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2 Marks
1. What are the functions of MAC?
MAC sub layer resolves the contention for the shared media. It contains synchronization,
flag, flow and error control specifications necessary to move information from one place to
another, as well as the physical address of the next station to receive and route a packet.

2. What is Ethernet?
Ethernet is a multiple-access network, meaning that a set of nodes send and receive
frames over a shared link.

3. Define Repeater?
A repeater is a device that forwards digital signals, much like an amplifier forwards
analog signals. However, no more than four repeaters may be positioned between any pairs of
hosts, meaning that an Ethernet has a total reach of only 2,500m.

4. Why Ethernet is said to be a I-persistent protocol?

An adaptor with a frame to send transmits with probability ‘1 ‘whenever a busy line goes
idle.

5. What is exponential back off? (Nov 2016)

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.

6. What are the four prominent wireless technologies?

 Bluetooth
 Wi-Fi(formally known as 802.11)
 WiMAX(802.16)
 Third generation or 3G cellular wireless.

7. Define Bluetooth? (May 2016)

Bluetooth fills the niche of very short-range communication between mobile phones,
PDAs, notebook computers, and other personal or peripheral devices. For example, Bluetooth
can be used to connect mobile phones to a headset, or a notebook computer to a printer.

8. Explain the term handoff?

If the phone is involved in a call at the time , the call must be transferred to the new base
station in what is called a hand off.

9. What is the use of Switch?

It is used to forward the packets between shared media LANs such as Ethernet. Such
switches are sometimes known by the obvious name of LAN switches.

10. What is meant by circuit switching? (NOV/DEC 2010)

Circuit switching is a process that establishes connections on demand and permits
exclusive use of those connections until released.
11. What is Spanning tree?
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It is for the bridges to select the ports over which they will forward frames. A spanning
tree is a subgraph of this graph that covers (spans) all the vertices but contains no cycles. That is,
a spanning tree keeps all of the vertices of the original graph but throws out some of the edges

12. What are the three pieces of information in the configuration messages?
1. The ID for the bridge that is sending the message.
2. The ID for what the sending bridge believes to the root bridge.
3. The distance, measured in hops, from the sending bridge to the root bridge.

13. What is broadcast?

Broadcast is simple – each bridge forwards a frame with a destination broadcast address
out on each active (selected) port other than the one on which the frame was received.

14. What is multicast?

It can be implemented with each host deciding for itself whether or not to accept the
message.

15. How does a given bridge learn whether it should forward a multicast frame over a
given port?
It learns exactly the same way that a bridge learns whether it should forward a unicast
frame over a particular port- by observing the source addresses that it receives over that port.

16. Differentiate fast Ethernet and gigabit Ethernet. (NOV/DEC 2012)

Fast Ethernet cards connect to networks at a rate of 100 Mbps while Gigabit network cards can
connect at speeds up to 1000mb/s. The main difference between the two is speed. A fast Ethernet
card can run on bandwidths at 100mb/s while a gigabit Ethernet can run at ten times that speed.
However, the existence of FDDIs around made this technology more like a stepping stone to
something better – enter the gigabit card. Gigabit networks are made to run the best at Layer 3
switching meaning it has more route functionality than the 100mbs fast Ethernet.

17. What is Transceiver?

Transceiver is a device which connects host adaptor to Ethernet Cable. It receives and sends
signal

18. What is the difference between switch and bridge? (NOV/DEC 2012)

Bridge Switch

A bridge is device which operates at the A bridge with more than two interface
data link layer. It may be used to join two (ports)is also known as a switch
LAN segment(A,B),Constructing a larger
LAN

Bridges receive Ethernet frames then A switch, on the other hand ,forward the
forward all frames, like a repeater frame to only the required interfaces

Bridges learns the association between the The switch reduces the number the
system MAC addresses and the interface number of packets on the other LAN
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ports. segments, by sending the packet only
where it need to go.

.
19. Define bridge and switch. (NOV/DEC 2012)
 Bridges are software based ,while switches are hardware based
 Bridges can only have one spanning –tree instance per bridge, while switches can
have many
 Bridges can only have up to 16 ports, whereas a switch can have hundreds.

20. State the difference between token ring and FDDI? (NOV/DEC 2010)

Token ring FDDI

 It uses shielded twisted pair cables It uses fibre optic cables.

 It uses Manchester encoding It uses 4B/5B before NRZ-1 for encoding
 It supports data rate upto 16Mbps It supports data rate upto100 Mpbs
 It is implemented as a ring, switch It is implemented as dual ring, nodes with
or multistation access unit single attachment station and dual
attachment station with concentrator.

21. Define a Bridge. (NOV/DEC 2010)

A network bridge is an abstract device that connects multiple network segments
along the data link layer. A concrete example of a bridge in a computer network is the
network switch.

22. A network with bandwidth of 10 Mbps can pass only an average of 12,000 frames per
minute with each frame carrying an average of 10,000 bits. What is the throughput of this
network? (APRIL/MAY 2011)
Throughput= (12,000*10,000)/60=2Mbps.
It is 1/5th of bandwidth.
23. What is the role of VCI?
A virtual channel identifier (VCI) distinguishes virtual channels (also known as circuits) created
in a packet/cell switched network. A VCI has multiple circuits per communication channel and is
primarily used for managing the unique identification of each created circuit.

A VCI is also known as a virtual circuit identifier (VCI).

24. List the two main limitations of bridges.Nov/Dec 2013

– Limited scalability
 to O(1,000) hosts
 not to global networks
– Not heterogeneous
 no translation between frame formats
25. Define source routing. Nov/Dec 2013
Source routing allows a sender of a packet to partially or completely specify the route the
packet takes through the network.
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Source routing allows easier troubleshooting, improved trace route, and enables a node to
discover all the possible routes to a host. It does not allow a source to directly manage network
performance by forcing packets to travel over one path to prevent congestion on another.

26. Why should Ethernet frame should be 512 bytes long?

A Valid collision can only happen within the first 512 bits of frame transmission.
The 512 bits include 12 bytes of addresses, plus 2 bytes used in the type/length field ,plus 46
bytes of data,plus 4 bytes of FCS. The preamble is not considered part of the actual frame in
these calculations.

27. Define ICMP? (Or) Expand ICMP and write the function (May 2016)
Internet Control Message Protocol is a collection of error messages that are sent back to
the source host whenever a router or host is unable to process an IP datagram successfully

28. Define Subnetting? (Nov 2015)

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 to several physical networks, which are now referred to as subnets.

29. What is CIDR? (MAY/JUNE2007)

Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) is a methodology of allocating and routing packets. It
was introduced in 1993 to replace the prior addressing architecture of design in the with the
goal to slow the growth of routing tables on routers across the Internet, and to help slow the rapid
of addresses, uses a syntax of specifying IP addresses for IPv4 and IPv6, using the base address
of the network followed by a slash and the size of the routing prefix, e.g., 192.168.0.0/16 (IPv4),
and 2001:db8::/32 (IPv6).

30. What is (Differ) ARP and RARP? (MAY/JUNE 2009)

ARP stands for Address Resolution Protocol. It is used to convert IP address to Physical address
RARP stands for Reverse Address Resolution Protocol. It is used to convert Physical address
into IP address.

31. What is DHCP? (NOV/DEC 2012)

 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a protocol designed to provide
information dynamically.
 It is a client-server program.
 DHCP is used to assign addresses to a host dynamically.
 Basically, DHCP server has two databases.
 The first database is addresses to IP addresses.

32. What are the salient features of IPV6? (NOV/DEC 2012)
 New Packet Format and Header
 Large Address Space
 State full and Stateless IPv6 address
 Multicast
 Integrated

33. Give the CIDR notation for class A, B and C. APR/MAY 2011)

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Class Binary Dotted-Decimal CID
R
A 11111111 00000000 00000000 00000000 255.0.0.0 /8
B 11111111 11111111 00000000 00000000 255.255.0.0 /16
C 11111111 11111111 11111111 00000000 255.255.255.0 /24

34. What is IP addressing?

Internet address or IP address is 32 bit identifier that uniquely and universally defines a
host or router connected to the internet.

35. What is the need of subnetting. (NOV/DEC 2013)

Subnetting is the technique used to break down networks into subnets. With the advent of
internet, IP based networks become hugely popular. Due tothis available IP addresses depleted at
huge rate. To overcome this shortage concept of subnetting was introduced. Subnetting removes
the classification of IP addresses according to classes and helps in creating further subnetworks
from existing range of a IP network range.
For e.g A class B IP address can be broken down into further smaller networks.

