Assignment 1

Question # 1 (Marks: 3+4+3)

Answer the following questions:
a. Explain what might happen if two stations are accidentally assigned the same
hardware address?
b. If sharing reduces cost, why are shared networks used only for local
communication?
c. Why wireless LAN can not use the same CSMA/CD mechanism that Ethernet
uses?

Solution:

a. Depending on the hardware used you generally get an intermittent failure on both
devices because the network sees them both as one device. If you have intelligent
hubs and network management software they can be identified and locked out.
MAC addresses are configured by the hardware manufacturers in the network
cards, and no two network cards have the same MAC address around the world.

b. Both technical and economic reasons contribute to the answer; we said that
computers attached to a shared network must coordinate use of the network.
Because coordination requires communication ad the time required to
communicate depends on distance, a large geographical separation between
computers introduces longer delays. Thus, shared networks with long delays are
inefficient because they spend more time coordinating use of the shared medium
and less time sending data. In addition, engineers have learned that providing a
high bandwidth communication channel over long distances is significantly more
expensive than providing the same bandwidth communication over short distance.

c. In contrast with wired LANs, not all participants may be able to reach each other.
Because:
 It has low signal strength.
 In wireless LANs the propagation is blocked by walls etc.
 It can’t depend on CD to avoid interference because not all participants
may hear.

Question # 2
Complete given table and answer yes or no. (Marks: 10)

Characteristic CSMA/CD CSMA/CA Token Ring

Mutiple access
Carrier Sense
Collision checking
Acknowledgement
Solution:
Characteristic CSMA/CD CSMA/CA Token Ring
Mutiple access yes yes yes
Carrier Sense yes yes no
Collision checking yes no no
Acknowledgement yes yes yes
 Assignment 2
Q#1 Draw an example of ‘Cycle of Bridges’ with the segments below: [5]

Segment a

Segment b Segment c

Segment d Segment e

Segment f

Solution:
Segment a

Segment b Segment c

Segment d Segment e

Segment f

Q#2 Answer the following questions:

i. If we can extend the LAN then why we need a WAN? 3
ii. How can a bridge know whether to forward frames? 2
iii. Can the length of an Ethernet be increased to many segments of 500 meter
each merely by adding a repeater to connect each additional segment? 2
 iv. How can a computer attach to a network that sends and receives bits faster
than the computer’s CPU can handle them? 3
Solution:
i. A bridge LAN is not considered a wide area technology because bandwidth
limitations prevent a bridge LAN from serving arbitrarily many computers at
arbitrarily many sites. Performance issue, an in LAN shared medium is used
and only two computers are communicate at one time and where as in WAN
more than two computers can communicate at one time. Scalability is another
issue; a WAN must be able to grow as needed to connect many sites spread
across large geographic distance, with many computers at each site.
Scalability is very expensive in the extended LAN.
ii. When a bridge first boots, it communication with other bridges on the
segment to which it connect. The bridges perform a computation know as the
distribution spanning tree (DST) algorithm to decide which bridge will not
forward frames. DST allows a bridge to determine whether forwarding will
introduce a cycle. in essence, a bridge does not forward frames if the bridge
finds that each segment to which it attaches already contains a bridge that has
agreed to forward frames. after the DST algorithm completes, the bridges that
agree to forward frames form a graph that does contain any cycle.
iii. The answer is no. Although such an arrangement does guarantee sufficient
signal strength, each repeater and segment along the path increases delay. The
Ethernet CSMA/CD scheme is designed for low delay. If the delay becomes
too large, the scheme fails. In fact, repeaters are a part of current Ethernet
standard, which specifies that the network will not operate correctly if more
than four repeaters separate any pair of station.
iv. The CPU does not handle the transmission or reception of individual bits.
Instead, a special purpose hardware component connects a computer to a
network, and handles all the details of packet transmission and reception.
Physically, the special purpose hardware usually consists of a printed circuit
board that contains electronic components. Known as a network adapter card
or network interface card (NIC), the printed circuit board plugs into the
computer’s bus, and a cable connects it to the network medium.
 Assignment 3
Question: For the packet switched network below:

1 5 3

2 4
a. Determine the routing table?
Solution:

