SECTION A: [

1. In Ethernet networks every host needs at least one …………

a. transport layer.
b. Ethernet adapter.
c. IP adress.
d. modem.
e. gateway.

2. To find the route, i.e. the sequence of routers, from s source to a specified destination host,
the following utility command can be used:
a ping .
b. tracert (or traceroute in Unix).
c .netstat .
d .ipconfig.
e. all of the above.

3. The source address in the base header always contains the address of the ________.
a. original sender .
b. last router.
c. next router.
d. any of the above.
e. none of the above.

4. A 6000-byte IP version 4 packet is to be routed through an Ethernet LAN. What extension

header must be used?
a. source routing.
b. authentication .
c. fragmentation.
d. destination option.
e. both b and c.

5. Management wants to compare the transmission times for two different routes. What
extension header must be used?
a. source routing.
b. authentication .
c. fragmentation.
d. destination option.
e.. non of the above.

6. Which of the following is generally NOT a function of the network layer?

a. forwarding message from source to destination.
b. interpreting destination address for routing purposes.
c. ensuring every packet is received reliably.
d.. both a and b are correct.
e. none of the above.

7. TCP is:-
a. a network layer protocol..
b. a transport layer protocol..
c. A type of device driver.
d. a message oriented protocol
e. an error correcting mechanism for IP networks.

8. What symbol is used to separate a computer name from the port number in a URL?
a. ;
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 b. :
c. .
d. #
e. none of the above.

9. The purpose of a routing protocol is to:

a. route packets across multiple network segments.
b. facilitate the exchange of routing table entries among routers.
c. make static routing easier to configure on multiple hosts.
d. avoid the need to use DNS in larger networks.
e. none of the above

10. An exterior routing protocol uses____________________to determine how to route packets.

a. mathematical algorithms.
b. a DNS root server.
c. BGP.
d. policies that may be based on the trust accorded the host providing routing
data
e. both b and c are correct.

11. A primary disadvantage of using RIP as an interior routing protocol for larger organizational
networks is that BGP
a. can only accommodate a maximum of 15 hops between source and destination.
b. relies on class-based network masks, even in version 2.
c. does not have a long history as a stable protocol.
d. is not as popular as OSPF.
e. all are above are correct.
12. The following is true about IP version 6 protocol.
a. the base header is 8 bytes long.
b. the extension headers form part of the base header.
c. the Fragmentation is carried out by the destination host.
d. none of the above.
e. both a and b are correct .

13. Assuming the FTP is running in stand-alone mode, which file lists accounts that are not
allowed to access it?
a. /etc/ftpusers.
b. /etc/hosts.deny.
c. /etc/shutdown.msg.
d. /var/ftp/pub/ftpusers.
e. /etc/ftp/intruders.

14 The class of an IP address can be determined from ………. and determines the
…………………….
a. the first 3 quads ------network part.
b. the number of netmask bits ------ network address.
c. the routing table ----- destination IP address.
d. the first 4 bits -------- number of hosts in the network.
e. the host bits -------- netmask.

15. Flooding is an attractive routing scheme for some network environments because of its:
a. simplicity
b. robustness
c. low delay for packet delivery
d. all of the above
e. none of the above
[3]
 SECTION B: [Answer any two questions from this section]

QUESTION ONE. [25 marks]

(a). An extension (Network 4) to the following local network will be made using the IP range
220.2.1.128/25 as shown using dashed lines in figure 1 below. The existing routing table entries
are partially given below. Complete the routing tables according to your assignments to the
new network. Try to avoid causing minimum disturbance to the existing network.
[8 marks]

Network 1 Network 4
220.2.0/24 G1

Network 3
Network 2 220.2.1.0/25
G2
220.2.3.0/24

gateway 1 (G1) gateway 2 (G2)

for destination route to for destination route to

220.2.2.0/24 220.2.2.1 220.2.3.0/24 220.2.3.1

default discard 220.2.1.0/25 220.2.1.2

default

Figure 1
(c). List and discuss any three major differences between IP version 4 and IP version 6 protocols.
[5 marks]

QUESTION TWO [ 25 marks]

(
(a). A UDP user datagram is to carry a message from a TFTP client to a TFTP server.
8 bytes

header data

source port number destination port number

(16) (16)
total length bits checksum
(16) (16)

