5

th
GTU Computer Network
Mid Sem Exam Paper

Q1) Differentiate between Twisted pair Cable, Co-axial, and Fiber optic cable.
Sr.No. Twisted pair Cable Co-axial Fiber optic cable
1 Transmissions of signals takes
place in the electrical form.
Transmissions of signals takes
place in the electrical form.
Transmissions of signals takes
place in the optical form.
2 Noise immunity is low. Higher noise immunity. Highest noise immunity.
3 Affected due to external
magnetic field.
Less affected due to external
magnetic field.
Not affected by the external
magnetic field.
4 Cheapest Moderately expensive. Expensive
5. Low bandwidth. Moderately high bandwidth. Expensive.
6 Attenuation is very high. Attenuation is low. Attenuation is very low.
7 Installation is easy. Installation is fairly easy. Installation is difficult.

Q2) Enlist the types of topology and explain any two.
There are various type of topologies namely:
BUS Topology.
Star Topology.
Ring Topology.
Mesh Topology.
BUS Topology:-
A bus topology connects each computer (node) to a single segment trunk. A trunk is a
communication line, typically coax cable, which is referred to as the bus. The signal travels
from one end of the bus to the other. A terminator is required at each end to absorb the signal so
it does not reflect back across the bus.

In a bus topology, signals are broadcast to all stations. Each computer
checks the address on the signal (data frame) as it passes along the bus.
If the signals address matches that of the computer, the computer
processes the signal. If the address doesnt match, the computer takes
no action and the signal travels on down the bus.
Only one computer can talk on a network at a time. A media access method called CSMA/CD is used to
handle the collisions that occur when two signals are placed on the wire at the same time.
The bus topology is passive. In other words, the computers on the bus simply listen for a
signal; they are not responsible for moving the signal along.
A bus topology is normally implemented with coaxial cable.
Advantages of bus topology:
Easy to implement and extend
Well suited for temporary networks that must be set up in a hurry
Typically the least cheapest topology to implement
Failure of one station does not affect others
Disadvantages of bus topology:
Difficult to administer/troubleshoot
Limited cable length and number of stations
A cable break can disable the entire network; no redundancy

Star Topology :-
All of the stations in a star topology are connected to a central unit called a hub.

The hub offers a common connection for all
stations on the network. Each station has its
own direct cable connection to the hub. In
most cases, this means more cable is required
than for a bus topology. However, this makes
adding or moving computers a relatively easy
task; simply plug them into a cable outlet on
the wall.

If a cable is cut, it only affects the computer that was attached to it. This eliminates the single
point of failure problem associated with the bus topology. (Unless, of course, the hub itself goes
down.)
Star topologies are normally implemented using twisted pair cable, specifically unshielded
twisted pair (UTP). The star topology is probably the most common form of network topology
currently in use.
Advantages of star topology:
Easy to add new stations
Easy to monitor and troubleshoot
Can accommodate different wiring
Disadvantages of ring topology:
Failure of hub cripples attached stations
More cable required
Q3) Explain DNS
o Domain name system:- The Internet has been divided into hundred of top level
domains
Each Domain covers many host.there are two types of Domains:-
Generic Domain:-The Generic Domain are Com,Edu,gov,int,mil.The Country domain
include one entry for everyCountry.each domain is named by following an upward
path.the components are separated by dots.For Examples eng.sun.com
Country Domain:-The Country Abbrevation Two Character For Examples .in Means
India.
Label:-Each node in the tree has a label or Component and it can be Sepcified by 63
character.
Name Server:-There are Three types ;- Zone,Primary server & Secondary Server.



Q4) Explain OSI Reference model.
The International Standards Organization (ISO, Est. 1947) developed the Open Systems Interconnection
(OSI) model.
The purpose of OSI model does not specify the protocols to be used to perform networking tasks. It
shows how to facilitate communication between different systems without requiring changes to the
logic of the underlying hardware and software.
The OSI model is the layered framework for the design of network system that allows communication
between all types of computer systems. It consists of seven separate but related layers.














7. Application
6. Presentation
5. Session Layer
4. Transport Layer
3. Network Layer
1. Physical layer
2. Data Link Layer
Fig. OSI model

