GULU UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF SCIENCE
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

BACHELOR OF INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

YEAR II SEMESTER II EXAMINATIONS 2021/2022

COMPUTER NETWORKS & DATA COMMUNICATIONS (GIT 2202) MARKING

GUIDE
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SECTION A
1. (a) A telephone voice signal is said to be analogue. Define the three (3) physical quantities which can be
used to represent a voice signal, stating their units of measurement. (6 marks)
• Frequency: The number of oscillations per second. Measured in hertz.
• Amplitude: The strength of the signal. Measured in volts or decibels.
• Phase: Rate at which a signal changes its relationship to time. Measured in degrees or radians

(b) Encoding schemes are categorized into two namely two-level and three-level encoding. Explain the
meaning of two-level and three-level. (4 marks)
• Two Level: Two-level encoding: the signal can only take on a strictly negative or strictly positive value (-
X or +X, where X represents a value of the physical quantity being used to transport the signal).
• Three-Level: The signal can take on a strictly negative, null or strictly positive value (-X, 0 or +X)

(c) Why do you need encoding of data before sending over a medium? (2 marks)
Suitable encoding of data is required in order to transmit signal with minimum attenuation and optimize the use
of transmission media in terms of data rate and error rate.

(d) What is the result of scrambling the bit sequence 10011001 using the following scrambling
techniques? (6 marks)
1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1
Manchester Encoding

Differential Manchester

NRZ-L

NRZ-I

MLT-3

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RZ-encoding

(e) What is the result of scrambling the sequence 11100000000000 using the following techniques?
1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
HDB3

B8ZS

(f) Why B8ZS coding is preferred over Manchester encoding for long distance communication?
(2 marks)
The B8ZS encoding is preferred over Manchester encoding, because B8ZS encoding requires lesser
bandwidth than Manchester encoding.

2. (a) Explain why collision is an issue in random access protocol but not in controlled access or
channelizing protocols. (3 marks)

In random access methods, there is no access control (as there is in controlled access methods) and there
is no predefined channel (as in channelization). Each station can transmit when it desires. This liberty may
create collision.

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(b) Explain how the P-persistence algorithm used with CSMA/CD networks attempts to improve bus
efficiency compared with I-persistence and non-persistence algorithms. (4 marks)
The p-persistent CSMA algorithm takes a moderate approach between nonpersistent and 1-persistent
CSMA. It specifies a value; the probability of transmission after detecting the medium is idle. The station first
checks if the medium is idle, transmits a frame with the probability P if it is idle, and delays one time unit of
maximum propagation delay with 1-P. If the medium is busy, the station continues to listen until the channel
is idle and repeats the same procedure when the medium is idle. In general, at the heavier load,
decreasing P would reduce the number of collisions. At the lighter load, increasing P would avoid the delay
and improve the utilization. The value of P can be dynamically adjusted based on the traffic load of the
network.

(c) The actual communication in a circuit switched network requires three phases. Describe the
three (3) phases. (6 marks)

• Circuit Establishment (setup phase): In this phase, a dedicated circuit is established from the source
to the destination through a number of intermediate switching centres. The sender and receiver transmit
communication signals to request and acknowledge establishment of circuits.
• Data Transfer: Once the circuit has been established, data and voice are transferred from the source to
the destination. The dedicated connection remains as long as the end parties communicate.
• Circuit Disconnection (tear down phase): When data transfer is complete, the connection is
relinquished. The disconnection is initiated by any one of the users. Disconnection involves removal of
all intermediate links from the sender to the receiver.

