Networking and Multimedia Resit Coursework Part 2 – 50%

Name: Kirandeep Kaur

Student Number: 19133874
Module Code: COMP4007
Answer these following tutorial questions:
Q 1. Explain the differences between Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area
Network (WAN).
Ans:
Local Area Network Wide Area Network
1. LAN communicated between WAN covers large area like
connected devices. country/continent etc.
2. It is private network used for It is private and public network.
personal use mainly.
3. It is having high speed. WAN having less as compared
to LAN.
4. Less congestion is LAN. There is more congestion in
WAN.
5. Maintenance of LAN is easy. Maintenance is difficult than
LAN.
6. LAN covers small area (within WAN works on the principal of
building etc.). point to point.
7. Propagation delay is short in Propagation delay in WAN is
LAN. long.
8. It operates on the principle of WAN works on principle point to
broadcasting. point

Q 2. Describe any four key Quality of Service (QoS) parameters used to describe the
traffic profile of data on a network.
Ans:
1. Bandwidth: It is measuring capacity available on a network link. This is most familiar
factor of a network is the bandwidth. It is measured in bits per second (bps).
2. Delay: It is also known as latency; it deals with the how long the packet took from
sender to receiver. It is measured in milliseconds (ms); slower the network means
more the delay.
3. Jitter: It is a measurement of variation of delay between packets. For example, if
packet takes 50ms to get from point X to Point Y and second packets takes 70ms to
get from point X to Point Y then jitter is 20ms.
4. Loss: Sometimes as packets fly through a network some of them get lost it mean
that they not reach to destination.
Q 3. Compare the main characteristics of a circuit switched network with that of a
packet switched network.
Ans:

Circuit Switched Network Packet Switched Network

It is used when a dedicated channel or In packet switched data is grouped to
circuit needs to be established. transmitted over a digital network into
packets.
There is a dedicated path between the No need of path establishment between
source and the destination before source and destination.
establishing.
Circuit switching has two categories half- It is a connectionless network switching
duplex or full duplex. method.
It is earlier used for voice transfer. It is earlier used for data transfer.
It applies on physical layer. It is implemented at network layer.
Initial cost for circuit switching network is It cost more for initial installation.
less.
Data is processed and transmitted at Data is processed and transmitted at
source only. source and destination both.
The protocols for delivery are simple. It is having complex protocols.
Charging for per minute Charging for per packet.
Each packet works on same route. Each packet does not follow same route.
Same message is received as sent by Message is received from sender is not
sender. same and destination needs to assemble
the
It does not store and then transmit to It first store and then transmit to destination.
destination.

Q 4. List the key differences between the following:

i) Traffic policing and traffic shaping
Ans:
S.No. Traffic Policing Traffic Shaping
1. It is mechanism which check It is congestion control mechanism
the traffic in any network. that brings delay in packets.
2. It does not cause delay. It cause delay of packets.
3. Token values measured as Token value is measured in bits
 bytes per second. per second.
4. In traffic policing queuing of Queuing of traffic is not performed
traffic is not performed. in traffic shaping.
5. It support traffic remarking. It does not supports traffic
remarking.
6. It used to control outbound or It only control outbound traffic.
inbound traffic.

ii) Real-time and non-real-time traffic

4 marks
Characteristic Real-time traffic Non-real time traffic
Response Time Hard-required Soft-designed
Peak-load Performance Predictable Degraded
Control of pace Environment Computer
Size of data files Small/ medium. Large
Redundancy type Active Checkpoint-recovery
Data integrity Short-term Long-term
Error Detection Autonomous User assisted

Q 7. Briefly describe any four key functions of a communication protocol. Ans: 1. Data
Sequencing 2. Data Flow 3. Data Functions of protocols
Following are the main functionalities of a protocol:

 Data Sequencing: It mainly convert data into packets and divide the whole data
into packets.

 Data Flow: It mainly work to send data to the destination and check data is correct
or not.

 Data Routing: it selects best fit path for sending data from sender to receiver and
there is many path available.

 Encapsulation: It refers to the process of taking one protocol and transferring it to

another protocol.

 Segmentation & Reassembly: Segmenting data messages like when data flow

from upper protocol layers to lower it segments the data into packets and
reassembly vice-versa.
  Connection Control: It also ensures connection oriented data transfer for lengthy
data items.

 Ordered Delivery:  Protocol helps to ordered delivery of data, by giving unique

sequence number to every packets. This is a most important function of the sender
to maintain ordered delivery.

 Transmission Services: It deals with priority, QoS and security of packets.

 Addressing: It addressing levels, scopes, communication identifiers and

addressing modes.

 Flow Control: It provides facility to limit the flow of data. This is a function of
receiver’s end to maintain flow control of data.

 Error Control: It helps to find error if any and control. Any error is detected during
the transmission of data, a request for retransmission of data is sent to the sender
by the receiver.

8. Briefly describe the following compression techniques. Your answer should also
state which of the techniques are lossy and which ones are lossless.
i) Differential pulse code modulation
Ans:
Differential pulse code modulation (DPCM) is a mechanism to convert analog signal into a
digital signal firstly analog signal is sampled and then the actual sample value and predicted
value is quantized for encoded for digital value.
Basic concept behind DPCM – mostly source signals show significant correlation between
successive samples so encoding uses redundancy in sample values which implies lower bit
rate. It is based on a technique in which we have to predict current sample value based upon
previous samples and predict actual value of sample and predicted value. DPCM is totally
depending on the prediction technique, prediction techniques lead to good compression
rates, in other cases DPCM could mean expansion comparing to regular PCM encoding.
It is totally a lossy compression techniques. This is used in JPEG and in adaptive DPCM
(ADPCM), a common audio compression method.
ii) Vector Quantisation
Ans:
It is a lossy compression Algorithm vector quantisation, Vector quantization technique is
quite similar to scalar quantization. Idea behind it is to identify the frequently occurring blocks
in an image and to represent them as representative vectors. Set of representative vector is
known as Code Book and it is then used for image.

Mapping
Training
Function
Coding Code
SET
Q
Vector Book
Training SET: It purpose is to partition the input sequence into some non-overlapping
region. Mapping Function Q: coding vector is being formed and then code book is being
created which is used for the image.
This is a structure of vector quantisation (VQ).

Q 9.
i) What are the three main types of MPEG frames?
Ans:
Three types of MPEG frames:
Intraframe or I-frame: Complete image is encoded without any reference to any other
image.
Predicted Frame or P-frame: In this case the image coded with another image. A P-frame
can be generated relative to either an I-frame or another p-frame.
Bidirectional Frame or B-frame: In bidirectional image derived from two frames, it is
between first and third frame. B-frame is derived from I-frame or P-frame, but not from B-
frames.

ii) Give an example of a typical GOP sequence and explain the relationship between
the different types of frames in the sequence?
Ans:
Group of Pictures arranged in specific order (I-frames, B-frames and P-frames in case of
H.264/AVC standard). Video is collection of GOPs of a specific size (taking 8 or 12 frames,
which is set in the header of the standard).

Explaining relationship between different frames in the sequence:

A GOP always starting with an I-frame (intra coded frame or reference frame) also called as
Key frame. Size iof GOP is the distance between two I-frames (eg IBBPBBPBBPBBI means
the size of the GOP is 12).