August 2010

Master of Computer Application (MCA) – Semester 3

MC0075 – Computer Networks– 4 Credits
(Book ID: B0813 & B0814)
Assignment Set – 1 (60 Marks)

Answer all Questions Each Question carries TEN Marks

Book ID: B0813
1. Describe the theory of network software in computer networks.

Ans:- Network Software is a set of primitives that define the protocol between two machines.
The network software resolves an ambiguity among different types of network making it
possible for all the machines in the network to connect and communicate with one another and
share information.

network software is the information, data or programming used to make it possible for
computers to communicate or connect to one another.

Network software is used to efficiently share information among computers. It encloses the
information to be sent in a “package” that contains a “header” and a “trailer”. The header and
trailer contain information for the receiving computer, such as the address of that computer and
how the information package is coded. Information is transferred between computers as either
electrical signals in electric wires, as light signals in fiber-optic cables, or as electromagnetic
waves through space.

2. Describe the OSI reference model and compare it with TCP / IP model.
Ans:- The Internet Protocol Suite also known as TCP/IP is the set of communications
protocols used for the Internet and other similar networks. It is named from two of
the most important protocols in it: the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and
the Internet Protocol (IP), which were the first two networking protocols defined
in this standard. IP networking represents a synthesis of several developments that
began to evolve in the 1960s and 1970s, namely the Internet and LANs (Local
Area Networks), which emerged in the mid- to late-1980s, together with the
advent of the World Wide Web in early 1990s.
The Internet Protocol Suite, like many protocol suites, may be viewed as a set of
layers. Each layer solves a set of problems involving the transmission of data, and
provides a well-defined service to the upper layer protocols based on using
services from some lower layers. Upper layers are logically closer to the user and
deal with more abstract data, relying on lower layer protocols to translate data into
forms that can eventually be physically transmitted.
The main differences between the two models are as follows:
1. OSI is a reference model and TCP/IP is an implementation of OSI model.
 2.TCP/IP Protocols are considered to be standards around which the internet
has developed. The OSI model however is a "generic, protocol-
independent standard."
3. TCP/IP combines the presentation and session layer issues into its
application layer.
4. TCP/IP combines the OSI data link and physical layers into the network
access layer.
5. TCP/IP appears to be a simpler model and this is mainly due to the fact that
it has fewer layers.
6. TCP/IP is considered to be a more credible model- This is mainly due to the
fact because TCP/IP protocols are the standards around which the internet
was developed therefore it mainly gains creditability due to this
reason. Where as in contrast networks are not usually built around the OSI
model as it is merely used as a guidance tool.
7. The OSI model consists of 7 architectural layers whereas the TCP/IP only
has 4 layers.
8. In the TCP/IP model of the Internet, protocols are deliberately not as rigidly
designed into strict layers as the OSI model.[6] RFC 3439 contains a
section entitled "Layering considered harmful." However, TCP/IP does
recognize four broad layers of functionality which are derived from the
operating scope of their contained protocols, namely the scope of the
software application, the end-to-end transport connection, the
internetworking range, and lastly the scope of the direct links to other nodes
on the local network.
9. The presumably strict consumer/producer layering of OSI as it is usually
described does not present contradictions in TCP/IP, as it is permissible that
protocol usage does not follow the hierarchy implied in a layered model.
Such examples exist in some routing protocols (e.g., OSPF), or in the
description of tunneling protocols, which provide a Link Layer for an
application, although the tunnel host protocol may well be a Transport or
even an Application Layer protocol in its own right.
10. The TCP/IP design generally favors decisions based on simplicity,
efficiency and ease of implementation

3. Explain Circuit, Message and Packet switching techniques.

Ans:- There are a number of ways to perform switching:

 Circuit Switching
 Packet Switching
 Message Switching
 Cell Switching

Circuit Switching

This method involves the physical interconnection of two devices. A good example of circuit
switching involves the Public phone network. A data example would be the classic A/B switch!
Packet Switching

Packet Switching techniques switch packets of data between destinations. Traditionally, this
applied to X.25 techniques, but this also applies to TCP/IP and IPX/SPX routers also.
Proprietary Frame Relay switches can switch voice signals.

Message Switching

Message Switching techniques were originally used in data communications. An example

would be early "store and forward" paper tape relay systems. E-Mail delivery is another
example of message switching. In voice systems, you can find Voice Mail delivery systems on
the Internet. The classic "forward voice mail" capability in some voice mail systems is another
example.