Below we will discuss each layer of the model in turn, starting at the bottom layer.
The Physical Layer
- Physical layer is the lowest layer of the OSI model.
- The physical layer is concerned with transmitting raw bits over a communication
channel. It deals with the electrical and mechanical specifications of interface and
transmission media. It also deals with procedures and functions required for transmission.
- Functions of Physical layer:
1. Physical characteristics of interface and Media- The design issue of
physical layer considers the characteristics if interface between devices and
transmission media.
2. Representation of bits- Physical layer encodes the bit stream into electrical
or optical signal.
3. Data rate- Physical layer defines the duration of bit which is called the data
rate.
4. Synchronization of bits- physical layer synchronizes the transmission rate
and receiving rate.
The Data Link Layer
- The data link layer transforms the physical layer, a raw transmission facility, to a reliable
link. It makes the physical layer appear error-free to the network layer.
- Data link layer implements physical addressing.
- Other responsibilities\functions of data link layer:
1. Framing- The frames received from network layer is divided into manageable data
units called frame.
2. Physical addressing- If the frames are to be sent to different systems in the network,
the data link later adds a header to the frame to define the sender and/or receiver.
3. Flow Control- When the rate of data reception is less than the rate of data produced
by the sender, the data link layer imposes control mechanism to avoid overwhelming
the receiver.
4. Error control- The data link layer adds reliability to the physical layer by adding
mechanisms to detect and retransmit damaged or lost frames. Error control is
normally achieved through a trailer to the end of the frame.
5. Access control- When multiple devices are connected to the same link, data link
layer will determine which device has the control over the link at any given time.
The Network Layer
- The network layer is responsible for the source-to destination delivery of the packet,
possibly across multiple networks.
- If two systems are connected to the same link, there is usually no need for a network
layer. However if two systems are attached to different networks with connecting devices
between the networks, there is often a need for the network layer to accomplish source-
to-destination delivery.
- Functions of Network layer:
1. Logical addressing- The physical addressing implemented by the data link layer
handles the addressing problem locally. When a network passes the network
boundary, an addressing system is needed to distinguish source and destination,
network layer performs this function. The network layer adds a header to the packet
coming from the upper later that, among other things, includes the logical the logical
addresses of the sender and receiver.
2. Routing- Network layer route or switch the packets to its final destination in an
internetwork.
The Transport Layer
- The transport layer is responsible for process-to-process delivery of the entire message.
- The transport layer ensures that the whole message arrives complete and in order,
overseeing both error control and flow control at source-to-destination level.
- Functions of transport layer:
1. Service-point/port addressing- computer performs several processes
simultaneously. For this reason, source-to-destination delivery means from a specific
process on one computer to a specific process on the other. The transport layer header
must therefore include a type of address called a service-point address. Thus the
transport layer gets the entire message to the correct process of the system.
2. Segmentation and recovery- A message is divided into segments, each segment
contains a sequence number which enables transport layer to resemble at the
destination.
3. Connection control- the transport layer can be either connectionless or connection-
oriented. In connectionless transport each segment is treated as an independent
packet. A connection-oriented transport layer makes connection with transport layer
at the destination.
4. Flow Control- transport layer performs flow control in end to end manner rather
across single link as in data link layer.
5. Error Control-trans port layer performs error control in process-to-process manner
rather across a single link as in data link layer. Transport layer ensures error free
transmission.


The Session Layer
- The session layer is the network dialog controller. It establishes, maintains, and
synchronizes the interaction among communicating systems.
- Functions of Session layer
1. Dialog control- Communication between two processes take place in either half
duplex or full duplex mode. The session layer manages dialog control for this
communication.
2. Synchronization- the session layer allows a process to add checkpoints or
synchronization points , to the stream of data.
The presentation layer
- The presentation layer is concerned with the syntax nd semantics of the information
exchange between two systems.
- Functions of presentation layer
1. Translation- the processes on different systems exchange information. Different
computers use different encoding systems. The presentation layer maintains
interoperability between the two encoding system.
2. Encryption- To carry sensitive information, a system must be able to ensure privacy.
Encryption means that the sender transforms the original information to another form
and sends the resulting message out over the network. While decryption is the reverse
process.
3. Compression- Data compression reduces the number of bits contained in the
information. Data Compression becomes particularly important in the transmission of
multimedia such as text, audio, and video.
The Application Layer
- The application layer enables the user , whether the human or software, to access the
network. It provides user interfaces and support for services such as electronic mail.
Remote file access and transfer, shared database management, and other types of
distributed information services.
- Specific services provided by application layer:
1. Network Virtual Terminal- It is the software version of physical terminal that
allows a user to log onto a remote host. To do so, the application creates a software
copy of a terminal at the remote host. The remote host believes that it is
communicating with one of its own terminal and allows the user to log on.
2. File transfer, access and management- it allows user to access files in remote hosts,
to retrieve files and to manage the files in remote computer.
3. Mail services- E-mail forwarding, storage are the services under this category.
4. Directory services- Directory services include access for global information and
distributed database.


