The Open University of Sri Lanka

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering

ECX5234 Data Communications
ASSIGNMENT 2 2014/2015 Model Answer
SUBMISSION DATE: 19th February 2015

Q1.

(a)

Draw the header formats for TCP and UDP protocols. Use these to describe the
differences between TCP and UDP.

In this question you need to draw the header formats and then identify the differences by using
the structure of each header. (at least 4 differences)
E.g.

Size of the header

Sequence number
field
Acknowledgement
field
Control bits

Urgent pointer

TCP
20 bytes
Yes
TCP is connection oriented
Yes
TCP is connection oriented
Yes
These bits enable flow control,
connection establishment and
termination
Yes

UDP
8 bytes
No
No need as UDP is connectionless
No
No need as UDP is connectionless
No
No need as UDP is connectionless

No

TCP Header

UDP Header

(b)

Using a diagram explain the 3-way handshake process used in TCP.

A TCP connection is initialized through a three-way handshake. The purpose of the

three-way handshake is to synchronize the sequence number and acknowledgment
numbers of both sides of the connection and exchange TCP Window sizes.
1. The client sends a connection request by sending a TCP segment to the server with an
initial Sequence Number for the connection and a Window size indicating the size of a
buffer on the client to store incoming segments from the server.
2. The server sends back a TCP segment containing its chosen initial Sequence Number, an
acknowledgment of the client's Sequence Number, and a Window size indicating the
size of a buffer on the server to store incoming segments from the client.
3. The client sends a TCP segment to the server containing an acknowledgment of the
server's Sequence Number.
(https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc958827.aspx)
TCP uses a similar handshake process to end a connection. This guarantees that both hosts have finished
transmitting and that all data was received.

(c)

What is meant by RTT delay and why 3 way handshake process adds one RTT delay?
Round-trip time (RTT) delay is the length of time it takes for a signal to be sent plus the
length of time it takes for an acknowledgment of that signal to be received.
As you see in the above diagram of 3-ay handshaking you can see there is a RTT delay is
necessary for communication with the server to establish the connection.

(d)

Briefly explain 3 congestion control techniques used in TCP.

Describe any 3 of the foll. Methods:
Slow start, Congestion avoidance and Fast retransmit, fast recovery ,Selective
acknowledgements, New Reno etc.

Q2.

(a)

Briefly explain a technique to increase the utilization of address space when assigning IP
addresses.
You need to explain about Subnetting or Classless Inter Domain Routing (CIDR)

(b)

The MechNet Company has four locations: a head office and three branch offices. Each
of the branches is connected to the head office by a point-to-point link. The branches
have one or more LANs connected to their routers.
Head office has a single LAN which connects 300 users.
Branch 1 has 2 LAN s with 100 users each.
Branch 2 has 3 LANs with 50 users each.
Branch 3 has 2 LANs with one has 275 users and the other has 105 users.
The company has been assigned the 172.16.0.0/21 address space to work with. Your task is
to design a complete IP addressing plan which provides the maximum utilization of IP
address space. For each sub network provide the network address, broadcast address,
subnet mask and the range of host addresses.
As you see in the diagram below, the H.O. and each branch need different numbers of
addresses shown above. Assigning of addresses is done according to the hierarchical
structure. So, first you need to decide the addresses needed for each branch and the HO.
After that you need to find addresses for sub networks within each branch (B11, B12,
B21,B22, . etc.)

172.16.0.0/21

B2(256)

B3(740

1024)

512
B11
100

B12
100

128

128

B3

740 1024 210

Network address:
172.16.0.0
Subnet mask

/22
172.16.0.0/22
172.16.3.255
255.255.252.0

HO

300
512 29
Network address:
172.16.4.0
Subnet mask

/23
172.16.4.0/23
172.16.5.255
255.255.254.0

B1

256 28
/24
Network address:
172.16.6.0
Subnet mask

172.16.6.0/24
172.16.6.255
255.255.255.0

256 28
/24
Network address:
172.16.7.0
Subnet mask

172.16.7.0/24
172.16.7.255
255.255.255.0

B2

2048 addresses

B1(256)

H. O.
300

2 11

B21
50

B22
50

64

64

B23
50
64

B31
275

B32
105

512

128

Now you need to assign addresses for each subnet within each branch. Consider B3 first.
B3
740 1024 210
/22
Network address:
172.16.0.0/22
172.16.0.0
172.16.3.255
B31

B32

275 512
/23
Network address
Host address range
Broadcast address
Subnet mask

172.16.0.0/23
172.16.0.1
172.16.1.255
255.255.254.0

105 128
/25
Network address 172.16.2.0/25
Host address range 172.16.2.1
Broadcast address 172.16.2.127
Subnet mask
255.255.128.0

