1.

Internet

It is the process of connecting different networks by using intermediate devices such as routers, switches
and gateways. Internet uses TCP/IP protocol suite and uses IP as its addressing protocol. Present day,
Internet is widely implemented using IPv4. Because of shortage of address spaces, it is gradually
migrating from IPv4 to IPv6.

Internet enables its users to share and access enormous amount of information worldwide. It uses WWW,
FTP, email services, audio and video streaming etc. At huge level, internet works on Client-Server model.

Internet uses very high speed backbone of fibre optics. To inter-connect various continents, fibres are laid
under sea known to us as submarine communication cable.

Internet is widely deployed on World Wide Web services using HTML linked pages and is accessible by
client software known as Web Browsers. When a user requests a page using some web browser located on
some Web Server anywhere in the world, the Web Server responds with the proper HTML page. The
communication delay is very low.

Internet is serving many proposes and is involved in many aspects of life. Some of them are:

 Web sites
 E-mail
 Instant Messaging
 Blogging
 Social Media
 Marketing
 Networking
 Resource Sharing
 Audio and Video Streaming

Advantages
Internet covers almost every aspect of life, one can think of. Here, we will discuss some of the advantages
of Internet:

 Internet allows us to communicate with the people sitting at remote locations. There are various
apps available on the wed that uses Internet as a medium for communication. One can find various
social networking sites such as:

o Facebook

o Twitter

o Yahoo
  One can surf for any kind of information over the internet. Information regarding various topics
such as Technology, Health & Science, Social Studies, Geographical Information, Information
Technology, Products etc can be surfed with help of a search engine.

 Apart from communication and source of information, internet also serves a medium for
entertainment. Following are the various modes for entertainment over internet.

o Online Television

o Online Games

o Songs

o Videos

o Social Networking Apps

 Internet allows us to use many services like:

o Internet Banking

o Online Shopping

o Online Ticket Booking

o Online Bill Payment

o E-mail

 Internet provides concept of electronic commerce, that allows the business deals to be conducted
on electronic systems

Disadvantages

 There are always chances to loose personal information such as name, address, credit card number.
Therefore, one should be very careful while sharing such information. One should use credit cards
only through authenticated sites.

 Spamming: Spamming corresponds to the unwanted e-mails in bulk. These e-mails serve no
purpose and lead to obstruction of entire system.

 Virus can easily be spread to the computers connected to internet. Such virus attacks may cause
your system to crash or your important data may get deleted.

 Also a biggest threat on internet is pornography. There are many pornographic sites that can be
found, letting your children to use internet which indirectly affects the children healthy mental life.

 There are various websites that do not provide the authenticated information. This leads to
misconception among many people.
2. How Internet works?/ Architecture of Internet

The message you want to send is "Hello computer 5.6.7.8!". The message must be transmitted over
whatever kind of wire or network connects computer to the Internet.
The protocol stack used on the Internet is referred to as the TCP/IP protocol stack because of the two major
communication protocols used. The TCP/IP stack looks like this: 

Protocol Layer Comments

Application Protocols Layer Protocols specific to applications such as WWW, e-mail, FTP, etc.

Transmission Control Protocol TCP directs packets to a specific application on a computer using a
Layer port number.

Internet Protocol Layer IP directs packets to a specific computer using an IP address.

Converts binary packet data to network signals and back.

Hardware Layer
(E.g. ethernet network card, modem for phone lines, etc.)