36. What is the need for ARP? (NOV/DEC 2013) (Nov 2015)

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is a protocol for mapping an Internet Protocol

address (IP address) to a physical machine address that is recognized in the local network. For
example, in IP Version 4, the most common level of IP in use today, an address is 32 bits long.
In an Ethernet local area network, however, addresses for attached devices are 48 bits long. (The
physical machine address is also known as a Media Access Control or MAC address.) A table,
usually called the ARP cache, is used to maintain a correlation between each MAC address and
its corresponding IP address. ARP provides the protocol rules for making this correlation and
providing address conversion in both directions.

37. Draw Ethernet frame format

38. Define collision detection?

In Ethernet, all these hosts are competing for access to the same link, and as a
consequence, they are said to be in the same collision detection.

39. What are the four steps involves in scanning?

The technique for selecting an AP is called scanning and involves the
following four steps:
1. The node sends a Probe frame.
2. All APs within reach reply with a Probe Response frame.
3. The node selects one of the access points, and sends that AP an Association
Request frame.
4. The AP replies with an Association Response frame.

40. Define Piconet

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The basic Bluetooth network configuration, called a piconet, consists of a master device
and up to seven slave devices

41. Differentiate persistent and non persistent CSMA (Nov/Dec 2014)

In 1-persistent CSMA if the medium is busy, the channel will be sensed until it is idle, then it
will transmit immediately. This means that collisions are almost guaranteed to occur.

In non-persistent CSMA if the medium is busy, there will be a random delay for retransmission.
This reduces the probability of collisions, but wastes the capacity.

42. State the uses of valid transmission timer (Nov/Dec 2014)

The Valid Transmission Timer (TVX) times the period between correct frame
transmissions, therefore is a check for faults on the ring. If it expires then a new claim process
begins

43. What do you understand by CSMA protocol? (May 2015)

Carrier Sense Multiple Access is a probabilistic Media Access control (MAC) protocol in
which a node verifies the absence of other traffic before transmitting on a shared transmission
medium, such as an electrical bus

44. List the functions of bridges (May 2015)

1) Pass data frames between networks using MAC address
2) Break up collision domains
3) Forwards all broadcast messages

45. Define hidden node problem (May 2016)

In wireless networking, the hidden node problem or hidden terminal problem occurs
when a node is visible from a wireless access point (AP), but not from other nodes
communicating with that AP.

46. What is scatternet? (Nov 2016)

The bluetooth network consisting of one or more piconets is known as scatternet. The
devices in one piconet type may function as master or slave in another piconet type of the same
csatternet

47. Identify the class of the following IP address: (a) 110.34.56.45 (b) 212.208.63.23 (Nov 2015)
110.34.56.45 - Class A

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212.208.63.23 - Class C

48. What is fragmentation and reassembly?

IP fragmentation is an Internet Protocol (IP) process that breaks datagrams into smaller
pieces (fragments), so that packets may be formed that can pass through a link with a smaller
maximum transaction unit (MTU) than the original datagram size. The fragments are
reassembled by the receiving host.

16 Marks

1. Discuss Medium Access Layer Protocols in detail

 When nodes or stations are connected and use a common link, called a multipoint or
broadcast link, we need a multiple-access protocol to coordinate access to the link.

TAXONOMY OF MULTIPLE ACCESS PROTOCOLS

Multiple-access protocols

Random access protocols Controlled-access protocols Channelization protocols

ALOHA Reservation FDMA

CSMA Polling TDMA

CSMA/CD
Token Passing CDMA

CSMA/CA

RANDOM ACCESS
 In random access or contention methods, no station is superior to another station and
none is assigned to control over another.
 No station permits, or does not permit another station to send.

Two Features of Random Access

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 There is no scheduled time for a station to transmit as the name implies. No rules specify
which station should send next.
 Stations fight with one another to access the medium by a method called contention
methods.

CSMA - Carrier Sense Multiple Access

CD - Collision Detection
CA - Collision Avoidance

2. Explain in detail about Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) and its frame format (OR) Explain the
physical properties of Ethernet 802.3 with necessary diagram (NOV 2014)(May,Nov 2015 &
2016)

Introduction:
 The IEEE 802.3 standards committee developed a widely used LAN standard called
Ethernet, which covers both the MAC layer and the physical layer.
 The Ethernet is a multiple-access network, meaning that a set of nodes send and receive
frames over a shared link.
 The IEEE 802.3 standard uses CSMA for controlling media access and the 1-persistent
algorithm explained earlier, although the lost time owing to collisions is very small.
 Also, IEEE 802.3 uses a back-off scheme known as binary exponential backoff.
 The use of random backoff minimizes subsequent collisions.
 This back-off scheme requires a random delay to be doubled after each retransmission.
 The user drops the frame after 16 retries.
 The combination of the 1-persistent scheme and binary exponential backoff results in an
efficient scheme.
 The Ethernet versions have different data rates.
 Version 1000BaseSX, carrying 1 Gb/s, and 10GBase-T, carrying 10 Gb/s, hold the most
promise for the future of high-speed LAN development

Physical properties:
 An Ethernet segment is implemented on a coaxial cable of up to 500m.
 This cable is similar to the type used for cable TV, except that it typically has an
impedance of 50 ohms instead of cable TV’s 75 ohms.
 Hosts connect to an Ethernet segment by tapping into it; taps must be at least 2.5 m apart.
 A transceiver – a small device directly attached to the tap – detects when the line is idle
and drives the signal when the host is transmitting.
 It also receives incoming signals.

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 The transceiver is, in turn, connected to an Ethernet adaptor, which is plugged into the
host.
 Multiple Ethernet segments can be joined together by repeaters.
 A repeater is a device that forwards digital signals, much like an amplifier forwards
analog signals.
 However, no more than four repeaters may be positioned between any pair of hosts,
meaning that an Ethernet has a total reach of only 2,500 m.
 Rather than using a 50-ohm coax cable, an Ethernet can be constructed from a thinner
cable known as 10Base2; the original cable is called 10Base5 (the two cables are
commonly called thin-net and thick-net, respectively).
 The “10” in 10Base2 means that the network operates at 10 Mbps, “Base” refers to the
fact that the cable is used in a baseband system, and the “2” means that a given segment
can be no longer than 200 m.
 Today, a third cable technology is predominantly used, called 10BaseT, where the “T”
stands for twisted pair.
 A 10BaseT segment is usually limited to less than 100 m in length.
 Data transmitted by any one host on the Ethernet reaches all the other hosts.
 This is the good news.
 The bad news is that all these hosts are competing for access to the same link, and as a
consequence, they are said to be in the same collision domain.

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Access Protocol:

 The algorithm that controls access to the shared Ethernet link.

 This algorithm is commonly called the Ethernet’s media access control (MAC). It is
typically implemented in hardware on the network adaptor.
Frame Format:
A brief description of the frame fields follows and is shown in the below figure.

 Preamble is 7 bytes and consists of a pattern of alternating 0s and 1s. This field is
used to provide bit synchronization.

 Start of frame consists of a 10101011 pattern and indicates the start of the frame to
the receiver.

 Destination address specifies the destination MAC address.

 Source address specifies the source MAC address.

 Length/Type specifies the frame size, in bytes. The maximum Ethernet frame

 size is 1,518 bytes.

 LLC data is data from the LLC layer.

 Pad is used to increase the frame length to the value required for collision detection to
work.

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 Frame check sequence is 32-bit CRC for error checking.

Ethernet IEEE 802.3 LAN frame

Address
 Each host on an Ethernet – has a unique Ethernet address.
 Ethernet addresses are typically printed in a form humans can read as a sequence of six
numbers separated by colons.
 Each number corresponds to 1 byte of the 6-byte address and is given by a pair of
hexadecimal digits, one for each of the 4-bit nibbles in the byte; leading 0s are dropped.
 For example, 8:0:2b:e4:b1:2 is the human-readable representation of Ethernet address as
follows
00001000 00000000 00101011 11100100 10110001 00000010
 Each frame transmitted on an Ethernet is received by every adaptor connected to that
Ethernet.
 Each adaptor recognizes those frames addressed to its address and passes only those
frames on to the host.
An Ethernet adaptor receives all frames and accepts
 Frames addressed to its own address
 Frames addressed to the broadcast address
 Frames addressed to a multicast address, if it has been instructed to listen to that
address
 All frames, if it has been placed in promiscuous mode.

It passes to the host only the frames that it accepts.

Transmitter algorithm:
1-Persistent:
 The 1-persistent method is simple and straightforward.

