More on Computer networking problems.
1. Imagine that you have trained your St. Bernard, Bernie to carry a box of three tapes
instead of brandy. These tapes each contain 10 GBs. The dog can run at a speed of 30
km/hour. For what range of distances does Bernie have a higher data rate than a 300
Mbps cable?
2. What are the advantages of layered protocols? Cite at least two disadvantages of
layered protocols.
3. Consider the following problem. Both the sender and the receiver might be interested
in doing the same thing when only one of them is allowed to do that, if at all. For
instance, if A and B engaged in communication want to talk at the same time it may not
be allowed to do so. In Operating systems, one manages such processes using semaphore
type global variables. Obviously, in networking it is not at all possible to do so. How
would it be handled and at what layer?
4. A client program connects to a server and sends an operation, gets a result back. What
happens then? Is the connection open, so that the client can send more operations? What
are the pros and cons of keeping the connection open or closing it down after each
operation?
5. Why is delay-bandwidth product so important in network efficiency estimate?
6. Suppose you are to send a 1 kB file over a high-speed local cable to your nearest router
at a rate of 500 Mbps. After it reaches the router it would traverse a total distance of 5000
km going through 20 routers during its traversal. At each router your file is stored for
precisely 10 msec. and then retransmitted (again at a rate of 500 Mbps). How long will it
take to reach the destination? How efficient is it?
7. What is an ALOHA system? How does it compare with a communication system
where each host station must wait for its turn to transmit? Which one is better and under
what circumstances?
8. You are to configure a network of 25 PCs each running either Windows NT 4 or
Lynux. This would be basically an Ethernet network providing minimally PC-to-PC
communication. Garner whatever information you require from the web, and obtain a
detail configuration using cables, a hub (minimally a 4-port one) or a bridge, a network
adapter card (provide appropriate vendor and model numbers), etc. Indicate the steps
you'd require to set up the interface, the protocols, etc. Imagine that this is going to be
used by your technicians in future. Use the textbook and the relevant information from
the web.
9. Consider a situation where a sender is communicating with receiver with a maximum
secrecy. Sender doesn't want its location to be publicly traceable while it is
communicating with the receiver. Accordingly, it wants the receiver to do FEC when bit
