EN3533 – NETWORK DESIGN

Faculty: Design and Technology

School: Engineering
Course: BSc (Honours) Degree in
Computer Network Management and Design
Stage of Study: Stage Three Examination
Academic Year: 2007/08
Semester: One
Date: Tuesday 8 January 2008
Time (Main Cohort): 1000-1230 hours (Two and a half hours)
Time (SAA Student): 1000-1308 hours (Three hours and eight mins)
No of Pages
(including cover sheet):
4
INSTRUCTIONS TO
CANDIDATES:
Attempt any FOUR Questions
SPECIAL STATIONERY
(if applicable):
None
"All dictionaries used during an examination should be paper-based translation dictionaries only.
Students may use programmable calculators but these must be reset to erase any shared
information. Spot checks may be carried out.”
Students are not permitted to look at the examination paper until instructed to do so
EN3533 Network Design 2 January 2008
1 This question covers email and DHCP addressing protocols.
(a) The following is an extract from an SMTP message exchanged between
an e-mail client on a computer called client.com and a server on a
computer called host.com. Explain the meaning of each line of the
message.
Server: 220 host.com Simple Mail Transfer Service ready
Client: HELO client.com
Server: 250 OK
Client: MAIL FROM: <a.n.other@host.com>
Server: 250 OK
Client: RCTP TO: <someone@host.com> (6)
(b) Identify the capabilities of the IMAP protocol which are not supported by
the POP3 protocol and discuss TWO of the capabilities. (6)
(c) With the aid of a diagram, show how a client on a LAN obtains a DHCP
supplied IP address at start up when there are two DHCP servers
available on the same LAN as the client. Identify which messages are
broadcast and which are unicast. (8)
2 This question covers asynchronous communication, line coding
and error detection codes.
(a) Explain why asynchronous serial transmission is used for transmitting
short frames rather than long frames. (4)
(b) With regard to Alternate Mark Inversion (AMI) line code, draw the
waveform generated when the bit stream 01001111010 is transmitted. (4)
(c) The message 110101 is to be sent over a data link where Cyclic
Redundancy Check (CRC) is the method of error correction. The CRC
uses the generator polynomial X4 + X3 + 1. Using this message and
generator polynomial:
(i) Calculate the CRC and transmitted frame. (8)
(ii) Briefly explain how the receiver verifies that the message is error
free. (4)
EN3533 Network Design 3 January 2008
3 This question addresses the performance of datalink protocols
and line coding.
(a) Explain the difference between the data link protocols Idle-RQ and
Continuous-RQ. (6)
(b) Calculate the utilisation of the following Continuous-RQ protocol,
assuming zero errors.
Frame size = 120 bits, propagation delay = 50 µs, bit rate = 10 Mbit/s,
window size = 7. (8)
(c) Give examples of the types of networks where Manchester, MLT-3 and
4B5B line codes are used. Explain why these particular line codes are
chosen for these particular networks. (6)
4 This question covers issues surrounding Internet addressing and
related protocols.
(a) A user in America enters a URL (eg. http://www.rgu.ac.uk) into a web
browser. Explain in detail how the Domain Name System and the
Address Resolution Protocol play their part in successfully retrieving data
from the specified website. (9)
(b) As Network Administrator you have been given the task of developing an
IP addressing scheme for a large network consisting of 842 separate
subnets with approximately 50 hosts on each subnet. The IP address
121.167.0.0 has been allocated. Having decided on an addressing
scheme, calculate:
(i) the subnet mask. (4)
(ii) the broadcast address of the 259th subnet. (3)
(iii) the host address range for the 259th subnet. (4)
Give answers in dotted decimal notation.
EN3533 Network Design 4 January 2008
5 This question covers routing and the TCP/IP protocols used on
the Internet.
(a) Explain the difference between a routed protocol, such as IP, and a
routing protocol such as OSPF? (4)
(b) If a datagram is received by a host and the data is corrupted, which
protocol deals with this, and how does it detect and then correct the
errors? (4)
(c) Identify the benefits and drawbacks of using flood routing, and in what
situation would you consider choosing such a routing algorithm? (6)
(d) A network suddenly experiences a change in traffic through one of its
routers. If the routing protocol used is RIP, describe how the routing
tables in each router are updated with the new status of the network? (6)
6 This question addresses LAN performance and Information
Theory.
(a) An Ethernet LAN consists of a room of computers, including a database
server, connected to a hub. It has been decided to enable access to the
database server from a LAN situated in a room on the floor above. The
two LANs were connected by simply interconnecting the hubs.
(i) By referring to the CSMA/CD protocol, explain why you would expect
a drop in LAN performance. (6)
(ii) What prevents a LAN based on hubs, expanding indefinitely? (4)
(b) Explain how the information carrying capacity of a link is related to the
signal to noise ratio of the link. (5)
(c) A link has a bandwidth of 3,100 Hz and a signal to noise ratio of
20 decibels. Calculate the theoretical limit to the information carrying
capacity of the link. (5)
End of Examination