UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE

2019 MAY/JUNE examinations

Faculty : Science
Department: Computer Science
Paper code and Title: HCT207 Introduction to Data
communications
Duration: 2 Hours
Examiner: Mr M.Munyaradzi

Authorized Materials: Calculator

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Answer ALL Questions

2. Start each question on a new page

3. This paper comprises Four(4) Printed pages.

NB: DO NOT TURN OVER THE QUESTION PAPER OR COMMENCING WRITING

UNTIL INSTRUCTED TO DO SO

Question 1)--------------------------------------------(25 marks)

Page 1 of 4
 (a) Give a detailed description, with examples, of the three types of transmission modes.
[9 marks]
(b) Consider an HTTP client that wants to retrieve a Web document at a given URL.
The IP address of the HTTP server is initially unknown. The Web document
at the URL has one embedded GIF image that resides at the same server as the
original document. Describe the other transport and application layer
protocols besides HTTP are needed in this scenario [3 marks]

(c) Discuss CSMA/CD and CSMA/CA protocols. Give reason why 802.3ae
does not use the CSMA/CD protocol [8 marks]

(d) Outline the different network topologies [5 marks]

Question 2)------------------------------------------(25 marks)

(a) Describe the difference between 2G, 3G, 4G and LTE mobile technologies.
[8 marks]

(b) Explain Channelization as applied to FDMA, TDMA and CDMA [6 marks]

(c) Describe the characteristics and limitations of the following

communication medium: [4 marks]
(i) twisted pair;
(ii) fiber optic

(d) Contrast the OSI with the TCP/IP reference models and also outline the
different protocols and devices that work at each of the layers of the OSI model.
[7 marks]

Question 3)------------------------------------------(25 marks)

Page 2 of 4
 (a)

i)Name the last valid host on the subnet 172.27.144.0/25

ii)
How many subnets and hosts per subnet can you get from the network 10.0.0.0/20
iii)
Find the first valid host on the subnet that the node 172.24.185.176/25 belongs to.
iv)How many subnets and hosts per subnet can you get from the network
192.168.154.0 255.255.255.240
v) What is the broadcast address of the network 172.30.93.192 255.255.255.192
[5 marks]

(b) An organization is granted the block 160.34.46.64/23. The organization needs to

have 27 subnets. What are the subnet addresses and the range of addresses for
each subnet? [5 marks]

(c) An ISP is granted a block of addresses starting with 164.200.0.0/16. The ISP needs
to distribute these addresses to four groups of customers as follows:

o The first group has 256 customers; each needs 128 addresses
o The second group has 64 customers; each needs 256 addresses
o The third group has 128 customers; each needs 64 addresses.
o The fourth group has 32 customers; each needs 32 addresses

i) Design the sub-blocks and give the slash notation for each sub-block.
[12 marks]
ii) Find out the number of addresses still available after these allocations.
[3 marks]

Question 4)------------------------------------------(25 marks)

(a) Explain terms:
Page 3 of 4
 i. CIDR
ii. Public Address
ii. Private Address [3 marks]

(b) Briefly explain the use of the NAT protocol. [5 marks]

(c) NAT and CIDR are short term solutions to the IPv4 address exhaustion problem,
briefly explain the long term solution. [3 marks]

(d) Write the command for setting a static route and explain what each command in
the string specifies. [5 marks]

(e) Differentiate between Supernetting and route aggregation , outlining the merits of
each. [4 marks]

(f) Find the route summary for the following networks:

192.168.1.0/25, 192.168.1.128/25, 192.168.2.0/24, 192.168.3.0/24, 192.168.4.0/26

192.168.4.64/26, 192.168.4.128/26, 192.168.4.192/26 [5 marks]

-END

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