CHAPTER-02 NETWORK MODELS

ASSIGNMENT-03

Q2-1.
What is the first principle we discussed in this chapter for protocol
layering that needs to be followed to make the communication
bidirectional?
Answer:
To make the communication bidirectional, each layer needs to be able to
provide two opposite tasks, one in each direction.
Q2-2.
Which layers of the TCP/IP protocol suite are involved in a link-layer
switch?
Answer:
The link-layer switch is normally involved in the first two layers of the
TCP/IP protocol suite:
i) The physical layer
ii) and the data-link layer

Q2-3.
A router connects three links (networks). How many of each of the
following layers can the router be involved with?
a. Physical layer
b. Data-link layer
c. Network layer
Answer:
The router is involved in:
 a. Three physical layers
b. Three data-link layers
c. and only one network layer

Q2-4.
In the TCP/IP protocol suite, what are the identical objects at the sender
and the receiver sites when we think about the logical connection at the
application layer?
Answer:
The identical objects are two messages: one sent and one received.
Q2-5.
A host communicates with another host using the TCP/IP protocol suite.
What is the unit of data sent or received at each of the following layers?
a. Application layer
b. Network layer
c. Data-link layer
Answer:
The unit of data sent or received:
a. At the application layer, the unit of data is a message.
b. At the network layer, the unit of data is a diagram.
c. At the data-link layer, the unit of data is a frame.

Q2-6.
Which of the following data units is encapsulated in a frame?
a. A user datagram
b. A datagram
c. A segment
Answer:
A frame is a link-layer data unit. It encapsulates a data unit coming from
the network layer. In this case, the data unit is a datagram.
Q2-7.
Which of the following data units is decapsulated from a user datagram?
a. A datagram
b. A segment
c. A message
Answer:
A user datagram is a transport-layer data unit. It decapsulates a data unit
going to the application layer. In this case, the data unit is a message.
Q2-8.
Which of the following data units has an application-layer message plus
the header from layer 4?
a. a frame
b. a user datagram
c. a bit
Answer:
The data unit should belong to layer 4. In this case, it is a user datagram.
Q2-9.
List some application-layer protocols mentioned in this chapter.
Answer:
We mentioned HTTP, FTP, SMTP, TELNET, SSH and DNS.
Q2-10.
If a port number is 16 bits (2 bytes), what is the minimum header size at
the transport layer of the TCP/IP protocol suite?
Answer:
The transport-layer packet needs to include two port numbers: source
and destination port numbers. The transport-layer header needs to be at
least 32 bits (four bytes) long, but the header size is normally much
longer because we need to include other pieces of information.
Q2-11.
What are the types of addresses (identifiers) used in each of the following
layers?
a. Application layer
b. Network layer
c. Data-link layer
Answer:
The types of addresses used:
a. At the application layer, we normally use a name to define the
destination computer name and the name of the file we need to
access. An example is [email protected]
b. At the network layer, we use two logical addresses (source and
destination) to define the source and destination computers. These
addresses are unique universally.
c. At the data-link layer, we use two link-layer addresses (source and
destination) to define the source and destination connections to the
link.

Q2-12.
When we say that the transport layer multiplexes and demultiplexes
application-layer messages, do we mean that a transport-layer protocol
can combine several messages from the application layer in one packet?
Explain.
Answer:
The answer is no. Multiplexing/demultiplexing at the transport layer does
not mean combining several upper-layer packets (from the same or
different applications) into one transport-layer packet. It only means that
each of the transport-layer protocols (such as TCP or UDP) can carry a
packet from any application-layer protocol that needs its service.
However, a transport-layer packet can carry one, and only one, packet
from an application- layer protocol. For example, UDP can carry a
message from FTP in one user datagram and a message from HTTP in
another user datagram.

Q2-13.
Can you explain why we did not mention multiplexing/demultiplexing
services for the application layer?
Answer:
The application layer is the top layer in the suite; it doesn’t provide
services to any layer, which means multiplexing/demultiplexing does not
exist for this layer.

Q2-14.
Assume we want to connect two isolated hosts together to let each host
communicate with the other. Do we need a link-layer switch between the
two? Explain.
Answer:
We do not need a link-layer switch because the communication in this
case is automatically one-to-one. A link-layer switch is needed when we
need to change a one-to-many communication to one-to-one.
Q2-15.
If there is a single path between the source host and the destination host,
do we need a router between the two hosts?
Answer:
We do not need a router in this case because a router is needed when
there is more than one path between the two hosts; the router is
responsible for choosing the best path at each moment.

2.5.3 Problems
P2-1.
Answer the following questions about Figure 2.2 when the communication
is from Maria to Ann:
a. What is the service provided by layer 1 to layer 2 at Maria’s site?
b. What is the service provided by layer 1 to layer 2 at Ann’s site?
Solution:
The services provided in part a and part b are the opposite of each other.
a. Layer 1 takes the ciphertext from layer 2, inserts (encapsulates) it in
an envelope and sends it.
b. Layer 1 receives the mail, removes (decapsulates) the ciphertext
from the envelope and delivers it to layer 2.
P2-2.
Answer the following questions about Figure 2.2 when the communication
is from Maria to Ann:
a. What is the service provided by layer 2 to layer 3 at Maria’s site?
b. What is the service provided by layer 2 to layer 3 at Ann’s site?
Solution:
The services provided in part a and part b are the opposite of each other.
a. Layer 2 takes the plaintext from layer 3, encrypts it, and delivers it
to layer 1.
 b. Layer 2 takes the ciphertext from layer 1, decrypts it, and delivers it
to layer 3.
P2-3.
Assume that the number of hosts connected to the Internet at year 2010
is five hundred million. If the number of hosts increases only 20 percent
per year, what is the number of hosts in year 2020?
Solution:
In 10 years, the number of hosts becomes about six times (1.20^10=6.19)
the number in 2010. This means the number of hosts connected to the
Internet is more than three billion.
P2-4.
Assume a system uses five protocol layers. If the application program
creates a message of 100 bytes and each layer (including the fifth and
the first) adds a header of 10 bytes to the data unit, what is the efficiency
(the ratio of application-layer bytes to the number of bytes transmitted) of
the system?
Answer:
The system transmits 150 bytes for a 100-byte message. The efficiency is
100/150 or 66.66%.

