CST 311 Week 2

 

WELCOME TO WEEK 2

Learning Journal

    This week, I learned about the principles of network applications. One of the key concepts I learned is that these applications can have two possible structures: client-server or peer-to-peer (P2P). In the client-server architecture, the server has a permanent IP address and is an always-on host. However, a single server is incapable of handling all client requests, which is why data centers (which house many servers) are created. Clients communicate with the server but are only connected when needed. They may have dynamic IP addresses and don't communicate directly with other clients.In the P2P architecture, there is no always-on server. Instead, end systems communicate directly with each other. Peers can act as clients (requesting services) or servers (providing services). In P2P, peers are intermittently connected, and their IP addresses can change frequently.

  

 I also learned more about the internet's transport protocol services, namely TCP and UDP. TCP provides reliable transport between sending and receiving processes. It includes flow and congestion control, ensuring that neither the receiver nor the network is overwhelmed. TCP is connection-oriented, meaning that a setup is required between the client and server processes. On the other hand, UDP does not require a connection setup, which can be beneficial for applications that don’t need high reliability and are tolerant to data loss. UDP is a better choice for these applications because it speeds up data transfer. However, UDP is unreliable in terms of data transfer between sending and receiving processes. It also doesn't provide reliability, congestion control, security, timing, or connection setup.