The Internet has permeated our daily lives, and now provides the fundamental connectivity for many state-of-the-art technologies, such as third-generation mobile telephones, video communication, and information appliances.  The core technology at the heart of the Internet is the TCP/IP protocol suite, and it is this technology that the new ITS-101 Internet TCP/IP Training System will demonstrate and explain.

Understanding the TCP/IP protocol suite is crucial to users of the Internet at many levels, from Internet developers, computer systems managers within IT organisations, to hardware engineers adding Internet connectivity to a range of embedded applications.  The ITS-101 Internet TCP/IP Training System is designed to meet these needs.

The key to understanding the TCP/IP protocol suite is to gain a feel of the traffic, the flow of packets, which are being transported over the network.  The Internet TCP/IP Training System facilitates the transmission, reception, monitoring, and filtering of Internet traffic, and provides the customisation to specify how to respond to incoming traffic.  The goal is to make the invisible Internet traffic visible to learners.

The TCP/IP protocol from layer two through four is most often bundled with the most popular operating system kernels, such as Linux and Windows, and is thus inaccessible to general users.  The Internet TCP/IP Training System uncovers these inner workings of the TCP/IP protocol hidden deep inside these sophisticated operating systems, and even provides methods to modify the TCP/IP protocol behaviour for experimental purposes.

FEATURES

a Send and observe TCP segments, IP datagrams, ICMP datagrams, UDP datagrams, and Ethernet frames

a Can be configurable as a router or a host

a Help observing IP rounting by connecting to other ITS as a network

a Provide an internal view of the TCP/IP protocol stack at layers 2 through 4 normally hidden in operating system

a Provide a platform to install user-defined network message procedures for experiments

INTENDED AUDIENCE

The Flite Internet TCP/IP Training System is equipped with lessons to address the needs of beginners and advanced learners alike, and is suited to a range of electronic engineering and computer science courses up to upper undergraduate and graduate levels.  Beginners can start with experiments sending and receiving packets and the most common Internet services, such as web and email applications, before progressing to the more advanced topics dealing with connection-oriented packet transport and flow control.

DESIGN PRINCIPLES

1. Generation of network messages at layers 2 through 7.

2. Monitoring of network messages at layers 2 through 7.

3. Filtering of network messages at layers 2 through 7.

4. A dedicated and clean platform for processing network messages.

5. Customisation of rules to process network messages.

KEY FEATURES

1. Send network messages at layers 2 through 7.

2. Serves as a gateway/router or host for experiments.

3. Provides an insight of the TCP/IP protocol stack at layers 2 through 4, which are normally hidden within operating systems.

4. Uses Protocol Behaviour Specification Script to modify the behaviour of protocol software.

5. Provides a dedicated platform for measuring protocol software performance.

6. Provides a clean network environment for experiments.

7. Provides a user-friendly graphical user interface for learners of all levels.

8. Segments local area networks into subnets.

9. Monitors network traffic in passive mode.

BENEFITS FOR LEARNERS

1. Fills the need for an easy-to-use networking tool.

2. Provides real hands-on experience.

3. Allows for experiments in a real network rather than through computer simulation.

4. Tunes the parameters controlling TCP/IP behaviour without digging into operating system kernels.

BENEFITS FOR TRAINERS

1. Greatly reduces the time taken to set up and configure complicated network environments for laboratory sessions.

2. Avoids the need to carry out the difficult task of modifying operating system internals.

3. Provides experiments for topics normally only easily taught in theory.

4. Saves the costs associated with expensive network simulation tools.

5. Provides a cost-effective low-density protocol analyser.

LABORATORY HIGHLIGHTS

1. Introduction to the operation of routers.

2. Addressing: MAC address, IP address, and domain names.

3. Routing configuration and network management.

4. Sending and receiving raw Ethernet frames.

5. Address resolution: sending and receiving ARP requests.

6. Address resolution: sending and receiving ARP responses.

7. ARP cache timeout (Advanced).

8. ARP request retransmission (Advanced).

9. Sending and receiving IP datagrams.

10. Checksums.

11. Sequence numbering (Advanced).

12. Multiplexing: Sending and receiving UDP datagrams.

13. IP datagram forwarding on gateways.

14. IP datagram fragmentation and reassembly (Advanced).

15. Static routing.

16. Error and control: sending and receiving ICMP messages.

17. Route discovery.

18. Connection-oriented packet transfer and TCP connections.

19. Multiplexing: establishing multiple concurrent TCP connections.

20. TCP clients and servers.

21. Roundtrip time measurement.

22. Jitter measurement.

23. Sender side flow control (Advanced).

24. Receiver side flow control (Advanced).

25. TCP timeout and retransmission (Advanced).

26. Introduction to Message Driven Protocol Control Script (Advanced).

27. Internet security: simple firewalls and packet filtering.

28. Policy-based firewalls (Advanced).

29. Interactive TCP transport: TELNET.

30. Bulk TCP transport: FTP.

31. Bulk UDP transport: TFTP.

32. Email and SMTP.

33. Web and HTTP.

34. Domain Name Service.

35. Multimedia streaming and RTP (Advanced).

36. Dynamic routing: RIP (Advanced).

37. Dynamic routing: OSPF (Advanced).

38. Network management: SNMP (Advanced).

39. Point-to-point protocol.

40. Internet Group Management Protocol (Advanced).

SOFTWARE MODULES

1. Embedded multitasking operating system.

2. TCP/IP protocol stack.

3. TCP/IP protocol stack real-time monitor.

4. Bootstrap management.

5. Serial communication and console management.

6. Java-based graphical user interface (GUI) client.

7. Parser and interpreter for Protocol Behaviour Specification Script.

8. Protocol Behaviour Specification Scripts for laboratory sessions.

9. HTTP server.

10. SNMP agent.

PROTOCOL COMPLIANCE

1. RFC 791 IP.

2. RFC 792 ICMP.

3. RFC 826 ARP.

4. RFC 768 UDP.

5. RFC 793 TCP.

PLATFORM

1. CPU: Embedded AMD DX5-133 (5x86-133) processor.

2. Chipset: VIA V82C496G.

3. Two-port router.

4. Two Ethernet interfaces.

5. One RS-232 serial interface.

6. Ethernet interface: 10 Base-T Ethernet, IEEE 802.3, Novell NE2000 compatible, RJ-45 connector.

7. System memory: 8MB (expandable to 32MB).

8. Supports M-Systems DiskOnChip 2000 Flash disk 8MB (expandable to 144MB).

9. Keyboard/mouse connector: Mini-DIN supports standard PC/AT keyboard and PS/2 mouse.

10. Power management: Supports power saving modes including Normal/Standby/Suspend, APM 1.1 compliant.

11. Watchdog timer: 1.6 second interval.

12. Power requirements: 90 ~ 246V AC, 47 ~ 63Hz, 60VA max.

STANDARD PACKAGE CONTENTS

1. Hardware: model ITS-100 Internet TCP/IP Training System.

2. Software CD-ROM.

3. Instruction manual.

4. RS-232 cable.

5. Power cord.