Cell Switching

Cell Switching is similar to packet switching, except that the switching does not necessarily
occur on packet boundaries. This is ideal for an integrated environment and is found within
Cell-based networks, such as ATM. Cell-switching can handle both digital voice and data
signals.

Book ID: B0814

4. Explain the following concepts of Internetworking:
A) Internet architecture

Ans:- The Internet system consists of a number of interconnected packet networks supporting
communication among host computers using the Internet protocols. These protocols include the
Internet Protocol (IP), the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), the Internet Group
Management Protocol (IGMP), and a variety transport and application protocols that depend
upon them. As was described in Section [1.2], the Internet Engineering Steering Group
periodically releases an Official Protocols memo listing all the Internet protocols.

All Internet protocols use IP as the basic data transport mechanism. IP is a datagram, or
connectionless, internetwork service and includes provision for addressing, type-of-service
specification, fragmentation and reassembly, and security. ICMP and IGMP are considered
integral parts of IP, although they are architecturally layered upon IP. ICMP provides error
reporting, flow control, first-hop router redirection, and other maintenance and control
functions. IGMP provides the mechanisms by which hosts and routers can join and leave IP
multicast groups.

Reliable data delivery is provided in the Internet protocol suite by Transport Layer protocols
such as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which provides end-end retransmission,
resequencing and connection control. Transport Layer connectionless service is provided by the
User Datagram Protocol (UDP).

B) Protocols and Significance for internetworking

Ans:- In modern protocol design, protocols are "layered". Layering is a design principle which
divides the protocol design into a number of smaller parts, each of which accomplishes a
particular sub-task, and interacts with the other parts of the protocol only in a small number of
well-defined ways.

For example, one layer might describe how to encode text (with ASCII, say), while another
describes how to inquire for messages (with the Internet's simple mail transfer protocol, for
example), while another may detect and retry errors (with the Internet's transmission control
protocol), another handles addressing (say with IP, the Internet Protocol), another handles the
encapsulation of that data into a stream of bits (for example, with the point-to-point protocol),
and another handles the electrical encoding of the bits, (with a V.42 modem, for example).

Layering allows the parts of a protocol to be designed and tested without a combinatorial
explosion of cases, keeping each design relatively simple. Layering also permits familiar
protocols to be adapted to unusual circumstances. For example, the mail protocol above can be
adapted to send messages to aircraft. Just change the V.42 modem protocol to the INMARS
LAPD data protocol used by the international marine radio satellites.

The reference model usually used for layering is the OSI seven layer model, which can be
applied to any protocol, not just the OSI protocols. In particular, the Internet Protocol can be
analysed using the OSI model.

[edit] Error detection and correction

It is a truism that communication media are always faulty. The conventional measure of quality
is the number of failed bits per bit transmitted. This has the wonderful feature of being a
dimensionless figure of merit that can be compared across any speed or type of communication
media.

In telephony, failure rates of 10-4 bit per bit are faulty (they interfere with telephone
conversations), while 10-5 bit per bit or more should be dealt with by routine maintenance (they
can be heard).

Communication systems correct errors by selectively resending bad parts of a message. For
example, in TCP (the internet's Transmission Control Protocol), messages are divided into
packets, each of which has a checksum. When a checksum is bad (meaning the checksum on
the receiver does not match the checksum on the sender), the packet is discarded. When a
packet is lost, the receiver acknowledges all of the packets up to, but not including the failed
packet. Eventually, the sender sees that too much time has elapsed without an
acknowledgement, so it resends all of the packets that have not been acknowledged. At the
same time, the sender backs off its rate of sending, in case the packet loss was caused by
saturation of the path between sender and receiver. (Note: this is an over-simplification: see
TCP and congestion collapse for more detail)

In general, the performance of TCP is severely degraded in conditions of high packet loss
(more than 0.1%), due to the need to resend packets repeatedly. For this reason, TCP/IP
connections are typically either run on highly reliable fiber networks, or over a lower-level
protocol with added error-detection and correction features (such as modem links with ARQ).
These connections typically have uncorrected bit error rates of 10-9 to 10-12, ensuring high
TCP/IP performance.
Resiliency

Another form of network failure is topological failure, in which a communications link is cut,
or degrades below usable quality. Most modern communication protocols periodically send
messages to test a link. In phones, a framing bit is sent every 24 bits on T1 lines. In phone
systems, when "sync is lost", fail-safe mechanisms reroute the signals around the failing
equipment.