(d) What three (3) advantages can be gained from using datagram packet switching as opposed to
circuit switched networks? (3 marks)

• It provides higher efficiency than circuit switching because each data packet follows a different route.
• Data packets are able to find the destination without the use of a dedicated channel
• Reduces lost data packets because packet switching allows for resending of packets
• More cost-effective since there is no need for a dedicated channel for voice or data traffic
• It performs fast re-routing of data packets at the time of network congestion or failure.
• It is more reliable than circuit switching because it ensures that the packet is reached its destination or
detects the missing packet.
• It allows multiple users to utilize the single-channel simultaneously

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• Better bandwidth usage because multiple data packets can be transmitted from multiple sources via the
same transmission link.
• Priorities can be used - Transmit higher-priority packets first, so as to experience less delay
• Delay in delivery of packets is less, since packets are sent as soon as they are available.
• Switching devices don’t require massive storage, since they don’t have to store the entire messages
before forwarding them to the next node.
• Data delivery can continue even if some parts of the network faces link failure. Packets can be routed
via other paths.

SECTION B
3. (a) Airtel telecom is bargaining for bandwidth from UCC for voice communication. Assume that a
voice channel occupies a bandwidth of 4 KHz. Based on the design considerations, engineers need
to multiplex 5 voice channels with guard bands of 1 KHz using Frequency Division Multiplexing.
What is the relevance of a guard band? (2 marks)
In FDM, a number of signals are sent simultaneously on the same medium allocating separate frequency
band or channel to each signal. Guard bands are used to avoid interference between two successive
channels.

(b) How is the wastage of bandwidth in Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) overcome by statistical
TDM? (3 marks)
It dynamically allocates the time slots on demand to separate input channels, thus saving the channel
capacity. As with Synchronous TDM, statistical multiplexers also have many I/O lines with a buffer
associated to each of them. During the input, the multiplexer scans the input buffers, collecting data
until the frame is filled and send the frame. At the receiving end, the demultiplexer receives the
frame and distributes the data to the appropriate buffers.

In case of statistical TDM, the data in each slot must have an address part, which identifies the
source of data.

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(c) One problem with TDM is how to handle a disparity in the input data rates. Explain three (3)
strategies with illustrations that can be employed to overcome that challenge if the data rates are not
the same. (6 marks)

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(d) Explain the concept of Spread spectrum as used in bandwidth utilization. (2 marks)
It is a form of wireless communication which transmits analog or digital data using analog signals in which
the frequency of the transmitted signal is deliberately varied, resulting into a much greater bandwidth than
the original signal.

OR

Spread spectrum is the process of combining signals from different sources to fit into a larger bandwidth with
an aim of preventing eavesdropping and jamming.

(e) Explain two (2) reasons why spread spectrum techniques are necessary? (2 marks)
• A signal whose frequency is constant is subject to catastrophic interference. This occurs when
another signal is transmitted on, or very near, the frequency of the desired signal.
• A constant-frequency signal is easy to intercept, and is therefore not well suited to applications in
which information must be kept confidential between the source (transmitting party) and destination
(receiving party).

(f) With the help of diagrams, explain in detail how the two types of spread spectrum achieve
bandwidth spreading.? (5 marks)
• Frequency Hopping: Spreading takes place by the signal hopping from frequency to frequency over
a wide band. The specific order in which the hopping occurs is determined by a hopping table
generated with the help of a pseudo-random code sequence.
• Direct Sequence: A pseudo-random noise generator creates a highspeed pseudo-noise code
sequence which is used to directly modulate the narrow-band carrier signal; thus, it directly sets the
transmitted radio frequency (RF) bandwidth.

4. (a) What does it mean when they say that client-server interaction is “stateless”? (2 marks)
HTTP server maintains no information about the clients. When the server sends requested files to clients
without storing any state information about the client. If a particular client asks for the same object twice in a
period of a few seconds, the server does not respond by saying that it just served the object to the client;
instead, the server resends the object, as it has completely forgotten what it did earlier. Meaning it treats
each connection or transaction as new.

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(b) What do you understand by the terms HTTP being non persistent and persistent connections? (If
possible, use illustrations for each to explain your answer). (6 marks)
With non-persistent connections, depending on the number of objects in the website, each TCP connection
is closed after the server sends the object—the connection does not persist for other objects. Note that each
TCP connection transports exactly one request message and one response message.

