UNIT II TRANSPORT LAYER

Introduction - Transport-Layer Protocols: UDP – TCP: Connection Management – Flow control -

Congestion Control - Congestion avoidance (DECbit, RED) – SCTP – Quality of Service

PART – A
Univ QP (Month/
S.No. Question and Answer CO
Year)
1 Give any two Transport layer service.
Multiplexing: Transport layer performs multiplexing/de-
multiplexing function. Multiple applications employ same
(Dec 12)
transport protocol, but use different port number. According to CO2
(NOV 2014)
lower layer n/w protocol, it does upward multiplexing or
downward.
Reliability: Error Control and Flow Control.
2 How IANA has divided port numbers?
IANA (Internet Assigned Number Authority) has divided port (NOV 2016, APR
CO2
numbers into three ranges: 1) Well Known ports 2) Registered 2018)
ports 3) Dynamic Ports.
3 Mention the various adaptive retransmission policy of TCP.
 Simple average (Nov 10,15)
 Exponential / weighted average CO2 ( May 15)
 Exponential RTT backoff
 Jacobson’s Algorithm
4 List few well known ports for UDP.
Protocol Description (May15) (Nov 15)
Echo Echoes a received datagram back to the sender (NOV 2016, APR
CO2 2018)
Discard Discards any datagram received
Users Active Users
Daytime Returns Date and Time
5 Why the congestion occur in network?
Congestion occurs because the switches in a network have
a limited buffer size to (April/May-2011 ,
CO2
store arrived packets. And also because the packets arrive May 2019)
at a faster rate than what the receiver can receive and
process the packets.
6 Define congestion.
Congestion in a network occurs if user sends data into the
network at a rate greater than that allowed by network
resources. Any given node has a number of I/O ports
attached to it. There are two buffers at each port. One to
(APR 2013, NOV
accept arriving packets & another one to hold packets that CO2
2018,2011)
are waiting to depart. If packets arrive too fast node than to
process them or faster than packets can be cleared from the
outgoing buffers,
then there will be no empty buffer. Thus causing congestion
and traffic in the network.
7 Give the datagram format of UDP? CO2 (MAY 2019)
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The basic idea of UDP is for a source process to send a

message to a port and for the destination process to receive the
message from a port.
Source port address: It is the address of the application
program that has created the message.
Destination port address: It is the address of the application
program that will receive the message.
Total Length: It defines the total length of the user datagram
in bytes.
Checksum: It is a 16 bit field used in error correction.
8 Give the datagram format of UDP?
The basic idea of UDP is for a source process to send a
message to a port and for the destination process to receive the
message from a port.
Source port address: It is the address of the application
program that has created the message. (Apr 2019)
CO2
Destination port address: It is the address of the application
program that will receive the message.
Total Length: It defines the total length of the user datagram
in bytes.
Checksum: It is a 16 bit field used in error correction.
9 What is TCP?
Transmission Control Protocol provides Connection oriented
and reliable services. TCP guarantees the reliable, in order
delivery of a stream of bytes. It is a full-duplex protocol, CO2 (Nov11,JUN 2016 )
meaning that each TCP connection supports a pair of byte
streams, one flowing in each direction. It is used by
FTP,SMTP.
10 Name the policies that can prevent (avoid) congestion.
DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) bit, Random Early
Detection (RED), Source based congestion avoidance.
The congestion may be avoided by two bits: CO2 (JUN 2013)
 BECN - Backward Explicit Congestion Notification
 FECN - Forward Explicit Congestion Notification.

11 List out various congestion control techniques.

1) AIMD (Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease)
2) Slow start CO2 NOV 2017
3) Fast retransmit
4)Recovery
12 What are the advantages of using UDP over TCP?
UDP is very useful for audio or video delivery which does not
need acknowledgement. CO2 (NOV 2013)
It is useful in the transmission of multimedia data. Connection
Establishment delay will occur in TCP.
13 What is the use of UDP’s Pseudo header? CO2 (NOV 2018)
The pseudo header consists of three field from the IP header
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protocol number ,source IP address and destination IP

