The Bits and Bytes of Computer Networking - The Network Layer

25 important questions on The Bits and Bytes of Computer Networking - The Network Layer

What is the IP protocol used for?

IP handles addressing the format of the datagram, how to handle packets and it has some helpers, such as Routing protocols and ICMP.

What is the Routing protocol used for?

The idea of these are, they figure out the global routes. How do you get from this endpoint to this endpoint. From this host to this host. What is the best way to get there. Based on that protocol, they will create the forwarding table to make these decisions

What is the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)?

The ICMP is a small protocol that supports the Internet Protocol. It does error reporting, allows routers to talk to each other. It is a helper protocol for IP.
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How do nodes communicate with each other on a Local Area Network?

Nodes communicate with each other through their physical MAC addresses

Is the following IP address correct? If no, why not and if yes, why is it correct?

123.456.789.100

No, the number is incorrect because it consists of numbers larger than can be represented by 8 bits. An IP address is a 32 bit long number made out of four octets. 8 bits of data, or a single octet, can represent all decimal numbers from 0 to 255. For example, 12.30.56.78 is a valid IP address

How do we call the format that an IP address is made out of?

We call this dotted decimal notation.

What is a dynamic IP address and what are they used for?

On many networks you can connect a new device and an IP address will be assigned to it automatically through a technology known as dynamic host configuration protocol. An IP address assigned this way is known as a dynamic IP address. Most dynamic IP addresses are reserved for clients.

What is a static IP address?

A static IP address must be configured on a node manually. Most static IP addresses are reserved for servers and network devices.

What are the primary sections of an IP datagram?

The two primary sections of an IP Datagram are the header and the payload.

What are the most important fields of the IP datagram?

Length, upper layer, header checksum, Source IP address, Destination IP Address and Data.

What is the length of an IP datagram?

The length of an IP datagram is 32 bits. All fields are divided in these 32 bits.

Which of the fields are used for fragmentation?

The 16-bit identifier, flags and fragment offset

What is the upper layer field used for?

It defines what upper layer protocol to deliver the payload to. This is the glue that connects IP with the transport layer.

After the Version field comes the Header Length, what does this indicate?

This is also a four bit field that declares how long the entire header is. This is almost always 20 bytes in length when dealing with IPv4.

Why is the Header Length almost always 20 bytes with IPv4?

20 bytes is the minimum length of an IP header. You couldn't fit all the data you need for a properly formatted IP header in any less space.

What does the Service type field indicate?

The Service Type field consists of 8 bits and can be used to specify details about quality of service (QoS). There are services that allow routers to make decisions about which IP datagram may be more important than others.

What does the Total Length field indicate?

The Total Length field is used to indicate the total length of the IP datagram it's attached to.

What does the identification field indicate?

The identification field is a 16-bit number that is used to group messages together. Messages need to be grouped together when the total amount of data that is being send is larger than what can fit inside a single datagram. The identification field makes sure that the receiving end understand that every packet with the same value in that field is part of the same batch.

What is a network ID?

A network ID, in the world of Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol or TCP/IP, is the portion of the TCP/IP address which identifies the network for a given host, usually composed of three octets with dotted decimal representation.

What is a host ID?

It is the fragment of an IP address that uniquely classifies a host on a specified TCP/IP network.

Since with CIDR, we don't use the IP classes anymore, what do we need to determine the network ID instead?

All we need is what the network mask tells us to determine the network ID.

Why does a router need at least two network interfaces?

Because it needs to be connected to two networks in order to forward traffic to a destination.

What are the steps of basic routing?

1. The router receives a data packet on one of its interfaces
2. The router examines the destination IP of the packet
3. The router looks up the IP destination network in its routing table
4. The router forwards the IP destination information through the interface that is closest to the remote network.

These steps are repeated as often as needed until the traffic reaches its destination.

What is the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and why is it necessary for the internet to function?

The IANA is a non-profit organisation that helps manage things like IP address allocation and Autonomous System Number allocation (ASN). The internet couldn't function without it because anyone could try to use any IP space they wanted, which would lead to total online chaos.

What are Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs)?

Just like IP addresses, ASNs are 32-bit numbers. But, unlike IP addresses, they're normally referred to as just a single decimal number, instead of being split out into readable bits.

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