1.

Connectionless Protocol
In a connectionless protocol, frames are sent from one node to the next without any
relationship between the frames; each frame is independent. Note that the term connectionless
here does not mean that there is no physical connection (transmission medium) between the
nodes; it means that there is no connection between frames. The frames are not numbered and
there is no sense of ordering. Most of the data-link protocols for LANs are connectionless
protocols.

2. Connection-Oriented Protocol
In a connection-oriented protocol, a logical connection should first be established
between the two nodes (setup phase). After all frames that are somehow related to each other are
transmitted (transfer phase), the logical connection is terminated (teardown phase). In this type
of communication, the frames are numbered and sent in order. If they are not received in order,
the receiver needs to wait until all frames belonging to the same set are received and then deliver
them in order to the network layer. Connection oriented protocols are rare in wired LANs, but we
can see them in some point-to-point protocols, some wireless LANs, and some WANs.

3. Piggybacking
Protocols have been designed in the past to allow data to flow in both directions.
However, to make the communication more efficient, the data in one direction is piggybacked
with the acknowledgment in the other direction. In other words, when node A is sending data to
node B, Node A also acknowledges the data received from node B. Because piggybacking makes
communication at the datalink layer more complicated, it is not a common practice.

4. Random Access
In random-access or contention methods, no station is superior to another station and
none is assigned control over another. At each instance, a station that has data to send uses a
procedure defined by the protocol to make a decision on whether or not to send. This decision
depends on the state of the medium (idle or busy). In other words, each station can transmit when
it desires on the condition that it follows the predefined procedure, including testing the state of
the medium. Two features give this method its name. First, there is no scheduled time for a
station to transmit. Transmission is random among the stations. That is why these methods are
called random access. Second, no rules specify which station should send next. Stations compete
with one another to access the medium. That is why these methods are also called contention
methods.
5. Three strategies used by CSMA/CA to avoid collision
1. Interframe space
2. Contention window
3. Acknowledgement
Interframe space:
First, collisions are avoided by deferring transmission even if the channel is found idle.
When an idle channel is found, the station does not send immediately. It waits for a period of
time called the interframe space or IFS. Even though the channel may appear idle when it is
sensed, a distant station may have already started transmitting. The distant station's signal has not
yet reached this station.

Contention window:
The contention window is an amount of time divided into slots. A station that is ready to
send chooses a random number of slots as its wait time. The number of slots in the window
changes according to the binary exponential back-off strategy. This means that it is set to one
slot the first time and then doubles each time the station cannot detect an idle channel after the
IFS time.
One interesting point about the contention window is that the station needs to sense the
channel after each time slot. However, if the station finds the channel busy, it does not restart the
process; it just stops the timer and restarts it when the channel is sensed as idle.

Acknowledgement
With all these precautions, there still may be a collision resulting in destroyed data. In
addition, the data may be corrupted during the transmission. The positive acknowledgment and
the time-out timer can help guarantee that the receiver has received the frame.

6. What access method used by wireless LANs? Why CSMA/CD not used in wireless LAN?
The access method used by wireless LAN is CSMA/ CA. CSMA/CD cannot be used in
wireless LAN’s because this protocol allows collision to happen. Of this collision, it will detect
the destroyed frame and the frame will be resent to the receiver. CSMA/CA techniques prevent
the collision of frame transmission so that CSMA/ CA is more suitable for wireless LAN.

