Chapter 1 Review Questions

1. What advantage does a circuit-switched network have over a packet-switched network? What
advantages does TDM have over FDM in a circuit-switched network?
ANS: (a). A circuit-switched network can guarantee a certain amount of end-to-end bandwidth for the duration of
a call.
(b). Most packet-switched networks today (including the Internet) cannot make any end-to-end guarantees
for bandwidth. FDM requires sophisticated analog hardware to shift signal into appropriate frequency bands.

2. Consider sending a packet from a source host to a destination host over a fixed route. List the delay
components in the end-to-end delay. Which of these delays are constant and which are variable?
ANS: The delay components are processing delays, transmission delays, propagation delays, and queuing delays.
All of these delays are fixed, except for the queuing delays, which are variable.

3. How long does it take a packet of length 1,000 bytes to propagate over a link of distance 2,500 km,
propagation speed 2.5*108m/s, and transmission rate 2 Mbps?
More generally, how long does it take a packet of length L to propagate over a link of distance d,
propagation speed s, and transmission rate R bps?
Does this delay depend on packet length?
Does this delay depend on transmission rate?
ANS: (a) dprop: propagation delay d/s= 2500km/2.5*108m/s = 10msec
dtrans = L/R =1000bytes/2Mbps =1000*8bits/2*106= 4msec
dprop + dtrans = 14msec
(b) d/s; (c) no; (d) no

4. Suppose Host A wants to send a large file to Host B. The path from Host A to Host B has three links, of
rates R1=500 kbps, R2=2 Mbps, and R3=1 Mbps.
a. Assuming no other traffic in the network, what is the throughput for the file transfer?
b. Suppose the file is 4 million bytes. Dividing the file size by the throughput, roughly how long will it take
to transfer the file to Host B?
c. Repeat (a) and (b), but now with R reduced to 100 kbps.
ANS:
a) 500 kbps
b) 4*106*8bits/ 500bps = 64 seconds
c) 100kbps; 320 seconds

5. What are the five layers in the Internet protocol stack? What are the principal responsibilities of each
of these layers?
ANS: The five layers in the Internet protocol stack are – from top to bottom – the application layer, the transport
layer, the network layer, the link layer, and the physical layer.

6. What is the difference between a virus and a worm?

ANS: a) Virus
Requires some form of human interaction to spread. Classic example: E-mail viruses.
b) Worms
No user replication needed. Worm in infected host scans IP addresses and port numbers, looking for
vulnerable processes to infect.
7. This elementary problem begins to explore propagation delay and transmission delay, two central
concepts in data networking. Consider two hosts, A and B, connected by a single link of rate R bps. Suppose
that the two hosts are separated by m meters, and suppose the propagation speed along the link is s
meters/sec. Host A is to send a packet of size L bits to Host B.
a. Express the propagation delay, d prop, in terms of m and s.
b. Determine the transmission time of the packet, dtrans, in terms of L and R.
c. Ignoring processing and queuing delays, obtain an expression for the end-to-end delay.
d. Suppose Host A begins to transmit the packet at time t=0. At time t= dtrans , where is the last bit of the
packet?
e. Suppose d prop is greater than dtrans. At time t= dtrans , where is the first bit of the packet?
f. Suppose d prop is less than dtrans. At time t= dtrans , where is the first bit of the packet?
g. Suppose s=2.5*108, L=120 bits, and R=56kbs. Find the distance m so that d prop equals dtrans
ANS:
a) d prop = m / s seconds.
b) d trans = L / R seconds.
c) d end −to−end = (m / s + L / R) seconds.
d) The bit is just leaving Host A.
e) The first bit is in the link and has not reached Host B.
f) The first bit has reached Host B.
g) Want
m= s=
L
R
120
(
56  10 3
)
2.5  108 = 536 km.
8. In this problem, we consider sending real-time voice from Host A to Host B over a packet-switched
network (VoIP). Host A converts analog voice to a digital 64 kbps bit stream on the fly. Host A then groups
the bits into 56-byte packets. There is one link between Hosts A and B; its transmission rate is 2 Mbps and
its propagation delay is 10 msec. As soon as Host A gathers a packet, it sends it to Host B. As soon as Host
B receives an entire packet, it converts the packet’s bits to an analog signal. How much time elapses from
the time a bit is created (from the original analog signal at Host A) until the bit is decoded (as part of the
analog signal at Host B)?
ANS: Consider the first bit in a packet. Before this bit can be transmitted, all of the bits in the packet must be
generated. This requires

56  8
sec=7msec.
64  103

The time required to transmit the packet is

56  8
sec= 224  sec.
2  106

Propagation delay = 10 msec.

The delay until decoding is

7msec + 224  sec + 10msec = 17.224msec

A similar analysis shows that all bits experience a delay of 17.224 msec.
9. A packet switch receives a packet and determines the outbound link to which the packet should be
forwarded. When the packet arrives, one other packet is halfway done being transmitted on this outbound
link and four other packets are waiting to be transmitted. Packets are transmitted in order of arrival.
Suppose all packets are 1,500 bytes and the link rate is 2 Mbps. What is the queuing delay for the packet?
More generally, what is the queuing delay when all packets have length L, the transmission rate is R, x bits
of the currently-being-transmitted packet have been transmitted, and n packets are already in the queue?
ANS:
The arriving packet must first wait for the link to transmit 4.5 *1,500 bytes = 6,750 bytes or 54,000 bits.
Since these bits are transmitted at 2 Mbps, the queuing delay is 27 msec.
Generally, the queuing delay is (nL + (L - x))/R.

10. Suppose you would like to urgently deliver 40 terabytes data from Boston to Los Angeles.
You have available a 100 Mbps dedicated link for data transfer. Would you prefer to transmit the
data via this link or instead use FedEx over-night delivery? Explain.
ANS:
40 terabytes = 40 * 1012 * 8 bits. So, if using the dedicated link, it will take 40 * 1012 * 8 / (100 *106 ) =3200000
seconds = 37 days.
But with FedEx overnight delivery, you can guarantee the data arrives in one day, and it should cost less than
$100.

11. The characters “X” and “z” occur much less frequently than “e” and the space character,
for example. What if we could use fewer bits for common characters in exchange for using
more bits for uncommon characters?
Please building the Huffman encode tree for Symbol and its related frequency, A: 11, B:12,
C:13, D:14, E:24, F:26.
Ans:
12. Suppose there is a 10 Mbps microwave link between a geostationary satellite and its base
station on Earth. Every minute the satellite takes a digital photo and sends it to the base station. Assume a
propagation speed of 2.4*108meters/sec.
a. What is the propagation delay of the link?
b. What is the bandwidth-delay product, R* dprop ?
c. Let x denote the size of the photo. What is the minimum value of x for the microwave link
to be continuously transmitting?
ANS:
Recall geostationary satellite is 36,000 kilometers away from earth surface.
a) 36,000 kilometers / 2.4*108meters/sec =150 msec
b) 10Mbps*150msec=1,500,000 bits
c) 60sec/150msec*1500000=600,000,000 bits