How does fragmentation work

Fragmentation with IPv6 operates in a fundamentally different way to to that of IPv4, although most of the header fields remain and have the same purpose. In contrast with IPv These header field values also change in the standard header compared to the original unfragmented packet:. UDP Is often used for real-time applications such as voice and video so fragmentation and reassembly are highly undesirable as they may introduce delay and jitter problems in addition to the numerous other issues fragmentation can cause.

Being a connectionless protocol it is unable to use the MSS mechanism to even attempt to avoid fragmentation. Applications relying on UDP can only deal with this at the application layer. A number of protocols such as the real-time transport protocol RTP and Session Initiation Protocol SIP can be used to establish a session state and help minimise or avoid the issues caused by IP fragmentation.

RTP Actually has its own fragmentation mechanism. A common simplistic approach is to just use a small packet size. All IPv4 hosts including routers should be capable of accepting byte packets for instance.

To express this in table form as we did earlier:. With IPv4 things are more complicated; an initial timeout of 15 seconds is suggested when the first fragment is received. The TTL field value of each subsequent fragment received is then used to reset the timer value, as long as it is higher than the current value.

This allows for a gap of up to 4. Should the timer expire, all fragments are discarded. If fragment zero is not available, no message is sent. The last of four children of the seventies, Steve was born in London and has never been too far from a shooting, bombing or riot. He's now grateful to live in a small town in East Yorkshire in the north east of England. He's worked in the IT industry for over 25 years in a variety of roles, predominantly in data centre environments.

More recently he's widened his skill set to embrace DevOps, Linux, containers, automation, orchestration, cloud and more. The process of sexual reproduction has been elaborated in Figure 2.

The process by which the cycle of reproduction is achieved by only one parent is called asexual reproduction. Examples include binary fission , budding , fragmentation, and parthenogenesis.

The process of binary fission is found in bacteria wherein a single bacterium tends to divide into two cells. In budding, very small organs are formed in the bodies of the parent and thus after some time, they tend to break and thus finally grow into two individuals.

This type of asexual reproduction is found in yeasts and some other hydra animals. It is commonly found in coral, sponges, and starfishes. In parthenogenesis, this type of asexual reproduction is found in many fishes, reptiles, and amphibians.

The process of fragmentation is very vital in biology for asexual reproduction. As described earlier, this is the form of reproduction in which small organs or parts of the body of the parent individual get separated and finally grows into a completely mature organism. Let us take an example of Planaria , one of the many flatworms, belonging to the class of Rhabditophora and phylum Platyhelminthes. See Figure 3 for the depiction of fragmentation and the step involved during fragmentation in Planaria.

The words fragmentation and regeneration are often referred to as the words used in reproduction. Still, there are some common differences between them that are quite evident. The process of fragmentation often occurs when a part of an organism is broken into smaller fragments that can grow into separate identical organisms whereas regeneration is one in which the organism is capable to regrow certain body parts that are lost.

In essence, new species are formed following fragmentation whereas new organs are formed during regeneration. It is believed all organisms are capable of regenerating their lost body parts while there are only a few that have the ability to reproduce through fragmentation. The process of regeneration can be found in lizards and octopi. The details of fragmentation and regeneration can be found in Figure 4. The prime advantage of fragmentation is that it can be achieved with only a single parent as mating between a male and a female is not mandatory.

The whole cycle of reproduction can easily be achieved by the formation of the fragments from the bodies of the parent organism and then their growth and transformations into new identical organisms to their dynasties.

The second important advantage of the process of fragmentation is that its reproduction cycle can be achieved in a relatively less amount of time. The whole time that is wasted during the mating season and conditions in the sexual reproduction is avoided in the reproduction through asexual systems.

Thus, fragmentation being a type of asexual reproduction is a very rapid process. Moreover, since fragmentation is a very fast process of producing offspring, it is believed that a relatively larger number of organisms can be produced in a shorter time as the chain of reproduction goes from one individual to two and from two to four. Hence, in less time a whole new generation of identical organisms can be produced from a single parent via fragmentation.

Finally, another advantage that makes the process of fragmentation very vital in biology is its capability to occur and progress in any environment and any climatic conditions. Although it can be perceived from the above discussion that asexual reproduction especially fragmentation plays a very vital role in maintaining the equilibrium in the ecosystem by producing larger organisms in relatively less time but still there are many disadvantages associated with this process.

The major disadvantage of fragmentation is associated with biodiversity. Asexual reproduction is carried out by a single parent and due to this only its traits, genes and characteristics will be passed on to the new generation.

Without much genetic diversity, the next generation tends to be very identical to each other Conversely, in sexual reproduction, two genes from both parents are mixed. This gives rise to genetically diverse offspring. The second disadvantage of fragmentation is that the same heritage problems that once found in the parents will likely be manifesting in the next generation.

This process arises all the time in asexual reproduction, the same traits and chromosomes are copied and transferred on all offspring. As a result, the offspring may be subjected to an early extinction due to some of the diseases that they inherited. Species produced via fragmentation tend to be identical. And so, weakness in their bodies may make them susceptible to parasitic and predator attacks.

This might cause them to struggle to survive. If additional pressure comes along, for instance, a sudden shift in the environment or habitat, the species could struggle even more and eventually could be eliminated and be extinct. In contrast, such problems are less likely to occur in sexual reproductions because it promotes greater biodiversity.

In essence, fragmentation in biology carries problems with the control in the population as this is a chain process in which an organism divides into two and then another two are formed from the fragments. This leads to the reproduction of massive populations from a single parent. There are several other mechanisms of natural fragmentation in plants. People use fragmentation to artificially propagate many plants via division, layering, cuttings, grafting , micropropagation and storage organs, such as bulbs , corms , tubers and rhizomes.

Animals like sponges and coral colonies naturally fragment and reproduce. Many species of annelids and flat worms reproduce by this method. Fragmentation reproduction facts for kids Kids Encyclopedia Facts. All content from Kiddle encyclopedia articles including the article images and facts can be freely used under Attribution-ShareAlike license, unless stated otherwise. Table of Contents. Save Article. Improve Article. Like Article.

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