SHANMUGHA ARTS, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & RESEARCH ACADEMY

(SASTRA UNIVERSITY)
1. What are the five important components of data communication?
Transmitter, Receiver, Medium, data and protocol.
2. What are the three fundamental characteristics determine the effectiveness of the data
communication system?
The effectiveness of the data communication system depends on three fundamental
characteristics:
Delivery: The system must deliver data to the correct destination.
Accuracy: The system must deliver data accurately.
Timeliness: The system must deliver data in a timely manner.
3. Define protocol.
A network protocol defines rules and conventions for communication between network
devices. Protocols for computer networking all generally use packet switching techniques to send
and receive messages in the form of packets.
4. What is datagram network?
A datagram is a basic transfer unit associated with a packet-switched network in which
the delivery, arrival time and order are not guaranteed. A datagram consists of header and data
areas, where the header contains information sufficient for routing from the originating
equipment to the destination without relying on prior exchanges between the equipment and the
network.
5. Define switching.
A network switch is a small hardware device that joins multiple computers together
within one local area network (LAN). Technically, network switches operate at layer two (Data
Link Layer) of the OSI model. There are two fundamental approaches towards building a
network core: circuit switching and packet switching.
6. Define computer networks.
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of computers
and devices connected by communications channels that facilitates communications among hosts
(users) and allows hosts to share resources with other hosts.
7. What is a node?
In data communication, a physical network node may either be a data circuit-terminating
equipment (DCE) such as a modem, hub, bridge or switch; or a data terminal equipment (DTE)
such as a digital telephone handset, a printer or a host computer, for example a router, a
workstation or a server. If the network is the Internet, many physical network nodes are host
computers, also known as Internet nodes, identified by an IP address, and all hosts are physical
network nodes. However, data link layer devices such as switches, bridges and WLAN access
points do not have an IP host address (except sometimes for administrative purposes), and are
not considered as Internet nodes, but as physical network nodes or LAN nodes.

8. Define multiplexing.
In computer networks, multiplexing digital data streams are combined into one signal
over a shared medium. The aim is to share an expensive resource. Multiplexing at send host is
gathering data from multiple sockets, enveloping data with header later used for demultiplexing
which is delivering received segments to the correct sockets at receive host.
9. State any four mechanisms to achieve reliable data transfer.
i) ACK & NAK ii) Timeout event iii) Checksum iv) Retransmission v) Sequence number
10. What are the key design issues of a computer Network?
a. Connectivity
b. Cost-effective Resource Sharing
c. Support for common Services
d. Performance
11. Name the factors that affect the performance of the network.
Number of Users, Type of transmission medium, Hardware, Software
12. What is the role of concentrators in networking?
It combines multiple channels onto a single transmission medium in such a way that all
the individual channels can be simultaneously active. For example, ISPs use concentrators to
combine their dial-up modem connections onto faster T-1 lines that connect to the Internet.
Concentrators are also used in local-area networks (LANs) to combine transmissions from a
cluster of nodes.
13. For n devices in a network, what is the number of cable links required for a mesh and ring
topology?
Mesh topology n (n-1)/2. Ring topology n
14. What are the functions of a DTE? What are the functions of a DCE?
Data terminal equipment is a device that is an information source or an information sink. It is
connected to a network through a DCE. Data circuit-terminating equipment is a device used as
an interface between a DTE and a network.
15. List out the disadvantages of parallel data transmission.
o Requires separate lines for each bit of a word
o Costly to run long distances due to multiple wires
o Suffers from electromagnetic interference
o Cable lengths more limited than a serial cable
16. Name the factors that affect the performance of the network.
a. Number of Users
b. Type of transmission medium
c. Hardware
d. Software
17. Differentiate datagram and virtual circuit switching.

