Chapter Four

Wide Area Network (WAN) Technology

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 A Taxonomy of
Communication Networks
• Communication networks can be classified
based on the way in which the nodes exchange
information.

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 Introduction to WAN
• utilize protocols at levels 1-3 of the OSI reference model that
are optimized, both physically and logically, for extended
travel
• when you select a WAN technology, you will be faced with
many confusing options:
– the amount of data they can deliver,
– the speed at which they operate,
– their initial and recurring costs,
– their management requirements, and
– their flexibility to include new locations or new technologies
such as voice or video

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 Switching
• involves moving something through a series of intermediate
steps, or segments, rather than moving it directly from start
point to end point
• serves the same purpose as the direct connection, but it uses
transmission resources more efficiently
• WAN uses switching
• There are different kinds of switching:
– Circuit switching
– Packet switching
– Message switching
• WANs rely primarily on packet switching, but they also make
use of circuit switching, message switching,
– the relatively recent, high-speed packet-switching technology
known as cell relay 4
1. Circuit Switching
– involves creating a direct physical connection between sender
and receiver
– a connection lasts as long as the two parties need to
communicate
– allows for a fixed (and rapid) rate of transmission
– switching is done at the physical layer
– The primary drawback is
• any unused bandwidth remains exactly unused
– The most common form of circuit switching - the telephone
system
– but circuit switching is also used in some networks

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• Advantages:
– fixed delays
– guaranteed continuous delivery
• Disadvantages
– the long connection delay (between the end of dialing and the
start of ringing)
– circuits are not used when session is idle
– inefficient for bursty traffic
– usually done using a fixed rate stream (e.g., 64 Kbps) -
difficult to support variable data rates

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2. Message Switching
– does not involve a direct physical connection
– When a network relies on message switching, the sender
can fire off a transmission—after addressing it
appropriately—whenever it wants
– when the sender has a block of data to be sent,
• it is stored in the first switching office (i.e., router) and then
forwarded later;
• each block is received in its entirety, inspected for errors, and
then transmitted - a store-and-forward network

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 – the intermediaries aren't required to forward messages
immediately.
• Instead, they can hold messages before sending them on to
their next destination
– no limit on block size; routers need disk buffers
– a single block may tie up the line
– not in use anymore

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3. Packet Switching
– similar to message switching,
• but with a tighter limit on block size so that packets can be
buffered in memory rather than on disk
– suitable for interactive traffic; no monopoly
– all transmissions are broken into units called packets,
– each of which contains addressing information that identifies
both the source and destination nodes
– These packets are then routed through various intermediaries,
known as Packet Switching Exchanges (PSEs)
– packet-switched networks transfer data over variable routes
– At each node the entire packet is received, stored, and then
forwarded (Store-and-Forward Networks)

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– There has to be some kind of connection — either
connectionless or connection-oriented services, depending on
the type of packet-switching network involved
– In establishing the link between sender and recipient, a
connection-oriented service can make use of
• either Switched Virtual Circuits (SVCs)
• or Permanent Virtual Circuits (PVCs)
– Using a switched virtual circuit is comparable to calling
someone on the telephone
– Using a permanent virtual circuit, on the other hand, is more
like relying on a leased line

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– A packet-switching network might be, for example,
• a frame relay network
• an ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) network
• Etc.
– Advantage
• Line efficiency
– Single node to node link can be shared by many packets over
time
– Packets queued and transmitted as fast as possible
• Data rate conversion
– Each station connects to the local node at its own speed
– Nodes buffer data if required to equalize rates
• Packets are accepted even when network is busy
– Delivery may slow down
• Priorities can be used

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– two popular approaches to packet switching: the Datagram
Approach and the Virtual Circuit approach
A. Virtual Circuit approach - a data link layer technology
– Hybrid of circuit switching and packet switching
– a single route is established between sender and receiver at
the beginning of the session by sending a set-up packet
– as the packet travels all the way, the routers on the path record
an entry in their internal tables and make reservation of
resources at the beginning
– a call teardown deletes
– no routing decision is made by every switch for every packet;
it is made only once and the virtual circuit
– used for connection-oriented services
• e.g., ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode)

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 B. Datagram Approach - mostly used in the network layer
– each packet is treated independently of all others
– packet in this approach is referred to as datagram
– used for connectionless services
– route chosen on packet-by-packet basis
– different packets may follow different routes
– packets may arrive out of order at the destination
– Up to receiver to re-order packets and recover from missing
packets
» e.g., IP - The Internet Protocol

