CE707 – Assignment1 (MSc 2022-2023)

Published: Week 10

GENERAL COMMENTS

Content: Assignment1 contains 15 questions. All questions are of equal

weight. The Assignment1 covers all CE707 Syllabus and the Learning
Outcomes.

Submission: As advertised, please, check the deadline and the

submission mode. Submit the assignment answers in the word format as
this will help with my feedback on your work which I can write directly
into the submitted document. This will also make easier for you to follow
my feedback comments. For numerical or design solutions you can either
insert photos of your handwritings (drawings) or produce them
electronically.

Marking Criteria: High/full marks will be given for answers which

provide correct solutions to the problems with clear explanations of your
workings. For theoretical (bookwork) questions try to provide answers
which go beyond the material in the CE707 Lecture Notes.

In answering theoretical questions be specific. Avoid simply repeating the

corresponding material from the Lecture Notes, instead express the
answer in your own words, which demonstrate your understanding of the
material, and try to add new elements to your answers which you can find
in the other reference texts which will demonstrate the depth and breadth
of your independent thinking and work.

The marks allocated to each sub-question are shown in the brackets. The
total mark will be calculated by summing up all marks received for each
question and dividing the sum by 15 (total number of questions).

Academic Offences: Your work on the assignment must be your own.

The assessment of students’ course work strictly follows the University’s
policy on academic offences. Please, familiarise yourself with the
University’s policy on assessment and academic offences and academic
integrity:

https://www1.essex.ac.uk/students/exams-and-coursework/academic-
offences.aspx

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Question 1

A MAC sub-layer of a sender host in a 10-Mb/s Classic Ethernet receives payload

from the upper layer to send it to the destination.

(i) Consider the case when the payload of 1200 bytes to be placed in the data field of [50%]
the Ethernet frame which is shown in Figure 1.1. How long does it take for a host to
transmit this Ethernet frame?

Figure 1.1

(ii) Consider now the case when transmission of the frame with the payload of 40 [50%]
bytes suffers 7 successive collisions. Find the collision probability after 7 collisions.
Calculate the shortest and the longest waiting time (in seconds) for the transmitting
stations.

Question 2

A Gigabit Ethernet uses the CSMA/CD protocol and operates at B = 1 Gb/s speed.
The length of the cable bus is L = 500 m with one repeater in the middle. Assuming
that the velocity of propagation of a signal through the cable is v = 2108 m/s and that
the additional one-way delay introduced by the repeater is 1.5 s.

(i) Find the minimum frame size which is necessary in order to use the CSMA/CD [60%]
protocol.

(ii) Assuming that 192 bits are added for margins, calculate the slot time in the [40%]
Ethernet.

Question 3

A company is going to undertake a big development project for an air-space industry [100%]
which will be divided between a few groups, each working on a particular task (e.g.
designing a wing, developing an engine, developing cabin equipment, etc.). The
project will be managed by a chief designer who will oversee the overall progress, but
it also requires intensive interaction within each group. Each group will have its own
manager. What a network structural model would you advise to be employed by the
company in this case? Explain why. Support your conclusion by drawing an example
of such network.

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Question 4

(i) Consider the LLC which uses the flag bits with bit stuffing method for data
framing. The sending LLC receives the stream of data shown in Figure 4.1 below:

1111111111011111011110111111111111111000111011111

Figure 4.1

Write down the stream of the data as they appear on the line after the framing with the [50%]
bit stuffing.

(ii) Consider the LLC sub-layer of Data Link Layer which uses the flag bytes with [50%]
byte stuffing method for data framing. If the sending LLC receives the stream of the
data encrypted with ASCII code shown in Figure 4.2 below:

G FLAG 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 @ A B C ESC FLAG ESC FLAG FLAG 0 0 FLAG ESC

Figure 4.2

Write down the stream of the data as they appear on the line after the framing with the
byte stuffing.

Question 5

The IPv4 network connects two hosts H1 and H2 via three routers R1, R2, and R3, as [100%]
is shown in the Figure 5.1 below. The link between the host H1 and the router R1 has
the MTU of 1500 bytes. The link R1 – R2 has the MTU of 576 bytes. The link
between the routers R2 and R3 has the MTU of 600 bytes, and between R3 and H2
has the MTU of 1500 bytes. The host H1 generates TCP/IP packet which contains
1460 bytes of the application data for a reliable transmission to the host H2. The
packet Identification is 230. Calculate the sizes of all fragments for each link and
show the values of the Identification, Total Length, M-bit, D-bit, and Fragment Offset
for all fragments. Assume that the network operates in a non-transparent
fragmentation mode.

Figure 5.1.

Question 6

Analyse the header of the IPv4 datagram shown in Figure 6.1 in order to solve the
following problems:

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(i) Prove using the information available there that the IPv4 datagram cannot carry [30%]
payload obtained from the Transport Layer which is larger than 65,495 bytes.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

Figure 6.1 The IPv4 datagram header.

(ii) The value of IHL field in a particular IPv4 datagram is 12. How many Option [25%]
bytes are present in the datagram?

(iii) Explain how the datagram security is implemented in IPv4 protocol. [20%]

(iv) Explain what is the purpose and the main functions of the Options field in IPv4? [25%]

Question 7

(i) A campus has been allocated the 163.120.0.0/16 class B network address space. It [30%]
is necessary to support maximum 950 hosts per subnet and accommodate the maxi-
mum number of subnets possible. Find the subnet mask which should be used, and the
number of subnets supported by this mask.