S.No
1
2
3

Datagram Packet Switching

Route established for each packet
Packet transmission delay
Network may be responsible
individual packets

Virtual Circuit Packet Switching

Route established for entire conversation
Call setup delay; packet transmission delay
for Network may be responsible for packets
sequences

UNIT II : Computer Networks

1. What is the need for frame relay?

It is a connection-oriented network with no error control and no flow
control. Because it was connection-oriented, packets were delivered in
order (if they were delivered at all). The properties of in-order delivery
make frame relay akin to a wide area LAN. Its most important
application is interconnecting LANs at multiple company offices.
2. Under light load which LAN has a smaller delay Ethernet or token
ring ? Explain
Answer:
(a) Ethernet has smaller delay under a light load. In Ethernet under a light
load, there is little or no contention for the channel, the delay incurred is close
to the frame transmission time. In token ring, however, there is always the
additional delay incurred from circulating the token around the ring.
(b) Token ring has smaller delay under a high load. In Ethernet there is more
contention for the channel, much of the time is spent in collision and backoff,
so on average the frames experience longer delay and higher delay variability.
In comparison, token ring provides each station with an orderly and roundrobin access to the channel by passing the token around. When the number of
frames transmitted per token is limited, and frames are kept at a fixed length,
token ring can guarantee a maximum delay for each station.

3. A scanner has a resolution of 600 x 600 pixels/square inch, How

many bits are produced by
an 8-inch x 10inch image if
scanning uses 8 bits/pixel ? 24 bits/pixel ?
4. Why does a conventional telephone still work when the electrical power is
out?

Answer: The telephone company supplies each of its telephone lines with power
at the central office. This power is stored in the form of wet batteries that can
alternately be charged by a backup battery in the event of power failure at the
central office. These huge batteries occupy entire floors in telephone offices.

5. Suppose the signal has twice the power as a noise signal that is added to it.
Find the
power? 2n
Answer:
SNR dB =
SNR dB =
SNR dB =
SNR dB =

SNR in decibels. Repeat if the signal has 10 times the noise

times the noise power? 10k times the noise power?
10log10x2/n2 = 10log102 = 3.01 dB
10log1010 = 10 dB
10log102n = 10n log102 = 3.01n dB
10log1010k = 10k dB

6. A 10 kHz baseband channel is used by a digital transmission system. Ideal

pulses are sent at the Nyquist rate and the pulses can take 16 levels. What is
the bit rate of the system?
Answer: Nyquist pulses can be sent over this channel at a rate of 20000 pulses
per second. Each pulse carries log 216 = 4 bits of information, so the bit rate is
80000 bits per second.

7. Compare and contrast X.25 and Frame Relay networks.

X.25
Error Correction
Node to Node
Propagation
High
Delay
Ease of
Difficult
Implementation
Good for
Too Slow
Interactive
Applications
Good for Voice
No
Good for LAN File
Slow
Transfer
8. State the characteristics of ATM networks.

Frame Relay
None
Low
Easy
Yes
Yes
Yes

9. What are the different types of services offered by ATM networks

a. CBR (Constant Bit Rate)
b. VBR (Variable Bit Rate)
c. ABR (Available Bit Rate) Flow Control, Rate-based, Credit-based
d. UBR (Unspecific Bit Rate) No Flow control.
10.

What were the major applications of computer networks?

1. Business Applications
2. Home Applications
3. Mobile Users

11.

Give any two networks which will work under lower layers of OSI.
X.25, frame relay, ATM.

12.

List out networking and inter networking components.

Networking: Switch, Hub, Bridge, Repeaters
Internetworking: Routers and Gateways

13.

What are the responsibilities of Data Link Layer?

The Data Link Layer transforms the physical layer, a raw transmission facility, to a
reliable link and is responsible for node-node delivery.
a. Framing
b. Physical Addressing
c. Flow Control
d. Error Control
e. Access Control

14.

What are the responsibilities of Network Layer?

The Network Layer is responsible for the source-to-destination delivery of packet
possibly across multiple networks (links).
a. Logical Addressing
b. Routing

15.

What are the differences between end-end and node-node delivery?