If we were to follow the path that the message "Hello computer 5.6.7.8!" took from our computer to the
computer with IP address 5.6.7.8, it would happen something like this: 

1. The message would start at the top of the protocol stack on your computer and work it's way
downward.
2. If the message to be sent is long, each stack layer that the message passes through may break the
message up into smaller chunks of data. This is because data sent over the Internet (and most
computer networks) are sent in manageable chunks. On the Internet, these chunks of data are
known as packets.
3. The packets would go through the Application Layer and continue to the TCP layer. Each packet is
assigned a port number.
4. After going through the TCP layer, the packets proceed to the IP layer. This is where each packet
receives its destination address, 5.6.7.8.
5. Now that our message packets have a port number and an IP address, they are ready to be sent over
the Internet. The hardware layer takes care of turning our packets containing the alphabetic text of
our message into electronic signals and transmitting them over the phone line.
6. On the other end of the phone line your ISP has a direct connection to the Internet. The ISPs router
examines the destination address in each packet and determines where to send it
7. Eventually, the packets reach computer 5.6.7.8. Here, the packets start at the bottom of the
destination computer's TCP/IP stack and work upwards.
8. As the packets go upwards through the stack, all routing data that the sending computer's stack
added (such as IP address and port number) is stripped from the packets.
9. When the data reaches the top of the stack, the packets have been re-assembled into their original
form, "Hello computer 5.6.7.8!"
3. Intranet
Intranet is defined as private network of computers within an organization with its own server and
firewall. Moreover we can define Intranet as:

 Intranet is system in which multiple PCs are networked to be connected to each other. PCs in
intranet are not available to the world outside of the intranet.

 Usually each company or organization has their own Intranet network and members/employees of
that company can access the computers in their intranet.

 Every computer in internet is identified by a unique IP address.

 Each computer in Intranet is also identified by a IP Address, which is unique among the computers
in that Intranet.

Benefits
Intranet is very efficient and reliable network system for any organization.

1. Communication: Intranet offers easy and cheap communication within an organization. Employees
can communicate using chat, e-mail or blogs.
2. Time Saving: Information on Intranet is shared in real time.
3. Collaboration: Information is distributed among the employees as according to requirement and it
can be accessed by the authorized users, resulting in enhanced teamwork.
4. Platform Independency: Intranet can connect computers and other devices with different
architecture.
5. Cost Effective: Employees can see the data and other documents using browser rather than printing
them and distributing duplicate copies among the employees, which certainly decreases the cost.
6. Workforce Productivity: Data is available at every time and can be accessed using company
workstation. This helps the employees work faster.
7. Business Management: It is also possible to deploy applications that support business operations.

Internet vs. Intranet

Intranet Internet

Localized Network. Worldwide Network

Doesn't have access to

Have access to Internet.
Intranet

More Expensive Less Expensive

More Safe Less Safe

More Reliability Less Reliability

4. Extranet
Extranet refers to network within an organization, using internet to connect to the outsiders in controlled
manner. It helps to connect businesses with their customers and suppliers and therefore allows working in
a collaborative manner.

Benefits
Extranet proves to be a successful model for all kind of businesses whether small or big. Here are some of
the advantages of extranet for employees, suppliers, business partners, and customers:

Extranet vs. Intranet

The following table shows differences between Extranet and Intranet:

Extranet Intranet

Internal network that cannot be accessed

Internal network that can be accessed externally.
externally.

Extranet is extension of company's Intranet. Only limited users of a company.

 For limited external communication between Only for communication within a
customers, suppliers and business partners. company.

5. IP Adresses

IP address is a unique logical address assigned to a machine over the network. An IP address exhibits the
following properties:

 IP address is the unique address assigned to each host present on Internet.

 IP address is 32 bits (4 bytes) long.
 IP address consists of two components: network component and host component.
 Each of the 4 bytes is represented by a number from 0 to 255, separated with dots. For example
137.170.4.124

The IPv4 Addressing system is divided into five classes of IP Addresses. All the five classes are identified
by the first octet of IP Address.

The first octet referred here is the left most of all. The octets numbered as follows depicting dotted decimal
notation of IP Address:

The number of networks and the number of hosts per class can be derived by this formula:

When calculating hosts' IP addresses, 2 IP addresses are decreased because they cannot be assigned to
hosts, i.e. the first IP of a network is network number and the last IP is reserved for Broadcast IP.

Class A Address
The first bit of the first octet is always set to 0 (zero). Thus the first octet ranges from 1 – 127, i.e.