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 In this method, after the station finds the line idle, it sends its frame immediately (with
probability 1).
 This method has the highest chance of collision because two or more stations may find
the line idle and send their frames immediately.
P-Persistent:
 The p-persistent method is used if the channel has time slots with a slot duration equal to
or greater than the maximum propagation time.
 The p-persistent approach combines the advantages of the other two strategies.
 It reduces the chance of collision and improves efficiency.
In this method, after the station finds the line idle it follows these steps:
 With probability p, the station sends its frame.
 With probability q=1-p, the station waits for the beginning of the next time slot and
checks the line again.
 If the line is idle, it goes to step 1.
 If the line is busy, it acts as though a collision has occurred and uses the
backoff procedure.

3. Discuss the functioning (Key requirements) of wireless LAN in detail. (May 2015, Nov 2015)
May 2016

Wireless technologies differ from wired links in some important ways, while at the same
time sharing many common properties. Like wired links, issues of bit errors are of great concern
—typically even more so due to the unpredictable noise environment of most wireless links.
Framing and reliability also have to be addressed.

Unlike wired links, power is a big issue for wireless, especially because wireless links are
often used by small mobile devices (like phones and sensors) that have limited access to power
(e.g., a small battery). Furthermore, you can’t go blasting away at arbitrarily high power with a
radio transmitter—there are concerns about interference with other devices and usually
regulations about how much power a device may emit at any given frequency.

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Introduction IEEE has defined the specification for the wireless LAN called IEEE 802.11,
which covers the physical and Data Link Layers.

Architecture

IEEE 802.11 standard defines 2 kinds of services.

1. The basic service set (BSS)

2. The extended service set (ESS)

1) Basic Service Set (BSS):

A BSS is made of stationary (immobile) or mobile wireless stations and a possible central base
station known as the access point AP.

Mesh or ad hoc network

The BSS without an AP is stand alone network and cannot send data to other BSS. It is called an
ad hoc architecture.

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2) Extended Service Set (ESS):

An ESS is made up of two or more BSS with AP. The BSS are connected through a distribution
system, which is usually a wired LAN.

An ESS uses two types of stations mobile and stationary. The mobile stations are normal
stations inside a BSS. The stationary stations are AP stations that are part of the wired LAN.
When BSS are connected, the network is called an infrastructure network. In this the stations
within reach of one another can communicate without the use of an AP. But communication
between two stations in two different BSS usually occurs via two AP’s.

Station Types
Three qualitatively different levels of mobility in a wireless LAN.
1. No transmission
2. BSS transition
3. ESS transition

1) No transmission:

The first level is no mobility, such as when a receiver must be in a fixed location to receive a
directional transmission form the base station of a single BSS.

2) BSS transition:

It is defined as a station movement from one BSS to another BSS within the same ESS
(Bluetooth).

3) ESS transition

It is defined as a station movement from a BSS in one ESS to a BSS with in another ESS. The
third level is mobility between bases, as is the case with cell phones and Wi-Fi.

4. Discuss IEEE 802.11 (or) WI-FI in detail (or) MAC layer functions in IEEE802.11 (May 2015,
2016)

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802.11 is designed for use in a limited geographical area (homes, office buildings,
campuses), and its primary challenge is to mediate access to a shared communication medium—
in this case, signals propagating through space.

Physical properties

IEEE 802.11 defines the specification for the conversion of bits to a signal in the physical layer.
The IEEE 802.11 physical layer is of four types.
1. Frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS): It is a method in which the sender sends
one carrier frequency for a short amount of time, and then hops to another carrier
frequency for the same amount of time, hops again to still another same amount of time
and so on.
This technique makes use of 79 channels. FHSS operates in the 2.4 GHz ISM band and supports
data rates of 1 Mb/s to 2 Mb/s.
1. If the band width of the original signal is B, the allocated spread spectrum
bandwidth is N X B.
2. The amount of time spent at each sub band is called the dwell time.

2. Direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS): It uses seven channels, each supporting data
rates of 1 Mb/s to 2 Mb/s. The operating frequency range is 2.4 GHz ISM band.
In DSSS each bit by the sender is a replaced by the sequence of bits called chip code. To avoid
buffering, the time needed to send one chip code must be the same as the time needed to send
one original bit.
3. IEEE 802.11a: Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM): IEEE 802.11a uses
OFDM, which uses 12 orthogonal channels in the 5 GHz range. All the sub bands are
used by one source at a given time. The common data rates are 18 Mbps and 54 Mbps.

4. IEEE 802.11b: High Rate Direct-Sequence spread spectrum (HRDSSS): IEEE 802.11b
operates in the 2.4 GHz band and supports data rates of 5.5 Mb/s to 11 Mb/s. It is similar
to DSSS except for the encoding method which is called complementary code keying
(CCK). CCK encodes four or eight bits to one CCK symbol.

5. IEEE 802.11g: (OFDM): IEEE 802.11g operates at 2.4 GHz and supports even higher
data rates.

Protocol Stack

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IEEE 802.11 MAC Layer (May 2015)

IEEE 802.11 provides several key functionalities: reliable data delivery, media access control,
and security features.

The MAC layer consists of two sub layers:

1. The distributed-coordination function algorithm (DCF) and

2. The point-coordination function algorithm (PCF).

1) Point Coordination Function (PCF) Algorithm

The point-coordination function (PCF) provides a contention-free service. PCF is an optional

feature in IEEE 802.11 and is built on top of the DCF layer to provide centralized media access.

2) Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) Algorithm

The DCF algorithm uses contention resolution, and its sublayer implements the CSMA scheme
for media access control and contention resolution.

Begin DCF Algorithm for Wireless 802.11 MAC – MACA (NOV/DEC 2014)
1. The sender senses the medium for any ongoing traffic.

2. If the medium is idle, the sender waits for a time interval equal to IFS. Then the sender
senses the medium again. If the medium is still idle, the sender transmits the frame
immediately.

1. After the station is found ideal, the station waits for a period of time, called the
distributed inter-frame space (DIFS).

3. The station sends a control frame called the request to send (RTS).After receiving the
RTS and waiting a short period called the short inter-frame space (SIFS), the destination

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station sends a control frame called clear to send (CTS), to the source station. This
control frame indicates that the destination station is ready to receive data.

Two or more stations made try to send RTS frames at the same time, these control frames
may collide. The sender assumes there has been a collision if it has not received CTS
frame from the receiver and it tries again.

4. The source station sends data after waiting an amount of time equal to SIFS.

5. The destination station after waiting for an amount of time equal to SIFS sends and
acknowledgement to show that the frame has been received.

6. When a station sends an RTS frame, it includes the duration of the time that it needs to
occupy the channel. The stations that are affected by this transmission create a timer
called a Network Allocation Vector (NAV) that all shows how much time must pass
before these stations are allowed to check the channel for idleness.

MACAW (NOV/DEC 2014)

WLAN data transmission collisions can still happen, and MACA for Wireless
(MACAW) is brought to extend the functionality of MACA. It demands nodes to send
acknowledgments after every successful frame transmission. MACAW is commonly used in ad
hoc networks. Moreover, it is the basis of various other MAC protocols found in wireless sensor
networks (WSN)

Collision Avoidance:

 Hidden node problem

 Exposed node problem

 A wireless protocol would follow the same algorithm as the Ethernet – wait until the link
becomes idle before transmitting and back off should a collision occur – and to a first
approximation, this is what 802.11 does.
 Consider the situation depicted in the below figure, where A and C are both within range
of B but not each other.
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 Suppose both A and C want to communicate with B and so they each send it a frame.
 A and C are unaware of each other since their signals do not carry that far.
 These two frames collide with each other at B, but unlike an Ethernet, neither A nor C is
aware of this collision.
 A and C are said to be hidden nodes with respect to each other.

 A related problem, called the exposed node problem, occurs under the circumstances
illustrated in the below figure, where each of the four nodes is able to send and receive
signals that reach just the nodes to its immediate left and right.
 For example, B can exchange frames with A and C but it cannot reach D, while C can
reach B and D but not A.

Distribution system

Some nodes are allowed to roam (e.g., your laptop) and some are connected to a wired
network infrastructure. 802.11 calls these base stations access points (APs), and they are
connected to each other by a so-called distribution system. Figure 2.32 illustrates a distribution
system that connects three access points, each of which services the nodes in some region. Each
access point operates on some channel in the appropriate frequency range, and each AP will
typically be on a different channel than its neighbors

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Although two nodes can communicate directly with each other if they are within reach of
each other, the idea behind this configuration is that each node associates itself with one access
point.
For node A to communicate with node E, for example, A first sends a frame to its access
point (AP-1), which forwards the frame across the distribution system to AP-3, which finally
transmits the frame to E. How AP-1 knew to forward the message to AP-3 is beyond the scope of
802.11; it may have used the bridging protocol described in the next chapter (Section 3.1.4).
What 802.11 does specify is how nodes select their access points and, more interestingly, how
this algorithm works in light of nodes moving from one cell to another.

