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The message mentioned above will be transmitted starting from the upper 32-bits word in network byte order. The first field is encoded in 16 bits. It is followed by eight one bit flags (`A-H`), a 24 bits field whose high order byte is shown in the first line and the two low order bytes appear in the second line followed by two one byte fields. This ASCII representation is frequently used when defining binary protocols. We will use it for all the binary protocols that are discussed in this book.
The peer-to-peer model emerged during the last ten years as another possible architecture for networked applications. In the traditional client-server model, hosts act either as servers or as clients and a server serves a large number of clients. In the peer-to-peer model, all hosts act as both servers and clients and they play both roles. The peer-to-peer model has been used to develop various networked applications, ranging from Internet telephony to file sharing or Internet-wide filesystems. A detailed description of peer-to-peer applications may be found in [BYL2008]_. Surveys of peer-to-peer protocols and applications may be found in [AS2004]_ and [LCP2005]_.
The transport layer
A network is always designed and built to enable applications running on hosts to exchange information. In a previous chapter, we have explained the principles of the `network layer` that enables hosts connected to different types of datalink layers to exchange information through routers. These routers act as relays in the network layer and ensure the delivery of packets between any pair of hosts attached to the network.
The network layer ensures the delivery of packets on a hop-by-hop basis through intermediate nodes. As such, it provides a service to the upper layer. In practice, this layer is usually the `transport layer` that improves the service provided by the `network layer` to make it usable by applications.
Most networks use a datagram organization and provide a simple service which is called the `connectionless service`.
The figure below provides a representation of the connectionless service as a `time-sequence diagram`. The user on the left, having address `S`, issues a `Data.request` primitive containing Service Data Unit (SDU) `M` that must be delivered by the service provider to destination `D`. The dashed line between the two primitives indicates that the `Data.indication` primitive that is delivered to the user on the right corresponds to the `Data.request` primitive sent by the user on the left.
There are several possible implementations of the connectionless service. Before studying these realizations, it is useful to discuss the possible characteristics of the connectionless service. A `reliable connectionless service` is a service where the service provider guarantees that all SDUs submitted in `Data.requests` by a user will eventually be delivered to their destination. Such a service would be very useful for users, but guaranteeing perfect delivery is difficult in practice. For this reason, network layers usually support an `unreliable connectionless service`.
An `unreliable connectionless` service may suffer from various types of problems compared to a `reliable connectionless service`. First of all, an `unreliable connectionless service` does not guarantee the delivery of all SDUs. This can be expressed graphically by using the time-sequence diagram below.
In practice, an `unreliable connectionless service` will usually deliver a large fraction of the SDUs. However, since the delivery of SDUs is not guaranteed, the user must be able to recover from the loss of any SDU.
A second imperfection that may affect an `unreliable connectionless service` is that it may duplicate SDUs. Some packets may be duplicated in a network and be delivered twice to their destination. This is illustrated by the time-sequence diagram below.
Finally, some unreliable connectionless service providers may deliver to a destination a different SDU than the one that was supplied in the `Data.request`. This is illustrated in the figure below.
As the transport layer is built on top of the network layer, it is important to know the key features of the network layer service. In this book, we only consider the `connectionless network layer service` which is the most widespread. Its main characteristics are :
the `connectionless network layer service` can only transfer SDUs of *limited size*
the `connectionless network layer service` may discard SDUs
the `connectionless network layer service` may corrupt SDUs
the `connectionless network layer service` may delay, reorder or even duplicate SDUs
These imperfections of the `connectionless network layer service` are caused by the operations of the `network layer`. This `layer` is able to deliver packets to their intended destination, but it cannot guarantee their delivery. The main cause of packet losses and errors are the buffers used on the network nodes. If the buffers of one of these nodes becomes full, all arriving packets must be discarded. This situation frequently happens in practice [#fqueuesize]_. Transmission errors can also affect packet transmissions on links where reliable transmission techniques are not enabled or because of errors in the buffers of the network nodes.
Transport layer services
When two applications need to communicate, they need to structure their exchange of information. Structuring this exchange of information requires solving two different problems. The first problem is how to represent the information being exchanged knowing that the two applications may be running on hosts that use different operating systems, different processors and have different conventions to store information. This requires a common syntax to transfer the information between the two applications. For this chapter, let us assume that this syntax exists and that the two applications simply need to exchange bytes. We will discuss later how more complex data can be encoded as sequences of bytes to be exchanged. The second problem is how to organize the interactions between the application and the underlying network. From the application's viewpoint, the `network` will appear as the `transport layer` service. This `transport layer` can provide three types of services to the applications :
the `connectionless service`
the `connection oriented service`
the `request-response service`
The connectionless service
The `connectionless service` that we have described earlier is frequently used by users who need to exchange small SDUs. It can be easily built on top of the connectionless network layer service that we have described earlier. Users needing to either send or receive several different and potentially large SDUs, or who need structured exchanges often prefer the `connection-oriented service`.
The connection-oriented service
An invocation of the `connection-oriented service` is divided into three phases. The first phase is the establishment of a `connection`. A `connection` is a temporary association between two users through a service provider. Several connections may exist at the same time between any pair of users. Once established, the connection is used to transfer SDUs. `Connections` usually provide one bidirectional stream supporting the exchange of SDUs between the two users that are associated through the `connection`. This stream is used to transfer data during the second phase of the connection called the `data transfer` phase. The third phase is the termination of the connection. Once the users have finished exchanging SDUs, they request the service provider to terminate the connection. As we will see later, there are also some cases where the service provider may need to terminate a connection itself.
The establishment of a connection can be modeled by using four primitives : `Connect.request`, `Connect.indication`, `Connect.response` and `Connect.confirm`. The `Connect.request` primitive is used to request the establishment of a connection. The main parameter of this primitive is the `address` of the destination user. The service provider delivers a `Connect.indication` primitive to inform the destination user of the connection attempt. If it accepts to establish a connection, it responds with a `Connect.response` primitive. At this point, the connection is considered to be established and the destination user can start sending SDUs over the connection. The service provider processes the `Connect.response` and will deliver a `Connect.confirm` to the user who initiated the connection. The delivery of this primitive terminates the connection establishment phase. At this point, the connection is considered to be open and both users can send SDUs. A successful connection establishment is illustrated below.
The example above shows a successful connection establishment. However, in practice not all connections are successfully established. One reason is that the destination user may not agree, for policy or performance reasons, to establish a connection with the initiating user at this time. In this case, the destination user responds to the `Connect.indication` primitive by a `Disconnect.request` primitive that contains a parameter to indicate why the connection has been refused. The service provider will then deliver a `Disconnect.indication` primitive to inform the initiating user.
A second reason is when the service provider is unable to reach the destination user. This might happen because the destination user is not currently attached to the network or due to congestion. In these cases, the service provider responds to the `Connect.request` with a `Disconnect.indication` primitive whose `reason` parameter contains additional information about the failure of the connection.

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read-only
Source string location
../../principles/transport.rst:237
String age
5 years ago
Source string age
5 years ago
Translation file
locale/pot/principles/transport.pot, string 59