Class A addresses only include IP starting from 1.x.x.x to 126.x.x.x only. The IP range 127.x.x.x is
reserved for loopback IP addresses.

The default subnet mask for Class A IP address is 255.0.0.0 which implies that Class A addressing can
have 126 networks (27-2) and 16777214 hosts (224-2).
 Class A IP address format is thus: 0NNNNNNN.HHHHHHHH.HHHHHHHH.HHHHHHHH

Class B Address
An IP address which belongs to class B has the first two bits in the first octet set to 10, i.e.

Class B IP Addresses range from 128.0.x.x to 191.255.x.x. The default subnet mask for Class B is
255.255.x.x.

Class B has 16384 (214) Network addresses and 65534 (216-2) Host addresses.

Class B IP address format is: 10NNNNNN.NNNNNNNN.HHHHHHHH.HHHHHHHH

Class C Address
The first octet of Class C IP address has its first 3 bits set to 110, that is:

Class C IP addresses range from 192.0.0.x to 223.255.255.x. The default subnet mask for Class C is
255.255.255.x.

Class C gives 2097152 (221) Network addresses and 254 (28-2) Host addresses.

Class C IP address format is: 110NNNNN.NNNNNNNN.NNNNNNNN.HHHHHHHH

Class D Address
Very first four bits of the first octet in Class D IP addresses are set to 1110, giving a range of:

Class D has IP address rage from 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255. Class D is reserved for Multicasting. In
multicasting data is not destined for a particular host, that is why there is no need to extract host address
from the IP address, and Class D does not have any subnet mask.

Class E Address
This IP Class is reserved for experimental purposes only for R&D or Study. IP addresses in this class
ranges from 240.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.254. Like Class D, this class too is not equipped with any subnet
mask.

6. Domain Name
Domain Name is a symbolic string associated with an IP address. There are several domain names
available; some of them are generic such as com, edu, gov, net etc, while some country level domain
names such as au, in, za, usetc.

The following table shows the Generic Top-Level Domain names:

Domain Name Meaning

Com Commercial business

Edu Education

Gov U.S. government agency

Int International entity

Mil U.S. military

Net Networking organization

Org Non profit organization

The following table shows the Country top-level domain names:

Domain Name Meaning

Au Australia

In India

Us United States

Uk United Kingdom

Types of name servers

Following are the three categories of Name Servers that manages the entire Domain Name System:
 1. ROOT SERVER: Root Server is the top level server which consists of the entire DNS tree. It does
not contain the information about domains but delegates the authority to the other server

2. PRIMARY SERVERS: Primary Server stores a file about its zone. It has authority to create,
maintain, and update the zone file.

3. SECONDARY SERVER: Secondary Server transfers complete information about a zone from
another server which may be primary or secondary server. The secondary server does not have
authority to create or update a zone file.

Working of DNS
DNS translates the domain name into IP address automatically. Following steps will take you through the
steps included in domain resolution process:

 When we type www.google.com into the browser, it asks the local DNS Server for its IP address.
 When the local DNS does not find the IP address of requested domain name, it forwards the
request to the root DNS server and again enquires about IP address of it.
 The root DNS server replies with delegation that I do not know the IP address of
www.tutorialspoint.com but know the IP address of DNS Server.
 The local DNS server then asks the com DNS Server the same question.
 The com DNS Server replies the same that it does not know the IP address of
www.tutorialspont.com but knows the address of tutorialspoint.com.
 Then the local DNS asks the tutorialspoint.com DNS server the same question.
 Then tutorialspoint.com DNS server replies with IP address of www.tutorialspoint.com.
 Now, the local DNS sends the IP address of www.tutorialspoint.com to the computer that sends the
request.