The technique for selecting an AP is called scanning and involves the following four steps:
1. The node sends a Probe frame.
2. All APs within reach reply with a Probe Response frame.
3. The node selects one of the access points and sends that AP an Association Request frame.
4. The AP replies with an Association Response frame.

MAC Frame

The three frame types in IEEE 802.11 are control frames, data-carrying frames, and management
frames.

The frame format for the 802.11 MAC is shown in the below diagram and is described as
follows.

 The frame control (FC) field provides information on the type of frame: control
frame, data frame, or management frame.

 Duration/connection ID (D/I) refers to the time allotted for the successful

transmission of the frame.

 The addresses field denotes the 6-byte source and destination address fields.

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 The sequence control (SC) field consists of 4 bits reserved for fragmentation and
reassembly and 12 bits for a sequence number of frames between a particular
transmitter and receiver.

 The frame body field contains a MAC service data unit or control information.

 The cyclic redundancy check (CRC) field is used for error detection.

IEEE 802.11 MAC frame

Control frames ensure reliable data delivery. The control frames are used for accessing the
channel and acknowledgement frames. It consist of

FC D Address 1 Address 2 FCS FC D Address 1 FCS

RTS CTS or ACK

Management frames are used to monitor and manage communication among various users in the
IEEE 802.11 LAN through access points.

5. Briefly discuss Bluetooth (IEEE 802.15.1)

Bluetooth fills the niche of very short range communication between mobile phones,
PDAs, notebook computers, and other personal or peripheral devices. For example, Bluetooth
can be used to connect a mobile phone to a headset or a notebook computer to a keyboard.

Bluetooth is a more convenient alternative to connecting two devices with a wire. This
means that Bluetooth radios can use quite low power transmission, since transmission power is
one of the main factors affecting bandwidth and range of wireless links. This matches the target
applications for Bluetooth-enabled devices—most of them are battery powered (such as the
ubiquitous phone headset) and hence it is important that they not consume much power

Bluetooth operates in the license-exempt band at 2.45 GHz. Bluetooth links have typical
bandwidths around 1 to 3 Mbps and a range of about 10 m. For this reason, and because the
communicating devices typically belong to one individual or group, Bluetooth is sometimes
categorized as a Personal Area Network (PAN).
Bluetooth is specified by an industry consortium called the Bluetooth Special Interest
Group.
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The basic Bluetooth network configuration, called a piconet, consists of a master device
and up to seven slave devices, as shown in Figure 2.35. Any communication is between the
master and a slave; the slaves do not communicate directly with each other. Because slaves have
a simpler role, their Bluetooth hardware and software can be simpler and cheaper.

Since Bluetooth operates in an license-exempt band, it is required to use a spread

spectrum technique (as discussed at the start of this section) to deal with possible interference in
the band. It uses frequency-hopping with 79 channels (frequencies), using each for 625 μs at a
time. This provides a natural time slot for Bluetooth to use for synchronous time division
multiplexing. A frame takes up 1, 3, or 5 consecutive time slots. Only the master can start to
transmit in odd-numbered slots. A slave can start to transmit in an even-numbered slot—but only
in response to a request from the master during the previous slot, thereby preventing any
contention between the slave devices

A slave device can be parked; that is, it is set to an inactive, low-power state. A parked
device cannot communicate on the piconet; it can only be reactivated by the master. A piconet
can have up to 255 parked devices in addition to its active slave devices.

6. Discuss the various aspects of Bridges (Nov/Dec2014)

INTRODUCTION
 The bridge is designed for interconnecting similar LAN’s.
 It has its own processor, memory and two NIC (Network Interface Card) cards to connect
the two portions of a network.
 It operates at the physical as well as data link layer.
 The main idea of using a bridge is to divide a big network into smaller sub-networks,
called segments
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Learning Bridges
The first optimization we can make to a bridge is to observe that it need not forward all
frames that it receives. Consider the bridge in Figure 3.9. Whenever a frame from host A that is
addressed to host B arrives on port 1, there is no need for the bridge to forward the frame out
over port 2.

The idea is for each bridge to inspect the source address in all the frames it receives. Thus, when
host A sends a frame to a host on either side of the bridge, the bridge receives this frame and
records the fact that a frame from host A was just received on port 1. In this way, the bridge can
build a table just like Table 3.4.
Each packet carries a global address, and the bridge decides which output to send a
packet on by looking up that address in a table.
When a bridge first boots, this table is empty; entries are added over time. Also, a timeout
is associated with each entry, and the bridge discards the entry after a specified period of time.
This is to protect against the situation in which a host—and, as a consequence, its LAN address
— is moved from one network to another. Thus, this table is not necessarily complete. Should
the bridge receive a frame that is addressed to a host not currently in the table, it goes ahead and
forwards the frame out on all the other ports. In other words, this table is simply an optimization
that filters out some frames; it is not required for correctness.

Implementation
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The code that implements the learning bridge algorithm is quite simple, and we sketch it
here.
Structure BridgeEntry defines a single entry in the bridge’s forwarding table; these are
stored in a Map structure (which supports mapCreate, mapBind, and mapResolve operations) to
enable entries to be efficiently located when packets arrive from sources already in the table.
The constant MAX TTL specifies how long an entry is kept in the table before it is
discarded

Spanning Tree Algorithm

The preceding strategy works just fine until the extended LAN has a loop in it, in which
case it fails in a horrible way—frames potentially loop through the extended LAN forever.

This is easy to see in the example depicted in Figure 3.10, where, for example, bridges B1, B4,
and B6 form a loop.
Whatever the cause, bridges must be able to correctly handle loops.

This problem is addressed by having the bridges run a distributed spanning tree algorithm.
If you think of the extended LAN as being represented by a graph that possibly has loops
(cycles), then a spanning tree is a subgraph of this graph that covers (spans) all the vertices but
contains no cycles. That is, a spanning tree keeps all of the vertices of the original graph but
throws out some of the edges. For example, Figure 3.11 shows a cyclic graph on the left and one
of possibly many spanning trees on the right.

The idea of a spanning tree is simple enough: It’s a subset of the actual network topology
that has no loops and that reaches all the LANs in the extended LAN. The hard part is how all of
the bridges coordinate their decisions to arrive at a single view of the spanning tree. After all,
one topology is typically able to be covered by multiple spanning trees. The answer lies in the
spanning tree protocol

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The main idea of the spanning tree is for the bridges to select the ports over which they will
forward frames.

The algorithm selects ports as follows.

 Each bridge has a unique identifier; for our purposes, we use the labels B1, B2, B3, and so on.
 The algorithm first elects the bridge with the smallest ID as the root of the spanning tree;
 Next, each bridge computes the shortest path to the root and notes which of its ports is on this
path.
 Finally, all the bridges connected to a given LAN elect a single designated bridge that will be
responsible for forwarding frames toward the root bridge

Limitations of Bridge

 Scalability
 Heterogenity

 On the issue of scale, it is not realistic to connect more than a few LANs by means of bridges,
where in practice few typically means “tens of.”

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 On the issue of heterogeneity, bridges are fairly limited in the kinds of networks they can
interconnect. In particular, bridges make use of the network’s frame header and so can support
only networks that have exactly the same format for addresses.

7. Discuss the various aspects of Switches in detail.

Introduction
 A switch is a combination of a hub and a bridge.
 It can interconnect two or more workstations, but like a bridge, it observes traffic flow
and learns.
 When a frame arrives at a switch, the switch examines the destination address and
forwards the frame out the one necessary connection.
1. Workstations that connect to a hub are on a shared segment.
2. Workstations that connect to a switch are on a switched segment.
 The backplane of a switch is fast enough to support multiple data transfers at one time.
 A switch that employs a cut-through architecture is one that passes on the frame before
the entire frame has arrived at the switch.
 Multiple workstations connected to a switch use dedicated segments. This is a very
efficient way to isolate heavy users from the network.
 A switch can allow simultaneous access to multiple servers, or multiple simultaneous
connections to a single server.

Major role of Switches

 Isolating traffic patterns and providing multiple accesses.
 This design is usually done by the network manager.
Switches are easy to install and have components that are hot-swappable.

