Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani

Distance Learning Programmes Division

First Semester 2008-2009
Comprehensive Examination (EC-2 Regular)

Course No. : BITS ZC481

Course Title : COMPUTER NETWORKS
Nature of Exam : Open Book
Weightage : 60% No. of Pages =2
Duration : 3 Hours No. of Questions = 10
Date of Exam : 27/09/2008 (FN)
Note:
1. Please follow all the Instructions to Candidates given on the cover page of the answer book.

Q.1 (a). Match the following to one or more layers of TCP/IP model:
i. Flow control
ii. Segmentation and Reassembly
iii. Error correction and retransmission
iv. Logical addressing
Q.1 (b). Give the error detection mechanisms used at various layers in TCP/IP model.
Give reasons why there are different mechanisms applied at different layers.
Q.1 (c). If an application layer packet size is 2 Bytes long, how big is the corresponding
Ethernet packet? Assume that the application uses TCP.
Q.1 (d). Do we need reliable transport service at the transport layer if the data link
transport on all the links in the route is reliable? Justify. [4 + 5 + 4 + 2 = 15 ]
Q.2 Suppose host A (10.0.0.1) sitting in an organization network requests a web page
on some web server (port 80) with IP address 128.119.35.19. The host assigns an
arbitrary source port number 2335 and sends the datagram into the LAN. Explain
how this request will be forwarded to the web server? Also explain how the web
server response will be forwarded to the host A? Here X is a NAT enabled router.
[5]

Q.3 An autonomous system (AS) consisting of 5 routers is as shown below. Assume

that each node initially knows the cost to each of its neighbors. Number over each
link represents the cost. Show the distance table entries at node ‘z’ using distance
vector algorithm. Show the results starting from first iteration till the distributed
algorithm converges. Give an example of count to infinite problem experienced in
distance vector algorithm. [10]

u 1 v
Autonomous
5 System (AS)
2 1
2 1
z
y
x 1
BITS ZC481 EC-2 REGULAR) FIRST SEMESTER 2008-2009 PAGE 2

Q.4 Consider the effect of using slow-start on a line with a 10-msec round-trip time
and no congestion. The receive window is 24 KB and the maximum segment size
is 2KB. How long does it take before the first full window can be sent? As the
TCP congestion window is set to 32 KB; timeout occurs. How big will the window
be if the next ten transmission bursts are all successful? [5]

Q.5 Apply Dijkstra’s shortest-path algorithm in the given network to compute the
shortest path to all network nodes starting from node s. Show all the steps clearly
in a tabular form. Also fill the forwarding table at source node s. [8]

Q.6 How many bytes does a sender in TCP can transmit without receiving any
acknowledgements? Justify. [2]

Q.7 Compare cipher block chaining with cipher feedback mode in terms of the number
of encryption operations needed to transmit a large file. Which one is more
efficient and by how much? [5]

Q.8 Suppose that a message has been encrypted using DES in ciphertext block
chaining mode. One bit of cipher text in block Ci is accidentally transformed from
a 0 to a 1 during transmission. How much plain text will be garbled as a result? [2]

Q.9 Consider an application that transmits data at a steady rate (for example, the sender
generates an N-bit unit of data every k time units, where k is small and fixed).
Also, when such an application starts, it will continue running for a relatively long
period of time. Would a packet-switched or a circuit-switched network be more
appropriate for this application? Justify. [4]

Q.10 A large number of consecutive IP addresses are available starting at

198.16.0.0. Suppose that, four organizations A, B, C, and D request 4000, 2000,
4000 and 8000 addresses respectively and in that order. For each of these
organizations, give the first IP address assigned and the last assigned IP address
and the mask in the w.x.y.z/s notation. [4]

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