UNIVERSITY OF GONDAR

INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTEMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER
ENGINEERING
DATA COMMUNICATION AND COMPUTER NETWORK
ASSIGNMENT

TCP/IP HEADER
PEREPERED BY :
NAME ID NO
1.SINTAYEHU BIRBO…………………………………5916/08
2.SITOTAW BIRHANU…………….……………..5920/08
3.SURAFEL KEBEDE…………………..............4901/08
4.TAKELE AGEGN ………………………………4918/08
5.TAZEB ABEBE…………………………………4924/08
6.TIRUNEH MATEBIE…………………………….4979/08
7.WENDEWESSEN BELAYNEH…………………6033/08

Submission date21/04/2011 E.C

Submitted to INS.Berihun.

Gondar, Ethiopia
Acknowledgement
First of all, we would like to thank the almighty GOD for giving us the patience to start and
finalize this assignment. Thank be to Holly Virgin Mary, and His saints too, for helping we
during those remarkable times. Secondly, we would like to thank our instructor INS
Berihun.And peoples who had helped us to complete and gain a good skill in our assignment.
Special thanks should also be addressed to student, who have given us his personal computer
(PC), and his valuable comments and suggestions.

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Abstract
Data from applications is packaged, transported, and delivered to the appropriate
server daemon or application on the destination device. The processes described in
the OSI Transport layer accept data from the Application layer and prepare it for
addressing at the Network layer. The Transport layer is responsible for the overall
end-to-end transfer of application data. Transaction control protocol (TCP) and
User data gram protocol (UDP) are transport layer protocols in OSI model and
TCP/IP model. Different applications have different requirements. Different
protocols have been developed to meet them.

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Contents Pages
Acknowledgement ..................................................................................................................................... i
Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... ii
List of figures ................................................................................................................................................ iv
List of table................................................................................................................................................... iv
List of symbol and abbreviation ................................................................................................................... iv
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1
Objectives :- .................................................................................................................................................. 1
TCP/IP HEADER.............................................................................................................................................. 2
1. TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL (TCP) ............................................................................ 2
1.1 TCP FEATURES .......................................................................................................................... 2
1.1.1 Numbering System:............................................................................................................... 2
1.1.2 TCP provides flow control .................................................................................................... 2
1.1.3 Error Control: ........................................................................................................................ 2
1.2 TCP Header format: ...................................................................................................................... 3
1.3 TCP SERVICES ........................................................................................................................... 4
1.3.1 Process-to-Process Communication ............................................................................................. 4
1.3.2Stream Delivery Service ............................................................................................................... 5
1.3.3 Full-Duplex Communication: ...................................................................................................... 5
1.3.4 Connection-Oriented Service ....................................................................................................... 5
2. User Datagram Protocol (UDP) Header .................................................................................................... 6
2.1 UDP Header ........................................................................................................................................ 7
2.2 UDP operation .................................................................................................................................... 8
2.3USE OF UDP ....................................................................................................................................... 9
3. IPv6 Header ............................................................................................................................................. 10
3.1 IPV6 Header format .......................................................................................................................... 11
4. Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) Header ................................................................................ 12
4.1TYPES OF MESSAGES OF ICMP................................................................................................... 13
4.1.1 Error reporting..................................................................................................................... 14
4.1.2 Query Messages .................................................................................................................. 15
4.2 Data Encapsulation of ICMP ............................................................................................................ 15
4.3 ICMP functions ................................................................................................................................. 16

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Conclusion and recommendation ............................................................................................................... 17

List of figures
Fig 1.1 TCP Header format

Figure 1.2 sending and receiving process of stream delivery service

Figure 1.3 UDP Header

Figure 1.4 Encapsulation and Decapsulation of UDP header

Figure 1.5 IPV6 Header format

Figure 1.6 ICMP flow chart

List of table
T able 1.1 TCP port number description

Table 2.1 UDP port number description

Table 3 .1 Error reporting and query message of ICMP

List of symbol and abbreviation

TCP-Transmission Control Protocol

IP-Internet Protocol

UDP-User Datagram Protocol

ICMP-Internet Control of Message Protocol

IPv6-Internet Protocol Version 6

URG- urgent

ACK:-acknowledgement

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PUSH- push.