P2-5.
Assume we have created a packet-switched internet. Using the TCP/IP
protocol suite, we need to transfer a huge file. What are the advantage
and disadvantage of sending large packets?
Solution:
The advantage of using large packets is less overhead. When using large
packets, the number of packets to be sent for a huge file becomes small.
Since we are adding three headers to each packet, we are sending fewer
extra bytes than in the case in which the number of packets is large. The
disadvantage manifests itself when a packet is lost or corrupted during
the transmission; we need to resend a large amount of data.
P2-6.
Match the following to one or more layers of the TCP/IP protocol suite:
a. route determination
b. connection to transmission media
c. providing services for the end user
Solution:
a. The network layer is responsible for route determination.
b. The physical layer is the only layer that is connected to the
transmission media.
c. The application layer provides services for the end users.
P2-7.
Match the following to one or more layers of the TCP/IP protocol suite:
a. creating user datagrams
b. responsibility for handling frames between adjacent nodes
c. transforming bits to electromagnetic signals
Solution:
a. User datagrams are created at the transport layer.
b. The data-link is responsible for handling frames between adjacent
nodes.
c. The physical layer is responsible for transforming bits to
electromagnetic signals.
P2-8.
In Figure 2.10, when the IP protocol decapsulates the transport-layer
packet, how does it know to which upper-layer protocol (UDP or TCP) the
packet should be delivered?
Solution:
There should be upper-layer identifier in the header of the IP protocol to
define to which upper-layer protocol the encapsulated packet belongs.
The identifier is called the protocol field.
P2-9.
Assume a private internet uses three different protocols at the data-link
layer (L1, L2, and L3). Redraw Figure 2.10 with this assumption. Can we
say that, in the data-link layer, we have demultiplexing at the source node
and multiplexing at the destination node?
Solution:
The following shows the situation. If we think about multiplexing as many-
to-many and demultiplexing as one-to-many, we have demultiplexing at
the destination node in the data-link layer. However, some purists call
these two inverse multiplexing and inverse demultiplexing.

P2-10.
Assume that a private internet requires that the messages at the
application layer be encrypted and decrypted for security purposes. If we
need to add some information about the encryption/decryption process
(such as the algorithms used in the process), does it mean that we are
adding one layer to the TCP/IP protocol suite? Redraw the TCP/IP layers
(Figure 2.4 part b) if you think so.
Solution:
Every time any packet at any layer is encapsulated inside another packet
at the same layer, we can think of this a new layer being added under that
layer. The following shows the new suite.

P2-11.
Protocol layering can be found in many aspects of our lives such as air
travelling. Imagine you make a round-trip to spend some time on vacation
at a resort. You need to go through some processes at your city airport
before flying. You also need to go through some processes when you
arrive at the resort airport. Show the protocol layering for the round trip
using some layers such as baggage checking/claiming,
boarding/unboarding, takeoff/landing.
Solution:
The following shows the layers. Note that we have not shown the security
checking that we need to pass through because it does not have the
counterpart when we arrive. It must be included in baggage/checking
layer.
P2-12.
The presentation of data is becoming more and more important in today’s
Internet. Some people argue that the TCP/IP protocol suite needs to add
a new layer to take care of the presentation of data. If this new layer is
added in the future, where should its position be in the suite? Redraw
Figure 2.4 to include this layer.
Solution:
The following shows the position of the presentation layer. The new layer
is at the same position as the presentation layer OSI model if we ignore
the session layer.
P2-13.
In an internet, we change the LAN technology to a new one. Which layers
in the TCP/IP protocol suite need to be changed?
Solution:
The only two layers that need to be changed are the data-link layer and
the physical layer. The new hardware and software need to be installed in
all host, routers, and link-layer switches. As long as the new data-link
layer can encapsulate and decapsulate datagrams from the network
layer, there is no need to change any protocol in the upper three layers.
This is one of the characteristics of the protocol layering.
P2-14.
Assume that an application-layer protocol is written to use the services of
UDP. Can the application-layer protocol uses the services of TCP without
change?
Solution:
The reason for having several protocols in a layer is to provide different
services to the upper-layer protocols. The services provided by UDP are
different from the services provided by TCP. When we write an application
program, we need to first define which transport-layer protocol is
supposed to give services to this application program. Note that this is not
violate the principle of layer independence. The independency of a layer
means that we can change a protocol in a layer as long as the new one
gives the same services as long as the old one. This does not mean that
we can replace UDP by TCP, because they provide different services.
P2-15.
Using the internet in Figure 1.11 (Chapter 1) in the text, show the layers
of the TCP/IP protocol suite and the flow of data when two hosts, one on
the west coast and the other on the east coast, exchange messages.
Solution:
The following shows the layers and the flow of data. Note that each host
is involved in five layers, each switch in two layers, and each router in
three layers.