Computer Networks

Difference between Hub, Switch & Router :

Hub
A common connection point for devices in a network. Hubs are commonly used to connect segments of
a LAN. A hub contains multiple ports. When a packet arrives at one port, it is copied to the other ports so
that all segments of the LAN can see all packets.

In a hub, a frame is passed along or "broadcast" to every one of its ports. It doesn't matter that the frame
is only destined for one port. The hub has no way of distinguishing which port a frame should be sent to.
Passing it along to every port ensures that it will reach its intended destination. This places a lot of traffic
on the network and can lead to poor network response times.

Additionally, a 10/100Mbps hub must share its bandwidth with each and every one of its ports. So when
only one PC is broadcasting, it will have access to the maximum available bandwidth. If, however,
multiple PCs are broadcasting, then that bandwidth will need to be divided among all of those systems,
which will degrade performance.

Switch
In networks, a device that filters and forwards packets between LAN segments. Switches operate at the
data link layer (layer 2) and sometimes the network layer (layer 3) of the OSI Reference Model and
therefore support any packet protocol. LANs that use switches to join segments are called switched
LANs or, in the case of Ethernet networks, switched Ethernet LANs.

A switch, however, keeps a record of the MAC addresses of all the devices connected to it. With this
information, a switch can identify which system is sitting on which port. So when a frame is received, it
knows exactly which port to send it to, without significantly increasing network response times. And,
unlike a hub, a 10/100Mbps switch will allocate a full 10/100Mbps to each of its ports. So regardless of the
number of PCs transmitting, users will always have access to the maximum amount of bandwidth. It's for
these reasons why a switch is considered to be a much better choice then a hub.
 
Router

A device that forwards data packets along networks. A router is connected to at least two networks,

commonly two LANs or WANs or a LAN and its ISP network. Routers are located at gateways, the places
where two or more networks connect. Routers use headers and forwarding tables to determine the best
path for forwarding the packets, and they use protocols such as ICMP to communicate with each other
and configure the best route between any two hosts.

In short, a hub glues together an Ethernet network segment, a switch can connect
multiple Ethernet segments more efficiently and a router can do those functions plus
route TCP/IP packets between multiple LANs and/or WANs; and much more of course.

1. What is Computer Networks?

Interconnected autonomous computer are called computer networks. Computers are Interconnected using communication
media like twisted pair cables, coaxial cables, fiber optic cable, Microwaves, satellites etc. Main reason for designing
network is to share the resources like printers, disk, programs and data

2. What is a Protocol?
Protocol is a set of rules and procedures used for communication between entities in different systems.

3. What are the key elements in a protocol?

i. Syntax - Includes data format and Signal levels
ii. Semantics — Includes control information for co-coordinating & Error handling
iii. Timing — Includes speed matching and sequencing

4. What is a Data Communication?

It is the process of sending data electrically from one location to another. Linking one computer to another permits the
power and resources of that computer to be tapped.

5. What is Bit stuffing?

The insertion of extra bits into a data stream to avoid the appearance of unintended control sequences

6. What is Bridge?
A functional unit that interconnects two local area networks (LANs) that use the same logical link control protocol but may
use different medium access control protocols.

7. What is Switched Communication Network?

A communication network consisting of a network of nodes connected by point- to-point links Data are transmitted from
source to destination through intermediate nodes.

8. What is a Bandwidth?
Bandwidth or grade of a communication channel determines the rate or speed that data can be transmitted over a channel.

9. What are the applications of Optical fiber cable?

 Long-haul trunks  Metropolitan Trunks  Rural-Exchange trunks
 Subscriber loops  Local Area networks

10. What are the functions of network Layer in OSI Model?

 Routing  Logical Addressing (eg. IP addressing)  Address transformations
 Accounting & Billing  Source to Destination error free delivery

11. What are the applications of Coaxial cables?

Television Distribution Long-distance telephone transmission
 Local Area Networks Short-run computer system links

12. What are the functions of Data Link Layer in OSI Model?
Addressing Flow Control Media Access Control (MAC)
Synchronization Node-to-Node Delivery Error Control

13. What is Medium access (MAC)?

For broadcast networks, the method of determining which device has access to the transmission medium at any time
CSMA/CD and token are common access methods.

14. What is Microwave?

Electromagnetic waves in the frequency range of about 2 to 40 GHz.

15. What are the functions of physical layer in OSI Model?

Signal Encoding
Medium (what are the medium used & its properties)
Bit Synchronization
Transmission type
Transmission Mode (Is transmission is simplex or half duplex or full duplex)
Topology identification (Star or ring or bus etc)
Multiplexing (Which multiplexing Techniques used)
Interface (How are the two closely linked devices connected)
Bandwidth (Which band width used
Signal type (eg. Are Analog or Digital Signal Used)

16. What are the responsibilities of Transport Layer in OSI Model?

Host-to-host message delivery Application-to-application communication
Segmentation & Reassembly Create logical connection between the source & Destination

17. What is Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Reference Model?

A model for communications between cooperating devices. It defines seven- layer architecture of Communication
functions.

18. What are the functions of Presentation Layer in OSI Model?

Data format Translation Encryption Data compression

19. What are the responsibilities of Application Layer in OSI Model?

Network Abstraction File access & Transfer (File download and or upload) Mail Services
Remote Login (Eg. TELNET) World Wide Web - WWW (Access web pages)

20. What is a LAN?

A Local Area Network (LAN) is a privately owned network within a single office, buildings or campus, covering a distance of
a few kilometers.

21. What are the difference between connection oriented and connectionless Services?
Connection Oriented Services
Connection has to establish before actually starting Communication. The sequence of data transmitted and received is
same
Reliability with acknowledgement
Connectionless Services
No need for establishing a path, each message carries the full destination address and hence each one is routed through
the system independently.
Sequence of Transmission and reception of data need not necessarily be the same

22. What is Propagation Delay?

The delay between the times a signal enters a channel and the time it is received.

23. What is Plaintext?

The input to an encryption function or the output of a decryption function.