FIN-fine

RST- reset

SYN- synchronize

RIP-Routing Information Protocol

IPv4-Internet Protocol Version 4

PDU-Protocol Data Unit

TTL-Transistor Transistor Logic

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Introduction
TCP/IP means Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol. It is the network model
used in the current Internet architecture as well. Protocols are set of rules which govern every
possible communication over a network. These protocols describe the movement of data
between the source and destination or the internet. They also offer simple naming and
addressing schemes.TCP is a connection oriented and reliable protocol and also uses flow
control and error control mechanisms at the transport level. It has five layers and the port and
IP addresses are determined by its header

Objectives :-

 Be familiar with the TCP/IP header

 Understand the feature of TCP
 Be familiar with the TCP SERVICES
 Be familiar with the TCP Header format:
 Understand the UDP,UDP OPERATION, USE OF UDP
 Understand the IPv6 address, IPV6 Header
 Understand the internet control message protocol(ICMP)
 identify the TYPES OF MESSAGES OF ICMP
 Data encapsulation ICMP, ICMP functions.
 Know the types of error reporting messages
 Know the types of query messages

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TCP/IP HEADER

1. TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL (TCP)

 TCP is a connection-oriented protocol; it creates a virtual connection between two TCPs
to send data.

 In addition, TCP uses flow and error control mechanisms at the transport level.

 TCP is responsible for breaking data down into small packets before they can be sent
over a network, and for assembling the packets again when they arrived to the destinon
1.1 TCP FEATURES
1.1.1 Numbering System:
 Byte Number: The bytes of data being transferred in each connection are
numbered by TCP. The numbering starts with a randomly generated number.
 Sequence Number: The value in the sequence number field of a segment
defines the number of the first data byte contained in that segment.
 Acknowledgment Number: The value of the acknowledgment field in a
segment defines the number of the next byte a party expects to receive.
1.1.2 TCP provides flow control
 The receiver of the data controls the amount of data that are to be sent by the
sender. This is done to prevent the receiver from being overwhelmed with
data.
 TCP uses byte-oriented flow control.
1.1.3 Error Control:
 To provide reliable service, TCP implements an error control mechanism.
 Error control considers a segment as the unit of data for error detection (loss
or corrupted loss or corrupted segments).

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1.2 TCP Header format:

Fig 1.1 TCP Header format

Description for TCP header

 Source port address.

 This is a 16-bit field that defines the port number of the application program in the host
that is sending the segment.
 Destination port address.
 This is a 16-bit field that defines the port number of the application program in the host
that is receiving the segment. This serves the same purpose as the destination port address
in the UDP header.
 Sequence number.

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  This 32-bit field defines the number assigned to the first byte of data contained in this
segment.
 To ensure connectivity, each byte to be transmitted is numbered.
The sequence number tells the destination which byte in this sequence comprises the first byte in
the segment

There are six control flags:

 URG: urgent pointer is valid.

 ACK: acknowledgement is valid.

 PUSH: request for push.

 FIN: fine termination number.

 RST: reset the connection.

 SYN: synchronize the sequence number.

1.3 TCP SERVICES

1.3.1 Process-to-Process Communication
 Like UDP, TCP provides process-to-process communication using port
numbers.
 Ports used by TCP.

Table 1.1 port number description

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1.3.2Stream Delivery Service
 TCP is a stream-oriented protocol.
 The sending process produces the stream of bytes, and the receiving process
consumes them.

Figure 1.2 sending and receiving process of stream delivery service

1.3.3 Full-Duplex Communication:

 TCP offers full-duplex service, in which data can flow in both directions at
the same time.
 Each TCP then has a sending and receiving buffer, and segments move in
both directions.

1.3.4 Connection-Oriented Service

 TCP, unlike UDP, is a connection-oriented protocol.
 When a process at site A wants to send and receive data from another process
at site B, the following occurs:
1. The two TCPs establish a connection between them.
2. Data are exchanged in both directions.