7. How to Connect LAN to Internet

1. Determine the number of computers you want to connect. 

 The number of computers you're connecting will determine the type of network hardware you'll
need.
 If you are connecting four or less computers, you'll just need a single router, or one switch if you
don't need internet.
 If you're connecting more than four computers, you'll want a router and a switch, or just a switch
if you don't need internet.
2. Determine your network layout. 
 If your installing a permanent LAN solution, you'll want to keep cable length in mind. CAT5
Ethernet cables should not run longer than 250 feet. If you need to cover larger distances, you'll
need switches at regular intervals, or you'll need to use CAT6 cables.
 You'll need one Ethernet cable for each computer you want to connect to the LAN, as well as an
Ethernet cable to connect the router to the switch (if applicable).

3. Obtain the network hardware. 

 To create a LAN, you'll need a router and/or a network. These pieces of hardware are the "hub" of
your LAN, and all of your computers will be connected to them.
 The easiest way to create a LAN where every computer has access to the internet is to use a router,
and then add a network switch if the router doesn't have enough ports. A router will automatically
assign an IP address to every computer that is connected to it.
  Switches are similar to routers but do not automatically assign IP addresses. Switches typically
have many more Ethernet ports than a router has.

 Connect your modem to the WAN port on the router. 

 This port may be labeled "INTERNET" instead. This will provide internet access to every
computer that is connected to your LAN. You can skip this if you're setting up a LAN without
internet access.

 You don't need a router at all to create a LAN, but it makes things easier. If you just use a network
switch, you'll need to manually assign IP addresses to each computer after connecting them.

 Connect the switch to a LAN port on the router.

 If you're using a network switch to connect more computers, connect it to one of the LAN ports on the
router. You can use any open port on the switch to make the connection. When connected, the router
will provide IP addresses for every computer that is connected to either device.

8. Web server
Web server is a computer where the web content is stored. Basically web server is used to host the web
sites but there exists other web servers also such as gaming, storage, FTP, email etc.
Web site is collection of web pages while web server is software that responds to the request for web
resources.

Web Server Working

Web server respond to the client request in either of the following two ways:

 Sending the file to the client associated with the requested URL.

 Generating response by invoking a script and communicating with database

Proces:
 When client sends request for a web page, the web server search for the requested page if requested
page is found then it will send it to client with an HTTP response.

 If the requested web page is not found, web server will the send an HTTP response: Error 404
Not found.
  If client has requested for some other resources then the web server will contact to the application
server and data store to construct the HTTP response.

Architecture
Web Server Architecture follows the following approach:

1. Concurrent Approach
Concurrent approach allows the web server to handle multiple client requests at the same time. It can be
achieved by following methods:

 Multi-process

 Multi-threaded

 Hybrid method.

a. Multi-processing: In this a single process (parent process) initiates several single-threaded child
processes and distribute incoming requests to these child processes. Each of the child processes are
responsible for handling single request.
It is the responsibility of parent process to monitor the load and decide if processes should be killed or
forked.

b. Multi-threaded: Unlike Multi-process, it creates multiple single-threaded processes.

c. Hybrid: It is combination of above two approaches. In this approach multiple process are created and
each process initiates multiple threads. Each of the threads handles one connection. Using multiple threads
in single process results in fewer loads on system resources.

9. Web Browser
Web Browser is an application software that allows us to view and explore information on the web. User
can request for any web page by just entering a URL into address bar.

Web browser can show text, audio, video, animation and more. It is the responsibility of a web browser to
interpret text and commands contained in the web page.

Earlier the web browsers were text-based while nowadays graphical-based or voice-based web browsers
are also available. Following are the most common web browser available today:

Browser Vendor

Internet Explorer Microsoft

Google Chrome Google

Mozilla Firefox Mozilla

Netscape Navigator Netscape Communications Corp.

Opera Opera Software

 Safari Apple

Sea Monkey Mozilla Foundation

K-meleon K-meleon

Architecture
There is a lot of web browser available in the market. All of them interpret and display information on the
screen however their capabilities and structure varies depending upon implementation. But the most basic
component that all web browsers must exhibit are listed below:

 Controller/Dispatcher

 Interpreter

 Client Programs

a. Controller works as a control unit in CPU. It takes input from the keyboard or mouse, interpret it and
make other services to work on the basis of input it receives.

b. Interpreter receives the information from the controller and executes the instruction line by line. Some
interpreter is mandatory while some are optional For example, HTML interpreter program is mandatory
and java interpreter is optional.

c. Client Program describes the specific protocol that will be used to access a particular service.
Following are the client programs that are commonly used:

 HTTP

 SMTP

 FTP

 NNTP

 POP
10. FDDI
Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) is a standard for data transmission in a local area network. It
uses optical fiber as its standard underlying physical medium, although it was also later specified to
use copper cable, in which case it may be called CDDI (Copper Distributed Data Interface).

