Q. How is the preamble field different from the SFD field?

Ans. The preamble is a 56-bit field that provides an alert and timing pulse. It is added to the frame at
the physical layer and is not formally part of the frame. SFD is a one byte field that serves as a flag.

Q. What is the difference between a unicast, multicast, and broadcast address?

Ans. A multicast address identifies a group of stations; a broadcast address identifies all stations on
the network. A unicast address identifies one of the addresses in a group.
The least significant bit of the first byte defines the type of address. If the bit is 0, the address is
unicast; otherwise, it is multicast. The broadcast destination address is a special case of the multicast
address in which all bits are 1s.

Q. An Ethernet MAC sublayer receives 1510 bytes of data from the upper layer. Can the data be
encapsulated in one frame? If not, how many frames need to be sent? What is the size of the data in
each frame?
Ans. The maximum data size in the Standard Ethernet is 1500 bytes. The data of 1510 bytes,
therefore, must be split between two frames. The standard dictates that the first frame must carry the
maximum possible number of bytes (1500); the second frame then needs to carry only 10 bytes of
data (it requires padding).
Data size for the first frame: 1500 bytes
Data size for the second frame: 46 bytes (with padding)

Q. What is a transparent bridge?

Ans. A transparent bridge is a bridge in which the stations are completely unaware of the bridge’s
existence. If a bridge is added or deleted from the system, reconfiguration of the stations is
unnecessary.

Q. How is a hub related to a repeater?

Ans. A hub is a multiport repeater.

Q. How does a VLAN provide extra security for a network?

Ans. Members of a VLAN can send broadcast messages with the assurance that users in other groups
will not receive these messages.

Q. What is the basis for membership in a VLAN?

Ans. Stations can be grouped by port number, MAC address, IP address, or by a combination of
these characteristics.

Q. Create a system of three LANs with four bridges. The bridges (B1 to B4) connect the LANs as
follows:
a. B1 connects LAN 1 and LAN 2.
b. B2 connects LAN 1 and LAN 3.
c. B3 connects LAN 2 and LAN 3.
d. B4 connects LAN 1, LAN 2, and LAN 3.
Ans.

Q. Which one has more overhead, a repeater or a bridge?

Ans. A bridge has more overhead than a repeater. A bridge processes the packet at two layers; a
repeater processes a frame at only one layer. A bridge needs to search a table and find the forwarding
port as well as to regenerate the signal; a repeater only regenerates the signal. In other words, a bridge
is also a repeater (and more); a repeater is not a bridge.

Q. Explain why collision is an issue in a random access protocol but not in controlled access or
channelizing protocols.
Ans. In random access methods, there is no access control (as there is in controlled access methods)
and there is no predefined channels (as in channelization). Each station can transmit when it desires.
This liberty may create collision. In controlled access, the stations consult one another to find which
station has the right to send. A station cannot send unless it has been authorized by other stations.

Q. Do we need a multiple access protocol when we use the 1ocal loop of the telephone company to
access the Internet? Why?
Ans. We do not need a multiple access method in this case. The local loop provides a dedicated point-
to-point connection to the telephone office.

Q. We have a pure ALOHA network with 100 stations. If Tfr = 1 μs, what is the number of frames/s
each station can send to achieve the maximum efficiency.
Ans. To achieve the maximum efficiency in pure ALOHA, G = 1/2. If we let ns to be the number of
stations and nfs to be the number of frames a station can send per second.

Q. One hundred stations on a pure ALOHA network share a l-Mbps channel. If frames are 1000 bits
long, find the throughput if each station is sending 10 frames per second.
Ans. We can first calculate Tfr and G, and then the throughput.
This means that each station can successfully send only 1.35 frames per second.

Q. In a CDMAlCD network with a data rate of 10 Mbps, the minimum frame size is found to be 512
bits for the correct operation of the collision detection process. What should be the minimum frame
size if we increase the data rate to 100 Mbps? To 1 Gbps? To 10 Gbps?
Ans.

This means that minimum frame size is proportional to the data rate (K is a constant). When the data
rate is increased, the frame size must be increased in a network with a fixed length to continue the
proper operation of the CSMA/CD.

Q. Is the size of the ARP packet fixed? Explain.

Ans. The size of an ARP packet is variable, depending on the length of the logical and physical
addresses used.