Q5) Calculate the maximum bit rate for a channel having bandwidth=1600Hz if
i) S/N ratio is 0 db.
(S/N)dB =10 log (S/N)
S/N = 1
Rmax = B log(1+S/N) = 1600 log(1+1)
= 1600 bits/ sec.
ii) S/N ratio is 20 db.
(S/N)dB = 10 log (S/N)
20 = 10 log (S/N)
S/N =100
Rmax = B log(1+S/N)
= 1600 log(101) = 1600 log(101)/log(2)
Rmax = 10,654 bits/ sec

Q6) Explain Transmission Impairments.
1) Attenuation:- The strength of a signal decrease with increase in distance travel over a medium.
Attenuation means loss of energy. When any signal travels over a medium or channel, it loses some of
its energy in the form of heat in the resistance of the medium.

2) Delay distortion :- This problem is particularly present in the wire media. This distortion is caused due
to property which states that the velocity of propagation of a signal through a medium varies with
frequency.

3) Noise :- When the data travels over a transmission medium, noise gets added to it. Noise is a major
limiting factor in communication system performance. Noise can be categorized in to four types:
a) Thermal b) Crosstalk c) Intermodulation d) Impulse.
Q7) Explain Unguided transmission media any one.

Some people believe that the future holds only two kinds of communication: fiber and wireless:
All fixed (non-mobile) computers, telephones, faxes, and so on will be by fiber, and
all mobile ones will use wireless.
The following wireless transmissions are covered in the text book:
The Electromagnetic Spectrum
Radio Transmission
Microwave Transmission
Infrared and Millimeter Waves
Lightwave Transmission

The Electromagnetic Spectrum :-





Electromagnetic energy, a combination of electric and magnetic field vibrating in relation to each other
includes power, radio waves, infrared light, visible light, ultra violet light and X, gamma and cosmic rays.
Each of these constitutes a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Q. 3
Explain Service Primitives
A service is formally specified by a set of primitives (operations) available to a user process to
access the service. These primitives tell the service to perform some action or report on an action
taken by a peer entity. If the protocol stack is located in the operating system, as it often is, the
primitives are normally system calls. These calls cause a trap to kernel mode, which then turns
control of the machine over to the operating system to send the necessary packets.
The set of primitives available depends on the nature of the service being provided. The
primitives for connection-oriented service are different from those of connectionless service. As
a minimal example of the service primitives that might be provided to implement a reliable byte
stream in a client-server environment, consider the primitives listed here
Five service primitives for implementing a simple connection-oriented service.
Five service primitives for implementing a simple connection-oriented service.
primitive meaning
LISTEN Block waiting for an incoming connection
CONNECT Establish a connection with a waiting peer
RECEIVE Block waiting for an incoming message
SEND Send a message to the peer
DISCONNECT Terminate a connection
These primitives might be used as follows. First, the server executes LISTEN to indicate that it is
prepared to accept incoming connections. A common way to implement LISTEN is to make it a
blocking system call. After executing the primitive, the server process is blocked until a request
for connection appears.
Next, the client process executes CONNECT to establish a connection with the server. The
CONNECT call needs to specify who to connect to, so it might have a parameter giving the
server's address. The operating system then typically sends a packet to the peer asking it to
connect, as shown in fig. The client process is suspended until there is a response. When the
packet arrives at the server, it is processed by the operating system there. When the system sees
that the packet is requesting a connection, it checks to see if there is a listener. If so, it does two
things: unblocks the listener and sends back an acknowledgement (2). The arrival of this
acknowledgement then releases the client. At this point the client and server are both running and
they have a connection established. It is important to note that the acknowledgement (2) is
generated by the protocol code itself, not in response to a user-level primitive. If a connection
request arrives and there is no listener, the result is undefined. In some systems the packet may
be queued for a short time in anticipation of a LISTEN.
Packets sent in a simple client-server interaction on a connection-oriented network.

The obvious analogy between this protocol and real life is a customer (client) calling a
company's customer service manager. The service manager starts out by being near the telephone
in case it rings. Then the client places the call. When the manager picks up the phone, the
connection is established.
The next step is for the server to execute RECEIVE to prepare to accept the first request.
Normally, the server does this immediately upon being released from the LISTEN, before the
acknowledgement can get back to the client. The RECEIVE call blocks the server.
Then the client executes SEND to transmit its request (3) followed by the execution of
RECEIVE to get the reply.
The arrival of the request packet at the server machine unblocks the server process so it can
process the request. After it has done the work, it uses SEND to return the answer to the client
(4). The arrival of this packet unblocks the client, which can now inspect the answer. If the client
has additional requests, it can make them now. If it is done, it can use DISCONNECT to
terminate the connection. Usually, an initial DISCONNECT is a blocking call, suspending the
client and sending a packet to the server saying that the connection is no longer needed (5).
When the server gets the packet, it also issues a DISCONNECT of its own, acknowledging the
client and releasing the connection. When the server's packet (6) gets back to the client machine,
the client process is released and the connection is broken. In a nutshell, this is how connection-
oriented communication works.
Of course, life is not so simple. Many things can go wrong here. The timing can be wrong (e.g.,
the CONNECT is done before the LISTEN), packets can get lost, and much more. We will look
at these issues in great detail later, but for the moment, briefly summarizes how client-server
communication might work over a connection-oriented network.
Given that six packets are required to complete this protocol, one might wonder why a
connectionless protocol is not used instead. The answer is that in a perfect world it could be, in
which case only two packets would be needed: one for the request and one for the reply.
However, in the face of large messages in either direction (e.g., a megabyte file), transmission
errors, and lost packets, the situation changes. If the reply consisted of hundreds of packets, some
of which could be lost during transmission, how would the client know if some pieces were
missing? How would the client know whether the last packet actually received was really the last
packet sent? Suppose that the client wanted a second file. How could it tell packet 1 from the
second file from a lost packet 1 from the first file that suddenly found its way to the client? In
short, in the real world, a simple request-reply protocol over an unreliable network is often
inadequate.

