Final Assessment

CSE 313: Computer Networks

Spring-2021
Date: 17-04-2021 Duration: 5 hours (9:00-2:00) Total marks: 40

Answer any 10 questions out of the following. All the questions will carry equal marks

1. (4 marks) The application layer provides services to the user. Communication is provided
using a logical connection, which means that the two application layers assume that there is an
imaginary direct connection through which they can send and receive messages. Alice and Bob
assume that there is a two-way logical channel between them through which they can send and
receive messages. The actual communication, however, takes place through several devices.
However, different types of application layer protocols have different types of architecture and
they transfer data using different types of systems. The nature of this application, however, is
different from other applications. So, where do you think that the „push-pull‟ communication
system is used? And how this system differs from the traditional client-server architecture as
used in WWW, HTTP etc.? Draw figures, if appropriate.

2. (4 marks) The idea of the Web was first proposed by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 at CERN, the
European Organization for Nuclear Research, to allow several researchers at different locations
throughout Europe to access each other‟s researches. Today, the Web is used to provide
electronic shopping and gaming. One can use the Web to listen to radio programs or view
television programs whenever one desires without being forced to listen to or view these
programs when they are broadcast. Anyway, do you agree that the popularity of WWW is based
on two characteristics, “distributed” and “interlinked”? Justify your answer with proper logic.

3. (4 marks) In recent years, Internet companies such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and
Amazon (as well as their counterparts in Asia and Europe) have built massive data centers, each
housing tens to hundreds of thousands of hosts, and concurrently supporting many distinct cloud
applications (e.g., search, email, social networking, and e-commerce).So, what are the benefits
you might receive if data center is established in Bangladesh? What are the problems you might
face to establish data center in Bangladesh?

4. (4 marks) To access the Internet, one public IP address is needed, but we can use a private
IP address in our private network. The idea of NAT is to allow multiple devices to access the
Internet through a single public address. To achieve this, the translation of private IP address to a
public IP address is required. Network Address Translation (NAT) is a process in which one or
more local IP address is translated into one or more Global IP address and vice versa in order to
provide Internet access to the local hosts. Recognize the type of NAT given below and why do
you think so? Besides, why a 5 column table in NAT is preferable over a 2 column table?

Router#sh ip nat tr

Pro Inside global Inside local Outside local Outside global

 icmp 20.0.0.3:1024 192.168.1.3:1 30.0.0.2:1 30.0.0.2:1024
icmp 20.0.0.3:1025 192.168.1.3:2 30.0.0.2:2 30.0.0.2:1025
icmp 20.0.0.3:1026 192.168.1.3:3 30.0.0.2:3 30.0.0.2:1026
icmp 20.0.0.3:1027 192.168.1.3:4 30.0.0.2:4 30.0.0.2:1027
icmp 20.0.0.3:1028 192.168.1.4:1 30.0.0.2:1 30.0.0.2:1028
icmp 20.0.0.3:1029 192.168.1.4:2 30.0.0.2:2 30.0.0.2:1029
icmp 20.0.0.3:1030 192.168.1.4:3 30.0.0.2:3 30.0.0.2:1030
icmp 20.0.0.3:1031 192.168.1.4:4 30.0.0.2:4 30.0.0.2:1031
icmp 20.0.0.3:1 192.168.1.2:1 30.0.0.2:1 30.0.0.2:1
icmp 20.0.0.3:2 192.168.1.2:2 30.0.0.2:2 30.0.0.2:2
icmp 20.0.0.3:3 192.168.1.2:3 30.0.0.2:3 30.0.0.2:3
icmp 20.0.0.3:4 192.168.1.2:4 30.0.0.2:4 30.0.0.2:4

5. (4 marks) In Daffodil International University, a huge number of devices access the free
internet every day. These devices are the PCs at teachers‟ desks, administrative personnel‟s‟
desks, servers, mobile phones of students etc. Some of these devices are given static IP address
(manually) and some of them are assigned IP addresses dynamically (through DHCP). Suppose,
you are employed as the network administrator at DIU. So, which types of devices will you
provide static and dynamic addresses? State your reasons with proper logic.