7. What is the position of the transmission media in the OSI or the IP model?
Answer: Physical Layer

8. Explain the reason for moving from the stop-and-wait ARQ protocol to Go-back-N ARQ
protocol?
In stop-and-wait ARQ protocol, the sender needs to stop & wait for acknowledgement
to each data frame that it has sent to the receiver. When sender sends data frame to the receiver it
starts timer, if the frame that the sender has sent is damaged, the receiver will not any frame top
received. So it does not send any acknowledgement to that frame. By then, if the timer expires,
the sender needs to resent the frame again. In this protocol, the sender has to set the timer every
time when the sender sends data frame.
 However, in Go-back-N ARQ, the sender need not wait for the acknowledgement of the
first frame it has sent. Sender can send multiple frames while waiting for acknowledgement.
Several frames can be sent before we receive information about the previous frame. A task has
begun before the previous task has ended. Here the task is sending all the subsequent frames
after sending the first frame before getting the acknowledgement for the first frame. So
eventually multiple frames are to be put in transition while waiting for acknowledgement. This is
called pipelining, which improve the efficiency in transmission.

9. In CSMA/CD network with a data rate of 100 Mbps. What is the maximum distance between
station pair for the correct operation of collision detection process. Assume that propagation
speed is 2*10^8 m/s.

Relation between the collision domain (maximum length of the network) and the data rate.
Tfr = 2 * distance/ propagation time
Tfr >= 2Tp = 2*2*10^8
= 4*10^8 m

Tfr = 2 * Tp = 2 * distance/ propagation time

=) 4*10^8 = 2* distance / 2*10^8
Distance = 4* 10^6 m (answer)

10. A sender sends a series of packet to the same destination using 5-bit sequence number?
a) If the sequence number starts with 0, what is the sequence number after sending 100 packets?
Answer: 0011 [sequence number in nth packet (N mod 32) and N= 0 to 31]
b) In this case what is the maximum size of the send and receive window for selective-repeat
ARQ.
Window size:
Stop & wait ARQ send window= 1 Receive window = 1
Go-back-N-ARQ send window= (2^5)-1 = 31 Receive window = 1
Selective repeat ARQ send window= 2^(5-1) = 16 Receive window = 16

c) We need to send 1000 frames. we ignore the header due to the header and sender

Data frame transmission time = 1000bit/ 1000,000 bit = 1 msec

Data frame trip time = 5000 km / 2*10^8 = 25 msec (Answer)

Delay for 1 frame= 1+25+25= 51 msec

Total delay= 1000*51= 51 Sec
11. We measure the performance of a telephone line (4 KHz of bandwidth). When the signal is
10V and the noise is 5 mV. What is the maximum data date supported by the telephone line.

C= Max data rate = B log2 (1+SNR)

= 4000 log2 (1+ 10/0.005)
= 43.866 Kbps

12. We have a channel with 1 MHz bandwidth. The SNR for this channel is 63 what is the
appropriate bit rate and signal level.

C= Max data rate = Blog2 (1+SNR)

= 10^6 log2 (1+63)
= 6 Mbps
6= 2*1 MHz* log2 (L)
L=3

13. We have an available bandwidth of 100 kHz which spans from 200 to 300 kHz. What are the
carrier frequency and the bit rate if we modulated our data by using ASK with d = 1?

Solution
The middle of the bandwidth is located at 250 kHz. This means that our carrier frequency can be
fc = 250 kHz. We can use the formula for bandwidth to find the bit rate (with d = 1 and r = 1).

(Bit rate with d=1 and r=1)

B = (1+d)*S
= 2*N*1/r
= 2*N
100 = 2N
N= 50 Kbps (Answer)

14. We have an available bandwidth of 100 kHz which spans from 200 to 300 kHz. What should
be the carrier frequency and the bit rate if we modulated our data by using FSK with d = 1?

Solution

This problem is similar to Example 5.3, but we are modulating by using FSK. The midpoint of
the band is at 250 kHz. We choose 2Δf to be 50 kHz; this means
15 Design a three-stage, 200 × 200 switch (N = 200) with k = 4 and n = 20.

Solution

In the first stage we have N/n or 10 crossbars, each of size 20 × 4. In the second stage, we have 4
crossbars, each of size 10 × 10. In the third stage, we have 10 crossbars, each of size 4 × 20. The
total number of cross points is 2kN + k (N/n)2, or 2000 cross points. This is 5 percent of the
number of cross points in a single-stage switch (200 × 200 = 40,000).