24. What are the fundamental functions of Protocols?

 Establishing necessary conventions
 Establishing a standard Communication path
 Establishing a standard data Element

25. What is Packet?

A group of bits that includes data plus control information. Generally refers to a network layer (OSI layer 3) protocol data
unit.

26. What is Packet Switching?

A method of transmitting message through a communication network,in which long messages are subdivided into short
packets. The packets are then transmitted as in message switching.

27. What is Cross Talk?

The phenomenon in which a signal transmitted on one circuit or channel of a transmission system creates an undesired
effect in another circuit or channel.

28. What are the Functions of a Bridge?

Read the frames transmitted by the source station and addressed to destination station
Using MAC Protocol for destination station, retransmit the frames on to destination
Does the same for destination to source also

29. What is Multiplexing?

Multiplexing divides the physical line or a medium into logical segments called channels. In multiplexing different channels
carry data simultaneously over the same physical medium. Hardware equipment called Multiplexer combine (or
multiplexes) the input from the different sources, and load them on different channels of a medium. The combined data
traverse over the medium simultaneously. At the destination, a demultiplexer separates (or demultiplexes) the signals and
sends them to their different destinations.

30. What is Piggybacking?

The inclusion of an acknowledgment to a previously received packet in an outgoing data packet.

31. What are the applications of Telnet?

TELNET Protocol allows remote login services, so that a user on a client computer can connect to a server on a remote
system.

32. What are the functions of IP?

Providing a link between networks
Providing routing and delivery of data between processes of different networks.
Providing an accounting services
It supports for
 Different Addressing Schemes
Different maximum packet size
Different network access mechanisms Different timeouts
Error Recovery
Status reporting
Routing Techniques
User Access Control
Connection, Connectionless Services

33. What is Simplex Transmission?

Data transmission in one pre assigned direction only

34. What is a Frame Relay?

Frame relay is the form of packet switching based on the use of variable length, link0 layer frames. There is no network
layer in this and many of the functions have been streamlined or eliminated to provide for greater throughput.

35. What is Authentication?

A process used to verify the integrity of transmitted data, especially a message.

36. What is contention?

Two or more stations want to use the same communication channel to send the data to their respective destinations. Both
the stations check the status of the channel simultaneously, and find it ideal, send their respective frames at the same
time, there will be collision. So it is possible to damage some bits of data or the whole data. This is called Collision or
Contention. To avoid collision Ethernet Protocols are used.

37. What is Bandwidth?

The difference between the limiting frequencies of a continuous frequency spectrum

38. What is congestion?

If the users of the network send data at the rate that is faster than the network can handle. Every switch on the network
has a finite processing speed and memory buffer to hold packets temporarily before they can be forwarded. If the
resources are too small compared to the incoming packets, then the network would became quite slow. Some flow control
technique should be used to avoid the congestion

39. What is Frequency-division multiplexing?

Frequency division multiplexing is an analog technique that can be applied. When the bandwidth of a link is greater than
the combined bandwidth of the signals to be transmitted. In FDM, signal from sender is modulated then combined into a
single composite signal that can be transported by the link.

40. What is Analog Data?

Data represented by a physical quantity that is considered to be continuously variable and whose magnitude is made
directly proportional to the data or, to a suitable function of the data.

41. What are the functions of Session Layer in OSI Model?

Session & Sub-session generation
Synchronization (Decide the order in which data needed to be passed to transport layer)
Dialog control (Decides which user! application sends data and what point of time and whether the communication is
simplex/half duplex/full duplex) Session closure

42. What is Analog Transmission?

The transmission of analog signals without regard to content. The signal may be amplified, but there is no intermediate
attempt to recover the data from the signal.

43. What is Asymmetric Encryption?

A form of cryptosystem in which encryption and decryption are performed using two different keys, one of which is referred
to as the public key and one of which is referred to as the private key. It is also known as public-key encryption.

44. What is Noise?

Unwanted signals that combine with and hence distort the signal intended for transmission and reception.

45. What is Asynchronous Transmission?

Transmission in which each information character is individually synchronized (usually by the use of start elements and
stop elements)
46. What is Application Layer?
Layer 7 of the OSI model. This layer determines the interface of the system with the user.
47. What are the characteristics features of fiber optic transmission media?
a. Resistance to Noise - Optical fiber uses light rays for communication. Therefore noise is not an issue for this.
b. Huge Band width -the band width offered by optical fiber is huge.
c. Higher signal carrying capacity -the signal carried by the optical fiber travel long distances without needing regeneration.

48. What is Base band?

Transmission of signals without modulation. In a base band local network, digital signals (1s and Os) are inserted directly
onto the cable as voltage pulses. The entire spectrum of the cable is consumed by the signal. This scheme does not allow
frequency division multiplexing.

49. What is Bit error rate?

The probability that a transmitted bit is received in error

50. What is Carrier?

A continuous frequency capable of being modulated or impressed with a second (information carrying) signal

51. What is Periodic Waveform?

A waveform f(t) that satisfies f(t) =f(t) + n(k) for all integers n, with k being a constant

52. What is Checksum?

An error-detecting code based on a summation operation performed on the bits to be checked.

53. What is Baud?

A unit of signaling speed equal to the number of discrete conditions or signal events per second, or the reciprocal of the
time of the shortest signal element

54. What is Cipher Text?

The output of an encryption algorithm; the encrypted form of a message data

55. What is Broadband ISDN (B-ISDN)?

A second generation of ISDN. The key characteristic of broadband ISDN is that it provides transmission channels capable
of supporting rates greater than the primary ISDN rate.

56. What is Circuit Switching?

A method of communicating in which a dedicated communications path is established b/w two devices through one or
more intermediate switching nodes. Unlike packet switching, digital data are sent as a continuous stream of bits.
Bandwidth is guaranteed, and delay is essentially limited to propagation time. The telephone system uses circuit switching.

57. What is Broadband?

The uses of coaxial cable for providing data transfer by means of analog (radio- frequency) signals. Digital signals are
passed through a modem and transmitted over one of the frequency bands of the cable.

58. What is Data circuit-terminating equipment (DCE)?

In a data station, the equipment that provides the signal conversion and coding between the data terminal equipment
(DTE) and the line. The DCE may be separate equipment or an integral part of the DTE or of intermediate equipment. The
DCE may perform other functions that are normally performed at the network end of the line.

