Izzat Bin Zainal Abidin (41496)

Tutorial 3
Question 1
Illustrate the procedure of Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA)
by the flow diagram and give your explanation.
Solution:

The station that has a ready frame sets the back off parameter to zero. Then it senses the line
using one of the persistent strategies. If then sends the frame. If there is no collision for a
period corresponding to one complete frame, then the transmission is successful. Otherwise
the station sends the jam signal to inform the other stations about the collision. The station
then increments the back off time and waits for a random back off time and sends the frame
again. If the back off has reached its limit, then the station aborts the transmission.
CSMA/CD is used for the traditional Ethernet. CSMA/CD is an important protocol. IEEE
802.3 (Ethernet) is an example of CSMNCD. It is an international standard. The MAC
sublayer protocol does not guarantee reliable delivery. Even in absence of collision the
receiver may not have copied the frame correctly.

Question 2
In a CDMA/CD network with a data rate of 10Mbps, the minimum frame size is found to be
512 bits for the correct operation of the collision detection process. What should be the
minimum frame size if we increase the data rate to 100 Mbps? To 1 Gbps? To 10 Gbps?
Solution:
The relationship between the minimum frame size and the data rate.
Tfr = (frame size) / (data rate) = 2 Tp = 2 distance / (propagation speed)
or
(frame size) = [2 (distance) / (propagation speed)] (data rate)]
or
(frame size) = K (data rate)
This means that minimum frame size is proportional to the data rate (K is a constant). When
the data rate is increased, the frame size must be increased in a network with a fixed length to
continue the proper operation of the CSMA/CD. The minimum frame size based on the above
proportionality Relationship is calculated.
Data rate = 100 Mbps minimum frame size = 5120 bits
Data rate = 1 Gbps minimum frame size = 51,200 bits
Data rate = 10 Gbps minimum frame size = 512,000 bits
Question 3
A channel has a data rate of R bps and a propagation delay of t s/km. The distance between
the sending and receiving nodes is L kilometres. Nodes exchange fixed-size frame of B bits.
Find a formula that gives the minimum sequence field size of the frame as a function of R, t,
B and L (considering maximum utilization). Assume that ACK frames are negligible in size
and the processing at the nodes is instantaneous.
Solution:

N is the minimal integer window size which ensures U=1. If we assume sliding window flow
control, then the total number of sequence numbers must be N+1. So the number of bits for
encoding sequence numbers is log2(N + 1).

Question 4
Consider that several physical links connect two stations. We would like to use a multilink
HDLC that makes efficient use of these links by sending frames on a FIFO basis on the next
available link. What enhancements to HDLC are needed?

Solution:
Enhancements to HDLC are needed are provide link configuration, Quality testing, Error
detection, Authentication, Multilink bundles, and Constant link monitoring.
Question 5
It is clear that bit stuffing is needed for the address, data, and FCS fields of an HDLC frame.
Is it needed for control field?
Solution:
Since window size is seven, the sequence numbers for frames being sent and acknowledged
are in range 000-110. Hence it can never happen that we have six consecutive 1s in control
field.