CNT 5106

Spring 2023

Homework Assignment 1

1. Describe how DSL works to carry data over telephone line with frequency
division multiplexing? (5 points)

Answer: There is a dedicated telephone line between a home and the central
office. The frequency range of the telephone line is divided into three channels,
low-frequency channel for phone calls, one data channel for uploading, and one
data channel with a large bandwidth for downloading. At the two ends of the
phone line, one end at a home and the other end at a central office, DSL modems
are used to modulate data on the carrier signals of the two data channels or
demodulate data from the carrier signals.

2. Does Cable Internet use frequency division multiplexing? Does Cable Internet use
time division multiplexing? Describe how Cable Internet supports data
upload/download for a neighborhood? (10 points)

Answer: Yes. Yes. There is typically one cable line go through a neighborhood.
Besides the TV channels, there are two data channels, one for upload and one for
download, as well as a control channel, by frequency division multiplexing. The
upload/download channels are split into time slots, by time division multiplexing.
The control channel informs each home its assigned time slots, allowing multiple
homes to share the upload/download channels. There is a cable modem at each
home and a modem at the cable headend. Modems are used to modulate data on
the carrier signals of the two data channels or demodulate data from the carrier
signals.

3. If the data flows require certain amount of guaranteed bandwidth, is a packet

switched network or a circuit switched network a better choice for data delivery?

Answer: Circuit switched network is a better choice.

4. List the five-layer protocol stack that is used by the Internet.

Answer: Application layer, transport layer, network layer, data link layer,
physical layer
5. Consider a satellite link with a distance of 100 kilometers and a transmission rate
of 1 Mbps. The signal propagation speed is 2.5  108 meters/sec. What is the
maximum number of bits that the link carries on the fly during transmission?

Answer: 100,000 / (2.5  108) × 1,000,000 = 400

6. Consider sending a packet from a source host to a destination host over a fixed
route. List the delay components in the end-to-end delay. Which of these delays
are constant and which are variable?

Answer: The delay components are processing delays, transmission delays,

propagation delays, and queuing delays. All of these delays are fixed, except for
the queuing delays, which are variable.

7. Consider the throughput example corresponding to the following figure. Now

suppose that there are M client-server pairs rather than 10. Denote Rs, Rc, and R for
the rates of the server links, client links, and network link. Assumes all other links
have abundant capacity and that there is no other traffic in the network besides the
traffic generated by the M client-server pairs. Derive a general expression for
throughput in terms of Rs, Rc, R and M.

Answer: Throughput = min{Rs, Rc, R/M}

8. In modern packet-switched networks, the source host segments long, application-
layer messages (for example, an image or a music file) into smaller packets and sends
the packets into the network. The receiver then reassembles the packets back into the
original message. We refer to this process as message segmentation. Figure 1.27
illustrates the end-to-end transport of a message with and without message
segmentation. Consider a message that is 8 · bits long that is to be sent from
source to destination in Figure 1.27. Suppose each link in the figure is 2 Mbps. Ignore
propagation, queuing, and processing delays.
a. Consider sending the message from source to destination without message
segmentation. How long does it take to move the message from the source host to
the first packet switch? Keeping in mind that each switch uses store-and-forward
packet switching, what is the total time to move the message from source host to
destination host?

Answer: Time to send message from source host to first packet switch =
8 106
sec = 4 sec .With store-and-forward switching, the total time to move
2 106
message from source host to destination host = 4 sec 3 hops = 12 sec

b. Now suppose that the message is segmented into 800 packets, with each packet
being 10,000 bits long. How long does it take to move the first packet from
source host to the first switch? When the first packet is being sent from the first
switch to the second switch, the second packet is being sent from the source host
to the first switch. At what time will the second packet be fully received at the
first switch?

Answer: Time to send 1st packet from source host to first packet switch =
1  104
sec = 5 m sec . Time at which 2nd packet is received at the first switch =
2  106

time at which 1st packet is received at the second switch = 2  5m sec = 10 m sec

c. How long does it take to move the file from source host to destination host when
message segmentation is used? Compare this result with your answer in part (a)
and comment.

Answer: Time at which 1st packet is received at the destination host =

5 m sec 3 hops = 15 m sec . After this, every 5msec one packet will be received;
thus time at which last (800th) packet is received
= 15 m sec+ 799 * 5m sec = 4.01 sec . It can be seen that delay in using message
segmentation is significantly less (almost 1/3rd).
 d. In addition to reducing delay, what are the reasons to use message segmentation?
Answer:
i. Without message segmentation, if bit errors are not tolerated, if there is a
single bit error, the whole message has to be retransmitted (rather than a
single packet).
ii. Without message segmentation, huge packets (containing HD videos, for
example) are sent into the network. Routers have to accommodate these huge
packets. Smaller packets have to queue behind enormous packets and suffer
unfair delays.

e. Discuss the drawbacks of message segmentation.

Answer:
i. Packets have to be put in sequence at the destination.
ii. Message segmentation results in many smaller packets. Since header size is
usually the same for all packets regardless of their size, with message
segmentation the total amount of header bytes is more.

Figure 1.27 End-to-end message transport: (a) without message

segmentation; (b) with message segmentation.

9. Skype offers a service that allows you to make a phone call from a PC to an ordinary
phone. This means that the voice call must pass through both the Internet and through
telephone network. Discuss how this might be done.

Answer: The circuit-switched telephone networks and the Internet are connected
together at "gateways". When a Skype user (connected to the Internet) calls an
ordinary telephone, a circuit is established between a gateway and the telephone user
over the circuit switched network. The skype user's voice is sent in packets over the
Internet to the gateway. At the gateway, the voice signal is reconstructed and then
sent over the circuit. In the other direction, the voice signal is sent over the circuit
switched network to the gateway. The gateway packetizes the voice signal and sends
the voice packets to the Skype user.