will eventu- ally time out and retransmit the missing frame anyway. If the wrong frame ar- rives after a NAK has been sent and lost, no nak will be true and the auxiliary timer will be started. When it expires, an ACK will be sent to resynchronize the sender to the receiver’s current status.
- 268. 244 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 In some situations, the time required for a frame to propagate to the destina- tion, be processed there, and have the acknowledgement come back is (nearly) constant. In these situations, the sender can adjust its timer to be ‘‘tight,’’ just slightly larger than the normal time interval expected between sending a frame and receiving its acknowledgement. NAKs are not useful in this case. However, in other situations the time can be highly variable. For example, if the reverse traffic is sporadic, the time before acknowledgement will be shorter when there is reverse traffic and longer when there is not. The sender is faced with the choice of either setting the interval to a small value (and risking unneces- sary retransmissions), or setting it to a large value (and going idle for a long period after an error). Both choices waste bandwidth. In general, if the standard deviation of the acknowledgement interval is large compared to the interval itself, the timer is set ‘‘loose’’ to be conservative. NAKs can then appreciably speed up retransmission of lost or damaged frames. Closely related to the matter of timeouts and NAKs is the question of deter- mining which frame caused a timeout. In protocol 5, it is always ack expected, because it is always the oldest. In protocol 6, there is no trivial way to determine who timed out. Suppose that frames 0 through 4 have been transmitted, meaning that the list of outstanding frames is 01234, in order from oldest to youngest. Now imagine that 0 times out, 5 (a new frame) is transmitted, 1 times out, 2 times out, and 6 (another new frame) is transmitted. At this point the list of outstanding frames is 3405126, from oldest to youngest. If all inbound traffic (i.e., acknowl- edgement-bearing frames) is lost for a while, the seven outstanding frames will time out in that order. To keep the example from getting even more complicated than it already is, we have not shown the timer administration. Instead, we just assume that the variable oldest frame is set upon timeout to indicate which frame timed out. 3.5 EXAMPLE DATA LINK PROTOCOLS Within a single building, LANs are widely used for interconnection, but most wide-area network infrastructure is built up from point-to-point lines. In Chap. 4, we will look at LANs. Here we will examine the data link protocols found on point-to-point lines in the Internet in two common situations. The first situation is when packets are sent over SONET optical fiber links in wide-area networks. These links are widely used, for example, to connect routers in the different loca- tions of an ISP’s network. The second situation is for ADSL links running on the local loop of the tele- phone network at the edge of the Internet. These links connect millions of individ- uals and businesses to the Internet. The Internet needs point-to-point links for these uses, as well as dial-up mo- dems, leased lines, and cable modems, and so on. A standard protocol called PPP
- 269. SEC. 3.5 EXAMPLE DATA LINK PROTOCOLS 245 (Point-to-Point Protocol) is used to send packets over these links. PPP is de- fined in RFC 1661 and further elaborated in RFC 1662 and other RFCs (Simpson, 1994a, 1994b). SONET and ADSL links both apply PPP, but in different ways. 3.5.1 Packet over SONET SONET, which we covered in Sec. 2.6.4, is the physical layer protocol that is most commonly used over the wide-area optical fiber links that make up the back- bone of communications networks, including the telephone system. It provides a bitstream that runs at a well-defined rate, for example 2.4 Gbps for an OC-48 link. This bitstream is organized as fixed-size byte payloads that recur every 125 μsec, whether or not there is user data to send. To carry packets across these links, some framing mechanism is needed to distinguish occasional packets from the continuous bitstream in which they are transported. PPP runs on IP routers to provide this mechanism, as shown in Fig. 3-23. IP SONET PPP Optical fiber Router IP packet PPP frame SONET payload SONET payload (a) (b) IP SONET PPP Figure 3-23. Packet over SONET. (a) A protocol stack. (b) Frame relationships. PPP improves on an earlier, simpler protocol called SLIP (Serial Line Inter- net Protocol) and is used to handle error detection link configuration, support multiple protocols, permit authentication, and more. With a wide set of options, PPP provides three main features: 1. A framing method that unambiguously delineates the end of one frame and the start of the next one. The frame format also handles error detection. 2. A link control protocol for bringing lines up, testing them, negotiat- ing options, and bringing them down again gracefully when they are no longer needed. This protocol is called LCP (Link Control Pro- tocol). 3. A way to negotiate network-layer options in a way that is indepen- dent of the network layer protocol to be used. The method chosen is to have a different NCP (Network Control Protocol) for each net- work layer supported.
- 270. 246 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 The PPP frame format was chosen to closely resemble the frame format of HDLC (High-level Data Link Control), a widely used instance of an earlier family of protocols, since there was no need to reinvent the wheel. The primary difference between PPP and HDLC is that PPP is byte oriented rather than bit oriented. In particular, PPP uses byte stuffing and all frames are an integral number of bytes. HDLC uses bit stuffing and allows frames of, say, 30.25 bytes. There is a second major difference in practice, however. HDLC provides re- liable transmission with a sliding window, acknowledgements, and timeouts in the manner we have studied. PPP can also provide reliable transmission in noisy en- vironments, such as wireless networks; the exact details are defined in RFC 1663. However, this is rarely done in practice. Instead, an ‘‘unnumbered mode’’ is near- ly always used in the Internet to provide connectionless unacknowledged service. The PPP frame format is shown in Fig. 3-24. All PPP frames begin with the standard HDLC flag byte of 0x7E (01111110). The flag byte is stuffed if it occurs within the Payload field using the escape byte 0x7D. The following byte is the escaped byte XORed with 0x20, which flips the 5th bit. For example, 0x7D 0x5E is the escape sequence for the flag byte 0x7E. This means the start and end of frames can be searched for simply by scanning for the byte 0x7E since it will not occur elsewhere. The destuffing rule when receiving a frame is to look for 0x7D, remove it, and XOR the following byte with 0x20. Also, only one flag byte is needed between frames. Multiple flag bytes can be used to fill the link when there are no frames to be sent. After the start-of-frame flag byte comes the Address field. This field is al- ways set to the binary value 11111111 to indicate that all stations are to accept the frame. Using this value avoids the issue of having to assign data link addresses. Flag 01111110 Flag 01111110 Address 11111111 Protocol Control 00000011 Payload Checksum Bytes 1 1 1 or 2 1 Variable 2 or 4 1 Figure 3-24. The PPP full frame format for unnumbered mode operation. The Address field is followed by the Control field, the default value of which is 00000011. This value indicates an unnumbered frame. Since the Address and Control fields are always constant in the default con- figuration, LCP provides the necessary mechanism for the two parties to negotiate an option to omit them altogether and save 2 bytes per frame. The fourth PPP field is the Protocol field. Its job is to tell what kind of packet is in the Payload field. Codes starting with a 0 bit are defined for IP version 4, IP version 6, and other network layer protocols that might be used, such as IPX and
- 271. SEC. 3.5 EXAMPLE DATA LINK PROTOCOLS 247 AppleTalk. Codes starting with a 1 bit are used for PPP configuration protocols, including LCP and a different NCP for each network layer protocol supported. The default size of the Protocol field is 2 bytes, but it can be negotiated down to 1 byte using LCP. The designers were perhaps overly cautious in thinking that someday there might be more than 256 protocols in use. The Payload field is variable length, up to some negotiated maximum. If the length is not negotiated using LCP during line setup, a default length of 1500 bytes is used. Padding may follow the payload if it is needed. After the Payload field comes the Checksum field, which is normally 2 bytes, but a 4-byte checksum can be negotiated. The 4-byte checksum is in fact the same 32-bit CRC whose generator polynomial is given at the end of Sec. 3.2.2. The 2- byte checksum is also an industry-standard CRC. PPP is a framing mechanism that can carry the packets of multiple protocols over many types of physical layers. To use PPP over SONET, the choices to make are spelled out in RFC 2615 (Malis and Simpson, 1999). A 4-byte checksum is used, since this is the primary means of detecting transmission errors over the physical, link, and network layers. It is recommended that the Address, Control, and Protocol fields not be compressed, since SONET links already run at relative- ly high rates. There is also one unusual feature. The PPP payload is scrambled (as described in Sec. 2.5.1) before it is inserted into the SONET payload. Scrambling XORs the payload with a long pseudorandom sequence before it is transmitted. The issue is that the SONET bitstream needs frequent bit transitions for synchronization. These transitions come naturally with the variation in voice signals, but in data communication the user chooses the information that is sent and might send a packet with a long run of 0s. With scrambling, the likelihood of a user being able to cause problems by sending a long run of 0s is made extremely low. Before PPP frames can be carried over SONET lines, the PPP link must be es- tablished and configured. The phases that the link goes through when it is brought up, used, and taken down again are shown in Fig. 3-25. The link starts in the DEAD state, which means that there is no connection at the physical layer. When a physical layer connection is established, the link moves to ESTABLISH. At this point, the PPP peers exchange a series of LCP packets, each carried in the Payload field of a PPP frame, to select the PPP op- tions for the link from the possibilities mentioned above. The initiating peer pro- poses options, and the responding peer either accepts or rejects them, in whole or part. The responder can also make alternative proposals. If LCP option negotiation is successful, the link reaches the AUTHENTICATE state. Now the two parties can check each other’s identities, if desired. If authentication is successful, the NETWORK state is entered and a series of NCP packets are sent to configure the network layer. It is difficult to generalize about the NCP protocols because each one is specific to some network layer protocol and allows configuration requests to be made that are specific to that protocol.
- 272. 248 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 NETWORK DEAD TERMINATE OPEN ESTABLISH AUTHENTICATE Carrier detected Both sides agree on options Authentication successful NCP configuration Carrier dropped Failed Failed Done Figure 3-25. State diagram for bringing a PPP link up and down. For IP, for example, the assignment of IP addresses to both ends of the link is the most important possibility. Once OPEN is reached, data transport can take place. It is in this state that IP packets are carried in PPP frames across the SONET line. When data transport is finished, the link moves into the TERMINATE state, and from there it moves back to the DEAD state when the physical layer connection is dropped. 3.5.2 ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Loop) ADSL connects millions of home subscribers to the Internet at megabit/sec rates over the same telephone local loop that is used for plain old telephone ser- vice. In Sec. 2.5.3, we described how a device called a DSL modem is added on the home side. It sends bits over the local loop to a device called a DSLAM (DSL Access Multiplexer), pronounced ‘‘dee-slam,’’ in the telephone company’s local office. Now we will explore in more detail how packets are carried over ADSL links. The overall picture for the protocols and devices used with ADSL is shown in Fig. 3-26. Different protocols are deployed in different networks, so we have cho- sen to show the most popular scenario. Inside the home, a computer such as a PC sends IP packets to the DSL modem using a link layer like Ethernet. The DSL modem then sends the IP packets over the local loop to the DSLAM using the protocols that we are about to study. At the DSLAM (or a router connected to it depending on the implementation) the IP packets are extracted and enter an ISP network so that they may reach any destination on the Internet. The protocols shown over the ADSL link in Fig. 3-26 start at the bottom with the ADSL physical layer. They are based on a digital modulation scheme called
- 273. SEC. 3.5 EXAMPLE DATA LINK PROTOCOLS 249 AAL5 ADSL Local loop ATM PPP DSLAM (with router) AAL5 ADSL ATM PPP DSL modem PC Ethernet Internet Customer’s home ISP’s office Ethernet IP Link IP Figure 3-26. ADSL protocol stacks. orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (also known as discrete multitone), as we saw in Sec 2.5.3. Near the top of the stack, just below the IP network layer, is PPP. This protocol is the same PPP that we have just studied for packet over SONET transports. It works in the same way to establish and configure the link and carry IP packets. In between ADSL and PPP are ATM and AAL5. These are new protocols that we have not seen before. ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) was designed in the early 1990s and launched with incredible hype. It promised a network tech- nology that would solve the world’s telecommunications problems by merging voice, data, cable television, telegraph, carrier pigeon, tin cans connected by strings, tom toms, and everything else into an integrated system that could do everything for everyone. This did not happen. In large part, the problems of ATM were similar to those we described concerning the OSI protocols, that is, bad tim- ing, technology, implementation, and politics. Nevertheless, ATM was much more successful than OSI. While it has not taken over the world, it remains wide- ly used in niches including broadband access lines such as DSL, and WAN links inside telephone networks. ATM is a link layer that is based on the transmission of fixed-length cells of information. The ‘‘Asynchronous’’ in its name means that the cells do not always need to be sent in the way that bits are continuously sent over synchronous lines, as in SONET. Cells only need to be sent when there is information to carry. ATM is a connection-oriented technology. Each cell carries a virtual circuit identifier in its header and devices use this identifier to forward cells along the paths of established connections. The cells are each 53 bytes long, consisting of a 48-byte payload plus a 5-byte header. By using small cells, ATM can flexibly divide the bandwidth of a physi- cal layer link among different users in fine slices. This ability is useful when, for example, sending both voice and data over one link without having long data packets that would cause large variations in the delay of the voice samples. The unusual choice for the cell length (e.g., compared to the more natural choice of a
- 274. 250 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 power of 2) is an indication of just how political the design of ATM was. The 48-byte size for the payload was a compromise to resolve a deadlock between Europe, which wanted 32-byte cells, and the U.S., which wanted 64-byte cells. A brief overview of ATM is given by Siu and Jain (1995). To send data over an ATM network, it needs to be mapped into a sequence of cells. This mapping is done with an ATM adaptation layer in a process called seg- mentation and reassembly. Several adaptation layers have been defined for dif- ferent services, ranging from periodic voice samples to packet data. The main one used for packet data is AAL5 (ATM Adaptation Layer 5). An AAL5 frame is shown in Fig. 3-27. Instead of a header, it has a trailer that gives the length and has a 4-byte CRC for error detection. Naturally, the CRC is the same one used for PPP and IEEE 802 LANs like Ethernet. Wang and Crowcroft (1992) have shown that it is strong enough to detect nontraditional er- rors such as cell reordering. As well as a payload, the AAL5 frame has padding. This rounds out the overall length to be a multiple of 48 bytes so that the frame can be evenly divided into cells. No addresses are needed on the frame as the vir- tual circuit identifier carried in each cell will get it to the right destination. PPP protocol PPP payload Pad Unused Length CRC Bytes 1 or 2 0 to 47 2 2 4 AAL5 trailer Variable AAL5 payload Figure 3-27. AAL5 frame carrying PPP data. Now that we have described ATM, we have only to describe how PPP makes use of ATM in the case of ADSL. It is done with yet another standard called PPPoA (PPP over ATM). This standard is not really a protocol (so it does not appear in Fig. 3-26) but more a specification of how to work with both PPP and AAL5 frames. It is described in RFC 2364 (Gross et al., 1998). Only the PPP protocol and payload fields are placed in the AAL5 payload, as shown in Fig. 3-27. The protocol field indicates to the DSLAM at the far end whether the payload is an IP packet or a packet from another protocol such as LCP. The far end knows that the cells contain PPP information because an ATM virtual circuit is set up for this purpose. Within the AAL5 frame, PPP framing is not needed as it would serve no pur- pose; ATM and AAL5 already provide the framing. More framing would be worthless. The PPP CRC is also not needed because AAL5 already includes the very same CRC. This error detection mechanism supplements the ADSL physical layer coding of a Reed-Solomon code for error correction and a 1-byte CRC for the detection of any remaining errors not otherwise caught. This scheme has a much more sophisticated error-recovery mechanism than when packets are sent over a SONET line because ADSL is a much noisier channel.
- 275. SEC. 3.6 SUMMARY 251 3.6 SUMMARY The task of the data link layer is to convert the raw bit stream offered by the physical layer into a stream of frames for use by the network layer. The link layer can present this stream with varying levels of reliability, ranging from con- nectionless, unacknowledged service to reliable, connection-oriented service. Various framing methods are used, including byte count, byte stuffing, and bit stuffing. Data link protocols can provide error control to detect or correct dam- aged frames and to retransmit lost frames. To prevent a fast sender from overrun- ning a slow receiver, the data link protocol can also provide flow control. The sli- ding window mechanism is widely used to integrate error control and flow control in a simple way. When the window size is 1 packet, the protocol is stop-and-wait. Codes for error correction and detection add redundant information to mes- sages by using a variety of mathematical techniques. Convolutional codes and Reed-Solomon codes are widely deployed for error correction, with low-density parity check codes increasing in popularity. The codes for error detection that are used in practice include cyclic redundancy checks and checksums. All these codes can be applied at the link layer, as well as at the physical layer and higher layers. We examined a series of protocols that provide a reliable link layer using ac- knowledgements and retransmissions, or ARQ (Automatic Repeat reQuest), under more realistic assumptions. Starting from an error-free environment in which the receiver can handle any frame sent to it, we introduced flow control, followed by error control with sequence numbers and the stop-and-wait algorithm. Then we used the sliding window algorithm to allow bidirectional communication and introduce the concept of piggybacking. The last two protocols pipeline the trans- mission of multiple frames to prevent the sender from blocking on a link with a long propagation delay. The receiver can either discard all frames other than the next one in sequence, or buffer out-of-order frames and send negative acknowl- edgements for greater bandwidth efficiency. The former strategy is a go-back-n protocol, and the latter strategy is a selective repeat protocol. The Internet uses PPP as the main data link protocol over point-to-point lines. It provides a connectionless unacknowledged service, using flag bytes to delimit frames and a CRC for error detection. It is used to carry packets across a range of links, including SONET links in wide-area networks and ADSL links for the home. PROBLEMS 1. An upper-layer packet is split into 10 frames, each of which has an 80% chance of ar- riving undamaged. If no error control is done by the data link protocol, how many times must the message be sent on average to get the entire thing through?
- 276. 252 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 2. The following character encoding is used in a data link protocol: A: 01000111 B: 11100011 FLAG: 01111110 ESC: 11100000 Show the bit sequence transmitted (in binary) for the four-character frame A B ESC FLAG when each of the following framing methods is used: (a) Byte count. (b) Flag bytes with byte stuffing. (c) Starting and ending flag bytes with bit stuffing. 3. The following data fragment occurs in the middle of a data stream for which the byte- stuffing algorithm described in the text is used: A B ESC C ESC FLAG FLAG D. What is the output after stuffing? 4. What is the maximum overhead in byte-stuffing algorithm? 5. One of your classmates, Scrooge, has pointed out that it is wasteful to end each frame with a flag byte and then begin the next one with a second flag byte. One flag byte could do the job as well, and a byte saved is a byte earned. Do you agree? 6. A bit string, 0111101111101111110, needs to be transmitted at the data link layer. What is the string actually transmitted after bit stuffing? 7. Can you think of any circumstances under which an open-loop protocol (e.g., a Ham- ming code) might be preferable to the feedback-type protocols discussed throughout this chapter? 8. To provide more reliability than a single parity bit can give, an error-detecting coding scheme uses one parity bit for checking all the odd-numbered bits and a second parity bit for all the even-numbered bits. What is the Hamming distance of this code? 9. Sixteen-bit messages are transmitted using a Hamming code. How many check bits are needed to ensure that the receiver can detect and correct single-bit errors? Show the bit pattern transmitted for the message 1101001100110101. Assume that even par- ity is used in the Hamming code. 10. A 12-bit Hamming code whose hexadecimal value is 0xE4F arrives at a receiver. What was the original value in hexadecimal? Assume that not more than 1 bit is in error. 11. One way of detecting errors is to transmit data as a block of n rows of k bits per row and add parity bits to each row and each column. The bitin the lower-right corner is a parity bit that checks its row and its column. Will this scheme detect all single errors? Double errors? Triple errors? Show that this scheme cannot detect some four-bit er- rors. 12. Suppose that data are transmitted in blocks of sizes 1000 bits. What is the maximum error rate under which error detection and retransmission mechanism (1 parity bit per block) is better than using Hamming code? Assume that bit errors are independent of one another and no bit error occurs during retransmission. 13. A block of bits with n rows and k columns uses horizontal and vertical parity bits for error detection. Suppose that exactly 4 bits are inverted due to transmission errors. Derive an expression for the probability that the error will be undetected.
- 277. CHAP. 3 PROBLEMS 253 14. Using the convolutional coder of Fig. 3-7, what is the output sequence when the input sequence is 10101010 (left to right) and the internal state is initially all zero? 15. Suppose that a message 1001 1100 1010 0011 is transmitted using Internet Checksum (4-bit word). What is the value of the checksum? 16. What is the remainder obtained by dividing x7 + x5 + 1 by the generator polynomial x3 + 1? 17. A bit stream 10011101 is transmitted using the standard CRC method described in the text. The generator polynomial is x3 + 1. Show the actual bit string transmitted. Sup- pose that the third bit from the left is inverted during transmission. Show that this error is detected at the receiver’s end. Give an example of bit errors in the bit string transmitted that will not be detected by the receiver. 18. A 1024-bit message is sent that contains 992 data bits and 32 CRC bits. CRC is com- puted using the IEEE 802 standardized, 32-degree CRC polynomial. For each of the following, explain whether the errors during message transmission will be detected by the receiver: (a) There was a single-bit error. (b) There were two isolated bit errors. (c) There were 18 isolated bit errors. (d) There were 47 isolated bit errors. (e) There was a 24-bit long burst error. (f) There was a 35-bit long burst error. 19. In the discussion of ARQ protocol in Section 3.3.3, a scenario was outlined that re- sulted in the receiver accepting two copies of the same frame due to a loss of acknowl- edgement frame. Is it possible that a receiver may accept multiple copies of the same frame when none of the frames (message or acknowledgement) are lost? 20. A channel has a bit rate of 4 kbps and a propagation delay of 20 msec. For what range of frame sizes does stop-and-wait give an efficiency of at least 50%? 21. In protocol 3, is it possible for the sender to start the timer when it is already running? If so, how might this occur? If not, why is it impossible? 22. A 3000-km-long T1 trunk is used to transmit 64-byte frames using protocol 5. If the propagation speed is 6 μsec/km, how many bits should the sequence numbers be? 23. Imagine a sliding window protocol using so many bits for sequence numbers that wraparound never occurs. What relations must hold among the four window edges and the window size, which is constant and the same for both the sender and the re- ceiver? 24. If the procedure between in protocol 5 checked for the condition a ≤ b ≤ c instead of the condition a ≤ b < c, would that have any effect on the protocol’s correctness or ef- ficiency? Explain your answer. 25. In protocol 6, when a data frame arrives, a check is made to see if the sequence num- ber differs from the one expected and no nak is true. If both conditions hold, a NAK is sent. Otherwise, the auxiliary timer is started. Suppose that the else clause were omitted. Would this change affect the protocol’s correctness?
- 278. 254 THE DATA LINK LAYER CHAP. 3 26. Suppose that the three-statement while loop near the end of protocol 6 was removed from the code. Would this affect the correctness of the protocol or just the per- formance? Explain your answer. 27. The distance from earth to a distant planet is approximately 9 × 1010 m. What is the channel utilization if a stop-and-wait protocol is used for frame transmission on a 64 Mbps point-to-point link? Assume that the frame size is 32 KB and the speed of light is 3 × 108 m/s. 28. In the previous problem, suppose a sliding window protocol is used instead. For what send window size will the link utilization be 100%? You may ignore the protocol processing times at the sender and the receiver. 29. In protocol 6, the code for frame arrival has a section used for NAKs. This section is invoked if the incoming frame is a NAK and another condition is met. Give a scenario where the presence of this other condition is essential. 30. Consider the operation of protocol 6 over a 1-Mbps perfect (i.e., error-free) line. The maximum frame size is 1000 bits. New packets are generated 1 second apart. The timeout interval is 10 msec. If the special acknowledgement timer were eliminated, unnecessary timeouts would occur. How many times would the average message be transmitted? 31. In protocol 6, MAX SEQ = 2n − 1. While this condition is obviously desirable to make efficient use of header bits, we have not demonstrated that it is essential. Does the protocol work correctly for MAX SEQ = 4, for example? 32. Frames of 1000 bits are sent over a 1-Mbps channel using a geostationary satellite whose propagation time from the earth is 270 msec. Acknowledgements are always piggybacked onto data frames. The headers are very short. Three-bit sequence num- bers are used. What is the maximum achievable channel utilization for (a) Stop-and-wait? (b) Protocol 5? (c) Protocol 6? 33. Compute the fraction of the bandwidth that is wasted on overhead (headers and re- transmissions) for protocol 6 on a heavily loaded 50-kbps satellite channel with data frames consisting of 40 header and 3960 data bits. Assume that the signal propagation time from the earth to the satellite is 270 msec. ACK frames never occur. NAK frames are 40 bits. The error rate for data frames is 1%, and the error rate for NAK frames is negligible. The sequence numbers are 8 bits. 34. Consider an error-free 64-kbps satellite channel used to send 512-byte data frames in one direction, with very short acknowledgements coming back the other way. What is the maximum throughput for window sizes of 1, 7, 15, and 127? The earth-satellite propagation time is 270 msec. 35. A 100-km-long cable runs at the T1 data rate. The propagation speed in the cable is 2/3 the speed of light in vacuum. How many bits fit in the cable? 36. Give at least one reason why PPP uses byte stuffing instead of bit stuffing to prevent accidental flag bytes within the payload from causing confusion.
- 279. CHAP. 3 PROBLEMS 255 37. What is the minimum overhead to send an IP packet using PPP? Count only the over- head introduced by PPP itself, not the IP header overhead. What is the maximum overhead? 38. A 100-byte IP packet is transmitted over a local loop using ADSL protocol stack. How many ATM cells will be transmitted? Briefly describe their contents. 39. The goal of this lab exercise is to implement an error-detection mechanism using the standard CRC algorithm described in the text. Write two programs, generator and verifier. The generator program reads from standard input a line of ASCII text con- taining an n-bit message consisting of a string of 0s and 1s. The second line is the k- bit polynomial, also in ASCII. It outputs to standard output a line of ASCII text with n + k 0s and 1s representing the message to be transmitted. Then it outputs the poly- nomial, just as it read it in. The verifier program reads in the output of the generator program and outputs a message indicating whether it is correct or not. Finally, write a program, alter, that inverts 1 bit on the first line depending on its argument (the bit number counting the leftmost bit as 1) but copies the rest of the two lines correctly. By typing generator <file | verifier you should see that the message is correct, but by typing generator <file | alter arg | verifier you should get the error message.
- 280. This page intentionally left blank
- 281. 4 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER Network links can be divided into two categories: those using point-to-point connections and those using broadcast channels. We studied point-to-point links in Chap. 2; this chapter deals with broadcast links and their protocols. In any broadcast network, the key issue is how to determine who gets to use the channel when there is competition for it. To make this point, consider a con- ference call in which six people, on six different telephones, are all connected so that each one can hear and talk to all the others. It is very likely that when one of them stops speaking, two or more will start talking at once, leading to chaos. In a face-to-face meeting, chaos is avoided by external means. For example, at a meet- ing, people raise their hands to request permission to speak. When only a single channel is available, it is much harder to determine who should go next. Many protocols for solving the problem are known. They form the contents of this chap- ter. In the literature, broadcast channels are sometimes referred to as multiaccess channels or random access channels. The protocols used to determine who goes next on a multiaccess channel be- long to a sublayer of the data link layer called the MAC (Medium Access Con- trol) sublayer. The MAC sublayer is especially important in LANs, particularly wireless ones because wireless is naturally a broadcast channel. WANs, in con- trast, use point-to-point links, except for satellite networks. Because multiaccess channels and LANs are so closely related, in this chapter we will discuss LANs in 257
- 282. 258 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 general, including a few issues that are not strictly part of the MAC sublayer, but the main subject here will be control of the channel. Technically, the MAC sublayer is the bottom part of the data link layer, so logically we should have studied it before examining all the point-to-point proto- cols in Chap. 3. Nevertheless, for most people, it is easier to understand protocols involving multiple parties after two-party protocols are well understood. For that reason we have deviated slightly from a strict bottom-up order of presentation. 4.1 THE CHANNEL ALLOCATION PROBLEM The central theme of this chapter is how to allocate a single broadcast channel among competing users. The channel might be a portion of the wireless spectrum in a geographic region, or a single wire or optical fiber to which multiple nodes are connected. It does not matter. In both cases, the channel connects each user to all other users and any user who makes full use of the channel interferes with other users who also wish to use the channel. We will first look at the shortcomings of static allocation schemes for bursty traffic. Then, we will lay out the key assumptions used to model the dynamic schemes that we examine in the following sections. 4.1.1 Static Channel Allocation The traditional way of allocating a single channel, such as a telephone trunk, among multiple competing users is to chop up its capacity by using one of the multiplexing schemes we described in Sec. 2.5, such as FDM (Frequency Division Multiplexing). If there are N users, the bandwidth is divided into N equal-sized portions, with each user being assigned one portion. Since each user has a private frequency band, there is now no interference among users. When there is only a small and constant number of users, each of which has a steady stream or a heavy load of traffic, this division is a simple and efficient allocation mechanism. A wireless example is FM radio stations. Each station gets a portion of the FM band and uses it most of the time to broadcast its signal. However, when the number of senders is large and varying or the traffic is bursty, FDM presents some problems. If the spectrum is cut up into N regions and fewer than N users are currently interested in communicating, a large piece of valuable spectrum will be wasted. And if more than N users want to communi- cate, some of them will be denied permission for lack of bandwidth, even if some of the users who have been assigned a frequency band hardly ever transmit or re- ceive anything. Even assuming that the number of users could somehow be held constant at N, dividing the single available channel into some number of static subchannels is
- 283. SEC. 4.1 THE CHANNEL ALLOCATION PROBLEM 259 inherently inefficient. The basic problem is that when some users are quiescent, their bandwidth is simply lost. They are not using it, and no one else is allowed to use it either. A static allocation is a poor fit to most computer systems, in which data traffic is extremely bursty, often with peak traffic to mean traffic ratios of 1000:1. Consequently, most of the channels will be idle most of the time. The poor performance of static FDM can easily be seen with a simple queue- ing theory calculation. Let us start by finding the mean time delay, T, to send a frame onto a channel of capacity C bps. We assume that the frames arrive ran- domly with an average arrival rate of λ frames/sec, and that the frames vary in length with an average length of 1/μ bits. With these parameters, the service rate of the channel is μC frames/sec. A standard queueing theory result is T = μC − λ 1 (For the curious, this result is for an ‘‘M/M/1’’ queue. It requires that the ran- domness of the times between frame arrivals and the frame lengths follow an exponential distribution, or equivalently be the result of a Poisson process.) In our example, if C is 100 Mbps, the mean frame length, 1/μ, is 10,000 bits, and the frame arrival rate, λ, is 5000 frames/sec, then T = 200 μsec. Note that if we ignored the queueing delay and just asked how long it takes to send a 10,000- bit frame on a 100-Mbps network, we would get the (incorrect) answer of 100 μsec. That result only holds when there is no contention for the channel. Now let us divide the single channel into N independent subchannels, each with capacity C /N bps. The mean input rate on each of the subchannels will now be λ/N. Recomputing T, we get TN = μ(C /N) − (λ/N) 1 = μC − λ N = NT (4-1) The mean delay for the divided channel is N times worse than if all the frames were somehow magically arranged orderly in a big central queue. This same result says that a bank lobby full of ATM machines is better off having a single queue feeding all the machines than a separate queue in front of each machine. Precisely the same arguments that apply to FDM also apply to other ways of statically dividing the channel. If we were to use time division multiplexing (TDM) and allocate each user every Nth time slot, if a user does not use the allo- cated slot, it would just lie fallow. The same would hold if we split up the net- works physically. Using our previous example again, if we were to replace the 100-Mbps network with 10 networks of 10 Mbps each and statically allocate each user to one of them, the mean delay would jump from 200 μsec to 2 msec. Since none of the traditional static channel allocation methods work well at all with bursty traffic, we will now explore dynamic methods.
- 284. 260 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 4.1.2 Assumptions for Dynamic Channel Allocation Before we get to the first of the many channel allocation methods in this chap- ter, it is worthwhile to carefully formulate the allocation problem. Underlying all the work done in this area are the following five key assumptions: 1. Independent Traffic. The model consists of N independent stations (e.g., computers, telephones), each with a program or user that gener- ates frames for transmission. The expected number of frames gener- ated in an interval of length Δt is λΔt, where λ is a constant (the arri- val rate of new frames). Once a frame has been generated, the sta- tion is blocked and does nothing until the frame has been suc- cessfully transmitted. 2. Single Channel. A single channel is available for all communica- tion. All stations can transmit on it and all can receive from it. The stations are assumed to be equally capable, though protocols may assign them different roles (e.g., priorities). 3. Observable Collisions. If two frames are transmitted simultan- eously, they overlap in time and the resulting signal is garbled. This event is called a collision. All stations can detect that a collision has occurred. A collided frame must be transmitted again later. No er- rors other than those generated by collisions occur. 4. Continuous or Slotted Time. Time may be assumed continuous, in which case frame transmission can begin at any instant. Alterna- tively, time may be slotted or divided into discrete intervals (called slots). Frame transmissions must then begin at the start of a slot. A slot may contain 0, 1, or more frames, corresponding to an idle slot, a successful transmission, or a collision, respectively. 5. Carrier Sense or No Carrier Sense. With the carrier sense as- sumption, stations can tell if the channel is in use before trying to use it. No station will attempt to use the channel while it is sensed as busy. If there is no carrier sense, stations cannot sense the channel before trying to use it. They just go ahead and transmit. Only later can they determine whether the transmission was successful. Some discussion of these assumptions is in order. The first one says that frame arrivals are independent, both across stations and at a particular station, and that frames are generated unpredictably but at a constant rate. Actually, this as- sumption is not a particularly good model of network traffic, as it is well known that packets come in bursts over a range of time scales (Paxson and Floyd, 1995; and Leland et al., 1994). Nonetheless, Poisson models, as they are frequently called, are useful because they are mathematically tractable. They help us analyze
- 285. SEC. 4.1 THE CHANNEL ALLOCATION PROBLEM 261 protocols to understand roughly how performance changes over an operating range and how it compares with other designs. The single-channel assumption is the heart of the model. No external ways to communicate exist. Stations cannot raise their hands to request that the teacher call on them, so we will have to come up with better solutions. The remaining three assumptions depend on the engineering of the system, and we will say which assumptions hold when we examine a particular protocol. The collision assumption is basic. Stations need some way to detect collisions if they are to retransmit frames rather than let them be lost. For wired channels, node hardware can be designed to detect collisions when they occur. The stations can then terminate their transmissions prematurely to avoid wasting capacity. This detection is much harder for wireless channels, so collisions are usually inferred after the fact by the lack of an expected acknowledgement frame. It is also possible for some frames involved in a collision to be successfully received, depending on the details of the signals and the receiving hardware. However, this situation is not the common case, so we will assume that all frames involved in a collision are lost. We will also see protocols that are designed to prevent collis- ions from occurring in the first place. The reason for the two alternative assumptions about time is that slotted time can be used to improve performance. However, it requires the stations to follow a master clock or synchronize their actions with each other to divide time into dis- crete intervals. Hence, it is not always available. We will discuss and analyze systems with both kinds of time. For a given system, only one of them holds. Similarly, a network may have carrier sensing or not have it. Wired networks will generally have carrier sense. Wireless networks cannot always use it ef- fectively because not every station may be within radio range of every other sta- tion. Similarly, carrier sense will not be available in other settings in which a sta- tion cannot communicate directly with other stations, for example a cable modem in which stations must communicate via the cable headend. Note that the word ‘‘carrier’’ in this sense refers to a signal on the channel and has nothing to do with the common carriers (e.g., telephone companies) that date back to the days of the Pony Express. To avoid any misunderstanding, it is worth noting that no multiaccess proto- col guarantees reliable delivery. Even in the absence of collisions, the receiver may have copied some of the frame incorrectly for various reasons. Other parts of the link layer or higher layers provide reliability. 4.2 MULTIPLE ACCESS PROTOCOLS Many algorithms for allocating a multiple access channel are known. In the following sections, we will study a small sample of the more interesting ones and give some examples of how they are commonly used in practice.
- 286. 262 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 4.2.1 ALOHA The story of our first MAC starts out in pristine Hawaii in the early 1970s. In this case, ‘‘pristine’’ can be interpreted as ‘‘not having a working telephone sys- tem.’’ This did not make life more pleasant for researcher Norman Abramson and his colleagues at the University of Hawaii who were trying to connect users on re- mote islands to the main computer in Honolulu. Stringing their own cables under the Pacific Ocean was not in the cards, so they looked for a different solution. The one they found used short-range radios, with each user terminal sharing the same upstream frequency to send frames to the central computer. It included a simple and elegant method to solve the channel allocation problem. Their work has been extended by many researchers since then (Schwartz and Abramson, 2009). Although Abramson’s work, called the ALOHA system, used ground- based radio broadcasting, the basic idea is applicable to any system in which uncoordinated users are competing for the use of a single shared channel. We will discuss two versions of ALOHA here: pure and slotted. They differ with respect to whether time is continuous, as in the pure version, or divided into discrete slots into which all frames must fit. Pure ALOHA The basic idea of an ALOHA system is simple: let users transmit whenever they have data to be sent. There will be collisions, of course, and the colliding frames will be damaged. Senders need some way to find out if this is the case. In the ALOHA system, after each station has sent its frame to the central computer, this computer rebroadcasts the frame to all of the stations. A sending station can thus listen for the broadcast from the hub to see if its frame has gotten through. In other systems, such as wired LANs, the sender might be able to listen for collis- ions while transmitting. If the frame was destroyed, the sender just waits a random amount of time and sends it again. The waiting time must be random or the same frames will collide over and over, in lockstep. Systems in which multiple users share a common channel in a way that can lead to conflicts are known as contention systems. A sketch of frame generation in an ALOHA system is given in Fig. 4-1. We have made the frames all the same length because the throughput of ALOHA sys- tems is maximized by having a uniform frame size rather than by allowing vari- able-length frames. Whenever two frames try to occupy the channel at the same time, there will be a collision (as seen in Fig. 4-1) and both will be garbled. If the first bit of a new frame overlaps with just the last bit of a frame that has almost finished, both frames will be totally destroyed (i.e., have incorrect checksums) and both will have to be retransmitted later. The checksum does not (and should not) distin- guish between a total loss and a near miss. Bad is bad.