Advantages of switches
1. Switches divide a network into several isolated channels or collision domains
2. Reduce the possibility of collision
3. Each channel has its own network capasity

Limitations of switches
1. Although contains buffers to accommodate bursts of traffic, can become overwhelmed by
heavy traffic
2. Device cannot detect collision when buffer full
3. Some higher level protocols do not detect error

Full Duplex Switches

 A full duplex switch allows for simultaneous transmission and reception of data to
and from a workstation.
 Problem with Ethernet – half duplex.
 This full duplex connection helps to eliminate collisions.
 To support a full duplex connection to a switch, two sets of wires are necessary - one
for the receive operation and one for the transmit operation.
Workstations connected to a dedicated segment of a LAN

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8. Discuss the concepts of ARP in detail. (Nov 2015)

Address Translation
ARP (Address Resolution Protocol)

Introduction
 An internet consists of various types of networks and the connecting devices like routers.
 A packet starts from the source host, passes through many physical networks and finally
reaches the destination host.
 At the network level, the hosts and routers are recognized by their IP addresses.

IP address
 An IP address is an internetwork address. It is a universally unique address.
 Every protocol involved in internetworking requires IP addresses.

MAC address
 The packets from source to destination hosts pass through physical networks.
 At the physical level the IP address is not useful but the hosts and routers are recognized
by their MAC addresses.
 A MAC address is a local address. It is unique locally but it is not unique universally.
 The IP and MAC address are two different identifiers and both of them are needed
 Deliver a packet to a host or a router, we require two levels of addressing namely IP
addressing and MAC addressing.
 Most importantly we should be able to map the IP address into a corresponding MAC
address.

Mapping of IP address into a MAC address

 We have seen the need of mapping an IP address into a MAC address.
 Two types of mapping 1) Static mapping and 2) Dynamic mapping
Static Mapping

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 In static mapping a table is created and stored in each machine. This table associates an
IP address with a MAC address.
 If a machine knows the IP address of another machine then it can search for the
corresponding MAC address in its table.
 The limitation of static mapping is that the MAC addresses can change.
 To implement static mapping, the static mapping table needs to be updated periodically.

Dynamic mapping
 In dynamic mapping technique a protocol is used for finding the other address when one
type of address is known.
 There are two type of dynamic mapping available.
o Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
o Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP)
 The ARP maps IP address to a MAC address whereas the RARP maps a MAC address to
an IP address.

ARP Operation
 ARP is used for associating an IP address to its MAC address.
 For a LAN, each device has its own physical or station address as its identification. This
address is imprinted on the NIC.
 Find the MAC address:
 When a router or a host needs to find the MAC address of another host or network the
sequence of events taking place is as follows:
a. The router or a host A who wants to find the MAC address of some other router,
sends an ARP request packet. This packet consists of IP and MAC addresses of
the sender A and the IP address of the receiver (B).
b. This request packet is broadcasted over the network as shown the figure.
c.

d. Every host and router on the network receives and processes the ARP request
packet. But only the intended receiver (B) recognizes its IP address in the request
packet and sends back an ARP response packet.
e. The ARP response packet contains the IP and physical addresses of the receiver
(B). This packet is delivered only to A (unicast) using A’s physical address in the
ARP request packet. This is shown in the following figure.

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ARP Packet Format:

HTYPE (Hardware type):

This 16 bit field defines the type of network on which is ARP is being run. ARP can run on any
physical network.
PTYPE (Protocol type):
This 16 bit field is used to define the protocol using ARP. Note that ARP can be used with any
higher-level protocol such as IPv4.
HLEN (Hardware length):
It is an 8 bit field which is used for defining the length of the physical address in bytes. For example,
this value is 6 for Ethernet.
PLEN (Protocol length):
This field is 8 bit long and it defines the length of the IP address in bytes. For IPv4 this value is 4.

OPER (Operation):
It is a 16 bit field which defines the type of packet. The two possible types of packets are:
ARP request (1) and ARP reply (2).
SHA (Sender Hardware Address):
This field is used for defining the physical address of the sender. The length of this field is variable.
SPA (Sender Protocol address):
This field defines the logical address of the sender. The length of this field is variable.
THA (Target hardware address):
It defines the physical address of the target. It is a variable length field. For the ARP request packet,
this field contains all zeros because the sender does not know the receivers physical address.

TPA (Target Protocol address):

This field defines the logical address of the target. It is a variable length field.
9. Discuss in detail about the concepts of DHCP (Nov 2015) May 2016

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Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)

Introduction
 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a protocol designed to provide
information dynamically.
 It is a client-server program.
 DHCP is used to assign addresses to a host dynamically.
 Basically, DHCP server has two databases.
 The first database is addresses to IP addresses.

The second database makes DHCP dynamic.

 When a DHCP client requests a temporary IP address, the DHCP server goes to the
available IP addresses and assigns an IP address for a period of time.
 When a DHCP client sends a request to a DHCP server, the DHCP server goes to the
available IP addresses and assigns an IP address for a period of time.
 If an entry with the requested physical address exists in the static database, the permanent
IP address of the client is returned.
 If the entry does not exist in the static database, the server selects and IP address from the
available address and assigns the address to the client and also adds the entry to the
dynamic database.
 The addresses assigned are temporary addresses. The DHCP server issues a lease for a
specific period of time.
 When the lease expires, the client must either stop using the IP address or renew the
lease.
 The server can choose to agree or disagree to the renewal. If the server disagrees the
client stops using the address.

Transition states
 The DHCP client transitions from one state to another depending on the messages it
receives or sends.
 The below diagram illustrate DHCP transition state diagram.

Initializing state
 When the DHCP client starts first, it is in the initializing state.
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 The client broadcasts a DHCPDISCOVER message.

Selecting State
 After sending DHCPDISCOVER message, the client goes to the selecting state.
 Then the servers respond with a DHCPOFFER message.
 In these messages, the servers offer an IP address and the lease duration.
 The server that sends a DHCPOFFER locks the offered IP address so that it is not
available to any other client.
 The client chooses one of the offers and sends a DHCPREQUEST message to the
selected server.
 It then goes to the requesting state.
 If the client receives no DHCPOFFER message, it tries four times, each with a span of 2
seconds.
 If there is no reply to any of these DHCPDISCOVERs, the client sleeps for 5 minutes
before trying again
Requesting State
 The client remains in the requesting
state until it receives a DHCPACK
message from the server, which creates
the binding between the client’s
physical address and its IP address.
Bound State
 In this state, the client can use the IP
address until the lease time expires.
 When 50% of the lease period is
reached, the client sends another
DHCPREQUEST to ask for renewal.
 It then goes to the renewing state.
 When in the bound state, the client can
also cancel the lease time and go to the
initializing state.

Renewing State
 The client remains in the renewing state until one of the two events happens.
 It can receive a DHCPACK, which renews the lease agreement.
 In this case, the client resets its timer and goes back to the bound state or else if a
DHCPACK is not received and 87.5% of the lease time expires, the client goes to the
rebinding state.

Rebinding State
 The client remains in the rebinding state until one of the three events happens.

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 If the client receives a DHCPNACK or the lease expires, the client goes back to the
initializing state and tries to get another resets the timer.

DHCP Packet format

10. Discuss in detail about the concepts of ICMP (Nov 2015) May 2016
ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol)
Introduction
 The IP provides unreliable and connectionless datagram delivery.
 It was designed this way to make efficient use of network resources.
 IP is a best-effort delivery service that delivers a datagram from its original source to
its final destination.
 However, it has two deficiencies: lack of error control and lack of assistance
mechanisms.
 The ICMP reports errors and sends control messages on behalf of IP.
 ICMP does not attempt to make IP a reliable protocol.
 It simply attempts to report errors and provide feedback on specific conditions.
 ICMP messages are carried as IP packets and are therefore unreliable.
 IP also lacks a mechanism for host and management queries.
 A host sometimes needs to determine if a router or another host is alive.
 And sometimes a network manager needs information from another host or router.
 The ICMP has been designed to compensate for the above two deficiencies.

 IMPC messages are broadly divided into two categories as:

o Error reporting messages
o Query messages

Error reporting messages:

 ICMP can handle five types of errors.
The five types of errors are
1) Destination unreachable
2) Source quench
3) Time exceeded
4) Parameter problems
5) Redirection

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Query messages:
 The query message is a group of four different pairs of messages. The messages are
1. Echo request and reply
2. Time stamp request and reply
3. Address mask request and reply
4. Router solicitation and advertisement

11. Explain about IP address in detail. (Or) With a neat sketch explain about IP service
model,packet format,Fragmentation and reassembly (Nov 2016)

Introduction

INTERNET PROTOCOL (IP)

 This is the host to host network layer delivery protocol designed for the internet.

 IP is a connectionless datagram protocol with no guarantee of reliability.

 It is an unreliable protocol because it does not provide any error control or flow
control.

 IP can only detect the error and discards the packet if it is corrupted.

 If IP is to be made more reliable, then it must be paired with a reliable protocol such
as TCP at the transport layer.

 Each IP datagram is handled independently and each one can follow a different route
to the destination.