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 3. The connection is terminated.

1.3.5 Reliable Service

 TCP, unlike UDP, is a connection-oriented protocol.

 When a process at site A wants to send and receive data from anotherprocess at site
B, the following occurs:
 The two TCPs establish a connection between them.
 Data are exchanged in both directions.
 The connection is terminated.

2. User Datagram Protocol (UDP) Header

The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is called a connectionless, unreliable transport protocol.

 It does not add anything to the services of IP except to provide process-to-process

communication instead of host-to-host communication.
 Connectionless end-to-end service
 Unreliable: No flow control.
No error recovery (No acts. No retransmissions.)
 Used by network management and Audio/Video.
 Provides port addressing.
 Error detection (Checksum) optional.
Table 2.1 UDP port number description

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2.1 UDP Header

Figure 1.3 UDP Header

Description of UDP Header

 Source port number. This is the port number used by the process running on the source
host. It is 16 bits long, which means that the port number can range from 0 to 65,535.
 Destination port number. This is the port number used by the process running on the
destination host.
 It is also 16 bits long.
 Length. This is a 16-bit field that defines the total length of the user datagram, header
plus data.
 The 16 bits can define a total length of 0 to 65,535 bytes.
 UDP length = IP length - IP header's length Checksum.
 This field is used to detect errors over the entire user datagram.

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2.2 UDP operation
 Connectionless Services
 There is no relationship between the different user datagrams even if they are
coming from the same source process and going to the same destination program.
 The user datagrams are not numbered.
 There is no connection establishment and no connection termination.
 Each user datagram can travel on a different path.
 Flow and Error Control
 UDP is a very simple, unreliable transport protocol.
 No flow control and hence no window mechanism.
 There is no error control mechanism in UDP except for the checksum.
 Sender does not know if a message has been lost or duplicated.
 When the receiver detects an error through the checksum, the user datagram is
silently discarded.
 Encapsulation and Decapsulation
 To send a message from one process to another, the UDP protocol encapsulates and
decapsulates messages in an IP datagram.

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Figure 1.4 Encapsulation and Decapsulation of UDP header

2.3USE OF UDP
 UDP is suitable for a process that requires simple request-response communication with
little concern for flow and error control.
 UDP is suitable for a process with internal flow and error control mechanisms.
 UDP is a suitable transport protocol for multicasting. Multicasting capability is embedded
in the UDP software but not in the TCP software.
 UDP is used for management processes.
 UDP is used for some route updating protocols such as Routing Information
Protocol(RIP).

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3. IPv6 Header
 Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) is the next generation of the Internet protocol
designed to replace the current version, Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4).

 Most of today's internets use IPv4, for which there is a growing shortage of
addresses. In theory, 32 bits provide over 4 billion nodes, each with a globally unique
address.

 In practice, the interaction between routing and addressing makes it impossible to use
more than a small fraction of that number of nodes. Consequently, there is a growing
concern that the continued growth of the Internet might lead to the exhaustion of IPv4
addresses early in the 21st century.

 IPv6 fixes a number of problems in IPv4, such as the limited number of available
IPv4 addresses.

 IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses, an address space large enough to last for the foreseeable
future.

 It also adds many improvements to IPv4 in areas such as routing and network auto
configuration.
 Provides enhancements over existing IP.
 Designed to accommodate higher speeds and the mix of graphic and video data.
 The ipv6 header is a streamlined version of the ipv4 header.
 IPv6 includes 128-bit source and destination address fields.

 8 sets of 16-bits.i.e

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3.1 IPV6 Header format

Figure 1.5 IPV6 Header format

Description of the IPv6 header format

 The flow label is used for prioritized delivery, such as delivery needed by real-time data
(voice and video.

 The size of this field is 20 bits.

 The Payload Length field indicates the length of the IPv6 payload.

 The size of this field is 16 bits.

 With 16 bits, an IPv6 payload of up to 65,535 bytes can be indicated.

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  The Next Header field indicates either the type of the first extension header (if present) or
the protocol in the upper-layer PDU (such as TCP, UDP, or ICMPv6).

 The size of this field is 8 bits.

