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Department of Computer Science and Engineering

COSC 3213: Computer Networks I (Winter 2008)

Instructor: N. Vlajic
Date: February 20, 2008

Midterm Examination



Instructions:

Examination time: 75 min.

Print your name and CS student number in the space provided below.

This examination is closed book and closed notes. Calculator and one-sided cheat-sheet
containing formulas only are allowed.

There are 6 questions. The points for each question are given in square brackets, next to the
question title. The overall maximum score is 100.

Answer each question in the space provided. If you need to continue an answer onto the last
page, clearly indicate that and label the continuation with the question number.







FIRST NAME: ___________________________

LAST NAME: ___________________________

STUDENT #: ___________________________


Question Points
1 / 30
2 / 10
3 / 12
4 / 13
5 / 15
6 / 20
Total / 100



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1. Multiple Choice [30 points] time: 20 min


Circle the letter beside the choice that is the best answer for each question. For each
question choose only ONE answer.



(1.1) The TCP/IP is a __________ hierarchical protocol suite developed _________ the
OSI model.
(a) seven-layer; before
(b) five-layer; before
(c) six-layer; before
(d) five-layer; after


(1.2) The TCP/IP ___________ layer is equivalent to the combined session, presentation,
and application layers of the OSI model.
(a) application
(b) transport
(c) network
(d) data-link


(1.3) The __________ layer is responsible for delivering data units from one station to the
next without errors.
(a) transport
(b) network
(c) data-link
(d) physical


(1.4) Given two sine waves A and B, if the frequency of A is twice that of B, then the period
of B is _________________ that of A.
(a) one-half
(b) twice
(c) the same as
(d) cannot be determined


(1.5) A sine wave is _____________________ .
(a) aperiodic and discrete
(b) periodic and discrete
(c) aperiodic and continuous
(d) periodic and continuous



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(1.6) _____________ signal is a composite analog signal with an infinite bandwidth.
(a) any sine wave
(b) any digital
(c) any analog
(d) none of the above


(1.7) When propagation speed is multiplied by propagation time, we get the
(a) throughput
(b) wavelength of the signal
(c) distance a signal or bit has traveled
(d) distortion factor


(1.8) Baseband transmission of a digital signal is possible only if we have a
________________ channel.
(a) bandpass
(b) low-pass
(c) low-rate
(d) high-rate


(1.9) ______________ can impair a signal.

(a) attenuation
(b) distortion
(c) noise
(d) all of the above


(1.10) Analog-to-analog conversion is typically needed if the available bandwidth is
____________ .
(a) low-pass
(b) band-pass
(c) either (a) or (b)
(d) neither (a) nor (b)


(1.11) Which of the following is an example of digital-to-analog conversion?
(a) AM
(b) PSK
(c) PCM
(d) Differential modulation


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(1.12) In ________________ , the change or lack of change in the level of the voltage
determines the value of the bit.
(a) NRZ-L
(b) NRZ-I
(c) both (a) and (b)
(d) neither (a) nor (b)


(1.13) The idea of RZ and the idea of NRZ-I are combined into the _____________ scheme.
(a) Manchester
(b) Differential Manchester
(c) both (a) and (b)
(d) neither (a) nor (b)


(1.14) If the frequency spectrum of a signal has a bandwidth of 500 Hz with the highest
frequency at 600 Hz, what should be the sampling rate, according to the Nyquist theorem?
(a) 500 samples/sec
(b) 600 samples/sec
(c) 1000 samples/sec
(d) none of the above


(1.15) The first step in PCM is _________________ .
(a) modulation
(b) quantization
(c) sampling
(d) line coding




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2. Network Utility/Tools [10 points] time: 10 min


2.1) Obtaining Physical (MAC) Address [4 points]
Assume you are interested in obtaining the physical address of a particular machine. Which
network utility/tool would you use for this purpose? Is the information about the machines
operating system of any importance? Discuss!


The information about operating system is important, as we use different tools on
Windows/Unix/Linux.
On Windows: ipconfg.
On Unix/Linux: ifconfig.