 So there is a possibility of receiving out of order packets at the destination.

 Some packets may even be lost or corrupted.

 IP relies on a higher level protocol to take care of all these problems.

Datagram:
 Packets in IP layer are called datagram’s.

 A datagram is a variable length packet with

HeaderData

20-60 bytes

20-65536 bytes
Two parts namely the header and data

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 The header is 20 to 60 bytes in length. It contains the information essential for routing
and delivery.

 The other part of the datagram is the data field which is of variable length.
Structure of IP Frame Header (Packet format):
 The IP frame header contains routing information and control information associated
with datagram delivery.

The IP header structure is as shown in the below figure.

Various fields in the IP header are as follows

VER (Version):
This field defines the version of IP. Current version of IP is IPv4 and the latest version of IP is IPv6. It
is a four bit long field.
HLEN (Header Length):
This field defines the length of the datagram header in 4-byte word. Its value must be multiplied by 4
to give the length in bytes.
Differential Services (DS):
This field defines the class of the datagram for quality of service purpose.
Total Length:
This field defines the total length of the IP datagram. The total length includes the length of header as
well as the data field.

Identification, flag and offset:

(i) Identification: This field identifies the datagram originating from the source host.
When a datagram is fragmented, the value in the identification field is copied into all
fragments. The identification number helps the destination in reassembling the
fragments of the datagram.

(ii) Flags: This is a three bit field. The three bits are shown in the below figure.
This is called as more 3 bit flag field.

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Fragmentation bit.

This is do not fragment bit. Bit 1 is reserved

 First bit is reserved, and it should be 0.

 The second bit is called “Do Not Fragment”, bit. If this bit is “1” and the machine should
not fragment the datagram.

 But if the value of this bit is 0 then the machine should fragment the datagram if only if
necessary.

 The third bit is called as “More Fragments bit”. If it is 1 it means that the datagram is not
the last fragment but if its value is 0 it shows that this is the last or the only fragment.

Time to live:

This is an 8 bit long field which controls the maximum number of router visited by the datagram.

Protocol:

This field defines the higher-level protocol which uses the services of the IP layer. An IP datagram can
encapsulate data from various higher level protocols such as TCP, UDP, ICMP and
IGMP

Header and checksum:

A checksum in IP packet covers on the header only Since some header fields change, this field is
recomputed and verified at each point that the Internet header is processed.

Source address:

This field is used for defining the IP address of the source.

Destination address:

This field is used for defining the IP address of the destination.

Option:

Options are not required for every datagram. They are used for network testing and debugging.

Service Provided:IP provide the following services:

Addressing:

IP headers contain 32-bit addresses which identify the sending and receiving hosts. These addresses
are used by intermediate routers to select a path through the network for the packet.

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Fragmentation:

IP packets may be split, or fragmented, into smaller packets. This permits a large packet to travel

across a network which can only handle smaller packets. IP fragments and reassembles packets
transparently.

Packet timeout:

Each IP packet contains a Time To Live (TTL) field, which is decremented every time a router handles
the packet. If TTL reaches zero, the packet is discarded.

Type of Services:

IP supports traffic prioritization by allowing packets to be labeled with an abstract type of service.

IP ADDRESSES

 The identifier used in the network layer of the Internet model to identify each device
connected to the Internet is called the Internet address or IP address.

 An IP address is a 32-bit (4-bytes) address that uniquely and universally defines the
connection of a host or a router to the Internet.

 IP addresses are unique in the sense that each address defines one, and only one,
connection to the Internet.

 Two devices on the Internet can never have the same address at the same time.
However, if a device has two connections on the Internet, via two networks, it has
two IP addresses.

 IP addresses are universal in the sense that any host that wants to be connected to
the Internet must accept the addressing system.

 There are two common notations to show an IP address: Binary notation and Dotted-
decimal notation.

Binary notation:

In binary notation IP address is displayed as 32 bits. To make the address more readable, one or more
spaces are usually inserted between each byte.

Eg. 10001101 00010101 00110101 00000100

Dotted-Decimal Notation:
To make the IP address more compact and easier to read, Internet addresses are usually write in the
decimal form with a decimal point separating the bytes.
Eg. 10001101 00010101 00110101 00000100

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141.21.53.4

IP ADDRESSING METHODS

There are two methods of IP addressing:

Classful Addressing:

 IP addresses used the concept of network classes.

 This architecture is called classful addressing.

Classless addressing:

 A new architecture was introduced in the middle of 1990’s, called classless addressing.

 However, most of the Internet is still using classful addressing.

1. Classful Addressing

 In classful addressing, the IP address space is divided into five classes: Class A, Class B,
Class C, Class D and Class E.

 We can find the class of an address when the address is given in binary notation or
dotted-decimal notation.

 If the address is given in binary notation, the first few bits can immediately tell us the
class of the address.

The five class are:

Class A address start from 0

Class B address start from 10

Class C address start from 110

Class D address start from 1110

Class E address start from 11110

 If the address is given in dotted-decimal notation, then we need to look only at the first
byte to determine the class of the address.

Class A address from 0.0.0.0 to 127.255.255.255

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Class B address from 128.0.0.0 to 191.255.255.255

Class C address from 192.0.0.0 to 223.255.255.255

Class D address from 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255

Class E address from 240.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255

 Addresses in classes A, B and C are for unicast communication, from one source to one
destination.

 Addresses in class D are for multicast communication, from one source to a group of
destination. A multicast address is used only in destination addresses.

 Addresses in class E are reserved. The original idea was to use them for special purpose.

In classful addressing, an IP address in classes A, B and C is divided into netid and hostid.

These parts are of varying lengths, depending on the class of the address as shown below.

 In class A, one byte defines the netid and three bytes defined the hostid.

 In class B, two bytes define the netid and two bytes define the hostid.

 In class C, three bytes define the netid and one byte defines the hostid.

The routing of an IP datagram now involves three steps:

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i) Delivery to the site

ii) Delivery to the subnetwork

iii) Delivery to the host.

Examples:

1. Find the class for the following IP addresses. (i) 205.55.43.11 and (ii) 100.23.28.65

Solution:

i) Class C (First byte 205 between 192 to 223)

ii) Class A (First byte 100 between 0 to 127)

2. Find the class for the following IP address:

i) 11110111 11110010 10000011 10101010 - Class E (First byte starts with 1111)

ii) 01111111 11110000 01010111 00001100 - Class A (First byte starts with 0)

3. Find the netid and hostid for the following:

i) 19.34.1.5 - netid = 19 hostid = 34.1.5

ii) 190.3.70.10 - netid = 190.3 hostid = 70.10

iii) 246.3.4.10 - No netid and no hostid because 246.3.4.10 is the class E address.

i) 201.2.4.2 - netid = 201.2.4 hostid = 2

12. Discuss CIDR

Classless Addressing

 During the 1990’s an Internet Service Providers (ISP) is an organization that

provides Internet services such as email services for individuals, small businesses,
and small organizations.

 The customers are connected via a dial-up modem, Digital Subscriber Line
(DSL), or cable modem to the ISP.

 However, each customer still needs an IP address.

 In 1996, the Internet authorities announced a new architecture called classless

addressing.

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Classless inter-domain routing (CIDR) is a set of Internet protocol (IP) standards that is used
to create unique identifiers for networks and individual devices. The IP addresses allow
particular information packets to be sent to specific computers
Subnetting has a counterpart, sometimes called supernetting, but more often
called Classless Interdomain Routing or CIDR, pronounced “cider.” CIDR takes the subnetting
idea to its logical conclusion by essentially doing away with address classes altogether. Why
isn’t subnetting alone sufficient? In essence, subnetting only allows us to split a classful address
among multiple subnets, while CIDR allows us to coalesce several classful addresses into a
single “supernet.” This further tackles the address space inefficiency noted above, and does so in
a way that keeps the routing system from being overloaded.

To see how the issues of address space efficiency and scalability of the routing system
are coupled, consider the hypothetical case of a company whose network has 256 hosts on it.
That is slightly too many for a Class C address, so you would be tempted to assign a class B.
However, using up a chunk of address space that could address 65,535 to address 256 hosts has
an efficiency of only 256/65,535 = 0.39%. Even though subnetting can help us to assign
addresses carefully, it does not get around the fact that any organization with more than 255
hosts, or an expectation of eventually having that many, wants a class B address.

The first way you might deal with this issue would be to refuse to give a class B address
to any organization that requests one unless they can show a need for something close to 64K
addresses, and instead giving them an appropriate number of class C addresses to cover the
expected number of hosts. Since we would now be handing out address space in chunks of 256
addresses at a time, we could more accurately match the amount of address space consumed to
the size of the organization. For any organization with at least 256 hosts, we can guarantee an
address utilization of at least 50%, and typically much more.