Node to node Data link layer
End to end Network layer
UNIT III

1. In the following list, identify the OSI layer where the information would be
located:
UDP 52

188.69.44.3

PDF document

5-5-5-5-5-5

TCP 80

10.6.9.7

Bit pattern

Answer: Layer 4, Layer 3, Layer 7, Layer 2, Layer 4, Layer 3, Layer 1

2. Which of the following terms is used specifically to identify the entity that is created when
encapsulating data inside data link layer headers and trailers?
a. Data
b. Chunk
c. Segment
d. Frame
e. Packet
f. None of thesethere is no encapsulation by the data link layer
3. Differentiate between Link state and Distance Vector Routing algorithm.
4. Define Routers.
Routers relay packets among multiple interconnected networks. They Route
packets from one network to any of a number of potential destination
networks on
internet routers operate in the physical, data link and network layer of OSI
model.
5. What is meant by hop count?
The pathway requiring the smallest number of relays, it is called hop-count
routing, in which every link is considered to be of equal length and given the
value one. 15. How can the routing be classified?
The routing can be classified as,
Adaptive routing
Non-adaptive routing.
6. What is time-to-live or packet lifetime?
As the time-to-live field is generated, each packet is marked with a lifetime,
usually the number of hops that are allowed before a packet is considered

lost and
accordingly, destroyed. The time-to-live determines the lifetime of a packet.
7. What is meant by brouter?
A brouter is a single protocol or multiprotocol router that sometimes act as a
router and sometimes act as a bridge.
8. Write the keys for understanding the distance vector routing.
The three keys for understanding the algorithm are
Knowledge about the whole networks
Routing only to neighbors
Information sharing at regular intervals
9. Write the keys for understanding the link state routing.
The three keys for understanding the algorithm are
Knowledge about the neighborhood.
Routing to all neighbors.
Information sharing when there is a range.
10.
. How the packet cost referred in distance vector and link state
routing?
In distance vector routing, cost refer to hop count while in case of link state
routing, cost is a weighted value based on a variety of factors such as
security levels, traffic
or the state of the link.
11.
. How the routers get the information about neighbor?
A router gets its information about its neighbors by periodically sending them
a
short greeting packets. If the neighborhood responds to the greeting as
expected, it is
assumed to be alive and functioning. If it dose not, a change is assumed to
have occurred
and the sending router then alerts the rest of the network in its next LSP.
12.
. What are the four internetworking devices?
The four internetworking devices are,
Repeaters
Bridges
Routers

13.Identify whether each of the following IP addresses can be assigned to a

computer.
A. 192.168.5.6
B. 10.1.0.1
C. 172.20.0.0
D. 192.168. 200.255
E. 1.1.1.1
F. 10.0.0.0
G. 172.10.255.255
H. 172.61.9.8
I. 16.16.55.9
J. 127.6.1.3

Answer:
A. Yes.
B. Yes.
C. No. This is the network ID for the 172.20.0.0 network.
D. No. This is the broadcast address for the 192.168.200.0 network.
E. Yes.
F. No. This is the network ID for the 10.0.0.0 network.
G. No. This is the broadcast address for the 172.10.0.0 network.
H. Yes.
I. Yes.
J. No. The 127.0.0.0 network is reserved for network diagnostics.
14.For each of the following IP addresses, identify the network ID of the
network in which it lies.
A. 10.99.57.15/24
B. 192.168.6.9/30
C. 17.69.48.3/15
D. 56.57.58.60/22
E. 172.156.30.14/27

Answer:
A. 10.99.57.0/24
B. 192.168.6.8/30
C. 17.68.0.0/15
D. 56.57.56.0/22
E. 172.156.30.0/27

16. DefineMasking?
Masking is the process that extracts the address of the physical network
from an IP address.

17.

What are the rules of boundary-level masking?

The rules of boundary-level masking
The bytes in the IP address that corresponds to 255 in the mask
will be repeated in the subnetwork address
The bytes in the IP address that corresponds to 0 in the mask will
change to 0 in the subnetwork address

18.