- 287. SEC. 4.2 MULTIPLE ACCESS PROTOCOLS 263 User A B C D E Time Collision Collision Figure 4-1. In pure ALOHA, frames are transmitted at completely arbitrary times. An interesting question is: what is the efficiency of an ALOHA channel? In other words, what fraction of all transmitted frames escape collisions under these chaotic circumstances? Let us first consider an infinite collection of users typing at their terminals (stations). A user is always in one of two states: typing or wait- ing. Initially, all users are in the typing state. When a line is finished, the user stops typing, waiting for a response. The station then transmits a frame con- taining the line over the shared channel to the central computer and checks the channel to see if it was successful. If so, the user sees the reply and goes back to typing. If not, the user continues to wait while the station retransmits the frame over and over until it has been successfully sent. Let the ‘‘frame time’’ denote the amount of time needed to transmit the stan- dard, fixed-length frame (i.e., the frame length divided by the bit rate). At this point, we assume that the new frames generated by the stations are well modeled by a Poisson distribution with a mean of N frames per frame time. (The infinite- population assumption is needed to ensure that N does not decrease as users be- come blocked.) If N > 1, the user community is generating frames at a higher rate than the channel can handle, and nearly every frame will suffer a collision. For reasonable throughput, we would expect 0 < N < 1. In addition to the new frames, the stations also generate retransmissions of frames that previously suffered collisions. Let us further assume that the old and new frames combined are well modeled by a Poisson distribution, with mean of G frames per frame time. Clearly, G ≥ N. At low load (i.e., N ∼ ∼ 0), there will be few collisions, hence few retransmissions, so G ∼ ∼ N. At high load, there will be many collisions, so G > N. Under all loads, the throughput, S, is just the offered load, G, times the probability, P0, of a transmission succeeding—that is, S = GP0, where P0 is the probability that a frame does not suffer a collision. A frame will not suffer a collision if no other frames are sent within one frame time of its start, as shown in Fig. 4-2. Under what conditions will the
- 288. 264 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 shaded frame arrive undamaged? Let t be the time required to send one frame. If any other user has generated a frame between time t0 and t0 + t, the end of that frame will collide with the beginning of the shaded one. In fact, the shaded frame’s fate was already sealed even before the first bit was sent, but since in pure ALOHA a station does not listen to the channel before transmitting, it has no way of knowing that another frame was already underway. Similarly, any other frame started between t0 + t and t0 + 2t will bump into the end of the shaded frame. Collides with the start of the shaded frame Collides with the end of the shaded frame t t0 t0+ t t0+ 2t t0+ 3t Time Vulnerable Figure 4-2. Vulnerable period for the shaded frame. The probability that k frames are generated during a given frame time, in which G frames are expected, is given by the Poisson distribution Pr[k ] = k! Gk e−G (4-2) so the probability of zero frames is just e−G . In an interval two frame times long, the mean number of frames generated is 2G. The probability of no frames being initiated during the entire vulnerable period is thus given by P0 = e−2G . Using S = GP0, we get S = Ge−2G The relation between the offered traffic and the throughput is shown in Fig. 4-3. The maximum throughput occurs at G = 0.5, with S = 1/2e, which is about 0.184. In other words, the best we can hope for is a channel utilization of 18%. This result is not very encouraging, but with everyone transmitting at will, we could hardly have expected a 100% success rate. Slotted ALOHA Soon after ALOHA came onto the scene, Roberts (1972) published a method for doubling the capacity of an ALOHA system. His proposal was to divide time into discrete intervals called slots, each interval corresponding to one frame. This
- 289. SEC. 4.2 MULTIPLE ACCESS PROTOCOLS 265 0.40 0.30 0.20 0.10 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 G (attempts per packet time) 2.0 3.0 S (throughput per frame time) Slotted ALOHA: S = Ge–G Pure ALOHA: S = Ge–2G Figure 4-3. Throughput versus offered traffic for ALOHA systems. approach requires the users to agree on slot boundaries. One way to achieve syn- chronization would be to have one special station emit a pip at the start of each in- terval, like a clock. In Roberts’ method, which has come to be known as slotted ALOHA—in contrast to Abramson’s pure ALOHA—a station is not permitted to send when- ever the user types a line. Instead, it is required to wait for the beginning of the next slot. Thus, the continuous time ALOHA is turned into a discrete time one. This halves the vulnerable period. To see this, look at Fig. 4-3 and imagine the collisions that are now possible. The probability of no other traffic during the same slot as our test frame is then e−G , which leads to S = Ge−G (4-3) As you can see from Fig. 4-3, slotted ALOHA peaks at G = 1, with a throughput of S = 1/e or about 0.368, twice that of pure ALOHA. If the system is operating at G = 1, the probability of an empty slot is 0.368 (from Eq. 4-2). The best we can hope for using slotted ALOHA is 37% of the slots empty, 37% successes, and 26% collisions. Operating at higher values of G reduces the number of empties but increases the number of collisions exponentially. To see how this rapid growth of collisions with G comes about, consider the transmission of a test frame. The probability that it will avoid a collision is e−G , which is the probabil- ity that all the other stations are silent in that slot. The probability of a collision is then just 1 − e−G . The probability of a transmission requiring exactly k attempts (i.e., k − 1 collisions followed by one success) is Pk = e−G (1 − e−G )k − 1 The expected number of transmissions, E, per line typed at a terminal is then E = k =1 Σ ∞ kPk = k =1 Σ ∞ ke−G (1 − e−G )k − 1 = eG
- 290. 266 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 As a result of the exponential dependence of E upon G, small increases in the channel load can drastically reduce its performance. Slotted ALOHA is notable for a reason that may not be initially obvious. It was devised in the 1970s, used in a few early experimental systems, then almost forgotten. When Internet access over the cable was invented, all of a sudden there was a problem of how to allocate a shared channel among multiple competing users. Slotted ALOHA was pulled out of the garbage can to save the day. Later, having multiple RFID tags talk to the same RFID reader presented another varia- tion on the same problem. Slotted ALOHA, with a dash of other ideas mixed in, again came to the rescue. It has often happened that protocols that are perfectly valid fall into disuse for political reasons (e.g., some big company wants everyone to do things its way) or due to ever-changing technology trends. Then, years later some clever person realizes that a long-discarded protocol solves his current prob- lem. For this reason, in this chapter we will study a number of elegant protocols that are not currently in widespread use but might easily be used in future applica- tions, provided that enough network designers are aware of them. Of course, we will also study many protocols that are in current use as well. 4.2.2 Carrier Sense Multiple Access Protocols With slotted ALOHA, the best channel utilization that can be achieved is 1/e. This low result is hardly surprising, since with stations transmitting at will, with- out knowing what the other stations are doing there are bound to be many collis- ions. In LANs, however, it is often possible for stations to detect what other sta- tions are doing, and thus adapt their behavior accordingly. These networks can achieve a much better utilization than 1/e. In this section, we will discuss some protocols for improving performance. Protocols in which stations listen for a carrier (i.e., a transmission) and act accordingly are called carrier sense protocols. A number of them have been proposed, and they were long ago analyzed in detail. For example, see Kleinrock and Tobagi (1975). Below we will look at several versions of carrier sense proto- cols. Persistent and Nonpersistent CSMA The first carrier sense protocol that we will study here is called 1-persistent CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access). That is a bit of a mouthful for the sim- plest CSMA scheme. When a station has data to send, it first listens to the chan- nel to see if anyone else is transmitting at that moment. If the channel is idle, the stations sends its data. Otherwise, if the channel is busy, the station just waits until it becomes idle. Then the station transmits a frame. If a collision occurs, the
- 291. SEC. 4.2 MULTIPLE ACCESS PROTOCOLS 267 station waits a random amount of time and starts all over again. The protocol is called 1-persistent because the station transmits with a probability of 1 when it finds the channel idle. You might expect that this scheme avoids collisions except for the rare case of simultaneous sends, but it in fact it does not. If two stations become ready in the middle of a third station’s transmission, both will wait politely until the trans- mission ends, and then both will begin transmitting exactly simultaneously, re- sulting in a collision. If they were not so impatient, there would be fewer collis- ions. More subtly, the propagation delay has an important effect on collisions. There is a chance that just after a station begins sending, another station will be- come ready to send and sense the channel. If the first station’s signal has not yet reached the second one, the latter will sense an idle channel and will also begin sending, resulting in a collision. This chance depends on the number of frames that fit on the channel, or the bandwidth-delay product of the channel. If only a tiny fraction of a frame fits on the channel, which is the case in most LANs since the propagation delay is small, the chance of a collision happening is small. The larger the bandwidth-delay product, the more important this effect becomes, and the worse the performance of the protocol. Even so, this protocol has better performance than pure ALOHA because both stations have the decency to desist from interfering with the third station’s frame. Exactly the same holds for slotted ALOHA. A second carrier sense protocol is nonpersistent CSMA. In this protocol, a conscious attempt is made to be less greedy than in the previous one. As before, a station senses the channel when it wants to send a frame, and if no one else is sending, the station begins doing so itself. However, if the channel is already in use, the station does not continually sense it for the purpose of seizing it im- mediately upon detecting the end of the previous transmission. Instead, it waits a random period of time and then repeats the algorithm. Consequently, this algo- rithm leads to better channel utilization but longer delays than 1-persistent CSMA. The last protocol is p-persistent CSMA. It applies to slotted channels and works as follows. When a station becomes ready to send, it senses the channel. If it is idle, it transmits with a probability p. With a probability q = 1 − p, it defers until the next slot. If that slot is also idle, it either transmits or defers again, with probabilities p and q. This process is repeated until either the frame has been transmitted or another station has begun transmitting. In the latter case, the unlucky station acts as if there had been a collision (i.e., it waits a random time and starts again). If the station initially senses that the channel is busy, it waits until the next slot and applies the above algorithm. IEEE 802.11 uses a refinement of p-persistent CSMA that we will discuss in Sec. 4.4. Figure 4-4 shows the computed throughput versus offered traffic for all three protocols, as well as for pure and slotted ALOHA.
- 292. 268 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 0.6 0.7 S (throughput per packet time) G (attempts per packet time) Pure ALOHA Slotted ALOHA 1-persistent CSMA 0.1-persistent CSMA 0.5-persistent CSMA Nonpersistent CSMA 0.01-persistent CSMA Figure 4-4. Comparison of the channel utilization versus load for various ran- dom access protocols. CSMA with Collision Detection Persistent and nonpersistent CSMA protocols are definitely an improvement over ALOHA because they ensure that no station begins to transmit while the channel is busy. However, if two stations sense the channel to be idle and begin transmitting simultaneously, their signals will still collide. Another improvement is for the stations to quickly detect the collision and abruptly stop transmitting, (rather than finishing them) since they are irretrievably garbled anyway. This strategy saves time and bandwidth. This protocol, known as CSMA/CD (CSMA with Collision Detection), is the basis of the classic Ethernet LAN, so it is worth devoting some time to looking at it in detail. It is important to realize that collision detection is an analog proc- ess. The station’s hardware must listen to the channel while it is transmitting. If the signal it reads back is different from the signal it is putting out, it knows that a collision is occurring. The implications are that a received signal must not be tiny compared to the transmitted signal (which is difficult for wireless, as received sig- nals may be 1,000,000 times weaker than transmitted signals) and that the modu- lation must be chosen to allow collisions to be detected (e.g., a collision of two 0- volt signals may well be impossible to detect). CSMA/CD, as well as many other LAN protocols, uses the conceptual model of Fig. 4-5. At the point marked t0, a station has finished transmitting its frame. Any other station having a frame to send may now attempt to do so. If two or more stations decide to transmit simultaneously, there will be a collision. If a sta- tion detects a collision, it aborts its transmission, waits a random period of time, and then tries again (assuming that no other station has started transmitting in the
- 293. SEC. 4.2 MULTIPLE ACCESS PROTOCOLS 269 meantime). Therefore, our model for CSMA/CD will consist of alternating con- tention and transmission periods, with idle periods occurring when all stations are quiet (e.g., for lack of work). Contention slots Contention period Transmission period Idle period to Frame Frame Frame Frame Time Figure 4-5. CSMA/CD can be in contention, transmission, or idle state. Now let us look at the details of the contention algorithm. Suppose that two stations both begin transmitting at exactly time t0. How long will it take them to realize that they have collided? The answer is vital to determining the length of the contention period and hence what the delay and throughput will be. The minimum time to detect the collision is just the time it takes the signal to propagate from one station to the other. Based on this information, you might think that a station that has not heard a collision for a time equal to the full cable propagation time after starting its transmission can be sure it has seized the cable. By ‘‘seized,’’ we mean that all other stations know it is transmitting and will not interfere. This conclusion is wrong. Consider the following worst-case scenario. Let the time for a signal to pro- pagate between the two farthest stations be τ. At t0, one station begins trans- mitting. At t0 + τ − ε, an instant before the signal arrives at the most distant sta- tion, that station also begins transmitting. Of course, it detects the collision al- most instantly and stops, but the little noise burst caused by the collision does not get back to the original station until time 2τ − ε. In other words, in the worst case a station cannot be sure that it has seized the channel until it has transmitted for 2τ without hearing a collision. With this understanding, we can think of CSMA/CD contention as a slotted ALOHA system with a slot width of 2τ. On a 1-km long coaxial cable, τ ∼ ∼ 5 μsec. The difference for CSMA/CD compared to slotted ALOHA is that slots in which only one station transmits (i.e., in which the channel is seized) are followed by the rest of a frame. This difference will greatly improve performance if the frame time is much longer than the propagation time. 4.2.3 Collision-Free Protocols Although collisions do not occur with CSMA/CD once a station has unambi- guously captured the channel, they can still occur during the contention period. These collisions adversely affect the system performance, especially when the
- 294. 270 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 bandwidth-delay product is large, such as when the cable is long (i.e., large τ) and the frames are short. Not only do collisions reduce bandwidth, but they make the time to send a frame variable, which is not a good fit for real-time traffic such as voice over IP. CSMA/CD is also not universally applicable. In this section, we will examine some protocols that resolve the contention for the channel without any collisions at all, not even during the contention period. Most of these protocols are not currently used in major systems, but in a rapidly changing field, having some protocols with excellent properties available for fu- ture systems is often a good thing. In the protocols to be described, we assume that there are exactly N stations, each programmed with a unique address from 0 to N − 1. It does not matter that some stations may be inactive part of the time. We also assume that propagation delay is negligible. The basic question remains: which station gets the channel after a successful transmission? We continue using the model of Fig. 4-5 with its discrete contention slots. A Bit-Map Protocol In our first collision-free protocol, the basic bit-map method, each con- tention period consists of exactly N slots. If station 0 has a frame to send, it trans- mits a 1 bit during the slot 0. No other station is allowed to transmit during this slot. Regardless of what station 0 does, station 1 gets the opportunity to transmit a 1 bit during slot 1, but only if it has a frame queued. In general, station j may announce that it has a frame to send by inserting a 1 bit into slot j. After all N slots have passed by, each station has complete knowledge of which stations wish to transmit. At that point, they begin transmitting frames in numerical order (see Fig. 4-6). 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 5 1 1 3 7 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 8 Contention slots Frames 8 Contention slots 2 d Figure 4-6. The basic bit-map protocol. Since everyone agrees on who goes next, there will never be any collisions. After the last ready station has transmitted its frame, an event all stations can easi- ly monitor, another N-bit contention period is begun. If a station becomes ready just after its bit slot has passed by, it is out of luck and must remain silent until every station has had a chance and the bit map has come around again.
- 295. SEC. 4.2 MULTIPLE ACCESS PROTOCOLS 271 Protocols like this in which the desire to transmit is broadcast before the ac- tual transmission are called reservation protocols because they reserve channel ownership in advance and prevent collisions. Let us briefly analyze the perfor- mance of this protocol. For convenience, we will measure time in units of the contention bit slot, with data frames consisting of d time units. Under conditions of low load, the bit map will simply be repeated over and over, for lack of data frames. Consider the situation from the point of view of a low-numbered station, such as 0 or 1. Typically, when it becomes ready to send, the ‘‘current’’ slot will be somewhere in the middle of the bit map. On average, the station will have to wait N /2 slots for the current scan to finish and another full N slots for the following scan to run to completion before it may begin trans- mitting. The prospects for high-numbered stations are brighter. Generally, these will only have to wait half a scan (N /2 bit slots) before starting to transmit. High- numbered stations rarely have to wait for the next scan. Since low-numbered sta- tions must wait on average 1.5N slots and high-numbered stations must wait on average 0.5N slots, the mean for all stations is N slots. The channel efficiency at low load is easy to compute. The overhead per frame is N bits and the amount of data is d bits, for an efficiency of d /(d + N). At high load, when all the stations have something to send all the time, the N- bit contention period is prorated over N frames, yielding an overhead of only 1 bit per frame, or an efficiency of d /(d + 1). The mean delay for a frame is equal to the sum of the time it queues inside its station, plus an additional (N − 1)d + N once it gets to the head of its internal queue. This interval is how long it takes to wait for all other stations to have their turn sending a frame and another bitmap. Token Passing The essence of the bit-map protocol is that it lets every station transmit a frame in turn in a predefined order. Another way to accomplish the same thing is to pass a small message called a token from one station to the next in the same predefined order. The token represents permission to send. If a station has a frame queued for transmission when it receives the token, it can send that frame before it passes the token to the next station. If it has no queued frame, it simply passes the token. In a token ring protocol, the topology of the network is used to define the order in which stations send. The stations are connected one to the next in a single ring. Passing the token to the next station then simply consists of receiving the token in from one direction and transmitting it out in the other direction, as seen in Fig. 4-7. Frames are also transmitted in the direction of the token. This way they will circulate around the ring and reach whichever station is the destination. How- ever, to stop the frame circulating indefinitely (like the token), some station needs
- 296. 272 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 to remove it from the ring. This station may be either the one that originally sent the frame, after it has gone through a complete cycle, or the station that was the intended recipient of the frame. Direction of transmission Token Station Figure 4-7. Token ring. Note that we do not need a physical ring to implement token passing. The channel connecting the stations might instead be a single long bus. Each station then uses the bus to send the token to the next station in the predefined sequence. Possession of the token allows a station to use the bus to send one frame, as be- fore. This protocol is called token bus. The performance of token passing is similar to that of the bit-map protocol, though the contention slots and frames of one cycle are now intermingled. After sending a frame, each station must wait for all N stations (including itself) to send the token to their neighbors and the other N − 1 stations to send a frame, if they have one. A subtle difference is that, since all positions in the cycle are equiva- lent, there is no bias for low- or high-numbered stations. For token ring, each sta- tion is also sending the token only as far as its neighboring station before the pro- tocol takes the next step. Each token does not need to propagate to all stations be- fore the protocol advances to the next step. Token rings have cropped up as MAC protocols with some consistency. An early token ring protocol (called ‘‘Token Ring’’ and standardized as IEEE 802.5) was popular in the 1980s as an alternative to classic Ethernet. In the 1990s, a much faster token ring called FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) was beaten out by switched Ethernet. In the 2000s, a token ring called RPR (Resi- lient Packet Ring) was defined as IEEE 802.17 to standardize the mix of metro- politan area rings in use by ISPs. We wonder what the 2010s will have to offer. Binary Countdown A problem with the basic bit-map protocol, and by extension token passing, is that the overhead is 1 bit per station, so it does not scale well to networks with thousands of stations. We can do better than that by using binary station ad- dresses with a channel that combines transmissions. A station wanting to use the
- 297. SEC. 4.2 MULTIPLE ACCESS PROTOCOLS 273 channel now broadcasts its address as a binary bit string, starting with the high- order bit. All addresses are assumed to be the same length. The bits in each ad- dress position from different stations are BOOLEAN ORed together by the chan- nel when they are sent at the same time. We will call this protocol binary count- down. It was used in Datakit (Fraser, 1987). It implicitly assumes that the trans- mission delays are negligible so that all stations see asserted bits essentially in- stantaneously. To avoid conflicts, an arbitration rule must be applied: as soon as a station sees that a high-order bit position that is 0 in its address has been overwritten with a 1, it gives up. For example, if stations 0010, 0100, 1001, and 1010 are all trying to get the channel, in the first bit time the stations transmit 0, 0, 1, and 1, re- spectively. These are ORed together to form a 1. Stations 0010 and 0100 see the 1 and know that a higher-numbered station is competing for the channel, so they give up for the current round. Stations 1001 and 1010 continue. The next bit is 0, and both stations continue. The next bit is 1, so station 1001 gives up. The winner is station 1010 because it has the highest address. After winning the bidding, it may now transmit a frame, after which another bidding cycle starts. The protocol is illustrated in Fig. 4-8. It has the property that high- er-numbered stations have a higher priority than lower-numbered stations, which may be either good or bad, depending on the context. 0 0 1 0 0 – – – 0 1 2 3 Bit time 0 1 0 0 0 – – – 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 – 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 Result Stations 0010 and 0100 see this 1 and give up Station 1001 sees this 1 and gives up Figure 4-8. The binary countdown protocol. A dash indicates silence. The channel efficiency of this method is d /(d + log2 N). If, however, the frame format has been cleverly chosen so that the sender’s address is the first field in the frame, even these log2 N bits are not wasted, and the efficiency is 100%. Binary countdown is an example of a simple, elegant, and efficient protocol that is waiting to be rediscovered. Hopefully, it will find a new home some day.
- 298. 274 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 4.2.4 Limited-Contention Protocols We have now considered two basic strategies for channel acquisition in a broadcast network: contention, as in CSMA, and collision-free protocols. Each strategy can be rated as to how well it does with respect to the two important per- formance measures, delay at low load and channel efficiency at high load. Under conditions of light load, contention (i.e., pure or slotted ALOHA) is preferable due to its low delay (since collisions are rare). As the load increases, contention becomes increasingly less attractive because the overhead associated with channel arbitration becomes greater. Just the reverse is true for the collision-free proto- cols. At low load, they have relatively high delay but as the load increases, the channel efficiency improves (since the overheads are fixed). Obviously, it would be nice if we could combine the best properties of the contention and collision-free protocols, arriving at a new protocol that used con- tention at low load to provide low delay, but used a collision-free technique at high load to provide good channel efficiency. Such protocols, which we will call limited-contention protocols, do in fact exist, and will conclude our study of car- rier sense networks. Up to now, the only contention protocols we have studied have been symmet- ric. That is, each station attempts to acquire the channel with some probability, p, with all stations using the same p. Interestingly enough, the overall system per- formance can sometimes be improved by using a protocol that assigns different probabilities to different stations. Before looking at the asymmetric protocols, let us quickly review the per- formance of the symmetric case. Suppose that k stations are contending for chan- nel access. Each has a probability p of transmitting during each slot. The probability that some station successfully acquires the channel during a given slot is the probability that any one station transmits, with probability p, and all other k − 1 stations defer, each with probability 1 − p. This value is kp(1 − p)k − 1 . To find the optimal value of p, we differentiate with respect to p, set the result to zero, and solve for p. Doing so, we find that the best value of p is 1/k. Substitut- ing p = 1/k, we get Pr[success with optimal p] = ⎧ ⎪ ⎩ k k − 1 ⎫ ⎪ ⎭ k − 1 (4-4) This probability is plotted in Fig. 4-9. For small numbers of stations, the chances of success are good, but as soon as the number of stations reaches even five, the probability has dropped close to its asymptotic value of 1/e. From Fig. 4-9, it is fairly obvious that the probability of some station acquir- ing the channel can be increased only by decreasing the amount of competition. The limited-contention protocols do precisely that. They first divide the stations into (not necessarily disjoint) groups. Only the members of group 0 are permitted
- 299. SEC. 4.2 MULTIPLE ACCESS PROTOCOLS 275 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 5 10 15 20 25 0 Probability of success Number of ready stations Figure 4-9. Acquisition probability for a symmetric contention channel. to compete for slot 0. If one of them succeeds, it acquires the channel and trans- mits its frame. If the slot lies fallow or if there is a collision, the members of group 1 contend for slot 1, etc. By making an appropriate division of stations into groups, the amount of contention for each slot can be reduced, thus operating each slot near the left end of Fig. 4-9. The trick is how to assign stations to slots. Before looking at the general case, let us consider some special cases. At one extreme, each group has but one member. Such an assignment guarantees that there will never be collisions be- cause at most one station is contending for any given slot. We have seen such protocols before (e.g., binary countdown). The next special case is to assign two stations per group. The probability that both will try to transmit during a slot is p2 , which for a small p is negligible. As more and more stations are assigned to the same slot, the probability of a collision grows, but the length of the bit-map scan needed to give everyone a chance shrinks. The limiting case is a single group containing all stations (i.e., slotted ALOHA). What we need is a way to assign stations to slots dynamically, with many stations per slot when the load is low and few (or even just one) station per slot when the load is high. The Adaptive Tree Walk Protocol One particularly simple way of performing the necessary assignment is to use the algorithm devised by the U.S. Army for testing soldiers for syphilis during World War II (Dorfman, 1943). In short, the Army took a blood sample from N soldiers. A portion of each sample was poured into a single test tube. This mixed sample was then tested for antibodies. If none were found, all the soldiers in the group were declared healthy. If antibodies were present, two new mixed samples
- 300. 276 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 were prepared, one from soldiers 1 through N/2 and one from the rest. The proc- ess was repeated recursively until the infected soldiers were determined. For the computerized version of this algorithm (Capetanakis, 1979), it is con- venient to think of the stations as the leaves of a binary tree, as illustrated in Fig. 4-10. In the first contention slot following a successful frame transmission, slot 0, all stations are permitted to try to acquire the channel. If one of them does so, fine. If there is a collision, then during slot 1 only those stations falling under node 2 in the tree may compete. If one of them acquires the channel, the slot fol- lowing the frame is reserved for those stations under node 3. If, on the other hand, two or more stations under node 2 want to transmit, there will be a collision during slot 1, in which case it is node 4’s turn during slot 2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 A B C D E F G H Stations Figure 4-10. The tree for eight stations. In essence, if a collision occurs during slot 0, the entire tree is searched, depth first, to locate all ready stations. Each bit slot is associated with some particular node in the tree. If a collision occurs, the search continues recursively with the node’s left and right children. If a bit slot is idle or if only one station transmits in it, the searching of its node can stop because all ready stations have been located. (Were there more than one, there would have been a collision.) When the load on the system is heavy, it is hardly worth the effort to dedicate slot 0 to node 1 because that makes sense only in the unlikely event that precisely one station has a frame to send. Similarly, one could argue that nodes 2 and 3 should be skipped as well for the same reason. Put in more general terms, at what level in the tree should the search begin? Clearly, the heavier the load, the farther down the tree the search should begin. We will assume that each station has a good estimate of the number of ready stations, q, for example, from monitoring recent traffic. To proceed, let us number the levels of the tree from the top, with node 1 in Fig. 4-10 at level 0, nodes 2 and 3 at level 1, etc. Notice that each node at level i
- 301. SEC. 4.2 MULTIPLE ACCESS PROTOCOLS 277 has a fraction 2−i of the stations below it. If the q ready stations are uniformly distributed, the expected number of them below a specific node at level i is just 2−i q. Intuitively, we would expect the optimal level to begin searching the tree to be the one at which the mean number of contending stations per slot is 1, that is, the level at which 2−i q = 1. Solving this equation, we find that i = log2 q. Numerous improvements to the basic algorithm have been discovered and are discussed in some detail by Bertsekas and Gallager (1992). For example, consid- er the case of stations G and H being the only ones wanting to transmit. At node 1 a collision will occur, so 2 will be tried and discovered idle. It is pointless to probe node 3 since it is guaranteed to have a collision (we know that two or more stations under 1 are ready and none of them are under 2, so they must all be under 3). The probe of 3 can be skipped and 6 tried next. When this probe also turns up nothing, 7 can be skipped and node G tried next. 4.2.5 Wireless LAN Protocols A system of laptop computers that communicate by radio can be regarded as a wireless LAN, as we discussed in Sec. 1.5.3. Such a LAN is an example of a broadcast channel. It also has somewhat different properties than a wired LAN, which leads to different MAC protocols. In this section, we will examine some of these protocols. In Sec. 4.4, we will look at 802.11 (WiFi) in detail. A common configuration for a wireless LAN is an office building with access points (APs) strategically placed around the building. The APs are wired together using copper or fiber and provide connectivity to the stations that talk to them. If the transmission power of the APs and laptops is adjusted to have a range of tens of meters, nearby rooms become like a single cell and the entire building becomes like the cellular telephony systems we studied in Chap. 2, except that each cell only has one channel. This channel is shared by all the stations in the cell, includ- ing the AP. It typically provides megabit/sec bandwidths, up to 600 Mbps. We have already remarked that wireless systems cannot normally detect a col- lision while it is occurring. The received signal at a station may be tiny, perhaps a million times fainter than the signal that is being transmitted. Finding it is like looking for a ripple on the ocean. Instead, acknowledgements are used to dis- cover collisions and other errors after the fact. There is an even more important difference between wireless LANs and wired LANs. A station on a wireless LAN may not be able to transmit frames to or re- ceive frames from all other stations because of the limited radio range of the sta- tions. In wired LANs, when one station sends a frame, all other stations receive it. The absence of this property in wireless LANs causes a variety of complica- tions. We will make the simplifying assumption that each radio transmitter has some fixed range, represented by a circular coverage region within which another sta- tion can sense and receive the station’s transmission. It is important to realize that
- 302. 278 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 in practice coverage regions are not nearly so regular because the propagation of radio signals depends on the environment. Walls and other obstacles that attenu- ate and reflect signals may cause the range to differ markedly in different direc- tions. But a simple circular model will do for our purposes. A naive approach to using a wireless LAN might be to try CSMA: just listen for other transmissions and only transmit if no one else is doing so. The trouble is, this protocol is not really a good way to think about wireless because what mat- ters for reception is interference at the receiver, not at the sender. To see the na- ture of the problem, consider Fig. 4-11, where four wireless stations are illustrat- ed. For our purposes, it does not matter which are APs and which are laptops. The radio range is such that A and B are within each other’s range and can poten- tially interfere with one another. C can also potentially interfere with both B and D, but not with A. Radio range (a) (b) Radio range A B C D A B C D Figure 4-11. A wireless LAN. (a) A and C are hidden terminals when trans- mitting to B. (b) B and C are exposed terminals when transmitting to A and D. First consider what happens when A and C transmit to B, as depicted in Fig. 4-11(a). If A sends and then C immediately senses the medium, it will not hear A because A is out of range. Thus C will falsely conclude that it can transmit to B. If C does start transmitting, it will interfere at B, wiping out the frame from A. (We assume here that no CDMA-type scheme is used to provide multiple channels, so collisions garble the signal and destroy both frames.) We want a MAC protocol that will prevent this kind of collision from happening because it wastes bandwidth. The problem of a station not being able to detect a potential competitor for the medium because the competitor is too far away is called the hidden terminal problem. Now let us look at a different situation: B transmitting to A at the same time that C wants to transmit to D, as shown in Fig. 4-11(b). If C senses the medium, it will hear a transmission and falsely conclude that it may not send to D (shown as a dashed line). In fact, such a transmission would cause bad reception only in the zone between B and C, where neither of the intended receivers is located. We want a MAC protocol that prevents this kind of deferral from happening because it wastes bandwidth. The problem is called the exposed terminal problem. The difficulty is that, before starting a transmission, a station really wants to know whether there is radio activity around the receiver. CSMA merely tells it
- 303. SEC. 4.2 MULTIPLE ACCESS PROTOCOLS 279 whether there is activity near the transmitter by sensing the carrier. With a wire, all signals propagate to all stations, so this distinction does not exist. However, only one transmission can then take place at once anywhere in the system. In a system based on short-range radio waves, multiple transmissions can occur simul- taneously if they all have different destinations and these destinations are out of range of one another. We want this concurrency to happen as the cell gets larger and larger, in the same way that people at a party should not wait for everyone in the room to go silent before they talk; multiple conversations can take place at once in a large room as long as they are not directed to the same location. An early and influential protocol that tackles these problems for wireless LANs is MACA (Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance) (Karn, 1990). The basic idea behind it is for the sender to stimulate the receiver into outputting a short frame, so stations nearby can detect this transmission and avoid transmitting for the duration of the upcoming (large) data frame. This technique is used instead of carrier sense. MACA is illustrated in Fig. 4-12. Let us see how A sends a frame to B. A starts by sending an RTS (Request To Send) frame to B, as shown in Fig. 4-12(a). This short frame (30 bytes) contains the length of the data frame that will eventu- ally follow. Then B replies with a CTS (Clear To Send) frame, as shown in Fig. 4-12(b). The CTS frame contains the data length (copied from the RTS frame). Upon receipt of the CTS frame, A begins transmission. (a) (b) Range of A's transmitter A RTS E B D C A CTS E B D C Range of B's transmitter Figure 4-12. The MACA protocol. (a) A sending an RTS to B. (b) B responding with a CTS to A. Now let us see how stations overhearing either of these frames react. Any station hearing the RTS is clearly close to A and must remain silent long enough for the CTS to be transmitted back to A without conflict. Any station hearing the CTS is clearly close to B and must remain silent during the upcoming data trans- mission, whose length it can tell by examining the CTS frame.
- 304. 280 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 In Fig. 4-12, C is within range of A but not within range of B. Therefore, it hears the RTS from A but not the CTS from B. As long as it does not interfere with the CTS, it is free to transmit while the data frame is being sent. In contrast, D is within range of B but not A. It does not hear the RTS but does hear the CTS. Hearing the CTS tips it off that it is close to a station that is about to receive a frame, so it defers sending anything until that frame is expected to be finished. Station E hears both control messages and, like D, must be silent until the data frame is complete. Despite these precautions, collisions can still occur. For example, B and C could both send RTS frames to A at the same time. These will collide and be lost. In the event of a collision, an unsuccessful transmitter (i.e., one that does not hear a CTS within the expected time interval) waits a random amount of time and tries again later. 4.3 ETHERNET We have now finished our discussion of channel allocation protocols in the abstract, so it is time to see how these principles apply to real systems. Many of the designs for personal, local, and metropolitan area networks have been stan- dardized under the name of IEEE 802. A few have survived but many have not, as we saw in Fig. 1-38. Some people who believe in reincarnation think that Charles Darwin came back as a member of the IEEE Standards Association to weed out the unfit. The most important of the survivors are 802.3 (Ethernet) and 802.11 (wireless LAN). Bluetooth (wireless PAN) is widely deployed but has now been standardized outside of 802.15. With 802.16 (wireless MAN), it is too early to tell. Please consult the 6th edition of this book to find out. We will begin our study of real systems with Ethernet, probably the most ubi- quitous kind of computer network in the world. Two kinds of Ethernet exist: clas- sic Ethernet, which solves the multiple access problem using the techniques we have studied in this chapter; and switched Ethernet, in which devices called switches are used to connect different computers. It is important to note that, while they are both referred to as Ethernet, they are quite different. Classic Ether- net is the original form and ran at rates from 3 to 10 Mbps. Switched Ethernet is what Ethernet has become and runs at 100, 1000, and 10,000 Mbps, in forms call- ed fast Ethernet, gigabit Ethernet, and 10 gigabit Ethernet. In practice, only switched Ethernet is used nowadays. We will discuss these historical forms of Ethernet in chronological order showing how they developed. Since Ethernet and IEEE 802.3 are identical except for a minor difference (which we will discuss shortly), many people use the terms ‘‘Ethernet’’ and ‘‘IEEE 802.3’’ interchangeably. We will do so, too. For more information about Ethernet, see Spurgeon (2000).
