Running head: Assignment 7 1

Written Assignment Unit 7

CS 2204 Communications and Networking

By UoPeople Student
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Assignment 7

Answer the following in your own words.

1. Why does the maximum packet lifetime have to be large enough to ensure that not only
the packet but also its acknowledgments have disappeared?

The maximum packet lifetime needs to be large to avoid issues with duplicate packets or ACKs
or even wrong packets getting through.

2. Give one potential disadvantage when Nagle's algorithm is used on a badly congested
network.

In the case of say a telnet connection that reacts to every keystroke if the network is congested
then ACK’s are slow to arrive at the sender. This will cause data to buffer and be sent in bursts
causing issues with the client. If this was a computer game the client would experience
noticeable lag on the computer screen.

3. Give two examples of cases where TCP sends data-less packets on an established
connection (which is not being torn down).

1) An ACK packet with no data acknowledging that data was received.

2) A keepalive packet with no data and the ACK flag turned on is used to check the connection
socket for connectivity. This can help prevent termination due to inactivity if the connection
needs to remain open.

4. Exercise 5.0 from section 12.24 of the textbook:

1. Suppose you see multiple TCP connections on your workstation in state

FIN_WAIT_1. What is likely going on? Whose fault is it?
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FIN_WAIT_1 occurs after the node sends a FIN packet and is waiting for an ACK so it can
continue closing. If there are several waiting it could mean that simultaneous close with other
nodes is taking place. This is fairly common and fault doesn’t fall on either node. The
connections should eventually close normally.

2. What might be going on if you see connections languishing in state FIN_WAIT_2?

It is usually caused by the client node of a client / server connection. A server, for example, will
languish in FIN_WAIT_2 after getting an ACK from a client but no FIN. Sometimes it can also
occur when the client connection is terminated unexpectedly or didn’t close properly after
TIMEWAIT.
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References