This solution, however, raises a problem that is at least as serious: excessive storage
requirements at the routers. If a single site has, say, 16 class C network numbers assigned to it,
that means every Internet backbone router needs 16 entries in its routing tables to direct packets
to that site. This is true even if the path to every one of those networks is the same. If we had
assigned a class B address to the site, the same routing information could be stored in one table
entry. However, our address assignment efficiency would then be only 16×255/65,536 = 6.2%.

CIDR, therefore, 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. To do this, CIDR helps us to
aggregate routes. That is, it lets us use a single entry in a forwarding table to tell us how to reach
a lot of different networks. As noted above it does this by breaking the rigid boundaries between
address classes. To understand how this works, consider our hypothetical organization with 16
class C network numbers.

Instead of handing out 16 addresses at random, we can hand out a block of contiguous
class C addresses. Suppose we assign the class C network numbers from 192.4.16 through
192.4.31. Observe that the top 20 bits of all the addresses in this range are the same (11000000
00000100 0001). Thus, what we have effectively created is a 20-bit network number—something
that is between a class B network number and a class C number in terms of the number of hosts
that it can support.

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In other words, we get both the high address efficiency of handing out addresses in
chunks smaller than a class B network, and a single network prefix that can be used in
forwarding tables. Observe that, for this scheme to work, we need to hand out blocks of class C
addresses that share a common prefix, which means that each block must contain a number of
class C networks that is a power of two.

CIDR requires a new type of notation to represent network numbers, or prefixes as they
are known, because the prefixes can be of any length. The convention is to place a /X after the
prefix, where X is the prefix length in bits. So, for the example above, the 20-bit prefix for all the
networks 192.4.16 through 192.4.31 is represented as 192.4.16/20. By contrast, if we wanted to
represent a single class C network number, which is 24 bits long, we would write it 192.4.16/24.
Today, with CIDR being the norm, it is more common to hear people talk about “slash 24”
prefixes than class C networks. Note that representing a network address in this way is similar to
the hmask, valuei approach used in subnetting, as long as masks consist of contiguous bits
starting from the most significant bit (which in practice is almost always the case).

The ability to aggregate routes at the edge of the network as we have just seen is only the
first step. Imagine an Internet service provider network, whose primary job is to provide Internet
connectivity to a large number of corporations and campuses (customers). If we assign prefixes
to the customers in such a way that many different customer networks connected to the provider
network share a common, shorter address prefix, then we can get even greater aggregation of
routes. Consider the example in Figure 3.22. Assume that eight customers served by the provider
network have each been assigned adjacent 24-bit network prefixes.

Those prefixes all start with the same 21 bits. Since all of the customers are reachable
through the same provider network, it can advertise a single route to all of them by just
advertising the common 21-bit prefix they share. And it can do this even if not all the 24-bit
prefixes have been handed out, as long as the provider ultimately will have the right to hand out
those prefixes to a customer. One way to accomplish that is to assign a portion of address space
to the provider in advance and then to let the network provider assign addresses from that space
to its customers as needed. Note that, in contrast to this simple example, there is no need for all
customer prefixes to be the same length.

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13. Discuss the various aspects of FDDI in detail. (Nov/Dec2014)

FIBER DISTRIBUTED DATA INTERFACE (FDDI)

Introduction
 Fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) is a local area network protocol standardized by
ANSI and the ITU-T.
 It supports data rates of 100 Mbps and provides a high-speed. The copper version of
FDDI is known as CDDI.

FDDI operation

Access Method: Token Passing

In FDDI, access is limited by time.

TWO TYPES OF FRAMES

 Synchronous – refers to information that is real-time. (S-frame)
 Asynchronous – refers to information that is not real-time. (A-frame)
Each station captures the token is required to send S-frame first.
Any remaining time may then be used to send A-frames.

Time Registers

 FDDI defines three time register to control circulation of the token and distribute link
access opportunities among the nodes equitably.

The registers are:

 Synchronous allocation (SA): It indicates the length of time allowed each station for
sending synchronous data.

 Target token rotation time (TTRT): Indicates the average time required for a token to
circulate around the ring exactly once.

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 Absolute maximum time (AMT): holds a value equal to twice the TTRT.

Timers:

Each station contains a set of timers that enable it to compare actual timings with the values
contained in the registers.

Two timers used by FDDI

 Token rotation timer (TRT) – runs continuously and measures the actual time taken
by the token to complete a cycle.
 Token holding timer (THT) – it begins running as soon as the token is received. Its
function is to show how much time remains for sending asynchronous frames once
the synchronous frames have been sent.

Station Procedure

 THT is set to the difference between TTRT and TRT (THT=TTRT – TRT).
 TRT is reset to zero (TRT=0)
 The station sends it synchronous data.
 The station sends asynchronous data as long as the value of THT is positive.
Frame Format

FDDI layers

Logical Link Control

The LLC layer is similar to IEEE 802.2 protocols.

Media Access Control

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Frame Fields:

 Start delimiter (SD): the first byte of the field is the frame’s starting flag.
 Frame control (FC): the second byte of the frame identifies the frame type.
 Addresses: the next two fields are the destination and source address
 Data: each data frame can carry upto 4500 bytes of data.
 CRC:
 End delimiter (ED): consists of half a byte in the data frame or a full byte in the token
frame.
 Frame status (FS): it is included in the data / command frame.

Implementation: Physical Medium Dependent (PMD) Layer:

PMD layer defines the required connections and electronic components.

Dual Ring:

 The data transmission is confined to the primary ring.

 The secondary ring is provided in case the primary fails.

FDDI ring

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 The secondary ring makes FDDI self-healing.
 Whenever a problem occurs on the primary ring, the secondary can be activated to
complete data circuits and maintain service.

FDDI ring after a failure

 Nodes connect to one or both rings using a media interface connector (MIC) that can be
either male or female connector.

14. Differentiate FDDI and Ethernet (Nov/Dec2014)

Both Fast Ethernet and FDDI are high speed LAN technologies, growing from Ethernet and
Token Ring respectively.

In the following, we will compare the two technologies in terms of throughput, latency,
deterministic, configuration, maintenance, compatibility, reliability, cost, user community, and
interconnectivity.

throughput - On shared media LANs such as Fast Ethernet and FDDI, line speed decreases in
proportion to the number of nodes contending for a portion of the total available bandwidth. Now
assume that same amount of hosts on the LAN, even thought Fast Ethernet and FDDI have the
same 100 Mbps throughput, FDDI will ran faster than Fast Ethernet because there collision
detection could reduce the bandwidth by 30-50%. Result from DATA COMM Test Lab [4]
shows that FDDI runs at 96 Mbps (96% efficiency).

latency - FDDI has much higher latency since data frames has to be passed by many hosts in
between. For Ethernet, the latency is relative lower, although it is nondeterministic based on
random wait after detected collision. The test results [5] show that the latency for FDDI products
is about twice as much as their Fast Ethernet comparable counterpart.

deterministic - FDDI is deterministic. But Ethernet is not, because of the wait for a random time
after detecting a collision.

configuration and maintenance - It is less complicated with Ethernet LAN, because of its
simple structure. Adding one more host on Ethernet is much simpler than do it on FDDI.
Ethernet protocol is simple and hosts can be installed on the fly without taking the whole
network down.
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distance - Because of the distance limit, (100m for twisted pair and 2000m for fiber optics), on
Fast Ethernet segment, FDDI is clearly the better choice with a distance up to 100km.

host load - Both Fast Ethernet and FDDI can accept up to about 1000 hosts. For FDDI, more
hosts means potential longer latency. For Fast Ethernet, more hosts mean more collision and
more congestion. Even worse for higher than 60% loading, the overall throughput of Ethernet
could be stalled, because hosts will be busy with detecting collision/waiting, and thus are not
able to transmit.

compatibility - Ethernet users can easily migrate to Fast Ethernet. Applications and higher level
protocols developed on 10Base-T Ethernet will run on 100Base-T Fast Ethernet without
modification, and 100Base-T adaptors are available to switch between the wide used 10 Mbps
ethernet and the 100 Mbps standard.

reliability - Ethernet is simple, has less things to break, and thus is pretty reliable. For FDDI, the
whole LAN could be brought down if one or more hosts in the ring break. The dual ring is only
able to tolerate a single break in the cable.

cost - Fast Ethernet although does not have the technical edge over FDDI in terms of speed, it is
much more easier to configurate and maintain than FDDI. In addition to that, Fast Ethernet
products cost a fraction to what would be for its FDDI counterparts.

users - Ethernet has more users. One of the most important obstacles to the installation of high-
performance networks are users failure to accept the new technology. In the case of Ethernet a
large community of users were convinced to install a commonly agreed type of high performance
network because manufacturers are able to provide standard add on features, which as they are
produced in bulk, have been offer cheaper.