59. What is Datagram?

In packet switching, a packet, independent of other packets, that carries information sufficient for routing from the
originating data terminal equipment (DTE) to the destination DTE without necessity of establishing a connection between
the DTEs and the network.

60. What is CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access)

A medium access control technique for multiple access transmission media. A station wishing to transmit first senses the
medium and transmits only if the medium is idle.

61. What is CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection)
A refinement of CSMA in which a station ceases transmission if it detects a collision

62. What is Communication data transfer?

A protocol for exchanging data in an unplanned fashion and without prior coordination (e.g., datagram)
63. What is Amplitude Modulation?
A form of modulation in which the amplitude of a carrier wave is varied in accordance with some characteristic of the
modulating signal

64. What is cyclic redundancy check?

An error-detecting code in which the remainder resulting from dividing the bits to be checked by a predetermined binary
number.

65. What is Connection-oriented data transfer?

A protocol for exchanging data in which a logical connection is established between the endpoints (e.g., virtual circuit)

66. What is Contention?

The condition when two or more stations attempt to use the same channel at the same time.

67. What is Data terminal equipment (DTE)?

Equipment consisting of digital end instruments that convert the user information into data signals for transmission, or
reconvert the received data signals into user information.

68. What are the applications of satellite Microwave Communication System?

(a) Television Distribution (b) Long-distance telephone transmission (c) Private business networks

69. What is an Infra red Communication?

Infrared communication is a one type of communication in which the communication is achieved using transceivers
(Transmitter/Receiver) that modulate no coherent infrared light. Transceivers must be in line of sight of each other, each
directly or via reflection from light-colored surface such as the ceiling of a room

70. What is Digital Signal?

A discrete or discontinuous signal, such as voltage pulses

71. What are the three basic types of modems used in the microcomputers?
(a) Acoustic coupler modems (b) External direct-connect modem (c) Internal direct-connect modem

72. What is Digital Switch?

A switching circuit that turns ON and OFF in response to a digital or step-function pulse. Usually refers to a system that
handles only data but not voice.

73. What is Encapsulation?

The addition of control information by a protocol entity to data obtained from a protocol user.

74. What is Digital Transmission?

The transmission of digital data, using either an analog or digital signal, in which the digital data are recovered and
repeated at intermediate points to reduce the effects of noise.

75. What is Data link layer?

In OSI, the layer that provides service to transfer data between network layer entities, usually in adjacent nodes. The data
link layer detects and possibly corrects errors that may occur in the physical layer.

76. What is Error-detecting code?

A code in which each expression conforms to specific rules of construction, so that, if certain errors occur in an,
expression, the resulting expression will not conform to the rules of construction and thus the presence of the errors is
detected.

77. What is Error rate?

The ratio of the number of data units in error to the total number of data units

78. What is Thermal Noise?

Statistically uniform noise due to the temperature of the transmission medium.

79. What is Flow Control?

The function performed by a receiving entity to limit the amount or rate of data that is sent by a transmitting entity.

80. What is Frame?

A group of bits that includes data plus one or more addresses and other protocol control information. Generally refers to a
link layer (OSI layer 2) protocol data unit.

81. What is Frame check sequence?

An error-detecting code inserted as a field in a block of data to be transmitted. The code serves to check fox: errors upon
reception of the data.

82. What is Internetwork?

A collection of packet switching and broadcast networks that are connected via routers

83. What is Star?

A topology in which all stations are connected to a central switch. Two stations communicate via circuit switching.

84. What is Collision?

A condition in which two packets are being transmitted over a medium at the same time. Their interference makes both
unintelligible.

85. What is Frequency Modulation?

Modulation in which the frequency of an alternating current is the characteristic varied.

86. What is HDLC (high-level data link control)?

A very common bit-oriented data link protocol (OSI layer 2) issued by ISO, Similar protocols is LAPB, LAPD, and LLC.

87. What is Frame Relay?

A form of packet switching based on the use of variable-length link layer frames. There is no network layer and many of
the basic functions have been streamlined or eliminated to provide for greater throughput.

88. What is a modem? Why is it needed?

Transforms a digital bit stream into an analog signal (modulator), and viceversa(demodulator).
Model is a device used to bridge the gap between digital and analog transmission or to allow the digital data to be
transmitted / received over from the telephone lines. Data in Computer systems are formatted as digital pulse and
telephone lines are designed to transmit the human voice. So the digital pulse must be converted to an analog signal
before they are transmitted The process of converting digital signal into an analog signal is called modulation and the
process of re-converting an analog signal to digital pulse is called demodulation.

89. What is Full-duplex transmission?

Data transmission in both directions at the same time

90. What is Half-duplex transmission?

Data transmission in either direction, one direction at a time

91. What is Internetworking?

Communication among devices across multiple networks

92. What is Local area network?

A communication network that provides interconnection of a variety of data communicating devices within a small area

93. What is Impulse Noise?

A high-amplitude, short-duration noise pulse

94. What is Manchester encoding?

A digital signaling technique in which there is a transition in the middle of each bit time. A 1 is encoded with a high level
during the first half of the bit time: a 0 is encoded with a low level during the tint hail of the bit time.

95. What is Internet Protocol?

An internetworking protocol that provides connectionless service across multiple Packet switching networks

96. What is Protocol data unit (PDU)?

A set of data specified in a protocol of a given layer and consisting of protocol control information of that layer, and possibly
user data of that layer

97. What is Network Layer?

Layer 3 of the OSI model. Responsible for routing data through a communication network
98. What is Network terminating equipment?
Grouping of ISDN functions at the boundary between the ISDN and the subscriber

99. What is Non-return to zero?

A digital signaling technique in which the signal is at a constant level for the duration of a bit time

100. What is Optical Fiber?

A thin filament of glass or other transparent material through which a signal encoded light beam may be transmitted by
means of total internal reflection
102. What is Parity bit?
A check bit appended to an array of binary digits to make the sum of all the binary digits, including the check bit, always
odd or always even.

