Chapter3PhysicalLayer

PresidentLeeCoonehasaskedyoutocontinueplanningforanintegratedcorporateNDAS
network.Ultimately,thisnetworkwilllinkalltheofficeswiththeTampaheadofficeandbecomethe
foundationonwhichtobuildasophisticatedvoice,video,anddatacommunicationnetworkthatin
cludesLANsatmostNDASsites.PresidentCooneisstillnotcompletelyconvincedthatNDASneeds
videocapabilities,buthewantsyoutoincludethatinyourplan.
Asafirststep,PresidentCoonewantsyoutoexaminethecurrentinformationflowwithinNDAS.Ca
seFigure31showsthemovementofinvoiceinformation.Inreality,itshowsthenumberofpacka
gesthataretransferredbetweenoffices,buteachpackagealsorequiresaninvoice.Theseaverages
werecompiledfroma2weeksurveyofeachoffice.Theaveragelengthofeachinvoiceis750characters.
Usethisstatisticasthebasisforyourcomputations.
Everynumberinthefigurerepresentsthenumberofpackages(eachofwhichrequiresaninvoice)
thatmovefromthecityoforigintoadestinationcityfordeliveryinthelattercitysdeliveryzone.
Localdeliveriesareindicatedinsituationsinwhichtheoriginsanddestinationsarethesame.
Forexample,theintersectionoftheAtlantacolumnandtheAtlantarowshows500local
deliveries.
Invoiceinformationistransmittedfromtheorigintothedestination.Inaddition,acopyofall
invoiceinformationistransmittedtothehomeofficeinTampaforbilling.Forexample,everyday,Los
Angelesships150packagestoMemphis,andeachonerequiresaninvoice.ThismeansthatLosAn
geleswilltransmit150750characterinvoicestobothMemphisandTampaeveryday.
Exercises
1.PresidentCooneisbaffledabouthowdigitalinformationfromacomputercanbesentoveran
etworkconnection.Prepareabriefpositionpaperformanagementexplainingtheway
informationistransferredfromonecomputertoanotheroverdigitallines.Keepitsimple.Besuretodes
cribethetypesofdevicesusedindatatransmission.Includecommentsontheroleofdatacompress
ioninincreasingtransmissionrates.Justifytheobservationthatasageneralrule,itisbesttopurcha
sethefastestdevicesyourcommunicationslinescansupport.
2.Asyoubeginthinkingabouttheredesignofthenetwork,yourealizethattherearevarious
typesofmediatochoosefrom.Whichmediawillyouuseinthenetworkandwherewillyouutilizethese
types?
3.Usingthenetworkthatisbeingredesignedwillcertainlyspeeddatatransfersconsiderably.Presid
entCooneisamazedtoseethatanemailmessagewithalargeattachmentcanbesentinamatterofs
econds.Hereflectsbackonthetimewhendatawasprimarilytransmittedviamodems:
a.Computeeachofficesnumberofbitssentperday(origintodestination)onthebasisofthe
dataprovidedinCaseFigure31.Use10bitspercharactertokeepcomputations
simpleandassumealltransmissionsareerrorfree.Hint:Bitsperday=Packages750
102.
b.Howmanyminuteswillittakeforeachcitysmodemtotransmititsinvoices?Usethebits
perdaycalculatedinquestion2andassumethattheV.34modemstransmitatanaverage
rateof28,800bps.
c.Previously,youcalculatedthetransmissiontimeinminutesperday,basedona
28,800bpsmodemand10bitspercharacter.Nowcalculatethefiletransfertimefor
AtlantatotransmitallofitsinvoicestoTampaattheendoftheworkday.Whyisthisans
werdifferentfromthetimecalculatedforAtlantapreviously?
d.CouldalltheNDASofficestransmittheirinvoicestoTampabetween5:00 P.M.and6:00
P.M.eachevening?Howwouldtheyachievethisgoal?
4.WoulditbebettertotransmitallinvoiceinformationfromtheorigintoTampaandforTampatosen
dtheinformationtothedestination?Why?

5.Withtheadditionofanetworkthatcanhandlevoice,video,anddata,whatotherusesandben
efitscanNDASderivefromthenewnetwork?

Chapter3PhysicalLayer