address plus the UDP length field (which is included
twiceinchecksumcalculation).Thepseudoheaderisusedtocheck
whetherthe
message is delivered between 2 endpoints.
14 Suppose TCP operates over a 1-Gbps link, utilizing the
full bandwidth continuously. How long will it take for the
sequence numbers to wrap around completely? Suppose
an added 32-bit timestamp field increments 1000 times
during this wrap around time, how long it will take
timestamp filed to wraparound?
(May 13) CO2
Once a segment with sequence x survives in Internet, TCP
cannot use the same sequence no. How fast 32-bit sequence
no space can be consumed? 32-bit sequence no is adequate
for today’s network. Wrap Around Timefor T3-45Mbps (2 32
x8)
/45Mbps=763.55sec=12.73 min.
15 Write short notes on congestion control.
It involves preventing too much data from being injected into
the network, thereby
causing switches or links to become CO2 NOV 2022
overloaded. Thus flow control is an end to
an end issue, while congestion control is
concerned with how hosts and networks
interact.
16 List the advantages of Connection oriented services over
connectionless services.
Connection Oriented:
Advantages: (May 17)
CO2
 Buffers can be reserved inadvance
 Sequencing can beguaranteed.
 Shortheaders.
17 Define SCTP
SCTP(Stream Control Transmission Protocol) is a
(May 12)
reliable,message oriented transport layer protocol.It combines CO2
the best features of UDP and TCP.It is mostly designed for
internet applications.
18 What is piggybacking ? (Nov 19)
Piggybacking is used to improve the efficiency of
bidirectional transmission. When a frame is carrying
data from A to B, it can also carry control CO2
information about frames from B; when a frame is
carrying data from B to A, it can also carry
control information about frames from A.
19 Outline stop-wait ARQ Mechanism.(Nov 19) CO2 (May 12)
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A stop-and-wait ARQ sender sends one frame at a time; it is

a special case of the general sliding window protocol with
transmit and receive window sizes equal to one
(NOV 2017)
inbothcases.Aftersendingeachframe,thesenderdoesn'tsendany
furtherframes
until it receives an acknowledgement (ACK) signal.
20 How do fast retransmit mechanism of TCP works?(May
17)
Fast Retransmit is an enhancement to TCP that reduces the
time a sender waits before retransmitting a lost segment. A
TCP sender uses a timer to recognize lost segments. If an
acknowledgement is not received for a particular segment
within a specified time, the sender will assume the segment
was lost in the network, and will retransmit the segment.
Duplicate acknowledgement is the basis for the fast
retransmit mechanism which works as follows: after
receiving a packet (e.g. with sequence number 1), the
receiver sends an acknowledgement by adding 1 to the
CO2
sequence number (i.e., acknowledgement number 2) which
means that the receiver received the packet number 1 and it
expects packet number 2 from the sender. Let's assume that
three subsequent packets have been lost. In the meantime the
receiver receives packet numbers 5 and 6. After receiving
packet number 5, the receiver sends an acknowledgement,
but still only for sequence number 2. When the receiver
receives packet number 6, it sends yet another
acknowledgement value of 2. Because the sender receives
more than one acknowledgement with the same sequence
number (2 in this
example) this is called duplicate acknowledgement.
21 CO2
What is the difference between service point address,
logical address and physical
address?
Service point Logical Physical
addressing addressing addressing
The transport If a packet If the frames are
layer header passes the to be distributed
includes a type network to different
of address called boundary we systems on the
a service point need another network, the
address or port addressing to data link layer
address, which differentiate the adds the header,
makes a data source and which defines
delivery from a destination the source
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specific process systems. The machine’s

on one computer network layer address and the
to a specific adds a header, destination
process on which indicates Machine’s
another the logical address.
computer. address of the
sender
and receiver.

22 What is the use of SCTP Multiple stream service? CO2

SCTP allows multi stream service in each connection, which
is called association in SCTP terminology. If one of the
streams is blocked, the other streams can still deliver their
data. The idea is similar to multiple lanes on a highway. The
figure shows the idea of multi stream delivery.
23 What is meant by segment? CO2
At the sending and receiving end of the transmission,
TCP divides long transmissions into smaller data units and
packages each into a frame called a segment.
24 What are the two categories of QoS attributes? CO2
The two main categories are,
• User Oriented
• Network Oriented
25 Differentiate congestion control and flow control. CO2
Congestion Control Flow Control
Congestion control means Flow control means
prevent in the source from preventing the source from
sending data that will end sending data that the
up getting dropped by a receiver will end up
router because its dropping because it runs
(Nov 13,15)
queue is full. out of buffer space.
This is more complicated, This is fairly easy with a
because packets from sliding window protocol
different sources travelling
different paths can
converge on the same
queue.