FDDI provides a 100 Mbit/s optical standard for data transmission in local area network that can extend in
range up to 200 kilometers (120 mi). Although FDDI logical topology is a ring-based token network, it did
not use the IEEE 802.5 token ring protocol as its basis; instead, its protocol was derived from the IEEE
802.4 token bus timed token protocol. In addition to covering large geographical areas, FDDI local area
networks can support thousands of users. FDDI offers both a Dual-Attached Station (DAS), counter-
rotating token ring topology and a Single-Attached Station (SAS), token bus passing ring topology.

Topology

Designers normally constructed FDDI rings in a network topology such as a "dual ring of trees". A small
number of devices, typically infrastructure devices such as routers and concentrators rather than host
computers, were "dual-attached" to both rings. Host computers then connect as single-attached devices to
the routers or concentrators. The dual ring in its most degenerate form simply collapses into a single
device. Typically, a computer-room contained the whole dual ring, although some implementations
deployed FDDI as a metropolitan area network.
FDDI requires this network topology because the dual ring actually passes through each connected device
and requires each such device to remain continuously operational. The standard actually allows for optical
bypasses, but network engineers consider these unreliable and error-prone. Devices such as workstations
and minicomputers that might not come under the control of the network managers are not suitable for
connection to the dual ring.

Frame Format
The FDDI data frame format is:

PA SD FC DA SA PDU FCS ED/FS

16 8 48 up to 4478x8
8 bits 48 bits 32 bits 16 bits
bits bits bits bits

Where PA is the preamble, SD is a start delimiter, FC is frame control, DA is the destination

address, SA is the source address, PDU is the protocol data unit (or packet data unit), FCS is the frame
check Sequence (or checksum), and ED/FS are the end delimiter and frame status. The Internet
Engineering Task Force defined a standard for transmission of the Internet Protocol over FDDI.

11. ISDN
ISDN communications can be described at many levels, from the way bits are transferred from machine to
machine to the sets of messages computers pass to one another. A scheme for communication at a certain
level is called a protocol.
In the late 1970's, the International Standards Organization (ISO) established the Open Systems
Interconnect (OSI) model for communication. ISDN is based on this model. In OSI, seven separate levels,
or layers, of communication are defined. The first three layers, called the chained layers, are the lowest
levels. The following table describes the chained layers:

Layer Description

Physical The electrical and mechanical layer. Protocols for this layer describe, from an electrical
layer and mechanical perspective, the methods used to transfer bits from one device to
(layer 1) another. A protocol used at this layer is CCITT recommendation I.430/I.431.

Data link The layer above the physical layer. Protocols for this layer describe methods for error-
layer free communication between devices across the physical link. A protocol used at this
(layer 2) layer is CCITT recommendation Q.921, also known as Link Access Procedures on the
D channel (LAPD).

Network The layer above the data link layer. Protocols for this layer describe methods for
layer transferring information between computers. They also describe how data is routed
(layer 3) within and between networks. A protocol used at this layer is CCITT recommendation
Q.931.