You need to create 652 networks with the class B address 150.150.0.0.

a. What is the subnet mask?

b. List the first three valid network numbers.
c. List the range of host IP addresses on those three networks.
d. List the last valid network and range of IP addresses.. How many subnets
does this solution allow?
f. How many host addresses can be on each subnet?
Answer:
a. 255.255.255.192

IV UNIT
1. What is function of transport layer?
The protocol in the transport layer takes care in the delivery of data from
one application program on one device to an application program on another
device. They act as a link between the upper layer protocols and the services
provided by the lower layer.
2. What are the duties of the transport layer?
The services provided by the transport layer

End-to- end delivery

Addressing
Reliable delivery
Flow control
Multiplexing
3. . What is the difference between network layer delivery and the
transport layer delivery? Network layer delivery Transport layer delivery
The network layer is responsible for
the the source-to-destination
delivery of packet
across multiple network links.
The transport layer is responsible for
source-to-destination delivery of the
entire message.
4. What are the four aspects related to the reliable delivery of data?
The four aspects are,
Error control
Sequence control
Loss control
Duplication control
5. . What is meant by segment?
At the sending and receiving end of the transmission, TCP divides long
transmissions into smaller data units and packages each into a frame called
a
segment.
6. What is meant by segmentation?
When the size of the data unit received from the upper layer is too long for
the network layer datagram or data link layer frame to handle, the transport
protocol divides it into smaller usable blocks. The dividing process is called
segmentation.

7. Suppose a file of 10,000 bytes is to be sent over a line at 2400 bps.

(a)
Calculate the overhead in bits and time in using asynchronous communication. Assume one
start
bit and a stop element of length one bit, and 8 bits to send the byte itself for each character. The 8bit character consists of all data bits, with no parity bit.

(b)
Calculate the overhead in bits and time in using synchronous communication. Assume that
the data are sent in frames. Each frame consist of 1000 characters = 8000 bits and an overhead of
48 control bits per frame.
(c)
What would be the answers to parts (a) and (b) be for a file of 100,000 characters?
(d)
What would be answers to parts (a) and (b) be for the original file of 10,000 characters
except at a data rate of 9600 bps?

Answer:
a) For each character(8 bits), we add 2 bits (start and stop).
So, each character has 25% overhead. For 10,000 characters, there are 20,000 extra
bits. This would take an extra 20,000/2400 = 8.33 seconds
b) The file takes 10 frames or 480 additional bits. The transmission time for the
additional bits is 480/2400 = 0.2 seconds.

BIG QUESTIONS

Question 1:

(7 Marks)

Design (show only the network) a LAN system for small five-story building. One floor
is dedicated to two mail servers and separated three database servers. Each of
remaining floor has four computers with broadband access. Your design should meet
the following restrictions and conditions: three-input hubs, one bridge, and unlimited
Ethernet buses. The incoming broadband Internet access must be connected to a sixrepeater ring, no bus LAN is allowed outside of a floor, and a traffic analyzer must be
attached to the network.
Answer:

____________________________________________________________________________
Question 2 :

(5 Marks)

What is the length of contention slot in CSMA/CD for (a) a 2-km twin-lead cable
(signal propagation speed is 82% of the signal propagation speed in vacuum)?, and
(b) a 40-km multimode fiber optic cable (signal propagation speed is 65% of the signal
propagation speed in vacuum)?
Answer:
(a) Signal propagation speed in twin lead is 2.46 108 m/sec. Signal propagation
time for 2 km is 8.13 sec. So, the length of contention slot is 16.26 sec. (b) Signal
propagation speed in multimode fiber is 1.95 108 m/s. Signal propagation time for
40 km is 205.13 sec. So, the length of contention
slot is 410.26 sec.

3. Consider a wide area network in which two hosts, A and B, are connected
through a 100 km communication link with the data speed of 1 Gb/s. Host A
wants to transfer the content of a CD-ROM with 200 Kb of
music data
while host B reserves portions of its 10 parallel buffers, each with the capacity
of 10,000 bits. The host A sends a SYN segment, where ISN = 2,000 and MSS =
2,000 and that host B sends ISN = 4,000 and MSS = 1,000. Sketch the
sequence of segment exchange, starting with host A sending data at time t = 0.
Assume host B sends ACK every five frames.

Answer:
Figure shows the operation.

Each packet size is 1000 bytes since thats the MSS of host B. Data per packet is 1000
20 20 = 960 bytes. (i.e., 20 bytes for TCP header and 20 bytes for IP header).
For Host A: MSS = 2000, ISN = 2000, File Size = 200 Kb = 25 KB.
For Host B: MSS = 1000, ISN = 4000.
Three stages in file transfer. Connection establishment, Segment transfer, and
Connection termination.