- 305. SEC. 4.3 ETHERNET 281 4.3.1 Classic Ethernet Physical Layer The story of Ethernet starts about the same time as that of ALOHA, when a student named Bob Metcalfe got his bachelor’s degree at M.I.T. and then moved up the river to get his Ph.D. at Harvard. During his studies, he was exposed to Abramson’s work. He became so interested in it that after graduating from Har- vard, he decided to spend the summer in Hawaii working with Abramson before starting work at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center). When he got to PARC, he saw that the researchers there had designed and built what would later be called personal computers. But the machines were isolated. Using his knowl- edge of Abramson’s work, he, together with his colleague David Boggs, designed and implemented the first local area network (Metcalfe and Boggs, 1976). It used a single long, thick coaxial cable and ran at 3 Mbps. They called the system Ethernet after the luminiferous ether, through which electromagnetic radiation was once thought to propagate. (When the 19th-century British physicist James Clerk Maxwell discovered that electromagnetic radiation could be described by a wave equation, scientists assumed that space must be filled with some ethereal medium in which the radiation was propagating. Only after the famous Michelson-Morley experiment in 1887 did physicists discover that electromagnetic radiation could propagate in a vacuum.) The Xerox Ethernet was so successful that DEC, Intel, and Xerox drew up a standard in 1978 for a 10-Mbps Ethernet, called the DIX standard. With a minor change, the DIX standard became the IEEE 802.3 standard in 1983. Unfor- tunately for Xerox, it already had a history of making seminal inventions (such as the personal computer) and then failing to commercialize on them, a story told in Fumbling the Future (Smith and Alexander, 1988). When Xerox showed little interest in doing anything with Ethernet other than helping standardize it, Metcalfe formed his own company, 3Com, to sell Ethernet adapters for PCs. It sold many millions of them. Classic Ethernet snaked around the building as a single long cable to which all the computers were attached. This architecture is shown in Fig. 4-13. The first variety, popularly called thick Ethernet, resembled a yellow garden hose, with markings every 2.5 meters to show where to attach computers. (The 802.3 stan- dard did not actually require the cable to be yellow, but it did suggest it.) It was succeeded by thin Ethernet, which bent more easily and made connections using industry-standard BNC connectors. Thin Ethernet was much cheaper and easier to install, but it could run for only 185 meters per segment (instead of 500 m with thick Ethernet), each of which could handle only 30 machines (instead of 100). Each version of Ethernet has a maximum cable length per segment (i.e., unamplified length) over which the signal will propagate. To allow larger net- works, multiple cables can be connected by repeaters. A repeater is a physical layer device that receives, amplifies (i.e., regenerates), and retransmits signals in both directions. As far as the software is concerned, a series of cable segments
- 306. 282 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 Ether Transceiver Interface cable Figure 4-13. Architecture of classic Ethernet. connected by repeaters is no different from a single cable (except for a small amount of delay introduced by the repeaters). Over each of these cables, information was sent using the Manchester encod- ing we studied in Sec. 2.5. An Ethernet could contain multiple cable segments and multiple repeaters, but no two transceivers could be more than 2.5 km apart and no path between any two transceivers could traverse more than four repeaters. The reason for this restriction was so that the MAC protocol, which we will look at next, would work correctly. 4.3.2 Classic Ethernet MAC Sublayer Protocol The format used to send frames is shown in Fig. 4-14. First comes a Pream- ble of 8 bytes, each containing the bit pattern 10101010 (with the exception of the last byte, in which the last 2 bits are set to 11). This last byte is called the Start of Frame delimiter for 802.3. The Manchester encoding of this pattern produces a 10-MHz square wave for 6.4 μsec to allow the receiver’s clock to synchronize with the sender’s. The last two 1 bits tell the receiver that the rest of the frame is about to start. Preamble (a) Bytes Type Data Pad Check- sum Destination address Source address 8 2 0-1500 0-46 4 6 6 Preamble (b) Length Data Pad Check- sum Destination address Source address Figure 4-14. Frame formats. (a) Ethernet (DIX). (b) IEEE 802.3. Next come two addresses, one for the destination and one for the source. They are each 6 bytes long. The first transmitted bit of the destination address is a 0 for
- 307. SEC. 4.3 ETHERNET 283 ordinary addresses and a 1 for group addresses. Group addresses allow multiple stations to listen to a single address. When a frame is sent to a group address, all the stations in the group receive it. Sending to a group of stations is called multi- casting. The special address consisting of all 1 bits is reserved for broadcasting. A frame containing all 1s in the destination field is accepted by all stations on the network. Multicasting is more selective, but it involves group management to define which stations are in the group. Conversely, broadcasting does not dif- ferentiate between stations at all, so it does not require any group management. An interesting feature of station source addresses is that they are globally unique, assigned centrally by IEEE to ensure that no two stations anywhere in the world have the same address. The idea is that any station can uniquely address any other station by just giving the right 48-bit number. To do this, the first 3 bytes of the address field are used for an OUI (Organizationally Unique Identif- ier). Values for this field are assigned by IEEE and indicate a manufacturer. Manufacturers are assigned blocks of 224 addresses. The manufacturer assigns the last 3 bytes of the address and programs the complete address into the NIC before it is sold. Next comes the Type or Length field, depending on whether the frame is Eth- ernet or IEEE 802.3. Ethernet uses a Type field to tell the receiver what to do with the frame. Multiple network-layer protocols may be in use at the same time on the same machine, so when an Ethernet frame arrives, the operating system has to know which one to hand the frame to. The Type field specifies which process to give the frame to. For example, a type code of 0x0800 means that the data con- tains an IPv4 packet. IEEE 802.3, in its wisdom, decided that this field would carry the length of the frame, since the Ethernet length was determined by looking inside the data—a layering violation if ever there was one. Of course, this meant there was no way for the receiver to figure out what to do with an incoming frame. That problem was handled by the addition of another header for the LLC (Logical Link Con- trol) protocol within the data. It uses 8 bytes to convey the 2 bytes of protocol type information. Unfortunately, by the time 802.3 was published, so much hardware and software for DIX Ethernet was already in use that few manufacturers and users were enthusiastic about repackaging the Type and Length fields. In 1997, IEEE threw in the towel and said that both ways were fine with it. Fortunately, all the Type fields in use before 1997 had values greater than 1500, then well established as the maximum data size. Now the rule is that any number there less than or equal to 0x600 (1536) can be interpreted as Length, and any number greater than 0x600 can be interpreted as Type. Now IEEE can maintain that everyone is using its standard and everybody else can keep on doing what they were already doing (not bothering with LLC) without feeling guilty about it. Next come the data, up to 1500 bytes. This limit was chosen somewhat arbi- trarily at the time the Ethernet standard was cast in stone, mostly based on the fact
- 308. 284 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 that a transceiver needs enough RAM to hold an entire frame and RAM was expensive in 1978. A larger upper limit would have meant more RAM, and hence a more expensive transceiver. In addition to there being a maximum frame length, there is also a minimum frame length. While a data field of 0 bytes is sometimes useful, it causes a prob- lem. When a transceiver detects a collision, it truncates the current frame, which means that stray bits and pieces of frames appear on the cable all the time. To make it easier to distinguish valid frames from garbage, Ethernet requires that valid frames must be at least 64 bytes long, from destination address to checksum, including both. If the data portion of a frame is less than 46 bytes, the Pad field is used to fill out the frame to the minimum size. Another (and more important) reason for having a minimum length frame is to prevent a station from completing the transmission of a short frame before the first bit has even reached the far end of the cable, where it may collide with another frame. This problem is illustrated in Fig. 4-15. At time 0, station A, at one end of the network, sends off a frame. Let us call the propagation time for this frame to reach the other end τ. Just before the frame gets to the other end (i.e., at time τ − ε), the most distant station, B, starts transmitting. When B detects that it is receiving more power than it is putting out, it knows that a collision has occurred, so it aborts its transmission and generates a 48-bit noise burst to warn all other stations. In other words, it jams the ether to make sure the sender does not miss the collision. At about time 2τ, the sender sees the noise burst and aborts its transmission, too. It then waits a random time before trying again. Packet starts at time 0 A B A B Packet almost at B at Collision at time A B Noise burst gets back to A at 2 A B (a) (b) (c) (d) Figure 4-15. Collision detection can take as long as 2τ. If a station tries to transmit a very short frame, it is conceivable that a colli- sion will occur, but the transmission will have completed before the noise burst gets back to the station at 2τ. The sender will then incorrectly conclude that the frame was successfully sent. To prevent this situation from occurring, all frames must take more than 2τ to send so that the transmission is still taking place when
- 309. SEC. 4.3 ETHERNET 285 the noise burst gets back to the sender. For a 10-Mbps LAN with a maximum length of 2500 meters and four repeaters (from the 802.3 specification), the round-trip time (including time to propagate through the four repeaters) has been determined to be nearly 50 μsec in the worst case. Therefore, the shortest allowed frame must take at least this long to transmit. At 10 Mbps, a bit takes 100 nsec, so 500 bits is the smallest frame that is guaranteed to work. To add some margin of safety, this number was rounded up to 512 bits or 64 bytes. The final field is the Checksum. It is a 32-bit CRC of the kind we studied in Sec. 3.2. In fact, it is defined exactly by the generator polynomial we gave there, which popped up for PPP, ADSL, and other links too. This CRC is an error- detecting code that is used to determine if the bits of the frame have been received correctly. It just does error detection, with the frame dropped if an error is detected. CSMA/CD with Binary Exponential Backoff Classic Ethernet uses the 1-persistent CSMA/CD algorithm that we studied in Sec. 4.2. This descriptor just means that stations sense the medium when they have a frame to send and send the frame as soon as the medium becomes idle. They monitor the channel for collisions as they send. If there is a collision, they abort the transmission with a short jam signal and retransmit after a random inter- val. Let us now see how the random interval is determined when a collision occurs, as it is a new method. The model is still that of Fig. 4-5. After a collision, time is divided into discrete slots whose length is equal to the worst-case round- trip propagation time on the ether (2τ). To accommodate the longest path allowed by Ethernet, the slot time has been set to 512 bit times, or 51.2 μsec. After the first collision, each station waits either 0 or 1 slot times at random before trying again. If two stations collide and each one picks the same random number, they will collide again. After the second collision, each one picks either 0, 1, 2, or 3 at random and waits that number of slot times. If a third collision occurs (the probability of this happening is 0.25), the next time the number of slots to wait is chosen at random from the interval 0 to 23 − 1. In general, after i collisions, a random number between 0 and 2i − 1 is chosen, and that number of slots is skipped. However, after 10 collisions have been reached, the randomization interval is frozen at a maximum of 1023 slots. After 16 collisions, the controller throws in the towel and reports failure back to the computer. Further recovery is up to higher layers. This algorithm, called binary exponential backoff, was chosen to dynami- cally adapt to the number of stations trying to send. If the randomization interval for all collisions were 1023, the chance of two stations colliding for a second time would be negligible, but the average wait after a collision would be hundreds of slot times, introducing significant delay. On the other hand, if each station always
- 310. 286 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 delayed for either 0 or 1 slots, then if 100 stations ever tried to send at once they would collide over and over until 99 of them picked 1 and the remaining station picked 0. This might take years. By having the randomization interval grow ex- ponentially as more and more consecutive collisions occur, the algorithm ensures a low delay when only a few stations collide but also ensures that the collisions are resolved in a reasonable interval when many stations collide. Truncating the backoff at 1023 keeps the bound from growing too large. If there is no collision, the sender assumes that the frame was probably suc- cessfully delivered. That is, neither CSMA/CD nor Ethernet provides acknowl- edgements. This choice is appropriate for wired and optical fiber channels that have low error rates. Any errors that do occur must then be detected by the CRC and recovered by higher layers. For wireless channels that have more errors, we will see that acknowledgements are used. 4.3.3 Ethernet Performance Now let us briefly examine the performance of classic Ethernet under condi- tions of heavy and constant load, that is, with k stations always ready to transmit. A rigorous analysis of the binary exponential backoff algorithm is complicated. Instead, we will follow Metcalfe and Boggs (1976) and assume a constant retransmission probability in each slot. If each station transmits during a conten- tion slot with probability p, the probability A that some station acquires the chan- nel in that slot is A = kp(1 − p)k − 1 (4-5) A is maximized when p = 1/k, with A → 1/e as k → ∞. The probability that the contention interval has exactly j slots in it is A(1 − A)j − 1 , so the mean number of slots per contention is given by j =0 Σ ∞ jA(1 − A)j − 1 = A 1 Since each slot has a duration 2τ, the mean contention interval, w, is 2τ/A. Assuming optimal p, the mean number of contention slots is never more than e, so w is at most 2τe ∼ ∼ 5.4τ. If the mean frame takes P sec to transmit, when many stations have frames to send, Channel efficiency = P + 2τ/A P (4-6) Here we see where the maximum cable distance between any two stations enters into the performance figures. The longer the cable, the longer the contention interval, which is why the Ethernet standard specifies a maximum cable length.
- 311. SEC. 4.3 ETHERNET 287 It is instructive to formulate Eq. (4-6) in terms of the frame length, F, the net- work bandwidth, B, the cable length, L, and the speed of signal propagation, c, for the optimal case of e contention slots per frame. With P = F/B, Eq. (4-6) becomes Channel efficiency = 1 + 2BLe /cF 1 (4-7) When the second term in the denominator is large, network efficiency will be low. More specifically, increasing network bandwidth or distance (the BL product) reduces efficiency for a given frame size. Unfortunately, much research on net- work hardware is aimed precisely at increasing this product. People want high bandwidth over long distances (fiber optic MANs, for example), yet classic Ether- net implemented in this manner is not the best system for these applications. We will see other ways of implementing Ethernet in the next section. In Fig. 4-16, the channel efficiency is plotted versus the number of ready sta- tions for 2τ = 51.2 μsec and a data rate of 10 Mbps, using Eq. (4-7). With a 64- byte slot time, it is not surprising that 64-byte frames are not efficient. On the other hand, with 1024-byte frames and an asymptotic value of e 64-byte slots per contention interval, the contention period is 174 bytes long and the efficiency is 85%. This result is much better than the 37% efficiency of slotted ALOHA. 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 1 2 4 8 16 Number of stations trying to send Channel efficiency 32 64 128 256 1024-byte frames 512-byte frames 256-byte frames 128-byte frames 64-byte frames Figure 4-16. Efficiency of Ethernet at 10 Mbps with 512-bit slot times. It is probably worth mentioning that there has been a large amount of theoreti- cal performance analysis of Ethernet (and other networks). Most of the results should be taken with a grain (or better yet, a metric ton) of salt, for two reasons.
- 312. 288 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 First, virtually all of the theoretical work assumes Poisson traffic. As researchers have begun looking at real data, it now appears that network traffic is rarely Pois- son. Instead, it is self-similar or bursty over a range of time scales (Paxson and Floyd, 1995; and Leland et al., 1994). What this means is that averaging over long periods of time does not smooth out the traffic. As well as using question- able models, many of the analyses focus on the ‘‘interesting’’ performance cases of abnormally high load. Boggs et al. (1988) showed by experimentation that Eth- ernet works well in reality, even at moderately high load. 4.3.4 Switched Ethernet Ethernet soon began to evolve away from the single long cable architecture of classic Ethernet. The problems associated with finding breaks or loose connec- tions drove it toward a different kind of wiring pattern, in which each station has a dedicated cable running to a central hub. A hub simply connects all the attached wires electrically, as if they were soldered together. This configuration is shown in Fig. 4-17(a). Port Line Hub Switch (a) (b) Port Line Figure 4-17. (a) Hub. (b) Switch. The wires were telephone company twisted pairs, since most office buildings were already wired this way and normally plenty of spares were available. This reuse was a win, but it did reduce the maximum cable run from the hub to 100 meters (200 meters if high quality Category 5 twisted pairs were used). Adding or removing a station is simpler in this configuration, and cable breaks can be de- tected easily. With the advantages of being able to use existing wiring and ease of maintenance, twisted-pair hubs quickly became the dominant form of Ethernet. However, hubs do not increase capacity because they are logically equivalent to the single long cable of classic Ethernet. As more and more stations are added, each station gets a decreasing share of the fixed capacity. Eventually, the LAN will saturate. One way out is to go to a higher speed, say, from 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps, or even higher speeds. But with the growth of multimedia and powerful servers, even a 1-Gbps Ethernet can become saturated.
- 313. SEC. 4.3 ETHERNET 289 Fortunately, there is an another way to deal with increased load: switched Ethernet. The heart of this system is a switch containing a high-speed backplane that connects all of the ports, as shown in Fig. 4-17(b). From the outside, a switch looks just like a hub. They are both boxes, typically with 4 to 48 ports, each with a standard RJ-45 connector for a twisted-pair cable. Each cable connects the switch or hub to a single computer, as shown in Fig. 4-18. A switch has the same advantages as a hub, too. It is easy to add or remove a new station by plugging or unplugging a wire, and it is easy to find most faults since a flaky cable or port will usually affect just one station. There is still a shared component that can fail—the switch itself—but if all stations lose connectivity the IT folks know what to do to fix the problem: replace the whole switch. Switch Twisted pair Switch ports Hub Figure 4-18. An Ethernet switch. Inside the switch, however, something very different is happening. Switches only output frames to the ports for which those frames are destined. When a switch port receives an Ethernet frame from a station, the switch checks the Ether- net addresses to see which port the frame is destined for. This step requires the switch to be able to work out which ports correspond to which addresses, a pro- cess that we will describe in Sec. 4.8 when we get to the general case of switches connected to other switches. For now, just assume that the switch knows the frame’s destination port. The switch then forwards the frame over its high-speed backplane to the destination port. The backplane typically runs at many Gbps, using a proprietary protocol that does not need to be standardized because it is entirely hidden inside the switch. The destination port then transmits the frame on the wire so that it reaches the intended station. None of the other ports even knows the frame exists. What happens if more than one of the stations or ports wants to send a frame at the same time? Again, switches differ from hubs. In a hub, all stations are in the same collision domain. They must use the CSMA/CD algorithm to schedule their transmissions. In a switch, each port is its own independent collision domain. In the common case that the cable is full duplex, both the station and the port can send a frame on the cable at the same time, without worrying about other ports and stations. Collisions are now impossible and CSMA/CD is not needed. However, if the cable is half duplex, the station and the port must contend for transmission with CSMA/CD in the usual way.
- 314. 290 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 A switch improves performance over a hub in two ways. First, since there are no collisions, the capacity is used more efficiently. Second, and more impor- tantly, with a switch multiple frames can be sent simultaneously (by different sta- tions). These frames will reach the switch ports and travel over the switch’s back- plane to be output on the proper ports. However, since two frames might be sent to the same output port at the same time, the switch must have buffering so that it can temporarily queue an input frame until it can be transmitted to the output port. Overall, these improvements give a large performance win that is not possible with a hub. The total system throughput can often be increased by an order of magnitude, depending on the number of ports and traffic patterns. The change in the ports on which frames are output also has security benefits. Most LAN interfaces have a promiscuous mode, in which all frames are given to each computer, not just those addressed to it. With a hub, every computer that is attached can see the traffic sent between all of the other computers. Spies and busybodies love this feature. With a switch, traffic is forwarded only to the ports where it is destined. This restriction provides better isolation so that traffic will not easily escape and fall into the wrong hands. However, it is better to encrypt traffic if security is really needed. Because the switch just expects standard Ethernet frames on each input port, it is possible to use some of the ports as concentrators. In Fig. 4-18, the port in the upper-right corner is connected not to a single station, but to a 12-port hub instead. As frames arrive at the hub, they contend for the ether in the usual way, including collisions and binary backoff. Successful frames make it through the hub to the switch and are treated there like any other incoming frames. The switch does not know they had to fight their way in. Once in the switch, they are sent to the correct output line over the high-speed backplane. It is also possible that the correct destination was one on the lines attached to the hub, in which case the frame has already been delivered so the switch just drops it. Hubs are simpler and cheaper than switches, but due to falling switch prices they have become an endangered species. Modern networks largely use switched Ethernet. Neverthe- less, legacy hubs still exist. 4.3.5 Fast Ethernet At the same time that switches were becoming popular, the speed of 10-Mbps Ethernet was coming under pressure. At first, 10 Mbps seemed like heaven, just as cable modems seemed like heaven to the users of telephone modems. But the novelty wore off quickly. As a kind of corollary to Parkinson’s Law (‘‘Work expands to fill the time available for its completion’’), it seemed that data expanded to fill the bandwidth available for their transmission. Many installations needed more bandwidth and thus had numerous 10-Mbps LANs connected by a maze of repeaters, hubs, and switches, although to the net- work managers it sometimes felt that they were being held together by bubble
- 315. SEC. 4.3 ETHERNET 291 gum and chicken wire. But even with Ethernet switches, the maximum bandwidth of a single computer was limited by the cable that connected it to the switch port. It was in this environment that IEEE reconvened the 802.3 committee in 1992 with instructions to come up with a faster LAN. One proposal was to keep 802.3 exactly as it was, but just make it go faster. Another proposal was to redo it total- ly and give it lots of new features, such as real-time traffic and digitized voice, but just keep the old name (for marketing reasons). After some wrangling, the com- mittee decided to keep 802.3 the way it was, and just make it go faster. This stra- tegy would get the job done before the technology changed and avoid unforeseen problems with a brand new design. The new design would also be backward- compatible with existing Ethernet LANs. The people behind the losing proposal did what any self-respecting computer-industry people would have done under these circumstances: they stomped off and formed their own committee and stand- ardized their LAN anyway (eventually as 802.12). It flopped miserably. The work was done quickly (by standards committees’ norms), and the result, 802.3u, was approved by IEEE in June 1995. Technically, 802.3u is not a new standard, but an addendum to the existing 802.3 standard (to emphasize its back- ward compatibility). This strategy is used a lot. Since practically everyone calls it fast Ethernet, rather than 802.3u, we will do that, too. The basic idea behind fast Ethernet was simple: keep all the old frame for- mats, interfaces, and procedural rules, but reduce the bit time from 100 nsec to 10 nsec. Technically, it would have been possible to copy 10-Mbps classic Ethernet and still detect collisions on time by just reducing the maximum cable length by a factor of 10. However, the advantages of twisted-pair wiring were so overwhelm- ing that fast Ethernet is based entirely on this design. Thus, all fast Ethernet sys- tems use hubs and switches; multidrop cables with vampire taps or BNC connec- tors are not permitted. Nevertheless, some choices still had to be made, the most important being which wire types to support. One contender was Category 3 twisted pair. The argument for it was that practically every office in the Western world had at least four Category 3 (or better) twisted pairs running from it to a telephone wiring closet within 100 meters. Sometimes two such cables existed. Thus, using Category 3 twisted pair would make it possible to wire up desktop computers using fast Ethernet without having to rewire the building, an enormous advantage for many organizations. The main disadvantage of a Category 3 twisted pair is its inability to carry 100 Mbps over 100 meters, the maximum computer-to-hub distance specified for 10-Mbps hubs. In contrast, Category 5 twisted pair wiring can handle 100 m easily, and fiber can go much farther. The compromise chosen was to allow all three possibilities, as shown in Fig. 4-19, but to pep up the Category 3 solution to give it the additional carrying capacity needed. The Category 3 UTP scheme, called 100Base-T4, used a signaling speed of 25 MHz, only 25% faster than standard Ethernet’s 20 MHz. (Remember that
- 316. 292 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 Name Cable Max. segment Advantages 100Base-T4 Twisted pair 100 m Uses category 3 UTP 100Base-TX Twisted pair 100 m Full duplex at 100 Mbps (Cat 5 UTP) 100Base-FX Fiber optics 2000 m Full duplex at 100 Mbps; long runs Figure 4-19. The original fast Ethernet cabling. Manchester encoding, discussed in Sec. 2.5, requires two clock periods for each of the 10 million bits sent each second.) However, to achieve the necessary bit rate, 100Base-T4 requires four twisted pairs. Of the four pairs, one is always to the hub, one is always from the hub, and the other two are switchable to the current transmission direction. To get 100 Mbps out of the three twisted pairs in the transmission direction, a fairly involved scheme is used on each twisted pair. It involves sending ternary digits with three different voltage levels. This scheme is not likely to win any prizes for elegance, and we will skip the details. How- ever, since standard telephone wiring for decades has had four twisted pairs per cable, most offices are able to use the existing wiring plant. Of course, it means giving up your office telephone, but that is surely a small price to pay for faster email. 100Base-T4 fell by the wayside as many office buildings were rewired with Category 5 UTP for 100Base-TX Ethernet, which came to dominate the market. This design is simpler because the wires can handle clock rates of 125 MHz. Only two twisted pairs per station are used, one to the hub and one from it. Nei- ther straight binary coding (i.e., NRZ) nor Manchester coding is used. Instead, the 4B/5B encoding we described in Sec 2.5 is used. 4 data bits are encoded as 5 sig- nal bits and sent at 125 MHz to provide 100 Mbps. This scheme is simple but has sufficient transitions for synchronization and uses the bandwidth of the wire rela- tively well. The 100Base-TX system is full duplex; stations can transmit at 100 Mbps on one twisted pair and receive at 100 Mbps on another twisted pair at the same time. The last option, 100Base-FX, uses two strands of multimode fiber, one for each direction, so it, too, can run full duplex with 100 Mbps in each direction. In this setup, the distance between a station and the switch can be up to 2 km. Fast Ethernet allows interconnection by either hubs or switches. To ensure that the CSMA/CD algorithm continues to work, the relationship between the minimum frame size and maximum cable length must be maintained as the net- work speed goes up from 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps. So, either the minimum frame size of 64 bytes must go up or the maximum cable length of 2500 m must come down, proportionally. The easy choice was for the maximum distance between any two stations to come down by a factor of 10, since a hub with 100-m cables falls within this new maximum already. However, 2-km 100Base-FX cables are
- 317. SEC. 4.3 ETHERNET 293 too long to permit a 100-Mbps hub with the normal Ethernet collision algorithm. These cables must instead be connected to a switch and operate in a full-duplex mode so that there are no collisions. Users quickly started to deploy fast Ethernet, but they were not about to throw away 10-Mbps Ethernet cards on older computers. As a consequence, virtually all fast Ethernet switches can handle a mix of 10-Mbps and 100-Mbps stations. To make upgrading easy, the standard itself provides a mechanism called auto- negotiation that lets two stations automatically negotiate the optimum speed (10 or 100 Mbps) and duplexity (half or full). It works well most of the time but is known to lead to duplex mismatch problems when one end of the link autonego- tiates but the other end does not and is set to full-duplex mode (Shalunov and Carlson, 2005). Most Ethernet products use this feature to configure themselves. 4.3.6 Gigabit Ethernet The ink was barely dry on the fast Ethernet standard when the 802 committee began working on a yet faster Ethernet, quickly dubbed gigabit Ethernet. IEEE ratified the most popular form as 802.3ab in 1999. Below we will discuss some of the key features of gigabit Ethernet. More information is given by Spurgeon (2000). The committee’s goals for gigabit Ethernet were essentially the same as the committee’s goals for fast Ethernet: increase performance tenfold while maintain- ing compatibility with all existing Ethernet standards. In particular, gigabit Ether- net had to offer unacknowledged datagram service with both unicast and broad- cast, use the same 48-bit addressing scheme already in use, and maintain the same frame format, including the minimum and maximum frame sizes. The final stan- dard met all these goals. Like fast Ethernet, all configurations of gigabit Ethernet use point-to-point links. In the simplest configuration, illustrated in Fig. 4-20(a), two computers are directly connected to each other. The more common case, however, uses a switch or a hub connected to multiple computers and possibly additional switches or hubs, as shown in Fig. 4-20(b). In both configurations, each individual Ethernet cable has exactly two devices on it, no more and no fewer. Also like fast Ethernet, gigabit Ethernet supports two different modes of operation: full-duplex mode and half-duplex mode. The ‘‘normal’’ mode is full- duplex mode, which allows traffic in both directions at the same time. This mode is used when there is a central switch connected to computers (or other switches) on the periphery. In this configuration, all lines are buffered so each computer and switch is free to send frames whenever it wants to. The sender does not have to sense the channel to see if anybody else is using it because contention is impos- sible. On the line between a computer and a switch, the computer is the only pos- sible sender to the switch, and the transmission will succeed even if the switch is currently sending a frame to the computer (because the line is full duplex). Since
- 318. 294 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 Switch or hub Ethernet (b) (a) Ethernet Computer Figure 4-20. (a) A two-station Ethernet. (b) A multistation Ethernet. no contention is possible, the CSMA/CD protocol is not used, so the maximum length of the cable is determined by signal strength issues rather than by how long it takes for a noise burst to propagate back to the sender in the worst case. Switch%es are free to mix and match speeds. Autonegotiation is supported just as in fast Ethernet, only now the choice is among 10, 100, and 1000 Mbps. The other mode of operation, half-duplex, is used when the computers are connected to a hub rather than a switch. A hub does not buffer incoming frames. Instead, it electrically connects all the lines internally, simulating the multidrop cable used in classic Ethernet. In this mode, collisions are possible, so the stan- dard CSMA/CD protocol is required. Because a 64-byte frame (the shortest allowed) can now be transmitted 100 times faster than in classic Ethernet, the maximum cable length must be 100 times less, or 25 meters, to maintain the essential property that the sender is still transmitting when the noise burst gets back to it, even in the worst case. With a 2500-meter-long cable, the sender of a 64-byte frame at 1 Gbps would be long finished before the frame got even a tenth of the way to the other end, let alone to the end and back. This length restriction was painful enough that two features were added to the standard to increase the maximum cable length to 200 meters, which is probably enough for most offices. The first feature, called carrier extension, essentially tells the hardware to add its own padding after the normal frame to extend the frame to 512 bytes. Since this padding is added by the sending hardware and removed by the receiving hardware, the software is unaware of it, meaning that no changes are needed to existing software. The downside is that using 512 bytes worth of bandwidth to transmit 46 bytes of user data (the payload of a 64-byte frame) has a line efficiency of only 9%. The second feature, called frame bursting, allows a sender to transmit a con- catenated sequence of multiple frames in a single transmission. If the total burst is less than 512 bytes, the hardware pads it again. If enough frames are waiting for transmission, this scheme is very efficient and preferred over carrier extension.
- 319. SEC. 4.3 ETHERNET 295 In all fairness, it is hard to imagine an organization buying modern computers with gigabit Ethernet cards and then connecting them with an old-fashioned hub to simulate classic Ethernet with all its collisions. Gigabit Ethernet interfaces and switches used to be expensive, but their prices fell rapidly as sales volumes picked up. Still, backward compatibility is sacred in the computer industry, so the com- mittee was required to put it in. Today, most computers ship with an Ethernet interface that is capable of 10-, 100-, and 1000-Mbps operation and compatible with all of them. Gigabit Ethernet supports both copper and fiber cabling, as listed in Fig. 4-21. Signaling at or near 1 Gbps requires encoding and sending a bit every nanosecond. This trick was initially accomplished with short, shielded copper cables (the 1000Base-CX version) and optical fibers. For the optical fibers, two wavelengths are permitted and result in two different versions: 0.85 microns (short, for 1000Base-SX) and 1.3 microns (long, for 1000Base-LX). Name Cable Max. segment Advantages 1000Base-SX Fiber optics 550 m Multimode fiber (50, 62.5 microns) 1000Base-LX Fiber optics 5000 m Single (10 μ) or multimode (50, 62.5 μ) 1000Base-CX 2 Pairs of STP 25 m Shielded twisted pair 1000Base-T 4 Pairs of UTP 100 m Standard category 5 UTP Figure 4-21. Gigabit Ethernet cabling. Signaling at the short wavelength can be achieved with cheaper LEDs. It is used with multimode fiber and is useful for connections within a building, as it can run up to 500 m for 50-micron fiber. Signaling at the long wavelength requires more expensive lasers. On the other hand, when combined with single- mode (10-micron) fiber, the cable length can be up to 5 km. This limit allows long distance connections between buildings, such as for a campus backbone, as a dedicated point-to-point link. Later variations of the standard allowed even longer links over single-mode fiber. To send bits over these versions of gigabit Ethernet, the 8B/10B encoding we described in Sec. 2.5 was borrowed from another networking technology called Fibre Channel. That scheme encodes 8 bits of data into 10-bit codewords that are sent over the wire or fiber, hence the name 8B/10B. The codewords were chosen so that they could be balanced (i.e., have the same number of 0s and 1s) with suf- ficient transitions for clock recovery. Sending the coded bits with NRZ requires a signaling bandwidth of 25% more than that required for the uncoded bits, a big improvement over the 100% expansion of Manchester coding. However, all of these options required new copper or fiber cables to support the faster signaling. None of them made use of the large amount of Category 5 UTP that had been installed along with fast Ethernet. Within a year, 1000Base-T
- 320. 296 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 came along to fill this gap, and it has been the most popular form of gigabit Ether- net ever since. People apparently dislike rewiring their buildings. More complicated signaling is needed to make Ethernet run at 1000 Mbps over Category 5 wires. To start, all four twisted pairs in the cable are used, and each pair is used in both directions at the same time by using digital signal pro- cessing to separate signals. Over each wire, five voltage levels that carry 2 bits are used for signaling at 125 Msymbols/sec. The mapping to produce the symbols from the bits is not straightforward. It involves scrambling, for transitions, fol- lowed by an error correcting code in which four values are embedded into five signal levels. A speed of 1 Gbps is quite fast. For example, if a receiver is busy with some other task for even 1 msec and does not empty the input buffer on some line, up to 1953 frames may have accumulated in that gap. Also, when a computer on a gigabit Ethernet is shipping data down the line to a computer on a classic Ether- net, buffer overruns are very likely. As a consequence of these two observations, gigabit Ethernet supports flow control. The mechanism consists of one end send- ing a special control frame to the other end telling it to pause for some period of time. These PAUSE control frames are normal Ethernet frames containing a type of 0x8808. Pauses are given in units of the minimum frame time. For gigabit Ethernet, the time unit is 512 nsec, allowing for pauses as long as 33.6 msec. There is one more extension that was introduced along with gigabit Ethernet. Jumbo frames allow for frames to be longer than 1500 bytes, usually up to 9 KB. This extension is proprietary. It is not recognized by the standard because if it is used then Ethernet is no longer compatible with earlier versions, but most vendors support it anyway. The rationale is that 1500 bytes is a short unit at gigabit speeds. By manipulating larger blocks of information, the frame rate can be decreased, along with the processing associated with it, such as interrupting the processor to say that a frame has arrived, or splitting up and recombining mes- sages that were too long to fit in one Ethernet frame. 4.3.7 10-Gigabit Ethernet As soon as gigabit Ethernet was standardized, the 802 committee got bored and wanted to get back to work. IEEE told them to start on 10-gigabit Ethernet. This work followed much the same pattern as the previous Ethernet standards, with standards for fiber and shielded copper cable appearing first in 2002 and 2004, followed by the standard for copper twisted pair in 2006. 10 Gbps is a truly prodigious speed, 1000x faster than the original Ethernet. Where could it be needed? The answer is inside data centers and exchanges to connect high-end routers, switches, and servers, as well as in long-distance, high bandwidth trunks between offices that are enabling entire metropolitan area net- works based on Ethernet and fiber. The long distance connections use optical fiber, while the short connections may use copper or fiber.
- 321. SEC. 4.3 ETHERNET 297 All versions of 10-gigabit Ethernet support only full-duplex operation. CSMA/CD is no longer part of the design, and the standards concentrate on the details of physical layers that can run at very high speed. Compatibility still matters, though, so 10-gigabit Ethernet interfaces autonegotiate and fall back to the highest speed supported by both ends of the line. The main kinds of 10-gigabit Ethernet are listed in Fig. 4-22. Multimode fiber with the 0.85μ (short) wavelength is used for medium distances, and single- mode fiber at 1.3μ (long) and 1.5μ (extended) is used for long distances. 10GBase-ER can run for distances of 40 km, making it suitable for wide area applications. All of these versions send a serial stream of information that is pro- duced by scrambling the data bits, then encoding them with a 64B/66B code. This encoding has less overhead than an 8B/10B code. Name Cable Max. segment Advantages 10GBase-SR Fiber optics Up to 300 m Multimode fiber (0.85μ) 10GBase-LR Fiber optics 10 km Single-mode fiber (1.3μ) 10GBase-ER Fiber optics 40 km Single-mode fiber (1.5μ) 10GBase-CX4 4 Pairs of twinax 15 m Twinaxial copper 10GBase-T 4 Pairs of UTP 100 m Category 6a UTP Figure 4-22. 10-Gigabit Ethernet cabling. The first copper version defined, 10GBase-CX4, uses a cable with four pairs of twinaxial copper wiring. Each pair uses 8B/10B coding and runs at 3.125 Gsymbols/second to reach 10 Gbps. This version is cheaper than fiber and was early to market, but it remains to be seen whether it will be beat out in the long run by 10-gigabit Ethernet over more garden variety twisted pair wiring. 10GBase-T is the version that uses UTP cables. While it calls for Category 6a wiring, for shorter runs, it can use lower categories (including Category 5) to allow some reuse of installed cabling. Not surprisingly, the physical layer is quite involved to reach 10 Gbps over twisted pair. We will only sketch some of the high-level details. Each of the four twisted pairs is used to send 2500 Mbps in both directions. This speed is reached using a signaling rate of 800 Msymbols/sec with symbols that use 16 voltage levels. The symbols are produced by scrambling the data, protecting it with a LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) code, and further coding for error correction. 10-gigabit Ethernet is still shaking out in the market, but the 802.3 committee has already moved on. At the end of 2007, IEEE created a group to standardize Ethernet operating at 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps. This upgrade will let Ethernet com- pete in very high-performance settings, including long-distance connections in backbone networks and short connections over the equipment backplanes. The standard is not yet complete, but proprietary products are already available.
- 322. 298 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 4.3.8 Retrospective on Ethernet Ethernet has been around for over 30 years and has no serious competitors in sight, so it is likely to be around for many years to come. Few CPU architectures, operating systems, or programming languages have been king of the mountain for three decades going on strong. Clearly, Ethernet did something right. What? Probably the main reason for its longevity is that Ethernet is simple and flexi- ble. In practice, simple translates into reliable, cheap, and easy to maintain. Once the hub and switch architecture was adopted, failures became extremely rare. People hesitate to replace something that works perfectly all the time, especially when they know that an awful lot of things in the computer industry work very poorly, so that many so-called ‘‘upgrades’’ are worse than what they replaced. Simple also translates into cheap. Twisted-pair wiring is relatively inexpen- sive as are the hardware components. They may start out expensive when there is a transition, for example, new gigabit Ethernet NICs or switches, but they are merely additions to a well established network (not a replacement of it) and the prices fall quickly as the sales volume picks up. Ethernet is easy to maintain. There is no software to install (other than the drivers) and not much in the way of configuration tables to manage (and get wrong). Also, adding new hosts is as simple as just plugging them in. Another point is that Ethernet interworks easily with TCP/IP, which has become dominant. IP is a connectionless protocol, so it fits perfectly with Ether- net, which is also connectionless. IP fits much less well with connection-oriented alternatives such as ATM. This mismatch definitely hurt ATM’s chances. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, Ethernet has been able to evolve in cer- tain crucial ways. Speeds have gone up by several orders of magnitude and hubs and switches have been introduced, but these changes have not required changing the software and have often allowed the existing cabling to be reused for a time. When a network salesman shows up at a large installation and says ‘‘I have this fantastic new network for you. All you have to do is throw out all your hardware and rewrite all your software,’’ he has a problem. Many alternative technologies that you have probably not even heard of were faster than Ethernet when they were introduced. As well as ATM, this list includes FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) and Fibre Channel, † two ring- based optical LANs. Both were incompatible with Ethernet. Neither one made it. They were too complicated, which led to complex chips and high prices. The les- son that should have been learned here was KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid). Even- tually, Ethernet caught up with them in terms of speed, often by borrowing some of their technology, for example, the 4B/5B coding from FDDI and the 8B/10B coding from Fibre Channel. Then they had no advantages left and quietly died off or fell into specialized roles. † It is called ‘‘Fibre Channel’’ and not ‘‘Fiber Channel’’ because the document editor was British.
- 323. SEC. 4.3 ETHERNET 299 It looks like Ethernet will continue to expand in its applications for some time. 10-gigabit Ethernet has freed it from the distance constraints of CSMA/CD. Much effort is being put into carrier-grade Ethernet to let network providers offer Ethernet-based services to their customers for metropolitan and wide area networks (Fouli and Maler, 2009). This application carries Ethernet frames long distances over fiber and calls for better management features to help operators offer reliable, high-quality services. Very high speed networks are also finding uses in backplanes connecting components in large routers or servers. Both of these uses are in addition to that of sending frames between computers in offices. 4.4 WIRELESS LANS Wireless LANs are increasingly popular, and homes, offices, cafes, libraries, airports, zoos, and other public places are being outfitted with them to connect computers, PDAs, and smart phones to the Internet. Wireless LANs can also be used to let two or more nearby computers communicate without using the Inter- net. The main wireless LAN standard is 802.11. We gave some background infor- mation on it in Sec. 1.5.3. Now it is time to take a closer look at the technology. In the following sections, we will look at the protocol stack, physical-layer radio transmission techniques, the MAC sublayer protocol, the frame structure, and the services provided. For more information about 802.11, see Gast (2005). To get the truth from the mouth of the horse, consult the published standard, IEEE 802.11-2007 itself. 4.4.1 The 802.11 Architecture and Protocol Stack 802.11 networks can be used in two modes. The most popular mode is to con- nect clients, such as laptops and smart phones, to another network, such as a com- pany intranet or the Internet. This mode is shown in Fig. 4-23(a). In infrastructure mode, each client is associated with an AP (Access Point) that is in turn con- nected to the other network. The client sends and receives its packets via the AP. Several access points may be connected together, typically by a wired network called a distribution system, to form an extended 802.11 network. In this case, clients can send frames to other clients via their APs. The other mode, shown in Fig. 4-23(b), is an ad hoc network. This mode is a collection of computers that are associated so that they can directly send frames to each other. There is no access point. Since Internet access is the killer application for wireless, ad hoc networks are not very popular. Now we will look at the protocols. All the 802 protocols, including 802.11 and Ethernet, have a certain commonality of structure. A partial view of the 802.11 protocol stack is given in Fig. 4-24. The stack is the same for clients and
- 324. 300 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 (a) (b) To network Access point Client Figure 4-23. 802.11 architecture. (a) Infrastructure mode. (b) Ad-hoc mode. APs. The physical layer corresponds fairly well to the OSI physical layer, but the data link layer in all the 802 protocols is split into two or more sublayers. In 802.11, the MAC (Medium Access Control) sublayer determines how the channel is allocated, that is, who gets to transmit next. Above it is the LLC (Logical Link Control) sublayer, whose job it is to hide the differences between the different 802 variants and make them indistinguishable as far as the network layer is concerned. This could have been a significant responsibility, but these days the LLC is a glue layer that identifies the protocol (e.g., IP) that is carried within an 802.11 frame. 802.11 (legacy) Frequency hopping and infrared 802.11a OFDM 802.11b Spread spectrum 802.11g OFDM 802.11n MIMO OFDM Logical link layer Release date: 1997–1999 1999 1999 2003 2009 Upper layers Data link layer Physical layer MAC sublayer Figure 4-24. Part of the 802.11 protocol stack. Several transmission techniques have been added to the physical layer as 802.11 has evolved since it first appeared in 1997. Two of the initial techniques, infrared in the manner of television remote controls and frequency hopping in the 2.4-GHz band, are now defunct. The third initial technique, direct sequence spread spectrum at 1 or 2 Mbps in the 2.4-GHz band, was extended to run at rates up to 11 Mbps and quickly became a hit. It is now known as 802.11b.