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 Frame Relay
• Often referred to as a fast packet switching technology
• transfers variable-length packets
– up to 4 KB in size at 56 Kbps or T1 (1.544 or 2 Mbps) speeds over
permanent virtual circuits
• Operating only at the data link layer
• was designed to take advantage of newer digital transmission
capabilities, such as fiber optic cable and ISDN
• These offer reliability and lowered error rates
• include a means of detecting corrupted transmissions through a
cyclic redundancy check, or CRC
• does not include any facilities for error correction
• the sender does not overwhelm the recipient with too much data

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• because it operates over permanent virtual circuits (PVCs)
– transmissions follow a known path
– and there is no need for the transmitting devices to figure out
which route is best to use at a particular time
• It provides end-to-end service over a known — and fast —
digital communications route
• It is based on multiplexing a number of (virtual) circuits on a
single communications line

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• response to congestion
– First, to request the sending application to slow down a little its
transmission speed
– Second, involves discarding frames flagged as lower-priority
deliveries
• Frame relay networks connecting LANs to a WAN rely on
routers and switching equipment capable of providing
appropriate frame-relay interfaces

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 ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode)
• is a transport method
• capable of delivering not only data but also voice and video
simultaneously and over the same communications lines
• is a connection-oriented networking technology
• closely tied to the ITU's recommendation on broadband
ISDN (BISDN)
• is good for high-speed LAN and WAN networking over a
range of media types
– from the traditional coaxial cable, twisted pair, and fiber optic
to communications services of the future, including FDDI, and
SONET

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• like frame relay, it is based on packet switching
– however, it relies on cell relay, a high-speed transmission
method
• based on fixed-size units (tiny ones only 53 bytes long) that
are known as cells and that are multiplexed onto the carrier.

ATM cell
• It is so fast as uniformly sized cells travel faster and can be
routed faster
• Transmission speeds are commonly 56 Kbps to 1.544 Mbps,
– but the ITU has also defined ATM speeds as high as 622 Mbps
(over fiber optic cable)
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• It is a wonderful means of transmitting all kinds of
information at high speed.
• It is reliable, flexible, scalable, and fast because it relies on
higher-level protocols for error checking and correction
• It can interface with both narrowband and broadband
networks,
• It is especially suitable for use in a network backbone

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– Downside
• ATM networks must be made up of ATM-compatible devices
• they are both expensive and not yet widely available
• there is a chicken-or-egg dilemma facing serious ATM
deployment:
– businesses are not likely to incur the expense of investing in
ATM-capable equipment if ATM services are not readily
available through communications carriers over a wide area,
yet carriers are reluctant to invest in ATM networking
solutions if there is not enough demand for the service

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 BISDN
• is next-generation ISDN,
• Is a technology that can deliver all kinds of information over
the network
• information is divided into two basic categories, interactive
services and distributed (or distribution) services.
– Interactive services include you-and-me types of transactions,
such as videoconferencing, messaging, and information
retrieval
– Distributed services include you-to-me types of information
that are either delivered or broadcast to the recipient
– These services are further divided into
• those that the recipient controls (for example, e-mail, video
telephony, and telex) and
• those that the recipient cannot control other than by refusing to
"tune in" (for example, audio and television broadcasts) 22
• The difference between narrowband ISDN and BSDN is the
method of delivery
• Narrowband ISDN transmissions are based on time division
multiplexing (TDM),
– which uses timing as the key to interleaving multiple
transmissions onto a single signal
• BISDN uses ATM, with its packet switching and its little 53-
byte cells
• BISDN is comparable to a catalog shopping service that
delivers everything from food to clothing, and ATM is like
the boxes in which those products are packaged and
delivered

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 Routing and Routing Protocols
• making a decision and choosing one route whenever there are
multiple routes based on some criteria
• it is the job of the network layer routing protocol
• at the heart of such protocol is the routing algorithm that
determines the path for a packet
• The routing algorithm is responsible for deciding which
output line an incoming packet should be transmitted on.
• Routing involves two basic activities:
• determining optimal routing paths and
• transporting information groups (typically called packets)
through an internetwork.

