Internetworking with TCP/IP Notes (Chapter 3)

Chapter 3 Internetworking Concept and Architectural Model

3.1 Network-Level Interconnection
Two fundamental observations about the design of communication systems:
* No single network hardware technology can satisfy all constraints.
* Users desire universal interconnection

3.2 Properties of the Internet
Encapsulation. We want to hide the underlying internet architecture from users, and permit communication without requiring knowledge of the internet’s structure.

Network and computer independence. That is, we want the set of operations used to establish communication or to transfer data to remain independent of the underlying network technologies and the destination computer.

3.3 Interconnection of Multiple Networks with IP routers
In a TCP/IP internet, special computer systems called IP routers provide interconnections among physical networks. Routers use the destination network, not the destination computer, when forwarding a packet.

3.4 All networks are equal

The TCP/IP internet protocols treat all networks equally. A Local Area Network such as an Ethernet, a Wide Area Network used as a backbone, a wireless network such as a Wi-Fi hotspot, and a pointto-point link between two computers each count as one network.