103. What is Routing?

The determination of a path that a data unit (frame, packet, message) will traverse from source to destination.

104. What is Phase?

For a periodic signal f(t), the fractional part t/P of the period P through which t has advanced relative to an arbitrary origin.
The origin is usually taken at the last previous passage through zero from the negative to the positive direction.

105. What is Modulation?

The process, or result of the process, of varying certain characteristics of a signal, called a called, in accordance with a
message signal.

106. What is Multicast Address?

An address that designates a group of entities within a domain (e.g., network, Internet)

107. What is Phase Modulation?

Modulation in which the phase angle of a carrier is the characteristic varied.

108. What is Phase-shift keying?

Modulation in which the phase of the carrier signal is shifted to represent digital data

109. What is Multiplexing?

In data transmission; a function that permits two or more data sources to share a common transmission medium such that
each data source has its own channel.

110. What is Point-to-point?

A configuration in which two stations share a transmission path

111. What is Value-added Network?

A privately owned packet-switching network whose services are sold to the public

112. What is Token Ring?

A medium access control technique for rings. A token circulates around the ring. A station may transmit by seizing the
token, inserting a packet onto the ring, and then retransmitting the token.

113. What is Presentation Layer?

Layer 6 of the OSI model. Provides or the selection of a common syntax for representing data and for transformation of
application data into and from the common syntax.

114. What is Pulse code modulation?

A process in which a signal is sampled, and the magnitude of each sample with respect to a fixed reference is quantized
and converted by coding to a digital signal.

115. What is Ring?

A local network topology in which stations are attached to repeaters connected in a closed loop. Data are transmitted in
one direction around the ring and ‘can be read by all attached stations.

116. What is Service access point?

A means of identifying a user of the services of a protocol entity. A protocol entity provides one or more SAPs for use by
higher-level entities.

117. What is Time-division switching?

A circuit switching technique in which time slots in a time-multiplexed stream of data are manipulated to pass data from an
input to an output.

118. What is Sliding-window technique?

A method of flow control in which a transmitting station may send numbered packets within a window of numbers. The
window changes dynamically to allow additional packets to be sent.

119. What is Token Bus?

A medium access control technique for bus/tree, Stations form a logical ring, around which a token is passed. A station
receiving the token may transmit data and then must pass the token on to the next station in the ring.

120. What is Space-division switching?

A circuit-switching technique in which each connection through the switch takes a physically separate and dedicated path

122. What is Protocol control information?

Information exchanged between entities of a given layer, via the service provided by the next lower layer, to coordinate
their joint operation

123. What is Public Key?

One of the two keys used in an asymmetric encryption system. The public key is made public, to be used in conjunction
with a corresponding private key.

128. What is Transmission Medium?

The physical path between transmitters and receivers in a communications system

124. What is Stop and Wait Protocol?

A flow control protocol in which the sender transmits a block of data and then awaits an acknowledgement before
transmitting the next block

125. What is Network Topology?

The structure, consisting of paths and switches that provide the communications interconnection among nodes of a
network

126. What is Synchronous Transmission?

Data transmission in which the time of occurrence of each signal representing a bit is related to a fixed time frame

127. What is Synchronous time-division multiplexing?

A method TDM in which time slots on a shared transmission line are assigned to I/O channels on a fixed, predetermined
basis

128. What is unbalanced transmission?

A transmission mode in which signals are transmitted on a single conductor. Transmitter and receiver share a common
ground.

129. What is Virtual Circuit?

A packet-switching service in which a connection (virtual circuit) is established between two stations at the start of
transmission. All packets follow the same route, need not carry a complete address and arrive in sequence.

130. What is Transport Layer?

Layer 4 of the OSI model. Provides reliable transparent transfer of data between endpoints.

131. What is a SNMP?

SNMP is tool for Network Monitoring and Control. It resides in the application layer. SNMP works with two other
components.,
(a) Structure of Management Information (SMIT)- SMI provides guidelines for SNMP for handling objects(Variables, Router
names etc)
(b) Management Information Base (MIB) - is the collection of objects for an agent

132. What is Amplitude-shift keying?

Modulation in which the two binary values are represented by two different amplitudes of the carrier frequency

133. What is Physical Layer?

Layer I of the OSI model. Concerned with the electrical, mechanical, and timing aspects of signal transmission over a
medium.

134. What is Digital Signature?

An authentication mechanism that enables the creator of a message to attach a code that acts as a signature. The
signature guarantees the source and integrity of the message.

135. What is Analog Signal?

A continuously varying electromagnetic wave that may be propagated over a variety of media

136. What is Decryption?

The translation of encrypted text or data (called ciphertext) into original text or data (called plaintext). It is also called
deciphering.

137. What is Symmetric Encryption?

A form of cryptosystem in which encryption and decryption are performed using the same key. It is also known as
conventional encryption.

138. What is Time-division multiplexing?

The division of a transmission facility into two or more channels by allotting the facility to several different information
channels, one at a time

139. What is Router?

An internetworking device that connects two computer networks. It makes use of an internet protocol and assumes that all
of the attached devices on the networks use the same communications architecture and protocols. A router operates at
OSI layer 3.

140. What is Public data network?

A government-controlled or national-monopoly packet switching network. This service is publicly available to data
processing users.

141. What is Session Layer?

Layer 5 of the OSI model. Manages a logical connection (session) between two communicating processes or applications.

142. What is Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM)?

A form of packet transmission using fixed size packets, called cells. ATM is the data transfer interface for B-ISDN, Unlike
X.25, and ATM does not provide error control and flow control mechanisms.

143. What is Private Key?

One of the two keys used in an asymmetric encryption system. For secure communication, the private key should only be
known to its creator

144. What is Delay Distortion?

Distortion of a signal occurring when the propagation delay for the transmission medium is not constant over the frequency
range of the signal

145. What is Digital Data?

Data consisting of a sequence of discrete elements

146. What is twisted pair?

A transmission medium consisting of two insulated wires arranged in regular spiral pattern

147. What are the applications of satellite Microwave Communication System?

Satellite Microwave communication system is used in the
 Television Distribution  Long-distance telephone transmission  Private business networks

148. What is Propagation delay in the Networks?

Time delay to transmit the data through communication media. It is based upon the light transmission.