- 325. SEC. 4.4 WIRELESS LANS 301 To give wireless junkies a much-wanted speed boost, new transmission tech- niques based on the OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) scheme we described in Sec. 2.5.3 were introduced in 1999 and 2003. The first is called 802.11a and uses a different frequency band, 5 GHz. The second stuck with 2.4 GHz and compatibility. It is called 802.11g. Both give rates up to 54 Mbps. Most recently, transmission techniques that simultaneously use multiple an- tennas at the transmitter and receiver for a speed boost were finalized as 802.11n in Oct. 2009. With four antennas and wider channels, the 802.11 standard now defines rates up to a startling 600 Mbps. We will now examine each of these transmission techniques briefly. We will only cover those that are in use, however, skipping the legacy 802.11 transmission methods. Technically, these belong to the physical layer and should have been examined in Chap. 2, but since they are so closely tied to LANs in general and the 802.11 LAN in particular, we treat them here instead. 4.4.2 The 802.11 Physical Layer Each of the transmission techniques makes it possible to send a MAC frame over the air from one station to another. They differ, however, in the technology used and speeds achievable. A detailed discussion of these technologies is far beyond the scope of this book, but a few words on each one will relate the techni- ques to the material we covered in Sec. 2.5 and will provide interested readers with the key terms to search for elsewhere for more information. All of the 802.11 techniques use short-range radios to transmit signals in ei- ther the 2.4-GHz or the 5-GHz ISM frequency bands, both described in Sec. 2.3.3. These bands have the advantage of being unlicensed and hence freely available to any transmitter willing to meet some restrictions, such as radiated power of at most 1 W (though 50 mW is more typical for wireless LAN radios). Unfortunate- ly, this fact is also known to the manufacturers of garage door openers, cordless phones, microwave ovens, and countless other devices, all of which compete with laptops for the same spectrum. The 2.4-GHz band tends to be more crowded than the 5-GHz band, so 5 GHz can be better for some applications even though it has shorter range due to the higher frequency. All of the transmission methods also define multiple rates. The idea is that different rates can be used depending on the current conditions. If the wireless signal is weak, a low rate can be used. If the signal is clear, the highest rate can be used. This adjustment is called rate adaptation. Since the rates vary by a factor of 10 or more, good rate adaptation is important for good performance. Of course, since it is not needed for interoperability, the standards do not say how rate adap- tation should be done. The first transmission method we shall look at is 802.11b. It is a spread-spec- trum method that supports rates of 1, 2, 5.5, and 11 Mbps, though in practice the operating rate is nearly always 11 Mbps. It is similar to the CDMA system we
- 326. 302 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 examined in Sec. 2.5, except that there is only one spreading code that is shared by all users. Spreading is used to satisfy the FCC requirement that power be spread over the ISM band. The spreading sequence used by 201.11b is a Barker sequence. It has the property that its autocorrelation is low except when the se- quences are aligned. This property allows a receiver to lock onto the start of a transmission. To send at a rate of 1 Mbps, the Barker sequence is used with BPSK modulation to send 1 bit per 11 chips. The chips are transmitted at a rate of 11 Mchips/sec. To send at 2 Mbps, it is used with QPSK modulation to send 2 bits per 11 chips. The higher rates are different. These rates use a technique call- ed CCK (Complementary Code Keying) to construct codes instead of the Barker sequence. The 5.5-Mbps rate sends 4 bits in every 8-chip code, and the 11-Mbps rate sends 8 bits in every 8-chip code. Next we come to 802.11a, which supports rates up to 54 Mbps in the 5-GHz ISM band. You might have expected that 802.11a to come before 802.11b, but that was not the case. Although the 802.11a group was set up first, the 802.11b standard was approved first and its product got to market well ahead of the 802.11a products, partly because of the difficulty of operating in the higher 5-GHz band. The 802.11a method is based on OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) because OFDM uses the spectrum efficiently and resists wireless signal degradations such as multipath. Bits are sent over 52 subcarriers in paral- lel, 48 carrying data and 4 used for synchronization. Each symbol lasts 4μs and sends 1, 2, 4, or 6 bits. The bits are coded for error correction with a binary con- volutional code first, so only 1/2, 2/3, or 3/4 of the bits are not redundant. With different combinations, 802.11a can run at eight different rates, ranging from 6 to 54 Mbps. These rates are significantly faster than 802.11b rates, and there is less interference in the 5-GHz band. However, 802.11b has a range that is about seven times greater than that of 802.11a, which is more important in many situations. Even with the greater range, the 802.11b people had no intention of letting this upstart win the speed championship. Fortunately, in May 2002, the FCC dropped its long-standing rule requiring all wireless communications equipment operating in the ISM bands in the U.S. to use spread spectrum, so it got to work on 802.11g, which was approved by IEEE in 2003. It copies the OFDM modula- tion methods of 802.11a but operates in the narrow 2.4-GHz ISM band along with 802.11b. It offers the same rates as 802.11a (6 to 54 Mbps) plus of course compa- tibility with any 802.11b devices that happen to be nearby. All of these different choices can be confusing for customers, so it is common for products to support 802.11a/b/g in a single NIC. Not content to stop there, the IEEE committee began work on a high-through- put physical layer called 802.11n. It was ratified in 2009. The goal for 802.11n was throughput of at least 100 Mbps after all the wireless overheads were re- moved. This goal called for a raw speed increase of at least a factor of four. To make it happen, the committee doubled the channels from 20 MHz to 40 MHz and
- 327. SEC. 4.4 WIRELESS LANS 303 reduced framing overheads by allowing a group of frames to be sent together. More significantly, however, 802.11n uses up to four antennas to transmit up to four streams of information at the same time. The signals of the streams interfere at the receiver, but they can be separated using MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) communications techniques. The use of multiple antennas gives a large speed boost, or better range and reliability instead. MIMO, like OFDM, is one of those clever communications ideas that is changing wireless designs and which we are all likely to hear a lot about in the future. For a brief introduction to multi- ple antennas in 802.11 see Halperin et al. (2010). 4.4.3 The 802.11 MAC Sublayer Protocol Let us now return from the land of electrical engineering to the land of com- puter science. The 802.11 MAC sublayer protocol is quite different from that of Ethernet, due to two factors that are fundamental to wireless communication. First, radios are nearly always half duplex, meaning that they cannot transmit and listen for noise bursts at the same time on a single frequency. The received signal can easily be a million times weaker than the transmitted signal, so it can- not be heard at the same time. With Ethernet, a station just waits until the ether goes silent and then starts transmitting. If it does not receive a noise burst back while transmitting the first 64 bytes, the frame has almost assuredly been deliv- ered correctly. With wireless, this collision detection mechanism does not work. Instead, 802.11 tries to avoid collisions with a protocol called CSMA/CA (CSMA with Collision Avoidance). This protocol is conceptually similar to Ethernet’s CSMA/CD, with channel sensing before sending and exponential back off after collisions. However, a station that has a frame to send starts with a ran- dom backoff (except in the case that it has not used the channel recently and the channel is idle). It does not wait for a collision. The number of slots to backoff is chosen in the range 0 to, say, 15 in the case of the OFDM physical layer. The sta- tion waits until the channel is idle, by sensing that there is no signal for a short period of time (called the DIFS, as we explain below), and counts down idle slots, pausing when frames are sent. It sends its frame when the counter reaches 0. If the frame gets through, the destination immediately sends a short acknowledge- ment. Lack of an acknowledgement is inferred to indicate an error, whether a col- lision or otherwise. In this case, the sender doubles the backoff period and tries again, continuing with exponential backoff as in Ethernet until the frame has been successfully transmitted or the maximum number of retransmissions has been reached. An example timeline is shown in Fig. 4-25. Station A is the first to send a frame. While A is sending, stations B and C become ready to send. They see that the channel is busy and wait for it to become idle. Shortly after A receives an ac- knowledgement, the channel goes idle. However, rather than sending a frame right away and colliding, B and C both perform a backoff. C picks a short backoff,
- 328. 304 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 and thus sends first. B pauses its countdown while it senses that C is using the channel, and resumes after C has received an acknowledgement. B soon com- pletes its backoff and sends its frame. Station A B C Time Data Wait for idle Backoff Rest of backoff Ack A sends to D B ready to send D acks A C sends to D D acks C B sends to D D acks B Data Ack Data Ack Wait for idle Wait for idle Backoff C ready to send Figure 4-25. Sending a frame with CSMA/CA. Compared to Ethernet, there are two main differences. First, starting backoffs early helps to avoid collisions. This avoidance is worthwhile because collisions are expensive, as the entire frame is transmitted even if one occurs. Second, ac- knowledgements are used to infer collisions because collisions cannot be detected. This mode of operation is called DCF (Distributed Coordination Function) because each station acts independently, without any kind of central control. The standard also includes an optional mode of operation called PCF (Point Coordi- nation Function) in which the access point controls all activity in its cell, just like a cellular base station. However, PCF is not used in practice because there is normally no way to prevent stations in another nearby network from transmitting competing traffic. The second problem is that the transmission ranges of different stations may be different. With a wire, the system is engineered so that all stations can hear each other. With the complexities of RF propagation this situation does not hold for wireless stations. Consequently, situations such as the hidden terminal prob- lem mentioned earlier and illustrated again in Fig. 4-26(a) can arise. Since not all stations are within radio range of each other, transmissions going on in one part of a cell may not be received elsewhere in the same cell. In this example, station C is transmitting to station B. If A senses the channel, it will not hear anything and will falsely conclude that it may now start transmitting to B. This decision leads to a collision. The inverse situation is the exposed terminal problem, illustrated in Fig. 4- 26(b). Here, B wants to send to C, so it listens to the channel. When it hears a
- 329. SEC. 4.4 WIRELESS LANS 305 Range of C's radio A C B (a) A C Range of A's radio B (b) A wants to send to B but cannot hear that B is busy B wants to send to C but mistakenly thinks the transmission will fail C is transmitting A is transmitting Figure 4-26. (a) The hidden terminal problem. (b) The exposed terminal problem. transmission, it falsely concludes that it may not send to C, even though A may in fact be transmitting to D (not shown). This decision wastes a transmission oppor- tunity. To reduce ambiguities about which station is sending, 802.11 defines channel sensing to consist of both physical sensing and virtual sensing. Physical sensing simply checks the medium to see if there is a valid signal. With virtual sensing, each station keeps a logical record of when the channel is in use by tracking the NAV (Network Allocation Vector). Each frame carries a NAV field that says how long the sequence of which this frame is part will take to complete. Stations that overhear this frame know that the channel will be busy for the period indi- cated by the NAV, regardless of whether they can sense a physical signal. For ex- ample, the NAV of a data frame includes the time needed to send an acknowledge- ment. All stations that hear the data frame will defer during the acknowledgement period, whether or not they can hear the acknowledgement. An optional RTS/CTS mechanism uses the NAV to prevent terminals from sending frames at the same time as hidden terminals. It is shown in Fig. 4-27. In this example, A wants to send to B. C is a station within range of A (and possibly within range of B, but that does not matter). D is a station within range of B but not within range of A. The protocol starts when A decides it wants to send data to B. A begins by sending an RTS frame to B to request permission to send it a frame. If B receives this request, it answers with a CTS frame to indicate that the channel is clear to send. Upon receipt of the CTS, A sends its frame and starts an ACK timer. Upon correct receipt of the data frame, B responds with an ACK frame, completing the exchange. If A’s ACK timer expires before the ACK gets back to it, it is treated as a collision and the whole protocol is run again after a backoff.
- 330. 306 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 RTS Data A CTS ACK B C D NAV NAV Time Figure 4-27. Virtual channel sensing using CSMA/CA. Now let us consider this exchange from the viewpoints of C and D. C is with- in range of A, so it may receive the RTS frame. If it does, it realizes that someone is going to send data soon. From the information provided in the RTS request, it can estimate how long the sequence will take, including the final ACK. So, for the good of all, it desists from transmitting anything until the exchange is completed. It does so by updating its record of the NAV to indicate that the channel is busy, as shown in Fig. 4-27. D does not hear the RTS, but it does hear the CTS, so it also updates its NAV. Note that the NAV signals are not transmitted; they are just in- ternal reminders to keep quiet for a certain period of time. However, while RTS/CTS sounds good in theory, it is one of those designs that has proved to be of little value in practice. Several reasons why it is seldom used are known. It does not help for short frames (which are sent in place of the RTS) or for the AP (which everyone can hear, by definition). For other situations, it only slows down operation. RTS/CTS in 802.11 is a little different than in the MACA protocol we saw in Sec 4.2 because everyone hearing the RTS or CTS remains quiet for the duration to allow the ACK to get through without collision. Because of this, it does not help with exposed terminals as MACA did, only with hidden terminals. Most often there are few hidden terminals, and CSMA/CA al- ready helps them by slowing down stations that transmit unsuccessfully, whatever the cause, to make it more likely that transmissions will succeed. CSMA/CA with physical and virtual sensing is the core of the 802.11 proto- col. However, there are several other mechanisms that have been developed to go with it. Each of these mechanisms was driven by the needs of real operation, so we will look at them briefly. The first need we will look at is reliability. In contrast to wired networks, wireless networks are noisy and unreliable, in no small part due to interference from other kinds of devices, such as microwave ovens, which also use the unli- censed ISM bands. The use of acknowledgements and retransmissions is of little help if the probability of getting a frame through is small in the first place.
- 331. SEC. 4.4 WIRELESS LANS 307 The main strategy that is used to increase successful transmissions is to lower the transmission rate. Slower rates use more robust modulations that are more likely to be received correctly for a given signal-to-noise ratio. If too many frames are lost, a station can lower the rate. If frames are delivered with little loss, a station can occasionally test a higher rate to see if it should be used. Another strategy to improve the chance of the frame getting through undam- aged is to send shorter frames. If the probability of any bit being in error is p, the probability of an n-bit frame being received entirely correctly is (1 − p)n . For ex- ample, for p = 10−4 , the probability of receiving a full Ethernet frame (12,144 bits) correctly is less than 30%. Most frames will be lost. But if the frames are only a third as long (4048 bits) two thirds of them will be received correctly. Now most frames will get through and fewer retransmissions will be needed. Shorter frames can be implemented by reducing the maximum size of the message that is accepted from the network layer. Alternatively, 802.11 allows frames to be split into smaller pieces, called fragments, each with its own check- sum. The fragment size is not fixed by the standard, but is a parameter that can be adjusted by the AP. The fragments are individually numbered and acknowledged using a stop-and-wait protocol (i.e., the sender may not transmit fragment k + 1 until it has received the acknowledgement for fragment k). Once the channel has been acquired, multiple fragments are sent as a burst. They go one after the other with an acknowledgement (and possibly retransmissions) in between, until either the whole frame has been successfully sent or the transmission time reaches the maximum allowed. The NAV mechanism keeps other stations quiet only until the next acknowledgement, but another mechanism (see below) is used to allow a burst of fragments to be sent without other stations sending a frame in the middle. The second need we will discuss is saving power. Battery life is always an issue with mobile wireless devices. The 802.11 standard pays attention to the issue of power management so that clients need not waste power when they have neither information to send nor to receive. The basic mechanism for saving power builds on beacon frames. Beacons are periodic broadcasts by the AP (e.g., every 100 msec). The frames advertise the presence of the AP to clients and carry system parameters, such as the identi- fier of the AP, the time, how long until the next beacon, and security settings. Clients can set a power-management bit in frames that they send to the AP to tell it that they are entering power-save mode. In this mode, the client can doze and the AP will buffer traffic intended for it. To check for incoming traffic, the client wakes up for every beacon, and checks a traffic map that is sent as part of the beacon. This map tells the client if there is buffered traffic. If so, the client sends a poll message to the AP, which then sends the buffered traffic. The client can then go back to sleep until the next beacon is sent. Another power-saving mechanism, called APSD (Automatic Power Save Delivery), was also added to 802.11 in 2005. With this new mechanism, the AP buffers frames and sends them to a client just after the client sends frames to the
- 332. 308 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 AP. The client can then go to sleep until it has more traffic to send (and receive). This mechanism works well for applications such as VoIP that have frequent traf- fic in both directions. For example, a VoIP wireless phone might use it to send and receive frames every 20 msec, much more frequently than the beacon interval of 100 msec, while dozing in between. The third and last need we will examine is quality of service. When the VoIP traffic in the preceding example competes with peer-to-peer traffic, the VoIP traf- fic will suffer. It will be delayed due to contention with the high-bandwidth peer-to-peer traffic, even though the VoIP bandwidth is low. These delays are likely to degrade the voice calls. To prevent this degradation, we would like to let the VoIP traffic go ahead of the peer-to-peer traffic, as it is of higher priority. IEEE 802.11 has a clever mechanism to provide this kind of quality of service that was introduced as set of extensions under the name 802.11e in 2005. It works by extending CSMA/CA with carefully defined intervals between frames. After a frame has been sent, a certain amount of idle time is required before any station may send a frame to check that the channel is no longer in use. The trick is to define different time intervals for different kinds of frames. Five intervals are depicted in Fig. 4-28. The interval between regular data frames is called the DIFS (DCF InterFrame Spacing). Any station may attempt to acquire the channel to send a new frame after the medium has been idle for DIFS. The usual contention rules apply, and binary exponential backoff may be needed if a collision occurs. The shortest interval is SIFS (Short InterFrame Spacing). It is used to allow the parties in a single dialog the chance to go first. Examples include letting the receiver send an ACK, other control frame sequences like RTS and CTS, or letting a sender transmit a burst of fragments. Sending the next fragment after waiting only SIFS is what prevents another station from jump- ing in with a frame in the middle of the exchange. ACK SIFS AIFS1 DIFS EIFS AIFS4 Control frame or next fragment may be sent here High-priority frame here Regular DCF frame here Low-priority frame here Bad frame recovery done Time Figure 4-28. Interframe spacing in 802.11. The two AIFS (Arbitration InterFrame Space) intervals show examples of two different priority levels. The short interval, AIFS1, is smaller than DIFS but longer than SIFS. It can be used by the AP to move voice or other high-priority
- 333. SEC. 4.4 WIRELESS LANS 309 traffic to the head of the line. The AP will wait for a shorter interval before it sends the voice traffic, and thus send it before regular traffic. The long interval, AIFS4, is larger than DIFS. It is used for background traffic that can be deferred until after regular traffic. The AP will wait for a longer interval before it sends this traffic, giving regular traffic the opportunity to transmit first. The complete quality of service mechanism defines four different priority levels that have dif- ferent backoff parameters as well as different idle parameters. The last time interval, EIFS (Extended InterFrame Spacing), is used only by a station that has just received a bad or unknown frame, to report the problem. The idea is that since the receiver may have no idea of what is going on, it should wait a while to avoid interfering with an ongoing dialog between two stations. A further part of the quality of service extensions is the notion of a TXOP or transmission opportunity. The original CSMA/CA mechanism let stations send one frame at a time. This design was fine until the range of rates increased. With 802.11a/g, one station might be sending at 6 Mbps and another station be sending at 54 Mbps. They each get to send one frame, but the 6-Mbps station takes nine times as long (ignoring fixed overheads) as the 54-Mbps station to send its frame. This disparity has the unfortunate side effect of slowing down a fast sender who is competing with a slow sender to roughly the rate of the slow sender. For example, again ignoring fixed overheads, when sending alone the 6-Mbps and 54-Mbps senders will get their own rates, but when sending together they will both get 5.4 Mbps on average. It is a stiff penalty for the fast sender. This issue is known as the rate anomaly (Heusse et al., 2003). With transmission opportunities, each station gets an equal amount of airtime, not an equal number of frames. Stations that send at a higher rate for their airtime will get higher throughput. In our example, when sending together the 6-Mbps and 54-Mbps senders will now get 3 Mbps and 27 Mbps, respectively. 4.4.4 The 802.11 Frame Structure The 802.11 standard defines three different classes of frames in the air: data, control, and management. Each of these has a header with a variety of fields used within the MAC sublayer. In addition, there are some headers used by the physi- cal layer, but these mostly deal with the modulation techniques used, so we will not discuss them here. We will look at the format of the data frame as an example. It is shown in Fig. 4-29. First comes the Frame control field, which is made up of 11 subfields. The first of these is the Protocol version, set to 00. It is there to allow future ver- sions of 802.11 to operate at the same time in the same cell. Then come the Type (data, control, or management) and Subtype fields (e.g., RTS or CTS). For a regu- lar data frame (without quality of service), they are set to 10 and 0000 in binary. The To DS and From DS bits are set to indicate whether the frame is going to or coming from the network connected to the APs, which is called the distribution
- 334. 310 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 system. The More fragments bit means that more fragments will follow. The Retry bit marks a retransmission of a frame sent earlier. The Power management bit indicates that the sender is going into power-save mode. The More data bit in- dicates that the sender has additional frames for the receiver. The Protected Frame bit indicates that the frame body has been encrypted for security. We will discuss security briefly in the next section. Finally, the Order bit tells the receiver that the higher layer expects the sequence of frames to arrive strictly in order. Bytes 2 2 2 0–2312 Sequence Address 1 (recipient) Duration Data Frame control Check sequence 4 6 6 6 Address 2 (transmitter) Address 3 2 2 1 1 Subtype = 0000 Type = 10 Version = 00 4 1 To DS From DS More frag. Retry Pwr. mgt. More data Protected Order 1 1 1 1 1 Bits Figure 4-29. Format of the 802.11 data frame. The second field of the data frame, the Duration field, tells how long the frame and its acknowledgement will occupy the channel, measured in microsec- onds. It is present in all types of frames, including control frames, and is what stations use to manage the NAV mechanism. Next come addresses. Data frames sent to or from an AP have three ad- dresses, all in standard IEEE 802 format. The first address is the receiver, and the second address is the transmitter. They are obviously needed, but what is the third address for? Remember that the AP is simply a relay point for frames as they travel between a client and another point on the network, perhaps a distant client or a portal to the Internet. The third address gives this distant endpoint. The Sequence field numbers frames so that duplicates can be detected. Of the 16 bits available, 4 identify the fragment and 12 carry a number that is advanced with each new transmission. The Data field contains the payload, up to 2312 bytes. The first bytes of this payload are in a format known as LLC (Logical Link Control). This layer is the glue that identifies the higher-layer protocol (e.g., IP) to which the payloads should be passed. Last comes the Frame check sequence, which is the same 32-bit CRC we saw in Sec. 3.2.2 and elsewhere. Management frames have the same format as data frames, plus a format for the data portion that varies with the subtype (e.g., parameters in beacon frames). Control frames are short. Like all frames, they have the Frame control, Duration, and Frame check sequence fields. However, they may have only one address and no data portion. Most of the key information is conveyed with the Subtype field (e.g., ACK, RTS and CTS).
- 335. SEC. 4.4 WIRELESS LANS 311 4.4.5 Services The 802.11 standard defines the services that the clients, the access points, and the network connecting them must be a conformant wireless LAN. These ser- vices cluster into several groups. The association service is used by mobile stations to connect themselves to APs. Typically, it is used just after a station moves within radio range of the AP. Upon arrival, the station learns the identity and capabilities of the AP, either from beacon frames or by directly asking the AP. The capabilities include the data rates supported, security arrangements, power-saving capabilities, quality of service support, and more. The station sends a request to associate with the AP. The AP may accept or reject the request. Reassociation lets a station change its preferred AP. This facility is useful for mobile stations moving from one AP to another AP in the same extended 802.11 LAN, like a handover in the cellular network. If it is used correctly, no data will be lost as a consequence of the handover. (But 802.11, like Ethernet, is just a best-effort service.) Either the station or the AP may also disassociate, breaking their relationship. A station should use this service before shutting down or leaving the network. The AP may use it before going down for maintenance. Stations must also authenticate before they can send frames via the AP, but authentication is handled in different ways depending on the choice of security scheme. If the 802.11 network is ‘‘open,’’ anyone is allowed to use it. Otherwise, credentials are needed to authenticate. The recommended scheme, called WPA2 (WiFi Protected Access 2), implements security as defined in the 802.11i stan- dard. (Plain WPA is an interim scheme that implements a subset of 802.11i. We will skip it and go straight to the complete scheme.) With WPA2, the AP can talk to an authentication server that has a username and password database to deter- mine if the station is allowed to access the network. Alternatively a pre-shared key, which is a fancy name for a network password, may be configured. Several frames are exchanged between the station and the AP with a challenge and re- sponse that lets the station prove it has the right credentials. This exchange hap- pens after association. The scheme that was used before WPA is called WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy). For this scheme, authentication with a preshared key happens before association. However, its use is discouraged because of design flaws that make WEP easy to compromise. The first practical demonstration that WEP was bro- ken came when Adam Stubblefield was a summer intern at AT&T (Stubblefield et al., 2002). He was able to code up and test an attack in one week, much of which was spent getting permission from management to buy the WiFi cards needed for experiments. Software to crack WEP passwords is now freely available. Once frames reach the AP, the distribution service determines how to route them. If the destination is local to the AP, the frames can be sent out directly over the air. Otherwise, they will have to be forwarded over the wired network. The
- 336. 312 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 integration service handles any translation that is needed for a frame to be sent outside the 802.11 LAN, or to arrive from outside the 802.11 LAN. The common case here is connecting the wireless LAN to the Internet. Data transmission is what it is all about, so 802.11 naturally provides a data delivery service. This service lets stations transmit and receive data using the protocols we described earlier in this chapter. Since 802.11 is modeled on Ether- net and transmission over Ethernet is not guaranteed to be 100% reliable, trans- mission over 802.11 is not guaranteed to be reliable either. Higher layers must deal with detecting and correcting errors. Wireless is a broadcast signal. For information sent over a wireless LAN to be kept confidential, it must be encrypted. This goal is accomplished with a pri- vacy service that manages the details of encryption and decryption. The encryp- tion algorithm for WPA2 is based on AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), a U.S. government standard approved in 2002. The keys that are used for en- cryption are determined during the authentication procedure. To handle traffic with different priorities, there is a QOS traffic scheduling service. It uses the protocols we described to give voice and video traffic pre- ferential treatment compared to best-effort and background traffic. A companion service also provides higher-layer timer synchronization. This lets stations coordi- nate their actions, which may be useful for media processing. Finally, there are two services that help stations manage their use of the spec- trum. The transmit power control service gives stations the information they need to meet regulatory limits on transmit power that vary from region to region. The dynamic frequency selection service give stations the information they need to avoid transmitting on frequencies in the 5-GHz band that are being used for radar in the proximity. With these services, 802.11 provides a rich set of functionality for connecting nearby mobile clients to the Internet. It has been a huge success, and the standard has repeatedly been amended to add more functionality. For a perspective on where the standard has been and where it is heading, see Hiertz et al. (2010). 4.5 BROADBAND WIRELESS We have been indoors too long. Let us go outdoors, where there is quite a bit of interesting networking over the so-called ‘‘last mile.’’ With the deregulation of the telephone systems in many countries, competitors to the entrenched telephone companies are now often allowed to offer local voice and high-speed Internet ser- vice. There is certainly plenty of demand. The problem is that running fiber or coax to millions of homes and businesses is prohibitively expensive. What is a competitor to do? The answer is broadband wireless. Erecting a big antenna on a hill just out- side of town is much easier and cheaper than digging many trenches and stringing
- 337. SEC. 4.5 BROADBAND WIRELESS 313 cables. Thus, companies have begun to experiment with providing multimegabit wireless communication services for voice, Internet, movies on demand, etc. To stimulate the market, IEEE formed a group to standardize a broadband wireless metropolitan area network. The next number available in the 802 num- bering space was 802.16, so the standard got this number. Informally the technol- ogy is called WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access). We will use the terms 802.16 and WiMAX interchangeably. The first 802.16 standard was approved in December 2001. Early versions provided a wireless local loop between fixed points with a line of sight to each other. This design soon changed to make WiMAX a more competitive alternative to cable and DSL for Internet access. By January 2003, 802.16 had been revised to support non-line-of-sight links by using OFDM technology at frequencies be- tween 2 GHz and 10 GHz. This change made deployment much easier, though stations were still fixed locations. The rise of 3G cellular networks posed a threat by promising high data rates and mobility. In response, 802.16 was enhanced again to allow mobility at vehicular speeds by December 2005. Mobile broad- band Internet access is the target of the current standard, IEEE 802.16-2009. Like the other 802 standards, 802.16 was heavily influenced by the OSI model, including the (sub)layers, terminology, service primitives, and more. Un- fortunately, also like OSI, it is fairly complicated. In fact, the WiMAX Forum was created to define interoperable subsets of the standard for commercial offer- ings. In the following sections, we will give a brief description of some of the highlights of the common forms of 802.16 air interface, but this treatment is far from complete and leaves out many details. For additional information about WiMAX and broadband wireless in general, see Andrews et al. (2007). 4.5.1 Comparison of 802.16 with 802.11 and 3G At this point you may be thinking: why devise a new standard? Why not just use 802.11 or 3G? In fact, WiMAX combines aspects of both 802.11 and 3G, making it more like a 4G technology. Like 802.11, WiMAX is all about wirelessly connecting devices to the Inter- net at megabit/sec speeds, instead of using cable or DSL. The devices may be mobile, or at least portable. WiMAX did not start by adding low-rate data on the side of voice-like cellular networks; 802.16 was designed to carry IP packets over the air and to connect to an IP-based wired network with a minimum of fuss. The packets may carry peer-to-peer traffic, VoIP calls, or streaming media to support a range of applications. Also like 802.11, it is based on OFDM technology to ensure good performance in spite of wireless signal degradations such as mul- tipath fading, and on MIMO technology to achieve high levels of throughput. However, WiMAX is more like 3G (and thus unlike 802.11) in several key re- spects. The key technical problem is to achieve high capacity by the efficient use of spectrum, so that a large number of subscribers in a coverage area can all get
- 338. 314 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 high throughput. The typical distances are at least 10 times larger than for an 802.11 network. Consequently, WiMAX base stations are more powerful than 802.11 Access Points (APs). To handle weaker signals over larger distances, the base station uses more power and better antennas, and it performs more proc- essing to handle errors. To maximize throughput, transmissions are carefully scheduled by the base station for each particular subscriber; spectrum use is not left to chance with CSMA/CA, which may waste capacity with collisions. Licensed spectrum is the expected case for WiMAX, typically around 2.5 GHz in the U.S. The whole system is substantially more optimized than 802.11. This complexity is worth it, considering the large amount of money involved for licensed spectrum. Unlike 802.11, the result is a managed and reliable service with good support for quality of service. With all of these features, 802.16 most closely resembles the 4G cellular net- works that are now being standardized under the name LTE (Long Term Evolu- tion). While 3G cellular networks are based on CDMA and support voice and data, 4G cellular networks will be based on OFDM with MIMO, and they will tar- get data, with voice as just one application. It looks like WiMAX and 4G are on a collision course in terms of technology and applications. Perhaps this conver- gence is unsurprising, given that the Internet is the killer application and OFDM and MIMO are the best-known technologies for efficiently using the spectrum. 4.5.2 The 802.16 Architecture and Protocol Stack The 802.16 architecture is shown in Fig. 4-30. Base stations connect directly to the provider’s backbone network, which is in turn connected to the Internet. The base stations communicate with stations over the wireless air interface. Two kinds of stations exist. Subscriber stations remain in a fixed location, for example, broadband Internet access for homes. Mobile stations can receive service while they are moving, for example, a car equipped with WiMAX. The 802.16 protocol stack that is used across the air interface is shown in Fig. 4-31. The general structure is similar to that of the other 802 networks, but with more sublayers. The bottom layer deals with transmission, and here we have shown only the popular offerings of 802.16, fixed and mobile WiMAX. There is a different physical layer for each offering. Both layers operate in licensed spec- trum below 11 GHz and use OFDM, but in different ways. Above the physical layer, the data link layer consists of three sublayers. The bottom one deals with privacy and security, which is far more crucial for public outdoor networks than for private indoor networks. It manages encryption, de- cryption, and key management. Next comes the MAC common sublayer part. This part is where the main protocols, such as channel management, are located. The model here is that the base station completely controls the system. It can schedule the downlink (i.e., base to subscriber) channels very efficiently and plays a major role in managing
- 339. SEC. 4.5 BROADBAND WIRELESS 315 Base station Mobile stations Subscriber stations Backbone network (to Internet) Air interface Figure 4-30. The 802.16 architecture. “Fixed WiMAX” OFDM (802.16a) “Mobile WiMAX” Scalable OFDMA (802.16e) Service specific convergence sublayer Release date: 2003 2005 Upper layers Data link layer Physical layer MAC common sublayer Security sublayer IP, for example Figure 4-31. The 802.16 protocol stack. the uplink (i.e., subscriber to base) channels as well. An unusual feature of this MAC sublayer is that, unlike those of the other 802 protocols, it is completely connection oriented, in order to provide quality of service guarantees for tele- phony and multimedia communication. The service-specific convergence sublayer takes the place of the logical link sublayer in the other 802 protocols. Its function is to provide an interface to the network layer. Different convergence layers are defined to integrate seamlessly with different upper layers. The important choice is IP, though the standard defines mappings for protocols such as Ethernet and ATM too. Since IP is con- nectionless and the 802.16 MAC sublayer is connection-oriented, this layer must map between addresses and connections.
- 340. 316 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 4.5.3 The 802.16 Physical Layer Most WiMAX deployments use licensed spectrum around either 3.5 GHz or 2.5 GHz. As with 3G, finding available spectrum is a key problem. To help, the 802.16 standard is designed for flexibility. It allows operation from 2 GHz to 11 GHz. Channels of different sizes are supported, for example, 3.5 MHz for fixed WiMAX and from 1.25 MHz to 20 MHz for mobile WiMAX. Transmissions are sent over these channels with OFDM, the technique we de- scribed in Sec. 2.5.3. Compared to 802.11, the 802.16 OFDM design is optimized to make the most out of licensed spectrum and wide area transmissions. The channel is divided into more subcarriers with a longer symbol duration to tolerate larger wireless signal degradations; WiMAX parameters are around 20 times larg- er than comparable 802.11 parameters. For example, in mobile WiMAX there are 512 subcarriers for a 5-MHz channel and the time to send a symbol on each subcarrier is roughly 100 μsec. Symbols on each subcarrier are sent with QPSK, QAM-16, or QAM-64, mod- ulation schemes we described in Sec. 2.5.3. When the mobile or subscriber sta- tion is near the base station and the received signal has a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), QAM-64 can be used to send 6 bits per symbol. To reach distant stations with a low SNR, QPSK can be used to deliver 2 bits per symbol. The data is first coded for error correction with the convolutional coding (or better schemes) that we described in Sec. 3.2.1. This coding is common on noisy channels to tolerate some bit errors without needing to send retransmissions. In fact, the modulation and coding methods should sound familiar by now as they are used for many net- works we have studied, including 802.11 cable, and DSL. The net result is that a base station can support up to 12.6 Mbps of downlink traffic and 6.2 Mbps of uplink traffic per 5-MHz channel and pair of antennas. One thing the designers of 802.16 did not like was a certain aspect of the way GSM and DAMPS work. Both of those systems use equal frequency bands for upstream and downstream traffic. That is, they implicitly assume there is as much upstream traffic as downstream traffic. For voice, traffic is symmetric for the most part, but for Internet access (and certainly Web surfing) there is often more downstream traffic than upstream traffic. The ratio is often 2:1, 3:1, or more:1. So, the designers chose a flexible scheme for dividing the channel between stations, called OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access). With OFDMA, different sets of subcarriers can be assigned to different stations, so that more than one station can send or receive at once. If this were 802.11, all subcarriers would be used by one station to send at any given moment. The added flexibility in how bandwidth is assigned can increase performance because a given subcarrier might be faded at one receiver due to multipath effects but clear at another. Subcarriers can be assigned to the stations that can use them best. As well as having asymmetric traffic, stations usually alternate between send- ing and receiving. This method is called TDD (Time Division Duplex). The
- 341. SEC. 4.5 BROADBAND WIRELESS 317 alternative method, in which a station sends and receives at the same time (on dif- ferent subcarrier frequencies), is called FDD (Frequency Division Duplex). WiMAX allows both methods, but TDD is preferred because it is easier to imple- ment and more flexible. Guard Ranging Burst Burst Burst Burst Burst Burst Burst Burst Downlink map Uplink map Preamble Time Subcarrier Uplink Downlink Next frame Last frame Figure 4-32. Frame structure for OFDMA with time division duplexing. Fig. 4-32 shows an example of the frame structure that is repeated over time. It starts with a preamble to synchronize all stations, followed by downlink trans- missions from the base station. First, the base station sends maps that tell all sta- tions how the downlink and uplink subcarriers are assigned over the frame. The base station controls the maps, so it can allocate different amounts of bandwidth to stations from frame to frame depending on the needs of each station. Next, the base station sends bursts of traffic to different subscriber and mobile stations on the subcarriers at the times given in the map. The downlink transmis- sions end with a guard time for stations to switch from receiving to transmitting. Finally, the subscriber and mobile stations send their bursts of traffic to the base station in the uplink positions that were reserved for them in the map. One of these uplink bursts is reserved for ranging, which is the process by which new stations adjust their timing and request initial bandwidth to connect to the base station. Since no connection is set up at this stage, new stations just transmit and hope there is no collision. 4.5.4 The 802.16 MAC Sublayer Protocol The data link layer is divided into three sublayers, as we saw in Fig. 4-31. Since we will not study cryptography until Chap. 8, it is difficult to explain now how the security sublayer works. Suffice it to say that encryption is used to keep secret all data transmitted. Only the frame payloads are encrypted; the headers
- 342. 318 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 are not. This property means that a snooper can see who is talking to whom but cannot tell what they are saying to each other. If you already know something about cryptography, what follows is a one- paragraph explanation of the security sublayer. If you know nothing about crypto- graphy, you are not likely to find the next paragraph terribly enlightening (but you might consider rereading it after finishing Chap. 8). When a subscriber connects to a base station, they perform mutual authentica- tion with RSA public-key cryptography using X.509 certificates. The payloads themselves are encrypted using a symmetric-key system, either AES (Rijndael) or DES with cipher block chaining. Integrity checking uses SHA-1. Now that was not so bad, was it? Let us now look at the MAC common sublayer part. The MAC sublayer is connection-oriented and point-to-multipoint, which means that one base station communicates with multiple subscriber stations. Much of this design is borrowed from cable modems, in which one cable headend controls the transmissions of multiple cable modems at the customer premises. The downlink direction is fairly straightforward. The base station controls the physical-layer bursts that are used to send information to the different subscriber stations. The MAC sublayer simply packs its frames into this structure. To reduce overhead, there are several different options. For example, MAC frames may be sent individually, or packed back-to-back into a group. The uplink channel is more complicated since there are competing subscribers that need access to it. Its allocation is tied closely to the quality of service issue. Four classes of service are defined, as follows: 1. Constant bit rate service. 2. Real-time variable bit rate service. 3. Non-real-time variable bit rate service. 4. Best-effort service. All service in 802.16 is connection-oriented. Each connection gets one of these service classes, determined when the connection is set up. This design is different from that of 802.11 or Ethernet, which are connectionless in the MAC sublayer. Constant bit rate service is intended for transmitting uncompressed voice. This service needs to send a predetermined amount of data at predetermined time intervals. It is accommodated by dedicating certain bursts to each connection of this type. Once the bandwidth has been allocated, the bursts are available auto- matically, without the need to ask for each one. Real-time variable bit rate service is for compressed multimedia and other soft real-time applications in which the amount of bandwidth needed at each in- stant may vary. It is accommodated by the base station polling the subscriber at a fixed interval to ask how much bandwidth is needed this time.