2.2) PING Tool [6 points]
Suppose regularly spaced PING packets are sent to a remote host. What can you conclude
from the following results:

(a) No replies arrive back. [3 points]

Possibilities are: the remote host is down; the remote host or the host network is
extremely congested.






(b) All replies arrive but with variable delay. [3 points]

The packets traverse network routes that have different path lengths or traffic loads.

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3. Frequency-Domain Representation [12 points] time: 15 min

3.1) Signal Spectrum [8 points]
Plot the frequency spectrum of the following signal. In your plot remember that the ratio of
amplitudes of different frequency components is reflected in the frequency spectrum.








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3.2) Analytical Time-Domain Representation [4 points]
Write down an equation describing the above signal as a function of time.



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4. Modulation [13 points] time: 10 min

4.1) AM vs. FM [8 points]
The time-domain representation of an analog message signal m(t) is shown below. Assume
the carrier is of significantly higher frequency than the message signal.




(a) Sketch the AM signal that is transmitted. [4 points]






(b) Sketch the FM signal that is transmitted. [4 points]


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4.2) Amplitude / Linear Modulation [5 points]
Let m
1
(t) and m
2
(t) be message signals, and let s
1
(t) and s
2
(t) be the corresponding
modulated signals using a carrier frequency of f
c
.
Show that if simple AM modulation is used, then a linear combination of m
1
and m
2
(i.e.
m
1
(t) + m
2
(t)) produces a modulates signal that is a linear combination of s
1
(t) and s
2
(t).
This is why AM is sometimes referred to as linear modulation.


It is assume that:
s
1
(t) = m
1
(t)cos(2f
c
t)
s
2
(t) = m
2
(t)cos(2f
c
t)

As for the modulation of m
1
+m
2
, we obtian

r(t) = (m
1
(t)+m
2
(t)) cos(2f
c
t) =
= m
1
(t) cos(2f
c
t) + m
2
(t) cos(2f
c
t) =
= s
1
(t) + s
2
(t)

which is clearly a linear combination of s
1
and s
2



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5. Channel Capacity [15 points] time: 10 min

5.1) Channel capacity [7 points]
Suppose we wish to transmit at a rate of 64 kbps over a 3 kHz telephone channel. What is
the minimum SNR [dB] required to accomplish this?

C = B log
2
(1 + SNR)
64 kbps = 3 kHz log
2
(1 + SNR)

SNR = 2
64/3
1 = 2.6 * 10
6


SNR [dB] 64 [dB]









5.2) Improving channel capacity [8 points]
We need to upgrade a channel to a higher bandwidth. Answer the following questions:

(a) How is the rate improved if we double the bandwidth? [4 points]

C = B log
2
(1 + SNR)

Clearly, by doubling the bandwidth (2B), the capacity (i.e. data rate) is doubled.






(a) How is the rate improved if we double the SNR? [4 points]

C = B log
2
(1 + 2*SNR) =
B log
2
(2*SNR+)
B log
2
(2) + B log
2
(SNR)
B + C




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6. Analog-to-Digital Conversion [20 points] time: 15 min

6.1) Quantization / Data Rate [12 points]
Consider an audio (analog) signal with spectral components in the range 300 to 3000 Hz.
Assume that a sampling rate of 7000 samples per second will be used to generate a PCM
signal.
(a) To achieve SNR =30 dB, what is the number of quantization levels needed?
(b) What is the resultant data rate of this signal?



(a) SNR (in dB) and the number m of bits per quantization level are
related as:

SNR = 6 m - 1.76 [dB]

So, we obtain

m > (SNR + 1.76) / 6 = 5.29

Accordingly, the number of quantization levels 2
6
=64



(b) With 7000 samples per second, and 6 bits per sample, we obtain a
data rate of 42000 bps =42 kbps.










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6.2) PCM [8 points]
Given the quantization levels in the following figure, write down the PCM output levels (for
t=0-4 [sec]) of the presented signal. Sign bits: +is 0, - is 1. Sampling times Ts =1 [sec].







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