Test Your Network Communication Knowledge

Overview of Network Communication Protocols and Routing

• Encapsulation is the process of adding a new string of information to an existing unit to form a new unit of information, while decapsulation is the reverse process of removing the header and tail of a packet to obtain the data payload.
• A packet is a data unit exchanged and transmitted on a network in the format of header+data payload+tail, and the data payload can be considered as the information to be transmitted.
• Protocol Data Unit (PDU) is a specific block of information transferred over a network, and each layer of the OSI model has a different type of PDU.
• Internet Protocol (IP) is a protocol that defines a packet and an addressing scheme, transfers data between the Internet layer and network access layers, and routes packets to remote hosts.
• Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) handles errors and controls the process of sending data between computers, including an echo request/reply that is used to test whether a destination is reachable and responding.
• Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) handles multicasting and is used by hosts to keep local routers apprised of their membership in multicast groups.
• Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) obtains the physical address of a node from a specific IP number, while Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP) allows a host to find its Internet address given its physical address.
• Ethernet is a family of LANs that uses a CSMA/CD access method, while Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) is used for data transfer across a serial line.
• Fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) is a set of ANSI protocols for sending digital data over fiber optic cable, while Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a wide area protocol that features high data rates and equal-sized packets/cells suitable for text, audio, and video data transfer.
• Frame Relay is a WAN protocol for LAN internetworking that provides a fast and efficient method of transmitting information from one user device to another across multiple switches and routers.
• Proxy ARP is used when a network terminal needs to pass data from one segment to another without changing its current IP address information.
• Routing is the process of selecting paths on a network along which packets are sent from a source to a destination, and a router is a network device that forwards packets to a destination subnet based on routes. Packet routing is the overall network-wide process of finding the most efficient path for forwarding the IP packet from source to destination using routing tables, protocols, and algorithms.