Node 1 Node 2 Node 3 Node 4 Node 5

Dest. Next Dest. Next Dest. Next Dest. Next Dest. Next
hop hop hop hop hop
1 - 1 (2,1) 1 (3,5) 1 (4,5) 1 (5,1)
2 (1,2) 2 - 2 (3,5) 2 (4,5) 2 (5,1)
3 (1,5) 3 (2,1) 3 - 3 (4,3) 3 (5,3)
4 (1,5) 4 (2,1) 4 (3,4) 4 - 4 (5,4)
5 (1,5) 5 (2,1) 5 (3,5) 5 (4,5) 5 -

b. Determine the collapsed routing table using default route?

Solution:

Node 1 Node 2 Node 3 Node 4 Node 5

Dest. Next Dest. Next Dest. Next Dest. Next Dest. Next
hop hop hop hop hop
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 -
2 (1,2) * (2,1) 4 (3,4) 3 (4,3) 3 (5,3)
* (1,5) * (3,5) * (4,5) 4 (5,4)
* (5,1)
 Assignment 4
Q.1 What is gratuitous ARP? [3]

When a host sends an ARP request to resolve its own IP address, it is called gratuitous
ARP. In the ARP request packet, the source IP address and destination IP address are
filled with the same source IP address itself. The destination MAC address is the Ethernet
broadcast address (FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF).

Q.2 Find the net ID and host ID of the following IP Addresses. [8]
a) 117.34.4.8
b) 29.34.41.5
c) 23.67.12.1
d) 139.33.4.5
Solution:
a) Net id: 117; host id: 34.4.8
b) Net id: 29; host id: 34.41.5
c) Net id: 23; host id: 67.12.1
d) Net id: 139.33; host id: 4.5

Q.3 Find the class of the following IP Addresses. [4]

a) 218.34.54.12
b) 238.34.2.1
c) 124.34.2.8
d) 139.14.6.8
Solution:

a) Class C
b) Class D
c) Class A
d) Class B
 Assignment 5
a. Show the shortest form of the following IPV6 address:
2340:1ABC:119A:A000:0000:0000:0000:0000
2340:1ABC:119A:A000::0

b. Show the original (unabbreviated) form of the following IPV6 address:

0:AA::0
0000:00AA:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000

c. In IP datagram header format, what is the value of the data field given
H.LEN value of 12 and TOTAL LENGTH value of 40,000?
Total number of bytes in the header = 12 x 4 = 48 bytes
Total length = 40,000 bytes
Therefore data field = 40,000 – 48 = 39952 bytes

d. What are the main advantages of IPv6 over IPv4?

The main advantages of IPv6 over IPv4 are as follows:

Larger Address Space: An IPv6 address is 128 bits long. Compared with the 32-bit
address of IPV4, this is a huge increase in the address space, and this space is large
enough to accommodate continued growth of the worldwide Internet for many decades.
Header Format: The IPV6 datagram header is completely different from IPv4 header.
IPV6 uses a new header format in which options are separated from the base header and
inserted, when needed, between the base header and upper-layer data. This simplifies and
speeds up the routing process because most of the options do not need to be checked by
routers.
Allowance for Extension: IPv6 is designed to allow the extension of the protocol if
required by new technologies or applications. IPv6 has new options to allow additional
functionalities.
Support for more Security: The encryption and authentication options in IPV6 provide
confidentiality and integrity of the packet.
Extension Headers: Unlike IPV4, which uses a single header format for all datagrams,
IPV6 encodes information into separate headers. A datagram consists of the base IPV6
header followed by zero or more extension headers, followed by data.
Support for Audio and Video: In IPV6, the type-of-service field has been removed, but
a mechanism has been added that allows a sender and receiver to establish a high-quality
path through the underlying network and to associate datagrams with that path. Although
the mechanism is intended for use with audio and video applications that require high
performance guarantees, the mechanism an also be used to associate datagrams with low-
cost paths.
Extension Protocol: Unlike IPv4, IPv6 does not specify all possible protocol features.
Instead, the designers have provided a scheme that allows a sender to add additional
information to the datagram. The extension scheme makes IPv6 more flexible than IPv4,
and means that new features can be added to the design as needed.