PART B
1 With neat architecture, explain TCP in detail. CO2 (APR/MAY 2015)
Communication is the process of transfer of information from (NOV/DEC 2015)
one place to another. Either it could be the transmission of calls
from one device to another or transfer of files from one
computer to another. World wars have brought a tremendous
evolution the communication electronics. Today we use digital
communication methods everywhere. With the development of
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technology, many types of communication devices are being

implemented. To establish proper and error-free
communication between devices of different types and different
configurations, all the devices must follow some standard
protocols. One such standard protocol for communication
between different devices is the TCP/IP protocol.
TCP/IP protocol stands for the Transmission Control Protocol/
Internet Protocol. It was developed by the United States
Department of Defence in the 1960s. It is a conceptual model
that has a set of communication protocols used for the transfer
of information over the internet and computer networks.
TCP/IP Protocol Architecture
It is a four-layered protocol stack. It helps in the
interconnection of network devices over the internet. Each
layer contains certain protocols that help in the functioning of
the layer. The four layers of TCP/IP protocol are Application
Layer, Transport Layer, Networking/Internet Layer and the
Data Link/physical layer.

Data-Flow-of-TCP/IP-protocol

2 Explain adaptive flow control in detail and its uses. CO2

Flow control is a technique that allows two
stations working at different speeds to
communicate with each other. It is a set of
measures taken to regulate the amount of data that
a sender sends so that a fast sender does not
overwhelm a slow receiver. In data link layer, flow
control restricts the number of frames the sender
can send before it waits for an acknowledgment
from the receiver.

Approaches of Flow Control

Flow control can be broadly classified into two categories −
Stop and Wait
This protocol involves the following transitions −

The sender sends a frame and waits for acknowledgment.

Once the receiver receives the frame, it sends an

acknowledgment frame back to the sender.

On receiving the acknowledgment frame, the

sender understands that the receiver is ready to
accept the next frame. So it sender the next frame
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in queue.

Sliding Window
This protocol improves the efficiency of stop and wait protocol
by allowing multiple frames to be transmitted before receiving
an acknowledgment.

The working principle of this protocol can be described as

follows −

Both the sender and the receiver has finite sized buffers called
windows. The sender and the receiver agrees upon the number of
frames to be sent based upon the buffer size.
3 With neat architecture, explain UDP in detail. (MAY/JUN CO2
2016)

User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is a communications protocol

that is primarily used to establish low-latency and loss-
tolerating connections between applications on the internet.
UDP speeds up transmissions by enabling the transfer of data
before an agreement is provided by the receiving party. The
UDP is a connectionless protocol as it does not create a virtual
path to transfer the data.
It does not use the virtual path, so packets are sent in different
paths between the sender and the receiver, which leads to the
loss of packets or received out of order. Ordered delivery of
data is not guaranteed.
What are the advantages of UDP?
Advantages of User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
UDP produces a minimal number of overheads for data
transmission.
UDP is the simplest transport layer protocol.
UDP protocol uses packets of smaller size.
User Datagram provides faster delivery of data as there is no
acknowledgment mechanism in UDP.

4 Explain the Congestion Avoidance techniques in detail. CO2

A congestion avoidance scheme allows a network to operate in
the region of low delay and high throughput. Such schemes
prevent a network from entering the congested state.
Congestion avoidance is a prevention mechanism while
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congestion control is a recovery mechanism.

What is congestion avoidance algorithm in networking?
Congestion Avoidance Mechanism Random Early Detection
(RED) – It is similar to the DECbit scheme in that each router
is programmed to monitor its own queue length, and when it
detects that congestion is imminent, to notify the source to
adjust its congestion window.
What are the different types of congestion?
There are two types of congestion: recurring and non-recurring.
Recurring congestion can be expected to occur at the same time
every weekday as a result of high volumes of commuter traffic
traveling on roadways that are at or near their carrying
capacity.

5 Explain TCP Congestion control techniques in detail. CO2 (APR/MAY 2015)

Congestion Control- (MAY/JUN 2016)
(NOV/DEC 2015)
Congestion control refers to techniques and mechanisms that
can- Either prevent congestion before it happens
Or remove congestion after it has happened.
TCP Congestion Control-
TCP reacts to congestion by reducing the sender window size.
The size of the sender window is determined by the following
two factors-

Receiver window size

Congestion window size
1. Receiver Window Size-

Receiver window size is an advertisement of-

“How much data (in bytes) the receiver can receive

without acknowledgement?”

 Sender should not send data greater than receiver window

size.
 Otherwise, it leads to dropping the TCP segments which
causes TCP Retransmission.
 So, sender should always send data less than or equal to
receiver window size.
 Receiver dictates its window size to the sender through TCP
Header.