6. (4 marks) Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is data forwarding technology that

increases the speed and controls the flow of network traffic. With MPLS, data is directed through
a path via labels instead of requiring complex lookups in a routing table at every stop. When data
enters a traditional IP network, it moves among network nodes based on long network addresses.
With this method, each router on which a data packet lands must make its own decision, based
on routing tables, about the packet‟s next stop on the network. MPLS, on the other hand, assigns
a label to each packet to send it along a predetermined path. Therefore, explain the following
MPLS table based on your own understanding. Create routing table, if needed.
7. (4 marks) The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application-level protocol for
distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. This is the foundation for data
communication for the World Wide Web (i.e. internet) since 1990. Basically, HTTP is a TCP/IP
based communication protocol, that is used to deliver data (HTML files, image files, query
results, etc.) on the World Wide Web. The default port is TCP 80, but other ports can be used as
well. It provides a standardized way for computers to communicate with each other. HTTP
specification specifies how clients' request data will be constructed and sent to the server, and
how the servers respond to these requests. It is stated that, “HTTP protocol was developed based
on the concept of SMTP and DHCP”. Do you support this statement? Why or why not?

8. (4 marks) The address depletion of IPv4 and other shortcomings of this protocol prompted a
new version of IP in the early 1990s which is called Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). The main
reason for migration from IPv4 to IPv6 is the small size of the address space in IPv4. On the
other hand, the US, Russia and China have agreed on a transition day on which every host or
router should stop using the old version and will start using IPV6. These countries also believe
that, “shifting from IPV4 to IPV6 can be done overnight”. Do you agree with the statement?
Answer with your own logic.

9. (4 marks) Filtering is the switch function that determines whether a frame should be
forwarded to some interface or should just be dropped. Forwarding is the switch function that
determines the interfaces to which a frame should be directed, and then moves the frame to those
interfaces. Switch filtering and forwarding are done with a switch table. Therefore, how does
switch know A‟ reachable via interface 4, B‟ reachable via interface 5? How the entries are
created and maintained in switch table? Explain based on your own knowledge and
understanding.

10. (4 marks) People prefer to use names instead of numeric addresses. Therefore, the Internet
needs to have a directory system that can map a name to an address. Since the Internet is so huge
today, a central directory system cannot hold all the mapping. In addition, if the central computer
fails, the whole communication network will collapse. A better solution is to distribute the
information among many computers in the world. In this method, the host that needs mapping
can contact the closest computer holding the needed information. This method is used by the
Domain Name System (DNS).Suppose you want to browse “https://www.prothomalo.com/”. But
your DNS server doesn‟t have the IP address of https://www.prothomalo.com/. How can you get
the IP of that site? Draw figure, if appropriate.
11. (4 marks) File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the standard protocol provided by TCP/IP for
copying a file from one host to another. Although transferring files from one system to another
seems simple and straightforward, some problems must be dealt with first. For example, two
systems may use different file name conventions. Two systems may have different ways to
represent data. Two systems may have different directory structures. All of these problems have
been solved by FTP in a very simple and elegant approach. Do you believe that transmission of
data using FTP is more effective than other similar data transfer protocols? Specify your logic
and Draw figure, if appropriate.

12. (4 marks) Anytime a node has an IP datagram to send to another node in a link, it has the IP
address of the receiving node. The source host knows the IP address of the default router. Each
router except the last one in the path gets the IP address of the next router by using its forwarding
table. The last router knows the IP address of the destination host. However, the IP address of the
next node is not helpful in moving a frame through a link; we need the link-layer address of the
next node. Suppose you want to send a packet where MAC address is known but IP address is
unknown. Which of the protocol will be used and why? How can PC-A can ping PC-D in the
given figure? Draw figure/table, if appropriate.

----------------------------------- Best of luck ----------------------------------