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Matthew Williams
000-097-066
October 4th, 2022
CISB 315
Professor Clarke
Assignment 2

1. You are sitting at the local coffee shop, enjoying your favorite latte. You pull out your laptop
and, using the wireless network available at the coffee shop, access your e-mail. List all the
different network connections involved in this operation.

Answer
When you connect your computer to the access point (wireless network) inside the coffee
shop you are using a local area network, that local area network is connected to a wider network
(Wide area network, in this case, the internet) through that consumer's internet service provider.
Thus the connection is microcomputer to local area network and then local area network to wide
area network.

2. With your new cell phone, you have just taken a snapshot of your best friend. You decide to
send this snapshot to the e-mail account of a mutual friend across the country. List all the
different network connections involved in this operation.

Answer
When you connect your cell phone to a router (access point) to send the email you are
connected are using a local area network. That local area network in turn needs to connect to the
internet (a wide area network) which it does through an internet service provider. The email will
be sent via the internet and the same process will occur on the other end with the individual’s
best friend. Also, the individual may be using mobile data on their cell phone. Thus the
connection can be a microcomputer to a local area network and then a local area network to a
wide area network or if the mobile data is used it would be a cell phone connected to a wide area
network.
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3. You are driving in a new city and have just gotten lost. Using your car’s built-in navigational
system, you submit a request for driving directions from a nearby intersection to your
destination. List all the different network connections involved in this operation.

Answer
When you are using your car’s navigational system you are using a global positioning
system (GPS) this connection is a satellite connection. Thus this can be recognized as a computer
connecting to a wide area network.

4. The layers of the TCP/IP protocol suite and OSI are different. Which layers are “missing”
from the TCP/IP suite? Are they really missing?

Answer
The layers which are “missing” from the TCP/IP protocol suite are the session layer and
presentation layer. Despite these layers being “missing” the protocol can create a session if it
wants to at the transport or application layer. Whereas the presentation layer features are done
somewhere else in the TCP/IP protocol (it can be done in the application layer).

5. If the data link layer provides error checking, and the transport layer provides error checking,
isn’t this redundant? Explain.

Answer
No, it doesn’t because error checking occurs at different times and for different reasons.
The data link layer does its error checking upon the data arrival to the next computer on the
transmission path whereas the transport layer performs the error checking when that data arrives
at its final destination machine. As stated by White the transport layer “ensures that the data
packet arrives at the final destination is identical to the data packet that left the originating
station” (White, 2016, p. 18). Thus the transport layer is their re-assurance and is not redundant.
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6. What is the difference between data and signals?

Answer
Signals are recognized as the electric or electromagnetic encoding of data thus it is used
to transmit data, whereas data is recognized as entities that convey meaning within a computer or
computer system as stated by White (White, 2016, pp. 29-30).

7. What are the main advantages of digital signals over analog signals?

Answer
The main advantage of digital signals is that it conveys digital data thus it is easier to
remove noise in comparison to analog signals.

8. What is the difference between a continuous signal and a discrete signal?

Answer
As stated by White a continuous waveform can be an infinite number of points between
some given minimum and maximum, whereas this is not the same for a discrete signal where the
values are discrete or fixed (White, 2016, pp. 30-31).

9. What are the three basic components of all signals?

Answer
As stated by White the three basic components of all signals are amplitude, frequency,
and phase (White, 2016, p. 56).

10. What is the spectrum of a signal?

Answer
As stated by White the spectrum is referred to as “the range of frequencies that a signal
spans from minimum to maximum” (White, 2016, p. 34).
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References

White, C. M. (2016). Data Communications & Computer Networks A Business User's Approach

(Vol. 8th). Boston: Cengage Learning.