2. Congestion Window-
Sender should not send data greater than congestion window
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size.
Otherwise, it leads to dropping the TCP segments which causes
TCP Retransmission.
So, sender should always send data less than or equal to
congestion window size.
Different variants of TCP use different approaches to calculate
the size of congestion window.
Congestion window is known only to the sender and is not sent
over the links.
TCP Congestion Policy-
TCP’s general policy for handling congestion consists of
following three phases-
1. Slow Start
2. Congestion Avoidance
3. Congestion Detection
6 Explain how QoS is provided through Integrated Services. CO2
A QoS model that reserves bandwidth along a specific path on
the network. Applications ask the network for resource
reservation, and network devices monitor the flow of packets to
make sure network resources can accept the packets.
7 Explain how QoS is provided through Differentiated Services. CO2
8 Write short notes on (May 12) CO2
(i) TCP segment format
What is TCP segment format?
Services and Segment structure in TCP - GeeksforGeeks
A TCP segment consists of data bytes to be sent and a header
that is added to the data by TCP as shown: The header of a TCP
segment can range from 20-60 bytes. 40 bytes are for options. If
there are no options, a header is 20 bytes else it can be of upmost
60 bytes.

(ii) Silly window syndrome

Silly window syndrome (SWS) is a problem in computer
networking caused by poorly implemented TCP flow control. A
serious problem can arise in the sliding window operation when
the sending application program creates data slowly, the
receiving application program consumes data slowly, or both.
9 Explain SCTP in Detail . CO2 (May 17)
SCTP stands for Stream Control Transmission Protocol. It is a
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new reliable, messageoriented transport layer protocol. SCTP,

however, is mostly designed for Internet applications that have
recently been introduced. These new applications, such as IUA
(ISDN over IP), M2UA and M3UA (telephony signaling),
H.248 (media gateway control), H.323 (IP telephony), and SIP
(IP telephony), etc.
Features of SCTP
There are various features of SCTP, which are as follows –
 Transmission Sequence Number
 Stream Identifier
 Packets
 Flow Control
 Error Control
10 i) Compare the features of TCP and UDP. CO2 (Nov19)

The following table highlights the major differences

between TCP and UDP.

Key TCP UDP

It is a It is same as the
communication TCP protocol
s protocol, except this doesn’t
using which the guarantee the
data is error-checking and
transmitted data recovery. If
between you use this
systems over protocol, the data
the network.In will be sent
this, the data is continuously,
Definition
transmitted in irrespective of the
the form of issues in the
packets. It receiving end.
includes error-
checking,
guarantees the
delivery and
preserves the
order of the
data packets.

TCP is a UDP is a
connection- connectionless
Design
oriented protocol.
protocol.

Reliability TCP is more UDP, on the other

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reliable as it hand, provides

provides error only basic error
checking checking support
support and using checksum.
also So, the delivery of
guarantees data to the
delivery of data destination cannot
to the be guaranteed in
destination UDP as in case of
router. TCP.

ii) Explain the TCP Header format .

The TCP header in the Transmission Control

Protocol segment can range from 20 to 60 bytes.
The acronym of TCP is Transmission Control
Protocol. It is a protocol, practice, and regulations
that control online communication between
computers. The TCP(Transmission Control Protocol)
has two protocols: TCP and UDP.

11 Define UDP. Discuss the operations of UDP. Explain UDP CO2

checksum with one example.(May 16)
User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is a Transport Layer protocol.
UDP is a part of the Internet Protocol suite, referred to as
UDP/IP suite. Unlike TCP, it is an unreliable and
connectionless protocol. So, there is no need to establish a
connection prior to data transfer. The UDP helps to establish
low-latency and loss-tolerating connections establish over the
network.The UDP enables process to process communication.

UDP Header –

UDP header is an 8-bytes fixed and simple header, while for

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TCP it may vary from 20 bytes to 60 bytes. The first 8 Bytes

contains all necessary header information and the remaining
part consist of data. UDP port number fields are each 16 bits
long, therefore the range for port numbers is defined from 0 to
65535; port number 0 is reserved. Port numbers help to
distinguish different user requests or processes.

12 i) Explain the adaptive flow control and retransmission CO2

techniques used inTCP.
ii) With TCPs slow start and AIMD for congestion control
show how the windowsize will vary for a transmission where
every 5th packet is lost. Assume anadvertised
window size of 50 MSS. (May 17)
PART C
1 Discuss congestion avoidance algorithm like DEC bit method CO2
and random early detection in transport layer with an example.
(May 12,17)
2 Explain the significance of Clark’ssolution and CO2
Nagle’salgorithm. (Or)What is the
need for Nagle’s algorithm? How does it determine when to
transmit data? (May 13)
3 Why TCP does uses adaptive retransmission and describe its CO2
mechanism.(Nov13)
4 Explain how QoS is provided through Integrated Services and CO2
Differentiated Services.
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