Figure 2
Show the entries for this header. Fill the checksum field with zeroes. Choose an appropriate
ephemeral port number and the correct well-known port number. Keep the length of data at
40 bytes.
[5 marks]

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(b). Show the entries for the header of a TCP segment that carries a message from an FTP client
to an FTP server. Fill the checksum field with zeroes.
Header data
(n bits) (n- bits)

source port address destination port address

(16 bits) (16 bits)
sequence number
(16 bits)
acknowledgement number
( 32 bits)

HLEN reserved

URG
ACK

RST
PSH

SYN
FIN
4-bits 6 bits

checksum urgent pointer

(16 bits) (16 bits)
Options and padding

Figure 3
Choose an appropriate ephemeral port number and the correct well-known port number. The
length of the data is 40 bytes. You may use the format shown above.
[5 marks]

(d). An IP version 6 base header is shown in the figure below:

0 16 31
Version Prio Flow Label
Payload Length Next Header Hop Limit

Source Address
128 bits
40 bytes

Destination Address
128 bits

Figure 4

. What is the purpose of the version, flow label and Payload length fields?
[ 3 marks]

QUESTION 4
(a). The school of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering is allocated the block
146.230.50.0/26 containing 64 IP addresses. The school has four office sites and needs to
divide the addresses into four equal sub blocks of 16, 16,16 and 16.

[5]
 (i). Sketch the resultant network (remember it will comprise three subnets) and the
subnet/net masks for each.
[6 marks]

(b). The diagram below illustrates the basic packet format for the Transmission Control Protocol
(TCP).
Header data
(n bits) (n- bits)

source port address destination port address

(16 bits) (16 bits)
sequence number
(16 bits)
acknowledgement number
( 32 bits)

HLEN reserved URG

ACK
PSHRSTSYN
FIN
4-bits 6 bits

checksum urgent pointer

(16 bits) (16 bits)
Options and padding

Using your knowledge of TCP and the diagram, identify any two of the transport-level
mechanisms that are present in this reliable byte stream protocol, providing a brief description
of what they are and how they work.
(c). A student tries to fetch a webpage from a non-existent URL www.southafrica.com. The
university’s DNS systems support both recursive and iterative querying. With the aid of well
detailed/annotated block diagrams explain the following:

(i). iterative querying for the www.southafrica.com IP address.

(ii). Recursive querying for the www.southafrica.com IP address.
(e). List three strategies for migrating from IPv4 to IPv6 (IPng). Explain the difference between
tunneling and dual stack strategies during the transition period. When is each strategy used?

QUESTION

a. A network is using a virtual circuit packet switching mode to transmit data from a
source (X) to a destination (Y). In a given instance of data transmission, a message
of size 80 M bits is to be transmitted from X to Y. The identified virtual circuit
network path comprises 3 intermediate nodes, a, b, and c equally spaced apart
equally by 5 km links. The link speed is r = 2kbps . The speed of propagation of

electromagnetic waves is is . 3  10 8 m / s The distance between the sender X and the

node (a) to which it is attached is negligible. Likewise the distance between the
receiver Y and the node ( c) to which it is attached s also negligible. Set up time is
2 sec s (2 microseconds). . Each packet traversing this network will require an

additional 0.5 Mbits header that contains the necessary control information. By

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 ignoring path clearing time, determine the time of transmission of the message sent
from X to Y in each of the following cases:
i. The entire message is sent as a single packet

ii. The message is sent by dividing it into two packets.

iii. The message is send using 5 packets.

iv. The message is sent using 10 packets.

QUESTION
a. Using the design steps outlined in the recommended textbook, design
a 800 x 800 three-stage non-blocking switching fabric (network).
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 N
How many crosspoints does the network contain? Note that n= .
2

Note that you are not required to sketch the entire switch as such.

[8]
b. You are to design multiplexing system to simultaneously transmit 3
standard voice channels (each of bandwidth), 0.3 to 3.4 kHz ) between two
points A and B.
(i) Determine the overall bandwidth required if frequency division
multiple access (FDMA) is the multiplexing choice. Do explain and
justify any assumptions you made.

(ii) Determine the overall bandwidth required if time division

Multiple aces (TDMA) is to be used.
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c. Discuss any three advantages of circuit switching versus datagram
(connectionless) switching.