c) Define terms:
i) Data rate:
In 1924, Nyquist proved:
1. If an arbitrary signal has been run through a filter of bandwidth H, the filtered
signal can be completely reconstructed by making only 2H samples per second.
2. If the signal consists of V discrete levels, then: maximum
data rate = 2H log2 V bits/sec
A noiseless 3000 Hz telephone line cannot transmit binary (2-level) signals at a rate exceeding
6000 bps.
In 1948, Shannon carried Nyquist's work further to extend it to the case of a channel subject to
random noise. His major result is maximum data rate = H log2 (1 + S/N) bits/sec
where S/N denotes the signal-to-noise power ratio. For a 3000 Hz telephone line with S/N =
30dB, the upper bound data rate is 30,000 bps.
In practice, it is difficult to even approach the Shannon limit.

ii) Bandwidth:
` A voice grade line (for telephone) has a cutoff frequency near 3000 Hz. If this
type of lines are used for data transmission, we have the following numbers for some commonly
used data rates:

Q3) a) Explain Wireless LAN 802.11.
The protocols used by all the 802 variants, including Ethernet, have a certain commonality of
structure. A partial view of the 802.11 protocol stack is given in FIG. The physical layer
corresponds to the OSI physical layer fairly well, but the data link layer in all the 802 protocols
is split into two or more sublayers. In 802.11, the MAC (Medium Access Control) sublayer
determines how the channel is allocated, that is, who gets to transmit next. Above it is the LLC
(Logical Link Control) sublayer, whose job it is to hide the differences between the different 802
variants and make them indistinguishable as far as the network layer is concerned. We studied
the LLC when examining Ethernet earlier in this chapter and will not repeat that material here.
. Part of the 802.11 protocol stack.

Logical link control

802.11
infrared
802.11
FHSS
802.11
DSSS
802.11a
OFDM
802.11b
HR-DSSS
802.11g
OFDM

The 1997 802.11 standard specifies three transmission techniques allowed in the physical layer.
The infrared method uses much the same technology as television remote controls do. The other
two use short-range radio, using techniques called FHSS and DSSS. Both of these use a part of
the spectrum that does not require licensing (the 2.4-GHz ISM band). Radio-controlled garage
door openers also use this piece of the spectrum, so your notebook computer may find itself in
competition with your garage door. Cordless telephones and microwave ovens also use this band.
All of these techniques operate at 1 or 2 Mbps and at low enough power that they do not conflict
too much. In 1999, two new techniques were introduced to achieve higher bandwidth. These are
called OFDM and HR-DSSS. They operate at up to 54 Mbps and 11 Mbps, respectively. In 2001,
a second OFDM modulation was introduced, but in a different frequency band from the first one.
Now we will examine each of them briefly. Technically, these belong to the physical layer and
should have been examined but since they are so closely tied to LANs in general and the 802.11
MAC sub layer.
b) Explain Architecture of E-mail.
One of the most popular network service is electronic mail.SMTP is the standard mechanism for
electronic mail in the internet.The first e-mail system simply consider by file transfer protocol.
E-mail architecture

An e-mail system consists of two subsystems
1. user agents and
2. Message transfer agents

User agent: They allow the people to read and send e-mail
Message transfer agents: They move the message from the source to the destination.

Basic function:
1) composition:
the process of creating message and to ans them is known as composition. The system can
also provide assistance with addressing and a number of header fields attached to each
message.
2)Transfer:
It is the process of moving message from the sender to the recipient.
This includes establishment of a connection from sender to destination or some
intermediate machine , outputting the message , and releasing the connection.
3) Reporting:
This is to toll the sender about whether the message was deliverd or rejected.
4) Displaying:
It is the process to displaying the incoming message. For this purpose simple conversion
and formatting are required to bb done.
5) Disposition:
This is concerned with what the recipient does with the message after receiving it.