In packet switched networks, the equivalent functions are performed using router update
messages to detect loss of connectivity.

C) Internet layering model

Ans:- The Internet Layer is a group of internetworking methods in the TCP/IP protocol suite
which is the foundation of the Internet (RFC 1122). It is the group of methods, protocols, and
specifications which are used to transport datagrams (packets) from the originating host across
network boundaries, if necessary, to the destination host specified by a network address (IP
address) which is defined for this purpose by the Internet Protocol (IP). The Internet Layer
derives its name from its function of forming an "internet" (uncapitalized), or facilitating
"internetworking", which is the concept of connecting multiple networks with each other
through gateways.

Internet Layer protocols use IP-based packets. The Internet Layer does not include the
protocols that define communication between local ("on-link") network nodes which fulfill the
purpose of maintaining link states between the local nodes, such as the local network topology,
and that usually use protocols that are based on the framing of packets specific to the link types.
Such protocols belong to the Link Layer.

A particularly crucial aspect in the Internet Layer is the Robustness Principle: "Be liberal in
what you accept, and conservative in what you send" (RFC 1122), as a misbehaving host can
deny Internet service to many other users.

5. Explain the following different classes of IP addresses:

A) Primary classful addresses B) Class A
C) Class B D) Class C

Ans:- IP addresses were originally organized into classes. The address class determined the
potential size of the network.

The class of an address specified which of the bits were used to identify the network, the
network ID, or which bits were used to identify the host ID, host computer. It also defined the
total number of hosts subnets per network. There were five classes of IP addresses: classes A
through E.

Classful addressing is no longer in common usage and has now been replaced with classless
addressing. Any netmask can now be assigned to any IP address range.
Network and Host ID Fields

The four octets that make up an IP address are conventionally represented by a, b, c, and d
respectively. The following table shows how the octets are distributed in classes A, B, and C.

Class IP Address Network ID Host ID

A a.b.c.d a b.c.d

B a.b.c.d a.b c.d

d
C a.b.c.d a.b.c

Class A: Class A addresses are specified to networks with large number of total hosts. Class A
allows for 126 networks by using the first octet for the network ID. The first bit in this octet, is
always set and fixed to zero. And next seven bits in the octet is all set to one, which then
complete network ID. The 24 bits in the remaining octets represent the hosts ID, allowing 126
networks and approximately 17 million hosts per network. Class A network number values
begin at 1 and end at 127.

Class B: Class B addresses are specified to medium to

large sized of networks. Class B allows for 16,384
networks by using the first two octets for the network
ID. The two bits in the first octet are always set and
fixed to 1 0. The remaining 6 bits, together with the
next octet, complete network ID. The 16 bits in the third
and fourth octet represent host ID, allowing for
approximately 65,000 hosts per network. Class B
network number values begin at 128 and end at 191.

Class C: Class C addresses are used in small local area

networks (LANs). Class C allows for approximately 2 million networks by using the first three
octets for the network ID. In class C address three bits are always set and fixed to 1 1 0. And in
the first three octets 21 bits complete the total network ID. The 8 bits of the last octet represent
the host ID allowing for 254 hosts per one network. Class C network number values begin at
192 and end at 223.

6. Discuss the theory and practical applications of Supernetting.

Ans:- A supernet is an Internet Protocol (IP) network that is formed from the combination of
two or more networks (or subnets) with a common Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR)
routing prefix. The new routing prefix for the combined network aggregates the prefixes of the
constituent networks. It must not contain other prefixes of networks that do not lie in the same
routing path. The process of forming a supernet is often called supernetting, route
aggregation, or route summarization.
Supernetting within the Internet serves as a preventative strategy to avoid topological
fragmentation of the IP address space by using a hierarchical allocation system that delegates
control of segments of address space to regional network service providers.[1] This method
facilitates regional route aggregation.

The benefits of supernetting are conservation of address space and efficiencies gained in
routers in terms of memory storage of route information and processing overhead when
matching routes.

n Internet networking terminology, a supernet is a block of contiguous subnetworks addressed

as a single subnet. Supernets always have masks that are smaller than the masks of the
component networks.

Supernetting alleviates some of the issues, such as excessively large route tables which increase
router latency, with the original classful addressing scheme for IP addresses by allowing
multiple networks address ranges to be combined, either to create a single larger network, or
just for route aggregation to keep the "Internet Routing Table" (or any routing table) from
growing too large.