- 343. SEC. 4.5 BROADBAND WIRELESS 319 Non-real-time variable bit rate service is for heavy transmissions that are not real time, such as large file transfers. For this service, the base station polls the subscriber often, but not at rigidly prescribed time intervals. Connections with this service can also use best-effort service, described next, to request bandwidth. Best-effort service is for everything else. No polling is done and the sub- scriber must contend for bandwidth with other best-effort subscribers. Requests for bandwidth are sent in bursts marked in the uplink map as available for con- tention. If a request is successful, its success will be noted in the next downlink map. If it is not successful, the unsuccessful subscriber have to try again later. To minimize collisions, the Ethernet binary exponential backoff algorithm is used. 4.5.5 The 802.16 Frame Structure All MAC frames begin with a generic header. The header is followed by an optional payload and an optional checksum (CRC), as illustrated in Fig. 4-33. The payload is not needed in control frames, for example, those requesting chan- nel slots. The checksum is (surprisingly) also optional, due to the error correction in the physical layer and the fact that no attempt is ever made to retransmit real- time frames. If no retransmissions will be attempted, why even bother with a checksum? But if there is a checksum, it is the standard IEEE 802 CRC, and ac- knowledgements and retransmissions are used for reliability. Bits (a) (b) Type Length 0 1 0 Type Bytes needed EK E C C I Connection ID Data CRC Header CRC Connection ID Header CRC 1 1 6 16 16 8 1 1 1 1 1 2 6 11 16 8 4 Bits Figure 4-33. (a) A generic frame. (b) A bandwidth request frame. A quick rundown of the header fields of Fig. 4-33(a) follows. The EC bit tells whether the payload is encrypted. The Type field identifies the frame type, mostly telling whether packing and fragmentation are present. The CI field indi- cates the presence or absence of the final checksum. The EK field tells which of the encryption keys is being used (if any). The Length field gives the complete length of the frame, including the header. The Connection identifier tells which connection this frame belongs to. Finally, the Header CRC field is a checksum over the header only, using the polynomial x8 + x2 + x + 1. The 802.16 protocol has many kinds of frames. An example of a different type of frame, one that is used to request bandwidth, is shown in Fig. 4-33(b). It
- 344. 320 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 starts with a 1 bit instead of a 0 bit and is otherwise similar to the generic header except that the second and third bytes form a 16-bit number telling how much bandwidth is needed to carry the specified number of bytes. Bandwidth request frames do not carry a payload or full-frame CRC. A great deal more could be said about 802.16, but this is not the place to say it. For more information, please consult the IEEE 802.16-2009 standard itself. 4.6 BLUETOOTH In 1994, the L. M. Ericsson company became interested in connecting its mobile phones to other devices (e.g., laptops) without cables. Together with four other companies (IBM, Intel, Nokia, and Toshiba), it formed a SIG (Special Inter- est Group, i.e., consortium) in 1998 to develop a wireless standard for intercon- necting computing and communication devices and accessories using short-range, low-power, inexpensive wireless radios. The project was named Bluetooth, after Harald Blaatand (Bluetooth) II (940–981), a Viking king who unified (i.e., con- quered) Denmark and Norway, also without cables. Bluetooth 1.0 was released in July 1999, and since then the SIG has never looked back. All manner of consumer electronic devices now use Bluetooth, from mobile phones and laptops to headsets, printers, keyboards, mice, gameboxes, watches, music players, navigation units, and more. The Bluetooth protocols let these devices find and connect to each other, an act called pairing, and securely transfer data. The protocols have evolved over the past decade, too. After the initial proto- cols stabilized, higher data rates were added to Bluetooth 2.0 in 2004. With the 3.0 release in 2009, Bluetooth can be used for device pairing in combination with 802.11 for high-throughput data transfer. The 4.0 release in December 2009 spec- ified low-power operation. That will be handy for people who do not want to change the batteries regularly in all of those devices around the house. We will cover the main aspects of Bluetooth below. 4.6.1 Bluetooth Architecture Let us start our study of the Bluetooth system with a quick overview of what it contains and what it is intended to do. The basic unit of a Bluetooth system is a piconet, which consists of a master node and up to seven active slave nodes with- in a distance of 10 meters. Multiple piconets can exist in the same (large) room and can even be connected via a bridge node that takes part in multiple piconets, as in Fig. 4-34. An interconnected collection of piconets is called a scatternet. In addition to the seven active slave nodes in a piconet, there can be up to 255 parked nodes in the net. These are devices that the master has switched to a low- power state to reduce the drain on their batteries. In parked state, a device cannot
- 345. SEC. 4.6 BLUETOOTH 321 S S S S S S S S S S S M M Bridge slave Parked slave Piconet 2 Piconet 1 Active slave Figure 4-34. Two piconets can be connected to form a scatternet. do anything except respond to an activation or beacon signal from the master. Two intermediate power states, hold and sniff, also exist, but these will not con- cern us here. The reason for the master/slave design is that the designers intended to facili- tate the implementation of complete Bluetooth chips for under $5. The conse- quence of this decision is that the slaves are fairly dumb, basically just doing whatever the master tells them to do. At its heart, a piconet is a centralized TDM system, with the master controlling the clock and determining which device gets to communicate in which time slot. All communication is between the master and a slave; direct slave-slave communication is not possible. 4.6.2 Bluetooth Applications Most network protocols just provide channels between communicating enti- ties and let application designers figure out what they want to use them for. For example, 802.11 does not specify whether users should use their notebook com- puters for reading email, surfing the Web, or something else. In contrast, the Bluetooth SIG specifies particular applications to be supported and provides dif- ferent protocol stacks for each one. At the time of writing, there are 25 applica- tions, which are called profiles. Unfortunately, this approach leads to a very large amount of complexity. We will omit the complexity here but will briefly look at the profiles to see more clearly what the Bluetooth SIG is trying to accomplish. Six of the profiles are for different uses of audio and video. For example, the intercom profile allows two telephones to connect as walkie-talkies. The headset and hands-free profiles both provide voice communication between a headset and its base station, as might be used for hands-free telephony while driving a car.
- 346. 322 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 Other profiles are for streaming stereo-quality audio and video, say, from a port- able music player to headphones, or from a digital camera to a TV. The human interface device profile is for connecting keyboards and mice to computers. Other profiles let a mobile phone or other computer receive images from a camera or send images to a printer. Perhaps of more interest is a profile to use a mobile phone as a remote control for a (Bluetooth-enabled) TV. Still other profiles enable networking. The personal area network profile lets Bluetooth devices form an ad hoc network or remotely access another network, such as an 802.11 LAN, via an access point. The dial-up networking profile was actually the original motivation for the whole project. It allows a notebook com- puter to connect to a mobile phone containing a built-in modem without using wires. Profiles for higher-layer information exchange have also been defined. The synchronization profile is intended for loading data into a mobile phone when it leaves home and collecting data from it when it returns. We will skip the rest of the profiles, except to mention that some profiles serve as building blocks on which the above profiles are built. The generic access profile, on which all of the other profiles are built, provides a way to establish and maintain secure links (channels) between the master and the slaves. The other generic profiles define the basics of object exchange and audio and video tran- sport. Utility profiles are used widely for functions such as emulating a serial line, which is especially useful for many legacy applications. Was it really necessary to spell out all these applications in detail and provide different protocol stacks for each one? Probably not, but there were a number of different working groups that devised different parts of the standard, and each one just focused on its specific problem and generated its own profile. Think of this as Conway’s Law in action. (In the April 1968 issue of Datamation magazine, Melvin Conway observed that if you assign n people to write a compiler, you will get an n-pass compiler, or more generally, the software structure mirrors the struc- ture of the group that produced it.) It would probably have been possible to get away with two protocol stacks instead of 25, one for file transfer and one for streaming real-time communication. 4.6.3 The Bluetooth Protocol Stack The Bluetooth standard has many protocols grouped loosely into the layers shown in Fig. 4-35. The first observation to make is that the structure does not follow the OSI model, the TCP/IP model, the 802 model, or any other model. The bottom layer is the physical radio layer, which corresponds fairly well to the physical layer in the OSI and 802 models. It deals with radio transmission and modulation. Many of the concerns here have to do with the goal of making the system inexpensive so that it can become a mass-market item.
- 347. SEC. 4.6 BLUETOOTH 323 Host-controller interface Upper layers Datalink layer Physical layer Radio Link control (Baseband) Link manager L2CAP Service discovery RFcomm Applications . . . Profile Profile Profile Figure 4-35. The Bluetooth protocol architecture. The link control (or baseband) layer is somewhat analogous to the MAC sub- layer but also includes elements of the physical layer. It deals with how the mas- ter controls time slots and how these slots are grouped into frames. Next come two protocols that use the link control protocol. The link manager handles the establishment of logical channels between devices, including power management, pairing and encryption, and quality of service. It lies below the host controller interface line. This interface is a convenience for implementation: typi- cally, the protocols below the line will be implemented on a Bluetooth chip, and the protocols above the line will be implemented on the Bluetooth device that hosts the chip. The link protocol above the line is L2CAP (Logical Link Control Adapta- tion Protocol). It frames variable-length messages and provides reliability if needed. Many protocols use L2CAP, such as the two utility protocols that are shown. The service discovery protocol is used to locate services within the net- work. The RFcomm (Radio Frequency communication) protocol emulates the standard serial port found on PCs for connecting the keyboard, mouse, and modem, among other devices. The top layer is where the applications are located. The profiles are repres- ented by vertical boxes because they each define a slice of the protocol stack for a particular purpose. Specific profiles, such as the headset profile, usually contain only those protocols needed by that application and no others. For example, pro- files may include L2CAP if they have packets to send but skip L2CAP if they have only a steady flow of audio samples. In the following sections, we will examine the Bluetooth radio layer and vari- ous link protocols, since these roughly correspond to the physical and MAC sublayers in the other procotol stacks we have studied.
- 348. 324 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 4.6.4 The Bluetooth Radio Layer The radio layer moves the bits from master to slave, or vice versa. It is a low-power system with a range of 10 meters operating in the same 2.4-GHz ISM band as 802.11. The band is divided into 79 channels of 1 MHz each. To coexist with other networks using the ISM band, frequency hopping spread spectrum is used. There can be up to 1600 hops/sec over slots with a dwell time of 625 μsec. All the nodes in a piconet hop frequencies simultaneously, following the slot tim- ing and pseudorandom hop sequence dictated by the master. Unfortunately, it turned out that early versions of Bluetooth and 802.11 inter- fered enough to ruin each other’s transmissions. Some companies responded by banning Bluetooth altogether, but eventually a technical solution was devised. The solution is for Bluetooth to adapt its hop sequence to exclude channels on which there are other RF signals. This process reduces the harmful interference. It is called adaptive frequency hopping. Three forms of modulation are used to send bits on a channel. The basic scheme is to use frequency shift keying to send a 1-bit symbol every microsecond, giving a gross data rate of 1 Mbps. Enhanced rates were introduced with the 2.0 version of Bluetooth. These rates use phase shift keying to send either 2 or 3 bits per symbol, for gross data rates of 2 or 3 Mbps. The enhanced rates are only used in the data portion of frames. 4.6.5 The Bluetooth Link Layers The link control (or baseband) layer is the closest thing Bluetooth has to a MAC sublayer. It turns the raw bit stream into frames and defines some key for- mats. In the simplest form, the master in each piconet defines a series of 625- μsec time slots, with the master’s transmissions starting in the even slots and the slaves’ transmissions starting in the odd ones. This scheme is traditional time di- vision multiplexing, with the master getting half the slots and the slaves sharing the other half. Frames can be 1, 3, or 5 slots long. Each frame has an overhead of 126 bits for an access code and header, plus a settling time of 250–260 μsec per hop to allow the inexpensive radio circuits to become stable. The payload of the frame can be encrypted for confidentiality with a key that is chosen when the master and slave connect. Hops only happen between frames, not during a frame. The result is that a 5-slot frame is much more efficient than a 1-slot frame because the overhead is constant but more data is sent. The link manager protocol sets up logical channels, called links, to carry frames between the master and a slave device that have discovered each other. A pairing procedure is followed to make sure that the two devices are allowed to communicate before the link is used. The old pairing method is that both devices must be configured with the same four-digit PIN (Personal Identification Num- ber). The matching PIN is how each device would know that it was connecting to
- 349. SEC. 4.6 BLUETOOTH 325 the right remote device. However, unimaginative users and devices default to PINs such as ‘‘0000’’ and ‘‘1234’’ meant that this method provided very little se- curity in practice. The new secure simple pairing method enables users to confirm that both de- vices are displaying the same passkey, or to observe the passkey on one device and enter it into the second device. This method is more secure because users do not have to choose or set a PIN. They merely confirm a longer, device-generated passkey. Of course, it cannot be used on some devices with limited input/output, such as a hands-free headset. Once pairing is complete, the link manager protocol sets up the links. Two main kinds of links exist to carry user data. The first is the SCO (Synchronous Connection Oriented) link. It is used for real-time data, such as telephone con- nections. This type of link is allocated a fixed slot in each direction. A slave may have up to three SCO links with its master. Each SCO link can transmit one 64,000-bps PCM audio channel. Due to the time-critical nature of SCO links, frames sent over them are never retransmitted. Instead, forward error correction can be used to increase reliability. The other kind is the ACL (Asynchronous ConnectionLess) link. This type of link is used for packet-switched data that is available at irregular intervals. ACL traffic is delivered on a best-effort basis. No guarantees are given. Frames can be lost and may have to be retransmitted. A slave may have only one ACL link to its master. The data sent over ACL links come from the L2CAP layer. This layer has four major functions. First, it accepts packets of up to 64 KB from the upper lay- ers and breaks them into frames for transmission. At the far end, the frames are reassembled into packets. Second, it handles the multiplexing and demultiplexing of multiple packet sources. When a packet has been reassembled, the L2CAP layer determines which upper-layer protocol to hand it to, for example, RFcomm or service discovery. Third, L2CAP handles error control and retransmission. It detects errors and resends packets that were not acknowledged. Finally, L2CAP enforces quality of service requirements between multiple links. 4.6.6 The Bluetooth Frame Structure Bluetooth defines several frame formats, the most important of which is shown in two forms in Fig. 4-36. It begins with an access code that usually identi- fies the master so that slaves within radio range of two masters can tell which traf- fic is for them. Next comes a 54-bit header containing typical MAC sublayer fields. If the frame is sent at the basic rate, the data field comes next. It has up to 2744 bits for a five-slot transmission. For a single time slot, the format is the same except that the data field is 240 bits. If the frame is sent at the enhanced rate, the data portion may have up to two or three times as many bits because each symbol carries 2 or 3 bits instead of 1
- 350. 326 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 Repeated 3 times Bits 72 0–2744 Data (at 1X rate) Access code 54 Header (a) Basic rate data frame, top Data (at 2X or 3X rate) Access code Header Guard/Sync Trailer Bits 72 54 16 0–8184 2 (b) Enhanced rate data frame, bottom 5 x 675 microsec slots Addr Type F A S CRC 3 4 1 1 1 8 Figure 4-36. Typical Bluetooth data frame at (a) basic and (b) enhanced, data rates. bit. These data are preceded by a guard field and a synchronization pattern that is used to switch to the faster data rate. That is, the access code and header are car- ried at the basic rate and only the data portion is carried at the faster rate. Enhanced-rate frames end with a short trailer. Let us take a quick look at the common header. The Address field identifies which of the eight active devices the frame is intended for. The Type field identi- fies the frame type (ACL, SCO, poll, or null), the type of error correction used in the data field, and how many slots long the frame is. The Flow bit is asserted by a slave when its buffer is full and cannot receive any more data. This bit enables a primitive form of flow control. The Acknowledgement bit is used to piggyback an ACK onto a frame. The Sequence bit is used to number the frames to detect re- transmissions. The protocol is stop-and-wait, so 1 bit is enough. Then comes the 8-bit header Checksum. The entire 18-bit header is repeated three times to form the 54-bit header shown in Fig. 4-36. On the receiving side, a simple circuit ex- amines all three copies of each bit. If all three are the same, the bit is accepted. If not, the majority opinion wins. Thus, 54 bits of transmission capacity are used to send 10 bits of header. The reason is that to reliably send data in a noisy environ- ment using cheap, low-powered (2.5 mW) devices with little computing capacity, a great deal of redundancy is needed. Various formats are used for the data field for ACL and SCO frames. The basic-rate SCO frames are a simple example to study: the data field is always 240 bits. Three variants are defined, permitting 80, 160, or 240 bits of actual payload, with the rest being used for error correction. In the most reliable version (80-bit payload), the contents are just repeated three times, the same as the header. We can work out the capacity with this frame as follows. Since the slave may use only the odd slots, it gets 800 slots/sec, just as the master does. With an 80-bit
- 351. SEC. 4.6 BLUETOOTH 327 payload, the channel capacity from the slave is 64,000 bps as is the channel ca- pacity from the master. This capacity is exactly enough for a single full-duplex PCM voice channel (which is why a hop rate of 1600 hops/sec was chosen). That is, despite a raw bandwidth of 1 Mbps, a single full-duplex uncompressed voice channel can completely saturate the piconet. The efficiency of 13% is the result of spending 41% of the capacity on settling time, 20% on headers, and 26% on repetition coding. This shortcoming highlights the value of the enhanced rates and frames of more than a single slot. There is much more to be said about Bluetooth, but no more space to say it here. For the curious, the Bluetooth 4.0 specification contains all the details. 4.7 RFID We have looked at MAC designs from LANs up to MANs and down to PANs. As a last example, we will study a category of low-end wireless devices that peo- ple may not recognize as forming a computer network: the RFID (Radio Fre- quency IDentification) tags and readers that we described in Sec. 1.5.4. RFID technology takes many forms, used in smartcards, implants for pets, passports, library books, and more. The form that we will look at was developed in the quest for an EPC (Electronic Product Code) that started with the Auto-ID Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999. An EPC is a re- placement for a barcode that can carry a larger amount of information and is elec- tronically readable over distances up to 10 m, even when it is not visible. It is dif- ferent technology than, for example, the RFID used in passports,which must be placed quite close to a reader to perform a transaction. The ability to communi- cate over a distance makes EPCs more relevant to our studies. EPCglobal was formed in 2003 to commercialize the RFID technology devel- oped by the Auto-ID Center. The effort got a boost in 2005 when Walmart re- quired its top 100 suppliers to label all shipments with RFID tags. Widespread deployment has been hampered by the difficulty of competing with cheap printed barcodes, but new uses, such as in drivers licenses, are now growing. We will de- scribe the second generation of this technology, which is informally called EPC Gen 2 (EPCglobal, 2008). 4.7.1 EPC Gen 2 Architecture The architecture of an EPC Gen 2 RFID network is shown in Fig. 4-37. It has two key components: tags and readers. RFID tags are small, inexpensive devices that have a unique 96-bit EPC identifier and a small amount of memory that can be read and written by the RFID reader. The memory might be used to record the location history of an item, for example, as it moves through the supply chain.
- 352. 328 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 Often, the tags look like stickers that can be placed on, for example, pairs of jeans on the shelves in a store. Most of the sticker is taken up by an antenna that is printed onto it. A tiny dot in the middle is the RFID integrated circuit. Alterna- tively, the RFID tags can be integrated into an object, such as a driver’s license. In both cases, the tags have no battery and they must gather power from the radio transmissions of a nearby RFID reader to run. This kind of tag is called a ‘‘Class 1’’ tag to distinguish it from more capable tags that have batteries. RFID reader RFID tag Backscatter signal Reader signal Figure 4-37. RFID architecture. The readers are the intelligence in the system, analogous to base stations and access points in cellular and WiFi networks. Readers are much more powerful than tags. They have their own power sources, often have multiple antennas, and are in charge of when tags send and receive messages. As there will commonly be multiple tags within the reading range, the readers must solve the multiple ac- cess problem. There may be multiple readers that can contend with each other in the same area, too. The main job of the reader is to inventory the tags in the neighborhood, that is, to discover the identifiers of the nearby tags. The inventory is accomplished with the physical layer protocol and the tag-identification protocol that are out- lined in the following sections. 4.7.2 EPC Gen 2 Physical Layer The physical layer defines how bits are sent between the RFID reader and tags. Much of it uses methods for sending wireless signals that we have seen pre- viously. In the U.S., transmissions are sent in the unlicensed 902–928 MHz ISM band. This band falls in the UHF (Ultra High Frequency) range, so the tags are referred to as UHF RFID tags. The reader performs frequency hopping at least every 400 msec to spread its signal across the channel, to limit interference and satisfy regulatory requirements. The reader and tags use forms of ASK (Ampli- tude Shift Keying) modulation that we described in Sec. 2.5.2 to encode bits. They take turns to send bits, so the link is half duplex.
- 353. SEC. 4.7 RFID 329 There are two main differences from other physical layers that we have stud- ied. The first is that the reader is always transmitting a signal, regardless of whether it is the reader or tag that is communicating. Naturally, the reader trans- mits a signal to send bits to tags. For the tags to send bits to the reader, the reader transmits a fixed carrier signal that carries no bits. The tags harvest this signal to get the power they need to run; otherwise, a tag would not be able to transmit in the first place. To send data, a tag changes whether it is reflecting the signal from the reader, like a radar signal bouncing off a target, or absorbing it. This method is called backscatter. It differs from all the other wireless situa- tions we have seen so far, in which the sender and receiver never both transmit at the same time. Backscatter is a low-energy way for the tag to create a weak sig- nal of its own that shows up at the reader. For the reader to decode the incoming signal, it must filter out the outgoing signal that it is transmitting. Because the tag signal is weak, tags can only send bits to the reader at a low rate, and tags cannot receive or even sense transmissions from other tags. The second difference is that very simple forms of modulation are used so that they can be implemented on a tag that runs on very little power and costs only a few cents to make. To send data to the tags, the reader uses two amplitude levels. Bits are determined to be either a 0 or a 1, depending on how long the reader waits before a low-power period. The tag measures the time between low-power periods and compares this time to a reference measured during a preamble. As shown in Fig. 4-38, 1s are longer than 0s. Tag responses consist of the tag alternating its backscatter state at fixed inter- vals to create a series of pulses in the signal. Anywhere from one to eight pulse periods can be used to encode each 0 or 1, depending on the need for reliability. 1s have fewer transitions than 0s, as is shown with an example of two-pulse period coding in Fig. 4-38. Time Power Reader “0” Reader “1” Tag “0” Tag “1” Backscatter Figure 4-38. Reader and tag backscatter signals. 4.7.3 EPC Gen 2 Tag Identification Layer To inventory the nearby tags, the reader needs to receive a message from each tag that gives the identifier for the tag. This situation is a multiple access problem for which the number of tags is unknown in the general case. The reader might
- 354. 330 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 broadcast a query to ask all tags to send their identifiers. However, tags that re- plied right away would then collide in much the same way as stations on a classic Ethernet. We have seen many ways of tackling the multiple access problem in this chapter. The closest protocol for the current situation, in which the tags cannot hear each others’ transmissions, is slotted ALOHA, one of the earliest protocols we studied. This protocol is adapted for use in Gen 2 RFID. The sequence of messages used to identify a tag is shown in Fig. 4-39. In the first slot (slot 0), the reader sends a Query message to start the process. Each QRepeat message advances to the next slot. The reader also tells the tags the range of slots over which to randomize transmissions. Using a range is necessary because the reader synchronizes tags when it starts the process; unlike stations on an Ethernet, tags do not wake up with a message at a time of their choosing. Time RFID tag Query (slot 0) RN16 (slot 2) EPC identifier . . . QRepeat (slot1) Ack QRepeat (slot 2) QRepeat (slot N) QRepeat (slot 3) RFID reader Figure 4-39. Example message exchange to identify a tag. Tags pick a random slot in which to reply. In Fig. 4-39, the tag replies in slot 2. However, tags do not send their identifiers when they first reply. Instead, a tag sends a short 16-bit random number in an RN16 message. If there is no collision, the reader receives this message and sends an ACK message of its own. At this stage, the tag has acquired the slot and sends its EPC identifier. The reason for this exchange is that EPC identifiers are long, so collisions on these messages would be expensive. Instead, a short exchange is used to test whether the tag can safely use the slot to send its identifier. Once its identifier has been successfully transmitted, the tag temporarily stops responding to new Query messages so that all the remaining tags can be identified.
- 355. SEC. 4.7 RFID 331 A key problem is for the reader to adjust the number of slots to avoid collis- ions, but without using so many slots that performance suffers. This adjustment is analogous to binary exponential backoff in Ethernet. If the reader sees too many slots with no responses or too many slots with collisions, it can send a QAdjust message to decrease or increase the range of slots over which the tags are re- sponding. The RFID reader can perform other operations on the tags. For example, it can select a subset of tags before running an inventory, allowing it to collect re- sponses from, say, tagged jeans but not tagged shirts. The reader can also write data to tags as they are identified. This feature could be used to record the point of sale or other relevant information. 4.7.4 Tag Identification Message Formats The format of the Query message is shown in Fig. 4-40 as an example of a reader-to-tag message. The message is compact because the downlink rates are limited, from 27 kbps up to 128 kbps. The Command field carries the code 1000 to identify the message as a Query. Physical parameters 2 4 5 2 4 1 1 Bits Command 1000 DR M TR 2 1 Session Target Sel Q CRC Tag selection Figure 4-40. Format of the Query message. The next flags, DR, M, and TR, determine the physical layer parameters for reader transmissions and tag responses. For example, the response rate may be set to between 5 kbps and 640 kbps. We will skip over the details of these flags. Then come three fields, Sel, Session, and Target, that select the tags to re- spond. As well as the readers being able to select a subset of identifiers, the tags keep track of up to four concurrent sessions and whether they have been identified in those sessions. In this way, multiple readers can operate in overlapping cover- age areas by using different sessions. Next is the most important parameter for this command, Q. This field defines the range of slots over which tags will respond, from 0 to 2Q −1. Finally, there is a CRC to protect the message fields. At 5 bits, it is shorter than most CRCs we have seen, but the Query message is much shorter than most packets too. Tag-to-reader messages are simpler. Since the reader is in control, it knows what message to expect in response to each of its transmissions. The tag re- sponses simply carry data, such as the EPC identifier.
- 356. 332 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 Originally the tags were just for identification purposes. However, they have grown over time to resemble very small computers. Some research tags have sen- sors and are able to run small programs to gather and process data (Sample et al., 2008). One vision for this technology is the ‘‘Internet of things’’ that connects ob- jects in the physical world to the Internet (Welbourne et al., 2009; and Gershen- feld et al., 2004). 4.8 DATA LINK LAYER SWITCHING Many organizations have multiple LANs and wish to connect them. Would it not be convenient if we could just join the LANs together to make a larger LAN? In fact, we can do this when the connections are made with devices called bridges. The Ethernet switches we described in Sec. 4.3.4 are a modern name for bridges; they provide functionality that goes beyond classic Ethernet and Ethernet hubs to make it easy to join multiple LANs into a larger and faster network. We shall use the terms ‘‘bridge’’ and ‘‘switch’’ interchangeably. Bridges operate in the data link layer, so they examine the data link layer ad- dresses to forward frames. Since they are not supposed to examine the payload field of the frames they forward, they can handle IP packets as well as other kinds of packets, such as AppleTalk packets. In contrast, routers examine the addresses in packets and route based on them, so they only work with the protocols that they were designed to handle. In this section, we will look at how bridges work and are used to join multiple physical LANs into a single logical LAN. We will also look at how to do the re- verse and treat one physical LAN as multiple logical LANs, called VLANs (Vir- tual LANs). Both technologies provide useful flexibility for managing networks. For a comprehensive treatment of bridges, switches, and related topics, see Seifert and Edwards (2008) and Perlman (2000). 4.8.1 Uses of Bridges Before getting into the technology of bridges, let us take a look at some com- mon situations in which bridges are used. We will mention three reasons why a single organization may end up with multiple LANs. First, many university and corporate departments have their own LANs to connect their own personal computers, servers, and devices such as printers. Since the goals of the various departments differ, different departments may set up different LANs, without regard to what other departments are doing. Sooner or later, though, there is a need for interaction, so bridges are needed. In this ex- ample, multiple LANs come into existence due to the autonomy of their owners.
- 357. SEC. 4.8 DATA LINK LAYER SWITCHING 333 Second, the organization may be geographically spread over several buildings separated by considerable distances. It may be cheaper to have separate LANs in each building and connect them with bridges and a few long-distance fiber optic links than to run all the cables to a single central switch. Even if laying the cables is easy to do, there are limits on their lengths (e.g., 200 m for twisted-pair gigabit Ethernet). The network would not work for longer cables due to the excessive signal attenuation or round-trip delay. The only solution is to partition the LAN and install bridges to join the pieces to increase the total physical distance that can be covered. Third, it may be necessary to split what is logically a single LAN into sepa- rate LANs (connected by bridges) to accommodate the load. At many large uni- versities, for example, thousands of workstations are available for student and faculty computing. Companies may also have thousands of employees. The scale of this system precludes putting all the workstations on a single LAN—there are more computers than ports on any Ethernet hub and more stations than allowed on a single classic Ethernet. Even if it were possible to wire all the workstations together, putting more stations on an Ethernet hub or classic Ethernet would not add capacity. All of the stations share the same, fixed amount of bandwidth. The more stations there are, the less average bandwidth per station. However, two separate LANs have twice the capacity of a single LAN. Bridges let the LANs be joined together while keeping this capacity. The key is not to send traffic onto ports where it is not needed, so that each LAN can run at full speed. This behavior also increases reliability, since on a single LAN a defec- tive node that keeps outputting a continuous stream of garbage can clog up the en- tire LAN. By deciding what to forward and what not to forward, bridges act like fire doors in a building, preventing a single node that has gone berserk from bring- ing down the entire system. To make these benefits easily available, ideally bridges should be completely transparent. It should be possible to go out and buy bridges, plug the LAN cables into the bridges, and have everything work perfectly, instantly. There should be no hardware changes required, no software changes required, no setting of address switches, no downloading of routing tables or parameters, nothing at all. Just plug in the cables and walk away. Furthermore, the operation of the existing LANs should not be affected by the bridges at all. As far as the stations are concerned, there should be no observable difference whether or not they are part of a bridged LAN. It should be as easy to move stations around the bridged LAN as it is to move them around a single LAN. Surprisingly enough, it is actually possible to create bridges that are transpar- ent. Two algorithms are used: a backward learning algorithm to stop traffic being sent where it is not needed; and a spanning tree algorithm to break loops that may be formed when switches are cabled together willy-nilly. Let us now take a look at these algorithms in turn to learn how this magic is accomplished.
- 358. 334 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 4.8.2 Learning Bridges The topology of two LANs bridged together is shown in Fig. 4-41 for two cases. On the left-hand side, two multidrop LANs, such as classic Ethernets, are joined by a special station—the bridge—that sits on both LANs. On the right-hand side, LANs with point-to-point cables, including one hub, are joined together. The bridges are the devices to which the stations and hub are attached. If the LAN technology is Ethernet, the bridges are better known as Ethernet switches. (a) (b) A D Bridge B1 1 2 Port B C E G F C Bridge B1 B2 A B G D H1 Port 1 2 1 3 4 2 3 4 F E Hub Figure 4-41. (a) Bridge connecting two multidrop LANs. (b) Bridges (and a hub) connecting seven point-to-point stations. Bridges were developed when classic Ethernets were in use, so they are often shown in topologies with multidrop cables, as in Fig. 4-41(a). However, all the topologies that are encountered today are comprised of point-to-point cables and switches. The bridges work the same way in both settings. All of the stations at- tached to the same port on a bridge belong to the same collision domain, and this is different than the collision domain for other ports. If there is more than one sta- tion, as in a classic Ethernet, a hub, or a half-duplex link, the CSMA/CD protocol is used to send frames. There is a difference, however, in how the bridged LANs are built. To bridge multidrop LANs, a bridge is added as a new station on each of the multidrop LANs, as in Fig. 4-41(a). To bridge point-to-point LANs, the hubs are either con- nected to a bridge or, preferably, replaced with a bridge to increase performance. In Fig. 4-41(b), bridges have replaced all but one hub. Different kinds of cables can also be attached to one bridge. For example, the cable connecting bridge B1 to bridge B2 in Fig. 4-41(b) might be a long-distance fiber optic link, while the cable connecting the bridges to stations might be a short-haul twisted-pair line. This arrangement is useful for bridging LANs in dif- ferent buildings. Now let us consider what happens inside the bridges. Each bridge operates in promiscuous mode, that is, it accepts every frame transmitted by the stations
- 359. SEC. 4.8 DATA LINK LAYER SWITCHING 335 attached to each of its ports. The bridge must decide whether to forward or dis- card each frame, and, if the former, on which port to output the frame. This decis- ion is made by using the destination address. As an example, consider the topo- logy of Fig. 4-41(a). If station A sends a frame to station B, bridge B1 will receive the frame on port 1. This frame can be immediately discarded without further ado because it is already on the correct port. However, in the topology of Fig. 4-41(b) suppose that A sends a frame to D. Bridge B1 will receive the frame on port 1 and output it on port 4. Bridge B2 will then receive the frame on its port 4 and output it on its port 1. A simple way to implement this scheme is to have a big (hash) table inside the bridge. The table can list each possible destination and which output port it be- longs on. For example, in Fig. 4-41(b), the table at B1 would list D as belonging to port 4, since all B1 has to know is which port to put frames on to reach D. That, in fact, more forwarding will happen later when the frame hits B2 is not of interest to B1. When the bridges are first plugged in, all the hash tables are empty. None of the bridges know where any of the destinations are, so they use a flooding algo- rithm: every incoming frame for an unknown destination is output on all the ports to which the bridge is connected except the one it arrived on. As time goes on, the bridges learn where destinations are. Once a destination is known, frames destined for it are put only on the proper port; they are not flooded. The algorithm used by the bridges is backward learning. As mentioned above, the bridges operate in promiscuous mode, so they see every frame sent on any of their ports. By looking at the source addresses, they can tell which ma- chines are accessible on which ports. For example, if bridge B1 in Fig. 4-41(b) sees a frame on port 3 coming from C, it knows that C must be reachable via port 3, so it makes an entry in its hash table. Any subsequent frame addressed to C coming in to B1 on any other port will be forwarded to port 3. The topology can change as machines and bridges are powered up and down and moved around. To handle dynamic topologies, whenever a hash table entry is made, the arrival time of the frame is noted in the entry. Whenever a frame whose source is already in the table arrives, its entry is updated with the current time. Thus, the time associated with every entry tells the last time a frame from that machine was seen. Periodically, a process in the bridge scans the hash table and purges all entries more than a few minutes old. In this way, if a computer is unplugged from its LAN, moved around the building, and plugged in again somewhere else, within a few minutes it will be back in normal operation, without any manual intervention. This algorithm also means that if a machine is quiet for a few minutes, any traffic sent to it will have to be flooded until it next sends a frame itself. The routing procedure for an incoming frame depends on the port it arrives on (the source port) and the address to which it is destined (the destination address). The procedure is as follows.