Q. Why is there a restriction on the generation of an ICMPv4 message in response to a failed ICMPv4
error message?
Ans. This restriction prevents ICMP packets from flooding the network. Without this restriction an
endless flow of ICMP packets could be created.

Q. Give an example of a situation in which a host would never receive a redirection message.
Ans. A host would never receive a redirection message if there is only one router that connects the
local network to the outside world.

Q. What is the minimum size of an IPv4 packet that carries an ICMPv4 packet? What is the maximum
size?
Ans. The minimum size of an IP packet that carries an ICMP packet would be 28 bytes (a 20 byte IP
header + an 8 byte router solicitation packet). The maximum size would be 2068 bytes (a 20 byte IP
header + a 2048 byte router advertisement packet).

Q. What is the minimum size of an Ethernet frame that carries an IPv4 packet which in turn carries an
ICMPv4 packet? What is the maximum size?
Ans. The minimum size would be 64 bytes if we do not consider the preamble and SFD fields, which
are added at the physical layer. The maximum size would be 1518 bytes, again not considering the
preamble and SFD fields. Although the maximum size of an ICMP packet can be much more than
1500 bytes (for a router advertisement packet), Ethernet can carry only 1500 bytes of it.

Q. Host A sends a datagram to host B. Host B never receives the datagram, and host A never receives
notification of failure. Give two different explanations of what might have happened.
Ans.
Case 1: It could happen that host B is unreachable, for some reason. The error message generated by
an intermediate router could then be lost on its way back to host A.
Case 2: Perhaps the datagram was dropped due to congestion and the error message generated by an
intermediate router was lost.

Q. A router receives an IPv4 packet with source IP address 130.45.3.3 and destination IP address
201.23.4.6. The router cannot find the destination IP address in its routing table. Which ICMPv4
message should be sent?
Ans. The appropriate ICMP message is destination unreachable message. This type of message has
different types of codes to declare what is unreachable. In this case, the code is 0, which means the
network is unreachable.

Q. If a host wants to continue membership in five groups, should it send five different membership
report messages or just one?
Ans. The host must send as many as five different report messages at random times in order to
preserve membership in five different groups.

Q. A host with IPv4 address 114.45.7.9 receives an IGMP query. When it checks its group table, it
finds no entries. What action should the host take? Should it send any messages?
Ans. No action should be taken.

Q. How many multicast addresses can be supported for the IPv4 protocol in Ethernet? How many
multicast addresses can be supported by the IPv4 protocol? What is the size of address space lost
when we transform a multicast IPv4 address to an Ethernet multicast address?
Ans.

Q. What are the functions of a RIP message?

Ans. A RIP message is used by a router to request and receive routing information about an
autonomous system or to periodically share its knowledge with its neighbors.

Q. How does the hop count limit alleviate RIP's problems?

Ans. The hop count limit helps RIP instability by limiting the number of times a message can be sent
through the routers, thereby limiting the back and forth updating that may occur if part of a network
goes down.

Q. What is the basis of classification for the four types of links defined by OSPF?
Ans. In OSPF, four types of links have been defined: point-to-point, transient, stub, and virtual. A
point-to-point link connects two routers without any other host or router in between. A transient link
is a network with several routers attached to it. The packets can enter and leave through any of the
routers. A stub link is a network that is connected to only one router. The data packets enter the
network through this single router and leave the network through this same router. This is a special
case of the transient network. When the link between two routers is broken, the administrator may
create a virtual link between them, using a longer path that probably goes through several routers.

Q. What is the purpose of BGP?

Ans. BGP is an interdomain routing protocol using path vector routing.
Q. Show a routing table for a host that is totally isolated.
Ans. A host that is totally isolated needs no routing information. The routing table has no entries.

Q. How many bytes are empty in a RIP message that advertises N networks?
Ans. There are 2 + (10 × N) = Empty bytes in a message advertising N networks.

Q. Does RPF actually create a shortest path tree? Explain.

Ans. No, RPF does not create a shortest path tree because a network can receive more than one copy
of the same multicast packet. RPF creates a graph instead of a tree.

Q. Does RPM actually create a shortest path tree? Explain. What are the leaves of the tree?
Ans. Yes, RPM creates a shortest path tree because it is actually RPB with pruning and grafting
features. The leaves of the tree are the networks.