Exam 1 of Computer Networks (ICE 1230)

2008.3.7
Answer in English and Total 15 points

1. Why is it said that packet switching employs statistical

multiplexing? Contrast statistical multiplexing with the multiplexing
that takes place in TDM. (1 point)
Answer: In a packet switched network, the packets from
different sources flowing on a link do not follow any fixed,
pre-defined pattern. In TDM circuit switching, each host gets
the same slot in a revolving TDM frame.
2. Can you illustrate the four sources of packet delay in terms of the
highway system? (2 points)
Answer: Processing delay: selecting a tollbooth and ticketing,
Queueing delay: waiting at the tollbooth, Transmission delay:
required for the tollbooth to push the cars onto the highway,
Propagation delay: traveling between tollbooths
3. In modern packet-switched networks, the source host segments
long, application-layer messages (for example, an image or a music
file) into smaller packets and sends the packets into the network.
The receiver then reassembles the packets back into the original
message. We refer to this process as message segmentation. Figure
1 illustrates the end-to-end transport of a message with and without
message segmentation. Consider a message that is 8106 bits long
that is to be sent from source to destination in the Figure 1.

Figure 1. End-to-End message transport: (a) without message segmentation; (b) with
message segmentation.

Suppose each link in the figure is 2 Mbps. Ignore propagation,

queuing, and processing delays. (4 points)
a. Consider sending the message from source to destination
without message segmentation. How long does it take to
move the message from the source host to the first packet
switch? Keeping in mind that each switch uses store-andforward packet switching, what is the total time to move the
message from source host to destination host? Answer:
Time from source host to first packet switch = 8 * 10 6 / 2
* 10 6 = 4 sec, Total time = 4 * 3 hops = 12 secs
b. Now suppose that the message is segmented into 4,000
packets, with each packet being 2,000 bits long. How long
does it take to move the first packet from source host to the
first switch? When the first packet is being sent from the first
switch to the second switch, the second packet is being sent
from the source host to the first switch. At what time will the
second packet be fully received at the first switch? Answer:
Time to send first packet from source host to first packet
switch = 2 * 10 3 / 2 * 10 6 = 1 msec. Time at which second
packet is received at the first switch = time at which first
packet is received at the second switch = 2 * 1 msec =
2msec
c. How long does it take to move the file from source host to
destination host when message segmentation is used?
Compare this result with your answer in part (a) and
comment. Answer: Time at which first packet is received
at the destination host = 1 msec * 3 hops = 3msec. After
this, every 1 msec one packet will be received; thus time
at which last (4000th) packet is received = 3 msec +
3999*1msec = 4.002sec. It can be seen that delay in using
message segmentation is significantly less (almost 1/3).
d. Discuss the drawbacks of message segmentation. Answer: 1.
packets have to be put in sequence at the destination, 2.

the total amount of header bytes is more.

4. Why is it said that FTP sends control information out-of-band? (1
point) Answer: because the control information is not sent over
the same connection that the file is sent over.
5. For the client-server application over TCP, why must the server
program be executed before the client program? For the clientserver application over UDP, why may the client program be
executed before the server program? (2 points)
Answer: With the UDP server, there is no welcoming socket,
and all data from different clients enters the server through
this one socket. With the TCP server, there is a welcoming
socket, and each time a client initiates a connection to the
server, a new socket is created. Thus, to support n
simultaneous connections, the server would need n+1 sockets.
6. In this problem we explore designing a hierarchical overlay that has
ordinary peers, super peers, and super-duper peers. (2 points)
a. Suppose each super-duper peer is roughly responsible for
100 super peers, and each super peer is roughly responsible
for 400 ordinary peers. How many super-duper peers would
be necessary for a network of four million peers? Answer:
Each super-duper peer is responsible for 40,000 nodes.
Therefore we would need about 100 super-duper peers
to support 4 million nodes.
b. What information might each super peer store? What
information might each super-duper peer store? How might
searches be performed in such a tree-tier design? Answer:
Each super peer might store the meta-data for all of the files its
children are sharing. A super-duper peer might store all of the
meta-data that its super-peer children store. An ordinary node
would first send a query to its super peer. The super peer
would respond with matches and then possibly forward the
message to its super-duper peer. The
super-duper peer would respond (through the overlay

network) with its matches. The super-duper peer may further

forward the query to other super-duper peers.
7. Describes how cookies are used in e-Commerce. (1 point)
Answer: When the user first visits the site, the site returns a
cookie number. This cookie number is stored on the users
host and is managed by the browser. During each
subsequent visit (and purchase), the browser sends the cookie
number back to the site. Thus the site knows when this user
(more precisely, this browser) is visiting the site.
8. In BitTorrent, suppose Alice provides chunks to Bob throughout
a 30-second interval. Will Bob necessarily return the favor and
provide chunks to Alice in the same interval? Why or why not? (1
point) Answer: It is not necessary that Bob will also provide
chunks to Alice. Alice has to be in the top 4 neighbors of Bob
for Bob to send out chunks to her; this might not occur even
if Alice provides chunks to Bob throughout a 30 second
interval.
9. What is a way using Last-Modified: header line in HTTP? (1
point) Answer: The header line is used by Conditional GET
to check whether the object asked has been modified.