Principles of Computer Networking (Fall, 2014)

Homework #1 Solutions
Please do ve of the following ten problems, found in the textbook on pages 8790:
2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.9, 2.13, 2.15, 2.16
You are free to hand in more than ve answers, but the TA will only grade the rst ve and will ignore the
remaining answers. Please submit your solutions i) neatly written, ii) problems written in order, iii) stapled, and
iv) with your name(s) on the front page. Late homework will not be accepted.
2.1 Consider a channel in which bit errors occur independently from bit to bit, and the bit error probability (or
bit error rate) is p. This is called the Bernoulli packet error model. Show that the probability that a K bit packet
is received in error is approximated by Kp. Examine the validity of the approximation for K = 10, 000 bits, for
p = 10
7
and p = 10
4
, and discuss. If the packet length is a random variable, K, with f(k) being the probability
that the packet has k bits, show that the packet error probability is approximated by pE[K].
P(packet error) = 1 P(none of the bits in the packet is in error)
= 1 P(a bit is received correctly)
K
= 1 (1 p)
K
1 (1 Kp) = Kp.
With K = 10, 000, the probability of packet error, expressed up to 4 decimal places is 0.001 for p = 10
7
, which
is exactly the same as Kp, whereas it is 0.6321, for p = 10
4
, which is poorly approximated by Kp = 1. The
approximation in the above derivation basically retains the rst term of the Taylor expansion of (1p)
K
at p = 0.
For the approximation to work well we must have
1
2
K
2
p
2
Kp, which, with K = 10, 000, holds for p = 10
7
, but
not for p = 10
4
.
P(packet error | k bits in packet) kp
P(packet error)

k
f(k)kp
= pE[K]
2.3 A P bit packet is to be transported over L store-and-forward links; d
l
and C
l
are the propagation delay and
bit rate respectively on link l. Assuming zero queueing and processing delays on the links, argue that the end-
to-end delay would be

L
l=1
(
P+H
C
l
+ d
l
), where H is the number of header bits in a packet. If an M bit le is
to be transmitted as K packets and C
l
= C for all l, show that the end-to-end le transfer completion time is
1
C
[(
M
K
+H)(L 1) +

L
l=1
d
l
+M +KH]. Discuss the tradeos of choosing K. Show that the K that minimizes
the delay is

M
H
(L 1).
The transmission delay for a P bit packet with an H bit header over a link of capacity C is
P+H
C
. The
end-to-end delay across a series of links with propagation delay d
l
and transmission capacities C
l
is therefore:
L

l=1
P +H
C
l
+d
l
. (1)
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Using K packets to transport an M bit le requires
M
K
bits per packet. The last packet begins transmission at
time (K 1)
M/K+H
C
, i.e., when the other K 1 packets have completed transmission at link 1. This last packet
then takes an additional
M/K+H
C
L +

d
l
to arrive at the destination. The end-to-end delay is therefore
(K 1)
M/K +H
C
+
M/K +H
C
L +
L

l=1
d
l
. (2)
Writing this as a function of K, we obtain: f(K)
M(L1)
K
+ HK. Dierentiation yields f

(K) = H
M(L1)
K
2
.
Looking at the second derivative we obtain f

(K) =
2M(L1)
K
3
> 0, hence f(K) is concave and thus the stationary
points are maximizers. The maximizing K

is easily seen to be K

M(L1)
H
. For K small (fewer packets,
heavier payload) we obtain less parallelism but have less overhead from headers, while for K large (more packets,
smaller payload) we obtain more parallelism but have more overhead from headers.
2.4 If the links in Problem 2.3 used cut-through switching rather than store-and-forward, obtain the end-to-end
delays for the packet and the le with K packets. Assume C
l
= C for all l.
Its helpful to consider a sequence of simpler models.
The end-to-end delay for a P bit packet with an H bit header over a sequence of L links with no propagation
delays and link capacities C is
P+H
C
L.
The same as above but with cut-through switching is
H
C
L +
P
C
.
Sending an M bit le using K packets over a sequence of L links is
M/K+H
C
(K 1) +
M/K+H
C
L.
Same as above but with cut-through switching is
M/K+H
C
(K 1) +
H
C
L +
M/K
C
.
With cut-through switching we still must wait the same amount of time until the last packet can be transmitted
as in question 2.2, i.e., the last packet begins transmission at time (K1)
M/K+H
C
. That last packet traverses the
L links, but the transmission delay is now
H
C
L and the payload arrives
M/K
C
later. The nal expression is then:
(K 1)
M/K +H
C
+
H
C
L +
M/K
C
+
L

l=1
d
l
. (3)
2.5 A circuit multiplexed point to point link can accommodate one call at any time. The arrival times of calls X
and Y are uniformly distributed in the time interval [0, 5]. The holding time of call X is one unit and that of Y
is two units. An arriving call that nds a busy trunk is lost. Find the blocking probability for calls X and Y .
Let X and Y be the random variables representing the arrival times of calls X and Y respectively. (X, Y )
can take values in [0, 5]
2
and since they are uniformly distributed, the probability that (X, Y ) lies in an interval is
given by the ratio of the area corresponding to that interval to the total area of the square. Thus we have,
P(call X is blocked) = P(Y X Y + 2) =
8
25
P(call Y is blocked) = P(X Y X + 1) =
4.5
25
.
See Figure 1 for a sketch of these computations.
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Figure 1: Computing the blocking probabilities for X and Y : each pair of possible arrival points is equi-probable,
i.e., f
XY
(x, y) =
1
25
for 0 x, y 5. The gray area denotes points where X is blocked and the black area denotes
points where Y is blocked. Their respective areas are proportional to their blocking probabilities.
2.6 A source generates bits according to a Poisson process of rate . The bits from the source are to be transmitted
as K-bit packets. The time to accumulate a full packet will be called the packetization delay. Find the distribution
of the packetization delay.
Assume a packet is transmitted at time 0 and a new packet formation begins at that time. The probability
that the packetisation delay exceeds t is the probability that at time t the packet has not lled up. This in turn
is the probability that in time (0, t) less than K bits have been generated by the Poisson source. We use the fact
that the number of bits generated by the Poisson source in the interval (0, t) is Poission distributed with mean t.
Thus
P(packetization delay > t) = e
t
K1

k=0
(t)
k1
k!
. (4)
Another solution would be to say the interval between consecutive bits has an exponential distribution with mean
1