With respect to transmitting packets:

1. No need to address every packet as the link would be dedicated.

2. No chances of packets arriving out of sequence

3. No jitter (i.e no differential delays as packets do not suffer any delays

except propagation delays

QUESTION 1
[20 marks]
1.1. Describe how an optical fibre transmission medium is able to transmit a
signal from point A to B.
[6 marks]
1.2. Coaxial cable is a two-wire transmission system. State its 2 advantages over a
simple symmetrical cable pair system (UTP)?
[4 marks]
1.3 A generic IP datagram header structure is shown I the figure below:

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 i. Explain how a packet whose TTL (time-to-live) packet is set to zero (TTL=0)
will be handled by the network.
ii. Explain how a packet whose TTL Fag’s field is set to “”0”” would be handled by
a router at the entry of a network whose MTU value is smaller than that of
the sending network?
iii. What is the significance or rather the difference between the HLEN versus
Total Length fields?

QUESTION2

2.1. Design a three stage non-blocking circuit switched network switch with 32
inputs by 32 outputs ports. Provide full schematic (block diagram) clearly showing (a), the
size of each switch array at each switching stage and (b) the total number of crosspoints.
[ 10 marks],

2.1. In the figure below, a data frame of size 10 million bits is to be exchanged
between the source s and destination switches (see figure1 below)

1000 m 2000 m 2000 m 1000 m

source destination
switch switch

Figure 5

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The following network specification apply:
• each link’s length is as indicated on the figure (in meters).
• the speed of propagation in the link is 2  108 m / s .
• each switch (including the source/destination) has a queuing delay of 2 s and a
processing time of 1s
• each link has a 5Mbps speed .
• setup time is 4 s .

Calculate the total delay Tdelay in transmitting the data frame for the following network
i. circuit switching
ii. Datagram switching
iii. Virtual Circuit switching

QUESTION
3.1. List down any three services (function) provided by the link layer
3.2. An organization’s subnet is granted the block 130.56.0.0/24.

i. Find the number of addresses in the subnet.

ii. Find the subnet prefix.

iii. Find the first address in the subnet.

iv. Find the last address in the subnet.

3.3. Discuss the three methods of saving IP version 4 address space [5 marks]

3.3. Discuss three approaches towards the deployment ( or migration) to IP version 6. [5

marks]

13. Subnets are normally arranges as shown in the figure below:

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An organization is granted a block of addresses with the beginning address 14.24.74.0/24.
The organization needs to have 3 subblocks of addresses to use in its three subnets: one
subblock of 10 addresses, one subblock of 60 addresses, and one subblock of 120
addresses. Design the subblocks.
Solution
There are 232– 24 = 256 addresses in this block. The first address is 14.24.74.0/24; the
last address is 14.24.74.255/24. To satisfy the third requirement, we assign addresses to
subblocks, starting with the largest and ending with the smallest one.
a. The number of addresses in the largest subblock, which requires 120 addresses, is not a
power of 2. We allocate 128 addresses. The subnet mask for this subnet can be found as n1
= 32 − log2 128 = 25. The first address in this block is 14.24.74.0/25; the last address is
14.24.74.127/25.

b. The number of addresses in the second largest subblock, which requires 60 addresses, is
not a power of 2 either. We allocate 64 addresses. The subnet mask for this subnet can be
found as n2 = 32 − log2 64 = 26. The first address in this block is 14.24.74.128/26; the last
address is 14.24.74.191/26
The number of addresses in the largest subblock, which requires 120 addresses, is not a
power of 2. We allocate 128 addresses. The subnet mask for this subnet can be found as n1
= 32 − log2 128 = 25. The first address in this block is 14.24.74.0/25; the last address is
14.24.74.127/25
If we add all addresses in the previous subblocks, the result is 208 addresses, which means
48 addresses are left in reserve. The first address in this range is 14.24.74.208. The last
address is 14.24.74.255. We don’t know about the prefix length yet. Figure 18.23 shows the
configuration of blocks. We have shown the first address in each block
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.

15. Explain the role of each of the IP v4 header fields shown in the figure below.
Explain, which of them are likely to change as the packet traverses one router to another.

16. An IP datagram has arrived with the following partial information in the
header (in hexadecimal):

a. What is the header size?

b. Are there any options in the packet?
c. What is the size of the data?

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d. Is the packet fragmented?
e. How many more routers can the packet travel to?
f. What is the protocol number of the payload being carried by the packet?

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