This week's reading concerned the transport layer, the services it offers (multiplexing, demultiplexing, reliable data transfer, and flow/congestion control), and the protocols involved (UDP, TCP). In comparison to the network layer, which is the logical communication between hosts, the transport layer works as the logical communication between processes and relies on the network layer. The two transport layer protocols are TCP and UDP. UDP is a connectionless protocol that is unreliable and unordered, whereas TCP is connection-oriented, reliable, and offers flow and congestion control. While it seems unlikely that anyone would choose to utilize UDP over TCP, we learned of a few circumstances where UDP is the better option. We looked at the idea of multiplexing/demultiplexing, which involves funneling and distributing data. The metaphor of entering/exiting a freeway really helped me to understand this concept. Next, we learned about the principles of reliable data transfer and the strategies TCP uses to guarantee this.
Outside of lecture, we completed the team programming assignment which had us creating our own version of a UDP Ping service and a UDP Heartbeat. There were also two individual labs to complete which dealt with traffic and congestion control. These were more of a struggle to me as I'm still trying to wrap my head around calculating delays and such. In addition, the Mininet graphical interface wasn't cooperating as well as I'd hoped, but I got it sorted out in the end.
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