Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering Fall

McConnell Engineering Building 2024

3480 University, Montréal, Québec, H3A 0E9

ECSE308: INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS AND NETWORKS

Assignment 4 (H)

Notes:
 Submit your homework by 5PM, Thursday, November 28/2024.
 You must include your name and ID number on the 1st page of your homework and provide solutions for
all 6 problems in blue in your submitted homework. Otherwise, your homework will not be marked.
 You are encouraged to try all the questions. The TA’s will discuss and solve all the problems in black
in the corresponding tutorial sessions as examples. However, no solution will be posted. Therefore,
please attend your tutorial sessions to discuss and obtain helps for doing your homework.

H1. What are the two fundamental methods for data forwarding? Briefly explain them.
H2. What is the difference between circuit switching and virtual circuit switching mechanisms?
H3. Briefly explain local area networks. What is the difference between local area networks and wide
area networks?
H4. Why the Ethernet standard is one of the most successful LAN technologies? Provide at least two
reasons.
H5. MAC addresses in Ethernet is globally unique, can it be used as a replacement for routing purpose
as IP addresses? Justify your answer.
H6. How self-learning switches help to reduce the collisions in an Ethernet LAN? In which case it can
help to eliminate collision phenomenon?
H7. What are hidden and exposed station problems in wireless network? How can the use of RTS and
CTS help to resolve these problems?
H8. List and briefly explain at least three challenges in wireless networks?
H9. How is CSMA/CA different from CSMA/CD?
H10. In a 802.11 frame, why is it necessary to have more than two address fields while that of an Ethernet
frame needs only 2 address fields?
H11. What is the store-and-forward mechanism in packet switching? How does it affect the delay in the
network? How can we further reduce the delay?
H12. Suppose that there are only two devices on the Ethernet link. Initially, both of them are trying to
transmit one packet. For the CSMA/CD mechanism, the devices employ the binary backoff algorithm
to decrease the probability of collision. Then,
a. What are the probability values that the collisions end on the 1 st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th attempts?
b. In general, what is the probability expression that the collisions end on the k th attempt?
c. Also, find the expected value for question (b).
H13. Consider the binary backoff algorithm.
a. Briefly explain its operation.
b. Supposing the round-trip time as 20 𝜇𝑠, after the third collision, when the device can attempt
for transmission?
c. Redo question (b) for the transmission after the 13th collision.
d. When does the device stop the transmission?
H14. What is the frequency reuse factor in cellular networks? According to hexagonal cell architecture,
provide its expression and specify five smallest values for the frequency reuse factor?
H15. Given a switched topology as shown in the figure below. Applying spanning tree algorithm, find the
root switch, root ports for each of the switch, designated ports for each of the segment. Which ports
are placed in forwarding state and which ones are placed in blocking state? If a host is connected to
the segment between Switch 2 and 3, its traffic will be forwarded by which port on which switch?

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H16. According to IEEE 802 Reference Model, which sublayer has the same standard for the Ethernet and
Wireless LAN? Briefly explain it. What kind of services can be supported by that sublayer?
H17. Calculate the end-to-end transmission delay, for the following cases:
a. There are five links between source and destination. The transmission rate is 10 Mbps. The
propagation delay for each link is 100ms. The total data size of 1MB is divided into 100 equal-
size packets, each has a negligibly small header, i.e., header size=0.
b. Similar to (a) but each packet includes a header of 10KB.
H18. Prove that when a frequency reuse factor of 𝑁 is employed, the minimum distance between the
centers of two cells using the same frequency is 𝑑 = √3𝑁𝑅 , where 𝑅 is the cell radius.
H19. In a packet-switching network, there are five links between source and destination, where each link
has the propagation delay of 200μs. Let the total data size of 4MB, the data is divided into 100 equal
size packets and the header size is neglected. For the maximum end-to-end delay of 100ms, what is
the minimum acceptable data rate?
H20. For a cellular network, the cell radius is given by 100m and the pathloss exponent is measured as
3.8. In order to satisfy the quality of service (QoS) criteria, the cellular network should be designed
to provide at least 20 dB of the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR). Then, what is the minimum
frequency reuse factor?

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