 The Hop Limit field indicates the maximum number of links over which the IPv6 packet
can travel before being discarded

 The size of this field is 8 bits.

 When Hop Limit equals 0 at a router, the router sends an ICMPv6 Time Exceeded-Hop
Limit Exceeded in Transit message to the source and discards the packet.

 The Source Address field indicates the IPv6 address of the originating host.

 The size of this field is 128 bits.

 The Destination Address field indicates the IPv6 address of the current destination node.

 The size of this field is 128 bits.

4. Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) Header

The protocol is used to report problems with delivery of IP datagrams within an IP

network

 When a particular end system is not responding,

 When an IP network is reachable,
 When a node is overloaded,
 When error occurs IP header information, etc.
The protocol is also frequently used by internet manager to

 Verify correct operations of End systems and

 To check that routers are correctly routing packets to the specified destinations.

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4.1TYPES OF MESSAGES OF ICMP
a). error-reporting messages.

 The error-reporting messages report problems that a router or host (destination) may
encounter.

b).Query messages.

 The query message gets specific information from a router or another host.

Figure 1.6 ICMP flow chart

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 Table 3 .1 Error reporting and query message of ICMP

4.1.1 Error reporting

 Destination unreachable:
 When the subnet or a router can not locate the destination.
 Time exceeded:
 When a packet is dropped because its counter has reached zero.
 Parameter problem
 Indicates that an illegal value has been detected in the header field.
 Source quench
 To throttle hosts that send too many packets, when a host receives this message, it slows
down sending packets.
 Redirect
 Is used when a router notices that a packet seems to be routed wrong.
 It is used by the router to tell the sending host about the probable error

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 4.1.2 Query Messages
 ECHO & ECHO Reply

 To see if a given destination is reachable and alive, upon receipt of ECHO message,
the destination is expected to send an ECHO REPLY message back.

 Time stamp & Time stamp reply

 Similar to ECHO queries, except that the arrival time of the message and departure
time of the reply are recorded in the reply.

 This facility is used to measure network performance.

4.2 Data Encapsulation of ICMP

Figure 4.Data Encapsulation of ICMP

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4.3 ICMP functions
1) Announce network errors: Such as host or Entire portion of the network being
unreachable, due to some type of failure.

A TCP or UDP packet directed at a port number with no receiver attached is also reported
via ICMP.

2) Announce network congestion: When a router begins buffering too many packets, due
to an inability to transmit them as fast as they are being received, it will generate ICMP
Source Quench messages. Directed at the sender, these messages should cause the rate of
packet transmission to be slowed.

3) Assist Troubleshooting: ICMP supports an Echo function, which just sends a packet
on a round--trip between two hosts.

4) Announce Timeouts: If an IP packet's TTL field drops to zero, the router discarding
the packet will often generate an ICMP packet announcing this fact.

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Conclusion and recommendation

The purpose of TCP/IP is to make it easier for computers to communicate with one
another to send information over the Internet. It is a set of protocols that computers use so
that they essentially speak the same language when passing information. The purpose
was to allow computers to communicate over long distance networks. The TCP part has
to do with the verifying delivery of the packets. The IP part refers to the moving of data
packets between nodes. UDP is connectionless protocol and No session establishment .it
is used for Point-to-point communication and Point-to-multi-point communication.An
IPv6 address(header) is 4 times larger than IPv4, but surprisingly, the header of an IPv6
address is only 2 times larger than that of IPv4.It is the next generation of IP addresses
and 128-bit hexadecimal address.Purpose of ICMP is to provide error control to IP and
the Internet control message protocol(ICMP)has been designed to compensate for IP
protocol deficiencies.

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References

1. Sybex (640 607) Cisco CCNA Study Guide 3Ed.

2. Cisco Press CCNA 3.0 Study Guide (Con Indices) 640-607

3. Presentations of collaboration among the instructors at St. Clair College in

Windsor, Ontario. (2007)

4. Online material of Cisco networking academy CCNA Exploration 4.0- Network

Fundamentals.

5 data communication and computer networking 4th ed by william s.

6 http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/netacad/index.html

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