Computer Communications Sunggu Lee EE Dept., POSTECH Sep. 7, 2006

Analog and Digital Signals Analog: real-world signal Digital: “digitized” version of original analog signal - represented as sequence of binary bits - e.g., 12, 7, 7, 6, 10, 14, 15, 15, …  …

Digital Signal Representation Bit Representation (Logic 0 and 1) in Wireless Communication Channel  Typically based on electromagnetic (EM) waves Changes in electrical current flow cause EM waves  Example methods Sine wave frequencies: high frequency = 1, low frequency = 0 Sine wave phases: 0 degree = 1, 90 degree = 0 Bit Representation (Logic 0 and 1) in Wired Communication Channel  Optical: no light = 0, light = 1  Current: no current = 0, positive current = 1  Voltage Positive logic: 0 = low voltage, 1 = high voltage Noise margins, voltage ranges used to permit small variations in input & output voltage values  LSTTL: for inputs, ‘0’ = V and ‘1’ = V for outputs, ‘0’ = V and ‘1’ = V

Wireless Communication Communication “medium” (thing through which the data is communicated) is shared  Each “communication connection” is referred to as a “channel” Methods for sharing the communication medium  Time division multiple access (TDMA)  Frequency division multiple access (FDMA)  Code division multiple access (CDMA) Many different varieties Example: use a frequency hopping code  Change communication frequencies in a predetermined pattern

TDMA [Agrawal 2006]

FDMA [Agrawal 2006]

CDMA [Agrawal 2006]

Frequency Hopping [Agrawal 2006]

Binary Codes Meaning of a sequence of binary bits is dependent on the interpretation used  Example: unsigned integer = 104, character = ‘o’ part of a binary program part of a video or audio data stream A “service request” command from a client PC A “service response” reply from a server PC Other  Example: When interpreted as character string  Hello  ‘H’ = , ‘e’ = , ‘l’ = , …

Packetization of Data For transmission of a stream of data bits (message), the message is typically partitioned into “packets”  A packet consist of Packet header (destination, routing info, etc.) Data payload (the bits of the message) Check bits (redundant bits used to check for errors in the received packet)

Communication Protocols For successful transmission/receipt of a packet, the transmitter and receiver must agree on a “communication protocol”  Set of rules on how the packet is interpreted How to sample the bits of the packet  Signaling method  Synchronization of the transmitter/receiver How to determine which parts of the packet are the packet header (destination info, etc.), data payload, check bits, etc. How to interpret the bits of the data payload  Integer, floating-point, character string, JPEG picture, etc.

Computer Communication Models and Communication Protocol Suites Most commonly used reference base communication model is the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model  Standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Most common implementation of the OSI model is a set of protocols referred to as the TCP/IP protocol suite (or stack)  TCP = Transmission Control Protocol  IP = Internet Protocol

Communication Protocols L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L7 L6 [Forouzan 2003]

Computer Communication Example Send picture image and message to friend Microsoft Outlook system software Hello! Netscape Messenger system software Hello! Netscape Messenger sender receiver Communication Channel

Layer-by-Layer (OSI Model) View

Activities Required (Sender Side) Edit message and enter “send”  MS Outlook Express Convert into sequence of bits  Tags must be inserted so that original message can be reconstructed at destination E.g., “string” … “JPEG” … “end”  … … Encrypt message if necessary  for privacy Compress if necessary Partition into packets of fixed maximum size  Attach header information (Packet ID, destination, checksum, …) Intersperse with packets from messages created by other applications On first link of path,  Partition each packet into fixed-size frames (with headers)  Send each frame out onto the network IP address

Activities Required on Network Route each packet to its destination During each “hop” of the path  Send signals back and forth to coordinate the sending and receiving of the stream of bits corresponding to a frame Handshaking  Check each frame for errors Request retransmission in the case of errors  Arrange received frames into the proper order  Wait for all frames of the packet to be received Once each packet reaches its destination node,  Store packet in a memory buffer at destination  Send signal to destination CPU to inform it of the arrival of the new packet Port Number IP address

Activities at Destination Node Receive packets  Check each packet for errors and request retransmission in the case of errors  Arrange received packets into the proper order  Once all packets have been received, form a complete message Decompress if necessary Decrypt if necessary Check for errors Use tags in the bit stream to reconstruct the message Show message to user using tool (e.g., MS Outlook Express)

Network Addresses IP (Internet Protocol) address  Address used to identify a computing node on the internet  Network layer (L3) address  E.g., (Look up “properties” on “TCP/IP” on “Network”) MAC (Medium Access Control) address  Address used to identify a LAN card – cannot be changed  Data link layer (L2) address  E.g., abcd1234 (Enter “ipconfig /all” from MS Windows “cmd” window) Port address  Address used to identify a network interface point for an application prog.  Corresponds to a memory buffer Send a message - write to a memory buffer on a remote computer Receive a message – read from a memory buffer on the local computer  Example: 39 (for FTP), 3000 (for a user-defined port)

Connection-Oriented and Connectionless Networking Connection-oriented networking  Uses a specific network path that is established for the duration of a connection Three phases: connection establishment, data transfer, connection termination  Main advantage: reliable communication  Main implementation method: TCP (transfer control protocol) Connectionless networking  Finds a new path for each packet sent  Main advantage: fast communication for short messages  Main implementation method: UDP (user datagram protocol)

Communication Performance Parameters (1) Throughput ( 데이터 처리량 )  Actual number of bits transmitted per second Note 1: different from latency ( 지연시간 ) Note 2: different from bandwidth ( 대역폭 )  Most important communication performance parameter  Typical measurement method Send a data file from a source node to a destination node  Record the time t1 when the first byte of the data is received  Record the time t2 when the last byte of the data is received  Divide amount of data received by (t2 – t1) Note: Mbps = mega-bits-per-second (not bytes)

Communication Performance Parameters (2) Bandwidth  Maximum number of bits that can be transmitted per second Note 1: different from latency ( 지연 시간 ) Note 2: different from throughput ( 데이터 처리량 )  Measures performance of network only (not the computer hardware or software)  Typical measurement method Difficult to measure since effects of small data amounts, software and hardware at source and destination nodes must be removed The “rated” figure stated in the specifications for the relevant communication protocol is most commonly used  E.g., 11 Mbps for IEEE b

Communication Performance Parameters (3) Latency  Time required for the first byte of a message to be transferred from the source to the destination node  Should include software processing time  Typical measurement method At time t1, source node sends a very small message to destination node Destination node receives message and sends it back to the source node Source node receives message and records the time t2 One-way communication latency is (t2 – t1) / 2 Why can’t we measure latency directly (record time t3 at destination and measure latency as t3 – t1)?

Communication Performance Parameters (4) Other parameters also sometimes measured  Example: Packet loss rate Number of packets dropped by the network Most relevant to wireless networks

References Behrouz A. Forouzan, TCP/IP Protocol Suite, 2nd Ed., McGraw-Hill, Boston, D. P. Agrawal and Q.-A. Zeng, Introduction to Wireless and Mobile Systems, 2 nd Ed., Nelson, Toronto, 2006.