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• If the subnet uses datagram internally this decision must be
made anew for every arriving packet.
• On the other hand if the subnet uses Virtual Circuits (VCs),
this decision is made only when a new virtual circuit is set
up.
• Desirable properties of a routing algorithm:
– correctness,
– simplicity,
– robustness,
– stability,
– fairness, and
– Optimality

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• routing requires a host or a router to have a routing table
which is constructed by the routing algorithm

• given big internetworks such as the Internet, the number of

entries in the routing table becomes large and table look ups
become inefficient;

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• methods for reducing its size required
– Next-Hop Routing
• the routing table holds only the information that leads to the
next hop

• Network Specific Routing

 instead of having an entry for every host connected to the
same physical network, there is only one entry to define the
address of the network itself

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• Routing Vs Forwarding
– Forwarding deals with getting a packet in one line and putting
it in an outgoing line.
• As a function it is the force that gets packets moving in a
network.
– Routing deals with choosing the correct outgoing line to place
a packet for transmission.
• routing algorithms must converge rapidly.
– Convergence is the process of agreement, by all routers, on
optimal routes
• Routing algorithms that converge slowly can cause routing
loops or network outages

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• Types of Routing Algorithms (routing tables):
– non-adaptive (static)
– adaptive (dynamic)
• Nonadaptive (Static)
– routing decisions are not based on measurements or estimates
of the current topology or traffic
– the choice of a route is computed in advance, off-line, and
downloaded to the routers when the network is booted or
– an administrator enters the route for each destination into the
table;
– not automatically updated when there is a change;
– may be used in a small internet, but not for big internet like
the Internet

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• Adaptive (Dynamic)
– routing decisions are made periodically (every  sec) to
reflect
» changes in the topology,
» changes in traffic,
» a shutdown of a router,
» a break in the link,
» a better route has been created, ...

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• Routing Protocols
₋ use metrics to evaluate what path will be the best for a packet
to travel
₋ a metric is a cost assigned for passing through a network
₋ the cost could be
• the level of congestion of a link (mean queue length,
transmission delay, average traffic),
• bandwidth,
• the geographic distance traversed by the link,
• number of hops,
• estimated transit time,
• communication cost, ...

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₋ cost may change with time
₋ which cost to choose depends on the application
₋ the total metric of a particular route is equal to the sum of the
metrics of networks that comprise the route
₋ a router chooses the route with the shortest (smallest) metric
₋ Interior and Exterior Routing (protocols)
• since an internet can be large, one routing protocol cannot
handle the task of updating the routing tables of all routers
• hence, an internet is divided into Autonomous Systems
• an Autonomous System (AS) is a group of networks and
routers under the authority of a single administration
• routing inside an autonomous system is referred to as
Interior Routing;
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• each AS can choose its own routing protocol
• routing between autonomous systems is referred to as
Exterior Routing;
• one protocol is usually chosen to handle routing between
autonomous systems;
• usually used for routing in the Internet

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₋ R1, R2, R3, and R4 use both interior and exterior routing
protocols
₋ the rest use only interior routing protocols
₋ solid lines - communication between routers
₋ broken lines - communication between the routers that use
an exterior routing protocol
₋ why an exterior routing protocol apart from size of an
internet? - politics
• political - I hate country X hence I will not handle its traffic
• security - my information is confidential and should not pass
through a hostile country

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 • economic
₋ it should not pass through a competitor’s network
₋ I am not paid for it and hence don’t want to carry a transit
packet
₋ such policies are typically manually configured into each
router and are not part of the protocol itself

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• The Optimality Principle: the optimal route
₋ if router J is on the optimal path from I to K, then the optimal
path from J to K also falls along the same route
₋ why?
₋ if a route better than R2 existed from J to K, then the route
from I to K could be improved by concatenating it with R1

I R1 J R2 K

₋ the consequence of the optimality principle is 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

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 a subnet sink tree for router B
• (distance metric is the number of hops)

– the sink tree is not necessarily unique;

– as a tree it does not contain any loops;
– each packet will be delivered within a finite and bounded
number of hops; at least in theory
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 ₋ the goal of a routing algorithm is to discover the sink trees for
all routers
₋ the optimality principle and the sink tree serve as benchmarks
to measure routing algorithms
• Shortest Path Routing (static) for unicast routing (by
Dijkstra)
₋ aim:
₋ build a graph of the subnet - each node of the graph
representing a router and each arc representing a link;
₋ the arcs are labeled as a function of any one of the metrics
discussed (distance, hop count, ...)
₋ to select a route between two routers, the algorithm finds the
“shortest” path between them on the graph

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₋ how does the algorithm work to find the shortest path?
• each node is labeled with its distance from the source;
• initially labeled  since no path is known
• a label may be tentative or permanent (when the shortest
possible path is found - filled-in circle)

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 (10, H)
(10, H)

(g) (h)

– we want to find the path from A to D

– the shortest path is ABEFHD working node
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