, and the time to generate K bits would be a random variable with a K-Erlang distribution (a gamma distribution
is also correct). Hence, the probability density function of the packetisation delay will be

K
t
K1
K!
e
t
.
2.7 A video source generates K xed length packets per frame which are then transmitted over a link. The frame
rate is 25 frames per second; i.e., every 40 ms the source outputs K packets into the links buer. The transmission
time of each packet on the link is 1 ms. If K 40, nd the average packet delay and the time average occupancy of
the link buer. Assume that a packet is stored in the buer until its last bit has been transmitted. Now assume that
K is a random variable with probability mass function P(K = k) =
k1
(1 ) for k = 1, 2, . . . with 0 < < 1.
In each frame, packets in excess of 40 are lost. Find the probability of losing packets in a frame and the average
number of packets lost per frame. Also, nd the average packet delay and the average buer occupancy.
When K is deterministic, at the beginning of each interval of length 40 ms (inter frame time) there will be K
packets that reduces by one every millisecond. The rst packet is released after a delay of 1 ms, the second one
after 2 ms and so on. Thus the following is easy to verify.
Average packet delay =
1
K
K

k=1
k =
1
K
K(K + 1)
2
=
K + 1
2
Time Average Buer Occupancy =
1
40
K

k=1
k =
K(K + 1)
80
.
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When K is a random variable, if there are more than 40 packets in the frame, then the excess is lost. The
probability that packets are lost from a frame is straightforward. The number of packets lost per frame is those
that are in excess of 40. Thus the average loss per frame is also straightforward. If a frame generates k packets,
k 40, then the conditional mean packet delay and buer occupancy is obtained as before. If a frame generates
more than 40 packets, then only 40 are retained. Thus the mean packet delay and the buer occupancy can be
easily written as below.
P(packets are lost in a frame) =

k=41

k1
(1 ) =
40
E(number of lost packets per frame) =

k=41
(k 40)
k1
(1 )
Average packet delay =

40

k=1

k1
(1 )
k + 1
2

40
41
2

Time average buer occupancy =

40

k=1
k(k + 1)
80

k1
(1 )

40
41
2

.
2.9 In a slotted multiaccess system, K nodes are each attempting transmission with probability p in each slot
independent of the other nodes. If N is the random number of slots consumed before the rst success, nd the
probability mass function of N.
We rst nd the probability that there is a successful transmission in a slot. A transmission is successful if
only one node attempts transmission and the others do not make the attempt.
P(successful transmission in a slot) = Kp(1 p)
K1
P
s
. (5)
The number of slots until the success is a geometric distribution with success probability P
s
, i.e.,
P(N = n) = P
s
(1 P
s
)
n1
, n = 1, 2, . . . , (6)
2.13 Consider a hierarchical construction of a network. At the lowest level, the nodes are formed into groups of
K
1
nodes and connected to one level-one switch; K
2
level-one switches are grouped together to be connected to one
level-two switch. Let there be L levels of this hierarchical construction. For K
i
= K, for i = 1, . . . , L, nd the
number of switches in the network and the number of links. Note that the links interconnecting the switches at the
higher levels will be longer but because they aggregate more trac, they will also be of increasing capacities.
There is one switch at level L at top of the hierarchy, connecting K switches of level L 1. Thus there are K
switches at level L 1. Continuing down the hierarchy, we get K
Ll
switches at level l. Thus the total number
of switches that will be used in the network is

L
l=1
K
Ll
.
2.15 One link in a network is failure prone and the other links are stable. The network topology is sampled every
second and, if the topology has changed, the routes are recalculated. Each second, the failure prone link changes
from up to down with probability p and from down to up with probability q. What is the rate at which the routes
in the network are calculated?
Starting with the link being good, the mean time for which it stays good is
1
p
seconds, and then it stays bad
for
1
q
seconds. Thus the route recalculation rate is
2pq
p+q
. A better way to do this is with a two state discrete time
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Markov chain with transition probabilities from state 0 (good) to state 1 (bad) of p and from state 1 to state 0 of
q. The invariant distribution is then = ((0), (1)) =
q
p+q
,
p
p+q
. The rate of change is then:
p(0) +q(1) =
2pq
p +q
. (7)
2.16 On a link the mean delay can be approximated by
1
1
, where is the utilization of the link. If the network
monitoring management trac increases the utilisation by , nd the percentage increase in the mean delay and
plot the increase as a function of . What do you observe?
Observe that as the link utilization increases, the increase in the penalty increases faster. See Figure 2. There
are two ways to interpret : as the increase in the load or as the percent increase in the load. Under the former
the load + and the new mean delay becomes E[D

] =
1
1(+)
, while under the latter the load becomes (1+)
and the new mean delay becomes E[D

] =
1
1(1+)
. Assuming the latter to be the case, the percentage increase
in the mean delay is
E[D

] E[D
0
]
E[D
0
]
=

1 (1 +)
. (8)
This expression is plotted vs. in Figure 2 for various .
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
Figure 2: Percentage increase in average delay as a function of the nominal oered load , for = {0.01, 0.05, 0.10}.
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