- 360. 336 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 1. If the port for the destination address is the same as the source port, discard the frame. 2. If the port for the destination address and the source port are dif- ferent, forward the frame on to the destination port. 3. If the destination port is unknown, use flooding and send the frame on all ports except the source port. You might wonder whether the first case can occur with point-to-point links. The answer is that it can occur if hubs are used to connect a group of computers to a bridge. An example is shown in Fig. 4-41(b) where stations E and F are connected to hub H 1, which is in turn connected to bridge B2. If E sends a frame to F, the hub will relay it to B2 as well as to F. That is what hubs do—they wire all ports together so that a frame input on one port is simply output on all other ports. The frame will arrive at B2 on port 4, which is already the right output port to reach the destination. Bridge B2 need only discard the frame. As each frame arrives, this algorithm must be applied, so it is usually imple- mented with special-purpose VLSI chips. The chips do the lookup and update the table entry, all in a few microseconds. Because bridges only look at the MAC ad- dresses to decide how to forward frames, it is possible to start forwarding as soon as the destination header field has come in, before the rest of the frame has arrived (provided the output line is available, of course). This design reduces the latency of passing through the bridge, as well as the number of frames that the bridge must be able to buffer. It is referred to as cut-through switching or wormhole routing and is usually handled in hardware. We can look at the operation of a bridge in terms of protocol stacks to under- stand what it means to be a link layer device. Consider a frame sent from station A to station D in the configuration of Fig. 4-41(a), in which the LANs are Ethernet. The frame will pass through one bridge. The protocol stack view of processing is shown in Fig. 4-42. The packet comes from a higher layer and descends into the Ethernet MAC layer. It acquires an Ethernet header (and also a trailer, not shown in the figure). This unit is passed to the physical layer, goes out over the cable, and is picked up by the bridge. In the bridge, the frame is passed up from the physical layer to the Ethernet MAC layer. This layer has extended processing compared to the Ethernet MAC layer at a station. It passes the frame to a relay, still within the MAC layer. The bridge relay function uses only the Ethernet MAC header to determine how to handle the frame. In this case, it passes the frame to the Ethernet MAC layer of the port used to reach station D, and the frame continues on its way. In the general case, relays at a given layer can rewrite the headers for that layer. VLANs will provide an example shortly. In no case should the bridge look inside the frame and learn that it is carrying an IP packet; that is irrelevant to the
- 361. SEC. 4.8 DATA LINK LAYER SWITCHING 337 Eth Eth Packet Packet Packet Relay Network Ethernet MAC Physical Bridge Station D Station A Wire Wire Eth Eth Packet Packet Packet Eth Packet Eth Packet Eth Packet Eth Packet Figure 4-42. Protocol processing at a bridge. bridge processing and would violate protocol layering. Also note that a bridge with k ports will have k instances of MAC and physical layers. The value of k is 2 for our simple example. 4.8.3 Spanning Tree Bridges To increase reliability, redundant links can be used between bridges. In the example of Fig. 4-43, there are two links in parallel between a pair of bridges. This design ensures that if one link is cut, the network will not be partitioned into two sets of computers that cannot talk to each other. Frame F0 Bridge B1 A B2 Redundant links F1 F2 F3 F4 Figure 4-43. Bridges with two parallel links. However, this redundancy introduces some additional problems because it creates loops in the topology. An example of these problems can be seen by look- ing at how a frame sent by A to a previously unobserved destination is handled in Fig. 4-43. Each bridge follows the normal rule for handling unknown destina- tions, which is to flood the frame. Call the frame from A that reaches bridge B1 frame F0. The bridge sends copies of this frame out all of its other ports. We
- 362. 338 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 will only consider the bridge ports that connect B1 to B2 (though the frame will be sent out the other ports, too). Since there are two links from B1 to B2, two copies of the frame will reach B2. They are shown in Fig. 4-43 as F1 and F2. Shortly thereafter, bridge B2 receives these frames. However, it does not (and cannot) know that they are copies of the same frame, rather than two different frames sent one after the other. So bridge B2 takes F1 and sends copies of it out all the other ports, and it also takes F2 and sends copies of it out all the other ports. This produces frames F3 and F4 that are sent along the two links back to B1. Bridge B1 then sees two new frames with unknown destinations and copies them again. This cycle goes on forever. The solution to this difficulty is for the bridges to communicate with each other and overlay the actual topology with a spanning tree that reaches every bridge. In effect, some potential connections between bridges are ignored in the interest of constructing a fictitious loop-free topology that is a subset of the actual topology. For example, in Fig. 4-44 we see five bridges that are interconnected and also have stations connected to them. Each station connects to only one bridge. There are some redundant connections between the bridges so that frames will be for- warded in loops if all of the links are used. This topology can be thought of as a graph in which the bridges are the nodes and the point-to-point links are the edges. The graph can be reduced to a spanning tree, which has no cycles by defi- nition, by dropping the links shown as dashed lines in Fig. 4-44. Using this span- ning tree, there is exactly one path from every station to every other station. Once the bridges have agreed on the spanning tree, all forwarding between stations fol- lows the spanning tree. Since there is a unique path from each source to each destination, loops are impossible. Bridge Station B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 Link that is not part of the spanning tree Root bridge Figure 4-44. A spanning tree connecting five bridges. The dashed lines are links that are not part of the spanning tree. To build the spanning tree, the bridges run a distributed algorithm. Each bridge periodically broadcasts a configuration message out all of its ports to its
- 363. SEC. 4.8 DATA LINK LAYER SWITCHING 339 neighbors and processes the messages it receives from other bridges, as described next. These messages are not forwarded, since their purpose is to build the tree, which can then be used for forwarding. The bridges must first choose one bridge to be the root of the spanning tree. To make this choice, they each include an identifier based on their MAC address in the configuration message, as well as the identifier of the bridge they believe to be the root. MAC addresses are installed by the manufacturer and guaranteed to be unique worldwide, which makes these identifiers convenient and unique. The bridges choose the bridge with the lowest identifier to be the root. After enough messages have been exchanged to spread the news, all bridges will agree on which bridge is the root. In Fig. 4-44, bridge B1 has the lowest identifier and be- comes the root. Next, a tree of shortest paths from the root to every bridge is constructed. In Fig. 4-44, bridges B2 and B3 can each be reached from bridge B1 directly, in one hop that is a shortest path. Bridge B4 can be reached in two hops, via either B2 or B3. To break this tie, the path via the bridge with the lowest identifier is chosen, so B4 is reached via B2. Bridge B5 can be reached in two hops via B3. To find these shortest paths, bridges include the distance from the root in their configuration messages. Each bridge remembers the shortest path it finds to the root. The bridges then turn off ports that are not part of the shortest path. Although the tree spans all the bridges, not all the links (or even bridges) are necessarily present in the tree. This happens because turning off the ports prunes some links from the network to prevent loops. Even after the spanning tree has been established, the algorithm continues to run during normal operation to auto- matically detect topology changes and update the tree. The algorithm for constructing the spanning tree was invented by Radia Perl- man. Her job was to solve the problem of joining LANs without loops. She was given a week to do it, but she came up with the idea for the spanning tree algo- rithm in a day. Fortunately, this left her enough time to write it as a poem (Perl- man, 1985): I think that I shall never see A graph more lovely than a tree. A tree whose crucial property Is loop-free connectivity. A tree which must be sure to span. So packets can reach every LAN. First the Root must be selected By ID it is elected. Least cost paths from Root are traced In the tree these paths are placed. A mesh is made by folks like me Then bridges find a spanning tree.
- 364. 340 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 The spanning tree algorithm was then standardized as IEEE 802.1D and used for many years. In 2001, it was revised to more rapidly find a new spanning tree after a topology change. For a detailed treatment of bridges, see Perlman (2000). 4.8.4 Repeaters, Hubs, Bridges, Switches, Routers, and Gateways So far in this book, we have looked at a variety of ways to get frames and packets from one computer to another. We have mentioned repeaters, hubs, bridges, switches, routers, and gateways. All of these devices are in common use, but they all differ in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Since there are so many of them, it is probably worth taking a look at them together to see what the simi- larities and differences are. The key to understanding these devices is to realize that they operate in dif- ferent layers, as illustrated in Fig. 4-45(a). The layer matters because different devices use different pieces of information to decide how to switch. In a typical scenario, the user generates some data to be sent to a remote machine. Those data are passed to the transport layer, which then adds a header (for example, a TCP header) and passes the resulting unit down to the network layer. The network layer adds its own header to form a network layer packet (e.g., an IP packet). In Fig. 4-45(b), we see the IP packet shaded in gray. Then the packet goes to the data link layer, which adds its own header and checksum (CRC) and gives the re- sulting frame to the physical layer for transmission, for example, over a LAN. Application layer Application gateway Transport layer Transport gateway Network layer Router Frame header Packet header TCP header Packet (supplied by network layer) Frame (built by data link layer) (b) (a) User data CRC Data link layer Bridge, switch Physical layer Repeater, hub Figure 4-45. (a) Which device is in which layer. (b) Frames, packets, and headers. Now let us look at the switching devices and see how they relate to the pack- ets and frames. At the bottom, in the physical layer, we find the repeaters. These are analog devices that work with signals on the cables to which they are con- nected. A signal appearing on one cable is cleaned up, amplified, and put out on another cable. Repeaters do not understand frames, packets, or headers. They un- derstand the symbols that encode bits as volts. Classic Ethernet, for example, was
- 365. SEC. 4.8 DATA LINK LAYER SWITCHING 341 designed to allow four repeaters that would boost the signal to extend the maxi- mum cable length from 500 meters to 2500 meters. Next we come to the hubs. A hub has a number of input lines that it joins electrically. Frames arriving on any of the lines are sent out on all the others. If two frames arrive at the same time, they will collide, just as on a coaxial cable. All the lines coming into a hub must operate at the same speed. Hubs differ from repeaters in that they do not (usually) amplify the incoming signals and are de- signed for multiple input lines, but the differences are slight. Like repeaters, hubs are physical layer devices that do not examine the link layer addresses or use them in any way. Now let us move up to the data link layer, where we find bridges and switch- es. We just studied bridges at some length. A bridge connects two or more LANs. Like a hub, a modern bridge has multiple ports, usually enough for 4 to 48 input lines of a certain type. Unlike in a hub, each port is isolated to be its own collision domain; if the port has a full-duplex point-to-point line, the CSMA/CD algorithm is not needed. When a frame arrives, the bridge extracts the destination address from the frame header and looks it up in a table to see where to send the frame. For Ethernet, this address is the 48-bit destination address shown in Fig. 4-14. The bridge only outputs the frame on the port where it is needed and can forward multiple frames at the same time. Bridges offer much better performance than hubs, and the isolation between bridge ports also means that the input lines may run at different speeds, possibly even with different network types. A common example is a bridge with ports that connect to 10-, 100-, and 1000-Mbps Ethernet. Buffering within the bridge is needed to accept a frame on one port and transmit the frame out on a different port. If frames come in faster than they can be retransmitted, the bridge may run out of buffer space and have to start discarding frames. For example, if a gigabit Ethernet is pouring bits into a 10-Mbps Ethernet at top speed, the bridge will have to buffer them, hoping not to run out of memory. This problem still exists even if all the ports run at the same speed because more than one port may be sending frames to a given destination port. Bridges were originally intended to be able to join different kinds of LANs, for example, an Ethernet and a Token Ring LAN. However, this never worked well because of differences between the LANs. Different frame formats require copying and reformatting, which takes CPU time, requires a new checksum calcu- lation, and introduces the possibility of undetected errors due to bad bits in the bridge’s memory. Different maximum frame lengths are also a serious problem with no good solution. Basically, frames that are too large to be forwarded must be discarded. So much for transparency. Two other areas where LANs can differ are security and quality of service. Some LANs have link-layer encryption, for example 802.11, and some do not, for example Ethernet. Some LANs have quality of service features such as priorities, for example 802.11, and some do not, for example Ethernet. Consequently, when
- 366. 342 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 a frame must travel between these LANs, the security or quality of service expect- ed by the sender may not be able to be provided. For all of these reasons, modern bridges usually work for one network type, and routers, which we will come to soon, are used instead to join networks of different types. Switches are modern bridges by another name. The differences are more to do with marketing than technical issues, but there are a few points worth knowing. Bridges were developed when classic Ethernet was in use, so they tend to join rel- atively few LANs and thus have relatively few ports. The term ‘‘switch’’ is more popular nowadays. Also, modern installations all use point-to-point links, such as twisted-pair cables, so individual computers plug directly into a switch and thus the switch will tend to have many ports. Finally, ‘‘switch’’ is also used as a gen- eral term. With a bridge, the functionality is clear. On the other hand, a switch may refer to an Ethernet switch or a completely different kind of device that makes forwarding decisions, such as a telephone switch. So far, we have seen repeaters and hubs, which are actually quite similar, as well as bridges and switches, which are even more similar to each other. Now we move up to routers, which are different from all of the above. When a packet comes into a router, the frame header and trailer are stripped off and the packet lo- cated in the frame’s payload field (shaded in Fig. 4-45) is passed to the routing software. This software uses the packet header to choose an output line. For an IP packet, the packet header will contain a 32-bit (IPv4) or 128-bit (IPv6) address, but not a 48-bit IEEE 802 address. The routing software does not see the frame addresses and does not even know whether the packet came in on a LAN or a point-to-point line. We will study routers and routing in Chap. 5. Up another layer, we find transport gateways. These connect two computers that use different connection-oriented transport protocols. For example, suppose a computer using the connection-oriented TCP/IP protocol needs to talk to a com- puter using a different connection-oriented transport protocol called SCTP. The transport gateway can copy the packets from one connection to the other, refor- matting them as need be. Finally, application gateways understand the format and contents of the data and can translate messages from one format to another. An email gateway could translate Internet messages into SMS messages for mobile phones, for example. Like ‘‘switch,’’ ‘‘gateway’’ is somewhat of a general term. It refers to a for- warding process that runs at a high layer. 4.8.5 Virtual LANs In the early days of local area networking, thick yellow cables snaked through the cable ducts of many office buildings. Every computer they passed was plugged in. No thought was given to which computer belonged on which LAN. All the people in adjacent offices were put on the same LAN, whether they be- longed together or not. Geography trumped corporate organization charts.
- 367. SEC. 4.8 DATA LINK LAYER SWITCHING 343 With the advent of twisted pair and hubs in the 1990s, all that changed. Buildings were rewired (at considerable expense) to rip out all the yellow garden hoses and install twisted pairs from every office to central wiring closets at the end of each corridor or in a central machine room, as illustrated in Fig. 4-46. If the Vice President in Charge of Wiring was a visionary, Category 5 twisted pairs were installed; if he was a bean counter, the existing (Category 3) telephone wir- ing was used (only to be replaced a few years later, when fast Ethernet emerged). Twisted pair to a hub Office Switch Hub Hub Corridor Cable duct Figure 4-46. A building with centralized wiring using hubs and a switch. Today, the cables have changed and hubs have become switches, but the wir- ing pattern is still the same. This pattern makes it possible to configure LANs logically rather than physically. For example, if a company wants k LANs, it could buy k switches. By carefully choosing which connectors to plug into which switches, the occupants of a LAN can be chosen in a way that makes organiza- tional sense, without too much regard to geography. Does it matter who is on which LAN? After all, in nearly all organizations, all the LANs are interconnected. In short, yes, it often matters. Network adminis- trators like to group users on LANs to reflect the organizational structure rather than the physical layout of the building, for a variety of reasons. One issue is se- curity. One LAN might host Web servers and other computers intended for public use. Another LAN might host computers containing the records of the Human Re- sources department that are not to be passed outside of the department. In such a situation, putting all the computers on a single LAN and not letting any of the ser- vers be accessed from off the LAN makes sense. Management tends to frown when hearing that such an arrangement is impossible.
- 368. 344 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 A second issue is load. Some LANs are more heavily used than others and it may be desirable to separate them. For example, if the folks in research are run- ning all kinds of nifty experiments that sometimes get out of hand and saturate their LAN, the folks in management may not be enthusiastic about donating some of the capacity they were using for videoconferencing to help out. Then again, this might impress on management the need to install a faster network. A third issue is broadcast traffic. Bridges broadcast traffic when the location of the destination is unknown, and upper-layer protocols use broadcasting as well. For example, when a user wants to send a packet to an IP address x, how does it know which MAC address to put in the frame? We will study this question in Chap. 5, but briefly summarized, the answer is that it broadcasts a frame con- taining the question ‘‘who owns IP address x?’’ Then it waits for an answer. As the number of computers in a LAN grows, so does the number of broadcasts. Each broadcast consumes more of the LAN capacity than a regular frame because it is delivered to every computer on the LAN. By keeping LANs no larger than they need to be, the impact of broadcast traffic is reduced. Related to broadcasts is the problem that once in a while a network interface will break down or be misconfigured and begin generating an endless stream of broadcast frames. If the network is really unlucky, some of these frames will elicit responses that lead to ever more traffic. The result of this broadcast storm is that (1) the entire LAN capacity is occupied by these frames, and (2) all the machines on all the interconnected LANs are crippled just processing and discarding all the frames being broadcast. At first it might appear that broadcast storms could be limited in scope by separating the LANs with bridges or switches, but if the goal is to achieve tran- sparency (i.e., a machine can be moved to a different LAN across the bridge with- out anyone noticing it), then bridges have to forward broadcast frames. Having seen why companies might want multiple LANs with restricted scopes, let us get back to the problem of decoupling the logical topology from the physical topology. Building a physical topology to reflect the organizational structure can add work and cost, even with centralized wiring and switches. For example, if two people in the same department work in different buildings, it may be easier to wire them to different switches that are part of different LANs. Even if this is not the case, a user might be shifted within the company from one depart- ment to another without changing offices, or might change offices without chang- ing departments. This might result in the user being on the wrong LAN until an administrator changes the user’s connector from one switch to another. Fur- thermore, the number of computers that belong to different departments may not be a good match for the number of ports on switches; some departments may be too small and others so big that they require multiple switches. This results in wasted switch ports that are not used. In many companies, organizational changes occur all the time, meaning that system administrators spend a lot of time pulling out plugs and pushing them back
- 369. SEC. 4.8 DATA LINK LAYER SWITCHING 345 in somewhere else. Also, in some cases, the change cannot be made at all be- cause the twisted pair from the user’s machine is too far from the correct switch (e.g., in the wrong building), or the available switch ports are on the wrong LAN. In response to customer requests for more flexibility, network vendors began working on a way to rewire buildings entirely in software. The resulting concept is called a VLAN (Virtual LAN). It has been standardized by the IEEE 802 committee and is now widely deployed in many organizations. Let us now take a look at it. For additional information about VLANs, see Seifert and Edwards (2008). VLANs are based on VLAN-aware switches. To set up a VLAN-based net- work, the network administrator decides how many VLANs there will be, which computers will be on which VLAN, and what the VLANs will be called. Often the VLANs are (informally) named by colors, since it is then possible to print color diagrams showing the physical layout of the machines, with the members of the red LAN in red, members of the green LAN in green, and so on. In this way, both the physical and logical layouts are visible in a single view. As an example, consider the bridged LAN of Fig. 4-47, in which nine of the machines belong to the G (gray) VLAN and five belong to the W (white) VLAN. Machines from the gray VLAN are spread across two switches, including two ma- chines that connect to a switch via a hub. Gray station B1 B2 Hub G W GW W G G G GW G G G W G W White station Gray port White port Gray and White port Bridge Figure 4-47. Two VLANs, gray and white, on a bridged LAN. To make the VLANs function correctly, configuration tables have to be set up in the bridges. These tables tell which VLANs are accessible via which ports. When a frame comes in from, say, the gray VLAN, it must be forwarded on all the ports marked with a G. This holds for ordinary (i.e., unicast) traffic for which the bridges have not learned the location of the destination, as well as for multi- cast and broadcast traffic. Note that a port may be labeled with multiple VLAN colors. As an example, suppose that one of the gray stations plugged into bridge B1 in Fig. 4-47 sends a frame to a destination that has not been observed beforehand. Bridge B1 will receive the frame and see that it came from a machine on the gray
- 370. 346 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 VLAN, so it will flood the frame on all ports labeled G (except the incoming port). The frame will be sent to the five other gray stations attached to B1 as well as over the link from B1 to bridge B2. At bridge B2, the frame is similarly for- warded on all ports labeled G. This sends the frame to one further station and the hub (which will transmit the frame to all of its stations). The hub has both labels because it connects to machines from both VLANs. The frame is not sent on other ports without G in the label because the bridge knows that there are no ma- chines on the gray VLAN that can be reached via these ports. In our example, the frame is only sent from bridge B1 to bridge B2 because there are machines on the gray VLAN that are connected to B2. Looking at the white VLAN, we can see that the bridge B2 port that connects to bridge B1 is not labeled W. This means that a frame on the white VLAN will not be forwarded from bridge B2 to bridge B1. This behavior is correct because no stations on the white VLAN are connected to B1. The IEEE 802.1Q Standard To implement this scheme, bridges need to know to which VLAN an incom- ing frame belongs. Without this information, for example, when bridge B2 gets a frame from bridge B1 in Fig. 4-47, it cannot know whether to forward the frame on the gray or white VLAN. If we were designing a new type of LAN, it would be easy enough to just add a VLAN field in the header. But what to do about Ethernet, which is the dominant LAN, and did not have any spare fields lying around for the VLAN identifier? The IEEE 802 committee had this problem thrown into its lap in 1995. After much discussion, it did the unthinkable and changed the Ethernet header. The new format was published in IEEE standard 802.1Q, issued in 1998. The new format contains a VLAN tag; we will examine it shortly. Not surprisingly, chang- ing something as well established as the Ethernet header was not entirely trivial. A few questions that come to mind are: 1. Need we throw out several hundred million existing Ethernet cards? 2. If not, who generates the new fields? 3. What happens to frames that are already the maximum size? Of course, the 802 committee was (only too painfully) aware of these problems and had to come up with solutions, which it did. The key to the solution is to realize that the VLAN fields are only actually used by the bridges and switches and not by the user machines. Thus, in Fig. 4- 47, it is not really essential that they are present on the lines going out to the end stations as long as they are on the line between the bridges. Also, to use VLANs, the bridges have to be VLAN aware. This fact makes the design feasible.
- 371. SEC. 4.8 DATA LINK LAYER SWITCHING 347 As to throwing out all existing Ethernet cards, the answer is no. Remember that the 802.3 committee could not even get people to change the Type field into a Length field. You can imagine the reaction to an announcement that all existing Ethernet cards had to be thrown out. However, new Ethernet cards are 802.1Q compliant and can correctly fill in the VLAN fields. Because there can be computers (and switches) that are not VLAN aware, the first VLAN-aware bridge to touch a frame adds VLAN fields and the last one down the road removes them. An example of a mixed topology is shown in Fig. 4-48. In this figure, VLAN-aware computers generate tagged (i.e., 802.1Q) frames directly, and further switching uses these tags. The shaded symbols are VLAN-aware and the empty ones are not. Legacy bridge and host B1 B2 B5 Tagged frame B4 B3 B6 VLAN-aware host and bridge Legacy frame Figure 4-48. Bridged LAN that is only partly VLAN aware. The shaded symb- ols are VLAN aware. The empty ones are not. With 802.1Q, frames are colored depending on the port on which they are re- ceived. For this method to work, all machines on a port must belong to the same VLAN, which reduces flexibility. For example, in Fig. 4-48, this property holds for all ports where an individual computer connects to a bridge, but not for the port where the hub connects to bridge B2. Additionally, the bridge can use the higher-layer protocol to select the color. In this way, frames arriving on a port might be placed in different VLANs de- pending on whether they carry IP packets or PPP frames. Other methods are possible, but they are not supported by 802.1Q. As one ex- ample, the MAC address can be used to select the VLAN color. This might be useful for frames coming in from a nearby 802.11 LAN in which laptops send frames via different ports as they move. One MAC address would then be mapped to a fixed VLAN regardless of which port it entered the LAN on. As to the problem of frames longer than 1518 bytes, 802.1Q just raised the limit to 1522 bytes. Luckily, only VLAN-aware computers and switches must support these longer frames. Now let us take a look at the 802.1Q frame format. It is shown in Fig. 4-49. The only change is the addition of a pair of 2-byte fields. The first one is the
- 372. 348 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 VLAN protocol ID. It always has the value 0x8100. Since this number is greater than 1500, all Ethernet cards interpret it as a type rather than a length. What a legacy card does with such a frame is moot since such frames are not supposed to be sent to legacy cards. 802.3 Length Data Pad Check- sum Destination address Source address 802.1Q Length Data Pad Tag VLAN Identifier VLAN protocol ID (0x8100) Pri C F I Check- sum Destination address Source address Figure 4-49. The 802.3 (legacy) and 802.1Q Ethernet frame formats. The second 2-byte field contains three subfields. The main one is the VLAN identifier, occupying the low-order 12 bits. This is what the whole thing is about—the color of the VLAN to which the frame belongs. The 3-bit Priority field has nothing to do with VLANs at all, but since changing the Ethernet header is a once-in-a-decade event taking three years and featuring a hundred people, why not put in some other good things while you are at it? This field makes it possible to distinguish hard real-time traffic from soft real-time traffic from time- insensitive traffic in order to provide better quality of service over Ethernet. It is needed for voice over Ethernet (although in all fairness, IP has had a similar field for a quarter of a century and nobody ever used it). The last field, CFI (Canonical format indicator), should have been called the CEI (Corporate ego indicator). It was originally intended to indicate the order of the bits in the MAC addresses (little-endian versus big-endian), but that use got lost in other controversies. Its presence now indicates that the payload contains a freeze-dried 802.5 frame that is hoping to find another 802.5 LAN at the destina- tion while being carried by Ethernet in between. This whole arrangement, of course, has nothing whatsoever to do with VLANs. But standards’ committee politics are not unlike regular politics: if you vote for my bit, I will vote for your bit. As we mentioned above, when a tagged frame arrives at a VLAN-aware switch, the switch uses the VLAN identifier as an index into a table to find out which ports to send it on. But where does the table come from? If it is manually constructed, we are back to square zero: manual configuration of bridges. The beauty of the transparent bridge is that it is plug-and-play and does not require any manual configuration. It would be a terrible shame to lose that property. For- tunately, VLAN-aware bridges can also autoconfigure themselves based on observing the tags that come by. If a frame tagged as VLAN 4 comes in on port
- 373. SEC. 4.8 DATA LINK LAYER SWITCHING 349 3, apparently some machine on port 3 is on VLAN 4. The 802.1Q standard ex- plains how to build the tables dynamically, mostly by referencing appropriate por- tions of the 802.1D standard. Before leaving the subject of VLAN routing, it is worth making one last observation. Many people in the Internet and Ethernet worlds are fanatically in favor of connectionless networking and violently opposed to anything smacking of connections in the data link or network layers. Yet VLANs introduce some- thing that is surprisingly similar to a connection. To use VLANs properly, each frame carries a new special identifier that is used as an index into a table inside the switch to look up where the frame is supposed to be sent. That is precisely what happens in connection-oriented networks. In connectionless networks, it is the destination address that is used for routing, not some kind of connection iden- tifier. We will see more of this creeping connectionism in Chap. 5. 4.9 SUMMARY Some networks have a single channel that is used for all communication. In these networks, the key design issue is the allocation of this channel among the competing stations wishing to use it. FDM and TDM are simple, efficient alloca- tion schemes when the number of stations is small and fixed and the traffic is con- tinuous. Both are widely used under these circumstances, for example, for divid- ing up the bandwidth on telephone trunks. However, when the number of stations is large and variable or the traffic is fairly bursty—the common case in computer networks—FDM and TDM are poor choices. Numerous dynamic channel allocation algorithms have been devised. The ALOHA protocol, with and without slotting, is used in many derivatives in real systems, for example, cable modems and RFID. As an improvement when the state of the channel can be sensed, stations can avoid starting a transmission while another station is transmitting. This technique, carrier sensing, has led to a variety of CSMA protocols for LANs and MANs. It is the basis for classic Ethernet and 802.11 networks. A class of protocols that eliminates contention altogether, or at least reduces it considerably, is well known. The bitmap protocol, topologies such as rings, and the binary countdown protocol completely eliminate contention. The tree walk protocol reduces it by dynamically dividing the stations into two disjoint groups of different sizes and allowing contention only within one group; ideally that group is chosen so that only one station is ready to send when it is permitted to do so. Wireless LANs have the added problems that it is difficult to sense colliding transmissions, and that the coverage regions of stations may differ. In the dom- inant wireless LAN, IEEE 802.11, stations use CSMA/CA to mitigate the first problem by leaving small gaps to avoid collisions. The stations can also use the RTS/CTS protocol to combat hidden terminals that arise because of the second
- 374. 350 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 problem. IEEE 802.11 is commonly used to connect laptops and other devices to wireless access points, but it can also be used between devices. Any of several physical layers can be used, including multichannel FDM with and without multi- ple antennas, and spread spectrum. Like 802.11, RFID readers and tags use a random access protocol to commun- icate identifiers. Other wireless PANs and MANs have different designs. The Bluetooth system connects headsets and many kinds of peripherals to computers without wires. IEEE 802.16 provides a wide area wireless Internet data service for stationary and mobile computers. Both of these networks use a centralized, connection-oriented design in which the Bluetooth master and the WiMAX base station decide when each station may send or receive data. For 802.16, this design supports different quality of service for real-time traffic like telephone calls and interactive traffic like Web browsing. For Bluetooth, placing the complexity in the master leads to inexpensive slave devices. Ethernet is the dominant form of wired LAN. Classic Ethernet used CSMA/CD for channel allocation on a yellow cable the size of a garden hose that snaked from machine to machine. The architecture has changed as speeds have risen from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps and continue to climb. Now, point-to-point links such as twisted pair are attached to hubs and switches. With modern switches and full-duplex links, there is no contention on the links and the switch can forward frames between different ports in parallel. With buildings full of LANs, a way is needed to interconnect them all. Plug- and-play bridges are used for this purpose. The bridges are built with a backward learning algorithm and a spanning tree algorithm. Since this functionality is built into modern switches, the terms ‘‘bridge’’ and ‘‘switch’’ are used interchangeably. To help with the management of bridged LANs, VLANs let the physical topology be divided into different logical topologies. The VLAN standard, IEEE 802.1Q, introduces a new format for Ethernet frames. PROBLEMS 1. For this problem, use a formula from this chapter, but first state the formula. Frames arrive randomly at a 100-Mbps channel for transmission. If the channel is busy when a frame arrives, it waits its turn in a queue. Frame length is exponentially distributed with a mean of 10,000 bits/frame. For each of the following frame arrival rates, give the delay experienced by the average frame, including both queueing time and trans- mission time. (a) 90 frames/sec. (b) 900 frames/sec. (c) 9000 frames/sec.
- 375. CHAP. 4 PROBLEMS 351 2. A group of N stations share a 56-kbps pure ALOHA channel. Each station outputs a 1000-bit frame on average once every 100 sec, even if the previous one has not yet been sent (e.g., the stations can buffer outgoing frames). What is the maximum value of N? 3. Consider the delay of pure ALOHA versus slotted ALOHA at low load. Which one is less? Explain your answer. 4. A large population of ALOHA users manages to generate 50 requests/sec, including both originals and retransmissions. Time is slotted in units of 40 msec. (a) What is the chance of success on the first attempt? (b) What is the probability of exactly k collisions and then a success? (c) What is the expected number of transmission attempts needed? 5. In an infinite-population slotted ALOHA system, the mean number of slots a station waits between a collision and a retransmission is 4. Plot the delay versus throughput curve for this system. 6. What is the length of a contention slot in CSMA/CD for (a) a 2-km twin-lead cable (signal propagation speed is 82% of the signal propagation speed in vacuum)?, and (b) a 40-km multimode fiber optic cable (signal propagation speed is 65% of the signal propagation speed in vacuum)? 7. How long does a station, s, have to wait in the worst case before it can start trans- mitting its frame over a LAN that uses the basic bit-map protocol? 8. In the binary countdown protocol, explain how a lower-numbered station may be starved from sending a packet. 9. Sixteen stations, numbered 1 through 16, are contending for the use of a shared chan- nel by using the adaptive tree walk protocol. If all the stations whose addresses are prime numbers suddenly become ready at once, how many bit slots are needed to resolve the contention? 10. Consider five wireless stations, A, B, C, D, and E. Station A can communicate with all other stations. B can communicate with A, C and E. C can communicate with A, B and D. D can communicate with A, C and E. E can communicate A, D and B. (a) When A is sending to B, what other communications are possible? (b) When B is sending to A, what other communications are possible? (c) When B is sending to C, what other communications are possible? 11. Six stations, A through F, communicate using the MACA protocol. Is it possible for two transmissions to take place simultaneously? Explain your answer. 12. A seven-story office building has 15 adjacent offices per floor. Each office contains a wall socket for a terminal in the front wall, so the sockets form a rectangular grid in the vertical plane, with a separation of 4 m between sockets, both horizontally and vertically. Assuming that it is feasible to run a straight cable between any pair of sockets, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, how many meters of cable are needed to connect all sockets using (a) A star configuration with a single router in the middle? (b) A classic 802.3 LAN?
- 376. 352 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 13. What is the baud rate of classic 10-Mbps Ethernet? 14. Sketch the Manchester encoding on a classic Ethernet for the bit stream 0001110101. 15. A 1-km-long, 10-Mbps CSMA/CD LAN (not 802.3) has a propagation speed of 200 m/μsec. Repeaters are not allowed in this system. Data frames are 256 bits long, including 32 bits of header, checksum, and other overhead. The first bit slot after a successful transmission is reserved for the receiver to capture the channel in order to send a 32-bit acknowledgement frame. What is the effective data rate, excluding overhead, assuming that there are no collisions? 16. Two CSMA/CD stations are each trying to transmit long (multiframe) files. After each frame is sent, they contend for the channel, using the binary exponential backoff algorithm. What is the probability that the contention ends on round k, and what is the mean number of rounds per contention period? 17. An IP packet to be transmitted by Ethernet is 60 bytes long, including all its headers. If LLC is not in use, is padding needed in the Ethernet frame, and if so, how many bytes? 18. Ethernet frames must be at least 64 bytes long to ensure that the transmitter is still going in the event of a collision at the far end of the cable. Fast Ethernet has the same 64-byte minimum frame size but can get the bits out ten times faster. How is it pos- sible to maintain the same minimum frame size? 19. Some books quote the maximum size of an Ethernet frame as 1522 bytes instead of 1500 bytes. Are they wrong? Explain your answer. 20. How many frames per second can gigabit Ethernet handle? Think carefully and take into account all the relevant cases. Hint: the fact that it is gigabit Ethernet matters. 21. Name two networks that allow frames to be packed back-to-back. Why is this feature worth having? 22. In Fig. 4-27, four stations, A, B, C, and D, are shown. Which of the last two stations do you think is closest to A and why? 23. Give an example to show that the RTS/CTS in the 802.11 protocol is a little different than in the MACA protocol. 24. A wireless LAN with one AP has 10 client stations. Four stations have data rates of 6 Mbps, four stations have data rates of 18 Mbps, and the last two stations have data rates of 54 Mbps. What is the data rate experienced by each station when all ten sta- tions are sending data together, and (a) TXOP is not used? (b) TXOP is used? 25. Suppose that an 11-Mbps 802.11b LAN is transmitting 64-byte frames back-to-back over a radio channel with a bit error rate of 10−7 . How many frames per second will be damaged on average? 26. An 802.16 network has a channel width of 20 MHz. How many bits/sec can be sent to a subscriber station?
- 377. CHAP. 4 PROBLEMS 353 27. Give two reasons why networks might use an error-correcting code instead of error detection and retransmission. 28. List two ways in which WiMAX is similar to 802.11, and two ways in which it is dif- ferent from 802.11. 29. From Fig. 4-34, we see that a Bluetooth device can be in two piconets at the same time. Is there any reason why one device cannot be the master in both of them at the same time? 30. What is the maximum size of the data field for a 3-slot Bluetooth frame at basic rate? Explain your answer. 31. Figure 4-24 shows several physical layer protocols. Which of these is closest to the Bluetooth physical layer protocol? What is the biggest difference between the two? 32. It is mentioned in Section 4.6.6 that the efficiency of a 1-slot frame with repetition en- coding is about 13% at basic data rate. What will the efficiency be if a 5-slot frame with repetition encoding is used at basic data rate instead? 33. Beacon frames in the frequency hopping spread spectrum variant of 802.11 contain the dwell time. Do you think the analogous beacon frames in Bluetooth also contain the dwell time? Discuss your answer. 34. Suppose that there are 10 RFID tags around an RFID reader. What is the best value of Q? How likely is it that one tag responds with no collision in a given slot? 35. List some of the security concerns of an RFID system. 36. A switch designed for use with fast Ethernet has a backplane that can move 10 Gbps. How many frames/sec can it handle in the worst case? 37. Briefly describe the difference between store-and-forward and cut-through switches. 38. Consider the extended LAN connected using bridges B1 and B2 in Fig. 4-41(b). Sup- pose the hash tables in the two bridges are empty. List all ports on which a packet will be forwarded for the following sequence of data transmissions: (a) A sends a packet to C. (b) E sends a packet to F. (c) F sends a packet to E. (d) G sends a packet to E. (e) D sends a packet to A. (f) B sends a packet to F. 39. Store-and-forward switches have an advantage over cut-through switches with respect to damaged frames. Explain what it is. 40. It is mentioned in Section 4.8.3 that some bridges may not even be present in the span- ning tree. Outline a scenario where a bridge may not be present in the spanning tree. 41. To make VLANs work, configuration tables are needed in the bridges. What if the VLANs of Fig. 4-47 used hubs rather than switches? Do the hubs need configuration tables, too? Why or why not?
- 378. 354 THE MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL SUBLAYER CHAP. 4 42. In Fig. 4-48, the switch in the legacy end domain on the right is a VLAN-aware switch. Would it be possible to use a legacy switch there? If so, how would that work? If not, why not? 43. Write a program to simulate the behavior of the CSMA/CD protocol over Ethernet when there are N stations ready to transmit while a frame is being transmitted. Your program should report the times when each station successfully starts sending its frame. Assume that a clock tick occurs once every slot time (51.2 μsec) and a collis- ion detection and sending of a jamming sequence takes one slot time. All frames are the maximum length allowed.
- 379. 5 THE NETWORK LAYER The network layer is concerned with getting packets from the source all the way to the destination. Getting to the destination may require making many hops at intermediate routers along the way. This function clearly contrasts with that of the data link layer, which has the more modest goal of just moving frames from one end of a wire to the other. Thus, the network layer is the lowest layer that deals with end-to-end transmission. To achieve its goals, the network layer must know about the topology of the network (i.e., the set of all routers and links) and choose appropriate paths through it, even for large networks. It must also take care when choosing routes to avoid overloading some of the communication lines and routers while leaving others idle. Finally, when the source and destination are in different networks, new problems occur. It is up to the network layer to deal with them. In this chapter we will study all these issues and illustrate them, primarily using the Internet and its network layer protocol, IP. 5.1 NETWORK LAYER DESIGN ISSUES In the following sections, we will give an introduction to some of the issues that the designers of the network layer must grapple with. These issues include the service provided to the transport layer and the internal design of the network. 355
- 380. 356 THE NETWORK LAYER CHAP. 5 5.1.1 Store-and-Forward Packet Switching Before starting to explain the details of the network layer, it is worth restating the context in which the network layer protocols operate. This context can be seen in Fig. 5-1. The major components of the network are the ISP’s equipment (routers connected by transmission lines), shown inside the shaded oval, and the customers’ equipment, shown outside the oval. Host H1 is directly connected to one of the ISP’s routers, A, perhaps as a home computer that is plugged into a DSL modem. In contrast, H2 is on a LAN, which might be an office Ethernet, with a router, F, owned and operated by the customer. This router has a leased line to the ISP’s equipment. We have shown F as being outside the oval because it does not belong to the ISP. For the purposes of this chapter, however, routers on customer premises are considered part of the ISP network because they run the same algorithms as the ISP’s routers (and our main concern here is algorithms). D C B A E F Packet Process P1 Host H1 Router ISP’s equipment H2 LAN P2 Figure 5-1. The environment of the network layer protocols. This equipment is used as follows. A host with a packet to send transmits it to the nearest router, either on its own LAN or over a point-to-point link to the ISP. The packet is stored there until it has fully arrived and the link has finished its processing by verifying the checksum. Then it is forwarded to the next router along the path until it reaches the destination host, where it is delivered. This mechanism is store-and-forward packet switching, as we have seen in previous chapters. 5.1.2 Services Provided to the Transport Layer The network layer provides services to the transport layer at the network layer/transport layer interface. An important question is precisely what kind of services the network layer provides to the transport layer. The services need to be carefully designed with the following goals in mind:
- 381. SEC. 5.1 NETWORK LAYER DESIGN ISSUES 357 1. The services should be independent of the router technology. 2. The transport layer should be shielded from the number, type, and topology of the routers present. 3. The network addresses made available to the transport layer should use a uniform numbering plan, even across LANs and WANs. Given these goals, the designers of the network layer have a lot of freedom in writing detailed specifications of the services to be offered to the transport layer. This freedom often degenerates into a raging battle between two warring factions. The discussion centers on whether the network layer should provide connection- oriented service or connectionless service. One camp (represented by the Internet community) argues that the routers’ job is moving packets around and nothing else. In this view (based on 40 years of experience with a real computer network), the network is inherently unreliable, no matter how it is designed. Therefore, the hosts should accept this fact and do error control (i.e., error detection and correction) and flow control themselves. This viewpoint leads to the conclusion that the network service should be con- nectionless, with primitives SEND PACKET and RECEIVE PACKET and little else. In particular, no packet ordering and flow control should be done, because the hosts are going to do that anyway and there is usually little to be gained by doing it twice. This reasoning is an example of the end-to-end argument, a design principle that has been very influential in shaping the Internet (Saltzer et al., 1984). Furthermore, each packet must carry the full destination address, because each packet sent is carried independently of its predecessors, if any. The other camp (represented by the telephone companies) argues that the net- work should provide a reliable, connection-oriented service. They claim that 100 years of successful experience with the worldwide telephone system is an excel- lent guide. In this view, quality of service is the dominant factor, and without connections in the network, quality of service is very difficult to achieve, espe- cially for real-time traffic such as voice and video. Even after several decades, this controversy is still very much alive. Early, widely used data networks, such as X.25 in the 1970s and its successor Frame Relay in the 1980s, were connection-oriented. However, since the days of the ARPANET and the early Internet, connectionless network layers have grown tremendously in popularity. The IP protocol is now an ever-present symbol of suc- cess. It was undeterred by a connection-oriented technology called ATM that was developed to overthrow it in the 1980s; instead, it is ATM that is now found in niche uses and IP that is taking over telephone networks. Under the covers, how- ever, the Internet is evolving connection-oriented features as quality of service be- comes more important. Two examples of connection-oriented technologies are MPLS (MultiProtocol Label Switching), which we will describe in this chapter, and VLANs, which we saw in Chap. 4. Both technologies are widely used.