Question 3:
(3 or 4 Marks)
Why do LANs tend to use broadcast networks? Why not use networks consisting of
multiplexers and switches?
Answer:
The computers in a LAN are separated by a short distance (typically <100 m) so high
speed and reliable communication is possible using a shared broadcast medium. The
cost of the medium is negligible and the overall cost is dominated by the cost of the

network interface cards in each computer. In addition, the LAN users usually belong
to the same group where all users are generally trusted, so broadcast does not pose
much security danger.
The original reason for avoiding a multiplexer and switch approach to LANs is that
centralized, a expensive box is required. The availability of Application Specific
Integrated Circuits (ASICs) has reduced the cost of switching boxes and made switchbased LANs feasible, and in some environments the dominant approach.
______________________________________________________________________________
Question 4:
(2 Marks)
Suppose that the ALOHA protocol is used to share a 56 kbps satellite channel.
Suppose that frames are 1000 bits long. Find the maximum throughput of the
system in frames/second.
Answer:
Maximum throughput for ALOHA = 0.184
Max. throughput in frames/sec =
(56000 bits/sec) x (1 frame/1000 bits) x 0.184 = 10.304
The maximum throughput is approximately 10 frames/sec.
Question 5:
(5 Marks)
You need to create 652 networks with the class B address 150.150.0.0.
a. What is the subnet mask?
b. List the first three valid network numbers.
c. List the range of host IP addresses on those three networks.
d. List the last valid network and range of IP addresses.
e. How many subnets does this solution allow?
f. How many host addresses can be on each subnet?
Answer:
a. 255.255.255.192
b. 150.150.0.64, 150.150.0.128, 150.150.0.192
c. 150.150.0.65 150.150.0.126
150.150.0.129 150.150.0.190
150.150.0.193 150.150.0.254
d. Network: 150.150.255.128
Range of IP addresses: 150.150.255.129 150.150.255.190
______________________________________________________________________________
Question 5:
11. Suppose a file of 10,000 bytes is to be sent over a line at 2400 bps.
(a)
Calculate the overhead in bits and time in using asynchronous communication.
Assume one start
bit and a stop element of length one bit, and 8 bits to send the byte itself for each
character. The 8-bit character consists of all data bits, with no parity bit.

(b)
Calculate the overhead in bits and time in using synchronous communication.
Assume that the data are sent in frames. Each frame consist of 1000 characters =
8000 bits and an overhead of 48 control bits per frame.
(c)
What would be the answers to parts (a) and (b) be for a file of 100,000
characters?
(d)
What would be answers to parts (a) and (b) be for the original file of 10,000
characters except at a data rate of 9600 bps?
Answer:
a) For each character(8 bits), we add 2 bits (start and stop).
So, each character has 25% overhead.
For 10,000 characters, there are 20,000 extra bits.
This would take an extra 20,000/2400 = 8.33 seconds
b) The file takes 10 frames or 480 additional bits. The transmission time for the
additional bits is 480/2400 = 0.2 seconds.
c) Ten times as many extra bits & ten times as long for both.
d) The number of overhead bits would be the same, and the time would be decreased
by a factor of 4=9600/2400.
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Question 6:
(a) In a CRC error-detecting scheme, choose P(x) = x4 + x + 1. Encode the bits
10010011011.
(b) Suppose the channel introduces an error pattern 100010000000000 (i.e., a
flip from 1 to 0 or from 0 to 1 in position 1 and 5). What is received? Can the error be
detected?
Answer:
a) Divide x10 + x7 + x4 + x3 + x + 1 by x4 + x + 1. The remainder is x3 + x2.
The CRC bits are 1100. The string 100100110111100 is sent.
b) 100100110111100 100010000000000 = 000110110111100.
The string 000110110111100 is received, corresponding to x 11+x10+x8+x7+x5+x4+x3+x2.
The remainder after division by x4+x+1 is x3+x2+x, which is nonzero. The errors are
detected.
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