Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science

COE5330 – Computer Networks
Section 31, Winter 2010

HOMEWORK #1

1. A home user in Hato Rey and a web server in Santurce are connected to each other via a
satellite link. The satellite is 24,000 miles above the earth. Assume that the user requests a web
page (by clicking the mouse) at time 0 seconds. At what time will the data from the server begin
to arrive at the user’s computer (best-case scenario)?

The request has to go up and down, and the response has to go up and down. The total
path length traversed is thus 96,000 miles. The speed of light in air and vacuum is 186,000
miles/sec, so the propagation delay alone is 96,000/186,000 sec or about 516 msec. Thus,
the user must wait at least 516 milliseconds before she sees a response from the server.
2. Four university campuses are going to be connected to each other using point-to-point links.
There is one router at each campus (Hato Rey, Caguas, Ponce, Mayagüez). Between each pair
of routers, we may choose to put a 100Mbps line, a 45Mbps line, a 1.5Mbps line, a 256kbps
line, or no line at all.
a. How many possible network configurations are there?

There are 4 routers, thus there are (4 choose 2) = (4 x 3) / 2! = 6 pairs of

routers (and 6 links). There are 5 possible configuration values for each link
(100Mbps, 45Mbps, 1.5Mbps, 256Kbps, 0Kbps).

Thus there are 56 = 15,625 possible networks configurations.

b. If it takes the network analysis software 200 ms to examine each configuration, how
long will it take the software to examine all of them?

Computation time = 15,625 * 0.2 = 3125 seconds = 52 minutes.

c. Repeat parts a and b if there are six campuses that must be connected.

Now there are 6 routers and (6 choose 2) = (6 x 5) / 2! = 15 links.

(There is one link for each pair of routers.)

Therefore there are 515 = 30,517,578,125 possible configurations.

It would now take the software:

30,516,578,125 * 0.2 / 60 = 101,725,260 minutes

…or about 194 years to examine all configurations.

3. A system is running a 5-layer protocol stack. An application running on this system generates
messages of length 512 bytes and sends then through the network. At each layer, a 32-byte
header is added to the message. What portion of the transmitted data consists of headers?

Each layer adds its own header. Thus, there are 32 * 5 = 160 header bytes. The total
length of the transmitted data is then 512 + 160 = 672 bytes, of which 160 bytes, or
23.8% consists of headers.
4. The internet is approximately doubling in size every 1.5 years. One estimate says that in July
2010, there were 750 million hosts connected to the internet. Use this data to predict the number
of internet hosts in July 2021. Do you think this will be possible? Explain.

If the internet continues to double in size every 1.5 years, then in 21 years it will have
doubled 21/1.5 = 14 times. Thus the growth factor for a 21 years period is 2^14 = 16384.
This means there would be 750,000,000 x 16,384 (about 12 trillion) hosts by 2021.

Currently, there are about 7 billion people on this planet. Even if that number increases to
roughly 8 billion by 2021 (U.N. estimate), this implies that there would be over 1 million
internet hosts per person worldwide.
5. Suppose the algorithms to implement the operations at layer k have changed. How does this
impact the operation of layers k – 1 and k + 1?

No. The implementation details of a layer do not affect the operation of the layers above or
below, as long as the services offered by the layer remain the same.
6. Suppose there is a change in the services provided by layer k. Does this impact the operation of
layer k+1? Does this impact the operation of layer k-1? Explain.

Services are offered by a layer to the layer directly above. Thus, layer k+1 would be
affected but layer k-1 would not be affected.
7. An image is 2048 x 1500 pixels with 3 bytes per pixel. Assume that the image is uncompressed.
How long does it take to transmit it over a 56-kbps dial-up connection? Over a 3-Mbps DSL
modem? Over a 28Mbps Wi-Fi connection? Over 100Mbps Ethernet? Over 1Gbps Ethernet?

From the point of view of the network, an image is just a sequence of bits. The length of
this particular image is (2048 x 1500) pixels x 3 bytes/pixel x 8 bits/byte = 73,728,000 bits.

Ignoring propagation and other sources of delay, it would then take approximately:

73x10^6 / 56x10^3 = 1300 seconds (about 22 minutes) over a 56kbps

connection,

73x10^6 / 3x10^6 = 24 seconds over a 3 Mbps DSL connection,

73x10^6 / 28x10^6 = 2.6 seconds over a 28 Mbps connection,

73x10^6 / 100x10^6 = 0.73 seconds over 100Mbps Ethernet,

73x10^6 / 1x10^9 = 73 milliseconds over 1Gbps Ethernet,

to transmit the image.