- 382. 358 THE NETWORK LAYER CHAP. 5 5.1.3 Implementation of Connectionless Service Having looked at the two classes of service the network layer can provide to its users, it is time to see how this layer works inside. Two different organizations are possible, depending on the type of service offered. If connectionless service is offered, packets are injected into the network individually and routed indepen- dently of each other. No advance setup is needed. In this context, the packets are frequently called datagrams (in analogy with telegrams) and the network is call- ed a datagram network. If connection-oriented service is used, a path from the source router all the way to the destination router must be established before any data packets can be sent. This connection is called a VC (virtual circuit), in an- alogy with the physical circuits set up by the telephone system, and the network is called a virtual-circuit network. In this section, we will examine datagram net- works; in the next one, we will examine virtual-circuit networks. Let us now see how a datagram network works. Suppose that the process P1 in Fig. 5-2 has a long message for P2. It hands the message to the transport layer, with instructions to deliver it to process P2 on host H2. The transport layer code runs on H1, typically within the operating system. It prepends a transport header to the front of the message and hands the result to the network layer, probably just another procedure within the operating system. E’s table C’s table A’s table (initially) A’s table (later) Dest. Line D C B A E F Packet Process P1 Host H1 Router ISP’s equipment H2 LAN P2 4 2 3 1 A B B – C C D B E C F C A B B – C C D B E B F B A B A A C – D E E E F E A B D C C C D D E – F F Figure 5-2. Routing within a datagram network. Let us assume for this example that the message is four times longer than the maximum packet size, so the network layer has to break it into four packets, 1, 2,
- 383. SEC. 5.1 NETWORK LAYER DESIGN ISSUES 359 3, and 4, and send each of them in turn to router A using some point-to-point pro- tocol, for example, PPP. At this point the ISP takes over. Every router has an in- ternal table telling it where to send packets for each of the possible destinations. Each table entry is a pair consisting of a destination and the outgoing line to use for that destination. Only directly connected lines can be used. For example, in Fig. 5-2, A has only two outgoing lines—to B and to C—so every incoming packet must be sent to one of these routers, even if the ultimate destination is to some other router. A’s initial routing table is shown in the figure under the label ‘‘ini- tially.’’ At A, packets 1, 2, and 3 are stored briefly, having arrived on the incoming link and had their checksums verified. Then each packet is forwarded according to A’s table, onto the outgoing link to C within a new frame. Packet 1 is then for- warded to E and then to F. When it gets to F, it is sent within a frame over the LAN to H2. Packets 2 and 3 follow the same route. However, something different happens to packet 4. When it gets to A it is sent to router B, even though it is also destined for F. For some reason, A decided to send packet 4 via a different route than that of the first three packets. Perhaps it has learned of a traffic jam somewhere along the ACE path and updated its rout- ing table, as shown under the label ‘‘later.’’ The algorithm that manages the tables and makes the routing decisions is called the routing algorithm. Routing algo- rithms are one of the main topics we will study in this chapter. There are several different kinds of them, as we will see. IP (Internet Protocol), which is the basis for the entire Internet, is the dom- inant example of a connectionless network service. Each packet carries a destina- tion IP address that routers use to individually forward each packet. The addresses are 32 bits in IPv4 packets and 128 bits in IPv6 packets. We will describe IP in much detail later in this chapter. 5.1.4 Implementation of Connection-Oriented Service For connection-oriented service, we need a virtual-circuit network. Let us see how that works. The idea behind virtual circuits is to avoid having to choose a new route for every packet sent, as in Fig. 5-2. Instead, when a connection is es- tablished, a route from the source machine to the destination machine is chosen as part of the connection setup and stored in tables inside the routers. That route is used for all traffic flowing over the connection, exactly the same way that the telephone system works. When the connection is released, the virtual circuit is also terminated. With connection-oriented service, each packet carries an identi- fier telling which virtual circuit it belongs to. As an example, consider the situation shown in Fig. 5-3. Here, host H1 has established connection 1 with host H2. This connection is remembered as the first entry in each of the routing tables. The first line of A’s table says that if a packet
- 384. 360 THE NETWORK LAYER CHAP. 5 bearing connection identifier 1 comes in from H1, it is to be sent to router C and given connection identifier 1. Similarly, the first entry at C routes the packet to E, also with connection identifier 1. A’s table In Out D C B E F Packet Router ISP’s equipment H2 LAN P2 2 4 3 1 H1 H3 1 1 A Process P1 Host H1 P3 H3 C C 2 1 C’s table A A 2 1 E E 2 1 E’s table C C 2 1 F F 2 1 Figure 5-3. Routing within a virtual-circuit network. Now let us consider what happens if H3 also wants to establish a connection to H2. It chooses connection identifier 1 (because it is initiating the connection and this is its only connection) and tells the network to establish the virtual circuit. This leads to the second row in the tables. Note that we have a conflict here be- cause although A can easily distinguish connection 1 packets from H1 from con- nection 1 packets from H3, C cannot do this. For this reason, A assigns a different connection identifier to the outgoing traffic for the second connection. Avoiding conflicts of this kind is why routers need the ability to replace connection identi- fiers in outgoing packets. In some contexts, this process is called label switching. An example of a connection-oriented network service is MPLS (MultiProtocol Label Switching). It is used within ISP networks in the Internet, with IP packets wrapped in an MPLS header having a 20-bit connection identifier or label. MPLS is often hid- den from customers, with the ISP establishing long-term connections for large amounts of traffic, but it is increasingly being used to help when quality of service is important but also with other ISP traffic management tasks. We will have more to say about MPLS later in this chapter.
- 385. SEC. 5.1 NETWORK LAYER DESIGN ISSUES 361 5.1.5 Comparison of Virtual-Circuit and Datagram Networks Both virtual circuits and datagrams have their supporters and their detractors. We will now attempt to summarize both sets of arguments. The major issues are listed in Fig. 5-4, although purists could probably find a counterexample for everything in the figure. Issue Datagram network Virtual-circuit network Circuit setup Not needed Required Addressing Each packet contains the full source and destination address Each packet contains a short VC number State information Routers do not hold state information about connections Each VC requires router table space per connection Routing Each packet is routed independently Route chosen when VC is set up; all packets follow it Effect of router failures None, except for packets lost during the crash All VCs that passed through the failed router are terminated Quality of service Difficult Easy if enough resources can be allocated in advance for each VC Congestion control Difficult Easy if enough resources can be allocated in advance for each VC Figure 5-4. Comparison of datagram and virtual-circuit networks. Inside the network, several trade-offs exist between virtual circuits and data- grams. One trade-off is setup time versus address parsing time. Using virtual cir- cuits requires a setup phase, which takes time and consumes resources. However, once this price is paid, figuring out what to do with a data packet in a virtual-cir- cuit network is easy: the router just uses the circuit number to index into a table to find out where the packet goes. In a datagram network, no setup is needed but a more complicated lookup procedure is required to locate the entry for the destina- tion. A related issue is that the destination addresses used in datagram networks are longer than circuit numbers used in virtual-circuit networks because they have a global meaning. If the packets tend to be fairly short, including a full destination address in every packet may represent a significant amount of overhead, and hence a waste of bandwidth. Yet another issue is the amount of table space required in router memory. A datagram network needs to have an entry for every possible destination, whereas a virtual-circuit network just needs an entry for each virtual circuit. However, this
- 386. 362 THE NETWORK LAYER CHAP. 5 advantage is somewhat illusory since connection setup packets have to be routed too, and they use destination addresses, the same as datagrams do. Virtual circuits have some advantages in guaranteeing quality of service and avoiding congestion within the network because resources (e.g., buffers, band- width, and CPU cycles) can be reserved in advance, when the connection is estab- lished. Once the packets start arriving, the necessary bandwidth and router capac- ity will be there. With a datagram network, congestion avoidance is more diffi- cult. For transaction processing systems (e.g., stores calling up to verify credit card purchases), the overhead required to set up and clear a virtual circuit may easily dwarf the use of the circuit. If the majority of the traffic is expected to be of this kind, the use of virtual circuits inside the network makes little sense. On the other hand, for long-running uses such as VPN traffic between two corporate offices, permanent virtual circuits (that are set up manually and last for months or years) may be useful. Virtual circuits also have a vulnerability problem. If a router crashes and loses its memory, even if it comes back up a second later, all the virtual circuits passing through it will have to be aborted. In contrast, if a datagram router goes down, only those users whose packets were queued in the router at the time need suffer (and probably not even then since the sender is likely to retransmit them shortly). The loss of a communication line is fatal to virtual circuits using it, but can easily be compensated for if datagrams are used. Datagrams also allow the routers to balance the traffic throughout the network, since routes can be changed partway through a long sequence of packet transmissions. 5.2 ROUTING ALGORITHMS The main function of the network layer is routing packets from the source ma- chine to the destination machine. In most networks, packets will require multiple hops to make the journey. The only notable exception is for broadcast networks, but even here routing is an issue if the source and destination are not on the same network segment. The algorithms that choose the routes and the data structures that they use are a major area of network layer design. The routing algorithm is that part of the network layer software responsible for deciding which output line an incoming packet should be transmitted on. If the network uses datagrams internally, this decision must be made anew for every arriving data packet since the best route may have changed since last time. If the network uses virtual circuits internally, routing decisions are made only when a new virtual circuit is being set up. Thereafter, data packets just follow the already established route. The latter case is sometimes called session routing because a route remains in force for an entire session (e.g., while logged in over a VPN).
- 387. SEC. 5.2 ROUTING ALGORITHMS 363 It is sometimes useful to make a distinction between routing, which is making the decision which routes to use, and forwarding, which is what happens when a packet arrives. One can think of a router as having two processes inside it. One of them handles each packet as it arrives, looking up the outgoing line to use for it in the routing tables. This process is forwarding. The other process is responsi- ble for filling in and updating the routing tables. That is where the routing algo- rithm comes into play. Regardless of whether routes are chosen independently for each packet sent or only when new connections are established, certain properties are desirable in a routing algorithm: correctness, simplicity, robustness, stability, fairness, and effi- ciency. Correctness and simplicity hardly require comment, but the need for robustness may be less obvious at first. Once a major network comes on the air, it may be expected to run continuously for years without system-wide failures. Dur- ing that period there will be hardware and software failures of all kinds. Hosts, routers, and lines will fail repeatedly, and the topology will change many times. The routing algorithm should be able to cope with changes in the topology and traffic without requiring all jobs in all hosts to be aborted. Imagine the havoc if the network needed to be rebooted every time some router crashed! Stability is also an important goal for the routing algorithm. There exist rout- ing algorithms that never converge to a fixed set of paths, no matter how long they run. A stable algorithm reaches equilibrium and stays there. It should converge quickly too, since communication may be disrupted until the routing algorithm has reached equilibrium. Fairness and efficiency may sound obvious—surely no reasonable person would oppose them—but as it turns out, they are often contradictory goals. As a simple example of this conflict, look at Fig. 5-5. Suppose that there is enough traffic between A and A′, between B and B′, and between C and C′ to saturate the horizontal links. To maximize the total flow, the X to X′ traffic should be shut off altogether. Unfortunately, X and X′ may not see it that way. Evidently, some compromise between global efficiency and fairness to individual connections is needed. Before we can even attempt to find trade-offs between fairness and efficiency, we must decide what it is we seek to optimize. Minimizing the mean packet delay is an obvious candidate to send traffic through the network effectively, but so is maximizing total network throughput. Furthermore, these two goals are also in conflict, since operating any queueing system near capacity implies a long queue- ing delay. As a compromise, many networks attempt to minimize the distance a packet must travel, or simply reduce the number of hops a packet must make. Ei- ther choice tends to improve the delay and also reduce the amount of bandwidth consumed per packet, which tends to improve the overall network throughput as well. Routing algorithms can be grouped into two major classes: nonadaptive and adaptive. Nonadaptive algorithms do not base their routing decisions on any
- 388. 364 THE NETWORK LAYER CHAP. 5 X X′ A B C A' B' C' Figure 5-5. Network with a conflict between fairness and efficiency. measurements or estimates of the current topology and traffic. Instead, the choice of the route to use to get from I to J (for all I and J) is computed in advance, off- line, and downloaded to the routers when the network is booted. This procedure is sometimes called static routing. Because it does not respond to failures, static routing is mostly useful for situations in which the routing choice is clear. For ex- ample, router F in Fig. 5-3 should send packets headed into the network to router E regardless of the ultimate destination. Adaptive algorithms, in contrast, change their routing decisions to reflect changes in the topology, and sometimes changes in the traffic as well. These dynamic routing algorithms differ in where they get their information (e.g., locally, from adjacent routers, or from all routers), when they change the routes (e.g., when the topology changes, or every ΔT seconds as the load changes), and what metric is used for optimization (e.g., distance, number of hops, or estimated transit time). In the following sections, we will discuss a variety of routing algorithms. The algorithms cover delivery models besides sending a packet from a source to a destination. Sometimes the goal is to send the packet to multiple, all, or one of a set of destinations. All of the routing algorithms we describe here make decisions based on the topology; we defer the possibility of decisions based on the traffic levels to Sec 5.3. 5.2.1 The Optimality Principle Before we get into specific algorithms, it may be helpful to note that one can make a general statement about optimal routes without regard to network topo- logy or traffic. This statement is known as the optimality principle (Bellman, 1957). It states that if router J is on the optimal path from router I to router K,
- 389. SEC. 5.2 ROUTING ALGORITHMS 365 then the optimal path from J to K also falls along the same route. To see this, call the part of the route from I to J r1 and the rest of the route r2. If a route better than r2 existed from J to K, it could be concatenated with r1 to improve the route from I to K, contradicting our statement that r1r2 is optimal. As a direct consequence of the optimality principle, we can see that the set of optimal routes from all sources to a given destination form a tree rooted at the destination. Such a tree is called a sink tree and is illustrated in Fig. 5-6(b), where the distance metric is the number of hops. The goal of all routing algo- rithms is to discover and use the sink trees for all routers. B A F D E C J N O I H G L M K (a) B A F D E C J N O I H G L M K (b) Figure 5-6. (a) A network. (b) A sink tree for router B. Note that a sink tree is not necessarily unique; other trees with the same path lengths may exist. If we allow all of the possible paths to be chosen, the tree be- comes a more general structure called a DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph). DAGs have no loops. We will use sink trees as a convenient shorthand for both cases. Both cases also depend on the technical assumption that the paths do not interfere with each other so, for example, a traffic jam on one path will not cause another path to divert. Since a sink tree is indeed a tree, it does not contain any loops, so each packet will be delivered within a finite and bounded number of hops. In practice, life is not quite this easy. Links and routers can go down and come back up during oper- ation, so different routers may have different ideas about the current topology. Also, we have quietly finessed the issue of whether each router has to individually acquire the information on which to base its sink tree computation or whether this information is collected by some other means. We will come back to these issues shortly. Nevertheless, the optimality principle and the sink tree provide a bench- mark against which other routing algorithms can be measured.
- 390. 366 THE NETWORK LAYER CHAP. 5 5.2.2 Shortest Path Algorithm Let us begin our study of routing algorithms with a simple technique for com- puting optimal paths given a complete picture of the network. These paths are the ones that we want a distributed routing algorithm to find, even though not all rout- ers may know all of the details of the network. The idea is to build a graph of the network, with each node of the graph representing a router and each edge of the graph representing a communication line, or link. To choose a route between a given pair of routers, the algorithm just finds the shortest path between them on the graph. The concept of a shortest path deserves some explanation. One way of measuring path length is the number of hops. Using this metric, the paths ABC and ABE in Fig. 5-7 are equally long. Another metric is the geographic distance in kilometers, in which case ABC is clearly much longer than ABE (assuming the figure is drawn to scale). A D 1 2 6 G 4 (a) F (∞, −) D (∞,−) A B 7 C 2 H 3 3 2 2 F E 1 2 2 6 G 4 A (c) A B (2, A) C (9, B) H (∞, −) E (4, B) G (6, A) F (6, E) D (∞,−) A (e) A B (2, A) C (9, B) H (9, G) E (4, B) G (5, E) F (6,E) D (∞,−) A (f) A B (2, A) C (9, B) H (8, F) E (4, B) G (5, E) F (6, E) D (∞,1) A (d) A B (2, A) C (9, B) H (∞, −) E (4, B) G (5, E) F (∞, −) D (∞, −) A H E G (b) B (2, A) C (∞, −) H (∞, −) E (∞, −) G (6, A) Figure 5-7. The first six steps used in computing the shortest path from A to D. The arrows indicate the working node.
- 391. SEC. 5.2 ROUTING ALGORITHMS 367 However, many other metrics besides hops and physical distance are also pos- sible. For example, each edge could be labeled with the mean delay of a standard test packet, as measured by hourly runs. With this graph labeling, the shortest path is the fastest path rather than the path with the fewest edges or kilometers. In the general case, the labels on the edges could be computed as a function of the distance, bandwidth, average traffic, communication cost, measured delay, and other factors. By changing the weighting function, the algorithm would then compute the ‘‘shortest’’ path measured according to any one of a number of cri- teria or to a combination of criteria. Several algorithms for computing the shortest path between two nodes of a graph are known. This one is due to Dijkstra (1959) and finds the shortest paths between a source and all destinations in the network. Each node is labeled (in parentheses) with its distance from the source node along the best known path. The distances must be non-negative, as they will be if they are based on real quan- tities like bandwidth and delay. Initially, no paths are known, so all nodes are labeled with infinity. As the algorithm proceeds and paths are found, the labels may change, reflecting better paths. A label may be either tentative or permanent. Initially, all labels are tentative. When it is discovered that a label represents the shortest possible path from the source to that node, it is made permanent and never changed thereafter. To illustrate how the labeling algorithm works, look at the weighted, undirected graph of Fig. 5-7(a), where the weights represent, for example, dis- tance. We want to find the shortest path from A to D. We start out by marking node A as permanent, indicated by a filled-in circle. Then we examine, in turn, each of the nodes adjacent to A (the working node), relabeling each one with the distance to A. Whenever a node is relabeled, we also label it with the node from which the probe was made so that we can reconstruct the final path later. If the network had more than one shortest path from A to D and we wanted to find all of them, we would need to remember all of the probe nodes that could reach a node with the same distance. Having examined each of the nodes adjacent to A, we examine all the tenta- tively labeled nodes in the whole graph and make the one with the smallest label permanent, as shown in Fig. 5-7(b). This one becomes the new working node. We now start at B and examine all nodes adjacent to it. If the sum of the label on B and the distance from B to the node being considered is less than the label on that node, we have a shorter path, so the node is relabeled. After all the nodes adjacent to the working node have been inspected and the tentative labels changed if possible, the entire graph is searched for the tentatively labeled node with the smallest value. This node is made permanent and becomes the working node for the next round. Figure 5-7 shows the first six steps of the al- gorithm. To see why the algorithm works, look at Fig. 5-7(c). At this point we have just made E permanent. Suppose that there were a shorter path than ABE, say
- 392. 368 THE NETWORK LAYER CHAP. 5 AXYZE (for some X and Y). There are two possibilities: either node Z has already been made permanent, or it has not been. If it has, then E has already been probed (on the round following the one when Z was made permanent), so the AXYZE path has not escaped our attention and thus cannot be a shorter path. Now consider the case where Z is still tentatively labeled. If the label at Z is greater than or equal to that at E, then AXYZE cannot be a shorter path than ABE. If the label is less than that of E, then Z and not E will become permanent first, al- lowing E to be probed from Z. This algorithm is given in Fig. 5-8. The global variables n and dist describe the graph and are initialized before shortest path is called. The only difference between the program and the algorithm described above is that in Fig. 5-8, we compute the shortest path starting at the terminal node, t, rather than at the source node, s. Since the shortest paths from t to s in an undirected graph are the same as the shortest paths from s to t, it does not matter at which end we begin. The reason for searching backward is that each node is labeled with its predecessor rather than its successor. When the final path is copied into the output variable, path, the path is thus reversed. The two reversal effects cancel, and the answer is pro- duced in the correct order. 5.2.3 Flooding When a routing algorithm is implemented, each router must make decisions based on local knowledge, not the complete picture of the network. A simple local technique is flooding, in which every incoming packet is sent out on every outgoing line except the one it arrived on. Flooding obviously generates vast numbers of duplicate packets, in fact, an infinite number unless some measures are taken to damp the process. One such measure is to have a hop counter contained in the header of each packet that is decremented at each hop, with the packet being discarded when the counter reaches zero. Ideally, the hop counter should be initialized to the length of the path from source to destination. If the sender does not know how long the path is, it can initialize the counter to the worst case, namely, the full diameter of the net- work. Flooding with a hop count can produce an exponential number of duplicate packets as the hop count grows and routers duplicate packets they have seen be- fore. A better technique for damming the flood is to have routers keep track of which packets have been flooded, to avoid sending them out a second time. One way to achieve this goal is to have the source router put a sequence number in each packet it receives from its hosts. Each router then needs a list per source router telling which sequence numbers originating at that source have already been seen. If an incoming packet is on the list, it is not flooded.
- 393. SEC. 5.2 ROUTING ALGORITHMS 369 #define MAX NODES 1024 /* maximum number of nodes */ #define INFINITY 1000000000 /* a number larger than every maximum path */ int n, dist[MAX NODES][MAX NODES]; /* dist[i][j] is the distance from i to j */ void shortest path(int s, int t, int path[]) { struct state { /* the path being worked on */ int predecessor; /* previous node */ int length; /* length from source to this node */ enum {permanent, tentative} label; /* label state */ } state[MAX NODES]; int i, k, min; struct state *p; for (p = &state[0]; p < &state[n]; p++) { /* initialize state */ p->predecessor = −1; p->length = INFINITY; p->label = tentative; } state[t].length = 0; state[t].label = permanent; k = t; /* k is the initial working node */ do { /* Is there a better path from k? */ for (i = 0; i < n; i++) /* this graph has n nodes */ if (dist[k][i] != 0 && state[i].label == tentative) { if (state[k].length + dist[k][i] < state[i].length) { state[i].predecessor = k; state[i].length = state[k].length + dist[k][i]; } } /* Find the tentatively labeled node with the smallest label. */ k = 0; min = INFINITY; for (i = 0; i < n; i++) if (state[i].label == tentative && state[i].length < min) { min = state[i].length; k = i; } state[k].label = permanent; } while (k != s); /* Copy the path into the output array. */ i = 0; k = s; do {path[i++] = k; k = state[k].predecessor; } while (k >= 0); } Figure 5-8. Dijkstra’s algorithm to compute the shortest path through a graph. To prevent the list from growing without bound, each list should be aug- mented by a counter, k, meaning that all sequence numbers through k have been seen. When a packet comes in, it is easy to check if the packet has already been
- 394. 370 THE NETWORK LAYER CHAP. 5 flooded (by comparing its sequence number to k; if so, it is discarded. Further- more, the full list below k is not needed, since k effectively summarizes it. Flooding is not practical for sending most packets, but it does have some im- portant uses. First, it ensures that a packet is delivered to every node in the net- work. This may be wasteful if there is a single destination that needs the packet, but it is effective for broadcasting information. In wireless networks, all mes- sages transmitted by a station can be received by all other stations within its radio range, which is, in fact, flooding, and some algorithms utilize this property. Second, flooding is tremendously robust. Even if large numbers of routers are blown to bits (e.g., in a military network located in a war zone), flooding will find a path if one exists, to get a packet to its destination. Flooding also requires little in the way of setup. The routers only need to know their neighbors. This means that flooding can be used as a building block for other routing algorithms that are more efficient but need more in the way of setup. Flooding can also be used as a metric against which other routing algorithms can be compared. Flooding always chooses the shortest path because it chooses every possible path in parallel. Con- sequently, no other algorithm can produce a shorter delay (if we ignore the over- head generated by the flooding process itself). 5.2.4 Distance Vector Routing Computer networks generally use dynamic routing algorithms that are more complex than flooding, but more efficient because they find shortest paths for the current topology. Two dynamic algorithms in particular, distance vector routing and link state routing, are the most popular. In this section, we will look at the former algorithm. In the following section, we will study the latter algorithm. A distance vector routing algorithm operates by having each router maintain a table (i.e., a vector) giving the best known distance to each destination and which link to use to get there. These tables are updated by exchanging infor- mation with the neighbors. Eventually, every router knows the best link to reach each destination. The distance vector routing algorithm is sometimes called by other names, most commonly the distributed Bellman-Ford routing algorithm, after the re- searchers who developed it (Bellman, 1957; and Ford and Fulkerson, 1962). It was the original ARPANET routing algorithm and was also used in the Internet under the name RIP. In distance vector routing, each router maintains a routing table indexed by, and containing one entry for each router in the network. This entry has two parts: the preferred outgoing line to use for that destination and an estimate of the dis- tance to that destination. The distance might be measured as the number of hops or using another metric, as we discussed for computing shortest paths. The router is assumed to know the ‘‘distance’’ to each of its neighbors. If the metric is hops, the distance is just one hop. If the metric is propagation delay, the
- 395. SEC. 5.2 ROUTING ALGORITHMS 371 router can measure it directly with special ECHO packets that the receiver just timestamps and sends back as fast as it can. As an example, assume that delay is used as a metric and that the router knows the delay to each of its neighbors. Once every T msec, each router sends to each neighbor a list of its estimated delays to each destination. It also receives a similar list from each neighbor. Imagine that one of these tables has just come in from neighbor X, with Xi being X’s estimate of how long it takes to get to router i. If the router knows that the delay to X is m msec, it also knows that it can reach router i via X in Xi + m msec. By performing this calculation for each neighbor, a router can find out which estimate seems the best and use that estimate and the corresponding link in its new routing table. Note that the old routing table is not used in the calculation. This updating process is illustrated in Fig. 5-9. Part (a) shows a network. The first four columns of part (b) show the delay vectors received from the neighbors of router J. A claims to have a 12-msec delay to B, a 25-msec delay to C, a 40- msec delay to D, etc. Suppose that J has measured or estimated its delay to its neighbors, A, I, H, and K, as 8, 10, 12, and 6 msec, respectively. (a) A B C D E I J K L F G H Router 0 12 25 40 14 23 18 17 21 9 24 29 24 36 18 27 7 20 31 20 0 11 22 33 20 31 19 8 30 19 6 0 14 7 22 9 21 28 36 24 22 40 31 19 22 10 0 9 8 20 28 20 17 30 18 12 10 0 6 15 A A I H I I H H I − K K To A I H K Line New estimated delay from J A B C D E F G H I J K L JA JI JH JK delay delay delay delay is is is is 8 10 12 6 New routing table for J Vectors received from J's four neighbors (b) Figure 5-9. (a) A network. (b) Input from A, I, H, K, and the new routing table for J. Consider how J computes its new route to router G. It knows that it can get to A in 8 msec, and furthermore A claims to be able to get to G in 18 msec, so J knows it can count on a delay of 26 msec to G if it forwards packets bound for G
- 396. 372 THE NETWORK LAYER CHAP. 5 to A. Similarly, it computes the delay to G via I, H, and K as 41 (31 + 10), 18 (6 + 12), and 37 (31 + 6) msec, respectively. The best of these values is 18, so it makes an entry in its routing table that the delay to G is 18 msec and that the route to use is via H. The same calculation is performed for all the other destinations, with the new routing table shown in the last column of the figure. The Count-to-Infinity Problem The settling of routes to best paths across the network is called convergence. Distance vector routing is useful as a simple technique by which routers can col- lectively compute shortest paths, but it has a serious drawback in practice: al- though it converges to the correct answer, it may do so slowly. In particular, it reacts rapidly to good news, but leisurely to bad news. Consider a router whose best route to destination X is long. If, on the next exchange, neighbor A suddenly reports a short delay to X, the router just switches over to using the line to A to send traffic to X. In one vector exchange, the good news is processed. To see how fast good news propagates, consider the five-node (linear) net- work of Fig. 5-10, where the delay metric is the number of hops. Suppose A is down initially and all the other routers know this. In other words, they have all recorded the delay to A as infinity. A B C D E • • • • • • • • • • 4 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 Initially After 1 exchange After 2 exchanges After 3 exchanges After 4 exchanges A B C D E 1 2 3 4 • • • • 2 3 4 3 4 4 6 3 3 5 5 4 4 6 5 5 6 7 6 7 8 7 8 7 Initially After 1 exchange After 2 exchanges After 3 exchanges After 4 exchanges After 5 exchanges After 6 exchanges . . . (a) (b) Figure 5-10. The count-to-infinity problem. When A comes up, the other routers learn about it via the vector exchanges. For simplicity, we will assume that there is a gigantic gong somewhere that is struck periodically to initiate a vector exchange at all routers simultaneously. At the time of the first exchange, B learns that its left-hand neighbor has zero delay to A. B now makes an entry in its routing table indicating that A is one hop away to the left. All the other routers still think that A is down. At this point, the rout- ing table entries for A are as shown in the second row of Fig. 5-10(a). On the next
- 397. SEC. 5.2 ROUTING ALGORITHMS 373 exchange, C learns that B has a path of length 1 to A, so it updates its routing table to indicate a path of length 2, but D and E do not hear the good news until later. Clearly, the good news is spreading at the rate of one hop per exchange. In a net- work whose longest path is of length N hops, within N exchanges everyone will know about newly revived links and routers. Now let us consider the situation of Fig. 5-10(b), in which all the links and routers are initially up. Routers B, C, D, and E have distances to A of 1, 2, 3, and 4 hops, respectively. Suddenly, either A goes down or the link between A and B is cut (which is effectively the same thing from B’s point of view). At the first packet exchange, B does not hear anything from A. Fortunately, C says ‘‘Do not worry; I have a path to A of length 2.’’ Little does B suspect that C’s path runs through B itself. For all B knows, C might have ten links all with sepa- rate paths to A of length 2. As a result, B thinks it can reach A via C, with a path length of 3. D and E do not update their entries for A on the first exchange. On the second exchange, C notices that each of its neighbors claims to have a path to A of length 3. It picks one of them at random and makes its new distance to A 4, as shown in the third row of Fig. 5-10(b). Subsequent exchanges produce the history shown in the rest of Fig. 5-10(b). From this figure, it should be clear why bad news travels slowly: no router ever has a value more than one higher than the minimum of all its neighbors. Gradually, all routers work their way up to infinity, but the number of exchanges required depends on the numerical value used for infinity. For this reason, it is wise to set infinity to the longest path plus 1. Not entirely surprisingly, this problem is known as the count-to-infinity prob- lem. There have been many attempts to solve it, for example, preventing routers from advertising their best paths back to the neighbors from which they heard them with the split horizon with poisoned reverse rule discussed in RFC 1058. However, none of these heuristics work well in practice despite the colorful names. The core of the problem is that when X tells Y that it has a path some- where, Y has no way of knowing whether it itself is on the path. 5.2.5 Link State Routing Distance vector routing was used in the ARPANET until 1979, when it was replaced by link state routing. The primary problem that caused its demise was that the algorithm often took too long to converge after the network topology changed (due to the count-to-infinity problem). Consequently, it was replaced by an entirely new algorithm, now called link state routing. Variants of link state routing called IS-IS and OSPF are the routing algorithms that are most widely used inside large networks and the Internet today. The idea behind link state routing is fairly simple and can be stated as five parts. Each router must do the following things to make it work:
- 398. 374 THE NETWORK LAYER CHAP. 5 1. Discover its neighbors and learn their network addresses. 2. Set the distance or cost metric to each of its neighbors. 3. Construct a packet telling all it has just learned. 4. Send this packet to and receive packets from all other routers. 5. Compute the shortest path to every other router. In effect, the complete topology is distributed to every router. Then Dijkstra’s al- gorithm can be run at each router to find the shortest path to every other router. Below we will consider each of these five steps in more detail. Learning about the Neighbors When a router is booted, its first task is to learn who its neighbors are. It accomplishes this goal by sending a special HELLO packet on each point-to-point line. The router on the other end is expected to send back a reply giving its name. These names must be globally unique because when a distant router later hears that three routers are all connected to F, it is essential that it can determine wheth- er all three mean the same F. When two or more routers are connected by a broadcast link (e.g., a switch, ring, or classic Ethernet), the situation is slightly more complicated. Fig. 5-11(a) illustrates a broadcast LAN to which three routers, A, C, and F, are directly con- nected. Each of these routers is connected to one or more additional routers, as shown. Router A B C D E C D E H I F G G H I F N A B LAN (a) (b) Figure 5-11. (a) Nine routers and a broadcast LAN. (b) A graph model of (a). The broadcast LAN provides connectivity between each pair of attached rout- ers. However, modeling the LAN as many point-to-point links increases the size
- 399. SEC. 5.2 ROUTING ALGORITHMS 375 of the topology and leads to wasteful messages. A better way to model the LAN is to consider it as a node itself, as shown in Fig. 5-11(b). Here, we have intro- duced a new, artificial node, N, to which A, C, and F are connected. One desig- nated router on the LAN is selected to play the role of N in the routing protocol. The fact that it is possible to go from A to C on the LAN is represented by the path ANC here. Setting Link Costs The link state routing algorithm requires each link to have a distance or cost metric for finding shortest paths. The cost to reach neighbors can be set automat- ically, or configured by the network operator. A common choice is to make the cost inversely proportional to the bandwidth of the link. For example, 1-Gbps Ethernet may have a cost of 1 and 100-Mbps Ethernet a cost of 10. This makes higher-capacity paths better choices. If the network is geographically spread out, the delay of the links may be fac- tored into the cost so that paths over shorter links are better choices. The most direct way to determine this delay is to send over the line a special ECHO packet that the other side is required to send back immediately. By measuring the round-trip time and dividing it by two, the sending router can get a reasonable estimate of the delay. Building Link State Packets Once the information needed for the exchange has been collected, the next step is for each router to build a packet containing all the data. The packet starts with the identity of the sender, followed by a sequence number and age (to be de- scribed later) and a list of neighbors. The cost to each neighbor is also given. An example network is presented in Fig. 5-12(a) with costs shown as labels on the lines. The corresponding link state packets for all six routers are shown in Fig. 5- 12(b). B C E F A D 6 1 2 8 5 7 4 3 (a) A Seq. Age B C D E F B 4 E 5 Seq. Age A 4 C 2 Seq. Age B 2 D 3 Seq. Age C 3 F 7 Seq. Age A 5 C 1 Seq. Age B 6 D 7 F 6 E 1 F 8 E 8 Link State Packets (b) Figure 5-12. (a) A network. (b) The link state packets for this network.