15. Explain Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) in detail

 To minimize the chance of collision and increase the performance CSMA method was
developed.
 The chance of collision can be reduced if a station senses the medium before trying to use
it.
 Carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) requires that each station first listen to the medium
(or check the state of the medium) before sending.
 In other words, CSMA is based on the principle “sense before transmit” or “listen before
talk.
 CSMA can reduce the possibility of collision, but it cannot eliminate it.

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Vulnerable Time

Persistence Methods:

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Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD)

Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA)

16. Explain in detail about token ring and its frame format. (May 2015)

TOKEN RINGS (802.5)

Introduction

 Ring networks, like Ethernets, are shared-media networks.

 IBM’s Token Ring has a nearly identical IEEE standard, known as 802.5.
 802.5 and the later Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) token ring are no longer in
widespread (common) use.
 A ring network consists of a set of nodes connected in a ring.
 Data always flows in a particular direction around the ring, with each node receiving
frames from its upstream neighbor and then forwarding them to its downstream neighbor.
 This ring-based topology is in contrast to the Ethernet’s bus topology.
 Like the Ethernet, however, the ring is viewed as a single shared medium; it does not
behave (act) as a collection of independent point-to-point links.

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TWO KEY FEATURES OF RING NETWORK
A ring network shares two key features with an Ethernet:
o First, it involves a distributed algorithm that controls when each node is allowed
to transmit.
o Second, all nodes typically see all frames, with the node identified in the frame
header as the destination saving a copy of the frame as it flows past.
 The word “token” comes from the way access to the shared ring is managed.
 The idea is that a token, which is really just a special sequence of bits, circulates around
the ring; each node receives and then forwards the token.
 When a node that has a frame to transmit sees the token, it takes the token off the ring
(i.e., it does not forward the special bit pattern) and instead inserts its frame into the ring.
 Each node along the way simply forwards the frame, with the destination node saving a
copy and forwarding the message onto the next node on the ring.
 When the frame makes its way back around to the sender, this node strips its frame off
the ring (rather than continuing to forward it) and reinserts the token.
 In this way, some node downstream will have the opportunity to transmit a frame.
 The media access algorithm is fair in the sense that as the token circulates around the
ring; each node gets a chance to transmit. Nodes are serviced in a round-robin fashion.
 Ring topology is that any link or node failure would render the whole network useless.
 The problem of node failure may be addressed by connecting each station into the ring
using an electromechanical relay.
 As long as the station is healthy, the relay is open and the station is included in the ring.
 If the station stops providing power, the relay closes and the ring automatically bypasses
the station.

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Relay used on a token ring (a) relay open – host active; (b) relay closed – host bypassed

Multistation active units

 Several of these relays are usually packed into a single box, known as a multistation
access unit (MSAU).
 It also makes it very easy to add stations to and remove stations from the network, since
they can just be plugged into or unplugged from the nearest MSAU, while the overall
wiring of the network can be left unchanged.

Token Ring Maintenance

Monitor Station:

 Each 802.5 token ring has one station designated as a monitor.

 The monitor’s job is to ensure the health of the ring.
 Any station on the ring can become the monitor, and there are defined procedures by
which the monitor is elected when the ring is first connected or on the failure of the
current monitor.
 A healthy monitor periodically announces its presence with a special control message; if
a station fails to see such a message for some period of time, it will assume that the
monitor has failed and will try to become the monitor.
 A token may vanish for several reasons, such as a bit error, or a crash on the part of a
station that was holding it. To detect a missing token, the monitor watches for a passing

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token and maintains a timer equal to the maximum possible token rotation time. This
interval equals
 NumStations X THT + RingLatency
 Where NumStatins is the number of stations on the ring, and RingLatency is the total
propagation delay of the ring.
 If the timer expires without the monitor seeing a token, it creates a new one.
 The monitor also checks for corrupted or orphaned frames.

Frame Format:

There are three types of frames

UNIVERSITY QUESTIONS

B.E/B.TECH NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014 (2008 Regulation)

2 MARKS
1. Differentiate persistent and non persistent CSMA (Q.NO. 41)
2. State the uses of valid transmission timer (Q.NO. 42)

16 MARKS
1.Explain and differentiate FDDI and Ethernet (16) (Q.NO. 2,13 & 14)
2.Write short notes on.
(i)Transparent bridges (8) (Q.NO. 6)
(ii)MACA and MACAW (8) (Q.NO. 4)

B.E/B.Tech April May 2015

2 MARKS
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1. What do you understand by CSMA protocol? (Q.NO. 43)
2. List the functions of bridges (Q.NO. 44)
16 MARKS
1. Explain in detail about access method and frame format used in Ethernet and token
ring (16) (Q.NO. 2 & 16 )
2. (i) Discuss the MAC layer functions of IEEE802.11 (8) (Q.NO. 4)
(ii) Briefly define key requirements of wireless LAN (8) (Q.NO. 3)

B.E/B.Tech Nov-Dec 2015

2 MARKS
1. Define sub-netting. (Q.NO 28)
2. What is the need of ARP? (Q.NO 36)
3. Identify the class of the following IP address: (a) 110.34.56.45 (b) 212.208.63.23 (Q.NO 47)

16 MARKS
1. Write short notes on Ethernet & Wireless LAN (8+8) (Q.NO 2 & 3)
2. Explain in detail ARP, DHCP, ICMP (16) (Q.NO 8, 9 & 10)

B.E/B.Tech April-May 2016

2 MARKS
1. Define hidden node problem. (Q.NO 45)
2. What is Bluetooth? (Q.NO 7)
3. Expand ICMP and write the function (Q.NO 27)

16 MARKS
1. Give the comparison between different wireless technologies? Enumerate 802.11 protocol stack in
detail (16) (Q.NO 3 & 4)
2. Write short notes on DHCP & ICMP (8+8) (Q.NO 9 & 10)

B.E/B.Tech Nov-Dec 2016

2 MARKS
1. What is meant by exponential backoff? (Q.NO 5 )
2. What is scatternet? (Q.NO 46)
3. What is fragmentation and reassembly? (Q.NO 48)

16 MARKS
1. Explain the physical properties of Ethernet 802.3 with necessary diagram of Ethernet
transceiver and adapter (16) (Q.NO 2)

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2. With a neat sketch explain about IP service model,packet format,Fragmentation and
reassembly.(16) (Q.NO 11)

UNIT 2 - IMPORTANT QUESTIONS

1. What is the need for ARP?

2. What is the need of subnetting? Or Define Subnetting
3. Draw Ethernet frame format
4. Give the CIDR notation for class A, B and C
5. What are the salient features of IPV6?
6. What is DHCP?
7. What is ARP and RARP? OR Differ ARP & RARP
8. What is CIDR?
9. Define ICMP?
10. Why should Ethernet frame should be 512 bytes long?
11. Define source routing
12. List the two main limitations of bridges
13. Define a Bridge
14. State the difference between token ring and FDDI?
15. Define bridge and switch or what is the difference between switch and bridge?
16. Differentiate fast Ethernet and gigabit Ethernet
17. What is meant by circuit switching?
18. What are the four prominent wireless technologies?
19. Define Bluetooth?
20. What is Spanning tree?
21. Define Piconet
22. Discuss 802.11 or Wi-Fi
23. Difference between Bluetooth & Wi-Fi
24. Differentiate persistent and non persistent CSMA
25. State the uses of valid transmission timer
26. What do you understand by CSMA protocol?
27. List the functions of bridges
28. Define hidden node problem
29. What is scatternet?
30. What is meant by exponential backoff?

PART- B

1. a) Discuss the concepts of ARP in detail.

b) Discuss in detail about the concepts of DHCP
2. Explain in detail about Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) and its frame format (OR) Explain the
physical properties of Ethernet 802.3 with necessary diagram
3. Explain IEEE 802.11 (or) WI-FI (or) MAC layer functions in IEEE802.11
4. a) Briefly discuss about Bluetooth (IEEE 802.15.1)
b) Discuss the various aspects of Switches in detail.
5. Explain about IP address in detail.
6. a) Discuss in detail about the concepts of ICMP

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b) Discuss CIDR
7. Discuss the various aspects of Bridges
8. a) Discuss the functioning (Key requirements) of wireless LAN in detail
b) Discuss Hidden node problem & Exposed node problem
9. Explain and differentiate FDDI and Ethernet
10. Discuss MACA & MACAW

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