Layers higher than these are end-to-end layers. They describe how information is exchanged and delivered
end-to-end. They also define process-to-process communication, and describe application-independent user
services, as well as user interfaces and applications.
The following illustration shows the OSI protocol layering model:

The functionality provided by a layer includes the services and functions of all of the layers below it. A
service access point (SAP) is the point at which a layer provides services to the layer directly above it.
Each SAP is associated with a unique service access point identifier (SAPI).
12. ADSL
The user generates IP packets, it is necessary to transport these IP packets to the ADSL modem. For this,
we use an Ethernet frame, a PPP frame, a USB frame, or a superposition of these frames as a PPP frame
encapsulated in an Ethernet frame or a PPP frame encapsulated in a USB frame.
Take the example of IP packets encapsulated in an Ethernet frame. This frame is sent either over an
Ethernet network connecting the client PC to the modem or in a PPP frame to a USB type interface. In the
ADSL modem is uncap the frame to retrieve the IP packet and encapsulate it again, but this time in an
ATM frame. This fragmentation into pieces of 48 bytes is achieved through an AAL-5 layer .
After arrival in the frame ATM DSLAM, several scenarios can Next introduce the architecture of the ISP
network to which the client is connected. a first solution is to uncap the ATM cells and recover the IP
packet is transmitted to the hub in an Ethernet frame. The hub sends to the ISP also in an Ethernet frame. A
second solution is to let form ATM frames. This is the case when the operator of the local loop and ISPs
use the same technology. In this case, the ATM cell is sent directly to the hub, which acts as the ATM
switch. It sends the ATM frames through virtual circuits to BAS (Broadband Access Server), which are
intermediate equipment to access networks of alternative ISP.

These topologies are illustrated in Figure.

Another solution, which is also widely used, is to place the starting IP packet in a PPP frame and retaining
said frame along the path, even in the encapsulate other frames. This gave birth to the PPPoE (PPP over
Ethernet) in the where the PPP frame is sent to Ethernet. PPP frame may be encapsulated in ATM several
frames after being cut into pieces of 48 octets through the AAL-5 protocol.
The advantage of keeping the PPP frame along the way is to encapsulate it in an L2TP tunnel, as we shall
see.
L2TP
To realize communication between BAS and servers, a tunnelling protocol must be implemented since this
path may be considered to be taken by all packets or frames from different DSLAMs and going to the same
server. Tunnelling is a common technique, which looks like a virtual circuit. The three protocols are used
for this PPTP (point-to-point tunnelling protocol), L2F (Layer 2 Forwarding) and L2TP (Layer 2
Tunnelling Protocol). These protocols allow the user authentication, dynamic address assignment,
encryption of data and possibly compression.

The most recent protocol, L2TP, hardly support scaling, or scalability, and fails to properly handle and fast
enough a number of flows in excess of the average values. In this case, is added L2TP access concentrator
LAC or (L2TP Access Concentrator), which recover all clients from a single DSLAM and going to the
same DOWN and multiplex on the same virtual circuit.

The figure illustrates the protocol architecture of a communication from a PC to a server located in a
different ISP network from that of the input operator. The PC works under TCP / IP and is connected to a
DSL modem via an Ethernet network.
13. PPP
PPP was devised by IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) to create a data link protocol for point to point
lines that can solve all the problems present in SLIP.
PPP is most commonly used data link protocol. It is used to connect the Home PC to the server of ISP via a
modem.
This protocol offers several facilities that were not present in SLIP. Some of these facilities are:
1. PPP defines the format of the frame to be exchanged between the devices.
2. It defines link control protocol (LCP) for:-
i. Establishing the link between two devices.
ii. Maintaining this established link.
iii. Configuring this link.
iv. Terminating this link after the transfer.
3. It defines how network layer data are encapsulated in data link frame.
4. PPP provides error detection.
5. Unlike SLIP that supports only IP, PPP supports multiple protocols.
6. PPP allows the IP address to be assigned at the connection time i.e. dynamically. Thus a temporary IP
address can be assigned to each host.
7. PPP provides multiple network layer services supporting a variety of network layer protocol. For this
PPP uses a protocol called NCP (Network Control Protocol).
8. It also defines how two devices can authenticate each other.