With persistent connections, the server leaves the TCP connection open after sending a response.
Subsequent requests and responses between the same client and server can be sent over the same
connection. In particular, an entire Web page (in the example, the base HTML file and the 10 images) can
be sent over a single persistent TCP connection.

(c) Compare and Contrast between SMTP and HTTP. (3 marks)

• Both protocols are used to transfer files from one host to another
• Both persistent HTTP and SMTP use persistent connections.
• HTTP is a pull protocol and SMTP is a push protocol
• SMTP requires each message, including the body of each message, to be in 7-bit ASCII format.
HTTP data does not impose this restriction.
• HTTP encapsulates each object in its own HTTP response message. Internet mail places all of the
message’s objects into one message.

(d) Two commonly used mail access protocols by clients are IMAP and POP3. Briefly explain three
scenarios where you would prefer IMAP to POP3 (3 marks)
• When you want to access messages across multiple devices (such as phone, computers, tablets,
etc.) unlike POP3 where the message can be accessed from a single device at a time
• you want your device(s) to sync, including emails and any folder structure you have created
• IMAP allows you the user to see all the folders on the mail server whereas POP3 only allows
downloading messages from your Inbox to your local computer.
• IMAP allows the user to create, delete or rename email on the mail server whereas POP3 does
not allow the user to create, delete or rename email on the mail server
• With IMAP, the user can organize the emails directly on the mail server whereas with POP3 the
user cannot organize mails in the mailbox of the mail server.
• IMAP allows a user to search the content of mail for specific string before downloading which
POP3 does not support.

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(e) What are the services that Domain Name System (DNS) offers in addition to translating
hostnames to IP addresses? (3 marks)
• Host aliasing
• Mail server aliasing
• Load distribution

(f) Assuming DNS had a centralized design, what are the problems that would be encountered?
(3 marks)
• A single point of failure. If the DNS server crashes, so does the entire Internet!
• Traffic volume. A single DNS server would have to handle all DNS queries (for all the HTTP
requests and e-mail messages generated from hundreds of millions of hosts).
• Distant centralized database. A single DNS server cannot be “close to” all the querying clients. If we
put the single DNS server in New York City, then all queries from Australia must travel to the other
side of the globe, perhaps over slow and congested links. This can lead to significant delays.
• Maintenance. The single DNS server would have to keep records for all Internet hosts. Not only
would this centralized database be huge, but it would have to be updated frequently to account for
every new host.

5. (a) What do you think the term “Quality of Service” (QoS) means in terms of a network connection?
(2 marks)
Quality of Service is an attempt to provide predictable response for applications from end-point to end-point
by administratively applying different services within the network infrastructure for the applications
OR
Quality of Service refers to the capability of a network to provide better service to selected network traffic
OR
Quality of Service is an internetworking issue that refers to a set of techniques and mechanisms that
guarantee the performance of the network to deliver predictable service to an application program.
OR
Network provides application with level of performance needed for application to function.

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(b) Briefly outline four (4) benefits of implementing Quality of service on a network. (4 marks)
• Dedicated bandwidth
• Improved loss characteristics
• Congestion management and Avoidance
• Traffic Shaping
• Prioritization of traffic

(c) A service model is a general approach or a design philosophy for handling the competing
streams of traffic within a network. Briefly describe the three service models. (6 marks)
• Best-effort is a single service model in which an application sends data whenever it must, in any
quantity, without requesting permission or first informing the network. For best-effort service, the
network delivers data if it can, without any assurance of reliability, delay bounds, or throughput
• Integrated services model - Application requests a specific kind of service from the network before it
sends data. The network performs admission control, based on information from the application and
available network resources.
• Differentiated services model - Each packet is classified upon entry into the network. Network
devices uses the classification to queue, shape and police the traffic