- 400. 376 THE NETWORK LAYER CHAP. 5 Building the link state packets is easy. The hard part is determining when to build them. One possibility is to build them periodically, that is, at regular inter- vals. Another possibility is to build them when some significant event occurs, such as a line or neighbor going down or coming back up again or changing its properties appreciably. Distributing the Link State Packets The trickiest part of the algorithm is distributing the link state packets. All of the routers must get all of the link state packets quickly and reliably. If different routers are using different versions of the topology, the routes they compute can have inconsistencies such as loops, unreachable machines, and other problems. First, we will describe the basic distribution algorithm. After that we will give some refinements. The fundamental idea is to use flooding to distribute the link state packets to all routers. To keep the flood in check, each packet contains a sequence number that is incremented for each new packet sent. Routers keep track of all the (source router, sequence) pairs they see. When a new link state packet comes in, it is checked against the list of packets already seen. If it is new, it is forwarded on all lines except the one it arrived on. If it is a duplicate, it is discarded. If a packet with a sequence number lower than the highest one seen so far ever arrives, it is rejected as being obsolete as the router has more recent data. This algorithm has a few problems, but they are manageable. First, if the se- quence numbers wrap around, confusion will reign. The solution here is to use a 32-bit sequence number. With one link state packet per second, it would take 137 years to wrap around, so this possibility can be ignored. Second, if a router ever crashes, it will lose track of its sequence number. If it starts again at 0, the next packet it sends will be rejected as a duplicate. Third, if a sequence number is ever corrupted and 65,540 is received instead of 4 (a 1-bit error), packets 5 through 65,540 will be rejected as obsolete, since the current sequence number will be thought to be 65,540. The solution to all these problems is to include the age of each packet after the sequence number and decrement it once per second. When the age hits zero, the information from that router is discarded. Normally, a new packet comes in, say, every 10 sec, so router information only times out when a router is down (or six consecutive packets have been lost, an unlikely event). The Age field is also decremented by each router during the initial flooding process, to make sure no packet can get lost and live for an indefinite period of time (a packet whose age is zero is discarded). Some refinements to this algorithm make it more robust. When a link state packet comes in to a router for flooding, it is not queued for transmission im- mediately. Instead, it is put in a holding area to wait a short while in case more links are coming up or going down. If another link state packet from the same source comes in before the first packet is transmitted, their sequence numbers are
- 401. SEC. 5.2 ROUTING ALGORITHMS 377 compared. If they are equal, the duplicate is discarded. If they are different, the older one is thrown out. To guard against errors on the links, all link state packets are acknowledged. The data structure used by router B for the network shown in Fig. 5-12(a) is depicted in Fig. 5-13. Each row here corresponds to a recently arrived, but as yet not fully processed, link state packet. The table records where the packet ori- ginated, its sequence number and age, and the data. In addition, there are send and acknowledgement flags for each of B’s three links (to A, C, and F, re- spectively). The send flags mean that the packet must be sent on the indicated link. The acknowledgement flags mean that it must be acknowledged there. D 21 59 1 0 0 0 1 1 C 20 60 1 0 1 0 1 0 E 21 59 0 1 0 1 0 1 F 21 60 1 1 0 0 0 1 A 21 60 0 1 1 1 0 0 Source Seq. Age A C F A C F Data Send flags ACK flags Figure 5-13. The packet buffer for router B in Fig. 5-12(a). In Fig. 5-13, the link state packet from A arrives directly, so it must be sent to C and F and acknowledged to A, as indicated by the flag bits. Similarly, the pack- et from F has to be forwarded to A and C and acknowledged to F. However, the situation with the third packet, from E, is different. It arrives twice, once via EAB and once via EFB. Consequently, it has to be sent only to C but must be acknowledged to both A and F, as indicated by the bits. If a duplicate arrives while the original is still in the buffer, bits have to be changed. For example, if a copy of C’s state arrives from F before the fourth entry in the table has been forwarded, the six bits will be changed to 100011 to in- dicate that the packet must be acknowledged to F but not sent there. Computing the New Routes Once a router has accumulated a full set of link state packets, it can construct the entire network graph because every link is represented. Every link is, in fact, represented twice, once for each direction. The different directions may even have different costs. The shortest-path computations may then find different paths from router A to B than from router B to A. Now Dijkstra’s algorithm can be run locally to construct the shortest paths to all possible destinations. The results of this algorithm tell the router which link to
- 402. 378 THE NETWORK LAYER CHAP. 5 use to reach each destination. This information is installed in the routing tables, and normal operation is resumed. Compared to distance vector routing, link state routing requires more memory and computation. For a network with n routers, each of which has k neighbors, the memory required to store the input data is proportional to kn, which is at least as large as a routing table listing all the destinations. Also, the computation time grows faster than kn, even with the most efficient data structures, an issue in large networks. Nevertheless, in many practical situations, link state routing works well because it does not suffer from slow convergence problems. Link state routing is widely used in actual networks, so a few words about some example protocols are in order. Many ISPs use the IS-IS (Intermediate System-Intermediate System) link state protocol (Oran, 1990). It was designed for an early network called DECnet, later adopted by ISO for use with the OSI protocols and then modified to handle other protocols as well, most notably, IP. OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) is the other main link state protocol. It was designed by IETF several years after IS-IS and adopted many of the innovations designed for IS-IS. These innovations include a self-stabilizing method of flood- ing link state updates, the concept of a designated router on a LAN, and the meth- od of computing and supporting path splitting and multiple metrics. As a conse- quence, there is very little difference between IS-IS and OSPF. The most impor- tant difference is that IS-IS can carry information about multiple network layer protocols at the same time (e.g., IP, IPX, and AppleTalk). OSPF does not have this feature, and it is an advantage in large multiprotocol environments. We will go over OSPF in Sec. 5.6.6. A general comment on routing algorithms is also in order. Link state, dis- tance vector, and other algorithms rely on processing at all the routers to compute routes. Problems with the hardware or software at even a small number of routers can wreak havoc across the network. For example, if a router claims to have a link it does not have or forgets a link it does have, the network graph will be incorrect. If a router fails to forward packets or corrupts them while forwarding them, the route will not work as expected. Finally, if it runs out of memory or does the routing calculation wrong, bad things will happen. As the network grows into the range of tens or hundreds of thousands of nodes, the probability of some router failing occasionally becomes nonnegligible. The trick is to try to arrange to limit the damage when the inevitable happens. Perlman (1988) discusses these problems and their possible solutions in detail. 5.2.6 Hierarchical Routing As networks grow in size, the router routing tables grow proportionally. Not only is router memory consumed by ever-increasing tables, but more CPU time is needed to scan them and more bandwidth is needed to send status reports about them. At a certain point, the network may grow to the point where it is no longer
- 403. SEC. 5.2 ROUTING ALGORITHMS 379 feasible for every router to have an entry for every other router, so the routing will have to be done hierarchically, as it is in the telephone network. When hierarchical routing is used, the routers are divided into what we will call regions. Each router knows all the details about how to route packets to dest- inations within its own region but knows nothing about the internal structure of other regions. When different networks are interconnected, it is natural to regard each one as a separate region to free the routers in one network from having to know the topological structure of the other ones. For huge networks, a two-level hierarchy may be insufficient; it may be nec- essary to group the regions into clusters, the clusters into zones, the zones into groups, and so on, until we run out of names for aggregations. As an example of a multilevel hierarchy, consider how a packet might be routed from Berkeley, Cali- fornia, to Malindi, Kenya. The Berkeley router would know the detailed topology within California but would send all out-of-state traffic to the Los Angeles router. The Los Angeles router would be able to route traffic directly to other domestic routers but would send all foreign traffic to New York. The New York router would be programmed to direct all traffic to the router in the destination country responsible for handling foreign traffic, say, in Nairobi. Finally, the packet would work its way down the tree in Kenya until it got to Malindi. Figure 5-14 gives a quantitative example of routing in a two-level hierarchy with five regions. The full routing table for router 1A has 17 entries, as shown in Fig. 5-14(b). When routing is done hierarchically, as in Fig. 5-14(c), there are en- tries for all the local routers, as before, but all other regions are condensed into a single router, so all traffic for region 2 goes via the 1B-2A line, but the rest of the remote traffic goes via the 1C-3B line. Hierarchical routing has reduced the table from 17 to 7 entries. As the ratio of the number of regions to the number of rout- ers per region grows, the savings in table space increase. Unfortunately, these gains in space are not free. There is a penalty to be paid: increased path length. For example, the best route from 1A to 5C is via region 2, but with hierarchical routing all traffic to region 5 goes via region 3, because that is better for most destinations in region 5. When a single network becomes very large, an interesting question is ‘‘how many levels should the hierarchy have?’’ For example, consider a network with 720 routers. If there is no hierarchy, each router needs 720 routing table entries. If the network is partitioned into 24 regions of 30 routers each, each router needs 30 local entries plus 23 remote entries for a total of 53 entries. If a three-level hierarchy is chosen, with 8 clusters each containing 9 regions of 10 routers, each router needs 10 entries for local routers, 8 entries for routing to other regions within its own cluster, and 7 entries for distant clusters, for a total of 25 entries. Kamoun and Kleinrock (1979) discovered that the optimal number of levels for an N router network is ln N, requiring a total of e ln N entries per router. They have also shown that the increase in effective mean path length caused by hierarchical routing is sufficiently small that it is usually acceptable.
- 404. 380 THE NETWORK LAYER CHAP. 5 Region 1 Region 2 Region 3 Region 5 Region 4 1B 1A 1C 2A 2B 2C 5B 5C 5A 5E 5D 2D 4A 4B 4C 3A 3B 1B 1 1C 1 1B 2 1B 3 1B 3 1B 4 1C 3 1C 2 1C 3 1C 4 1C 4 1C 4 1C 5 1B 5 1C 6 1C 5 – – 1A 1C 2A 2B 2C 2D 3A 3B 4A 4B 4C 5A 5B 5C 5D 5E 1B Line Hops Dest. Full table for 1A 1A 1C 2 3 4 5 1B Line Hops Dest. Hierarchical table for 1A 1B 1 1C 1 1B 2 1C 2 1C 3 1C 4 – – (a) (b) (c) Figure 5-14. Hierarchical routing. 5.2.7 Broadcast Routing In some applications, hosts need to send messages to many or all other hosts. For example, a service distributing weather reports, stock market updates, or live radio programs might work best by sending to all machines and letting those that are interested read the data. Sending a packet to all destinations simultaneously is called broadcasting. Various methods have been proposed for doing it. One broadcasting method that requires no special features from the network is for the source to simply send a distinct packet to each destination. Not only is the method wasteful of bandwidth and slow, but it also requires the source to have a complete list of all destinations. This method is not desirable in practice, even though it is widely applicable. An improvement is multidestination routing, in which each packet contains either a list of destinations or a bit map indicating the desired destinations. When a packet arrives at a router, the router checks all the destinations to determine the set of output lines that will be needed. (An output line is needed if it is the best route to at least one of the destinations.) The router generates a new copy of the packet for each output line to be used and includes in each packet only those dest- inations that are to use the line. In effect, the destination set is partitioned among
- 405. SEC. 5.2 ROUTING ALGORITHMS 381 the output lines. After a sufficient number of hops, each packet will carry only one destination like a normal packet. Multidestination routing is like using sepa- rately addressed packets, except that when several packets must follow the same route, one of them pays full fare and the rest ride free. The network bandwidth is therefore used more efficiently. However, this scheme still requires the source to know all the destinations, plus it is as much work for a router to determine where to send one multidestination packet as it is for multiple distinct packets. We have already seen a better broadcast routing technique: flooding. When implemented with a sequence number per source, flooding uses links efficiently with a decision rule at routers that is relatively simple. Although flooding is ill- suited for ordinary point-to-point communication, it rates serious consideration for broadcasting. However, it turns out that we can do better still once the shortest path routes for regular packets have been computed. The idea for reverse path forwarding is elegant and remarkably simple once it has been pointed out (Dalal and Metcalfe, 1978). When a broadcast packet ar- rives at a router, the router checks to see if the packet arrived on the link that is normally used for sending packets toward the source of the broadcast. If so, there is an excellent chance that the broadcast packet itself followed the best route from the router and is therefore the first copy to arrive at the router. This being the case, the router forwards copies of it onto all links except the one it arrived on. If, however, the broadcast packet arrived on a link other than the preferred one for reaching the source, the packet is discarded as a likely duplicate. I F H J N A D G K E O M O G C D N B H L L B A E H B C D F J G O M K L N I (a) A B C D G J O F I E H K L M N (b) (c) K E H Figure 5-15. Reverse path forwarding. (a) A network. (b) A sink tree. (c) The tree built by reverse path forwarding. An example of reverse path forwarding is shown in Fig. 5-15. Part (a) shows a network, part (b) shows a sink tree for router I of that network, and part (c) shows how the reverse path algorithm works. On the first hop, I sends packets to F, H, J, and N, as indicated by the second row of the tree. Each of these packets arrives on the preferred path to I (assuming that the preferred path falls along the sink tree) and is so indicated by a circle around the letter. On the second hop,
- 406. 382 THE NETWORK LAYER CHAP. 5 eight packets are generated, two by each of the routers that received a packet on the first hop. As it turns out, all eight of these arrive at previously unvisited rout- ers, and five of these arrive along the preferred line. Of the six packets generated on the third hop, only three arrive on the preferred path (at C, E, and K); the oth- ers are duplicates. After five hops and 24 packets, the broadcasting terminates, compared with four hops and 14 packets had the sink tree been followed exactly. The principal advantage of reverse path forwarding is that it is efficient while being easy to implement. It sends the broadcast packet over each link only once in each direction, just as in flooding, yet it requires only that routers know how to reach all destinations, without needing to remember sequence numbers (or use other mechanisms to stop the flood) or list all destinations in the packet. Our last broadcast algorithm improves on the behavior of reverse path for- warding. It makes explicit use of the sink tree—or any other convenient spanning tree—for the router initiating the broadcast. A spanning tree is a subset of the network that includes all the routers but contains no loops. Sink trees are spanning trees. If each router knows which of its lines belong to the spanning tree, it can copy an incoming broadcast packet onto all the spanning tree lines except the one it arrived on. This method makes excellent use of bandwidth, generating the absolute minimum number of packets necessary to do the job. In Fig. 5-15, for example, when the sink tree of part (b) is used as the spanning tree, the broadcast packet is sent with the minimum 14 packets. The only problem is that each router must have knowledge of some spanning tree for the method to be applicable. Sometimes this information is available (e.g., with link state routing, all routers know the complete topology, so they can compute a spanning tree) but sometimes it is not (e.g., with distance vector routing). 5.2.8 Multicast Routing Some applications, such as a multiplayer game or live video of a sports event streamed to many viewing locations, send packets to multiple receivers. Unless the group is very small, sending a distinct packet to each receiver is expensive. On the other hand, broadcasting a packet is wasteful if the group consists of, say, 1000 machines on a million-node network, so that most receivers are not inter- ested in the message (or worse yet, they are definitely interested but are not sup- posed to see it). Thus, we need a way to send messages to well-defined groups that are numerically large in size but small compared to the network as a whole. Sending a message to such a group is called multicasting, and the routing al- gorithm used is called multicast routing. All multicasting schemes require some way to create and destroy groups and to identify which routers are members of a group. How these tasks are accomplished is not of concern to the routing algo- rithm. For now, we will assume that each group is identified by a multicast ad- dress and that routers know the groups to which they belong. We will revisit group membership when we describe the network layer of the Internet in Sec. 5.6.
- 407. SEC. 5.2 ROUTING ALGORITHMS 383 Multicast routing schemes build on the broadcast routing schemes we have al- ready studied, sending packets along spanning trees to deliver the packets to the members of the group while making efficient use of bandwidth. However, the best spanning tree to use depends on whether the group is dense, with receivers scattered over most of the network, or sparse, with much of the network not be- longing to the group. In this section we will consider both cases. If the group is dense, broadcast is a good start because it efficiently gets the packet to all parts of the network. But broadcast will reach some routers that are not members of the group, which is wasteful. The solution explored by Deering and Cheriton (1990) is to prune the broadcast spanning tree by removing links that do not lead to members. The result is an efficient multicast spanning tree. As an example, consider the two groups, 1 and 2, in the network shown in Fig. 5-16(a). Some routers are attached to hosts that belong to one or both of these groups, as indicated in the figure. A spanning tree for the leftmost router is shown in Fig. 5-16(b). This tree can be used for broadcast but is overkill for mu- lticast, as can be seen from the two pruned versions that are shown next. In Fig. 5-16(c), all the links that do not lead to hosts that are members of group 1 have been removed. The result is the multicast spanning tree for the leftmost router to send to group 1. Packets are forwarded only along this spanning tree, which is more efficient than the broadcast tree because there are 7 links instead of 10. Fig. 5-16(d) shows the multicast spanning tree after pruning for group 2. It is efficient too, with only five links this time. It also shows that different multicast groups have different spanning trees. Various ways of pruning the spanning tree are possible. The simplest one can be used if link state routing is used and each router is aware of the complete topo- logy, including which hosts belong to which groups. Each router can then con- struct its own pruned spanning tree for each sender to the group in question by constructing a sink tree for the sender as usual and then removing all links that do not connect group members to the sink node. MOSPF (Multicast OSPF) is an example of a link state protocol that works in this way (Moy, 1994). With distance vector routing, a different pruning strategy can be followed. The basic algorithm is reverse path forwarding. However, whenever a router with no hosts interested in a particular group and no connections to other routers re- ceives a multicast message for that group, it responds with a PRUNE message, tel- ling the neighbor that sent the message not to send it any more multicasts from the sender for that group. When a router with no group members among its own hosts has received such messages on all the lines to which it sends the multicast, it, too, can respond with a PRUNE message. In this way, the spanning tree is recursively pruned. DVMRP (Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol) is an example of a multicast routing protocol that works this way (Waitzman et al., 1988). Pruning results in efficient spanning trees that use only the links that are actu- ally needed to reach members of the group. One potential disadvantage is that it is lots of work for routers, especially for large networks. Suppose that a network
- 408. 384 THE NETWORK LAYER CHAP. 5 1, 2 1 1, 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 2 1, 2 1, 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 (a) (b) (c) (d) Figure 5-16. (a) A network. (b) A spanning tree for the leftmost router. (c) A multicast tree for group 1. (d) A multicast tree for group 2. has n groups, each with an average of m nodes. At each router and for each group, m pruned spanning trees must be stored, for a total of mn trees. For exam- ple, Fig. 5-16(c) gives the spanning tree for the leftmost router to send to group 1. The spanning tree for the rightmost router to send to group 1 (not shown) will look quite different, as packets will head directly for group members rather than via the left side of the graph. This in turn means that routers must forward pack- ets destined to group 1 in different directions depending on which node is sending to the group. When many large groups with many senders exist, considerable storage is needed to store all the trees. An alternative design uses core-based trees to compute a single spanning tree for the group (Ballardie et al., 1993). All of the routers agree on a root (called the core or rendezvous point) and build the tree by sending a packet from each member to the root. The tree is the union of the paths traced by these packets. Fig. 5-17(a) shows a core-based tree for group 1. To send to this group, a sender sends a packet to the core. When the packet reaches the core, it is forwarded down the tree. This is shown in Fig. 5-17(b) for the sender on the righthand side of the network. As a performance optimization, packets destined for the group do not need to reach the core before they are multicast. As soon as a packet reaches the
- 409. SEC. 5.2 ROUTING ALGORITHMS 385 tree, it can be forwarded up toward the root, as well as down all the other branches. This is the case for the sender at the top of Fig. 5-17(b). 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Core Core Sender Sender (a) (b) Figure 5-17. (a) Core-based tree for group 1. (b) Sending to group 1. Having a shared tree is not optimal for all sources. For example, in Fig. 5- 17(b), the packet from the sender on the righthand side reaches the top-right group member via the core in three hops, instead of directly. The inefficiency depends on where the core and senders are located, but often it is reasonable when the core is in the middle of the senders. When there is only a single sender, as in a video that is streamed to a group, using the sender as the core is optimal. Also of note is that shared trees can be a major savings in storage costs, mes- sages sent, and computation. Each router has to keep only one tree per group, in- stead of m trees. Further, routers that are not part of the tree do no work at all to support the group. For this reason, shared tree approaches like core-based trees are used for multicasting to sparse groups in the Internet as part of popular proto- cols such as PIM (Protocol Independent Multicast) (Fenner et al., 2006). 5.2.9 Anycast Routing So far, we have covered delivery models in which a source sends to a single destination (called unicast), to all destinations (called broadcast), and to a group of destinations (called multicast). Another delivery model, called anycast is sometimes also useful. In anycast, a packet is delivered to the nearest member of a group (Partridge et al., 1993). Schemes that find these paths are called anycast routing. Why would we want anycast? Sometimes nodes provide a service, such as time of day or content distribution for which it is getting the right information all that matters, not the node that is contacted; any node will do. For example, any- cast is used in the Internet as part of DNS, as we will see in Chap. 7. Luckily, we will not have to devise new routing schemes for anycast because regular distance vector and link state routing can produce anycast routes. Suppose
- 410. 386 THE NETWORK LAYER CHAP. 5 we want to anycast to the members of group 1. They will all be given the address ‘‘1,’’ instead of different addresses. Distance vector routing will distribute vectors as usual, and nodes will choose the shortest path to destination 1. This will result in nodes sending to the nearest instance of destination 1. The routes are shown in Fig. 5-18(a). This procedure works because the routing protocol does not realize that there are multiple instances of destination 1. That is, it believes that all the instances of node 1 are the same node, as in the topology shown in Fig. 5-18(b). 1 1 1 1 1 1 (a) (b) Figure 5-18. (a) Anycast routes to group 1. (b) Topology seen by the routing protocol. This procedure works for link state routing as well, although there is the added consideration that the routing protocol must not find seemingly short paths that pass through node 1. This would result in jumps through hyperspace, since the instances of node 1 are really nodes located in different parts of the network. However, link state protocols already make this distinction between routers and hosts. We glossed over this fact earlier because it was not needed for our dis- cussion. 5.2.10 Routing for Mobile Hosts Millions of people use computers while on the go, from truly mobile situa- tions with wireless devices in moving cars, to nomadic situations in which laptop computers are used in a series of different locations. We will use the term mobile hosts to mean either category, as distinct from stationary hosts that never move. Increasingly, people want to stay connected wherever in the world they may be, as easily as if they were at home. These mobile hosts introduce a new complication: to route a packet to a mobile host, the network first has to find it. The model of the world that we will consider is one in which all hosts are as- sumed to have a permanent home location that never changes. Each hosts also has a permanent home address that can be used to determine its home location, analogous to the way the telephone number 1-212-5551212 indicates the United States (country code 1) and Manhattan (212). The routing goal in systems with
- 411. SEC. 5.2 ROUTING ALGORITHMS 387 mobile hosts is to make it possible to send packets to mobile hosts using their fixed home addresses and have the packets efficiently reach them wherever they may be. The trick, of course, is to find them. Some discussion of this model is in order. A different model would be to recompute routes as the mobile host moves and the topology changes. We could then simply use the routing schemes described earlier in this section. However, with a growing number of mobile hosts, this model would soon lead to the entire network endlessly computing new routes. Using the home addresses greatly re- duces this burden. Another alternative would be to provide mobility above the network layer, which is what typically happens with laptops today. When they are moved to new Internet locations, laptops acquire new network addresses. There is no association between the old and new addresses; the network does not know that they belonged to the same laptop. In this model, a laptop can be used to browse the Web, but other hosts cannot send packets to it (for example, for an incoming call), without building a higher layer location service, for example, signing into Skype again after moving. Moreover, connections cannot be maintained while the host is mov- ing; new connections must be started up instead. Network-layer mobility is useful to fix these problems. The basic idea used for mobile routing in the Internet and cellular networks is for the mobile host to tell a host at the home location where it is now. This host, which acts on behalf of the mobile host, is called the home agent. Once it knows where the mobile host is currently located, it can forward packets so that they are delivered. Fig. 5-19 shows mobile routing in action. A sender in the northwest city of Seattle wants to send a packet to a host normally located across the United States in New York. The case of interest to us is when the mobile host is not at home. Instead, it is temporarily in San Diego. The mobile host in San Diego must acquire a local network address before it can use the network. This happens in the normal way that hosts obtain network addresses; we will cover how this works for the Internet later in this chapter. The local address is called a care of address. Once the mobile host has this address, it can tell its home agent where it is now. It does this by sending a registration message to the home agent (step 1) with the care of address. The message is shown with a dashed line in Fig. 5-19 to indicate that it is a control message, not a data message. Next, the sender sends a data packet to the mobile host using its permanent address (step 2). This packet is routed by the network to the host’s home location because that is where the home address belongs. In New York, the home agent intercepts this packet because the mobile host is away from home. It then wraps or encapsulates the packet with a new header and sends this bundle to the care of address (step 3). This mechanism is called tunneling. It is very important in the Internet so we will look at it in more detail later.
- 412. 388 THE NETWORK LAYER CHAP. 5 Mobile host at care of address 3: Tunnel to care of address 1: Register care of address 2: Send to home address Home agent at home address Sender 4: Reply to sender 5: Tunnel to care of address Figure 5-19. Packet routing for mobile hosts. When the encapsulated packet arrives at the care of address, the mobile host unwraps it and retrieves the packet from the sender. The mobile host then sends its reply packet directly to the sender (step 4). The overall route is called triangle routing because it may be circuitous if the remote location is far from the home location. As part of step 4, the sender may learn the current care of address. Sub- sequent packets can be routed directly to the mobile host by tunneling them to the care of address (step 5), bypassing the home location entirely. If connectivity is lost for any reason as the mobile moves, the home address can always be used to reach the mobile. An important aspect that we have omitted from this description is security. In general, when a host or router gets a message of the form ‘‘Starting right now, please send all of Stephany’s mail to me,’’ it might have a couple of questions about whom it is talking to and whether this is a good idea. Security information is included in the messages so that their validity can be checked with crypto- graphic protocols that we will study in Chap. 8. There are many variations on mobile routing. The scheme above is modeled on IPv6 mobility, the form of mobility used in the Internet (Johnson et al., 2004) and as part of IP-based cellular networks such as UMTS. We showed the sender to be a stationary node for simplicity, but the designs let both nodes be mobile hosts. Alternatively, the host may be part of a mobile network, for example a computer in a plane. Extensions of the basic scheme support mobile networks with no work on the part of the hosts (Devarapalli et al., 2005). Some schemes make use of a foreign (i.e., remote) agent, similar to the home agent but at the foreign location, or analogous to the VLR (Visitor Location Reg- ister) in cellular networks. However, in more recent schemes, the foreign agent is not needed; mobile hosts act as their own foreign agents. In either case, know- ledge of the temporary location of the mobile host is limited to a small number of
- 413. SEC. 5.2 ROUTING ALGORITHMS 389 hosts (e.g., the mobile, home agent, and senders) so that the many routers in a large network do not need to recompute routes. For more information about mobile routing, see also Perkins (1998, 2002) and Snoeren and Balakrishnan (2000). 5.2.11 Routing in Ad Hoc Networks We have now seen how to do routing when the hosts are mobile but the rout- ers are fixed. An even more extreme case is one in which the routers themselves are mobile. Among the possibilities are emergency workers at an earthquake site, military vehicles on a battlefield, a fleet of ships at sea, or a gathering of people with laptop computers in an area lacking 802.11. In all these cases, and others, each node communicates wirelessly and acts as both a host and a router. Networks of nodes that just happen to be near each other are called ad hoc networks or MANETs (Mobile Ad hoc NETworks). Let us now examine them briefly. More information can be found in Perkins (2001). What makes ad hoc networks different from wired networks is that the topo- logy is suddenly tossed out the window. Nodes can come and go or appear in new places at the drop of a bit. With a wired network, if a router has a valid path to some destination, that path continues to be valid barring failures, which are hope- fully rare. With an ad hoc network, the topology may be changing all the time, so the desirability and even the validity of paths can change spontaneously without warning. Needless to say, these circumstances make routing in ad hoc networks more challenging than routing in their fixed counterparts. Many, many routing algorithms for ad hoc networks have been proposed. However, since ad hoc networks have been little used in practice compared to mobile networks, it is unclear which of these protocols are most useful. As an ex- ample, we will look at one of the most popular routing algorithms, AODV (Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector) (Perkins and Royer, 1999). It is a relative of the distance vector algorithm that has been adapted to work in a mobile environ- ment, in which nodes often have limited bandwidth and battery lifetimes. Let us now see how it discovers and maintains routes. Route Discovery In AODV, routes to a destination are discovered on demand, that is, only when a somebody wants to send a packet to that destination. This saves much work that would otherwise be wasted when the topology changes before the route is used. At any instant, the topology of an ad hoc network can be described by a graph of connected nodes. Two nodes are connected (i.e., have an arc between them in the graph) if they can communicate directly using their radios. A basic but adequate model that is sufficient for our purposes is that each node can com- municate with all other nodes that lie within its coverage circle. Real networks are
- 414. 390 THE NETWORK LAYER CHAP. 5 more complicated, with buildings, hills, and other obstacles that block communi- cation, and nodes for which A is connected to B but B is not connected to A be- cause A has a more powerful transmitter than B. However, for simplicity, we will assume all connections are symmetric. To describe the algorithm, consider the newly formed ad hoc network of Fig. 5-20. Suppose that a process at node A wants to send a packet to node I. The AODV algorithm maintains a distance vector table at each node, keyed by desti- nation, giving information about that destination, including the neighbor to which to send packets to reach the destination. First, A looks in its table and does not find an entry for I. It now has to discover a route to I. This property of discover- ing routes only when they are needed is what makes this algorithm ‘‘on demand.’’ A B C Range of A’s broadcast A D B C E F F H I H I G G E E D D C C B B A A G I H F D E G I H (a) (b) (c) (d) F Figure 5-20. (a) Range of A’s broadcast. (b) After B and D receive it. (c) After C, F, and G receive it. (d) After E, H, and I receive it. The shaded nodes are new recipients. The dashed lines show possible reverse routes. The solid lines show the discovered route. To locate I, A constructs a ROUTE REQUEST packet and broadcasts it using flooding, as described in Sec. 5.2.3. The transmission from A reaches B and D, as illustrated in Fig. 5-20(a). Each node rebroadcasts the request, which continues to reach nodes F, G, and C in Fig. 5-20(c) and nodes H, E, and I in Fig. 5-20(d). A sequence number set at the source is used to weed out duplicates during the flood. For example, D discards the transmission from B in Fig. 5-20(c) because it has al- ready forwarded the request. Eventually, the request reaches node I, which constructs a ROUTE REPLY packet. This packet is unicast to the sender along the reverse of the path followed by the request. For this to work, each intermediate node must remember the node that sent it the request. The arrows in Fig. 5-20(b)–(d) show the reverse route information that is stored. Each intermediate node also increments a hop count as it forwards the reply. This tells the nodes how far they are from the destination. The replies tell each intermediate node which neighbor to use to reach the destina- tion: it is the node that sent them the reply. Intermediate nodes G and D put the
- 415. SEC. 5.2 ROUTING ALGORITHMS 391 best route they hear into their routing tables as they process the reply. When the reply reaches A, a new route, ADGI, has been created. In a large network, the algorithm generates many broadcasts, even for destina- tions that are close by. To reduce overhead, the scope of the broadcasts is limited using the IP packet’s Time to live field. This field is initialized by the sender and decremented on each hop. If it hits 0, the packet is discarded instead of being broadcast. The route discovery process is then modified as follows. To locate a destination, the sender broadcasts a ROUTE REQUEST packet with Time to live set to 1. If no response comes back within a reasonable time, another one is sent, this time with Time to live set to 2. Subsequent attempts use 3, 4, 5, etc. In this way, the search is first attempted locally, then in increasingly wider rings. Route Maintenance Because nodes can move or be switched off, the topology can change spon- taneously. For example, in Fig. 5-20, if G is switched off, A will not realize that the route it was using to I (ADGI) is no longer valid. The algorithm needs to be able to deal with this. Periodically, each node broadcasts a Hello message. Each of its neighbors is expected to respond to it. If no response is forthcoming, the broadcaster knows that that neighbor has moved out of range or failed and is no longer connected to it. Similarly, if it tries to send a packet to a neighbor that does not respond, it learns that the neighbor is no longer available. This information is used to purge routes that no longer work. For each pos- sible destination, each node, N, keeps track of its active neighbors that have fed it a packet for that destination during the last ΔT seconds. When any of N’s neigh- bors becomes unreachable, it checks its routing table to see which destinations have routes using the now-gone neighbor. For each of these routes, the active neighbors are informed that their route via N is now invalid and must be purged from their routing tables. In our example, D purges its entries for G and I from its routing table and notifies A, which purges its entry for I. In the general case, the active neighbors tell their active neighbors, and so on, recursively, until all routes depending on the now-gone node are purged from all routing tables. At this stage, the invalid routes have been purged from the network, and send- ers can find new, valid routes by using the discovery mechanism that we de- scribed. However, there is a complication. Recall that distance vector protocols can suffer from slow convergence or count-to-infinity problems after a topology change in which they confuse old, invalid routes with new, valid routes. To ensure rapid convergence, routes include a sequence number that is con- trolled by the destination. The destination sequence number is like a logical clock. The destination increments it every time that it sends a fresh ROUTE REPLY. Senders ask for a fresh route by including in the ROUTE REQUEST the destination sequence number of the last route they used, which will either be the sequence number of the route that was just purged, or 0 as an initial value. The
- 416. 392 THE NETWORK LAYER CHAP. 5 request will be broadcast until a route with a higher sequence number is found. Intermediate nodes store the routes that have a higher sequence number, or the fewest hops for the current sequence number. In the spirit of an on demand protocol, intermediate nodes only store the routes that are in use. Other route information learned during broadcasts is timed out after a short delay. Discovering and storing only the routes that are used helps to save bandwidth and battery life compared to a standard distance vector protocol that periodically broadcasts updates. So far, we have considered only a single route, from A to I. To further save resources, route discovery and maintenance are shared when routes overlap. For instance, if B also wants to send packets to I, it will perform route discovery. However, in this case the request will first reach D, which already has a route to I. Node D can then generate a reply to tell B the route without any additional work being required. There are many other ad hoc routing schemes. Another well-known on de- mand scheme is DSR (Dynamic Source Routing) (Johnson et al., 2001). A dif- ferent strategy based on geography is explored by GPSR (Greedy Perimeter State- less Routing) (Karp and Kung, 2000). If all nodes know their geographic posi- tions, forwarding to a destination can proceed without route computation by sim- ply heading in the right direction and circling back to escape any dead ends. Which protocols win out will depend on the kinds of ad hoc networks that prove useful in practice. 5.3 CONGESTION CONTROL ALGORITHMS Too many packets present in (a part of) the network causes packet delay and loss that degrades performance. This situation is called congestion. The network and transport layers share the responsibility for handling congestion. Since con- gestion occurs within the network, it is the network layer that directly experiences it and must ultimately determine what to do with the excess packets. However, the most effective way to control congestion is to reduce the load that the tran- sport layer is placing on the network. This requires the network and transport lay- ers to work together. In this chapter we will look at the network aspects of con- gestion. In Chap. 6, we will complete the topic by covering the transport aspects of congestion. Figure 5-21 depicts the onset of congestion. When the number of packets hosts send into the network is well within its carrying capacity, the number deliv- ered is proportional to the number sent. If twice as many are sent, twice as many are delivered. However, as the offered load approaches the carrying capacity, bursts of traffic occasionally fill up the buffers inside routers and some packets are lost. These lost packets consume some of the capacity, so the number of de- livered packets falls below the ideal curve. The network is now congested.
- 417. SEC. 5.3 CONGESTION CONTROL ALGORITHMS 393 Ideal Goodput (packets/sec) Desirable response Capacity of the network Congestion collapse Offered load (packet/sec) Onset of congestion Figure 5-21. With too much traffic, performance drops sharply. Unless the network is well designed, it may experience a congestion collapse, in which performance plummets as the offered load increases beyond the capaci- ty. This can happen because packets can be sufficiently delayed inside the net- work that they are no longer useful when they leave the network. For example, in the early Internet, the time a packet spent waiting for a backlog of packets ahead of it to be sent over a slow 56-kbps link could reach the maximum time it was al- lowed to remain in the network. It then had to be thrown away. A different failure mode occurs when senders retransmit packets that are greatly delayed, thinking that they have been lost. In this case, copies of the same packet will be delivered by the network, again wasting its capacity. To capture these factors, the y-axis of Fig. 5-21 is given as goodput, which is the rate at which useful packets are deliv- ered by the network. We would like to design networks that avoid congestion where possible and do not suffer from congestion collapse if they do become congested. Unfortunate- ly, congestion cannot wholly be avoided. If all of a sudden, streams of packets begin arriving on three or four input lines and all need the same output line, a queue will build up. If there is insufficient memory to hold all of them, packets will be lost. Adding more memory may help up to a point, but Nagle (1987) real- ized that if routers have an infinite amount of memory, congestion gets worse, not better. This is because by the time packets get to the front of the queue, they have already timed out (repeatedly) and duplicates have been sent. This makes matters worse, not better—it leads to congestion collapse. Low-bandwidth links or routers that process packets more slowly than the line rate can also become congested. In this case, the situation can be improved by directing some of the traffic away from the bottleneck to other parts of the net- work. Eventually, however, all regions of the network will be congested. In this situation, there is no alternative but to shed load or build a faster network. It is worth pointing out the difference between congestion control and flow control, as the relationship is a very subtle one. Congestion control has to do with
- 418. 394 THE NETWORK LAYER CHAP. 5 making sure the network is able to carry the offered traffic. It is a global issue, in- volving the behavior of all the hosts and routers. Flow control, in contrast, relates to the traffic between a particular sender and a particular receiver. Its job is to make sure that a fast sender cannot continually transmit data faster than the re- ceiver is able to absorb it. To see the difference between these two concepts, consider a network made up of 100-Gbps fiber optic links on which a supercomputer is trying to force feed a large file to a personal computer that is capable of handling only 1 Gbps. Al- though there is no congestion (the network itself is not in trouble), flow control is needed to force the supercomputer to stop frequently to give the personal com- puter a chance to breathe. At the other extreme, consider a network with 1-Mbps lines and 1000 large computers, half of which are trying to transfer files at 100 kbps to the other half. Here, the problem is not that of fast senders overpowering slow receivers, but that the total offered traffic exceeds what the network can handle. The reason congestion control and flow control are often confused is that the best way to handle both problems is to get the host to slow down. Thus, a host can get a ‘‘slow down’’ message either because the receiver cannot handle the load or because the network cannot handle it. We will come back to this point in Chap. 6. We will start our study of congestion control by looking at the approaches that can be used at different time scales. Then we will look at approaches to pre- venting congestion from occurring in the first place, followed by approaches for coping with it once it has set in. 5.3.1 Approaches to Congestion Control The presence of congestion means that the load is (temporarily) greater than the resources (in a part of the network) can handle. Two solutions come to mind: increase the resources or decrease the load. As shown in Fig. 5-22, these solu- tions are usually applied on different time scales to either prevent congestion or react to it once it has occurred. Traffic-aware routing Network provisioning Traffic throttling Admission control Load shedding Slower (Preventative) Faster (Reactive) Figure 5-22. Timescales of approaches to congestion control. The most basic way to avoid congestion is to build a network that is well matched to the traffic that it carries. If there is a low-bandwidth link on the path along which most traffic is directed, congestion is likely. Sometimes resources
- 419. SEC. 5.3 CONGESTION CONTROL ALGORITHMS 395 can be added dynamically when there is serious congestion, for example, turning on spare routers or enabling lines that are normally used only as backups (to make the system fault tolerant) or purchasing bandwidth on the open market. More often, links and routers that are regularly heavily utilized are upgraded at the earli- est opportunity. This is called provisioning and happens on a time scale of months, driven by long-term traffic trends. To make the most of the existing network capacity, routes can be tailored to traffic patterns that change during the day as network users wake and sleep in dif- ferent time zones. For example, routes may be changed to shift traffic away from heavily used paths by changing the shortest path weights. Some local radio sta- tions have helicopters flying around their cities to report on road congestion to make it possible for their mobile listeners to route their packets (cars) around hotspots. This is called traffic-aware routing. Splitting traffic across multiple paths is also helpful. However, sometimes it is not possible to increase capacity. The only way then to beat back the congestion is to decrease the load. In a virtual-circuit net- work, new connections can be refused if they would cause the network to become congested. This is called admission control. At a finer granularity, when congestion is imminent the network can deliver feedback to the sources whose traffic flows are responsible for the problem. The network can request these sources to throttle their traffic, or it can slow down the traffic itself. Two difficulties with this approach are how to identify the onset of conges- tion, and how to inform the source that needs to slow down. To tackle the first issue, routers can monitor the average load, queueing delay, or packet loss. In all cases, rising numbers indicate growing congestion. To tackle the second issue, routers must participate in a feedback loop with the sources. For a scheme to work correctly, the time scale must be adjusted care- fully. If every time two packets arrive in a row, a router yells STOP and every time a router is idle for 20 μsec, it yells GO, the system will oscillate wildly and never converge. On the other hand, if it waits 30 minutes to make sure before saying anything, the congestion-control mechanism will react too sluggishly to be of any use. Delivering timely feedback is a nontrivial matter. An added concern is having routers send more messages when the network is already congested. Finally, when all else fails, the network is forced to discard packets that it cannot deliver. The general name for this is load shedding. A good policy for choosing which packets to discard can help to prevent congestion collapse. 5.3.2 Traffic-Aware Routing The first approach we will examine is traffic-aware routing. The routing schemes we looked at in Sec 5.2 used fixed link weights. These schemes adapted to changes in topology, but not to changes in load. The goal in taking load into
- 420. 396 THE NETWORK LAYER CHAP. 5 account when computing routes is to shift traffic away from hotspots that will be the first places in the network to experience congestion. The most direct way to do this is to set the link weight to be a function of the (fixed) link bandwidth and propagation delay plus the (variable) measured load or average queuing delay. Least-weight paths will then favor paths that are more lightly loaded, all else being equal. Traffic-aware routing was used in the early Internet according to this model (Khanna and Zinky, 1989). However, there is a peril. Consider the network of Fig. 5-23, which is divided into two parts, East and West, connected by two links, CF and EI. Suppose that most of the traffic between East and West is using link CF, and, as a result, this link is heavily loaded with long delays. Including queue- ing delay in the weight used for the shortest path calculation will make EI more attractive. After the new routing tables have been installed, most of the East-West traffic will now go over EI, loading this link. Consequently, in the next update, CF will appear to be the shortest path. As a result, the routing tables may oscil- late wildly, leading to erratic routing and many potential problems. West East B A D E C F G H J I Figure 5-23. A network in which the East and West parts are connected by two links. If load is ignored and only bandwidth and propagation delay are considered, this problem does not occur. Attempts to include load but change weights within a narrow range only slow down routing oscillations. Two techniques can contri- bute to a successful solution. The first is multipath routing, in which there can be multiple paths from a source to a destination. In our exampl