149. What is Latency?

Time taken to travel the data from one end to other end of the network is called Latency.

150. What is Bandwidth?

Bandwidth or grade of a communication channel determines the rate or speed that data can be transmitted over a channel.
151. What is the difference between Direct and Indirect Link Networks?
In Direct Linking direct communication path will established
No direct path is established in indirect networks

152. What is a Infrared Communication?

Infrared communication is a one type of communication in which the Communication is achieved using transceivers
(Transmitter/Receiver) that modulate no coherent infrared light. Transceivers must be in line of sight of each other, each
directly or via reflection

153. What is two dimensional parity bit checking?

Parity bits calculation in row wise and column wise is called two dimensional parity bit checking

154. What is Stop-and- wait flow control.

A flow control protocol in which the sender transmits a block of data and then awaits an acknowledgement before
transmitting the next block

155. What is ARQ error control?

Automatic Repeat Request is called ARQ. When error happened it automatically detect the error and correct the error

156. What is Transceiver?

Transceiver is a device used in the Ethernet cards, its main functions are
Establish connection between computer & Ethernet Sensing voltage on the cable Interpreting signal

157. What is Reason for repeaters is necessary in some networks

Repeaters are necessary in the networks to strengthen the signaling.

158. What is the purpose of a Beacon frame?

If any station suspects a failure on a ring, it sends a frame to the suspected destination. This frame is called Beacon frame.

159. What is Fiber Distributed Data Interface?

FDDI is dual ring network that consists of two independent networks in opposite directions.

160 How does a station remove itself from a token bus network?
When the transmission is over the original frame should reach the source and then it will verify the CRC field for error
detection & Correction process. If no error the station will be removed from the token bus.

161. Differentiate between a token-holding timer and a token rotation timer.

Token holding time is the time taken to hold the token in a station Token rotation timer is the time taken to rotate the token
in a ring

162. What is Properties of an Ethernet network

General Properties
Carrier Sense CSMA & CSMA/CD Packet Switch Network
Physical Properties Ethernet Transceiver Ethernet Adopter
Ethernet Cable Addressing Mechanism

163. What is CSMA/CD?

CSMA/CD is a medium access control technique for multiple access transmission media. A station wishing to transmit first
senses the medium and transmits only if the medium is idle. Otherwise it will continuously sensing the channel. If collision
occurred detect the collision and correct it

164. What is “Self handling” type of network?

When an error occurs/ failure happened in the hosts, FDDI automatically it and use another ring for data transmission
process. It is called Self handling.

165. What are the purpose of a transceiver and Network Interface Card in a network?
Transceiver — Establish connection between computer & Ethernet
Sensing voltage on the cable and interpreting signal
Network Adaptor — performs all network function, CRC Checking

166. Necessity of Medium Access Control.

While using shared mediums for data transmission it is possible to use the L more than one stations at a time. So it is
possible to arise collision. So some f control mechanism is necessary to control the stations. That is called MAC.
167. State the merits and demerits of Bus and ring topologies.
Bus topology is easy to install and use less cable. But it is difficult to add new nodes in the bus, because addition of a node
changes the number of tapes and the average distance between them which is optimized for the bus length. Fault isolation
is very difficult. Even is a portion of a bus breaks down, the whole bus can not function.
Ring topology is easy to configure and install. Fault isolation is very easy. If a node in a ring fails then the whole ring
network can not work. The traffic is in one direction.

168. What is “Runt frame”.

When error happened for a station it will try to correct the errors. Meantime it is possible to capture the communication
media by and other stations. To avoid this received station to be corrected the data will send a 32 bit sequence frame to
the source. So no other stations will try to get the channel. This frame is called runt frame.

169.Give the frame format for 802.5 Token Ring.

170. What is Token Holding Time?

In ring network how long the token is holed in a station is called token holding time

171. What is a tag and what are the different types of tags?
A Tag is any additional information included in a message that helps the receiver to decode the message.
Type tag - indicates that the value that follows is an integer, floating-point number or whatever.
Length tag -indicates the number of elements in the array.
Architecture tag -indicates whether the architecture is receiver-makes right at canonical intermediate form.

172. What is a stub?

Stub is a piece of code that implements argument marshalling. The stub marshals the procedure arguments into a
message that can be transmitted by means of the RPC protocol.

173. What is encoding and decoding.

Translating data for transmission over the network is called encoding. Translating the arriving message into a
representation for processing by the remote system is called Decoding.

174. What is the difference between lossless compression and lossy compression.
Lossless compression ensures that the data recovered from the compression/decompression process is exactly the same
as the original data.
Lossy compression does not promise that the data received is exactly same as the original data.
175. State some lossless compression algorithms.
Run length Encoding Differential pulse code modulation Dictionary based methods

176. What are the three phases of Image compression?

DCT phase Quantization phase Encoding phase

177. What are the different frame types in video compression?

I frames — for Intra picture
P frames — for Predicted picture
B frames — for Bidirectional predicted picture.

178. What is Cryptography?

Cryptography is the process of encrypting the original plain text into ciphertext to transmit it over the network with
additional security and then converting the ciphertext into plain text.

179. What is DNS?

DNS implements a hierarchical name space for internet objects. Domain Name System is used for naming the hosts,
which are actually processed form left to right.
180. What is the difference between the Secret key algorithms, Public key algorithms and the hashing algorithms
in Cryptography?
Secret key algorithms are Symmetric, in which both the participants share the same key for encryption and decryption.
Public key algorithms involve each person having a private key that is shared with no one else. The message is
encrypted with public key and is decrypted with the private key.
Flash function doesn’t use any keys. But, they use a regular bash map function.
181. What are the differences between host name and host address?
Host names are variable length mnemonics that make the user to remember the address easily.
Host addresses are fixed length, and it is easy for the router to process. Names have no information to help the network to
locate the host. Addresses have the routing information embedded in to it.