PPP Frame Format

The frame format of PPP resembles HDLC frame. Its various fields are:
1. Flag field: Flag field marks the beginning and end of the PPP frame. Flag byte is 01111110. (1 byte).
2. Address field: This field is of 1 byte and is always 11111111. This address is the broadcast
address i.e.  all the stations accept this frame.
3. Control field: This field is also of 1 byte. This field uses the format of the U-frame (unnumbered) in
HDLC. The value is always 00000011 to show that the frame does not contain any sequence numbers and
there is no flow control or error control.
4. Protocol field: This field specifies the kind of packet in the data field i.e. what is being carried in data
field.
5. Data field: Its length is variable. If the length is not negotiated using LCP during line set up, a default
length of 1500 bytes is used. It carries user data or other information.
6. FCS field: The frame checks sequence. It is either of 2 bytes or 4 bytes. It contains the checksum.
Transition Phases in PPP 
The PPP connection goes through different states as shown in fig.
1. Dead: In dead phase the link is not used. There is no active carrier and the line is quiet.

2. Establish: Connection goes into this phase when one of the nodes start communication. In this phase,
two parties negotiate the options. If negotiation is successful, the system goes into authentication phase or
directly to networking phase. LCP packets are used for this purpose.
3. Authenticate: This phase is optional. The two nodes may decide during the establishment phase, not to
skip this phase. However if they decide to proceed with authentication, they send several authentication
packets. If the result is successful, the connection goes to the networking phase; otherwise, it goes to the
termination phase.
4. Network: In network phase, negotiation for the network layer protocols takes place. PPP specifies that
two nodes establish a network layer agreement before data at the network layer can be exchanged. This is
because PPP supports several protocols at network layer. If a node is running multiple protocols
simultaneously at the network layer, the receiving node needs to know which protocol will receive the data.
5. Open: In this phase, data transfer takes place. The connection remains in this phase until one of the
endpoints wants to end the connection.
6. Terminate: In this phase connection is terminated.

14. ATM
Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) is a switching technique used by telecommunication networks that
uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing to encode data into small, fixed-sized cells. This is different
from Ethernet or internet, which use variable packet sizes for data or frames. ATM is the core protocol
used over the synchronous optical network (SONET) backbone of the integrated digital services network.

ATM protocol stack which consist of ATM physical layer (similar to OSI layer-1), ATM layer and AAL
layer. Upper layers reside above AAL layer. Let us understand functions of all the ATM protocol layers
including sub layers (if any).

The functionalities of all the ATM protocol layers are categorized into control plane, user plane and
management plane. 
➨User plane layers handle user information transfer and required associated controls e.g. error control and
flow control. 
➨Control plane takes care of call and connection related control signals. 
➨Management plane is divided into plane and layer management. Plane management manages whole
system functionality. Layer management takes care of management of all resources and parameters of the
protocol entities.

AAL-ATM Adaptation Layer

AAL layer in ATM protocol stack consists of two sublayers viz. convergence sublayer and SAR
(Segmentation and Reassembly) sublayer. ATM AAL layer does following functions: 
• AAL performs encapsulation of user data generated by upper layers.
• It does segmentation of data into small size ATM cells of size 48 bytes at transmit host. It does re-
assembly of segmented data at the receive host. 

ATM Layer

Following are the functions performed by ATM layer in ATM protocol layers: 
• This layer incorporates header (of size 5 bytes) to segmented cells of size 48 bytes each. ATM layer does
this header generation at transmit end and header extraction at receive end. 
• It is responsible for generic flow control.
• It does VPI vs VCI translation.
• It takes care of cell multiplexing and demultiplexing i.e. multiplexing of logical channels to one physical
channel and vice-versa. 
• ATM layer provides variety of services for ATM cells from ATM virtual connection.

ATM Physical Layer

ATM physical layer in protocol stack consists of Transmission Convergence sublayer and Physical
Medium Dependent Sublayer. It performs following functions: 
• Transmission convergence sublayer takes care of following:
-HEC header sequence generation as well as verification 
-Cell Delineation 
-Transmit frame generation and recovery 
• Physical Medium Dependent sublayer takes care of following:
-Bit timing 
-Physical medium related encoding and decoding of bits