Novell Netware Protocol suiteOmar Adnan Isaid

Novell Netware Protocol suite

• Novel Netware suite is a hierarchical model• We Will explain it with OSI reference

Network Access Layer

• Support multiple LAN and WAN encapsulations standards

• PPP,IEEE 802.3 , Token Ring 802.5,FDDI ,ARCnet

Network Layer

• Mainly implemented of IPX protocol.We will talk about :

1.IPX (internetwork packet exchange)protocol2.RIP IPX protocol3.SPX (sequenced packet exchange)protocol4.Watchdog protocol

IPX (internetwork packet exchanged)

• Developed from IDP (internet datagram protocol) in the previously developed XNS

• Get the RIP IPX support to provide routing service

• IPX address1.32 bits long(8 hexadecimal digits)2.IPX is a unique address3.Assigned by the network administrator

IPX addressing

• Logical networks are assigned a unique 32-bit hexadecimal address in the range of 0x1 - 0xFFFFFFFE.

• Hosts have a 48-bit node address which by default is set to the network interface card's MAC address. The node address is appended to the network address to create a unique identifier for the host on the network.

• Network number 00:00:00:00 means current network • Broadcast address is FF:FF:FF:FF

IPX & different encapsulation’s types

RIP IPX OR RIPX

• Routing protocol • Dynamic distance vector or Link-state protocol • Best-path routing desicion according to route’s

tick • Each tick is 1/18 second • Tie of having same tick for two routes is solved by

the least hop count• RIPX sends its routing updates each 60 seconds

RIPX

• Discover neighbors ,that speaking RIPX• Collect routes• Choose best-path route , according to

compromising , between ticks

Service procedure exchange (SPX) protocol

• Completely produced by Novell corporation• Netware 3.11 and earlier networks uses this

protocol to built SPX tables in their routers• Servers uses SPX to publish their identifiers ,

called SPX identifiers• SPX publishes SPX identifiers every 60 seconds

HOW can WORKSTATIONS can get their demands of SPX identifiers ?

1. Local routers publish SPX tables every 60 seconds

2. End-station can solicit SPX identifiers

1. Local routers publish SPX tables every 60 seconds

1. SPX servers publish SPX tables routers every 60 seconds

2. Routers at Netware networks , receive them and build SPX tables

3. the routers in turn publish SPX table every 60 seconds to their stub networks

2. End-station can solicit SPX identifiers

1. Simply the end-user (OMAR-PC for example) sends Query about specific SPX identifier(s) to local router

2. Local router process the Query and return the request

Watchdog protocol

• Diagnostic protocol helps to identify the active hosts , from their fail down

• This protocol useful for gateways and management systems

• Diagnostic done periodically using handshaking methodology

Upper-layer protocols (session, presentation and application layers)

• We will talk about :1.Netware shell2.NetWare RPC protocol

Netware shell protocol

• Netware application services produces trap due to I/O operation , that handled by this protocol

• This protocol can pass the I/O to lower layers if network access is needed, else request passed to local I/O resources

• This protocol can modify operating system vector table to handle the different traps concerns with the SPX/IPX suite services on application level

NetWare RPC protocol

• Do the same as Netware shell Protocol• Different when that redirect mechanism can

support in end-to-end communication is RPC

Netware application layer services

• Netware MHS (Message handling service)• NDS (Netware directory service)

Netware MHS

• Have to do with e-mail transport

NDS (Netware directory service)

• Service provide distributed database• E-Directory has been trusted for its scalability,

compatibility, reliability, manageability and security

• NDS can be consulted to get SPX identifiers in Netware 4.0 and following versions

• SPX still needed to locate NDS when client boot up

IPv4 & IPX (Formats of their datagrams)

IPX format IPV4 format