Supernetting refers to the process of aggregating multiple routes of Internet-connected routers,

thus saving space in the routing table and speeding up packet routing. An analogy would be on
a U.S. interstate highway, where a single sign points in the direction of three to five major
cities. As you draw nearer to your destination, the signs start separating for the distinct paths to
each city. The same principle can be applied to supernetting .

Supernetting combines a group of routes into a single route advertisement. The number of
subnets and network addresses contained in Internet routing tables is rapidly increasing due to
the rapid expansion of the Internet. This growth has had a negative impact on CPU resources,
bandwidth, and memory used to maintain routing tables. Therefore, route summarization was
introduced to reduce the size of network routing tables.

If configured properly, supernetting can reduce the latency associated with router hop, since the
average speed for routing table lookup will be increased due to the reduced number of entries.
The overhead for routing protocols can also be reduced since fewer routing entries are being
advertised.

Another advantage of using supernetting in large, complex networks is that it can isolate
topology changes from other routers. This can aid in improving the stability of the network by
limiting the propagation of routing traffic after a network link goes down. For example, if a
router only advertises a summary route to the next router hop, then it will not advertise any
changes to specific subnets within the summarized range. This can significantly reduce any
unnecessary routing updates following a topology change. Hence, it increases the speed of
convergence and allows for a more stable environment.

Protocol requirements

Supernetting requires the use of routing protocols that support variable length subnet masking
(VLSM) and the Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) method.
The older RIPv1 (or EGP for Exterior Routing) protocol only understands classful addressing,
and therefore cannot transmit subnet mask information.

EIGRP is also a classless routing protocol capable of support for CIDR or VLSM. By default,
EIGRP will summarize the routes within the routing table and forward these summarized routes
to its peers. This can be disastrous within heterogeneous routing environments if VLSM has
been used with discontiguous subnets and therefore auto-summarization should be disabled
unless VLSM has been carefully designed and implemented.

The family of classfull routing protocols are RIPv1, and IGRP - these protocols cannot support
CIDR as they do not have the ability to include subnet information within the routing updates.

The family of classless routing protocols are RIPv2, OSPF, EIGRP and BGP. EIGRP can
handle multiple routed protocols such as IPX and Appletalk..

Examples

A company that operates 150 accounting services in each of 50 districts has a router in each
office connected with a frame relay link to its corporate headquarters. Without supernetting, the
routing table on any given router might have to account for 150 routers in each of the 50
districts, or 7500 different networks. However, if a hierarchical addressing system is
implemented with supernetting, then each district has a centralized site as interconnection
point. Each route is summarized before being advertised to other districts. Each router now
only recognizes its own subnet and the other 49 summarized routes.

The determination of the summary route on a router involves the recognition of the number of
highest-order bits that match all addresses. The summary route is calculated as follows. A
router has the following networks in its routing table:

192.168.98.0
192.168.99.0
192.168.100.0
192.168.101.0
192.168.102.0
192.168.105.0

Firstly, the addresses are converted to binary format and aligned in a list:

Address First Octet Second Octet Third Octet Fourth Octet

192.168.98.0 11000000 10101000 01100010 00000000
192.168.99.0 11000000 10101000 01100011 00000000
192.168.100.0 11000000 10101000 01100100 00000000
192.168.101.0 11000000 10101000 01100101 00000000
192.168.102.0 11000000 10101000 01100110 00000000
192.168.105.0 11000000 10101000 01101001 00000000
Secondly, the bits at which the common pattern of digits ends (those in red, specifically the on-
bits; 1s) are located. Lastly, the number of common bits is counted. The summary route should
be the lowest IP address, followed by a slash, followed by the number of common bits.

The summarized route is 192.168.96.0/20. The subnet mask is 255.255.240.0.

However, this summarized route also contains networks that were not in the summarized group,
namely, 192.168.96.0, 192.168.97.0, 192.168.103.0, 192.168.104.0, 192.168.106.0,
192.168.107.0, 192.168.108.0, 192.168.109.0, 192.168.110.0, 192.168.111.0; It must be
assured that the missing network prefixes do not exist outside of this route. The summarized
route may be modified to 192.168.98.0/20 to exclude the first two networks, such that the first
actually routed network is specified.

