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UNIT 4
NETWORK DESIGN
LESSON 17
DESCRIPTION OF NETWORK DESIGN
Introduction
The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) originally emerged as an
encapsulation protocol for transporting IP traffic over point-to-
point links. PPP also established a standard for the assignment
and management of IP addresses, asynchronous (start/ stop)
and bit-oriented synchronous encapsulation, network protocol
multiplexing, link configuration, link quality testing, error
detection, and option negotiation for such capabilities as
network layer address negotiation and data-compression
negotiation. PPP supports these functions by providing an
extensible Link Control Protocol (LCP) and a family of
Network Control Protocols (NCPs) to negotiate optional
configuration parameters and facilities. In addition to IP, PPP
supports other protocols, including Novells Internetwork
Packet Exchange (IPX) and DECnet.
Chapter Goals
Describe the development of Point-to-Point Protocol.
Describe the components of Point-to-Point Protocol and how
they operate.
Provide a summary of the basic protocol elements and
operations of Point-to-Point Protocol.
Peer-to-Peer Networking Overview
Peer-to-peer networking is the utilization of the relatively
powerful computers (personal computers) that exist at the edge
of the Internet for more than just client-based computing
tasks. The modern PC has a very fast processor, vast memory,
and a large hard disk, none of which are being fully utilized
when performing common computing tasks such as e-mail and
Web browsing. The modern PC can easily act as both a client
and server (a peer) for many types of applications.
Peer to Peer Architecture
A type of network in which each workstation has equivalent
capabilities and responsibilities. Here each workstation acts as
both a client and a server. There is no central repository for
information and there is no central server to maintain. Data and
resources are distributed throughout the network, and each user
is responsible for sharing data and resources connected to their
system. This differs from client/ server architectures, in which
some computers are
dedicated to serving
the others. Peer-to-
peer networks are
generally simpler and
less expensive, but
they usually do not
offer the same
performance under
heavy loads.
Figure : Peer to Peer Architecture
The typical computing model for many applications is a client/
server model. A server computer typically has vast resources and
responds to requests for resources and data from client
computers. Client computers initiate requests for resources or
data from server computers. A good example of the client/
server model of computing is Web browsing. Web servers on
the Internet are typically high-end dedicated server computers
with very fast processors (or multiple processors) and huge hard
disk arrays. The Web server stores all of the content associated
with a Web site (HTML files, graphics, audio and video files,
etc.) and listens for incoming requests to view the information
on a particular Web page. When a page is requested, the Web
server sends the page and its associated files to the requesting
client.
Peer-to-peer networking has the following advantages over
client/ server networking:
Content and resources can be shared from both the center
and the edge of the network. In client/ server networking,
content and resources are typically shared from only the
center of the network.
A network of peers is easily scaled and more reliable than a
single server. A single server is subject to a single point of
failure or can be a bottleneck in times of high network
utilization.
A network of peers can share its processor, consolidating
computing resources for distributed computing tasks, rather
than relying on a single computer, such as a supercomputer.
Shared resources of peer computers can be directly accessed.
Rather than sharing a file stored on a central server, a peer can
share the file directly from its local storage.
Peer-to-peer networking solves the following problems:
Allows the processing resources of edge computers to be
utilized for distributed computing tasks.
Allows local resources to be shared directly, without the need
for intermediate servers.
Allows efficient multipoint communication with having to
rely on IP multicast infrastructure.
Peer-to-Peer Networking Scenarios
Peer-to-peer networking enables or enhances the following
scenarios:
Real-time communications (RTC)
Collaboration
Content distribution
Distributed processing
Improved Internet technologies
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Real-Time Communications (RTC)
For RTC, peer-to-peer networking enables server less instant
messaging and real-time matchmaking and game play.
Server less Instant Messaging
RTC exists today. Computer users can chat and have voice or
video conversations with their peers today. However, many of
the existing programs and their communications protocols rely
on servers to function. If you are participating in an ad-hoc
wireless network or are a part of an isolated network, you are
unable to use these RTC facilities. Peer-to-peer technology
allows the extension of RTC technologies to these additional
networking environments.
Real-time Matchmaking and Game Play
Similar to RTC, real-time game play exists today. There are many
Web-based game sites that cater to the gaming community via
the Internet. They offer the ability to find other gamers with
similar interests and play a game together. The problem is that
the game sites exist only on the Internet and are geared toward
the avid gamer who want to play against the best gamers in the
world. These sites track and provide the statistics to help in the
process. However, these sites do not allow a gamer to set up an
ad-hoc game among friends in a variety of networking environ-
ments. Peer-to-peer networking can provide this capability.
Collaboration
For collaboration, peer-to-peer networking allows the sharing
of a workspace, files, and experiences.
Project Workspaces Solving a Goal
Shared workspace applications allow for the creation of ad-hoc
workgroups and then allow the workgroup owners to populate
the shared workspace with the tools and content that will allow
the group to solve a problem. This could include message
boards, productivity tools, and files.
Sharing Your Files with Other People
A subset of project workspace sharing is the ability to share
files. Although this ability exists today with the current version
of Windows, it can be enhanced through peer-to-peer network-
ing to make file content available in an easy and friendly way.
Allowing easy access to the incredible wealth of content at the
edge of the Internet or in ad-hoc computing environments
increases the value of network computing.
Sharing Your Experiences
With wireless connectivity becoming more prevalent, peer-to-
peer networking allows you to be online in a group of peers
and to be able to share your experiences (such as a sunset, a rock
concert, or a vacation cruise) while they are occurring.