(d) Discuss any two (2) types of scheduling mechanisms that can be applied in order to manage
congestion (4 marks)
• FIFO queuing (also known as first come first serve) involves buffering and forwarding of packets in
order of arrival.
• Weighted fair queuing (WFQ). WFQ offers dynamic, fair queuing that divides bandwidth across
queues of traffic based on weights. (WFQ ensures that all traffic is treated fairly, given its weight.)
Weighted fair queuing provides traffic priority management that dynamically sorts traffic into
conversations, or flows. Weighted fair queuing then breaks up a stream of packets within each
conversation to ensure that bandwidth is shared fairly between individual conversations. four types
include flow based, distributed, class-based and distributed class-based.
• Custom queuing (CQ). With CQ, bandwidth is allocated proportionally for each different class of
traffic. CQ allows you to specify the number of bytes or packets to be drawn from the queue, which
is especially useful on slow interfaces.
• Priority queuing (PQ). With PQ, packets belonging to one priority class of traffic are sent before all
lower priority traffic to ensure timely delivery of those packets.

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• Low Latency Queuing allows delay-sensitive data such as voice to be sent before packets in other
queues are sent. LLQ provides strict priority queuing for CBWFQ, reducing jitter in voice
conversations.
• Priority Queuing (PQ) allows you to define how traffic is prioritized in the network. provides absolute
preferential treatment to high priority traffic, ensuring that mission-critical traffic traversing various
WAN links gets priority treatment. In addition, PQ provides a faster response time than do other
methods of queuing.
• Custom Queuing allows you to specify a certain number of bytes to forward from a queue each time
the queue is serviced, thereby allowing you to share the network resources among applications with
specific minimum bandwidth or latency requirements.

(e) Outline four (4) techniques that can be used to improve the quality of service (2 marks)
• scheduling,
• traffic shaping,
• admission control,
• resource reservation

(f) Explain the difference between traffic shaping and traffic policing. (2 marks)
• Policing and traffic shaping are both traffic conditioners, each of which can set a bandwidth limit on
traffic. Traffic shaping controls the rate of sending by buffering (delays) excess incoming traffic,
while traffic policing drops any excess packets.
• The packets with rates that are greater than the traffic policing rate are discarded. It buffers the
packets with rates that are greater than the traffic shaping rate.
• The token values are calculated in bytes per second. The token values are calculated in bits per
second.
• Traffic policing supports traffic remarking. Traffic shaping doesn’t supports traffic remarking.
• Traffic policing can be used to control outbound or inbound traffic. Traffic policing can used to
control outbound traffic only.

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6. (a) Explain the different types of errors. (4 marks)

The errors can be divided into two types: Single-bit error and Burst error.
• Single-bit Error - The term single-bit error means that only one bit of given data unit (such as a byte,
character, or data unit) is changed from 1 to 0 or from 0 to 1.
• Burst Error - The term burst error means that two or more bits in the data unit have changed from 0
to 1 or vice-versa. Note that burst error doesn’t necessary means that error occurs in consecutive
bits.

(b) Why do you need error detection? (2 marks)

As the signal is transmitted through a media, the signal gets corrupted because of noise and distortion. In
other words, the media is not reliable. To achieve a reliable communication through this unreliable media,
there is need for detecting the error in the signal so that suitable mechanism can be devised to take
corrective actions.

(c) With illustrations explain the “go-back-n” method for managing the retransmission of lost or
corrupt PDUs. (3 marks)

(d) Describe another technique that can be used to solve the above problem. (3 marks)

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(e) Mention the disadvantages of the two techniques in 6 (c & d) above. (2 marks)
Go-back-n retransmission - is that some blocks will be retransmitted unnecessarily. This is a waste of
bandwidth

Selective retransmission – the receiver needs plenty of buffer (temporary storage) capacity in order to store
temporarily data blocks that have been received out of sequence