172.16.1.254

172.16.2.126

300
512 29
Network address:
Host address range
Broadcast address
Subnet mask

Head Office

B1

256 28
/24
Network address:
172.16.6.0
B11

B12

B2

B22

B23

172.16.5.254

172.16.6.0/24
172.16.6.255

100 128
/25
Network address
Host address range
Broadcast address
Subnet mask

172.16.6.0/25
172.16.6.1
172.16.6.127
255.255.128.0

100 128
/25
Network address
Host address range
Broadcast address
Subnet mask

172.16.6.128/25
172.16.6.129 172.16.6.255
255.255.128.0

256 28
/24
Network address:
172.16.7.0
B21

/23
172.16.4.0/23
172.16.4.1
172.16.5.255
255.255.254.0

172.16.6.126

172.16.6.254

172.16.7.0/24
172.16.7.255

50 64 /26
Network address
Host address range
Broadcast address
Subnet mask

172.16.7.0/26
172.16.7.1
172.16.7.63
255.255.255.192

50 64 /26
Network address
Host address range
Broadcast address
Subnet mask

172.16.7.64/26
172.16.7.65
172.16.7.127
255.255.255.192

50 64 /26
Network address
Host address range
Broadcast address
Subnet mask

172.16.7.128/26
172.16.7.129 172.16.7.191
255.255.255.192

172.16.7.62

172.16.7.126

172.16.7.190

(c)

Briefly explain the transition strategies used to transfer from IPv4 to IPv6.
Describe Dual stack, Tunneling and Header translation methods.

Q3.

(a)

Explain the difference between persistent HTTP with pipelining and persistent
HTTP without pipelining.
HTTP with Pipelining
HTTP without pipelining
The client (Browser) issues a request as soon
The client (Browser) first waits for the HTTP
as it has a need to do so, without waiting for
response from the server before issuing a new
response message from the server.
HTTP response

(b)

Each Internet host has at least one local name server and one authoritative name
server. What role does each of these servers have in DNS?
Local Name Server
This server is normally located closer to the particular host. Its role is to accept a DNS
query message from the host which contains the host name to be translated.
If the request is for a translation of another host that is who belongs to the same ISP,
then this server will be directly able to provide requested IP address.
If the IP is not known by the name server, then this server will direct the query message
to the authoritative name server.
Authoritative name server
Authoritative name server is a name server that gives answers in response to questions
asked about names in a zone. This server has DNS records of all host names ending with
part of a particular domain name. Its records come from the authority that manages the
records.
Its role is responding to requests come from local DNS with DNS replies that contains
mapping of corresponding IP addresses.

(c)

Describe why Web caching can reduce the delay in receiving a requested object.
Will web caching reduce the delay for all objects requested by a user or for only
some of the objects? Why?
Web caching is a storage of web objects closer to the user to allow fast access.
Examples of some Web objects are Web pages (the HTML itself), images in Web pages,
etc. When a Client requests an object, the web cache will forward the address as the
response. At the same time web cache saves a copy of that response. When another
request comes for the same URL, previously saved information will be used. So this will
reduce the response time for requested objects.
Web caching will reduce the delay only for objects which were previously requested.
If objects were not cached before, then delay will not be reduced.

Q4.

(a)

(i) Explain the difference between VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) and VPN (Virtual
Private Network) by giving an example for each.

A virtual private network (VPN) is a private network that uses a public network (the Internet) to
establish private and secure connections with geographically dispersed users, customers, and
business partners. A VPN employs the same security and management policies as applied in a
private network.
Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) divide a single existing physical network into multiple
logical networks, so that each VLAN forms its own broadcast domain. With VLANs a set of users
can be assigned to a sub network logically without changing their physical connection.
(ii) Can the devices in two VLANs communicate with each other? Explain.
Hosts in the same VLAN can communicate with each other as they are in a usual LAN. But hosts
from different VLANS cannot communicate directly, but require a router to communicate.

(iii) Explain the difference between Ethernet in LAN and Metro Ethernet Network.
Ethernet is the most widely installed local area network (LAN) technology which is designed to support
high bandwidths for LANs. Ethernet stations are able to communicate by the sending of individual blocks
of data, or data packets.
A metro Ethernet network is a metropolitan area network (MAN) that is based on Ethernet standards. It
is commonly used to connect subscribers to a larger service network or the Internet. Businesses can also
use metropolitan-area Ethernet to connect their own offices to each other.