16. We need to send data 3 bits at a time at a bit rate of 3 Mbps. The carrier frequency is 10
MHz. Calculate the number of levels (different frequencies), the baud rate, and the bandwidth.

Solution
We can have L = 23 = 8. The baud rate is S = 3 MHz/3 = 1 Mbaud. This means that the carrier
frequencies must be 1 MHz apart (2Δf = 1 MHz). The bandwidth is B = 8 × 1MHz = 8MHz.
Figure 5.8 shows the allocation of frequencies and bandwidth.

17. We need to send data at a 1-Mbps rate. What is the minimum required bandwidth, using a
combination of 4B/5B and NRZ-I or Manchester coding?

Solution
First 4B/5B block coding increases the bit rate to 1.25 Mbps. The minimum bandwidth using
NRZ-I is N/2 or 625 kHz. The Manchester scheme needs a minimum bandwidth of 1 MHz. The
first choice needs a lower bandwidth, but has a DC component problem; the second choice needs
a higher bandwidth, but does not have a DC component problem.
N= bit rate
= 5/4
=1.25 MHz
Minimum Bandwidth= N/2
= 1.25/2
= 625 KHz

18. We need to send data 3 bits at a time at a bit rate of 3 Mbps. The carrier frequency is
10 MHz. Calculate the number of levels (different frequencies), the baud rate, and the
Bandwidth.
19. A system is using NRZ-I to transfer 10-Mbps data. What are the average signal rate and
minimum bandwidth?

Solution
The average signal rate is S =NI2 =500 kbaud. The minimum bandwidth for this average baud
rate is Bmin= S = 500 kHz.

20. We have a pure Aloha network with 100 stations. If Tfr = 1 microsecond what is the number
of frames/sec each station can send to achieve maximum efficiency.

For pure Aloha G= 0.5

We know that
G= Number of station * No of frames* Tfr
So, 0.5= 1000* No of frames*1 Microsecond
Thus the number of frames is 5000 (frame/s)

Alternatively for slotted Aloha case the value of G= 1 so with same station the number of frames
will be double of the pure Aloha.

18. Station in slotted Aloha network sends frames of size 1000 bits at the rate of 1Mbps. What is
the vulnerable time?

Solution
Frame size= 1000 bit
Rate = 1 Mbps
Transmission time Tp = 1000/1Mbps = 1 ms
Vulnerable time = 2 * Tp = 2 msec

DATA RATE LIMITS

A very important consideration in data communications is how fast we can send data, in bits per
second over a channel. Data rate depends on three factors:
1. The bandwidth available
2. The level of the signals we use
3. The quality of the channel (the level of noise)
Two theoretical formulas were developed to calculate the data rate: one by Nyquist for a
noiseless channel. Another by Shannon for a noisy channel.

19. What is switch? Why switching is necessary?

A switched network consists of a series of interlinked nodes, called switches. Switches
are devices capable of creating temporary connections between two or more devices linked to the
switch.

A network is a set of connected devices. Whenever we have multiple devices, we have the
problem of how to connect them to make one-to-one communication possible. One solution is to
make a point-to-point connection between each pair of devices (a mesh topology) or between a
central device and every other device (a star topology). These methods, however, are impractical
and wasteful when applied to very large networks. So that the switching is a solution for multi
devices communication.

20. Describe blocking in switched network?

Blocking during periods of heavy traffic. The whole idea of multistage switching is to share the
cross-points in the middle-stage crossbars. Sharing can cause a lack of availability if the
resources are limited and all users want a connection at the same time. Blocking refers to times
when one input cannot be connected to an output because there is no path available between
them-all the possible intermediate switches are occupied.
In a single-stage switch, blocking does not occur because every combination of input and
output has its own cross-point; there is always a path.