(f) Explain the difference between Idle Repeat request and continuous Repeat request. (2 marks)
In Idle RQ (or stop – and – wait RQ), the transmitter sends a block of data and then waits for an
acknowledgement from the receiver. The receiver checks what it has received. If there are no errors, it
sends back a positive acknowledgement (ACK). If the receiver finds an error, it discards the block and sends
a negative acknowledgement (NAK). If the block is completely lost or destroyed, there is no ACK. If the
transmitter receives an ACK, it sends the next block. If it receives a NAK, it sends the previous block again.
If the transmitter does not receive an ACK within a given time, there is a timeout and the block is resent.
Time is wasted while the sender waits for the receiver to acknowledge receipt of a block.

In Continuous RQ, data blocks are transmitted continuously so that there will be no idle time. The sender
sends off several data blocks in succession, without waiting for an acknowledgement. The sender gives
every block that is transmitted a sequence number. Every acknowledgement uses the correct sequence
such that the sender knows which data block is being acknowledged.

(g) What do you understand by the term “ line discipline “ and how can it be implemented?
(4 marks)
Refers to how efficient the system is, no device in it should be allowed to transmit until that device has the
evidence that the intended receiver is: –able to receive and –is prepared to accept the TX. it is implemented
through:
• Enquiry / Acknowledgement (ENQ/ACK)
• Poll / Select

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7. (a) What are the two basic mechanisms of congestion control? (2 marks)
• One is preventive, where precautions are taken so that congestion cannot occur. In open-loop
congestion control, policies are applied to prevent congestion before it happens. In these
mechanisms, congestion control is handled by either the source or the destination.
• Another is recovery from congestion, when congestion has already taken place. Closed-loop
congestion control mechanisms try to alleviate congestion after it happens.

(b) What is choke packet and how is it used for congestion control? (3 marks)
Choke packet is a packet sent by a node to the source to inform it of congestion. In the choke packet
method, the warning is from the router, which has encountered congestion, to the source station directly.
The intermediate nodes through which the packet has travelled are not warned.

Choke packet scheme is a closed loop mechanism where each link is monitored to examine how much
utilization is taking place. If the utilization goes beyond a certain threshold limit, the link goes to a warning
and a special packet, called choke packet is sent to the source. On receiving the choke packet, the source
reduced the traffic in order to avoid congestion.

(c) Define network management (1 mark)

Network management as monitoring, testing, configuring, and troubleshooting network components to meet
a set of requirements defined by an organization. These requirements include the smooth, efficient operation
of the network that provides the predefined quality of service for users.

(d) Describe five functions of network management. (10 marks)

• Configuration management is concerned with the physical or logical changes of network entities. It
includes the reconfiguration and documentation of hardware, software, and user accounts.
• Fault management is concerned with the proper operation of each network component. It can be
reactive or proactive.
• Performance management is concerned with the monitoring and control of the network to ensure
the network runs as efficiently as possible. It is quantified by measuring the capacity, traffic,
throughput, and response time.
• Security management is concerned with controlling access to the network.
• Accounting management is concerned with the control of user access to network resources through
charges.

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(e) Briefly describe any two message types that SNMP uses to perform management tasks.
(4 marks)
• GetRequest - The basic SNMP request message. Sent by an SNMP manager, it requests
information about a single MIB entry on an SNMP agent. For example, the amounts of free drive
space.
• GetnextRequest - An extended type of request message that can be used to browse the entire tree
of management objects. When processing a Get-next request for a particular object, the agent
returns the identity and value of the object which logically follows the object from the request. The
Get-next request is useful for dynamic tables, such as an internal IP route table.
• GetbulkRequest - Requests that the data transferred by the host agent be as large as possible
within given restraints of message size. This minimizes the number of protocol exchanges required
to retrieve a large amount of management information.
• Trap - A trap message is the only agent-initiated SNMP communication, and it enhances security. A
trap is an alarm-triggering event, such as a system reboot or illegal access, on an agent. For
example, a trap message might be sent on a system restart event.

Success

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