Content Distribution
Peer-to-peer networking allows the distribution of text, audio,
and video and software product updates.
Text Messages
Peer-to-peer networking can allow for the dissemination of
text-based information in the form of files or messages to a
large group of users. An example is a news list.
Audio and Video
Peer-to-peer networking can also allow for the dissemination of
audio or video information to a large group of users, such as a
large concert or company meeting. To distribute the content
today, you must configure high-capacity servers to collect and
distribute the load to hundreds or thousands of users. With
peer-to-peer networking, only a handful of peers would actually
get their content from the centralized servers. These peers
would flood this information out to a few more people who
send it to others, and so on. The load of distributing the
content is distributed to the peers in the cloud. A peer that
wants to receive the content would find the closest distributing
peer and get the content from them.
Distribution of Product Updates
Peer-to-peer networking can also provide an efficient mecha-
nism to distribute software such as product updates (security
updates and service packs). A peer that has a connection to a
software distribution server can obtain the product update and
propagate it to the other members of its group.
Distributed Processing
Peer-to-peer networking allows computing tasks to be distrib-
uted and processor resources to be aggregated.
Division and Distribution of a Task
A large computing task can first be divided into separate smaller
computing tasks well suited to the computing resources of a
peer. A peer could do the dividing of the large computing task.
Then, peer-to-peer networking can distribute the individual
tasks to the separate peers in the group. Each peer performs its
computing task and reports its result back to a centralized
accumulation point.
Aggregation of Computer Resources
Another way to utilize peer-to-peer networking for distributed
processing is to run programs on each peer that run during idle
processor times and are part of a larger computing task that is
coordinated by a central server. By aggregating the processors of
multiple computers, peer-to-peer networking can turn a group
of peer computers into a large parallel processor for large
computing tasks.
Improved Internet Technologies
Peer-to-peer networking can also provide an improved utiliza-
tion of the Internet and support new Internet technologies.
Historically, the Internet was designed so that network peers can
have end-to-end connectivity. The modern-day Internet,
however, more closely resembles a client/ server environment
where communication in many cases is not end-to-end due to
the prevalence of Network Address Translators (NATs).
This return to the original purpose of the Internet will
enable the creation of a new wave of applications for
personal communication and group productivity.
Windows Peer-to-Peer Networking
Windows Peer-to-Peer Networking is a developer platform to
create peer-to-peer applications for computers running Win-
dows XP. The long-term goal of Windows Peer-to-Peer
Networking is the following:
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Toenablepeopletocommunicatesecurely and shareinformation with one
another without a dependenceon centralized servers, but towork even
better when servers arepresent.
The design of Windows Peer-to-Peer Networking incorporates
the following principles:
Secure
Scalable
Distributed
Serverless
Robust in the face of failure and/ or attack
Self-tuning
Self-repairing
How these design principles were achieved in described
throughout this paper.
Windows Peer-to-Peer Networking
Scenarios
Windows Peer-to-Peer Networking enables or enhances the
following scenarios:
1. Real-Time Communications (RTC)
2. Serverless instant messaging
3. Real-time matchmaking
4. Collaboration
5. Project workspaces solving a goal
6. Sharing your files with other people
7. Sharing your experiences
8. Content Distribution
9. Text messages
[Link] and video
[Link] of product updates
[Link] Processing
[Link] of computer resources
[Link] Internet technologies
Windows Peer-to-Peer Networking
and DNS
Another point of contrast between client/ server and peer-to-
peer networking is the use of the Domain Name System
(DNS). Server computers are typically registered in DNS so that
client computers can resolve a name to the IP address of the
server computer. Client computers are typically not registered in
DNS for the following reasons:
Many client computers have transient connectivity; they
connect for unpredictable amounts of time and can be
assigned a new IP address for each connection.
Client computers do not have shared resources and do not
respond to requests for resources. Therefore, other
computers do not need to resolve the names of client
computers. DNS address records for client computers are not
necessary.
Peer computers, on the other hand, have resources to share.
However, they still have transient connectivity. Peer computers
could use DNS dynamic update to register their names,
however, very few DNS servers on the Internet support DNS
dynamic update. To be successful for peer-to-peer networking,
peer computers must not rely on the existing DNS infrastruc-
ture. Therefore, there must be a mechanism to resolve peer
names to their addresses that does not rely on DNS. For
Windows Peer-to-Peer Networking, this mechanism is Peer
Name Resolution Protocol (PNRP) and is described in the
Name Resolution and Peer Discovery with PNRP section of
this article.
Windows Peer-to-Peer Networking
Security
In a peer environment, there are no centralized servers with
security databases or that can provide typical security services
such as authentication and authorization. For example, in an
Active Directory domain, domain controllers provide authenti-
cation services using Kerberos. In a serverless peer
environment, the peers must provide their own authentication.
For Windows Peer-to-Peer Networking, authentication is
provided using self-signed certificates, some of which are
formatted as X.509 certificates. Although one usually thinks of
X.509 certificates in relation to a public key infrastructure (PKI)
that contains a hierarchy of certification authorities (CAs), self-
signed certificates are certificates that are created by each peer.
Peer networking allows any node to act as a CA and removes
the requirement that the root certificate to be deposited in each
peers trusted root store. Each peer generates the public key/
private key pair and the certificate that is signed using the private
key. The self-signed certificate is used for authentication and to
provide information about the peer entity. Like X.509 authenti-
cation, peer-networking authentication relies upon a chain of
certificates tracing back to a public key that is trusted.