182. Write any three application protocols.

SMTP -Simple mail transfer protocol, used to exchange electronic mail
HTTP -Hypertext Transport Protocol, used to communicate between Web browsers and Web servers.
SNMP -Simple Network Management Protocol, is used to query the state of remote network nodes.

183. What is ARQ?

The general strategy of using acknowledgements and timeouts to implement reliable delivery is called automatic repeat
request (ARQ).

184. What is the key idea of Stop & Wait Protocol?

After transmitting one frame, the sender waits for an acknowledgment before transmitting the next frame. If the
acknowledgement does not arrive after a certain period of time, the sender time out and retransmits the original frame.

185. What is CSMA/CD?

CSMA/CD stands for Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detect. Ethernet is a multiple access network
(shared link) and the carrier sense means that all the nodes can distinguish between an idle and busy link. collision
detect means that a node listens as it transmits and can therefore detect when a frame it is transmitting has interfered
with a frame transmitted by another node.

186. What is Ethernet.

Ethernet is a multiple access network (shared link) and the carrier sense means that all the nodes can distinguish
between an idle and busy link. Collision detect means that a node listens as it transmits and can therefore detect when
a frame it is transmitting has interfered with a frame transmitted by another node.

187. What is Repeater?

Repeater propagate the signal from one segment to another

188. What is transceiver?

Transceiver is a small device directly attached to the tap and detects when the line is idle and drives the signal when the
host is transmitting.

189. What is a Hub?

Hub (MultiWay Repeater) propagates the signal onto a number of segments, possibly with different types of cable.

190. What is Ethernet address?

Ethernet host in the world has a unique address. The address belongs to the adaptor, not the host; it is usually
burned into ROM. it has six hexadecimal numbers separated by colons. Example 8:0:2b:e4:b1:2.

191. What is promiscuous mode?

In promiscuous mode it delivers all received frames to the host, but this is not the normal mode.

192. Why Ethernet is called 1 persistent protocol?

Ethernet is said to be a 1 persistent protocol because an adaptor with a frame to send transmits with probability 1
whenever a busy line goes idle.

193. What is an exponential back off?

Once an adaptor has detected a collision and stopped its transmission, it waits a certain amount of time and
tries again. Each time it tries to transmit but fails, the adaptor doubles the amount of time it waits before trying again.
This strategy of doubling the delay interval between each transmission attempt is a general technique known as
exponential back off.

194. What are the advantages of Ethernet?

Easy to admin and maintain No switch, Router and configuration table
Easy to add a new Host Inexpensive one

195. What is Token Ring?

A number of stations connected by transmission links in a ring topology. Information flows in one direction along
the ring from source to destination and back to source. Medium access control is provided by a small frame, the
token that circulates around the ring when all stations are idle. Only the station possessing the token is allowed to
transmit at any given time.

196. What is FDDI?

• FDDI uses a ring topology of multimode or single mode optical fiber transmission links operating at 100 Mbps to
span up to 200 kms and permits up to 500 stations.
• Employs dual counter-rotating rings.
• 16 and 48-bit addresses are allowed.
• In FDDI, token is absorbed by station and released as soon as it completes the frame
transmission {multi-token operation}.

197. What is Network designers?

Network designers want a cost-effective design; e.g., network resources are efficiently utilized and fairly allocated to users

198. What are the 2 different classes of traffic used in FDDI?

FDDI is designed to handle two types of traffic:
- Synchronous frames that typically have tighter delay requirements (e.g., voice and video)
- Asynchronous frames have greater delay tolerances (e.g., data traffic)

199. What are network users?

Network users want the network to provide services that their applications need; e.g., guarantee that each message
will be delivered in order, without errors, and within a predefined delay
200. What is Network Providers?
Network providers want a system that is easy to administer and manage; e.g., faults can be easily found, system can
be hot-swapped,
201. What are the requirements of an efficient Network?
Connectivity Efficient Resource Sharing Functionality
Reliability Security Performance

202. What are the basic building blocks of networks?

Building Blocks links: coax cable, optical fiber...
nodes: general-purpose workstations...

203. What is a switched network?

Two or more nodes connected by a link

204. What is Network?

A network is two or more nodes connected by a direct link, or two or more networks connected by one or more
nodes”.

205. What is a Packet Switch?

A packet switch is a device with several inputs and outputs leading to and from the hosts that the switch
interconnects. The core job of a switch is to take packets that arrive on an input and forward them to the right outputs.

206. What is Switch Congestion?

If the packet arrival rate exceeds the capacity of the output rate of a switch, the switch queues the packet. If the switch
is over loaded, the packet may be loosed. If it occurs often, the switch is said to be congested.

207. What is Packet Switching?

The process of forwarding packets from an input of a switch to one or more outputs of the switch is known as packet
switching.

208 What is Network Topology?

The Network Topology defines the structure of the network. Ring, Bus, Star these are the examples of network topology.

209. What are the characteristics of Connectionless networks?

A host can send a packet anywhere at any time
 When a Host sends a packet, it has no way of knowing if the network is capable of delivering it or if the destination
host is even up and running.
Each packet is forwarded independently.
A Switch or link failure might not have any serious effect on communication.

210. What are the fields available in the VC table in a Switch?

A virtual circuit identifier
An incoming interface on which packets for this arrive at the switch
An outgoing interface in which packets for this VC leave the switch
A potentially different VCI that will be used for outgoing packets

211. What is signaling?

Signaling is a mechanism to establishing connection state between a source and destination. Here a host can
send messages into the network to cause the state to be established.

212. What is virtual circuit switching?

Virtual circuit switching is a connection oriented mechanism used for packet forwarding. In this approach it
establishes a connection state b/w the source & destination before sending the packets.

213. What is Packet Contention?

Contention occurs when multiple packets have to be queued at switch because they are competing for the same
output link.

214. What is Source Routing?

Source Routing is a mechanism to forward the packets in a switch, in this all the information about network
topology that is required to switch a packet across the network is provided by the source host.

215. What is Bridge?

Bridge is nothing but a switch that is used to forward packets between shared -media LANs such as Ethernet.

216. What is Spanning Tree?

Spanning Tree is a sub graph that covers all the vertices, but contains no cycles.

