Name: __________________________

The Catholic University of America

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
EE 534/CSC 534: Communication and Computer Network Simulation
Quiz 1
Spring, 2021

Instructions:
This is an OPEN BOOK and OPEN NOTE quiz. Only the textbook, lab manual, and lecture
slides and notes are permitted. Other materials and online access are strictly prohibited.

Show all the work but keep answers brief and concise. Organize your work logically and
explain the main points. Write with legible handwriting.

1- Define Packet transmission time and propagation delay.

it is the time from the first bit until the last bit of a message has left the transmitting node. The
packet transmission time in seconds can be obtained from the packet size in bit and the bit
rate in bit/s as:
Packet transmission time = Packet size / Bit rate

Propagation delay: amount of time it takes for the head of the signal to travel from the
sender to the receiver.
Propagation delay = Distance/propagation speed.

2- Let A, B, and C be three subsequent nodes, A and C are attempting to transmit on 100 Mbps
Ethernet. The exponential back off base unit is T = 512-bit times. The propagation delay between
two nodes is equally divided into 210-bit times. Assume A and C send Ethernet frames at the
same time at t = 2 μs, while B remains silent, the frames collide, and then A and C choose
different values of K in the CSMA/CD algorithm, K A = 2, K C = 3. At what times in seconds does
A and C schedule its retransmission after the collision? (Assuming after the collision is detected;
a node will abort the Ethernet frame transmission and transmit a jamming signal and then go to
the exponential back off. It also senses the idle channel for 96-bit times before it transmits).

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 3- Calculate the length of the ethernet link from node A to node C?

4- Why CSMA/CD cannot be used in a wireless environment, what protocol is used for
WLAN?

It is particularly important for wireless networks, where the collision detection of the

alternative CSMA/CD is not possible due to wireless transmitters desensing their receivers
during packet transmission. CSMA/CA is unreliable due to the hidden node problem.

ALSO CALLED: Open Wireless Protocols, Wireless Local Area Network Protocols,

Wireless Standards, Digital Wireless Protocols, Wireless Protocols, Wireless LAN Protocols.
DEFINITION: Hiper-LAN is a set of wireless local area network (WLAN)
communication standards primarily used in European countries.

5- Briefly explain the hidden and the exposed terminal problems in carrier sensing?

The hidden terminal problem occurs when a terminal is visible from a wireless access

point (APs), but not from other nodes communicating with AP. ... These nodes are
known as hidden terminals. The problem occurs when nodes A and C start to send data
packets simultaneously to the access point B.

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Hidden Terminal Problem:
A wireless network with lack of centralized control entity, sharing of wireless bandwidth among
network access nodes i.e. medium access control (MAC) nodes must be organized in
decentralized manner.
The hidden terminal problem occurs when a terminal is visible from a wireless access point
(APs), but not from other nodes communicating with AP. This situation leads the difficulties in
medium access control sub-layer over wireless networking.
In a formal way hidden terminals are nodes in a wireless network that are out of range of other
node or a collection of nodes.

Exposed Terminal Problem:

In wireless networks, when a node is prevented from sending packets to other nodes because of a
neighboring transmitter is known as the exposed node problem
Consider the wireless network having four nodes labeled A, B, C and D, where the two receivers
are out of range of each other, yet the two transmitters (B, C) in the middle are in range of each
other.
Here, if a transmission between A and B is taking place, node C is prevented from transmitting
to D as it concludes after carrier sense that it will interfere with the transmission by its neighbor
node B. However, note that node D could still receive the transmission of C without interference
because it is out of range from B. Therefore, implementing directional antenna at a physical layer
in each node could reduce the probability of signal interference, because the signal is propagated
in a narrow band.
The exposed terminal analogy is described as follows:

 B sends to A, C wants to send to another terminal D not A or B

 C senses the carrier and detects that the carrier is busy
 C postpones its transmission until it detects the medium as being idle again
 But A is outside radio range of C, waiting is not necessary
 C is "exposed" to B

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—End of Quiz—Good Luck