In another example, an ISP is assigned a block of IP addresses by a regional Internet registry

(RIR) of 172.1.0.0 to 172.1.255.255. The ISP might then assign subnetworks to each of their
downstream clients, e.g., Customer A will have the range 172.1.1.0 to 172.1.1.255, Customer B
would receive the range 172.1.2.0 to 172.1.2.255 and Customer C would receive the range
172.1.3.0 to 172.1.3.255, and so on. Instead of an entry for each of the subnets 172.1.1.x and
172.1.2.x, etc, the ISP could aggregate the entire 172.1.x.x address range and advertise the
network 172.1.0.0/16 on the Internet community, which would reduce the number of entries in
the global routing table
 August 2010
Master of Computer Application (MCA) – Semester 3
MC0075 – Computer Networks– 4 Credits
(Book ID: B0813 & B0814)
Assignment Set – 2 (60 Marks)

Answer all Questions Each Question carries TEN Marks

Book ID: B0813

1. Explain the design of the Data Link Layer.

Ans:- The Data Link Layer is Layer 2 of the seven-layer OSI model of computer networking.
It corresponds to, or is part of the link layer of the TCP/IP reference model.

The Data Link Layer is the protocol layer which transfers data between adjacent network nodes
in a wide area network or between nodes on the same local area network segment[1]. The Data
Link Layer provides the functional and procedural means to transfer data between network
entities and might provide the means to detect and possibly correct errors that may occur in the
Physical Layer. Examples of data link protocols are Ethernet for local area networks (multi-
node), the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), HDLC and ADCCP for point-to-point (dual-node)
connections.

The Data Link Layer is concerned with local delivery of frames between devices on the same
LAN. Data Link frames, as these protocol data units are called, do not cross the boundaries of a
local network. Inter-network routing and global addressing are higher layer functions, allowing
Data Link protocols to focus on local delivery, addressing, and media arbitration. In this way,
the Data Link layer is analogous to a neighborhood traffic cop; it endeavors to arbitrate
between parties contending for access to a medium.

When devices attempt to use a medium simultaneously, frame collisions occur. Data Link
protocols specify how devices detect and recover from such collisions, and may provide
mechanisms to reduce or prevent them.

Delivery of frames by layer 2 devices is affected through the use of unambiguous hardware
addresses. A frame's header contains source and destination addresses that indicate which
device originated the frame and which device is expected to receive and process it. In contrast
to the hierarchical and routable addresses of the network layer, layer 2 addresses are flat,
meaning that no part of the address can be used to identify the logical or physical group to
which the address belongs.

The data link thus provides data transfer across the physical link. That transfer can be reliable
or unreliable; many data link protocols do not have acknowledgments of successful frame
reception and acceptance, and some data link protocols might not even have any form of
checksum to check for transmission errors. In those cases, higher-level protocols must provide
flow control, error checking, and acknowledgments and retransmission.
In some networks, such as IEEE 802 local area networks, the Data Link Layer is described in
more detail with Media Access Control (MAC) and Logical Link Control (LLC) sublayers; this
means that the IEEE 802.2 LLC protocol can be used with all of the IEEE 802 MAC layers,
such as Ethernet, token ring, IEEE 802.11, etc., as well as with some non-802 MAC layers such
as FDDI. Other Data Link Layer protocols, such as HDLC, are specified to include both
sublayers, although some other protocols, such as Cisco HDLC, use HDLC's low-level framing
as a MAC layer in combination with a different LLC layer. In the ITU-T G.hn standard, which
provides a way to create a high-speed (up to 1 Gigabit/s) Local area network using existing
home wiring (power lines, phone lines and coaxial cables), the Data Link Layer is divided into
three sub-layers (Application Protocol Convergence, Logical Link Control and Medium Access
Control).

Within the semantics of the OSI network architecture, the Data Link Layer protocols respond to
service requests from the Network Layer and they perform their function by issuing service
requests to the Physical Layer.

2. Describe various IEEE Standards with respect to Medium Access Control sublayer.

3. Explain the following principles of routing:

A) Types of routing algorithms B) Classes of routing algorithms
C) Properties of routing algorithms D)Optimality principle

Book ID: B0814

4. Discuss the following with respect to Internet Control Message Protocols (ICMP):
A) Detecting circular or long routes
B) Clock Synchronization and transit time estimation

5. Explain the theory and practical applications of EGP and BGP

6. Explain the following with respect to E-Mail:

A) Architecture B) Header format
C) User agents D) E-mail Services