(ii) Explain what are advantages and disadvantages of CIDR. Compare the router’s [15%]
operation in networks with and without CIDR.

(iii) Using the CIDR addressing scheme, a network within a larger network has been [20%]
allocated a block of addresses which in the dotted decimal representation is
210.48.48.0/20. Determine the lowest and highest address in the block (expressed in
dotted decimal notation) and the total number of addresses in the network.

(iv) A CIDR router contains in its routing table the mask M=255.255.224.0 and the [35%]
base address BA=137.73.160.0 of the corresponding attached network. A packet with
the destination address P=137.73.223.148 arrives at the router. Will the router forward
this packet to the attached network? Explain why.

Question 8

Consider ARP/RARP frame shown in Figure 8.1:

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 Figure 8.1 ARP/RARP message format.

(i) Explain in detail the entries into the last four fields (Sender MAC address, Sender [80%]
IP address, Target MAC address, and Target IP address) for the following messages:

1. ARP Request;

2. ARP Reply;

3. RARP Request;

4 RARP Reply.

(ii) Comment on the size (length) of each of these messages. Are all ARP/RAP [20%]
messages of the same size?

Question 9

(i) Draw schematically the dependence of the congestion window Wc (in kilobytes) [70%]
on the transmission time t (in the RTT units) for congested internet assuming the
following scenario: At t  33RTT the first three duplicate ACKs have been received
by the sender host before the RTO. After this another three duplicate ACKs were
received at t  67 RTT , and then at t  75RTT the first RTO of the sender’s
acknowledgement clock has occurred. Between t  75RTT and t = 85 RTT the
network operates without disruptions. You need to draw the dependence for a time
interval between t=0 and t = 85 RTT and explain in detail each stage of the
congestion window evolution. Assume that at t  0 the first packet loss took place
due to the RTO and the initial window size is set to Wc  MSS  1 kilobyte. The
slow-start threshold for a fully open congestion window is SST0 = 64 kilobytes.

(ii) Consider that in the case from part (i) at t = 85 RTT the receiver reports to the [30%]
sender that its receive window is Wr  30 kilobytes, and Wr is kept at this value in the
following transmissions. Find how long it will take (beginning from t = 85 RTT )
before the full window will be sent. Your answer should be in units of RTT .

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Question 10

The current estimate of the RTT (round-trip time) is RTT0 = 5.0 ms and the initial [100%]
value of the mean deviation (dispersion) D0 = 0.7 ms. The further measurements
resulted in the following values for RTT: M1 = 3.8 ms; M2 = 3.8 ms; M3 = 3.8 ms; M4
= 2.3 ms; M5 = 2.3 ms; M6 = 5.0 ms; M7 = 7.0 ms. Using the Jacobson algorithm cal-
culate the RTO corresponding to each measurement (assume the smoothing factors 
=  = 0.875 for calculations of RTT and D, respectively). Explain the impact of the
value of the parameter  on evaluation of the RTT.

Question 11

A client host sends a W = 800-byte file to a server which is L = 1200 km away over a
B = 2.5 Gb/s optical fibre network.

(i) Calculate the upper bound of the link efficiency ( LEUB ) for this transmission [30%]
assuming that the speed of light in optical fibre is c = 200,000 km/s.

(ii) What would be the LEUB for a link with transmission speed B = 2.5 Mb/s? [30%]
Explain why the results for the calculated values of LEUB are different.

(iii) Calculate the necessary size of the file W which will allow to achieve a 50% [40%]
LEUB for a link you considered in part (i).

Question 12

(i) Apply Dijkstra algorithm to compute the shortest path from a node B to all other [100%]
nodes in the network shown in Figure 12.1. The numbers on each line shows the cost
of the corresponding line. Show in a table or describe in the text each step undertaken
in the calculations. The final routing table should show the obtained routes and their
costs.

Figure 12.1

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Question 13

(i) Explain how the Transport and the Tunnel modes are used in IPv6 security. [20%]

(ii) Explain the three address types used in IPv6, and what is the address aggregation [20%]
in IPv6.

(iii) During transition from IPv4 to IPv6 the V6 hosts will need to communicate with [60%]
the other V6 hosts over the V4 networks. Explain what are the two possible solutions
to this problem. Support your answer with the relevant designs.

Question 14

IPv6 uses 128 bits for addressing. It is not easy to estimate/imagine how big this num- [100%]
ber is. Here is one way how you can demonstrate this. Suppose each square centimet-
re on the Earth’s surface is allocated X IPv6 addresses. Calculate how big is X. Assu-
me that the Earth has a perfect spherical shape with the sphere radius of 6,400 km.

Question 15

(i) Give a brief description of ICMPv6 and how it differs from ICMPv4. [20%]

(ii) IPv6 does not use ARP. Which protocol is used in IPv6 to determine MAC [25%]
address of the destination host?

(iii) Explain what is a purpose of DNS? What are the Iterative and Recursive Name [55%]
Resolution protocols? How are the DNS packets transmitted? Imagine a situation
when all DNS servers in the world would crash simultaneously. Would it be still
possible in principle to use the Internet? If yes, what the users would need to know to
continue using the Internet? If no, explain why.