217. What are the Limitations of Bridges?

 Scale - the ability to extend the network (only a few LANs can be connected)
 Heterogeneity - bridges are fairly limited in the kinds of networks they can interconnect.

218. What is Virtual LAN?

Virtual LAN increase the scalability of extended LAN and allow a single extended LAN to be partitioned into several
seemingly separate LANs.

219. What is ATM?

ATM stands for Asynchronous transfer Mode. It is connection oriented, packet switched technology.

220. What is segmentation and reassembly?

The process of fragment the high level messages into packets at the source host and transmit the packets over the
network and then reassemble the fragments back together at the destination is often called segmentation and
reassembly(SAR).

221. What is CS-PDU?

CS-PDU stands for Convergence sub layer protocol data unit which defines a way of encapsulating variable length
PDUs prior to segmenting them into cells.

222. What is routing or forwarding table?

The forwarding table contains the information that switches need to forward datagram in the network. The switch
consults with the forwarding table and forwards the frames in the right ports.

223. What is a Cell?

Cell is nothing but packets which are both fixed in length and small in size, used in ATM.

224. What is ATM adaptation Layer?

A protocol which sits in between the ATM and the variable-length packet protocols that might use ATM (such as IP) is
Called ATM Adaptation Layer.

225. What is an address?

Address is a byte-string that identifies a node; usually unique

226. What are the different types of addresses?

unicast: node-specific broadcast: all nodes on the network  multicast: some subset of nodes on the network

227. What are the various types of message errors in the network?
Message content corruption Messages are dropped Messages are delayed
Messages are delivered out-of-order Messages are duplicated.

228. What are the various types failures that can be occurred in a network?
Bit errors (single and bursty) Packet loss Link failure

229. What are the problems of inter connecting various networks?

Heterogeneity- problem of establishing connectivity between host on different Networks
Scale - (the ability to add nodes to the networks) it lead to the problem of routing & addressing

230. What is Router or Gateways?

Router is a node that interconnects the networks.

231. What is MTU?

MTU stands for Maximum Transmission Unit, Which specifies the largest datagram that it can carry in a frame

232. How IP address is hierarchical?

IP address is hierarchical, by which means that they are made up of many interconnected networks. IP addresses
consist of 2 parts, a network part and a host part. The network part of an IP address identifies the network to which the
host is attached.

234. List out the various addressing schemes in IP.

CLASS - A -> Network - 8 bit Host - 24 bit
CLASS - B -> Network - 16 bit Host - 16 bit
CLASS - C -> Network - 24 bit Host - 8 bit

235. Differentiate Bridges, Switches and Routers.

Bridges are Link level nodes they forward frame from one link to another to implement an extended LAN, Switches
are network level nodes they forward datagrams from one network to another to implement a packet switched network
and routers are internet level nodes they forward datagrams from another to implement an internet.

236. What is hierarchical aggregation?

Hierarchical aggregation is a mechanism to reduce the amount of information that is stored in each node and that is
exchanged between nodes. In this letting routers deal only with reaching the right network; the information that a
router needs to deliver a datagram to any node on a given network is represented by a single aggregated piece of
information.

237. What is a network processor?

A network processor is a device, which is used in the design of routers. And it is a programmable device more highly
optimized for networking task

238. What is Link level address?

Link level address is the Ethernet card address, 48 bit long world wide unique address.

239. What is centralized and distributed routers.

In the centralized router, the ip-forwarding algorithm is done in single processing engine that handles the traffic
from all ports. In distributed forwarding model, there are several processing engines, perhaps one per port, or more
tan one per line card (serve one or more physical ports.

240. What is the job of an ARP?

The ARP enables each host on a network to build up a table of mapping between the IP address and Link level
address.

241. What is the responsibility of a DHCP server?

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol is responsible for providing configuration information to hosts.
242. What is ICMP?
ICMP stands for Internet Control Message Protocol. It can be act as companion protocol of IP, that defines a
collection of error message that are sent back to the source host whenever a router or host unable to process an ip
datagram successfully.

243. What is VPN?

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. VPN enables private communication in a public network by establishing a
Virtual circuit between the source and destination.

244. What is IP tunnel?

IP tunnel is a virtual point-to-point link between a pair of nodes that are actually separated by arbitrary number of
networks. The virtual link is created within the router at the entrance to the tunnel by providing it with the ip address of
the router at the entrance to the tunnel by providing it with the IP address of the router at the far end of the tunnel.

245. What is forwarding?

Forwarding consists of taking a packet, looking at its destination address, consulting a table, and sending the packet in a
direction determined by the table.

246. What is Routing?

Routing is the process by which forwarding tables are build, which contains the mapping information IP with MAC
address.

247. What is network security?

Prevent others from copying your data (eavesdropping). Verify that data was sent by the appropriate sender (not by an
impostor), I.e., digital signatures. Ensure data is delivered only once (prevent playback). Prevent denial of service attacks.

248. What is bandwidth?

Telephony Definition: the range of frequencies that a signal uses on a given medium
Computer Network Def: the number of bits per second that can be transmitted on a link

249. What is Throughput?

The number of useful bits per second that can actually be transmitted over the link in practice Transfer size / Transfer
time
Measure of performance Ideal state Throughput= Bandwidth
i.e., how much of the bandwidth is available for use.

250. What is Latency?

How long it takes a packet to travel from point A to point B through the network.
Latency = Propagation + Transmit + Queuing + Processing

251. What is Propagation delay?

Propagation Delay: speed of wave transmission (light) and distance

252. What is transmission delay?

Transmission Delay: packet size / link bandwidth

253. What is Queuing Delay?

The Packet waiting time in buffers is known as Queing Delay

254. What is NSFNET?

NSFNET stands for the regional networks are connected by a nationwide backbone, which is funded by National
Science Foundation (NSF) and was therefore called the NSFNET backbone

255. What is subnetting?

Subnetting provides an elegantly simple way to reduce the total number of network numbers that are assigned. The
idea is to take a single IP network number and allocate the IP address with that network number to several physical
networks, which are now referred to as subnets.

256. What is the use of CIDR?

CIDR tries to balance the desire to minimize the number of routes that a router needs to know against the need to hand
out addresses efficiently.
257. What is an Autonomous system or routing Domain?
An autonomous system is one, which is under the control of a single administrativeentity.

258. What is EGB?

EGB stands for Exterior Gateway Protocol. It is an interdomain protocol that has a number of limitations such as it is
concerned on topology.

259. What are the various types of autonomous systems?

Stub AS- an AS that has only a single connection to other AS
Multihued AS- an AS that has connections to more than one other As but that refuses to carry transit traffic Transit
AS- an As that has connections to more than one other A Sand that is designed to carry both transit and local traffic.

260. What are Local traffic and transit traffic?

Local traffic is nothing but a traffic that originates at or terminates on nodes within an AS, an transit traffic as traffic that
passes through an AS.

261. How does BGP cancel the previously advertised path?

BGP can cancel the previously advertised path with a form of negative advertisement known as a withdrawn route.

262. What is Routing Area?

An area is asset of routers that are administratively configured to exchange link state information with each other.

263. What is ABR?

A router that is a member of both the backbone area and a non backbone area is an area border router (ABR)

264. What is Ipv6?

Ipv6 do not have classes, but the address space is still subdivided in various ways based on the leading bits.
Rather than specifying different address classes, the leading bits specify different uses of the Ipv6 address.

265. What is the Address notation of Ipv6?

Ipv6 address notation is x:x: x:x: x:x: x:x where each x is a hexadecimal representation of 16-bit piece of the
address.

266. What is autoconfiguration?

The 2 steps involved autoconfiguration is as follows obtain an interface ID that is unique on the link to which the host is
attached. Obtain the correct address prefix for this subnet.

267. Give the ipv6 provider based unicast address.

RegistryID - m bit
ProviderID - n bit
SubscriberID - o bit
SubnetID - p bit
InterfaceID 125-m-n-o-p
268. What is RTT?
Round Trip Time is the time to send a message from A to B and Back to A

269. Write the speed of light in various physical medium.

Speed of Light
3.0 x 108 meters/second in a vacuum
2.3 x 108 meters/second in a cable
2.0 x 108 meters/second in a fiber

270. What is signal is instantaneous?

Suppose that C immediately signals A to stop sending packets after it receives the first packet. Assume that this ‘‘signal’’
is instantaneous.

271. Write the expansion of the following (T)FTP, HTTP, NV, SMTP, FDDI.
(T)FTP -(Trivial) File Transfer Protocol
HTTP -Hyper-Text Transport Protocol
NV -Network Video
SMTP -Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
FDDI -Fiber Distributed Data Interface
272. Write the expansion of the following NTP, TCP, UDP, ATM and IP.
NTP - Network Time Protocol
TCP - Transmission Control Protocol
UDP - User Datagram Protocol
IP - Internet Protocol
ATM - Asynchronous Transfer Mode

273. What are bit errors?

o1 in 106 to 107 for copper
o1 in 1012 to 1014 for fiber
o Much worse for wireless
o Recovery: re-flip bits or discard packet

274. What is Packet Loss.

Uncorrectable bit error
Buffer overflow (dropped by switch)
Recovery: resend packet (lost vs. late?)

275. What is an End-to-End Protocol?

The process-to-process communication channel is the role played by the transport level of the network architecture,
which, because it supports communication between the end application programs, is sometimes called the end-to-end
protocol.

276. What are properties that a transport can be expected to provide.

Guarantees message delivery
Delivers message in the same order they are sent Delivers at most one copy of each message
Supports arbitrarily large message

277. What is UDP?

UDP stands for User Data gram Protocol. It is transport layer protocol that extends the host-to-host delivery service of
the underlying network into a process-to-process communication service.

278. What is called pseudo header?

UDP computes its checksum over the UDP header, the contents of the message body, and something called the
pseudo header that consists of three fields from the IP header protocol number, source ip address, and destination ip
address plus the udp length.

279. What is TCP?

TCP is a protocol which grantees the reliable, in-order delivery of a stream of bytes. It is a full duplex protocol, meaning
that each TCP connection supports a pair of byte streams, one flowing in each direction

280. What is MSL?

MSL stands for Maximum segment life time. IP throws packets away after their TTL expires; TCP assumes that each
packet has maximum life time that is MSL.

281. What are segments?

The packets exchanged between TCP peers are called segments.

282. What are the fields available in the segments?

SrcPort : Source Port
SrcIPlAddr : Sourc IP address
DstPort : Destination Port
DstIPaddr : destion IP address

283. What is incarnation?

It is possible for a connection between a particular pair of ports to be established, used to send and receive data, and
closed, and then at a later time for the same pair of ports to be involved in a second connection. And it is referred to
us two different incarnations of the same connection.

284. What is the use of three way handshake algorithm?

This algorithm is used by TCP to establish and terminate a connection; it involves the exchange of three messages
between the client and server.
285. What are active open and passive open messages?
To open a connection server first invoke a active open message. To establish the connection with server, client
invokes the passive open message.

286. What is MSS?

MSS stand for Maximum segment size, it is variable maintain by the TCP. It sends the segment as soon as it has
collected MSS bytes from the sending process.

287. What is the need for fragmentation?

Different networks have a different maximum transfer unit (MTU).
A problem can occur if packet is routed onto network with a smaller MTU.
•e.g. FDDI (4,500B) onto Ethernet (1,500B)
Solution: break packet into smaller fragments.
•each fragment has identifier and sequence number

288. What is TTL?

Goal: drop packets that are stuck in infinite loop in the network.
IP Solution: Decrement TTL field in each hop and drop packet if it reaches 0.

289. What is full duplex?

Full duplex connections enable concurrent transfers in both directions along a connection.

290. What is buffered data transfer?

Protocol software free to use arbitrary size transfer units is known as buffered data transfer.

291. What is by stream transfer?

In stream transfer, sender transfers stream of bytes; receiver gets identical stream

292. What are the three distinct phases of Data Encryption Standard?
The 64 bits in the block are permuted.
Sixteen rounds of an identical operation are applied to the resulting data and the key. The inverse of the original
permutation is applied to the result.